Baksteen - August 2025

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Baksteen 2 Point 0 – Fireside Short Stories from the Free State
Meet Baksteen — Clarens’ most formidable farmer’s wife, a thirty-year-old Afrikaans woman with long black hair, a wry half-smile, and a spirit that bends neither to drought nor bureaucracy. From her stoep on Klappersfontein, she sees South Africa clearer than most ministers ever will. These are some of the tales of Baksteen — sharp, funny, soaked in moer-coffee, and alive with Free State dust.
Here you’ll find tractors hauling slogans with no diesel, roosters that crow sideways, and load-shedding rebranded as “national character-building.” Baksteen’s husband Pieter stumbles about in scrawny optimism, while Wagter, her African Bull Terrier, carries the kind of judgment normally reserved for ombudsmen. Tant Sarie weaponizes gossip (and Revelation), the Dominee blesses bottles of Old Brown more often than the sun sets, and the narrator — pipe in hand — records it all with dry wit.
Every short story crackles like wors over a braai: “A New Dawn” where tractors parade political slogans; “The Wind Turned” when crows fly sideways; “Africa Is Calling” but leaves no voicemail; “Arm Wrestling Baksteen” where city promoters learn the cost of hubris; and “Bad Shopping Day”, proof Bethlehem’s aisles are tougher than any battlefield. Even the Daily Pothole, a local rag, turns up with headlines more believable than official speeches.
Enjoy
Garth Lloyd Brook