MIERLEEU: Waar's die draadIALOOG
MY LIEWE TINKEL
Dis jý wat in jou Ode van Donderdag, 17 Februarie, met die Fanuselement of Fanusfaktor te voorskyn gekom het en dis jý wat al op Saterdag, 12 Februarie, met Siembamba vorendag gekom het en nou vra jy "Waar's die draad?"
Dialoog ("in al sy spel-vorms") pas eenvoudig in by die Fanuselement of -faktor (op die voorruit oftenot) waarvolgens jy gewoon alle letter- en figuur-like moontlikhede van 'n woord deur ervaar/hoor/sien/ruik/voel/lees aftas, soos byvoorbeeld hier:
As jy jou vir ’n groep vroue vervies en hulle “soustannies” noem, en hulle hou nie daarvan nie, hoe red jy die situasie?
Vir seker nie met “Jammer, ek het dit net letterlik bedoel” nie.
Sal “Jammer ek het dit net figuurlik bedoel” ’n verskil maak?
Dienooreenkomstig het ek eerstens die (spinne)web afgetas en onder andere by Mike Smith se artikel van 26 April 2010 (infra) uitgekom.
Dit was vinnig vir my duidelik dat die Siembambasaak hoegenaamd nie so eenduidig is nie (die Disgraceverskynsel ?) en ek is bevrees om te sê dat die draad allesbehalwe 'n goue een is en selfs nie eers 'n staaldraad nie, maar 'n reëlregte konsentrasiekampdoringdraad, soos blyk uit die volgende gedig van C. Louis Leipoldt (1880 - 1947):
'n Nuwe Liedjie op 'n Ou Deuntjie
Mame se kindjie, Siembamba. (LOKASIELIEDJIE)
Drywe ‘n wolk van die noordekant -
Sluit maar jou ogies, en sê ame!
Jy, wat moet opgroei tot ‘n man;
Jy moet verkwyn in ‘n kinderkamp,
Twee in een kissie, ‘n bruilofspaar!
Sluit maar jou ogies, en sê – ame!
In my GROOT VERSEBOEK word hierdie liedjie gevolg deur Leipoldt se:
Yskoud deur die tentseil, geskeur deur die hael --
Die Junie-lug stort oor die stroom van die Vaal --
'n Kers, nog maar anderhalf duim voor hy sterwe,
Brand dof in n bottel hier vlak naas jou bed
(n Kafhuis gee makliker rus: op die gerwe
Daar lê n mens sag, en sy slaap is gered!) --
n Aaklige rondte met trane besmet.
Hier kom n gekerm en gekreun in jou ore;
Gedruk op jou hart, deur n offer gewyd.
Die yster het gloeiend n merk vir die eeue
Gebrand op ons volk; en dié wond is te ná --
Te ná aan ons hart, en te diep in ons lewe --
"Geduld, o geduld, wat so baie kan dra!"
Dié konsentrasiekampdoringdraad was dus die leidraad wat my gebring het by die anargistiese A wat ek aanvanklik híér opgespoor het:
Soldier's poem, Children's song
2 lithographs, 62 x 51cm
edition of 25 and 2 artist's proofs, the editions of 25 will form part of a boxed set of work by a group of South African artists
who worked together at the Statens Voerksteder for Kunstog Håndvoerk in Denmark in February 2003
Each lithograph shows, at a glance, the universal sign of anarchy. Hidden within the crude lines of the anarchy signs are microscopic words which one has to look at closely to decipher. The first sign contains a children's song from the South African War. It is probably the best-known children's song in Afrikaans. Its rather shocking and senseless words are:
Siembamba - mamma se kindjie (Siembamba-mommy's little baby)
Draai sy nek om gooi hom in die sloot (Wring his neck and dump him in the ditch)
Trap op sy kop dan is hy dood (Stomp on his head and he will be dead)
The second anarchy sign hides a soldiers' poem. The poem declares just what was expected of the British soldier at the time of the South African War - never to question any orders and a senseless surrender of conscience:
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1855)
Van hier het die doringdraad gely tot by die motgevrete rooi, wit en blou:
(click on an image to view an enlarged version)
Old British map, cloth, mapping pins, softboard, wood
2320mm (w) 1220 (h)
I worked as a teacher at Park Town Boys' High School from 1975 to 1977. The headmaster of the school, Mr. Jimmy Cameron, gave me permission to teach extramural wood carving classes and I found a suitable room underneath my classroom. This room was used as a general dumping place for coal, bits of wood and loads of junk - the pupils called it the dungeon. It took me a week to clean out the room. In a box, under the rubble I found an old British flag. It was badly damaged from years of usage. Mr Cameron told me that the flag goes back to before the school was founded and that it was already in use at the turn of the century. The school appreciated all the hard work I was doing and Mr Cameron said I could keep the flag. The wood carving classes were so successful, I later began my own sculpture school.
I looked well after the flag and thirty years later, in 2007, I took it out again. I reasoned that, since I found it at a school with lots of pupils, I should try and see what happened to children when the flag was flying, at the turn of the century, in 1899 and 1901. Those were the years of the Anglo Boer War, also called the South African War. The war actually ended in May, 1902. During this time the British armed forces coerced all 'enemy' children, their mothers, sisters and elderly people into concentration camps that were kept for the last fifteen months of the war. There was a treaty in place, signed in 1875 by Great Britain, that forbade the capture of woman, children and the elderly. The British military commander, Lord Horatio Kitchenener, said that the treaty did not apply to the Anglo Boer war because it was only agreed to by European countries. Through misunderstanding or ignorance of the harsh camp conditions, the British caused the deaths of about 32,000 black and white children under the age of fifteen in those last few months.
I value the old British flag I have, and I decided to make it into an artwork without causing it the slightest physical damage. Its scarred appearance told a story. I could therefore not glue, paint or cut it. I mounted it on softboard with a sombre black background. To keep the flag down without damaging the material I stuck close to 32,000 small black mapping pins into it - one pin for each child that died needlessly. The 32,000 pins are arranged in 32 blocks, each containing very nearly a thousand pins. The blocks are formatted to bring to mind the memorial gardens for the First and Second World War in Europe.
1. The title plays on the word 'vexation', but far from it - vexillology is the study of flags or a flag. The vexillum is a military flag or a group of men fighting under a banner. A vexillator is a flag bearer - from Latin vehere 'to carry'. Avexillum is also a conspicuous flag-like petal on some flowers. Willem Boshoff - Beyond The Epiglottis
VEXILLATOR in progress
Nog was het einde niet,want hóé kan ek eindig sonder Fanus se voorganger, Sagmoedige Neelsie, se