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Athol Fugard Talks to Roots and Routes Author Michael de Jongh About the Karretjie People

by Mafeno on Oct 1st, 2012
Athol Fugard en Michael de Jongh

 
Roots and Routes: Karretjie People of the Great KarooAn exceptional discussion took place on Saturday morning at Protea Bookshop in Stellenbosch when world-renowned playwright Athol Fugard spoke to Michael de Jongh about his seminal book Roots and Routes: Karretjie People of the Great Karoo: The Marginalisation of a South African First People.

It is the research that De Jongh and some of his colleagues have done on these often “forgotten” and “invisible” inhabitants of the Karoo that has enabled Fugard to write a play about their plight, which will be seen early next year at the Suidoosterfees in Cape Town. “I’m keeping two promises I made to my mother,” Fugard explained. “That I will write about the Karretjie people of the Karoo, her landscape, and that I will write at least one play in Afrikaans before I die.”

De Jongh related how he drove through the back roads of the Karoo with a colleague from the US when they spotted a family travelling in a donkey cart. The colleague asked who these people were and De Jongh could only guess that they were farm workers. During his sabbatical leave the following year, he explored the Karoo, and came across many more people travelling with their donkey carts.

So started De Jongh study of and involvement with these exceptional people. “I came to realise that there is much more to the Karretjie people than simply a mode of transportation. They have a completely unique lifestyle and culture.”

De Jongh explained that the Karretjie people are the descendants of the /Xam (San/Bushmen), who were the earliest inhabitants of much of the Karoo interior. “These people were hunted for sport by the European settlers.” Eventually they became sheep shearers and started to build donkey carts to trek from one farm to the next, offering their services.

“The Karoo is the most spiritual landscape in South Africa,” Fugard said. “And if the land belongs to anyone, it belongs to the Karretjie people.”

However, De Jongh outlined the threats to the Karretjie people’s age-old way of life. “They now have competition from unions of sheep shearers, who are slightly more predictable. There are also more game farms now and so there are less sheep to shear. Also, the spectre of fracking and what it will do to resources hangs over the Karoo.”

De Jongh said that these factors have accelerated the downward spiral of poverty among the Karretjie people. “Some have even been forced to sell their donkeys and move to the squatter camps.”

De Jongh is involved in adult education programmes for the Karretjie people, but unfortunately it is not sustainable as there is “not a single NGO or government intervention aimed at the plight of these people”.

Fugard commended De Jongh for the work he had done producing Roots and Routes and for the ethical way he went about it. De Jongh had been involved with the Karretjie people for years before they decided it was time for their story to be told. Every time De Jongh was to write a paper or deliver a talk on the subject, he would first discuss it with the community and get their approval.

“We need to find a sponsor to buy copies of De Jongh’s book and send it to each and every member of parliament,” he said.

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Carolyn Meads livetweeted from the event using #livebooks:

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Book details

Cats: Academic, Events, Non-fiction, South Africa
Tags: /Xam, Academic, Athol Fugard, Book Launches, Bushmen, Donkey Cart People, English, Events, Great Karoo, History, Karoo, Karretjie, Karretjie People, Launch, Michael de Jongh, Non-fiction, Protea Bookshop, Roots and Routes: Karretjie People of the Great Karoo, San, South Africa, Stellenbosch, The Marginalisation of a South African First People, Unisa Press
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