A Bosman Companion. Craig Mackenzie
the Africana Museum was renamed Museum Africa and moved to the Market Theatre complex. Readers will be disappointed to find but a fraction of the riches described by HCB. “‘Stone has come to stay.’ And they were right. It stayed. It stayed a million years.”
“Afrikaans Stage, The” (VS: 128) Article pointing out the increasing divide between cynical performers and uncritical theatre audiences largely due to – according to HCB – the lack of good Afrikaans plays.
Afrikaner/Afrikander Breed of cattle unique to SA; type of cattle used by migrant farmers to haul their wagons; were bred through careful selection by the original Dutch trekboers, choosing cattle with long horns and the distinct red colour peculiar to this breed; the breed’s lineage is via the indigenous Nguni cattle and its scientific name/ pedigree is Bos Indicus (as opposed to Bos Taurus, as European cattle are known) (S&H: 21 “Veld Fire”).
Afrikaner(s) See Boer(s).
“Afternoon Ravishment” One of the sketches in “Romance: A Sequence”.
“Age of Reason” Pamphlet criticising organised religion; written by Thomas Paine and published in three parts between 1794 and 1807 (VS: 177 “Credo”).
Agie At Naudé’s second cousin and husband of Seraphima; lit. ‘inquisitive one’; a mine shift boss like HCB’s father (H: 114 “Kith and Kin”).
agterryers (Afr.) Lit. ‘after/behind riders’; black labourers who were drafted into the Boer forces or joined voluntarily essentially to serve as a rear detachment – cooking, keeping fires going, maintaining the camp, etc.; there is continued debate as to how much fighting they did as well (MR: 74 “Yellow Moepels”; UD: 114 “Funeral Earth”; IT: 45 “Ghost Trouble”).
Akademie vir Kuns en Lettere HCB gets it wrong: the correct title is Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, a body founded in 1909 to bring together the cultural forces of the Afrikaner (VS: 156 “South African Literature”).
alack and welladay Archaic terms expressing regret (CJ: 193 “Out of the Past”).
“Alarm Clock” (H: 70) At Naudé muses about mechanical inventions, which prompts Meneer Vermaak to give a lecture on China’s contribution to technology. Vague, meandering story that doesn’t make a clear point. “‘Ta-rêêê ta-ta-rê,’ the schoolmaster joined in enthusiastically, flinging an arm into the air. ‘That’s not the Fire Brigade song. It’s the Fire Song. It’s from the Valkyries.’”
albatross Reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (IT: 82 “Sea-colonels All”).
Albertyn, Ina Screen playwright of Die Wildsboudjie (VS: 165 “A Bushveld Film Comedy”).
“Alby Stewart” (L&O: 74) A short report of a young criminal’s path to the gallows. A sensitive account of a serious matter; the similarity between Stewart’s and HCB’s circumstances is obvious. “‘Goodbye, Alby,’ said Father Ryan, ‘say a prayer for me when you get to Jesus.’ ‘Ah, Father,’ said Stewart with a smile, ‘I always knew you would bum something from me in the end.’”
“Alcoholic Remorse” (H: 87) Jurie Steyn nurses a hangover while visitors remind him of his drunken misdeeds. Painfully accurate description of the distress and long-term consequences of alcohol abuse. “‘And then a shark came right into the café where I was sitting, and started chewing on my leg. Now, isn’t that silly?’”
Alec the Ponce An imprisoned pimp who starts a minor demonstration by tossing his bread over the landing into the hall (CSJ: 67). Also the name of Polly’s pimp and abusive love interest (YB: 148 “Street-woman: A Play in One Act”).
Alice Rita’s sister; bribed by her father to break off relations with her lover Stephen the poet (YB: 52 “Rita’s Marriage”).
Alida Jurie Steyn’s black maid (H: 64: “Sleepy Afternoon”).
