Here I am at the Cape of Good Hope. So far away from you! I am looking at the map, and it seems far even there! It is an entirely different world, as if I have come to live on the moon. Alexey Vysheslavtsev (1858)
Op hulle reise het Russiese skepe dikwels by Simonsbaai en die Kaap aangedoen om voorrade te koop of herstelwerk te laat doen. Die bemanning is dan toegelaat om aan wal te gaan en vir die eerste keer tydens hul reis op die vasteland van Afrika te loop.
Meestal was die verblyf maar kort, en die Russiese matrose het selde die kans gekry om die kolonie te verken. Hulle sou ʼn paar dae in Kaapstad bly, Groot Constantia besoek en miskien een of twee nabygeleë plekke en dan na hul skepe terugkeer. Terwyl besoekers van ander lande soms ekspedisies na die binneland onderneem het, het Russe in hierdie tyd dit nie verder as Wellington gewaag nie. Min Russe het baie tyd in die Kaapkolonie deurgebring; nog minder het herinneringe oor hul verblyf neergeskryf. Onder die uitsonderings was Yuri Lisyansky en Vasily Golovnin, wie se verslae die eerste twee dele van hierdie volume uitmaak.
Die nege Russe wie se memoirs vir hierdie volume gekies is, is vir die volgende redes van belang:
- Byna al hierdie skrywers het, nadat hulle uit Suidelike Afrika teruggekeer het, belangrike mense in die Russiese samelewing geword. Lisyansky byvoorbeeld, saam met sy vriend Krusenstern, was aan die hoof van die eerste Russiese vloot wat om die aarde gevaar het, terwyl Alexey Butakovinternasionale erkenning ontvang het vir sy navorsing oor die Aralmeer. Ivan Goncharov was die skrywer van Oblomov en het daarmee ʼn plek in die panteon van Russiese skrywers verower. Alexey Vysheslavtsev het een van die gewildste Russiese reisbeskrywings van die negentiende eeu geskryf, asook invloedryke studies oor Italiaanse kuns. Golovnin, Goncharov en Vysheslavtsev het in werklikheid Suid-Afrika vir die Russiese leser oopgemaak met hul volledige verslae van die Kaap, wat deur vele in hul vaderland gelees is.
“Simon’s Town, 1858” by Alexey Vysheslavtsev in Russian State Library, Moscow
2) Al die skrywers het ʼn oog vir detail gehad, en het boeiend en akkuraat oor hul ervarings verslag gelewer.
3) As gevolg van hul status en hul konneksies is verskeie van die Russiese besoekers aan sommige van die belangrikste mense aan die Kaap voorgestel, en hulle het volledig oor hierdie ontmoetings geskryf. Hulle het met Kaapse goewerneurs geëet, die Sankultuur met William Bleek bespreek en het oor die wynbou geleer by verskeie generasies van die wynboere van Groot Constantia. Baron Ludwig het inheemse plante uit sy groot versameling aan hulle geskenk; Andrew Geddes Bain het hulle na die Bainskloofpas geneem, wat toe nog onvoltooid was. Hulle het besoek afgelê by die Xhosa-opperhoofde Phato en Siyolo, wat albei deur die Britse koloniale owerheid in die gevangenis gesit was.
4) Hul indrukke van die Kaap was waarskynlik uniek. Voor ʼn besoek het Russiese reisigers gewoonlik uitvoerig oor Suid-Afrika gelees – verslae van buitelanders en ook van plaaslike reisigers. Maar dit lyk of niks wat hulle gelees het, hulle kon voorberei vir wat hulle gesien het by hul aankoms nie. Hulle het met bewondering en verwondering oor hul ervarings geskryf en het, in Goncharov se woorde, die ‘blote gedagte’ geniet dat hulle in Afrika was. En toe dit tyd was om te vertrek, het hulle ‘as goeie vriende’ van die Kaap weggegaan. Selfs Golovnin, wie se sloep en bemanning vir meer as ʼn jaar deur die Britte in Simonsbaai aangehou is, het die land met toegeneentheid onthou.
Vasily Golovnin (1776-1831) whose sloop and crew were detained in Simon’s Bay by the British for over a year
Hulle het die Kaap ervaar as ʼn ‘wêreld volkome anders’, volgens Vysheslavtsev. Die Russe was verstom oor die etniese verskeidenheid van die plaaslike bevolking en deur die natuurskoon van die Kaap. Hul belangstelling in die Suid-Afrikaanse plante mag verbasend wees vir ons wat in stedelike omgewings woon. Maar die Ruissiese reisigers van daardie tyd het in nouer kontak met die natuur grootgeword. Hulle was byvoorbeeld verras omdat hulle so min bekende bome, voëls en wilde diere gesien het.
