Like a number of Herman Bosman‘s Oom Schalk Lourens stories, In the Withaak’s Shade is a satire of the life of Bushveld Afrikaners embellished in the form of a “tall tale”. It tells of a farmer’s unlikely encounter with a leopard as he was lying down under a withaak tree while busily searching for some lost cattle. Several of Bosman’s common themes (storytelling and the indolence, independence and mateship of the Boer landowners) are obvious. Two others (the mass hysteria that follows the reported sighting, and destruction of wildlife) are not.
A withaak is an African tree that has wide-spreading branches at the top which provide good shade. Because of this, its common English name is the umbrella thorn. There is also a word in the story that is used in a way that is only found in South Africa and Australia. The story talks a number of times about things happening in the bush. In this instance, the word ‘bush’ means wild land far from cities and towns.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (2,150 words)