“We do not wish to create an impression of a bunch of rural oafs wandering about the veld, the farms and the cricket fields saying silly things and doing stupid ones,” Quentin Hogge says in the preface to LA Lore 4 – the best of the best.
This is the fourth collection of cultural gems from the part of the Eastern Cape that used to be known as Lower Albany. The LA of the LA Lore, is of course Lower Albany; not the Los Angeles of its popular punny precedent, the American TV series LA Law.
The launch at The Nook bookshop at Silverleaf Centre in Kenton-on-Sea attracted an appreciative audience. They enjoyed an hour of impromptu storytelling by the authors who have so many wonderful real-life tales to tell that LA Lore fans need not worry about the source running dry.
Wilmot explained that to understand Lower Albany humour, you also need to understand Lower Albany English (LAE) – “a unique amalgam of English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans”. Rich in home-grown metaphors and earthy honesty, LAE colours this delightful collection. Drawings by Gerhard Marx and the extraordinarily talented and versatile Basil Mills further bring it to life.
Many family farms in this corner of the Eastern Cape had their origins in tenure facilitated by the colonial government. Because the 1820 settlers were used as instruments of the British imperial project, history has often equated them with that regime’s brutality. Well known Makhanda advocate Izak Smuts articulates the basis for a more nuanced understanding of their role in South Africa’s story.
“These volumes are not simply a collection of humorous stories told by people who ‘speak funny’,” Smuts says in his foreword. “They incorporate the wisdom and experience of a community that has suffered the consequences of a cynical imperial plan to deploy the desperate of the United Kingdom as a military buffer in a frontier struggle under the guise of new opportunities; a community that survived drought and flood in equal measure, and one that carved out a new existence on foreign soil to achieve extraordinary feats in a variety of spheres.
“The retention of a sense of humour was a part of their success. But the tales told here also have a philosophical underpinning which provides guidance for the future.”
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This article was first published in Talk of the Town, December 18, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays
