The Lost Culture
“The Boers at the End of the World – Richard Gregory”
By: Lonwabo Marele
Today’s world is the product of our history . To change our past would mean to change the present and the future. However, there are people today who live the same way they did ages ago. This might sound rare, but examples like the Amish abound. The research and hard work of a South African-born documentary filmmaker Richard Finn Gregory has produced a challenging documentary: The Boers at the End of the World. The documentary focuses on a community of Afrikaner descendants living in a secluded corner of Patagonia, Argentina. The documentary’s title caught the attention of thousands and ignited questions about what it is to be ‘South African’. A word or two was spilled with Gregory about the project. Find out how his fascinating research came about.
What motivated Richard Gregory to research the Argentine Afrikaner community?
A friend mentioned it to him about two years ago and, being a documentary filmmaker, he always kept his eyes and ears open for a good story – and this one sounded like a cracker. He went about his research and the deeper he dug, the more amazed he was at how this trek has become a forgotten part of the history of South Africa. He knew that this would make a good inspirational story for many South Africans and was therefore the ‘perfect’ job for his company, the Good Work Picture Company.It took him a while to find some descendants. People working on the project assumed that the elusive Boers had left Patagonia because whose who went looking for them had no luck finding anyone who spoke Afrikaans. Then came a breakthrough moment when Gregory managed to track down a descendant by the name of Ruben Osvaldo Dickason through Facebook. Dickason was friendly enough to invite Gregory over to meet his parents… who ‘til today still speak fluent Afrikaans.
Richard Gregory meets Ruben Osvaldo Dickason and his neighbours.
The first thing that struck Gregory was the hospitability offered by the people of the community. They insisted that he stay for dinner in their home and took him out sightseeing. The people’s generosity continued during the course of his stay. What did change, however, was his sense of identity while being there… which was an interesting experience. Before the visit, he felt anxiety due to his being an English-speaking South African going to visit Afrikaans speakers who moved to Patagonia to get away from the British. Gregory wondered if there would be any remaining resentment but none of that mattered because all they cared about was the fact that they could chat with him in Afrikaans and share a cup of ‘matѐ’ tea with a ‘matie’ from the homeland. He was comforted. That made him realise that perhaps there’s a bigger Afrikaans influence in the makeup of his personal identity than he had thought. They all spoke Afrikaans and did not pull each other’s hair over ancestry.
“Funnily enough, they generally referred to themselves as coming from Africa, rather than South Africa!”
He stayed in Patagonia for a week as that was as far as his development budget could stretch for thefirst trip. From here on, he will use the teaser to attract more funding so that he and his crew can goback to complete the rest of the documentary.
You are probably asking yourself if the community is isolated. Are the people undermined by their context? Are there any interesting multi-ethnic foods, new traditions, words or expressions… right?
“They are in a pretty remote location, but that doesn’t mean they’re separate from the Argentine population. They are, in fact, Argentines – they just happen to have another layer of identity as well. Most of their food is Argentine, they drink ‘mate’ tea rather than coffee, they drink Fernet Branca and Coke rather than Brandy and Coke. They chat to each other in Afrikaans and will pull out the accordion and play ‘Suikerbossie’ or ‘Tannie’ met ‘Rooi Rokkie’ from time to time. But they’re really a part of the local population. In previous years, they tended to marry amongst themselves and have a more insular community – part of this was for religious reasons, as they are mostly Protestant and the Argentines are mostly Roman Catholic. But in 1938, during the centenary of the Great Trek, the South African government offered to repatriate anyone who wanted to come back and up to two thirds of the expat Afrikaners accepted the offer. After that, there wasn’t really a large enough Afrikaans population there to remain insular and so they became a lot more integrated with the local people.” says Gregory.
Up to date with South Africa
They don’t exactly keep up to date with current affairs in South Africa. But of course they knew that Mandela had recently passed away, but then again they don’t really know much about our geography or politics. When Gregory mentioned apartheid, they only knew about it in the imprecise terms. They are passionately curious about South Africa, though, because that’s the land their ancestors came from and that’s somewhere they would love to visit one day.
Release date and venue for documentary’s first drop “We’re still in production phase, and we won’t be able to shoot anything for at least the next six months, as winter in Patagonia is a pretty miserable time and the road to the farms will be closed with snow. We’re busy fundraising now through various channels so that we can shoot enough for the feature-length version, and we’re hoping that when it’s done in time to be submitted to some of the film festivals locally and abroad in the middle of 2015. After that, it’s up to the local cinema chains to decide whether they want to screen it,” said an excited GregoryThe teaser gives a brief example of what to be expected in the documentary. It promises to be an intriguing and well researched documentary that will be enjoyed by different cultures from different places. Be sure to catch the latest updates from the Facebook page “The Boers at the End of the World”
