History | Protea Boekhuis
Daar is reeds baie navorsing gedoen en ’n groot aantal publikasies het verskyn oor die geskiedenis van die Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) se tyd aan die Kaap. Nogtans het baie kundiges ’n behoefte aan ’n gesaghebbende publikasie wat die VOC se bewindstyd aan die Kaap volledig sou behandel, geïdentifiseer. ’n Motivering was ’n nuwe belangstelling in die Kompanjiesgeskiedenis en heelwat aspekte van die VOC se verbintenis met Suid-Afrika wat nog nie in die historiografie neerslag gevind het nie. Sewentien medewerkers, wat elkeen ’n deskundige op sy of haar besondere terrein is, is gewerf. Aspekte wat bespreek word, is die ontdekking van die seeroetes na die Ooste en die Amerikas teen die einde van die 16de eeu en die interafhanklikheid wat daardeur tussen Europa, die Ooste en die Amerikas ontstaan het. Dit het ook in Nederland neerslag gevind met die ontstaan van die VOC in 1602 en die groei van sy Oosterse handelsryk in die 17de eeu, wat dit die eerste groot internasionale handelsmaatskappy gemaak het. Daarna word die maatskappy se geleidelike agteruitgang en sy uiteindelike ondergang aan die einde van die 18de eeu geskets.
Cloete Breytenbach embarked on his photographic career in Cape Town in 1951 on the Afrikaans-language daily Die Burger. For the better part of the next 10 years, he worked as a news photographer on various South African publications before leaving for London (The Daily Express) and Europe (on assignment for news magazines including Paris Match and Bunte). On his return to South Africa, he established a photo agency with fellow photographers to supply both local and international publications with images covering major events from the African continent and the world. These photo stories included the ground-breaking first heart transplant for Life in 1967 and conflict coverage from across Africa, including Angola, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Mozambique, Congo and South Africa. Cloete has held photographic exhibitions in South Africa, the USA, Europe and Japan, and a collection of his images of Albert Luthuli are held in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Slagtersnek is een van die bekendste name in ons geskiedenis. Met sy grusame assosiasie was dit ‘n magtige propagandamiddel in die politieke ontwikkeling van die Afrikaner. Juis hierdeur het dit egter al gou ‘n volksmite geword waarna herondersoek dringend noodsaaklik geword het. Dit is wat dr. Heese in hierdie boek doen. Deur deeglike navorsing van die voor- en nageslag van almal wat daarby betrokke was, vorm hy ‘n helder beeld van wat werklik plaasgevind het. Hy toon oortuigend aan dat die Slagtersnek-opstand verkeerd vertolk is. Daar is helde gesien waar geen helde was nie, en dit was juis die bekampers van die opstandelinge, asook die neutrales, wat later die Afrikaner volksbewussyn tydens die Groot Trek bevorder het. Heese skilder talle kleurryke figure: die bywoners, die ryk patriarge, die sukkelende swerwers, die dwarstrekkers, skoolmeesters en nie-blanke bediendes. Met hierdie boek word ‘n belangrike en oorspronklike bydrae tot ons geskiedenis gemaak.
