Maria Elizabeth Rothmann M.E.R.
Writer and social research worker. Swellendam born 28th August 1875 and died in Swellendam on 7th September 1975. She was a formative influence in various fields of cultural life but is best known for her contribution to Afrikaans prose. The first Afrikaans-speaking woman to take up journalism as a career, she established a tradition in Afrikaans journalism for women. Afterwards, as a social worker, she carried out important research and played a decisive part in the organisation of social services. She was the first writer to realise and provide for the Afrikaans-speaking child’s need for imaginative literature in his own language. Her essays, written over many years and covering a wide diversity of subjects, reached a high-water mark in Afrikaans literature, and her short stories represent the narrative art in Afrikaans at its best.
M.E.R. (the name she invariably used as a writer) was educated at Swellendam and at the Rhenish Institute, Stellenbosch. She took a degree at the South African College, Cape Town, being a member of the first university course including women, and in 1896 was one of the first South African women to graduate with a B.A. She taught at schools in the Transvaal Republic and subsequently at Grahamstown and Swellendam. Married in 1902, she had a son, Jacobus (born 11th August 1903), and a daughter, Anna Wilhelmina (born 11th July 1904). Her husband (H. G. R. Oakshott) having left her, she divorced him, resumed her maiden name and brought up the children herself. Anna Rothmann, a biologist, headed the school service division of the Albany Museum at Grahamstown, and is the author of two remarkable children’s books on animals and birds, which have been translated into English as The elephant shrew (1964) and Crow and company (1965).
In 1920 M.E.R. began writing for Die Boerevrou, the first Afrikaans periodical for women, established in 1919 by Mrs. Mabel Malherbe in Pretoria. Soon M.E.R. became the assistant editor, writing stories and verses for the children’s section and contributing many other stories and articles. In 1922, at the instance of Frederik Rompel, she joined the editorial staff of Die Burger and became the first women’s editor of an Afrikaans newspaper. At the same time she became editor of Die Kleinspan, assisted by Ida Theron. During this period her first books for children were published and were enthusiastically received. Her first book of tales for adults, Onweershoogte en ander verhale, appeared in 1927 and revealed her exceptional abilities as a prose writer. In 1928 she became the first organising secretary of the Afrikaanse Christelike Vrouevereniging (A.C.V.V.), which had been established in 1904 to deal with the problem of post-war poverty.
In 1929 she was appointed to the Carnegie Commission of Inquiry which investigated the Poor White problem in South Africa. As a social worker she travelled all over the country and gained experience which provided her with valuable material for her later work. During this period she contributed regular articles to Die Burger, which in 1937 also published her articles on her travels abroad. In 1938 M.E.R. received a Carnegie grant for social research in the U.S.A. Her subsequent report was published under the title: A comparison. A report on certain social and economic conditions seen from the social worker’s point of view in two areas: Leslie county, Kentucky, U.S.A. and Knysna district, South Africa. For some time she was also active in politics and in 1933 at the request of political leaders, she became vice-chairman of the Cape National Party.
A volume of prose tales, Drie vertellings (1944), revealed a marked refinement of her art and was hailed by critics as a major work in Afrikaans prose. This was followed by the volume Uit en tuis (1946), which contains some of her best essays. Die gewers (1950), a further volume of sketches and short stories, contains work of exceptional quality. ‘Die hol krans’, included in this volume, is regarded as one of the best short stories in Afrikaans. M.E.R. also wrote two novels: Na vastegange (1944), dealing with race relations, and Die eindelose waagstuk (1948), a study of the marriage relationship. Her novels have not attained the high literary level of her shorter works, but, in parts, equal her narrative work in the shorter genres. Vroue wat Jesus geken het (published in 1965 but written in 1939) is a contemplative essay on the women in the life of Jesus. In the same year there appeared a volume of sketches, tales and essays, So is onse maniere (from Die Burger and Die Huisgenoot), as well as an anthology of her best work under the title Kom nader.
Recognition of her excellence came late in her life. In 1950 an honorary doctor’s degree for her social work was conferred on her by the University of Stellenbosch, and in the same year she received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of Cape Town. In 1953 the Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns awarded her the Hertzog Prize for Afrikaans prose and in 1961 she received the Scheepers Prize for juvenile literature. In 1965 the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge awarded her its medal of honour; she was the first woman and only the fifth person to receive this distinction.
She edited the historically important war diary of her eldest brother, Frits, for whom, for some years, until 1919, she kept house on his Lowveld farm in the Nelspruit district of the Eastern Transvaal. She contributed a valuable introduction: Oorlogsdagboek van ‘n Transvaalse burger te velde 1900-1901 (1947). Her autobiography, written piecemeal over many years, appeared in 1972 under the title My beskeie deel and is a major contribution to South African social history, apart from its high literary quality. She died ten days after her 100th birthday.
Other works: On the A.C.V.V.: Ons saamreis. Die eerste 25 jaar (1930); Ons voortgang (1954). Children’s books: Kinders van die Voortrek (1920; reissued 1960 as Die tweeling trek saam ) ; Die Sondagskind (1922) ; Hansie en die bessiekinders (adapted from the German, 1922); Die Sokka-boek (1926) and Sokka se plaas (1933), dog stories; Vanmelewe (1926); Die Kammalanders (1928); Die oorwinnaar (1929); Stoute bengel (1931); Jong dae (1933); Karlien en Kandas (1933)
Source: Standard Encylopeadia of South Africa