De Doornkraal

Dalene Matthee was a South African author who wrote mainly in Afrikaans, but her books were translated into 14 other languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Icelandic.  She was born at Riversdale in the Western Cape Province on 13 October, 1938 as Dalene Scott, and matriculated there in 1956.  After matriculating she studied music at a Conservatorium in Oudtshoorn and at the Holy Cross Convent in Graaff-Reinet.  She is a descendant of the British nobleman Sir Walter Scott.

At the Langenhoven High School in Riversdale where she matriculated, “Dalena” Scott was known and admired by her classmates for her innovative spirit.  To their delight she often entertained them with impromptu solo shows using the teacher’s desk as her stage. Needless to say her antics were not always to the delight of the teachers who often failed to appreciate her creative spirit.

Prior to gaining worldwide success with her first forest novel about the extermination of the elephants and the exploitation of the woodcutters of the Knysna forest, entitled “Kringe in die Bos” (Circles in a Forest), she wrote children's novels and short stories.  She also wrote stories for magazines as well as popular novels such as “A House for Nadia” in 1982, and “Petronella van Aarde, Mayor” in 1983.

Her first novel “Circles in a Forest” was an immediate international success.  Three other highly successful “forest novels” followed: “Fiela se Kind” (Fiela’s Child) in 1985, “Moerbeibos” (Mulberry Forest) in 1987 and “Toorbos” (Dream Forest) in 2003. Fiela’s Child and Circles in a Forest were made into successful movies. Several other successful novels were written during the 1990s until 2005. Her novel “Pieternella van die Kaap” (Pieternella: Daughter of Eva) depicts life in the Cape of Good Hope (now Cape Town), beneath the shadows of Table Mountain during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Her last novel was “Die Uitgespoeldes” (Driftwood) in 2005.

She won the ATKV (Afrikaanse Taal en Kultuur Vereniging) prize for good popular prose on four occasions, and received a Swiss literary prize in Zurich for what they described as her vigorous literary work and her passionate interest in nature conservation. It is not surprising that her books are widely utilised by the South African Department of Education as set work for matric pupils. Her peers hold her in high regard as can be seen from the following accolades:

"With her books such as Kringe, Fiela se Kind (Fiela's Child), Pieternella van die Kaap  and, more recently, Toorbos, she got the general Afrikaans public reading again, and she successfully bridged the gap between quality and popular literature," says Eloise Wessels, chief executive of NB Publishers.

Novelist Elsa Joubert agrees: "She succeeded in getting people who never read Afrikaans to read in the language, and that's been a wonderful contribution".

The literary expert Wium van Zyl believes she was like Langenhoven, the very person the school she attended is named after: "Like him, she had something to offer the intellectual reader and for the everyday reader. She exposed the reader to various challenges. She was an ecologist and a mild feminist who considered the poor with attention and respect.”

Author Abraham H de Vries holds the following opinion about Dalene Matthee: “Only she could have written those forest stories - no one else could."

Film-maker Katinka Heyns, who directed the movie based on the book Fiela se Kind, remembers how she spent two hours with Matthee in the Knysna forest: "The forest would tell Dalene if I may make the movie. She did not say a word and only sat listening. And then I had to wait an entire night before she gave the answer."

Matthee was famous for the rigorous research she did for her books. For example, she researched her forest trilogy (Circles in a Forest, Fiela’s Child and Mulberry Forest) for seven years, and Pieternella van die Kaap took three years' research.

She died in Mosselbay, South Africa after a short sickbed caused by heart failure and  is survived by her three daughters Amanda and Hilary Matthee, and Toni van der Walt. It was Dalene Matthee’s fervent wish to have her ashes scattered in the Knysna Forest. The South African National Parks (SANParks) erected a memorial in the Wilderness National Park near Knysna and Tsitsikama to honour Dalene Matthee for her passion with conservation.

Her three daughters saw it as a fitting remembrance to their mother, to have a special memorial erected in the place Matthee so loved.The SANParks contribution included the building of a boardwalk around the memorial, renaming the big tree to the Dalene Matthee Big Tree, and the circular hiking trail to the “Circles in a Forest” trail. The memorial, tree and trail now form part of the Park’s cultural heritage programme. The memorial, tree and the Circles in a Forest Trail are situated at the Krisjan se Nek picnic site in the Goudveld Forest now forming part of the Wilderness National Park. Dalene's creative spirit will always be remembered by her Riversdale townsfolk and Langenhoven High School friends.