‘Everything is foreign and strange,’ het Goncharov geskryf. ‘A sparrow flashes past – looking much smarter than one of ours … the swallows are greyer and the crows much blacker. A dog gives a bark, and it still does not sound the same … as if it were barking in a foreign language … Only the pig is just as grubby as it is in our country; just like ours, it scratches its side violently against the wall as if it wants to push the house down; or the cat who, sitting in the garden among the myrtles, diligently licks the paw before anointing his head.’
Verder was die Russiese reisigers baie verbaas wanneer hulle af en toe Russe wat aan die Kaap woon, ontmoet. Ruimtevaarders wat op Mars land en mede-aardbewoners daar ontdek, sou waarskynlik ook so gevoel het. Daarom is sulke ontmoetings sorgvuldig gedokumenteer. Ook was die Russe nie gewoond om so baie swart gesigte te sien nie. Om die waarheid te sê, die meeste van die Russiese reisigers na die Kaap het daar vir die eerste keer swartmense ontmoet. Dis geen wonder dat die houding van die Russe deur koloniale stereotipes bepaal is nie. Hulle karakterisering van die Afrikane sal vandag as polities inkorrek beskou word, maar in belang van outentisiteit is passasies wat sulke rassevooroordeel openbaar, onveranderd behou.
“Mestizo, Malays and Hottentots”, watercolour sketch by Alexey Vysheslavtsev, 1857-8 in Russian State Library, Moscow
Nogtans het selfs die vroegste Russiese reisigers simpatie getoon vir slagoffers van kolonialisme. Lisyansky was diep geskok toe hy by ʼn Europese setlaar die storie hoor van hoe die man die inheemse Sanbevolking gejag, die grootmense gedood en die kinders slawe gemaak het. ‘Sulke barbaarsheid!’ was sy reaksie. Golovnin het die wreedheid teenoor die slawe as die grootste sonde van die blanke inwoners van die Kaap beskou, en Goncharov het die Xhosa-opperhoof Siyolo in die tronk besoek, vir hom presente gegee en sy kalmte bewonder.
UITTREKSEL UIT DIE TEKS
“Commodore Rowley, having returned from Cape Town, had a meeting with me on the 2nd [14th] of May, when he officially declared to me that, since he could find no one in the entire Colony capable of translating my papers, he was unable to make any decision about our voyage. But, considering the state of affairs, he did not deern himself entitled to let us continue our travels before he received permission from his government. And this particularly so, as he was in command of the local squadron not by appointment of the Admiralty, but only temporarily, in the absence of the Admiral, who had departed and whose replacement was soon due from Britain.
As commanders-in-chief of squadrons appointed by the Admiralty may exercise more authority and discretion concerning how to act in unforeseen and unusual circumstances than Commanders temporarily and accidentally appointed, he had decided to await the arrival of the Admiral. Until this time, His Russian Majesty’s sloop must remain here, not as a prisoner of war but as held under suspicion in special circumstances. It should be stationed, run internally and disciplined according to the rules and customs of the Imperia! naval service; the officers will retain their swords and, generally, all the crew will enjoy the freedom accorded in the British ports to nationals of neutral states ….
The commander-in-chief appointed to the Cape of Good Hope station, Vice Admiral Bertie, arrived in Simon’s Bayon 21st July [2ndAugust]. The dayfollowing his arrival, I visited him to pay my compliments. He received me very courteously, commiserated with us in the unpleasant situation in which we found ourselves owing to the conditions of war and promised to examine our affair immediately and give his decision: whether we should continue on our way or wait for the decree from Britain ….
In the meantime, Vice-Admiral Bertie left for Cape Town, the capital of the Colony and seat of the Governor, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and naval Commander-in-Chief. Not having received any reply from Bertie within five days, I decided to go to him on my own account and departed for Cape Town. He received me very courteously but declared that he had come to no decision in my matter and that he needed to seek the advice of the Governor, promising to inform me within two days, which he did by a very short note on the 1st [13th] of August. He answered that the matter had been reported to the government by his predecessor as well as by himself later, and that he had no right to free us without their instructions.
Thus, we had to await the decision from Britain. We had no choice but to be patient again.”
REDAKTEUR
Boris Gorelik is a Russian writer and researcher based in Moscow and Johannesburg. Born in Sverdlovsk (USSR), he received his MA in linguistics from the Moscow State University. In 2004, he was awarded with the Candidate of Sciences degree in history from the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, for his research into the history of Russian immigration to South Africa.