KLARA MAJOLA

The story of Klara Majola is based on the

true tale of a young girl's
bravery in search of
her blind father.

This happened
60 years ago.
The story is set in
the Koue
Bokkeveld,
which is known
for its bitterly
cold winters.
Ceres and The Koue Bokkeveld
The Koue Bokkeveld (Cold goat country)
is one of the coldest places in the Western
Cape in our winter
from
June to August.

It is also called Little Switzerland because of

the high snowfall in winter.
Ceres and The Koue
Bokkeveld
Ceres and The Koue Bokkeveld
As soon as a person drives over the
crest of the Gydo pass, just outside
Ceres, there is a turnoff to the left
with the sign, Agter-Witzenberg. It is
a narrow road that leads through the
mountains and opens up inside a
completely new valley filled with
vineyards and fruit-trees.
Klara Majola lived in this remote
farm community with her father
who was blind and the rest of the
family.
This story has been
taken up in various
ways in Afrikaans
literature.
A Newspaper article in
Burger,
DieDieBurger
Burger

31 July 1950
On the 31'st of July 1950, the
Cape newspaper Die Burger
ran the
following
news
item which
I loosely
translate
here.
 Frozen in the Veld
Went searching for her blind father

Ceres. -- An 8 year old black girl froze to

death one night in the last week after she
went looking for her blind father and got
lost.
She is Klara Majola.
She lived on Mr. Ernst van Dyk's farm,
Die Eike, in Agter-Witzenberg.
Klara made it a habit
to lead her blind dad
around the farm and
to take him to places
where he could
gather wood.
Later she would then
go fetch him.
 Her mother went to a
nearby farm during the
day. She came back at
dusk and wanted to go
fetch her husband, but
Klara offered to do it.
It appears that she could not find
her father and got lost. The
workers and other occupants of the
farm went to look for her. Her
father answered their call, but
Klara could not be found. Shortly
after finding her father, it started to
Rain.
Mr. Van Dyk only
heard about the
events the next day.
He immediately
gathered a search
party. Klara was
found dead in a road.
It appears that she slipped over
some rocks in a stream and fell
into the water. She was to cold
and frozen to get up. Her one arm
was under her body and the other
hand was in her mouth.
It was particularly cold that night
and a thick layer of snow had
fallen.
D.J. Opperman
was so affected
by the story that
he wrote a poem
about it in Engel uit die
klip, Tafelberg, 1951. The
title of this poem was
"Klara Majola".
Majola
The story was also
transformed into a
short story by
Boerneef in a
compilation,
Teen die Helling.
The title of this story
was "Klara Mentoor".
Mentoor