Mahala by Chris Barnard, Translated from The
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379 A/9f T4 p4^ w / MAHALA BY CHRIS BARNARD, TRANSLATED FROM THE AFRIKAANS THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Desmond H. Bond, B.Sc.(Eng.), M.S. Denton, Texas December, 1976 ( Copyright by Desmond Harvey Bond 1976 i Bond, Desmond H., 'Mahala' b Chris Barnard, Translated from the Afrikaans. Master of Arts (English), December, 1976, 172 pp., bibliography, 29 titles. Afrikaans, the world's youngest language, is not known to many outside South Africa. Mahala, a novel in that lan- guage by a major writer, has been translated as an example of South African literary resources yet to be made accessible to English readers. Chapter One (the Foreword) contains historical notes on the Afrikaans language and on Barnard's biography, including his publications and literary awards. Chapter Two is a complete translation (currently the only one) of Chris Barnard' s Mahala. Analysis of and comment on Mahala are reserved for Chapter Three (the Afterword), wherein the structure of the novel is discussed, selected characteristics of the book com- pared with those of recognized English writers, and commen- tary upon translation supplied. The Bibliography contains reviews of Mahala, backgrounds of South African literature, the history of Afrikaans, aspects of translation, and dictionaries. Wilhelmina de Kock provided invaluable help and encourage- ment. She made available a substantial quantity of data and information from the South African Department of Information offices in New York and in South Africa. Berta Smit, editor-in-chief of Tafelberg Publishers in Cape Town, kindly contributed several Afrikaans publications from which the one translated was selected. She also granted the permission to translate Mahala. I am deeply grateful to them. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. FOREWORD . 1 II. MAHALA BY CHRIS BARNARD, TRANSLATED FROM THE AFRIKAANS..-.......... 6 III. AFTERWORD..-....................161 BIBLIOGRAPHY.. --..... .......... ... 171 iii CHAPTER I FOREWORD A thesis for the master's degree in English--referring particularly to English literature--is usually the study of a specific work or selection of works, a collation of views in existing studies, or perhaps, an original work. This thesis does not fit any of these categories precisely. Rather, its contribution is to provide access to a publica- tion otherwise remote from most English readers because it is in a foreign language. This thesis presents a translation from the Afrikaans of the novel Mahala by Chris Barnard. Afrikaans is one of the two official languages of the Republic of South Africa. It is unfortunate that Afrikaans is not as widely known outside of South Africa as is, say, French outside of France, for Afrikaans has distinct beauty in its descriptive and idiomatic features. The language has literally grown out of the country; its genesis was the speech of the settlers who worked the land. Nature, isolation and loneliness, and the country itself worked their way into this language, which allowed the vivid, uninhibited expression of the feelings of those who formulated Afrikaans. One of the strongest features of identity of a distinc- tive group of people is often its language. Generally, if a 1 2 community loses its language, it loses identity. The settlers of the Cape of Good Hope struggled hard for their identity. Even after Afrikaans was widely current, the Cape community had still to present fervent resistance to being overwhelmed, first by Dutch, then by English nationalism. Each of these imperials would have imposed its own language on all within earshot. However, before the defense of identity came an identity offensive by the colonists. The original Cape settlement of 1652 was funded and con- trolled by the Dutch East India Company. The government of the South African community was rigidly regulated by the owning company, so that the residents had little, if any, share in their legislation or administration. Gradually, the need for an identity asserted itself among those who had emigrated to the new land for a new life. They had been drawn from various areas of the Low Countries, so spoke several Dutch dialects. Among the early Cape immigrants were people of German extraction, and later, a few Huguenot refugees. The Flemish influence was substantial, but the Dutch dominated. A hybrid communication medium was derived from several of the then well established languages know by the settlers--though with selected simpli- fications in grammar and syntax. The informal dialect gained popularity among the settlers, but it was not given official status by the Dutch, nor by the English who followed them. Near the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, the Cape passed into British hands. The governors tried to anglicize the colony totally. Afrikaans had been only a spoken medium 3, until then and