Nuut deur Karel Schoeman – Imperiale somer: Suid-Afrika tussen Oorlog en Unie, 1902 – 1910
by Protea Boekhuis on Oct 23rd, 2015 Tweet
Imperiale somer: Suid-Afrika tussen Oorlog en Unie, 1902 – 1910 deur Karel Schoeman is nou beskikbaar op Protea Boekhuis se rakke:
Die boek gee ’n voëlvlugoorsig van die vier Suid-Afrikaanse kolonies gedurende die Eduardiaanse tydperk van 1902 – 1910. Dié tydperk word deur Schoeman beskou as die “hoogtepunt van die hele Imperiale gedagte” wat uiteindelik met die uitbreek van die Eerste Wêreldoorlog sou eindig. Die klem val egter nie op die politieke besluite en ontwikkelinge nie, maar op die persoonlikhede van leiers- en ander figure, die omstandighede in die vier kolonies met hulle stede en dorpe, belangrike sosiale gebeurtenisse, die aanloop tot unifikasie in 1910 en die uitwerking van die belangrike Naturelle Grondwet van 1913 op die lewenswyse van swart mense direk ná Uniewording. Kort maar insiggewende tiperings word gegee van persoonlikhede so uiteenlopend soos oudpresident Steyn, Lord Milner, die dramaturg Stephen Black, die bendeleier Robert Foster, die avontuurlustige Mrs Edith Maturin en die deelsaaier Kas Maine. Ruim aanhalings uit verskillende bronne verlewendig die bespreking van alledaagse omstandighede op verskillende plekke in wat later die Unie van Suid-Afrika sou wees, soos die sketse van Jacob Lub oor die lewenswyse in Johannesburg, die setlaar Leonard Flemming se boeke oor sy eensame bestaan op ’n afgeleë Vrystaatse plaas, en die talle verwysings na riksjas in die reisbeskrywings van besoekers aan Durban. Besonder boeiend is ook die hoofstukke oor die rol van Joodse smouse en handelaars in onder andere die volstruisveerbedryf en die toestande in die inrigting vir melaatses op Robbeneiland. Talle anekdotes en klein kameebeskrywings maak van Imperiale somer ’n besonder interessante leeservaring. Die boek word toegelig met ruim fotoseksies wat ’n visuele beeld van die era gee. Oor die outeur
Karel Schoeman, een van Suid-Afrika se produktiefste skrywers, het talle romans, novelles, dramatekste en historiese werke geskryf. Sy werk is reeds talle male bekroon, onder andere met die Hertzogprys en die Recht Malan-prys.
Imperiale somer: Suid-Afrika tussen Oorlog en Unie, 1902 – 1910 deur Karel Schoeman
On 2 September, 1948, South African Prime Minister DF Malan explained to parliament what the new policy of apartheid would entail. The following year, the first apartheid measure was introduced: the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949. In 1950, an amendment was made to the Immorality Act of 1927 that “extended this restriction to all people of colour”, and the Population Regulation Act was brought into law.
The first time that the term apartheid appeared in print appears to have been in a pamphlet issued at a conference on the missionary endeavours of the NG Church in Kroonstad in 1929. It was used in the speech delivered by the Rev. JC du Plessis of Bethlehem. In Die Burger it was first seen in 1943 in a leading article. At about this time Dr DF Malan, leader of the NP, began to use the term in Parliament to differentiate his party’s policy from the segregation plan of the ruling United Party (UP). During the premierships of Generals JBM Hertzog and Jan Smuts, South Africa was a segregated society. Black people had extremely limited political rights, schools and residential areas were segregated, the pass law was enforced to keep black people out of the cities, and there were separate sport and recreation facilities. On the other hand, during Smuts’s second term as prime minister (1939–1948) there was an increase in the variety of social services available to black people and the level of these services was improved. Furthermore, virtually every government report, especially the report of the Fagan Commission in 1948, recommended that black people’s permanent residence in the cities should be officially recognised. However, the NP was determined to curb this line of reasoning and to extend and enforce the separation between white and black people. Although the clever use of the apartheid slogan played a role in the NP’s victory at the polls in 1948, there was not yet unanimity on its exact meaning and implications. Eventually, in Parliament on 2 September 1948, Malan, now prime minister, explained what this new policy entailed. He said that although complete apartheid, or territorial apartheid, was the ideal, its implementation at that stage was not feasible because many sectors of the South African economy were reliant upon black labour. Nevertheless, separate spheres, not necessarily with absolute territorial divisions, would be established. Within these spheres, each population group would be able to develop fully its own ambitions and unique capabilities. The NP government was convinced that social apartheid was crucial to the preservation and safeguarding of the white population’s identity and wellbeing. The first measure to implement social apartheid was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949. This made all marriages between white people and those of other races illegal.
When she married a black man 10 years later, her family rejected her. Her father died without ever speaking to her again and her two brothers avoided her. After about 30 years she was eventually reunited with her mother. In 2000 she was quoted in an article in the Sunday Times as saying: “In 1966, when I was 10, the police came to take me away from the school (Deborah Retief boarding school). Mr Van Tonder, the principal, said I was not white and could not stay. I was taken to the hostel and told to pack my things. Two policemen drove me to my father’s shop in Panbult. They said I was being expelled because I looked different … My father cried. I stayed at home for two years. “In 1976 when there were uprisings against apartheid and the education system, I turned 21 and I thought things would change. I applied for an identity document then, but it took six years before I finally got my first ID as a Coloured. Until then I could not prove who I was or find work, or open an account or do whatever a person has to do. “Through those years I longed for my family, just to hear from them. I wrote several letters but they remained unanswered … Apartheid has ended, and I would like to shake Mr Mandela’s hand for that, but it is too late for me.”
