LOELOERAAI’S FIRE #1 , CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE (FROM LOELOERAAI, 1923, CJ LANGENHOVEN)

Ek voel baie, baie hartseer. Maar laat my gaan, amptenaar; jy het my woord dat ek nie vier-en-twintig uur langer die aarde met my teenwoordigheid sal opskeep nie.” “Dit lyk my jy is kranksinnig ook,” sê die magistraat. “Konstabel, ek het reeds gelas om die prisonier te verwyder.” Die konstabel tree nader en lig sy hand op. Net soos hy aan Loeloeraai se arm raak, word hy slap en hy sak inmekaar. “Laat hom ’n paar uur slaap,” sê Loeloeraai. “Hy sal niks oorkom nie. Kom, Kerneels en Stoffel, kom ons gaan huis toe. Ons het baie om te gesels in die tydjie wat vir ons oorbly. Maar voor ek gaan – amptenaar, asseblief moenie gewapende magte stuur om my in hegtenis te neem nie. Ek wil niemand die minste leed aandoen nie.” Hy kyk by die oop venster van die hofsaal uit. “Sien jy daardie groot bos op die rand van die oorkantse kop ?” Hy haal ’n dingetjie nes ’n vérkyker uit sy bors en hy peil da ardeur. Toe ons weer sien staan die bos aan die vlam. “Dis maar ’n klein aanduidinkie,” sê Loeloeraai, “van die wetenskap van die bewoners van julle aandster en môrester.”

From Loeloeraai, 1923, CJ Langenhoven

"I feel very, very sad. But let me go, official; you have my word that I will no longer than twenty-four-hours bother the earth with my presence.” "It seems to me that you are insane too," said the magistrate. "Constable, I have already ordered the removal of the prisoner." The constable steps closer and raises his hand. Just as he touches Loeloeraai's arm, he becomes limp and collapses. "Let him sleep for a few hours," says Loeloeraai. "He'll be fine. Come on, Kerneels and Stoffel, let's go home. We have a lot to talk about in the time that remains for us. But before I go - official, please do not send armed forces to arrest me. I do not want to hurt anyone in the least." He looks out the open window of the courtroom. "Do you see that big bush on the edge of the opposite head?" He takes a thing like a pair of binoculars out of his chest and he peers through it. Before we knew it the bush was on fire. "It's just a small indication," says Loeloeraai, "of the science of the inhabitants of your evening star and morning star."

From Loeloeraai, 1923, CJ Langenhoven (Translated from the original Afrikaans)

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SEARCHING WITH MARIE (FROM "DIE HEMELBLOM" BY JAN RABIE, 1971), BLOMBOS CAVES, WESTERN CAPE

‘But I was never in the Earth room yesterday!’ Says Marie indignantly. ‘You are imagining it!’

From Die Hemelblom (The Heaven Flower) by Jan Rabie, 2nd edition 1974, Tafelberg, first published 1971. Translated from the original Afrikaans.

The Hemelblom was sent to the earth by a concerned galactic council to ensure the survival of life on earth in the face of a new world war. The plant was specifically grown to remove the poisonous elements introduced by humans - feeding on pollution it would rapidly cover the earth and wipe out most of humankind but leave a new earth covered with fresh fertile soil.

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THE ENTRANCE (FROM "SWART STER OOR DIE KAROO, JAN RABIE 1957) TABLE MOUNTAIN, CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE

'There are no traces of a city anymore, just ice. It is Jordaan who sees it first, a small glossy lump above the ice, a structure like a glass dome. There they will probably land.'

Photograph inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. Translated from the original Afrikaans. Upon travelling to the future earth where everyone is living underground to stay alive, the main characters land on top of Table Mountain.

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STERKFONTEIN CAVES, (FROM SWART STER OOR DIE KAROO, JAN RABIE, 1957) JOHANNESBURG, GAUTENG

‘The time: Just before the end of the 20th century, just after the first human feet touched the moon and Mars.
The place: Somewhere in the Southwest Karoo on the highest level of the big empty table land where the world's largest observatory has been standing since the first human generation… This whole complex of highly specialized activities is known as Saakni, the South —African Cosmic Research Institute, a secret, forbidden world, set apart by a twenty-kilometer-wide buffer strip, guards and laser beams.’

Photograph inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. the Saankni institute is underground, and becomes a safe haven for humans after the Earth stops turning and the surface becoms unbearably cold.

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LOELOERAAI’S COURTROOM #2, (FROM LOELOERAAI, 1923, CJ LANGENHOVEN) OUDTSHOORN MAGISTRATE, WESTERN CAPE

“The prisoner will finish three months of hard labour and then be sent away. Constable, remove him.”
Then Loeloeraai took his first part of the events.
“Wait, constable,” he says, “I’ve got something to say to the magistrate. Official,” he continues to the magistrate, “I don’t blame you. You are doing what you perceive as your duty. I also have a duty that I’m committed to - a commitment to myself and to those that I represent here alone. In the world that I’m coming from, we are law abiding, not under the force of the magistrates and constables and jails and chains, but out of love for one another.’

From Loeloeraai, 1923, CJ Langenhoven (Translated from the original Afrikaans)

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