Dulcie and Seratjie: A Story from an African Farm

Mzuvukile Maqetuka’s “Dulcie and Seratjie: A Story from an African Farm” is supposed to be “stories from the dorpies of South Africa and in particular (in Maqetuka’s case) stories from the Camdeboo.” Perhaps it is. Looked at differently, this is a piece of work that shows how one specific setting could be a microcosm of a grander place characterised by (un) subtle shades of denotations and aura. It is these (un)subtle particularities that prevail to help the reader realise that we are all facing the same pleasures and hardships.
In Dulcie and Seratjie: A Story from an African Farm, Maqetuka succeeds in fashioning a sense of ease, a piecing together, between the reader and the text. The easy-going form of storytelling that is Dulcie and Seratjie: A Story from an African Farm allows the reader to become comfortable with the text. In remarkable ways, Maqetuka pleasantly burdens the reader’s imagination through his pen to imagine the quaint and the scenic, to imagine varieties of highlands and peaks that magnify to form an exciting setting.