South Africa 37

Listen to South Africa 37, a 61-year-old woman from Wynberg, Cape Town, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 61

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/12/1955

PLACE OF BIRTH: Wynberg, Cape Town

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: (Cape) Malay (mix of Afrikaans, German, Russian, and Indian)

OCCUPATION: retired personal assistant

EDUCATION: National Senior Certificate (Matric)

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: N/A

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/11/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, I’m the third child of seven — um, born in the southern suburbs in Cape Town. Um, parents both of mixed, unknown origins, I’d say. Um, I, I would think there was some Afrikaner, some German, some, er, Russian, and I think there’s, er, definitely Indian, but I can’t, er, I don’t know exactly, er, if it’s, er, Madagascan Indians, or Indians who, who — anyways, it’s, it’s a mixture. I also believe that some of my grandmother, maternal grandmother’s heritage is, um, from St. Helena Island, which is like, er, also a, a mixture. I, I don’t know anything definite; that’s all like, all up in the air.

When I was seven, my mother died, and then my dad was left with seven children, and we were actually called the Von Trapp family. I don’t know if you know The Sound of Music? OK, so he … And, er, despite the fact that he had all these children, there were quite a number of women who were interested in him. I think it had something to do with his looks and also that he kept himself, er, I think in his demeanor, sort of a station above other people, you know? He, he, he was very down to earth, but I mean he didn’t, er, project himself, er, as someone who wanted to be seen or known for anything really; he was very sort of just contained, if I can put it that way.

We basically lived a life of gypsies. We moved from place to place, because with my dad not being able to care for us, and he had a, a full-time job all day, er, we were sort of fostered. And we were split up as a family, so one child was here, another one there, so basically three kids were in one place and four in another. Or three kids were in three different homes. And we were fostered by different people. Er, in one case it was a family, which, um, my youngest sister was fostered, and then eventually adopted by my uncle and aunt, who had no children. And she — everything turned out very well for her in terms of her life, and, and security, and stability and things like that, which all children need. And nurturing. They were very good to her. The rest of us, we sort of just went along with whatever was happening in our lives. We all are completely different in personality because of that. Because we all took to, to what happened to us, er, I wouldn’t say in our stride, because in those days people did — there was no such thing as a child psychologist to, to, to carry you through a trauma. It was a trauma, and you just had to deal with it, get on with it, and that’s the end of it. And I’m not, er, trying to tell you a, a sad story here; it’s just what — and that’s what happened. Then eventually, I think it must have been like thirteen years later, we were all reunited, except for my youngest sister, who was adopted by then, but because she was in a very good position in terms of, er, being loved and really cared for, my dad allowed the adoption to go through. You know, it was actually a good thing that he did that.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/11/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

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