A Bosman Companion. Craig Mackenzie
when he wrote his poem to her”. See also CSJ: 114.
Bechuana(s) Colonial form for ‘Tswana’. The Batswana (sing. Motswana) are the people of Botswana, who speak Setswana (H: 27 “Black Magic.)
“Bechuana Interlude” (MR: 77) A devious, two-timing insurance agent gets his come-uppance. A brooding story that, despite some funny moments, never delivers on its promise. “‘Well, then, for the sake of your wife and daughter, Lenie,’ Johnny de Clerk said, ‘and what’s more, I’ve already spent an hour talking to you. If I spend another hour I shall have to insure you for two thousand pounds.’”
Bechuanaland Colonial name for the modern independent (since 1966) state of Botswana; called the ‘Bechuanaland Protectorate’ or simply ‘the Protectorate’ in HCB’s day (see Maps). The territory contains the small town of Ramoutsa (properly, ‘Ramotswa’), famous in HCB’s fiction for hosting the Indian trading store, where the local Dwarsberg farmers would have obtained many of their provisions, Ramoutsa being considerably closer than Zeerust. The Protectorate features in numerous HCB stories, usually in relation to the cattle smuggling that was an illegal mainstay of the local economy. It also contains the inhospitable, semi-desert region in which the ill-fated trekker party in “The Rooinek” comes to grief (see Kalahari Desert).
Beemer, Ellie In 1930 briefly joined HCB and Blignaut in their Touleier venture, where she apparently had the role of both contributor and secretary. She had literary aspirations, sending in some poems to the magazine, one of which, “L’Ingénue”, caught Blignaut’s eye and duly appeared in the second issue of the magazine. According to Blignaut she even contributed financially to the magazine. There has been speculation that she had an affair with HCB, and that her impending marriage to a Jewish doctor provoked a bitter reaction from him. His uncharacteristically tasteless and vicious story “Rita’s Marriage” (July 1931) is taken to be a thinly veiled attack on Beemer for abandoning him and reverting to type (marrying within her race and class). The preface to his pamphlet of poems entitled The Blue Princess (1931) also contains lines taken to be an attack on Beemer: “Mostly, these verses are about a princess to whom I gave millions of blue jewels that were real because I made them so. But I lost this princess. You see, she didn’t want jewels: she wanted jewelry …”
beker (Afr.) Lit. ‘mug, cup or trophy’ (VS: 144 “Should We have Art Competitions?”).
Bekker, Adriaan Errant communion attendee bunking to enjoy a drink of mampoer with Krisjan Wilman (MR: 110 “Mampoer”).
Bekker, Flip Farmer on whose farm Arndt Prinsloo lived (OTS: 50 “The Heart of a Woman”).
Bekker, Gert Wily, boastful and patronising travelling companion of OSL (S&H: 97 “The Ghost at the Drift”; S&H: 105 “Dopper and Papist”).
Bekker, Gys Head of a group of Bekker families in the Drogedal region (VS: 114 “My Eerste Liefde”).
Bekker, Hans Farmer who bemoans the fact that modern young people buy coffee instead of burning and grinding it at home (UD: 35 “Picture of Gysbert Jonker”).
