How do I translate, or for that matter, how do I
explain these names to a person not versant in Afrikaans or the Afrikaans
culture?
GANSBAAI?
TIERPOOT?
STOFKRAAL?
SOPHIASDAL?
WOLWEFONTEIN?
BOONTJIESKRAAL?
OORLOGSPOORTRIVIER?
RIVIERSONDEREND?
DWYKASTASIE?
This is just a tiny, random selection of names of
places we drove by, my wife and I jotted down in my notebook my friend gave me;
he bought it in Athens on their recent trip. In one of my previous Blog notes,
I gave you a link to some internet learned discussions on the study of place
names or for that matter, the study of names. We once met PHARMACY in a hotel
next to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and I had some things to say even about
the naming conventions of old: Victoria Falls. That is honouring a queen that never ever even
came close to have a look it – her granddaughter who passed the other day,
visited Zimbabwe to officially open the Kariba dam wall and I visited Zambia
some years back to have a look at the dam.
RIVIERSONDEREND – this one is easy; I think so. In English [this is a
direct translation] it means River-without-end. Does it make sense? Well, it
does not make sense to me even though I am Afrikaans speaking. Yes, I can read
it in both languages: river-without-end. Is there such a thing? In South
Africa, oh yes – no, I have not been at Riviersonderend, but I saw the road
sign to it. Are there rivers without end? In other words, it starts somewhere,
goodness knows where and it does not end; it goes on and on and on and …
DWYKA STATION?
I took a very bold step and googled this very peculiar
place and found nothing, but I can assure you that we drove by the turn-off to
Dwyka station. Change your search parameters is the keyword. And I did: DWYKA
and I found something of interest, here is a short quote from Wikipedia:
“The
Dwyka River is located in the Karoo region, in South Africa. It flows from the
North-west, joining the Gamka River as a tributary at the Gamka Dam. In the
1870s, the Cape Colony government expanded its railway network inland, towards
the diamond fields of Kimberley. A station, also named Dwyka, was built where
the line crossed the Dwyka river.”
And still, I am none the wiser what does that strange
word DWYKA mean? I found a Dwyka Mining Group. No attempt to explain the word
DWYKA. They can penetrate the earth and extract our rich minerals to create
wealth, but no attempt to tell me what the word means. Maybe some official
working at Dwyka Mining Group might read this and respond – oh! I would be
delighted and would inform you straight way.
OORLOGSPOORTRIVIER: Funny how places in my beautiful country have the
word “river” as part of the name of the place. And “poort” in Afrikaans which
means “gate,” “doorway” or even a “narrow pass between precipitous mountains.”
Let us proceed and have a look at this place: Oorlogspoortrivier. “Oorlog”
means war, and in our country, I suggest that this is a reference to the
Anglo-Boer War 1899 – 1902. Here we go: this river was part and parcel of the
Anglo-Boer War and it was in a narrow pass between precipitous mountains. List of colloquial South African place names tells me that the place does not exist.
Oh no, it does, at least we saw the tag at the turn off.
BOONTJIESKRAAL. This place is also non-existent according to this
list I have referred to above. Once again, we saw the name tag indicating in a
direction which we did not go to. Having said that, let us examine this
BOONTJIESKRAAL. The word “kraal” occurs in a number of place names in my
country. This word is, to my mind, rather rich in its diversity of meanings; my
first thought was that I can describe it in relation to where you keep your
cattle safe at night and you open the gates early tomorrow morning and the
cattle can’t wait to get out into the veld. I challenge you, even if you are
not versant with Afrikaans to have a closer look at the photograph; I took a
photograph of my bilingual dictionary referencing “kraal.” You might go on a tangent
or a “road trip” reading this in Afrikaans. “Boontjies” is Afrikaans for beans.
Make up your own story about this lot.
WOLWEFONTEIN. “Wolves-fountain” will be a direct, and perhaps a [c]rude
translation. Wolves, what I’ve read about them, are rude and crude and yet
refined. This place, likewise does not exist according to the List of
colloquial South African place names, and yet, we saw the turn off to that
place. Then, I asked myself the question why is there reference to “wolves” in
that name? As far as I am aware, we don’t have wolves in SA. I found a website
that asks the very question I asked – I will take the bold step and say I don’t
think there are real wolves in my country.
AGTERTANG:
what for a word is that? I asked my wife and her impression is that it is
reference to “backward people” whatever that may mean. Incidentally that was my
idea as well, until I grabbed my dictionary and was told otherwise. Agtertang
according to my Bilingual Dictionary means: “afterguide [of a wagon]”. Well,
well, I never. But there it is. Have a look at the English translation of it, and
it is referring me back to “agtertang.” Back to where I started. And nothing
wiser.
It seems to me as if this word AGTERTANG has got a lot
do with farm equipment such as wagons; wagons have been replaced by trailers of
all sorts. My story about the goats I saw in Colesberg [remember my photo of
that beautiful proud ram with his curly horns?] were transported not on a
wagon, but on a factory-built trailer. And I phoned my friend, Leendert Joubert
who grew up on a farm in the Orange Free State, as it then was and now referred
to as FREESTATE. Our conversation was so far wide ranging that I decided there
and then that I have to do further investigation into this word AGERTANG. It
brings us in the centre of our cultural heritage in South Africa and that is
the aspect that I want to investigate further and then report back. Well then,
till later on AGTERTANG.
Please write me you story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za
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