LL-L "Contacts" 2009.08.06 (01) [EN]

Thu Aug 6 14:22:11 UTC 2009

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L O W L A N D S - L - 06 August 2009 - Volume 01
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
 Subject: LL-L (Food) Culture

 This is about the most popular *Belgian Fast Food:* Belgian Fries

1 - In Netherlands Limburg Chinese managers are taking over the business, as
to the "Belang van Limburg" today:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/kleve/frit1.jpg
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/kleve/frit2.jpg
F*r*iet is becoming F*l*iet.

2 - We reported about a Belgian friet restaurant in Cape Town about a year
ago.
It is now for sale: http://www.frituurtje.co.za/
We visited it in December 2008.
It is situated in a nice area "Blaubergstrand", a heaven for surfers and
with a nice sight on Table Mountain,
but not very well positioned in a street parallel to the beach, one block
away from the beach,
difficult to find, and hardly visible from the main roads.
And btw there are a lot of affordable eateries over there.

Regards,
Roger

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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L Cultural Contacts

Below follows a list of the *songs in Afrikaans* our student clubs had on
their repertoire in the sixties and early seventies.

The Context:
Students at Leuven University were traditionally organized as to the region
they were coming from. These organizations were called "*Nationes".*
The university was a French speaking community in the late 19th century, and
Flemish students didn't feel home very well in that system. They started
with their own regional organizations, first with *gildes:*
Limburgse Gilde, Brabantse Gilde etc., later subdivided in *clubs* as e.g.
Hesbania (South-Limburgish Haspengouw), Heidebloem (Limburgish Kempen), etc.

Since the club evenings were running out of hand (with excesive drinking,
leading ro some vandalism etc.) efforts were done at the end of the
twenties, by some people, with Mon de Geyse as the most important, to get
some structure and discipline in club sessions. This had been leading to the
creation of a *codex*, with in blue pages the imposed ritual for the
evening, and on white pages texts of songs approved for use at club events.
The ritual was largely inspired from practices at German Universities,
including copycatting from the then popular piece "Alt Heidelberg":
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-Heidelberg
Some clubs as "Bezem Brussel" had a complete uniform dress (with sword
bucled) in the thirties. Members of most clubs just had a ribbon with the
colors of the club over the chest and a litte cab with the club colors and
anagram on the head.

At the end of the seventies most of the clubs were dissolved, or
became reduced to very small circles due to:
- growth of the university, with spread of student lodging over the suburbs
- growth of competing cercles per faculty offering a faculty bar, printing
service etc.
- switch of Flemish tradition and politics to global politics, including
adherance to extreme left ideologies
- a growing aversion against extreme right (which shared some symbols with
the tradition of the clubs)
- I guess increased weight of the programs, allowing less time for this kind
of events
- decreased group awarenes, decreased regional awarenes; no
longer polarisation against the French, since these started leaving Leuven
- frozen rituals in clubs, being out of time
- return to excessive drunk misschief at some clubs.

In the early seventies we still could get about 150 preople becoming member
of a club, with 50+ of them present at evening events.
e.g. an evening with Hesbania with myself marked (as club president for that
year).
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/kleve/hes1.jpg
The club had some seriousness, and we were even supported by the bisshop of
Hasselt:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/kleve/heu.jpg (He was from Teuven in the Voer
area and did his middle school in Tongeren; he may have been a club member
himself at the time).

Since the "ritual" was set-up in the twenties and thirties with Heidelberg
inspiration, many songs were German, as e.g:
*Heiss ist die Liebe, kalt ist der Schnee* (this one generally caused damage
to the chairs, turned into horses)
*WÃ¼tend wÃ¤lzt er sich einst ins Bette
Das Trinken, das soll man nicht lassen
Im tiefen Keller sitz' ich hier
Auf der Heide blÃ¼ht ein kleines BlÃ¼melein
Du, du, liegst mir im Herzen
O! du wunderbares MÃ¤delein
Im Wald, im grÃ¼nen Walde
Muss i denn, muss i denn zum StÃ¤tele 'naus
Die Stimme unsres KÃ¼sters
Ich hatt' einen Kameraden*
(When tottering home drunk in the night some risked an other repertoire, not
included in the codex, with songs as e.g. Die Fahne hoch)

