Posts by Jeremy Maccelari

A fantastic country with a multitude of problems - my folks emigrated there during the 70s and I finally ended up spending over 3 decades there. However, I have two points to to make:

- the car flamethrower. Yes, one was made and marketed some 15 years ago, but it was never a commercial success - just some nutter selling some crazy device. In all my years in SA, I never saw one or heard of anyone who had one (or anyone who knew anyone who had seen or knew anyone who had one - you get the gist). It has become a bit of an urban legend.

- 'kakkies' is 'khakis'. The song 'De la Rey' was about a Boer general who fought the British during the second Anglo-Boer war from 1899-1902. The British uniform during the war was a khaki colour, hence the term becoming slang for a British soldier. Another term from this era for Poms is 'rooinek' (red neck) from the habit of the Brits getting sunburnt*. So 'khaki' has nothing whatsoever to do with 'kaffirs'. The song was about the general saving the Boers from the Brits and has come to be a bit of nostalgia comparing the current Afrikaners' situation under the current black government to that under British oppression**.

And yes, good biltong, droëwors (dry sausage) and boerewors (farm sausage) are heavenly. Pineapple Fanta is a matter of opinion, though.

* Another endearing Afrikaans epithet I was labelled with on occasion was 'soutpiel' (salt dick). Apparently we English in southern Africa had one foot in Africa, one foot in England and our gentleman's titbits hanging in the Atlantic Ocean.

** And if you read your history you'll realise just how oppressive it was. Not a nice piece of British history - ever wondered where the concentration camp came from, for example?