As almal ver is, ‘n bundel oor Suid-Afrikaners se ervaringe in die buiteland, bied ‘n ryk verskeidenheid kreatiewe uitinge.
Só skryf Etienne Britz in ‘n resensie op Die Burger se Boekeblok. Hierdie bundel, wat deur Danie Marais saamgestel is, bevat werke van bekende én minder bekende skrywers, “punk-Afrikaans” én skryfwerk uit die “tradisie van verfynde vroue-skrywers”, neurotiese, “egosentriese” verhale én “volwasse mentaliteit”.
Britz meen al die opstelle, stripverhale, sketse en gedigte in die bundel is met passie geskep.
As Almal Ver Is bevat sowat 40 bydraes van Afrikaanssprekendes wat vertel van ervaringe in die buiteland. Van ons beste skrywers het saamgewerk en die boek lees lekker. Chris Barnard, Marita van der Vyver, Antjie Krog, Eben Venter, David Kramer en Corlia Fourie is daar. Joan Hambidge skryf oor die buitelandse aspek van haar gedigte. Daar is ook ’n groot verskeidenheid jong stemme.
Die boek demonstreer die ontploffing van jong Afrikaanse literêre talent in ons tyd, gestimuleer deur kunstefeeste, LitNet, blogs en die onstuimige emosies van die Nuwe Suid-Afrika.
Van Solet Scheeres het ek nog nooit gehoor nie, miskien omdat ek self al drie jaar in die buiteland sit. Maar sy skryf uiters subtiel oor ’n verjaardagpartytjie wat deur ’n kennis in Nederland aangebied is.
BEGINNING with three throatclearing pages, Kim McGowan explains the background to his diary of a trek down the Transkei coast in 1988, a journey that he made on foot in the company of a friend, two donkeys and two dogs. His diary of the trip forms the basis of this book.
Intending to make their way from Kokstad to the coast, then down to Cape Town and on up to Khartoum, after six months the travellers made it to just short of East London. “Having chucked it all in, we then chucked it up,” McGowan says of the truncated trip.
Omdat ek ook familie het (wie het nie deesdae nie?) wat vir ewig en altyd hul tasse gepak en oorsee gaan woon het, het ek onmiddellik aangetrokke tot hierdie boek gevoel. Miskien sou ek tussen die blaaie kon uitvind hoe dit régtig met hulle gaan, of hulle régtig gelukkig is daar in die vreemde.
Ek hét meer insig gekry! In hul aanpassings, hul frustrasies met die rompslomp van die ewige staatsdepartemente, soos Marita van der Vyver in haar stuk Papier rym met paniek skryf: “Op hierdie bloedige warm dag in Valence weier die vrou wat by die préfecture werk om vir my ’n tydelike verblyfpermit te gee as ek nie ’n maatskaplike versekeringsnommer het nie.
Armchair travellers can undertake an epic journey around Africa which saved and improved lives along with Kingsley Holgate.
Every so often I’d turn on the radio (Classic FM) and find “Dispatches from Kingsley Holgate” as he was making his way around the rim of Africa. These brought me great delight for several reasons. One is that Kingsley Holgate is an interesting person who tells his adventure story well. Secondly, the mission of mercy by a South African team is heartwarming. But the main reason I enjoyed his dispatches so much is because they reminded me of a time when I was at school and my father listened nightly to the news of the yachts taking part in the very first around the world yacht race (I Googled this and discovered that this was in 1968). My father, armed with an atlas (and a globe), followed the adventure closely.
ON the first day of January 2001 — the beginning of the new millennium — the French husband-and-wife team of Sonia and Alexandre Poussin set off on an epic trek to walk the entire length of Africa, a journey they hoped would symbolically retrace the one made by early humankind. With no logistical back-up and very little besides a few maps in their backpacks, their eccentric odyssey, while obviously including detours to such famous landmarks as Table Mountain, the Victoria Falls, the Ngorongoro Crater and Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, would also see them slogging their way, often in extreme heat, through some of the continent’s most remote, harsh and inaccessible landscapes.
Africa Trek: In the Footsteps of Mankind, From the Cape of Good Hope to Mount Kilimanjaro by Alexandre Poussin, Sonia Poussin EAN: 9781770097179 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
VOLGENS oorlewering het die apostel Jakobus die evangelie in Spanje verkondig en het Herodes hom in 44 n.C. laat onthoof. Sy oorskot is in die Spaanse stad Santiago de Compostela begrawe (p. 21).
Reeds voor die tiende eeu n.C. het meer as ’n miljoen mense jaarliks die pelgrimspad na Santiago – die Camino – hoofsaaklik om godsdienstige redes geloop, deesdae is dit tot 100 000 pelgrims elke somersdag.
A long, appreciative look at Sihle Khumalo’s latest:
What does the heart of Africa mean to an African? The author of Dark Continent My Black Arse gets down and dirty (well, he sticks to public transport, so what do you expect?) in his quest to find the source of the Nile (which of several?), see the mountain gorillas (sorry, should have booked ahead), and generally find out what he can get away with.
Overall, the answer is: a lot. Especially whenever he overcomes mistrust of his fellow Africans. But then he is nothing if not honest about himself and his reactions, about expectations, about what he sees as our continent’s inadequacies.
Nor, in a world that values literary pretentiousness, is he ashamed to be basic when the mood suits (of which more later).
This book rekindles that recurring idea: to give up the madness and the rat race, rummage for the old, “worn Shell road map”, fill ‘er up and just drive. Dana Snyman seems to be really living his life, travelling the small, unknown roads through South Africa, and telling the stories of simple, salt-of-the-Earth folk.
Snyman is boyishly proud of his “Epol-brown” 1973 Regal Valiant. He writes about his car like the Lone Ranger might talk about Silver. And he associates Valiants, in particular, with the old days in South Africa, so his road trip is also a nostalgic meandering through the memories of his childhood.
When a close friend on another continent is diagnosed with cancer, feelings of helplessness drive the author to seek out a challenge as daunting and overwhelming as the battle her friend is facing. She sets out on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known as The Way of St James, following an 800km pilgrimage route across the Pyrenees in northern Spain. Religious pilgrims have conquered it by foot (or perished trying) for more than 1 000 years.
Two enjoyable and awe-inspiring reads from epic adventurers Kingsley Holgate and Alexandre and Sonia Poussin.
Africa has inspired thousands of travellers to explore its length and breadth and to write in gobsmacking prose, accounts of terror or terrible patriarchal views of people on the continent. But some of the books are gems, telling of Damascus-like experiences. At the same time they do not gloss over the poverty and suffering still occurring in Africa, but find the warmth, humour and human spirit of the people, which are too often buried beneath the mountain of pessimistic reports.
Africa Trek: In the Footsteps of Mankind, From the Cape of Good Hope to Mount Kilimanjaro by Alexandre and Sonia Poussin EAN: 9781770097179 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Uitspraak: wortel
Verdict: stick
