Barefoot Bushdoctor: A doctor in the Kalahari, by Hélène De Kok

Barefoot Bushdoctor: A doctor in the Kalahari, by Hélène De Kok. Selfpublished. Gobabis, Farm Hekel, Namibia 2017. ISBN 9789994585779 / ISBN 978-99945-85-77-9

Genetic evidence points to an African origin for the genome shared by all modern human populations. In Barefoot Bushdoctor - A doctor in the Kalahari Hélène De Kok traces very briefly the return to Africa of her ancestors over a period of more than three centuries.

My eight great-grandparents essentially were all of Western European stock, who at various stages for different reasons came to Africa (see eight great-grandparents from left to right on the Family Tree p 10). The Lubbes farmed as employees of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) at the Cape of Good Hope established as a halfway station between Holland and the East in 1652 to supply proviand and particularly fresh vegetables to passing ships. As early as 1657 a Lubbe became one of the first 'Free Burghers' entitled to farm independently. In time they moved further and further north in search of better grazing and greater freedom from restricting and disturbing laws of the Cape Government and eventually settled across the Orange River in what later became the Orange Free State. During the Great Trek my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Liebenberg, miraculously survived the massacre of the Liebenberg group by the Matabele in the Free State. Hendrik van der Post and his wife Elizabeth Zaalberg with their children came to the Cape from Leiden in Holland in 1859. After Dutch fashion the family at first had the rudesounding name of Van der Does. During a prolonged siege of his native city an ancestor defended his post with extreme bravery. In an enemy attack on a narrow, strategic bridge, one of his arms had been blasted away. He refused to move from his vantage point and kept the enemy at bay. After the siege a title and a new crest was conferred on him. He asked for a new name, Van der Post - steadfast at his post. According to family legend the Stuarts could lay claim to the Scottish throne as Egmond, son of Sir James Steuart of Coltness, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, had fled for his life to escape from other claimants. He settled in Holland where his offspring lived until his great great ... grandson Jacobus decided to come to Africa with his wife and five children in 1851. By a strange quirk of fate Jacobus met with the two De Kok brothers, Pieter and Karolus (Karel) Johannes, who were on their way to Australia and he persuaded them to come to southern Africa instead. Karolus married one of the Stuart girls, Agatha.

The Liebenberg Trek

In our lounge stands an old linen chest. It is made of camphor wood, I think, but it is so old and has journeyed for so long, that its distinctive smell has all but disappeared. It came with the Great Trek from the Cape of Good Hope all the way across rugged mountains and alongst unmade roads into uncharted territory. It traveled on an open ox wagon,4 protecting and holding all the valuable possessions of a family and a generation. I found the chest in the store next to the garage on our farm here in Namibia. It was painted a dark green. The wood was so dry that it was brittle. The outside edges were no longer cornered but smooth and rounded, with an indent of missing wood here and there and here and there an iron nail that held it all together. These Trekkers have long since gone, and with them have died most of the memories of their lives and of their time.

This was written by my grandmother, Maria Magdalena van der Post, all her life known as Lammie. Here is part of the story that she told. [...]

This is an excerpt from: Barefoot Bushdoctor: A doctor in the Kalahari, by Hélène De Kok.

Title: Barefoot Bushdoctor
Subtitle: A doctor in the Kalahari
Author: Hélène De Kok
Selfpublished
Gobabis, Farm Hekel, Namibia 2017
ISBN 9789994585779 / ISBN 978-99945-85-77-9
Softcover, 15 x 21 cam, 211 pages, numerous b/w photographs