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South Africa Fourteen - Transcription

I was born in Pretoria, the capital of the Republic of South Africa *a few years ago. Well my ancestors came from Netherlands um in th.. um the middle of the s... *um seventeenth century um and they were living in the north of Netherlands, alongside the Merwederivier. Um from them my surname v... *van der Merwe, that is a um, that means in English "from the Merwiere", so um so they came in *that century and um well my my um that was great-great-*grandfather, great-great-great-great grandfather. And he married a a French girl um which surname was Perrault. So um actually we are living in South Africa. It's part of Africa, quite different than Europe. Um but after a few centuries, well, one gets used to Africa and um actually really sentimental and um you grow a a very deep-rooted feeling about Africa. Um but still one is, um one one do come from Europe so um [...] strange combination, I think it are going to take a few centuries to adapt a hundred percent in Africa. But um at this stage, well, I um went to Pretoria in high school and and I started university, *also in Pretoria, and now I'm studying in drama and yes I'm nearly finished and hopefully I will get work in my drama course.

[* = vocalic pause>

Transcribed by Kevin Flynn

Africa

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