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Different stories about different people of different places:
"You choose me, Africa, laughing you chose
A lover's lips to share
Your wild things, Africa, oh, I am mad
With the swamp odours of your breath.
For me you drew apart
The red draperies hiding your heart
That beats the tom-tom rhythm of savage death.
My mouth is warm on your breast's veil
Where
Swooning I inhale
The dark scents of your hair
(For the stranger there
Is left only the sad
And pale
Sick perfume of the rose).
I have drunk your poison; I am mad."
a small piece of "Africa" by Herman Charles Bosman.
A travelers diary....... Small pieces of a traveler's mind, of people encountered while traveling through the wild untamed country back in 1820.
A wanderer still uncheck'd doth range,
as humor calls or seasons change;
his tent of mats and household gear
all packed upon the patient steer.
Midst all his wanderings, hating toil,
he never tills the stubborn soil;
but on the milky dams depends,
and what spontaneous nature sends.
Or, should long-parching droughts prevail,
and milk, and bulbs, and locusts fail,
he lays him down to sleep away
in languid sloth the weary day;
oft as he feels gaunt hunger's stound,
still tightening "famine's girdle" round;
lulled by the sound of the Gariep
beneath the willows murmuring deep:
till thunder clouds, surcharged with rain,
pour verdure o'er the desert plain,-
and call the famish'd dreamer from his trance,
to feast on milk and mead, and wake the moonlight dance.
The Bushman.
The Bushman sleeps within his black-brow'd den,
In the lone wilderness:
Around him lie
His wife and little ones unfearingly-
For they are far away from "Christian men."
No herds, loud lowing, call him down the glen;
He fears no foe but famine; and may try
To wear away the hot noon slumberingly;
Then rise to search for roots-and dance again.-
But he shall dance no more! His secret lair,
Surrounded, echoes to the thundering gun,
And the wild shriek of anguish and despair!
He dies-yet, ere life's ebbing sands are run,
Leaves to his sons a curse, should they be friends
With the proud Christian race- "for they are fiends!"
T.P.
In the above pieces the writer describes the Bushmen and Khoikhoin or Hottentot, as know in those times, and the struggle and strife that went on in the Northern Cape Frontier when the settlers, or better described Trekboers, expanded northwards. These two pieces are taken out of Travels and Adventures in South Africa by George Thompson that was printed in 1827.
More stories and tales of the deep dark continent....and other tribes. I try to update the site at least if it is possible to find the time and info. Most of the info gathered and going to be featured is I try to researched out of the original works dating to the beginning of the century. Please be patience - it really takes time to allocate the references I have and do the research. Please visit again for more interesting info..........
The following books was and are used for the info...
1. The Khoisan Peoples Of Southern Africa...Bushmen and Hottentots. I.Schapera.
2. The Bushmen.... (text) A.Wannenburg, (photos) Peter Johnson, A.Bannister.
3. Studien zur Kulturkunde.........Bushman Folktales. M.G.Guenther.
4. Discovering Southern African Rock Art. J.D.Lewis-Williams.
5. Myths and Legends o Southern Africa. P.Miller.
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