We all carry certain ideas of our own traditions with us, but there are many hidden traditions in our lives that influence what we do and how we think today. Steven Kotze of the Trappist Trail explains…
In the photo: Abbot Francis Pfanner’s burial site at Mariannhill
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How does our understanding of tradition impact on the way we live? On the ideas we have about our past and, therefore, our potential future?
Words like ‘tradition’ and ‘history’ are used constantly in the media. So much so, that much of their deeper meaning can be lost amidst a forest of assumed understandings. The word ‘tradition’, for instance, can often evoke standard African imagery and metaphors. Maybe a chief surrounded by aids watching his people dance, or a colonial figure standing on a hill watching his troops.
But these generic understandings mask much of the richness of our collective history. “Take Brother Nivard Streicher, for example,” says historian Steve Kotze, founder of Kwazulu Natal’s Trappist Trail tour route. “He was a humble German monk who bequeathed an outstanding legacy to the architectural history of South Africa around the turn of the 20th Century. The strict rules of his Trappist order meant he couldn’t leave a written account of his life behind. Yet many people who live in Kwazulu Natal live with his tradition, his legacy, which has been preserved in the collection of beautiful monastery buildings he designed, which are dotted all over the province of KwaZulu-Natal.”
The Trappist Trail takes tourists through a guided weekend (or a shortened day trip, for those in a hurry) tour of KZN’s monasteries. Kotze, a specialist in the Zulu wars, who worked with David Rattray as a storyteller at Rorke’s drift for several years, says that the reaction to the tour is invariably one of surprise by locals that they have been living in the midst of this intense and aesthetically striking tradition, without realising it.
“It would be easy to write off this lack of understanding as an anomaly, or something that has occurred as a result of the fact that Trappist monks were bound by silence, and so weren’t able to really tell their stories, but actually the ignorance is often the case across the country,” he says.
“If you look at Eastern Cape history, for example, there are incredible figures, like the guerilla warrior chief Maqoma, who have disappeared almost entirely from collective memory. He was on Robben Island many decades before Madiba, and yet we have almost no memory of him today.”
According to Kotze, all South Africans have a lot to gain from telling more stories – and listening to those told to them by friends and family, especially those from older generations. And in this context, the story of Trappist Monks resonates in a particularly strong fashion. Today, the idea of silent monks is treated almost as a punchline, but they actually kept silent for a very good reason: when you are constantly talking, it is impossible to hear anyone or anything else. For that reason, the very first word in the Rule of St Benedict is “Listen”.
“Maybe it’s thanks to our tormented history that we stopped telling and listening to certain stories, but really it’s time to start again,” concludes Kotze. “Ironically, tradition is actually very fluid and dynamic, and relies a lot of what we do and how we act today – it’s the telling of our stories amongst ourselves that really keeps our traditions alive. We see it all the time at the Trappist Trail. Once people have been exposed to something that has grabbed their attention, they start to tell the story, and then it gains momentum, to everyone’s benefit.”
For more details visit www.trappisttrail.co.za, email tours@trappisttrail.co.za or call 082 318 2243