PRINCE ALBERT WRITERS' GUILD 

PRINCE ALBERT –  Kweekvallei

Published by: Prince Albert Writers’ Guild

November 2005

reviewed by Carol Campbell, who writes for The Star and The Argus 

and Rose Willis of Rose's Round-up

History of remarkable Karoo town recorded by local scribes

It was a matter of time before a book was published on the life of the historic, beautiful every-changing Karoo village of Prince Albert . That it is the town’s writers’ guild who compiled the retrospective is ideal. The ten authors, all of them professionals in various disciplines, know the village far better than any passing scribe. In this book, Prince Albert : Landmark events, colourful characters and the lifestyle of an historic Karoo town, they offer the reader insight into the growth of a remote Karoo farm into a thriving 21^st century tourist hub.

The book opens with a chapter on the early inhabitants of the region written by palaeontologist Dr Judy Maguire, who lives on the farm Scholtzkloof, outside the village. Most recently Maguire was in the news for her work preparing the World Heritage Site dossier for Makapansgat in the Limpopo Province .

In this work she describes the early inhabitants of the area surrounding Prince Albert by building an excitement in the reader that anyone with sharp eyes can find some remnant of a life lived on the same rocky ground 3,5 million years earlier.  

Maguire also tells of the heartbreaking extermination of the San, who “were a problem to both the Khoi and the trekboers.” It’s a chapter that makes you want to lace up your boots and head into the veld scouring the rocky ground for traces of a lost civilization.  

Architect Derek Thomas has lived in Prince Albert for 15 years and has published several books on architecture both locally and internationally. His chapter on the arrival of the trekboers and cultivation of the first farm Kweekvallei offers insight into the movement of whites into the South African interior and the birth of the new village. “Those frontier farmers were their own architects,” writes Thomas, “their houses were simple with thatched roofs.”  

One of my favourite chapters is on the natural history of the RJ Gordon koppie written by ornithologist Dr Richard Dean and his wife, the botanist, Professor Sue Milton. In this chapter the writers take the reader on a walk up one of the village’s favourite koppies, named after Robert Gordon, a Dutch soldier who was a regular visitor to the village towards the end of the 1700s. 

This is a chapter alive with birds and plants and, for any Karoo lover, it’s a treat to have such competent writers share their incredible knowledge in such an easy to read manner.

This is a book where every chapter demands time to be savoured. It is a South African reference book that deserves a spot on the shelf alongside Eve Palmer’s Karoo masterpiece, The Plains of Camdeboo.  

Prince Albert is very lucky to have a book that records so much of its history written by people who love the village and who are all masters of their respective subjects.

Carol Campbell, Prince Albert

_______________________________________

NEW BOOK CAPTURES SPIRIT OF PRINCE ALBERT

The spirit of Prince Albert is captured in a book launched by the village’s own Writers’ Guild. Some time ago the many writers who live in Prince Albert formed this Guild.  In time the beauty of the village, its location and the magnificence of its surroundings inspired ten members, all experts in their own fields, to write this book that captures the flavour of the town. 

Prince Albert – Kweekvallei covers the rock art, early indigenous inhabitants, fresh mountain water in irrigation furrows, the town’s unique architecture and its exceptional and eccentric people.  Among them medical men, parliamentarians, bounty hunters and church leaders, have all added their own touch to the story of Prince Albert. 

Considerable research was needed. Writers have used material from many libraries, and the Fransie Pienaar Museum, to trace the tale from Zacharias de Beer’s grazing farm, granted in 1792, to the present-day village. The 126-page well-researched and liberally illustrated book costs R120.  It includes old maps, drawings and many hitherto unpublished photographs, such as the unusual view of Church Street, dating back to the late 1800s, used on the cover. 

“Kweekvallei, 'valley of cultivation', also implies ' valley of plenty', and shows how deeply the town’s cultural history is rooted in its environment,” says Guild member Derek Thomas. “The two factors which have had the strongest influence on the town's character, clear, fresh, mountain water and natural beauty, are both handled with insight in chapters on the natural environment and the geotectonic formation of the Swartberg.”  

Rose Willis, Rose's Round-up