THURSDAY, 4 MAY 2017
Tonight, out of the blue, I thought about “lost history”. As an example, I thought of the Schoeman community at Vissershoek (Fisherman’s Corner), north of Pretoria, from the 1890s to at least the 1940s (when my father lived there as a child – my grandmother was a Schoeman).
Lives were lived there – but who still knows about it? Who can still remember the stories? Who can still say what happened on Christmas Eve in 1915? Who can still talk about the incident one quiet Sunday afternoon in 1927? Who remembers the reason why the children were so afraid one dark night in the winter of 1931?
The family cemetery is full. The wind gently rustles through the trees. The voices are quiet.
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