Audiences hungry for Afrikaans storytelling

THERE’S nothing quite like expressing yourself in your mother tongue when you really want to share what is on your heart, and for Malcolm Rittmann – the language of his heart is Afrikaans.

Described as a born storyteller at the recent inaugural ‘Afrikaans is Alles’ event, Rittmann says he first recognised his gift to entertain as a young boy who would make the children around him laugh.

“It comes naturally. I speak of my experience as I go back in my life, in a mix of truth and fiction,” he says.

The Afrikaans storytelling evening was hosted at Rosewood Academy on 24 June, and featured Rittmann’s daughter, Malverene, and Nick de Voss as the masters of ceremony (MCs).

De Voss and Malverene recited the anti-apartheid poem ‘What abou’ de lô?’ by South African writer and philosopher Adam Small, bringing to life the effects of the Immorality Act which prohibited relationships across the colour line during apartheid.

The poem was written in ‘Kaaps’, a version of Afrikaans used by the Coloureds, or mixed-race, people of Cape Town.

Rittmann’s grandchildren also recited pieces, with a lamentory ‘Skottelgoed’ earning enthusiastic calls for an encore before Rittmann regaled the audience with his engrossing and at times fantastical storytelling.

Rittmann is a former teacher and principal who keeps busy during his retirement with gigs as an MC for weddings and other events, as well as freelance teaching.

The evening was held in support of Cairos Support Group, a charity organisation established by Rittmann’s wife, Irene, alongside a group of local women, who began the organisation “from their own food cupboards”.

The support group helps people identified through the personal networks of each of the women involved, including HIV orphans. Cairos also conducts regular community outreaches within informal settlements.

With around 220 tickets sold, the turnout on a chilly winter evening, including a serving of comforting soup and bread that fed in seamlessly with the celebration of culture, indicates that audiences are eager to hear their history and unique perspectives reflected to them in their own language.

In terms of feedback from attendees, Irene says several audience members said they were looking forward to the next edition, particularly after Rittmann left his story on a dramatic cliffhanger.

“Some people said it was a very unique event for our culture, and others said they could really relate to Rittmann’s stories.

“It was so interesting to see a room full of grown-ups entranced by the stories. People said it was better than TV,” says Irene.

“It’s about the strength of words,” says Rittmann.

“Our language has faded, our old people have even stopped going to see doctors because they can’t explain what the problem is. This is why I am standing up for the language,” he says.

“Otherwise, what remains is Namlish.

“Like Adam Small says ‘the Lord has rolled, an’ the bones jus don’ have our number, is all’.

“And what Small wrote has come to pass, and I ask myself, why do the bones keep falling wrong for us?”

Rittmann, reflecting on his unique culture and language, says it is “busy dying a quiet death, like a stillborn with no voice and no place”.

However, he strives to personally instil a love and appreciation of the language in his own grandchildren, who only speak Afrikaans with Ouma and Oupa, he says.

The next ‘Afrikaans is Alles’ event is being planned for November, says Irene.

“As long as my memory endures, I will continue to speak out about the things our people have been through – overcoming insecurities, stigma, and poverty,” says Rittmann.

“The truth is like a lion; it takes care of itself. These were the building blocks . . .

“The stumbling blocks became the climbing blocks. It’s not what you experience in life, but how you go through it,” says Rittmann.

– For more information, contact the Cairos Support Group at kairos@sg.namibia@gmail.com