In the article below, James Walton tells the story of the soap houses of the Karoo and their importance to the local economy for many years. The article was first published in the 1983 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.
On some of the Karoo sheep-farms one may still find small unpretentious-looking buildings which today serve as stores or fowl-houses but which formerly played a much more important role. They are the buildings in which the farmers' wives and their servants made soap; a domestic industry which contributed considerably to the economy of the farms. Without the income from the sale of the soap it is unlikely that many of the remote farms could have been occupied until a much later date.
When Henry Lichtenstein journeyed through South Africa at the beginning of the last century he commented, as did several other travellers, on the seasonal transhumance of the stock farmers from the Bokkeveld to the Karoo. 'As soon as in the cooler season the rains begin to fall', he wrote, 'the colonist with his herds and flocks leaves the snowy mountains and, descending into the plain, there finds a plentiful and wholesome supply of food for the animals'.
'Before the inhabitants of the mountains descend into the Karoo, their fields and gardens are put into winter order. The children and slaves are sent to collect...
