Blog post 7

Sat 14 – Fri 20 Feb 2015

From Bloemfontein, to Pretoria, the Forbes & the National Archives

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Becoming extraordinary, the Forbes, dust, and yet more ‘what is it’ questions

Becoming extraordinary

Last week I became extraordinary, in an institutional sense. Having been appointed an Extraordinary Professor in Sociology at the University of the Free State, an honorary visiting position with mutual benefits, a set of activities which started inaugurating it took place. I gave two seminars on aspects of my work, concerning documents of life and narrative analysis, and the Whites Writing Whiteness research. Lots of nice people came and interesting questions were asked and comments made. There was a meeting with an impressive group of students and post-docs working on narrative topics, who each spoke about their research. There were also meetings combined with social events with the Head of Sociology, the Faculty Dean, and the Vice-Rector Research. and in addition some good time was spent with my old friend, Prof Jan Coetzee, who directs the narrative programme, a very exciting new venture. All this was immensely enjoyable and for me also interesting and informative about UFS. I’ll also return fairly soon to give an inaugural lecture.

We left Bloemfontein at 8am on Sat 14 Feb. The drive from Bloem to Pretoria is an odd one, a bit flat and uneventful at the start, then later WHAM the Johannesburg mad angry people in cars out to kill anyone who holds them up for even a second or two appear and drive at you every which way. However, the directions were spot on and we arrived in good order in Waterkloof Ridge, where we’re staying in a small garden apartment. And, just down the road from where we are, off Rigel Street, is a local Cafe 41 – the Eastwood Mall Cafe 41 was a second home last time we were in Pretoria, so this one if it’s good may serve a similar purpose.

The Forbes, the Forbes, the Forbes!

Is it possible to fall in love with a large dusty set of forty or so large boxes filled with letters, maps, inventories, accounts, cards, tallies, lists…? It must be, for I have done so. Even before leaving Bloem, I could feel the excitement rising at thoughts of being reunited with my beloved Forbes family collection. Sunday, planning the next week’s work, it is hard to be restrained and sensible, for the inclination is to plunge straight in. However, sensible is what I have been. One, finish off an ‘end’ left over from writing articles for Sociology on the scriptural economy and the Journal of Family History on what a ‘migrant letter’ is using Forbes as an important exemplar. Two, focus on the boxes with copies (I hope, rather than lists) of ‘letters dispatched’. Three, deal with the letters from friends. And in that order. Then anything else. But will being sensible about this last? We’ll see, as our two weeks in the National Archives unfolds.

Dust and more dust

As soon as the words dust and archives are mentioned, Cayolyn Steedman’s thoughtful interesting book – Dust – comes to mind, of course. But at the moment my concerns aren’t intellectual ones, just ‘dust = avoiding scratching’. Excema is a problem for me – the dust of ages on the documents we’re working on has a scouring effect on my hands. The worst is fingers, with nasty patches of the dreaded E developing. But Bloem is great for traditional remedies and medicines, so a large tub of some comfrey ointment I first bought years back was purchased from the Brandweg Apteek. Magic. By the next day it had already improved, and by day two had largely gone.

More with Forbes in mind…

I’d be interested to see the various Forbes farms, also Lakes Chrissie and Banagher (the latter associated with the McCorkindales), the Komati Gorge, Tolderia… This is less any fetish of materialism or simulacrum of presence tendencies of mine, more that photographs of the area make it look gorgeous and I’ve never been there before. Sue eyes me up with great suspicion when I mention this and the short 2 to 3 hour drive from here. I’ve been looking at accommodation, roads and generally mulling over the possibilities…

And another ‘what is it’ puzzle….

Another ‘what is it’ puzzle goes like this —-

  • Person A writes a letter.
  • Person B writes a letter to Person C, enclosing a copy they hand-make of Person A’s letter.
  • Person D copies by hand Person B’s letter.
  • Person D, writing as the amanuenis of Person C, inscribes a letter on behalf of Person C, which is addressed to Person E.
  • In doing so, they attach the copy make by Person B of Person A’s letter and also the copy they hand-made of Person B’s letter.

A hundred or so years pass, and then:

  • Researcher X (yours truly) turns over an inconsequential letter acknowledging receipt of a cheque, to find — a small bundle, pinned together with a rusty pin, of all the above items by Person D. —- BUT,
  • Is Researcher akin to Person E, but with temporal shifts? AND if not, what are the ontological/epistemological differences?
  • Also, what IS it?? A letter? Many letters? What are copies to be seen as, letters or something ontologically other? By what person or persons is this – or is that ‘these’? And, how to know if copies are copies or edited versions. And in what ways, or rather by what means, does this matter? Oh my goodness… the questions continue.

On the stoep, in the benificent evening warmth, I reach for a glass of rather fine Chenin Blanc.

Blog7stoep Last updated: 19 February 2015


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