The following abbreviations are used in the notes:
All biblical quotations are taken from the Authorized Version.
Schreiner included a reasonably comprehensive glossary of ‘Dutch and Colonial’ words in all editions of her novel (reproduced on p. xli), and these have been included, often with some modification, in the notes. Many of these terms are taken from Taal, the dialect of Dutch spoken by Boer (Afrikaner) settlers. Modern Afrikaans, formalized in the 1920s, brings together elements of Taal and High Dutch.
DEDICATION Mrs John Brown: Schreiner first met Mary Brown (1847–1935) in Fraserburg, Eastern Cape, in 1873, where her husband John Brown was district surgeon. Three years later the Browns moved to Edinburgh so that he could improve his medical qualifications. Schreiner maintained a lively correspondence with them, eventually gaining sufficient funds as a governess to fulfil the ‘English plan’ the Browns had devised for her in Fraserburg. Recognizing Schreiner’s intellectual abilities, the Browns helped her to apply for nursing training at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. They also sought a British publisher for The Story of an African Farm in early 1880, although it was Schreiner herself who finally secured a deal with Chapman and Hall. Shortly after arriving in Britain in 1881, Schreiner visited the Browns in Burnley, Lancashire, and discussed the possibility of registering to study as a doctor rather than a nurse. Costs encouraged Schreiner to take the latter course but bad health prevented her from staying in Edinburgh for more than three days. The relationship between the Browns and Schreiner is recorded in Mrs John Brown, Memories of a Friendship (Cape Town, 1923).
EPIGRAPH Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) stands among the most eminent French historians of the nineteenth century. His best-known work in English-speaking contexts is Democracy in America (2 vols., 1835–40). Schreiner’s epigraph is taken from the beginning of ch. 2 in the 2nd volume. This quotation continues: ‘The growth of nations presents something analogous to this; they all bear some marks of their origin. The circumstances that accompanied their birth and contributed to their development affected the whole germ of their being.’ In this context, de Tocqueville’s words suggest that African Farm just as much concerns the development of the South African nation as it does the histories of Schreiner’s characters.
PART I
karroo: high arid plains of semi-desert in the Eastern Cape located behind the coastal mountain ranges. Given the lack of permanent water supplies, the Karoo proved extremely inhospitable to early settlers in the colony. Schreiner’s writings repeatedly celebrate its boundlessness and stark beauty.
kopje: meaning ‘small head’, a Dutch word for hillock.
sheep kraals: a pen for sheep or cattle made of stone walls and thorn bushes. The word kraal may refer to either a pen for keeping herded animals or a black-African encampment.
Kaffir: a black African. The word comes from the Arabic, and means infidel. As this etymology indicates, the term has always been pejorative. Since Schreiner’s writing often makes clear gestures against the racial subordination of native Africans (see From Man to Man, 417–38), her employment of this derogatory name may appear surprisingly insensitive. The abusive word Kaffir generically refers to the Bantu-speaking peoples of the Cape.
Boer: farmer (Dutch).
For wide is the gate … Because strait is the gate: Matthew 7: 13–14.
Ye shall receive: ‘For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth’: Matthew 7: 8.
‘I am like Cain’: ‘Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell’: Genesis 4: 2–5.
coop: hide-and-seek.
vel-schoen: shoes made of raw hide.
kappje: a long cap to prevent sunburn.
Hottentot: a Taal onomatopoeia for the sounds that Boer settlers thought most characterized the language of the Khoi people.
shots: dry watercourses, often with very deep sides.
‘I was a stranger, and ye took me in’: Matthew 25: 35.
mealies: maize, corn-meal.
reims: raw hide thongs.
Emmaus: the village where Jesus Christ, after he was resurrected, appeared to two of his disciples: see Luke 24: 13–35.
the angel opened the prison door for Peter: see Acts 12: 17.
nachtmaal: the Lord’s Supper.
Why did the women in Mark see only one angel and the women in Luke two?: see Mark 16: 5 and Luke 24: 4.
Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, killed Sisera, the representative of the Israelites’ enemy, Jabin, King of Canaan: see Judges 4: 17–24.
