PRINCE ALBERT WRITERS' GUILD 

PRINCE ALBERT – Kweekvallei

Published by the Prince Albert Writers’ Guild

November 2005

Who's who?

The following Prince Albert Writers' Guild members contributed material 

Foreword

Penny Alder wrote the lyrical description of our village which appears on the opening page. She has a B.A. degree in Languages & Literature from University of Natal, Durban and has worked for 30 years as a qualitative market researcher, analyzing and interpreting consumer motivation for marketers. She now trains young market research executives and consults on behalf of clients in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.  

The Early inhabitants of the Region

Dr Judy Maguire is a palaeontologist, resident on the farm Scholtzkloof which she shares with her husband, John Begg. She has a long track record of work in the field, and of recent times she has prepared the World Heritage Site dossiers and management plans of the Makapansgat Valley Heritage Area and the Taung Fossil Site. As chairperson of both the Fransie Pienaar Museum and the Prince Albert Cultural Foundation, she has for some years been influential in the Prince Albert community in social, heritage and environmental issues, as well as serving on the Gamkaskloof Advisory Committee to the managing authority, the Cape Nature Conservation Board.  

Kweekvallei and Zacharias de Beer’s legacy

Derek Thomas is an architect resident in Prince Albert since 1990. His books on architecture have been published locally and internationally. As a trained and committed environmentalist, he advises on the conservation of Prince Albert ’s heritage; the architectural legacy, the water furrow culture, town farms, and the natural setting. He is a founder member of Friends of Swartberg Pass, Alberts Mill and the Prince Albert Cultural Foundation, and assists the editorial committee of the PA Friend on behalf of the Guild.  

 Die Rooikamp: Geskiedenis van ‘n vergete woonbuurt

Denise Ohlson (BA Komm) woon sedert 1986 in Prince Albert. Haar skoonma, ‘n nooi Mien Oosthuizen, gebore in Prince Albert in 1902, trou hier in 1930 in die NG Kerk. Sy is ‘n trotse Prince Alberter. Denise het ‘n passie vir huise en is sedert 1990 eiendomsagent op die dorp. Saam met haar man het sy 16 eiendomme “in nood” opgegradeer tot hul eertydse waardigheid. Die dorp, sy geskiedenis, sy waardevolle geboue-erfenis en ook sy toekoms lê haar na aan die hart.

 Die Verteller

Elizabeth (Baba) Lekay was ‘n voorvrou in haar gemeenskap; bedrywig in die politiek, betrokke by die hospitaal, kerksake en sosiale aangeleenthede. Sy was altyd gretig om staptogte deur Die Rooikamp te onderneem. Baba is gedurende 2007 oorlede. 

What’s in a name? & Outa Lappies

Ailsa Tudhope, the Story Weaver, is a registered tour guide and story-teller who takes visitors on guided walks and arranges story-telling events at local Festivals. Her website and newsletter spread Karoo stories to all corners of the globe. As an English teacher at Zwartberg Hoërskool, Ailsa stimulates young minds into imaginative thinking and writing.  

Gabled houses, the builders and

those who lived in them

Helena Marincowitz was a graduate of Stellenbosch University and a prolific author of note who published books and articles in Afrikaans and English. She lived most of her life in Prince Albert and the district and was an avid researcher of the cultural life of Prince Albert and its architectural heritage. The growth and success of the Fransie Pienaar Museum is largely due to her participation in its affairs. Helena died during 2007 and is deeply missed throughout the community.

  Helena's chapter was translated from Afrikaans by Jack Botha, who is a veteran of 63 years with the media, in particular the Sunday Times where he was a freelance sport journalist. He is now resident in Prince Albert.

The 1891 Goldrush

&

A ramble through the rocks of the Swartberg

John Begg is a geologist with exploration tentacles that stretch to most corners of Africa . His lifetime in geology has taken him on numerous commissions for clients in the search of minerals and precious metals. Only Ethiopia has escaped his experienced eye for viable deposits in the resource-rich continent.

 John's academic qualification as a geologist is described by him as “a sort of soft muddled degree, encompassing rocks, maps and human antiquities”. He now resides beneath the Swartberg mountains, “awed by evening shadows on their jagged cliffs; the silence as the bushman’s copper star greets the dawn across their peaks; and bewitched by the flowers that nestle beneath the rocks - each to its own special niche in an apartheid governed by substrate, aspect and altitude.” Further, he is “glad to be dumb, and content with the simple rewards the creation that surrounds him afford his unexalted passage”.  

 From Khoi remedies to modern medical practices

Dr JJ (Jan) van Heerden: 1950 UCT graduate, GP in Harrismith, Cape Town, Hermanus, Stellenbosch (where he headed the Students’ Health Service 1974-87) and Prince Albert from 1995 to 2007. As Dr Jan van Elfen, he was author of 17 health books, the encyclopaedic Dokter in die Huis and some 4000 magazine articles. He published Prof Chris Barnard’s research on tissue rejection in SA Medical Journal preceding his first heart transplant and until shortly before his death in 2007 still wrote a 40 year-old weekly medical column for Volksblad.  

Cooking traditions and cuisine

Carol van Vuuren, a graduate of the University of Stellenbosch, has been a journalist for most of her professional life, working for, among others, Die Oosterlig, The University of Port Elizabeth (now The Nelson Mandela University) and the Department of Agriculture. She currently works as a freelance journalist.  

 The natural history of the Robert Gordon Koppie

Richard Dean & Sue Milton

Richard completed his MSc on ant-plant interactions at the University of Natal and his PhD at the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town, in 1995 on the conservation of nomadic birds in the Karoo . He has collected and observed bird nesting behaviour in Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe, has worked on the management of protected water bird areas in the Northwest and Limpopo Provinces and Mpumalanga , and on the land-use effects on insects and birds in the Karoo and Kalahari. He has written books on the birds of Angola and on nomadic desert birds as well as editing a Cambridge University Press synthesis of Karoo ecological research. He runs a field course in ecology for postgraduates and has published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and professional magazines. He is the co-author of the recently published updated Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa.

Sue is a part-time Professor in the Conservation Ecology Department, University of Stellenbosch and Honorary Professor in the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town. She lectures and supervises graduate research on disturbance and restoration ecology. Her research interest is in the field of conservation, sustainable utilisation and rehabilitation of natural vegetation, particularly in the arid Karoo region of South Africa. Sue has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and written one book on the ecology and management of Karoo vegetation. She has also served on various committees or boards including the South African National Parks and the Ecology Research Panel of Working for Water (South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry).

An Album of gifted and eccentric townsfolk

Various Authors

J R G Luttig; SPS Luttig; Ds Adriaan Hofmeyr; Pieter Kuyper Neethling; Piet Basson; Asja Murphy; George Rainier; Oom Hennie Velsambreel; Gawie Beukes and Fransie Pienaar feature in this fascinating assembly of Prince Alberters.

Various members of the Guild were responsible for editing and proof reading the text.

The Guild wishes to acknowledge the hours of work which Derek Thomas spent on the layout and production of the book. His enthusiasm, dedication and hard work resulted in an attractive and easily accessible format and a book of which we are very proud.  

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