Sarie Marais

Sarie Marais (also known as My Sarie Marais) is a traditional Afrikaans folk song, created during either the First Anglo-Boer War (ca. 1880) or the Second Anglo-Boer War (ca. 1900). The tune was taken from a song called Ellie Rhee dating from the American Civil War, and the words translated into Afrikaans. The title is pronounced "May SAH-ree mah-REH".

In English, the song begins "My Sarie Marais is so far from my heart, but I hope to see her again. She lived near the Mooi River before this war began..." and the chorus goes "O take me back to the old Transvaal, where my Sarie lives, Down among the maize fields near the green thorn tree, there lives my Sarie Marais". It continues about the forced removal of Boer men, women and children to faraway concentration camps by the British.

The melody was adopted in 1953 as the official march of the United Kingdom's Royal Marines Commandos and is played after the Regimental March on ceremonial occasions. The French Foreign Legion also sings the song, in its French translation.

The song has also been sang by Jim Reeves in Afrikaans.

Origins

The true origins of the song is unclear, one account of the story states that the American folk song Ellie Rhee was included in a book The Cavendish Song Album. When Ella de Wet, wife of General Louis Botha's military attaché Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet came to the battle front to see her husband she often played on the piano while the nearby burghers sang songs from the album.

Another account of the story is that the song dates from the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881).

Whatever its origins, the song changed and got more verses as time went on. This accounts for the reference to the "Kakies" (or khakis), as the Boers called the British soldiers during the Second Anglo-Boer War. They were known as "Rooibaadjies" ("red coats") during the First Anglo-Boer War.

Sweet Ellie Rhee lyrics:Sweet Ellie Rhee, so dear to me
Is lost forever more
Our home was down in Tennessee
Before this cruel war
Then carry me back to Tennessee
Back where I long to be
Amid the fields of yellow corn
To my darling Ellie Rhee

When the song was soon translated into Afrikaans "Sarie Maré" (which only recently became "Marais") was substituted for "Ellie Rhee". The burghers supposedly wanted to honour their field chaplain Dominee Paul Nel, who often told stories around the campfires about his childhood and his beautiful mother "Sarie Maré", who died young:

My Sarie Marais is so ver van mij af
Ek hoop haar weer te sien
Sy het in die wijk van Mooirivier gewoon
Nog voor die oorlog het begin
O bring my terug na die ou Transvaal
Daar waar my Sarie woon
Daar onder in die mielies by die groen doring boom
Daar woon my Sarie Marais

The song "Sarie Marais" has been translated into many languages including French, Spanish (by the Afrikaners who emigrated to Patagonia in 1903), Italian and Russian.

Lyrics

My Sarie Marais is so ver van my hart,
Maar'k hoop om haar weer te sien.
Sy het in die wyk van die Mooirivier gewoon,
Nog voor die oorlog het begin.
O bring my t'rug na die ou Transvaal,
Daar waar my Sarie woon.
Daar onder in die mielies
By die groen doringboom,
Daar woon my Sarie Marais.

Chorus: O bring my t'rug na die ou Transvaal,
Daar waar my Sarie woon.
Daar onder in die mielies
By die groen doringboom,
Daar woon my Sarie Marais.

Ek was so bang dat die Kakies my sou vang
En ver oor die see wegstuur;
Toe vlug ek na die kant van die Upington se sand
Daar onder langs die Grootrivier.
O bring my t'rug na die ou Transvaal,
Daar waar my Sarie woon.
Daar onder in die mielies
By die groen doringboom,
Daar woon my Sarie Marais.

Chorus

Die Kakies is mos net soos 'n krokodillepes,
Hulle sleep jou altyd water toe;
Hul gooi jou op 'n skip vir 'n lange, lange trip,
Die josie weet waarnatoe.
O bring my t'rug na die ou Transvaal,
Daar waar my Sarie woon.
Daar onder in die mielies
By die groen doringboom,
Daar woon my Sarie Marais.

Chorus

Verlossing die kom en die huis toe gaan was daar,
Terug na die ou Transvaal;
My lieflingspersoon sal seker ook daar wees
Om my met 'n kus te beloon.
O bring my t'rug na die ou Transvaal,
Daar waar my Sarie woon.
Daar onder in die mielies
By die groen doringboom,
Daar woon my Sarie Marais.

Chorus

The real Sarie Marais

Sara Johanna Adriana Maré was born in Uitenhage, Cape Province on 10 May 1840. She married Louis Jacobus Nel in 1857 in Pietermaritzburg. Maré died at the age of 37 after giving birth to her 11th child, and was buried near the old homestead on their farm "Welgegund", near Stanger.

"Sarie Marais" (1931): the first South African film with sound

"Sarie Marais" was also the title of the first South African talking picture, directed by Joseph Albrecht and made in 1931. Filmed in Johannesburg, "Sarie Marais" manages to pack a lot into its 10-minute running time. Set in a British POW camp, the film concentrates on a group of Boer prisoners as they pass the time under the watchful eye of their British captors. One of the internees, played by Billy Mathews, lifts his voice in song with the popular Afrikaans patriotic tune "My Sarie Marais". His enthusiasm catches on with the other prisoners, giving them hope for the future [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=138696] .

Afrikaner nationalism was emerging as a force in these years, and "Sarie Marais" portrayed the British cultural and economic imperialism negatively (the desire to spread the English language, culture and influence even where it was unwelcome).

Shortly after this film's release, a group of Afrikaner nationalists established a film production organisation called the Reddingsdaad-Bond-Amateur-Rolprent Organisasie (Rescue Action League Amateur Film Organisation), which rallied against British and American films pervading the country.

Francis Coley directed a remake of this film, again titled "Sarie Marais" in 1949.

"Sarie" women's magazine

The contemporary Afrikaans women's magazine "Sarie" takes its name from this song. Originally entitled "Sarie Marais" – a name which at the time (1949) of its first publication was synonymous with the idea of empowered Afrikaans womanhood – it was the first Afrikaans magazine to focus on the female market, with a content ranging from fashion, decor and beauty to relationship advice and family planning.

External links

* [http://www.kraaipromosies.co.za/tuis/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=267&forum=1&viewmode=flat&order=DESC&start=10 Origins of the Song, story of the real "Sarie Marais" or Sara Maré. Mostly in Afrikaans]
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=138696 Synopsis of 1931 film "Sarie Marais"]
* [http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk/audio/Sarie_marais.mp3 mp3 audio file – "Sarie Marais" played by the Band of HM Royal Marines Commando Training Centre]