Beulah: the Hebrew word means ‘married’, and in Isaiah 62: 4 it stands as the name Israel will bear in future times of prosperity.
predikant: parson.
meiboss: salted and sugared apricot confectionary cut in slices.
Jeremiah … Ezekiel… Hosea: Old Testament prophets.
‘A charge to keep I have … And fit it for the sky’: hymn by Charles Wesley (1707–88).
the fourteenth of John: this chapter teaches the well-known lesson of Jesus Christ: ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions …’.
Copernicus: Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), proponent of the view that the Earth revolved around the Sun. His study, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, was published in 1543.
pap: porridge.
Love so amazing … my life, my all: from ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’, a hymn by Isaac Watts (1674–1748), first collected in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707).
mountains of Herman: a metaphor for God’s blessing in Psalms 133: 3.
Hagar: in the Old Testament, Hagar was Abraham’s concubine and bore him Ishmael. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, banished Hagar and her child to the desert: see Genesis 21: 9–17.
‘Ach Jerusalen du schone’: ‘Oh Jerusalem thou art beautiful’, a German hymn.
bobootie-meat: curried hash.
out-spanned: unharnessed.
stiver: an infinitesimal amount; the word means a Dutch penny.
Communism, Fourierism, St. Simonism: J. S. Mill elaborates his thoughts on these revolutionary forms of social organization in his chapter ‘On Property’ in Book II of Principles of Political Economy (1848). On 29 October 1892, Schreiner wrote: ‘The only man to whose moral I am conscious of owing a profound and unending debt is John Stuart Mill’ (Rive, 213).
bultongs: (modern spelling: biltongs) sun-dried meat, either cut into strips or grated.
sleg … Davel: wicked … Devil.
Jacob working seven years and seven years again for his wife: the story of Jacob’s labours to marry Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29: 20, 27.
‘A le wereld’: an exclamation similar to the expression ‘What is the world coming to?’
Baal: in the Old Testament, a heathen god worshipped by the Canaanites. Hosea brought shame upon the name of Baal.
benaawdheit: indigestion, physical discomfort.
vonlicsense: presumably the name for the red drops to cure indigestion.
PART II
seasons of its own: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die …’: Ecclesiastes 3: 1.
Elijah in his cave at Horeb: Elijah spent forty days and nights in the wilderness around Mount Horeb: see 1 Kings 19: 8.
the fifth chapter of Matthew: this chapter contains Christ’s well-known teaching: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven …’: v.3.
‘The torment… to be burning without intermission as long as God is God’: from one of Jeremy Taylor’s sermons. Taylor (1613–51), an Anglican bishop, is celebrated for his baroque prose style. His XXVII Sermons Preached at Golden Grove (1651), XXV Sermons (1653) frequently contain, as here, physiological references.
‘A moment’s time …’: from John Wesley’s (1703–91), ‘An Hymn for Seriousness’ in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749).
chapter in the prophets: presumably an allusion to Isaiah 60.
Jerusalem … Barnabas … Titus: Barnabas and Titus were among Christ’s earliest disciples: see Galatians 2: 1.
‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates …’: Psalms 24: 7.
‘He that believeth not shall be damned’: Mark 16: 16.
‘What doest thou here, Elijah?’: God’s words to Elijah after his forty days and nights in the wilderness: 1 Kings 19: 9.
Alladeen: seemingly a confused reference to ‘Aladdin, or The wonderful Lamp’ from The Arabian Nights.
‘In certain valleys there was a hunter.’ Schreiner reprinted the allegory that follows in Dreams, 25–50.
Mumboo-jumbow: a West African god. More commonly spelled mumbo-jumbo, it is thought to be a mistranscription of the name of the Mandingo people of the Niger valley.
Sinai: God’s law was handed to Moses on tablets of stone on Mount Sinai (now in modern Egypt): see Exodus 19: 1 ff.
‘They never loved … realms of light’: quotation unidentified.
Nazianzen: St Gregory of Nazianus (329–89), a Cappadocian father; he defended the Nicene creed against Arian heresies. As Bishop of Constantinople, he was instrumental in securing the orthodox faith.
vrijers: lovers.
