Sam Basch - The SAFREA Chronicle

Sam Basch

“Miserable Hovels”

By Sam J Basch: An early traveller from England described the town of Graaff-Reinet as consisting of “a few mud huts and miserable hovels.” Today visitors from around the world, many opting for the award-winning historic Drostdy Hotel, come to admire its architecture and art galleries, museums and food. And to visit the nearby Camdeboo National Park, a great feature of which is the Valley of Desolation with imposing age-old rock formations dating back 150 million years towering above the expansive valley floor.

samjbasch 15th March 2021 2 Comments

Sam Basch

On old stones

Half a lifetime ago, my steps echoed on the cobblestones of Buenos Aires. They were a lasting, solid characteristic of this beautiful city’s old quarters. Two eminent Argentine artists, a photographer and a writer, used word and image in homage to the legacies of their birthplace.

samjbasch 19th February 2021 3 Comments

Sam Basch

Treasurables

By watching closely where one steps, an enhanced perspective of nature comes into play. This allows one to notice the tiniest of flowers, delicate fungi, spider webs… and to become aware of birdsong and the perfume of nature.

samjbasch 5th February 2021 17 Comments

Sam Basch

Master builder

Within ten years of arriving from the Orkney Isles in Scotland in 1879, the young John J. Kirkness was a master builder in Africa. His first major construction project was the iconic Raadzaal, President Paul Kruger’s ‘parliament’ building in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). From humble beginnings, he built a successful enterprise, supplying his distinctive red Kirkness bricks, roofing tiles and terracotta pots, still to be seen at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and South Africa House in London.

samjbasch 29th January 2021 No Comments

Sam Basch

Place of peace

The village of Irene south of Pretoria is where an aircraft mysteriously crashed on a farm in September 1922. Once owned by a flamboyant entrepreneur who named his farming estate after a daughter, Irene – meaning peace – it was home to the respected statesman Jan Smuts, a man of high intelligence but seemingly also one of immense contradictions.

samjbasch 15th January 2021 4 Comments

Sam Basch

Scissors in the attic

What can one learn from a family heirloom that has been passed down the generations? Quite a lot, actually – even though this artefact is an old pair of scissors. A cryptic label written by Grandma in 1961 was the first piece of evidence on the genealogical path. The faint manufacturer’s stamp opened a further avenue leading to a small Yorkshire enterprise in Sheffield. This established the age of my heirloom: 150 years – give or take some.

samjbasch 4th December 2020 No Comments

Sam Basch

The Execution

In the National Gallery in London, a large painting by renowned artist Édouard Manet showing ‘The Execution of Emperor Maximillian of Mexico’, is evidently cut – in four pieces to be exact.
In his lifetime, it could not be displayed in France. He intended the artwork as a political statement against the French emperor, Napoleon III. In time, what remained of the painting, was cut into four canvasses, with other bits still missing.

samjbasch 27th November 2020 2 Comments

From the Attic

Pygmalion?

Enter Leighton House in London to get a glimpse into the life of the pre-eminent Victorian artist Lord Frederick Leighton. That fascinating life included an intriguing relationship with an East End beauty, which inspired George Bernard’s Shaw’s novel ‘Pygmalion’ that was made into a play and the movie My Fair Lady.

samjbasch 16th November 2020 6 Comments

Sam Basch

HEARTH AND HOME

Stone houses may look harsh and uninviting. Yet, they date back millenia – home to our early ancestors.

The ‘hearth’ inside was where they cooked; the fire generated heat for warmth, especially in cold climes. In time, the phrase ‘hearth and home’ came to embody family and the love shared among those living in the glow of the firelit room. It exuded coziness and the embracing comfort of home.

samjbasch 30th October 2020 2 Comments

Sam Basch

From Magersfontein to Matjiesfontein

It might seem curious that a high-ranking Scottish soldier who fell in battle at Magersfontein near Kimberley during the South African War should be buried 700 kilometres away at Matjiesfontein. Perhaps it was a matter of honour for a fellow Scot, the owner of the tiny Karoo village. For the other fallen, a poignant memorial was erected on the battlefield. This brings to mind what Benjamin Franklin once said: There never was a good war, or a bad peace.

samjbasch 16th October 2020 No Comments