Product Code Database
" Sarie Marais" (also known as "My Sarie Marais", ) is a traditional Afrikaans folk song, created possibly during the First Anglo-Boer War (c. 1880) or (more likely) the Second Anglo-Boer War (ca. 1900). The tune was possibly taken from a song dating back from the American Civil War called "Carry me back to Tennessee" or "Ellie Rhee" with the words roughly translated into Afrikaans.
In the English translation, the song begins: "My Sarie Marais is so far from my heart but I hope to see her again. She lived near the Mooi River before this war began..."; and the chorus is: "Oh, take me back to the old Transvaal, there where my Sarie lives, down there among the maize fields near the green thorn tree, there lives my Sarie Marais." It continues about the fear of being removed far, "over the sea" (in fact, of the 28,000 Boer men taken prisoner by the ruling British authorities, over 25,000 were transported overseas).
As well as becoming very well known in South Africa, the song was taken up by various people, organizations and singers in other countries.
An account on the National Anthems forum supports J.P. Toerien as author and his wife Sarie Maré as the subject of the song. It too suggests the song's origins go back to Sweet Ellie Rhee. The claim is that this song was sung by Americans working in the Transvaal gold mines, and heard there by Afrikaans journalist and poet Jacobus Petrus Toerien, who re-wrote the song in Afrikaans, replacing the name of Ellie Rhee with that of his own beloved Sarie Maré (Susara Margaretha Maré).
Another account is that the song dates from the First Anglo-Boer War (1880–1881). When Ella de Wet, wife of Louis Botha military attaché Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet came to the battle front to see her husband she often played on the piano while the nearby burghers sang songs from the Cavendish album. The burghers supposedly wanted to honour their field chaplain Dominee Paul Nel, who often told stories around the campfires about his childhood and his beautiful mother Sarie Maré, who died young.
Whatever its origins, the song changed and got more verses as time went on. This accounts for the reference to the Kakies (af) (or ), as the Boers called the British soldiers during the Second Anglo-Boer War. They were known as Rooibaadjies ("red coats") during the First Anglo-Boer War.
Sarie, Volksblad's sister magazine, was also named for her. Many hotels and apartment complexes are named after her. During the first international broadcast between South Africa, Britain, and America during the birthday of Mrs. Isie Smuts, the wife of the prime minister, General Jan Smuts, Sarie Marais was sung by Gracie Fields.
During the Second World War, there was a unit of soldiers called "Sarie Marais calling". The South African army, as well as the French foreign legion, play this march during parades.
It is also the official song of the Girl Guides of Sri Lanka ( Ceylon ) who heard the Boerekrygsgevangenes (af – Boer prisoners of war) performing it during the beginning of the 20th century. During the 1930s, it was incorrectly played as South Africa's official national anthem. Germans cultivated a pink rose called Sarie Maries, which is planted in the School of Armour in Tempe, Bloemfontein.
Shortly after this film's release, a group of Afrikaner nationalists established a film production organisation called the Reddingsdaad-Bond-Amateur-Rolprent Organisasie (Rescue Action League Amateur Film Organisation), which rallied against United Kingdom and United States films pervading the country.
Francis Coley directed a remake of this film, again titled Sarie Marais in 1949 (af).
As noted above, one of her sons was field chaplain Dominee (Pastor) Paul Nel, who served in the First Anglo-Boer War and supposedly often told stories around the campfires about his childhood and his beautiful mother Sarie Maré, who died young.
Her parents were who established themselves in the Suikerbosrand area. Her father Jacob Maré became highly regarded in the Transvaal, and a street in Pretoria is named for him.
At the time when Susara Margaretha's parents settled in the area, the town of Heidelberg still did not exist. The greatest concentration of voortrekkers could be found near the Mooirivier, where Potchefstroom stands today. Suikerbosrand was at that time in the Mooirivier Ward.
When she was 16 years old, she met Jacobus Petrus Toerien – journalist (and later a well-known poet) who wrote under the pseudonym of Jepete in "Ons Kleintje" and was editor of "Di Patriot". As a representative of the Patriots of Paarl, he was in Pretoria to conduct a meeting with her father.
They were married and had sixteen children, of whom only eight survived.
One common version of the song's origin attributes its authorship to Toerien, who heard the song Sweet Ellie Rhee from American workers in the Transvaal gold mines. In the time between the First War of Independence and the second one – as the wars with the British were considered – Toerien re-wrote the song in Afrikaans, substituting for the name of Ellie Rhee that of his own beloved wife Sarie Maré. The words still did not exactly match the ones we know today. Maré later became Marais due to a misspelling.
In 1899 Sarie was hit by a bullet. She was not hit by the English soldiers, but by others.
Sarie was a very religious woman, and in later years tried her best to disassociate herself from the song.
When Jacobus died in 1920, she moved her daughters to Bloemfontein where she lived the rest of her life. She died there on 22 December 1939, at the age of 73.
She is buried in an unmarked grave in the Memoriam-begraafplaas (memorium burying place) by the Vrouemonument (woman's monument).
Sweet Ellie Rhee, so dear to me
Is lost forever more
Our home was down in Tennessee
Before this cruel warThe American Civil War
Then carry me back to Tennessee
Back where I long to be
Amid the fields of yellow corn
To my darling Ellie Rhee
Chorus:
Translation:
My dear Sarah Marais is far away from me,
But I hope to see her again.
I met her before the outbreak of war
In the Mooi River county.
Chorus:
Chorus:
Ek was so bang dat die Kakies my sou vang
En ver oor die see wegstuur,
Toe vlug ek na die kant van die Upington se sand,
Daar onder by die Grootrivier.
O bring my terug na die ou Transvaal
Daar war my Sarie woon;
Daar onder in die mielies by die groen doringboom
Daar woon my Sarie Marais!
Translation:
My Sarie Marais is so far from me,
But I hope to see her again
She lived in the neighbourhood of the Mooi River
Even before the war began.
Chorus:
I was so scared that the Khakis would catch me
And send me far across the sea.
That I fled to the side of the Upington's sand
Down there by the Great River.
Oh bring me back to the old Transvaal
There where my Sarie lives,
Down by the corn at the green thorn tree
There lives my Sarie Marais!
Afrikaans:
My Sarie Marais is so ver van my hart,
Maar ek hoop om haar weer te sien.
Sy het in die wyk van die Mooirivier gewoon,
Nog voor die oorlog het begin.
Chorus:
Ek was so bang, dat die Kakies my sou vang
En ver oor die see wegstuur;
Toe vlug ek na die kant van die Upington se sand
Onder langs die groot Rivier.
Chorus
Die Kakies is mos net soos 'n krokodil, 'n pes,
Hulle sleep jou altyd water toe;
Hul gooi jou op 'n skip vir 'n lange, lange trip,
Die josie weet waarnatoe.
Chorus
Verlossing het gekom en huis toe gaan was daar,
Terug na die ou Transvaal;
My lieflingspersoon sal seker ook daar wees
Om my met 'n soen te beloon.
Chorus
Chorus:
I feared that the soldiers would get hold of me
They would send me away over sea
I fled over land to the Orange river sand
In Upington I would be free
Chorus
At last there was peace and I started for home
To the Transvaal I've always adored
My Sarie Marais will be waiting there for me
Her kiss will be my best reward
Chorus of Sarie Marais (Afrikaans version ), from the FAK folk song collection for South Africa .]]
|
|