Goethe … ‘Faust’ … ‘Iphigenie’: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), among his many distinguished works are his verse-plays Iphiginie auf Taurus (1787) and Faust (two parts, 1808, 1832).
Cape-smoke: cheap brandy distilled in the Cape.
mountain of Nebo: worship of Nebo is denounced in Isaiah 46: 1.
sasarties: prepared meat, like kebabs.
Upsitting: An Afrikaner custom during courtship where the couple about to be married stay up all night together.
veld: open grass-country.
the Blue Water … John Speriwig: tunes for country dances.
stoep: a stone-flagged veranda.
dicynodont: (more usually spelt dicinodont) a fossil reptile found in red sandstone in South Africa. Schreiner mentions this creature in a letter to Havelock Ellis, 10 April 1886 about how she felt about the manuscript of her novel during her final days in the Cape: ‘I sat with The African Farm by my stream at Lelie Kloof, at the place where I dug out my dicinodont, and such disgust came over me at the way I had expressed what was so clear to me, that I nearly threw it into the water and let it drown for ever’ (Cronwright-Schreiner, 97).
the Thorn Kloof Schottische: presumably a Scottish reel. A kloof is a gorge. The farm in From Man to Man is called Thorn Kloof. In 1876 Schreiner’s ‘Ratel Hoek Journal’ records that she is working on a story entitled Thorn Kloof (Clayton, 102).
‘Battle of Hohenlinden’: a reference to ‘Hohenlinden’ (1824), a poem by Thomas Campbell (1777–1844), who was famed for his rousing battle songs. During his Italian campaign, Napoleon’s forces, led by Jean-Victor Moreau, defeated the Austrian army at Hohenlinden, Bavaria, on 3 December 1800. ‘Not a Drum was Heard’, another patriotic poem, was published in The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna (1817) by the Irish poet, Charles Wolfe (1791–1823).
Bloemfontein: major city in Orange Free State, now Free State.
‘First Principles’: major work by the social evolutionist, Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), published in 1862. It had a powerful impact on Schreiner, who wrote to the free-thinker, Karl Pearson, in July 1886: ‘What do all the libertines in London, what do all the good husbands and wives know of happiness, compared with what I knew when I lay all night on the floor beside the fire in Dordrecht [in the Cape], and read First Principles, and for the first time the whole theory of evolution which I had been feeling after in the dark burst in upon my sight!’ (Rive, 90).
Farber: echoing the German word for colour. This is the first time we learn of Waldo’s (and Otto’s) family name. It implies the quality of Otto’s and Waldo’s artistic natures.
spider: carriage.
‘Salt-reim’s’ money ‘Salt-reim’ is a pejorative term for a native Englishman. It derives from the satirical idea that Englishmen had their bundled belongings (tied with ‘reims’ or rawhide thongs) covered in salty sea-spray, since they had travelled far across the ocean. It is possible that Schreiner also had the commonplace Boer insult ‘salt-piel’ (salty-pizzle) in mind. Since each and every Englishman was thought to have one foot in his homeland and the other in South Africa, he was known as a ‘salt-piel’ because his penis was left dangling in the sea beneath him. (I am grateful to Dennis Walder of the Open University for advice on this note.)
meerkat: small ground-lemur.
kartel: wooden bed inside an ox-wagon.
Let me not see the death of the child: a further reference to the plight of Hagar in the wilderness: see Genesis 21: 16.
And I saw the dead, small and great …: a paraphrase of Revelations 20: 12–15.
the Transcendentalist’s high answer, a reference to the American transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–20), whose two series of Essays (1841, 1844) Schreiner knew well.
Was it only John, think you, who saw the heavens open?: see Revelations 21: 1–2.
golden calf: object of worship set up by the Israelites in Exodus 32: 2 ff.
morgen: a measurement of slightly more than two acres.
sourka, sourka, sourka: presumably meaning ‘in a proud and conceited manner’.
Amalekite: enemy tribe of the Israelites: see, for example, Numbers 14.
brajke: cur.
‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’: Exodus 20: 3.