Skip to main content

Fokus Op: Moekie Mouton - ''Lees is vir my 'n noodsaaklikheid.''

Maria Elizabeth Mouton, alombekend as ''Moekie'', is 'n boorling van Rehoboth in sentraal Namibië, en het 'n groot liefde vir lees, en later ook skryf, vanaf kindsbeen. Sy het reeds op laerskool daarna gehunker om 'n Afrikaanse skryfster te word veral nadat sy op 'n dag daarvan te hore gekom het dat haar opstelle vir ouer kinders in ander klasse voorgelees word. 'n Handjievol jare later, toe 'n tiener, het sy liewer verkies om tuis te bly en 'n boek te lees as om met vriende uit te gaan. 
Mettertyd het Moekie voor die kansel gestaan en ook moeder geword. Vir jare daarna het sy administratiewe poste by verskeie maatskappye beklee in Windhoek en ongeveer dertien (13) jaar gelede ingeskryf om Pastorale Studies te studeer by Bybelskool. Sy gradueer sewe (7) jaar later as 'n gekwalifiseerde pastoor, en bedien daarna met haar man die Woord tot en met hul aftrede en verhuising na Swakopmund.  

 As 'n lewenslange leser van Afrikaanse boeke en werke, tel Moekie vir onder andere Irma Joubert, Annelie Botes en Helena Hugo as haar gunsteling skrywers, en 'n indrukwekkende lys Christelike-fiksie titels as haar gunsteling boeke. Sy erken ook ruiterlik dat sy haarself nie beskou as iemand wat genre-gebonde is nie omdat sy amper alles en enigiets lees. 

 ''Lees is vir my 'n noodsaaklikheid,'' merk sy op tydens ons gesprek. ''Dit is noodsaaklik vir goeie kommunikasie ook.''

 Ná hul verhuis het na Swakopmund, en sy en haar man 'n bietjie vastrapplek in die woestyndorp gekry het, begin wrewel die begeerte om te skryf weer in haar agterkop. Toe sy kort daarna op Facebook sien Clarice Theys soek medeskrywers vir 'n projek, Basterpoeding vir die Siel, het sy besluit om deel te neem. Sy woon ook toe 'n slypskool by, aangebied deur Jannie Oosthuysen, en nie lank daarna word van haar kortverhale opgeneem in drie (3) bundels van Suid-Afrikaanse skrywersgroepe. In 2018, neem sy deel aan 'n skryfkompetisie en word as een van die wenners aangewys. 

 Later, en in minder as twee (2) maande, toe skryfgriep haar heeltemaal oorval het, voltooi Moekie haar eerste kortverhaal bundel, Eggo's van die Hart. Van hierdie bundel sê sy self dat ''...dit fokus op die mens se sielsbehoeftes en soeke na sin in die lewe...''. Moekie benadruk ook dat hierdie bundel 'n natuurlike uitvloeiing is van 'n lewenslange persoonlike filosofie dat lees en skryf deel is van haar innerlike menswees. Sy is tans drukbesig met 'n skryfkursus en daar is beslis planne vir nog 'n boek in 2019. 

 Haar gunsteling kos is 'n heerlike bord braaivleis, sy het altyd plaaslewe in die Kalahari geniet, is verslaaf aan lees, natuurlik, en geniet dit om langs die see te vertoef.

 Eggo's van die Hart, 'n kortverhaalbundel uit die pen van Moekie Mouton is te koop by Book Buddy @ The Village, Liliencron Straat, Eros, Windhoek.      

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Children's Story: The Crocodile's Roll (Aboriginal Folklore from Australia)

The oldest human genome outside Africa can be found in the Aborigines of Australia. Scholars estimate that the ancestors of modern Aborigines migrated from Africa more than 70 000 years ago after the earliest human remains discovered in Australia were dated and found to be approximately 50 000 years old. Aboriginal tribes in Australia, similar to African nations, are very different from each other in terms of genetics, customs, cultures and languages. These tribes had evolved into separate and distinct social groups (or, nations to be precise) in isolation for thousands of years so that by the time contact was first made with Europeans, 250 distinct languages were spoken on the Australian continent. European settlement caused a collapse in Aboriginal population sizes. Three years after the arrival of Europeans on the continent, a smallpox epidemic decimated healthy Aboriginal populations causing massive depopulation. The systematic massacre and genocide of Aborigines during colonia...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: The Scattering by Lauri Kubuitsile is a Must Read

A riveting read, Lauri Kubuitsile's historical novel, The Scattering , about love lost, is intense, bitter-sweet and unforgettable. For any Namibian, it will not be an easy read for essentially one reason: the story cuts too close to the bone. For as I am writing this review, the Herero and Nama cultural groups of Namibia, with the support of the Namibian government, are in the process of engaging the German government of Angela Merkel, regarding the 1904 - 1907 genocide.  The Scattering has two female protagonists, Tjipuka and Riette, and their poignant stories develop against the backgrounds of the Herero-Namaqua genocide in German South-West Africa (DSWA), 1904 - 1907, and the Second Anglo-Boer War in the South Africa, 1899 - 1902, respectively. Tjipuka is a member of the Herero tribe of Okahandja and Riette, an Afrikaner woman from the farming community in South Africa. Their lives, dreams and ambitions are irrevocably changed by the onset of war, Tjipuka, and, in Riette...
Post a Comment
Read more

Children's Story: The Sleepy Owl (Zulu Folklore)

Zulu-speaking people ( Amazulu ) belong to one of the largest cultural and linguistic groups in southern Africa. There are an estimated 12,5 million Zulu-speakers currently thriving in South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Malawi, Botswana and Mocambique with the largest concentration of people in South Africa (approximately 10,5 million). The word iZulu means 'heaven' and the word zulu means 'rain', if translated into English (Amazulu means 'rain people'). The  Amazulu is not a homogenous group of people and consists of different clans who had settled in the mountainous and hilly rural areas of northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. This cultural and linguistic group is patrilineal and had migrated in a southerly direction along the eastern coast of Africa from the 9th century onward. According to notable archaeological finds, they initially came from an area in modern Cameroon. The largest of these clans was established by Zulu kaMalandela around 170...
Post a Comment
Read more