Almost Forgotten Stories (1979) Edited by Valerie Rosenberg, the compilation features many of the stories overlooked by Lionel Abrahams, HCB’s principal anthologist up to that point. At the time, this collection filled many of the gaps of the HCB canon, with many of the stories not being those from the major OSL and Voorkamer sequences, and being drawn from HRHRC manuscripts and published for the first time in book form.
Ananias A member of the early Christian church who conspired to deceive and was struck down (UD: 86 “When the Heart is Eager”).
Ander Man se Kind (Afr.) Lit. ‘Another Man’s Child’; scandalous play about sinful Johannesburg put on in the Marico by the actor Jacques le Français (IT: 91 “Play within a Play”).
Andersen, M. C. (‘Mitzi’) Former lecturer in English at the University of South Africa. Wrote her doctoral study (1988), part of which deals with HCB’s Cold Stone Jug, on autobiographical responses to the experience of prison, and compiled Herman Charles Bosman: The Prose Juvenilia (1998).
Andrews, Lionel Carpenter who gets on the wrong side of his foreman Bert Parsons, but redeems himself and later gets promoted to foreman and sidekick when other contracts are won (JN: 31).
Andries A cripple who is in love with Heloise and seems to mind her teeth fetish only slightly less than David (YB: 59 “Heloise’s Teeth”).
Anglo–Boer War, First (1880–81) Sometimes called ‘Die Eerste Vryheidsoorlog’ (‘First War of Independence’) by Afrikaners, it was fought between Britain and the Transvaal Republic (ZAR), and was provoked by the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 by Theophilus Shepstone. The British garrisons at Potchefstroom and Pretoria were besieged, and in February 1881 a decisive battle was fought at Majuba in Natal, which the republican Afrikaners won. HCB dealt with the war in his stories “Yellow Moepels” and “The Red Coat”. See Rooinek and Other Boer War Stories, The.
Anglo–Boer War, Second/South African War (1899–1902) The second of the two wars fought between the South African Republics and Great Britain. Sometimes called ‘Die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog’ (‘Second War of Independence’) by Afrikaners, it was the costliest war fought by Britain until 1914. It is commonly considered to have been fought primarily for economic reasons (access by Britain to the Transvaal’s lucrative goldfields). The British expected a quick and easy war, and, indeed, the first, more conventional, stage of the war (the battle of the ‘big commandos’) was over fairly soon, with Pretoria being taken in June 1900. But the second phase, the so-called war of the ‘small commandos’, or guerrilla war, dragged on until May 1902, sucking in huge numbers of British men (450 000 in all) and amounts of matériel. Under their commander, Lord Kitchener, the British resorted to a ‘scorched earth’ policy, burning Boer farms and herding the women and children into concentration camps, a policy that resulted in nearly 30 000 civilian deaths and left permanent scars on the Afrikaner psyche. HCB featured the war extensively in his work, most notably in “Mafeking Road”, “The Traitor’s Wife”, “Peaches Ripening in the Sun” and “The Rooinek”. See Rooinek and Other Boer War Stories, The.
Aniescu, Gris Romanian-born SA citizen and dilettante; friend of Louis Wassenaar, and ‘student of legs’; aka Schtroppski (OTS: 90 “Louis Wassenaar”).
Annie (no surname given) Petrus Lemmer’s step-niece; outspoken, spunky young lady who holds her own when it comes to witty retorts during a Marico tale (S&H: 47 “Marico Moon”).
Anniversary Edition (of the Works of H. C. Bosman) Fourteen-volume series under the general co-editorship of Stephen Gray and Craig MacKenzie, produced between 1998 and 2005. The series was given this name because planning for it began in late 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of Mafeking Road, and it was scheduled for completion in 2005, the centenary of HCB’s birth. The purpose of the series was to release all of HCB’s works in unabridged and uncensored versions, and the editing used original texts (some of them never before published). The series began with a completely re-edited Mafeking Road and Other Stories (1998) and Willemsdorp (1998). Other volumes in the series are Cold Stone Jug (1999) and Idle Talk: Voorkamer Stories (I) (1999), which put into print for the first time the first half of HCB’s