South Africa 47

Listen to South Africa 47, a 63-year-old woman from Ottery, Western Cape, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 63

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/08/1954

PLACE OF BIRTH: Ottery, Western Cape

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Cape Malay

OCCUPATION: educator, trainer in textile industry

EDUCATION: diploma in higher education

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): 05/04/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

When I grew up, I – we were ten children! There were seven sisters and three brothers. And I was in the first five, and then there was five after me. And I think I was the one that was squeezed! I used to love learning, reading. I used to love, um, being able to explore. I – and I said to myself — I, I think I was around about 7, when I said to myself: “I want to be a teacher.” I never lost that dream; that dream became a reality – to show what I’ve got, was when I was 49.

That time standard seven was mos’ grade nine. Then, er, the first time my mom said, “ You can’t go to school anymore; you have to go work.” And you know that time: You used to work as a s- domestic for the white people. So she got me a job. I think I worked for a year; I was just four- I was not 14 yet; no I was 14, and, and I thought to myself: “But this is not what I want to do.” And you couldn’t define [defy] your parents; you, you, you have, you, you had to listen to what they are saying because they know what is right. ..

I thought no man; then I asked one of the girls that lives one of the roads. I said to her, “Don’t you know where they’re looking for people?” And, um, she said to me – I was just 15 then – she said to me, “Yes, across us, there where I work; they’re taking people.” In the morning, I put on my dress, my shoes, and I said to my mommy, “I’m going fo- this morning for this job.” And, um, when I got there, they took me on. You know what I did? I made such a small little boxes, where you put the bras and the panties in. I started out in the factory doing that. And for me, I wanted to know what’s happening inside. What’s happening there? I’m making this box, so how do they put this thing together to put into this box? And I went in there; every day I used to go in and look and look; every day I used to go look. And then that supervisor s-said; she tells me, “You’re not allowed to go in there!” And I said, “Oh sorry, I didn’t know. I just wanted to see what was happening there.” She said, “No, you’re not allowed to go in there!”

Then they said to me that they need somebody to do the invoicing and stuff. So I did the invoicing; so when I did the invoicing, I could go in. So I went in, and every day I used to look at the machines. How is this things working? How is the people working on them? How do they sit? What do they do? Every day, I used to – I, it – I used to  — and that, that’s why I say: Your eyes is your camera. It absorbs, it takes a picture, and it plants its in your brain. I always tell my, my learners that. So that is why I can tell you that, that is why I can tell my, my, my, my learners this is how I did it! I wasn’t taught how to work a machine. I wasn’t taught. I picked it up!

In 2002, my director said to me, “There’s an opening for you to go to university.” And I went for two years to the university, and I got plus minus, um, 78 percent pass rate, and there’s my diploma. My university diploma. At 49.

But, you know, God is so good. I always say he loves me so much. I, I, I didn’t have a easy life. I, I had – I married a man that my parents didn’t want me to, and eventually I divorced him, and the year that I graduated, I divorced him. Two days before I graduated I divorced him. But it didn’t make me less than what I wanted to be. He brought me to the ground! I had to pick myself up with the grace of God and get through that, for my two children, so that they can see that no matter what happens, you can achieve what you want to achieve in life.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/04/2018

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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