I Love Africa

Africa, I love Africa, the Continent of Sun and Wind,
the continent of Dutch Settlers and Huguenots, of
Langenhoven and Eugene Marais, where the blue
skies shimmer all year long, where winter brings
golden grass rippling to the wind’s wild song, where
ox wagons still adorn school emblems, where the
boerenooi still takes pride of place in Pretoria

Where Jamie Uys came up with The Gods Must
Be Crazy, based on Daar Doer in die Bosveld,
where Ge Korsten sang the most unlikely duets
with Min Shaw in Hoor My Lied, where Springbok
Radio kept us alive during school day afternoons
with Ongewenste Vreemdeling, Lafras Kuyper and
Die Banneling, where Staal Burger by Fanus
Rautenbach with the entrancing voice of Daan
Retief fought thugs with the help of Willem and
Miems De Bruyn alias Da-Da

Where Trompie met Saartjie and Stories of Rivierplaas
led to the book Toe Ma Nog Meintjie Was, where I read
my first Agatha Christie in Afrikaans, Vonkelende Sianied,
and my first Konsalik Voortvlugtige Spioen, where I read
Tryna Du Toit’s Groen Koring and spent a year in
tears, where I discovered the Scarlet Pimpernel
in time with Tom Sawyer and Becky, where Alice
in Wonderland lived right next to Mouche and Capitaine
Coq, where I started reading Erich von Daniken,
Graham Hancock and Zechariah Sitchin

Where I found the Dancing Wu Li Masters and wrote
my first real poems after first year at university,
Africa, my continent, where I did interpreting for
African delegates as well as members of the French
Parliament, explaining Sarah Baardman to them after
hearing it in Afrikaans from the Khoi-San, Africa,
my continent, the cradle of the country of my birth…