The Applecart Man
Dirkie has been a regular ‘visitor’ to our home for the past ten years or so… He is not normally welcomed by our rather noisy, but ineffectual guard dog, whose ears prick up as he shuffles up our driveway, her shrill barking announcing that a very scary intruder is on the doorstep…
But Dirkie is a harmless ‘coloured’ man of indeterminate age from the local township, who arrives most mornings with a large gap toothed smile and a joke for the ‘masa’. He hobbles up the steps to the front door then watches the koi in the pond outside the studio as he waits patiently for someone to come out to greet him. He is a familiar figure tottering along the roads of our small suburb and one often encounters him enjoying a sandwich and coffee on the doorsteps of those who don’t shoo him away. No one knows exactly how old he really is; but we think that the fact that he walks the streets of Wilderness keeps him healthy and impervious to the vagaries of his difficult, yet interesting life. According to Dirkie, the reason that he has been unable to work for most of his adult life has nothing at all to do with consuming vast amounts of cheap alcohol and everything to do with the fact that he fell from an apple cart when he was young and gainfully employed at a farm in the Langeberge.
What made him creep into our hearts is that he has never once asked for money, preferring a less obvious approach. He stands on the doorstep and shoots the breeze for a while then leaves us chuckling, confounded by the stark contrast of his razor sharp wit and his outwardly dilapidated appearance.
When my husband decided to paint him, he wanted to capture the warmth and vitality of Dirkie’s remarkably weathered face. Peter rendered the portrait very loosely, hinting at Dirkie’s obviously poor eyesight and trying to capture the warmth of his character in his singularly most defining feature; his one-toothed grin. Once the artwork was completed, we waited impatiently for Dirkie to visit again so we could show him the painting.
Eventually after a few days had passed, he duly arrived at our doorstep. Peter took him to the studio and Dirkie at last came face to face with the portrait…
He gazed at it in silence for a while then turned to Peter, shaking his head and said;
“Sjoe masa, maar ‘n ‘˜hotnot’ is mos ‘˜n lelike ding!” *
*Afrikaans: ‘Heavens! But a hottentot is an ugly creature’…
SOUTH AFRICAN COLLOQUIALISMS
‘coloured’ refers to mixed race individuals in South Africa
‘township’ refers to the often underdeveloped urban living areas that were reserved for non-whites under the Apartheid regime. Although apartheid was abolished in the 1990's, the term ‘township’ still remains and is largely inhabited by the poor on the outskirts of larger towns and cities.
‘masa’ a term meaning ‘Master’ — a sign of respect.
‘hottentot’ are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen. Sometimes perceived as a derogatory term in modern times.