little had been published in the language. Most early writers in Afrikaans, and they were few, had used it as an interesting phenomenon, for local color, or for comical effect. Their motivations did not include an urge to express themselves in their own native language, distinct from traditional and official Dutch, and later English. Afrikaans was sustained only by the growing determination of the Cape residents to resist being stripped of their identity. At a meeting on August 14, 1875, the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Society of True Afrikaners) was formed. The Society decided to publish a newspaper called Die Afrikaanse Patriot (The Afrikaans Patriot) to voice its ideals--primarily "to honor our language, our nation, our country." The movement intensi- fied the promotion and propagation of Afrikaans. The English press instigated legal suppression of the movement, but with little effect. The settlers' determination to establish an identity was too powerful by then, and the Afrikaans persisted with the publication of their organ. The next ploy, ridicule, was also unsuccessful. Subsequently, greater support for and confidence in Afrikaans led to the formulation of a grammar by the Society in 1876, and later (1902), to the preparation of the Patriot Dictionary, which listed Afrikaans words and their English equivalents. At intervals, then, books of the Bible (1893 to 1933) and the books of Psalms (1907) and hymns (1923) were published in the new language. Finally, in 1925, Afrikaans became a recognized language when it replaced Dutch as one of the official tongues of the 4 South African Parliament, to stand alongside English. Thus, the government, following the schools and the church, awarded full status to Afrikaans as a medium of communication, and what was once a dialect became the world's youngest national language. From the turn of this century, poetry has received the greatest recognition among Afrikaans literary works. This poetry, descriptive, didactic, epic, lyrical, and political, is considered of literary value everywhere that Afrikaans is understood. Drama, the novel, short stories, and works of non-fiction in Afrikaans are, nevertheless, gaining in literary sophistication, and sufficiently so that a number of such works have been translated into other languages. An important writer of Afrikaans fiction is Christian Johan Barnard, or Chris Barnard. Born in 1939, he grew up on an orange farm in the Transvaal Lowveld, South Africa. After graduating from the University of Pretoria, he followed a longstanding desire and became a city dweller. Nevertheless, he did purchase land near Brits, a country town, and he and his family still travel there often. Since 1967, Barnard has served on the editorial board of Die Hu enoot, one of the first, and most respected Afrikaans magazines, established in 1915. Though a young writer, Barnard has a number of publi- cations and literary awards to his credit. Two stories,, "Muurspieel" (Wall Mirror) and oNaelstring (Umbilical Cord), in his debut collection were awarded the CNA (Central News Agency) Literary Prize in 1961. He won 5 the Afrikaans Press Youth Literary Award for his short story "Boela van die Blouwater" (Boela of the Blue Water) the follow- ing year. In 1968, Barnard was again awarded the CNA Literary Prize, this time for "Duiwel-in-die-Bos" (Demon in the Bush), a short story.. In 1970, his entry in the radio play competition in Brussels was selected as the best over eighty-six other entries. This work, Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey (The Rebellion of Lafras Verwey) was chosen by the Afrikaans branch of the South African Broadcasting Corporation for the SAUK Academy Award for 1973. Mahala was awarded the Hertzog Prize in 1973. The Hertzog Prize is awarded annually by the South African Academy for the best work in Afrikaans literature. In 1974, this book won the esteemed Hofmeyr Prize. Each year, the Hofmeyr Prize is awarded to an Afrikaans literary genre rotationally, in the sequence of drama, prose, and poetry. This prize was created in memory of the late Dr. W. Hofmeyr, once Chairman of the Board of National Press. Mahala, which is the name of the riverboat in the follow- ing translation, can be a girl's name, and means to receive something for nothing. Mahala is a noteworthy Afrikaans novel; with this work, Barnard has clearly stepped forward from among his contemporaries. CHAPTER II MAHALA BY CHRIS BARNARD, TRANSLATED FROM THE AFRIKAANS 6 7 ONE Fear was so much part of him that he no longer recog- nized it as fear. It was in his cautious, almost slinking way of walking; in his restless, suspicious eyes, in his un- usually soft voice; in his almost faltering manner of speech. He rarely had to remind himself that he must be careful, that he must keep his eyes open. It seemed quite normal to him that he should have no desire to meet strangers, that he would go to Caipemba only when it was necessary.