Harry's Tales: Philosophy
In Harry Wroth's tale a labourer's response to his employer's questions sums up South African attitudes at a certain point in that country's history.
We were invited and visited some farmer friends of ours at their seaside holiday cottage in a private nature reserve. Their section of the reserve was 45 hectare in extent and had half a kilometer of beautiful rocky coastline. The cottage was originally a simple wooden Department of Water Affairs bungalow which was bought by my friends at the completion of the Orange - Fish River irrigation scheme. It was moved to the seaside location and subsequently extended to sleep up to two dozen persons.
My friends had brought with them some half dozen labourers to scrape, paint and renovate the cottage. Their fresh water supply was extracted from the sand dune seepage by means of a hydraulic ram pump into storage tanks. Electric lighting and hot water was obtained from solar panels. I mention this as I think most of these things were Income Tax deductible, after all they were farmers and this was merely a displaced extension to their inland farms not withstanding that the properties were some 300 kilometers apart.
On the Sunday we were due to leave and a severe thunder storm brewed up. After a delicious braai lunch of Karoo mutton chops, venison sausage and all the rest, one of the farmer friends and I were sitting in the lounge cum family room, enjoying scotch. It started to rain.
An elderly labourer, Jakob by name. was varnishing the interior front window frames.
My host asked the labourer, "Jakob, hoekom is dit dat jy * werk en ons sit hier op ons gatte en suip?".
Jakob replied, "Seer, dit is nou so, dat wanneer die Here ons ons gawe geskenk het, het Hy gese dat ons riesies moet hardloop. By die wenpaal was daar drie kiste. 'n Grote, 'n middelmatige en 'n klein een. Die swart man het gewen en die groot kis gevat. In die groot kis was 'n piek en shovel. Die tweede man, 'n kleurling, het die middelmatige kis gekies. In die kis was 'n level en 'n trowel. Die wit man was laaste en hy het die klein kissie ontvang. In die klein kissie was leesgereedskap."
* Translation of Afrikaans text
My host asked the labourer, "Jacob, why is it that you work and we sit here on our backsides and drink?"
Jacob replied, "Seer ( a form of address in the Eastern Cape derived from Old English "Sire", I think), It is like this, that when The Lord granted us our gifts (or graces), He said we should run a race. At the finishing line were three boxes. A large one, a medium sized one and a small one. A black man won the race and took the large box. In the box was a pick and shovel. The second man was a coloured and he chose the medium sized box. In the box was a level and trowel. The last man was a white man and he received the small box. In the box were reading materials".