Bekker, Jurie One of the farmers on a hunting trip with his friends in “Night on the Veld” (OTS: 68); bad-temperedly stops Gysbert van Tonder from snoring by roughly kicking him over. “Jurie Bekker got up, then. And because he had not taken off his veldskoens before going to bed, he was able quite easily to help Gysbert van Tonder to turn round. In fact, Gysbert van Tonder turned round almost twice, the way Jurie Bekker helped him.” Jurie Bekker also appears in numerous other stories: in “Treasure Trove”, “The Lover Who Came Back”, and “Die Ferreira Miljoene”/“Verborge Skatte”, he features as the district postmaster (in “The Ferreira Millions”, the later English version of the last, he actually becomes ‘Jurie Steyn’). Fascinatingly, the local post office on the old Government Road in HCB’s day was run by one Jurie Bekker; David Goldblatt published a photograph of the abandoned shell of this building in The S. A. Tatler in 1965 (reproduced in The Illustrated Bosman, 1985). In “Graven Image” Jurie Bekker is a farmer whose house doubles up as a place of worship (S&H: 119). In “The Missionary” he is a farmer who impounds OSL’s cattle when they stray onto his farm (UD: 105), and in “The Lover Who Came Back” he is a farmer who makes a fool of himself by misinterpreting a line from an Italian opera (UD: 82). In “Funeral Earth” he expresses a belief in modern technology that sets him apart from the other farmers: “‘We have had no rain for the last three years,’ Jurie Bekker will explain, ‘and that is exactly what the rain-gauge records, also. Look, you can see for yourself – nil’” (UD: 113). Jurie Bekker also features as a local farmer or commando member in “Ou Liedjies en Ou Stories”/“The Selon’s Rose”, “Die Rooibaadjie”/ “The Red Coat”, “Funeral Earth”, “The Missionary” (in which he impounds Oom Schalk’s cattle), “Peaches Ripening in the Sun” (where he is one of the commando to invade Natal, and also a ‘bittereinder’ at the end of the story with Oom Schalk) and “The Traitor’s Wife”, where he is one of the commando that captures Leendert Roux, and comments that Leendert Roux’s wife reminds him of the Transvaal itself. Interestingly, whenever he is mentioned in the war stories he never appears to take part in any military action. His name finally becomes bifurcated into Jurie Steyn and Oupa Bekker in the Voorkamer stories.
Bekker, Oupa (Sarel) Lit. ‘Grandfather Bekker’; ‘oupa’ is used as a term of respect. Sage of the voorkamer, dispenser of wisdom and insight, not always appreciated by the younger members of the conversation forum. Strongly reminiscent of Oom Schalk Lourens, the Voorkamer pieces in which he has a dominant narrative role are closest in form to the Schalk Lourens tales (see, e.g., “News Story”, “Birth Certificate, and “Terror of the Molopo”). He claims to have once been Minister of Finance in the Republic of Ohrigstad (see “The Budget”), which was established in 1845. This means that he must have been around 130 years old at the time of his holding forth in the voorkamer. See Voorkamer sequence.
Bekker, Petrus Farmer whose eponymously named daughter falls in love with Hendrik de Waal (UD: 62 “Susannah and the Play-actor”).
Bekker, Theunis Farmer in the post office, complaining about the delay in the delivery of mail (S&H: 68 “Concertinas and Confetti”).
Bekker, Thys Marico farmer dismissive of police prowess (S&H: 114 “Cometh Comet”).
Bekkers Family who take pity on Marie van Zyl (OTS: 107 “The Ox-riem”).
Bekkersdal Lit. ‘the Vale of Bekker’. Area in the Western Transvaal (now the North West Province) near Carletonville; geographically this is too far from the Marico to have featured realistically in the stories, so the area, reputedly named after Oupa Bekker’s grandfather, is most probably fictional (see “Bekkersdal Centenary”, Maps).
“Bekkersdal Centenary” (H: 237) As preparations for Bekkersdal’s centenary go ahead, the farmers gripe alternately that things have developed either too quickly or too slowly over the years. A lively and amusing debate on what constitutes progress and who is the arbiter of it; all story strands neatly tie up. “Except for the schoolmaster, who said that it sounded a bit sticky – the jam factory part of it, he meant – we agreed that Bekkersdal was indeed making an impressive-sounding advance.”
“Bekkersdal Marathon, A” (IT: 22) When the minister goes into a trance the congregation ends up singing the entire 176 verses of Psalm 119. Hilarious, almost cinematic description of a surreal event; differs from the usual Voorkamer stories in so far as it is a story rather than a loosely connected set of anecdotes and comments. “At verse 98 the organist again started making signals about his medicine. Once more Elder Landsman went round to the konsistorie. This time he was accompanied by another elder and a deacon, and they stayed away somewhat longer than the time when Elder Landsman had gone on his own. On their return the deacon bumped into a small hymn-book table at the back of the church. Perhaps it was because the deacon was a fat, redfaced man, and not used to tiptoeing.”
Bekkersdal Marathon, A (1971) A collection of 22 Voorkamer stories, edited by Lionel Abrahams. The second part of his original Voorkamer selection – the first appeared as Jurie Steyn’s Post Office (1971). The two volumes constitute the first attempt at bringing the