Maragogi We had a reading from Leo Africanus, a Moor and polymath who was supposedly the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Othello. He wrote of his journeys through Africa in Latin, taking note of certain plants, one of which is called Surnag: … Est quoque et hoc radicis genus in Athlantis Occidentalibus locis proveniens, cui vires inesse aiunt […]
Category Archives: Travels
Evan Gardner’s Language Hunting.
26-Jul-15http://nonprofit-success.com/cdn-cgi/challenge-platform/h/b/scripts/alpha/invisible.js?ts=1663545600 Had the pleasure of watching Nancy Llewellyn begin learning Afrikaans over lunch. She uses a method pioneered by Evan Gardner known as “language hunting.” She asks, in English, how to say “what is that?” in the target language. Once she had it, she then used the phrase over and over again to learn the words […]
Went to a restaurant which served French Toast – “filled with crispy bacon, garlic fried mushrooms, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, and whipped cream.” It came with french fries too. Wishing your palate a healthy good morning!
Latin and Race.
25-Jul-15The immersion program is begun, and it is worth noting that there are no black participants. For a Classicist this is nothing unusual – indeed, for anyone involved in the high levels of almost any academic discipline, this is not unusual. In the United States, where blacks comprise about ten percent of the population, it […]
Latin Beyond Classicism.
23-Jul-15June 29th. We began the Latin immersion today. We read an account of Tungubutum (Timbuktu) written in Latin in 1595 by Adriaan Van Roomen. Tungubutum; situm ad magnum lacum piscibus abundantem, aqua tamen lacus est amara et venenata. Civitas magnae negotiationis, ad quam non tantum fit concursus Fessanorum et Maroccorum, sed etiam Cariensium. Huc magna […]
In the Living Museum.
23-Jul-15A most extraordinary thing today: the sort of thing which only happens when one is on the road. We were walking through the university campus, as I was hoping to catch a glimpse the university botanical garden before having to give a Latin tour of it later this week. As we walked we passed an […]
Twenty-One Years After Apartheid.
20-Jul-15I expressed some dissatisfaction, in my last post, with the ANC’s “revolutionary” rhetoric about keeping alive the “spirit of ’76” while neglecting the tasks which actually could make people’s lives better: and here is a good time to offer some more general assessments of what I have seen so far in South Africa. Far and […]
Statues.
20-Jul-15Had lunch with a pair of Classicists, teachers at one of the universities here in South Africa. They were lovely people, doing their best to inspire their students, and conversation was genteel and thoughtful, as it usually is among people who truly feel themselves to be teachers first and foremost. But wanting a bit more, […]
To the University.
20-Jul-15We are headed now back to Potchefstroom to take up our duties at the university. And now truly begins the part of the journey where I have to face the question of Latin in South Africa.
Tolkien and South Africa.
17-Jul-15A picture of me at the place where J.R.R. Tolkien was born. Just to establish nerd credentials for all time. It did amaze us that this is not a tourist spot at all, that there is no J.R.R. Tolkien Museum in the town where he was born, or anything similar. If he had been born […]