According to TE Dönges, at the time the Minister of Internal Affairs, The Group Areas Act of 1950 was the cornerstone of apartheid. The aim of this Act was to make residential separation compulsory. This meant that the Union of South Africa would be divided into thousands of residential areas so that the different races could live completely separately. Despite Dönges’s assertion that this Act would be administered with justice and without discrimination, in practice this was not the case. It proved to be one of the cruellest Acts ever passed by the South African legislature. The Act cut across all traditional property rights and led to the eviction of thousands of black, coloured and Indian people from their homes, causing deep resentment. An example of this was District Six in Cape Town. From 1966 about 55 000 residents were forced to move from their homes near the city centre to the remote, windswept Cape Flats. The NP government also wanted separate public facilities for white people and those of other races. The outcome of the Separate Amenities Act of 1953 and its amendments was the implementation of “petty” apartheid (as opposed to “grand” apartheid on a larger scale). Notice boards in public places such as halls, post offices, and restrooms typically read: “Counter for non-whites”; “Entrance for delivery boys”; “Queue for nonwhite servants”; or “Whites only”. In terms of these laws social and cultural apartheid was increasingly imposed in South Africa. The implementation of apartheid in public theatres regularly led to absurd situations and in most cases exposed the compelling motives of the apartheid ideology. In 1961, when the first drive-in theatre was opened for coloureds in Wetton, near Cape Town, the parking area was divided into two sections: one for coloured theatre-goers and another for white people. This while they were all parked in their cars viewing the very same film. In 1966 the Minister of Community Development first had to give his permission before the concert pianist Jan Volkwyn, a coloured man who had just returned to South Africa from London, could perform with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra in front of a coloured audience in the coloured suburb of Coronationville. The permit stated that Volkwyn could not perform as a member of the orchestra but could merely be accompanied by the orchestra. It was also agreed that he would not be allowed to mix socially with members of the orchestra, nor could he use the same dressing rooms or other facilities as they did.
One of the most controversial measures passed by the NP government was the Bantu Education Act of 1953. Before 1948 most black schooling and virtually all black teachers’ training was provided at mission schools. Most NP supporters viewed this as a particularly dangerous situation, believing that liberal anti-government ideas would be pumped into young black minds by malicious outsiders. They were determined to restructure black education in accordance with the new apartheid society. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 established state control over all black education and the state therefore also took control of existing mission schools. It is notable that the Department of National Education was not given the responsibility for black education; instead it fell under the Department of Native Affairs, headed by Dr HF Verwoerd. In the Senate’s discussion of the draft bill, Verwoerd declared that the black learner should only be equipped “to meet the demands which the economic life of South Africa will impose on him”. According to Verwoerd there was “no place for him in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour”. However, in their own communities they would, he said, have plenty of economic opportunities.
Intrigue, Corruption and Double-crossing on the Witwatersrand in TV Bulpin’s Storm over the Transvaal
by Protea Boekhuis on Aug 20th, 2015 Tweet
Protea Boekhuis presents Storm over the Transvaal by TV Bulpin:
This book tells the dramatic story of the Transvaal from 1884 until 1900 – a period which covers a singularly lurid stretch of South Africa’s past. In his remarkably engaging style of writing, Bulpin transports readers back to the rugged Transvaal where gold seemed to be the centre of all things. It was a time of adventure in which any man could strike it lucky, or die alone with little else than disappointment as company. The remarkable story of the Witwatersrand provides an often hilarious background to a history of events so important, that they are still of vital interest to every South African today. All the fantastic intrigue, corruption and double-crossing which led to the grim climax of the Anglo-Boer War is described with a wealth of detail and anecdote. About the author
Thomas Victor Bulpin (1918–1999) was a writer about African big game hunters, South African travel and history. He was a well-known and very prolific travel writer – he wrote 29 books and thousands of pamphlets and features on southern Africa for magazines and newspapers. An inveterate traveller, he was the author of classics such as Islands in a Forgotten Sea, The Ivory Trail, Natal and the Zulu Country, The Hunter is Death and the Illustrated Guide to Southern Africa. Book details
Storm over the Transvaal by TV Bulpin