Many songs in Dutch were translated from German, as e.g.:
Oude Roldersklacht      from      *O alte Burschenherrlichkeit*
'k Zoog uit't glas het laatste nat    from     *Keinen Tropfen im Becher
mehr*

English songs included (a selection from the 1973 codex):
*There is a tavern in the town
What shall we do with the drunken sailor?
In Dublin's fair city, where girls are so pretty
Way down upon the Swanneer river
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
In a cavern, in a canyon
>From this valley they say you are going
Yankee Doodle came to town
How many roads must a man walk down*

And one we used against the dominance of the French at the time at Leuven
University:
*We shall overcome*

Now to Afrikaans.
Since the French used many arguments for proving their language had a world
appeal (even Vietnam was member of the ligue of French speaking nations) the
Flemish had to put something against it.
Setting up lowlandic politics for an area with some kind of language
unity from Dunkerque till Tilsit failed (
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldietse_beweging)<http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldietse_beweging>
So, for still getting an impressive area of Dutch speakers, in competition
with the French, *South Africa* was included in the Dutch cultural territory
by the Flemish - and South-Africa didn't complaint.

One finds traces of this in the inclusion of many songs in Afrikaans in the
Codex (I added page numbers and I give the first 2 lines):

274
*Uit die blou van onse hemel
uit die diepte van ons see*

276
*En hoor jy die magtige dreuning
Oor die veld kom dit wyd gesweef*

410
*Ek drink weer vanaand aan die brug op ons plaas
Gebou oor 'n heldere stroom*

411
*Bolandse Noointjie, stil is die nag
Soet sy jou ruste na lang, lange dag*

412
*O Nooi van die velde, wat is jy nog skoon!
Ek het you in stede, nog immer sien woon*

413
*So lank als die rietjie in die water lÃª,
In die water lÃª, in die water lÃª*

413
*Die sweep het geklap en die wawiele draai
Al agter die rooispan aan*

414
*Taramboemdery, my vaalhaar nooientje
Taramboemdery, o wees nie bang nie*

415
*Kittie is een mooie ding, ver oor die diepe see,
Op haar vinger is een ring, ver oor die diepe see*

415
*Ver op die hoÃ« berge, oo, o-oo,
Sit ek eensaam in die nag*

416
*Sag op fonteintjie
Straal die maan in Suidertooi*

416
*En as ek kom te sterwe,
lief, sing dan g'n klaaglied nie*

417
*Daar onder groei 'n aandblom in die vlei, in die vlei
En wie sal hom nog krt vir my, kry vir my?*

418
*Wanneer kom ons troudag, Gertjie, Getjie
Hoe 's dit dan so still met jou?*

419
*Hier 's ek weer, hier 's ek weer
Met my rooirok voor jou deur*

420
*Mama, 'k wil 'n man hÃª!
Watter man, m'n lieve kind.*

421
*My Sarie Marais is so ver van my hart
Maar 'k hoop om haar weer te sien*

422
*Ou tante Koba, die is so dom;
Sy roer haar koffie met haar groottoon om*

465
*Hoe ry die boere?
sit, sit, so!*

500
*Bobbejaan klim die berg, so haastig en so lustig,
Bobbejaan klim die berg, so haastig en so lustig*
And several not in the codex, as e.g.
*die boer die sweer toe blou
ja hy sou die kat doodskiet*

The vowels were pronounced as in Dutch. This is quite different from actual
Afrikaans pronounciation as I experienced in Cape Town last Winter. I tried
to get these songs on CD and browsed several shopping centers in the area,
but I guess they are too old-fashioned for still being produced on CD.

The codex has also two songs in Groningen Low-Saxon:

468
*Ain boer wol noar zien noaber tou
hai, boer, hai!*

484
*Moeke, doar staait 'n vrijer an die deur,
Fikedom, fikedom, fifalderaldera*

Regards,
Roger

•

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