''Jock of the Bushveld'' is a true story by South African author Sir
James Percy FitzPatrick
Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, (24 July 1862 – 24 January 1931), known as Percy FitzPatrick, was a South African author, politician, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. He authored the classic children's book, ''Jock of the Bus ...
.
[''The_Bystander]
'',_Volume_16.html" ;"title="The Bystander">''The Bystander
'', Volume 16">The Bystander">''The Bystander
'', Volume 16 2 October 1907, page 38 The 1907 book tells of FitzPatrick's travels with his dog, Jock, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross,
during the 1880s, when he worked as a storeman, prospector's assistant, journalist and ox-wagon transport-rider in the
Bushveld
The Bushveld (from af, bosveld, af, bos 'bush' and af, veld) is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of ...
region of the Transvaal (then the
South African Republic
The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it ...
).
[
]
Early life
Jock's mother Jess was the only dog in their camp. FitzPatrick describes her as "an unattractive bull-terrier with a dull brindled coat–black and grey in shadowy stripes. She had small cross-looking eyes and uncertain always-moving ears; she was bad tempered and most unsociable", but everybody respected her. Jock's father is only described as an imported dog in the book and there's an ongoing debate on whether he was an American Staffordshire Terrier
The American Staffordshire Terrier, also known as the AmStaff or American Staffy is a medium-sized, short-coated American dog breed.
The height of an American Staffordshire Bull Terrier is tall and weighs between . The American Kennel Club (AKC) ...
or of a breed like the bull and terrier
Bull and terrier was a common name for bulldog and terrier crossbreeds of the early 1800s. Other names included half-and-halfs and half-breds. It was a time in history when, for thousands of years, dogs were classified by use or function, unli ...
.
FitzPatrick describes the puppies: "Five of the litter were fat strong yellow chaps with dark muzzles—like their father. The sixth one was about half the size of the others. He wasn't yellow like the others, nor dark brindled like Jess, but a sort of dirty pale half-and-half colour with dark faint wavy lines all over him; and he had a dark little muzzle." Since the runt had not been spoken for, Percy slowly came upon the idea of taking him on as his own. He called him Jock and it seemed as if the puppy knew that FitzPatrick was his master from day one. He even followed him home without any coaching.
Reputation
This was the start of many a great adventure. The odd little puppy grew into a great and fearless dog. He was well liked, well respected and well behaved. He lived out his life at Percy's side with unwavering loyalty and his loving memory inspired many a bedtime story to Percy's three children. However, it was only when FitzPatrick had made his fortune, settled down to have a family and become an established and well-respected member of society that he took pen to paper at the urging of his children and shared these delightful tales with the rest of the world.
FitzPatrick gave Jock to a friend until he had a safer place for him to live in the town, where with his deafness, he was unsafe from traffic and people. The friend, Ted, loaned Jock to a store-owner Tom Barnett, who was having trouble with thieves and kraal
Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of th ...
dogs.
Publication
FitzPatrick later recounted these adventures as bedtime stories to his four children.[Elwyn Jenkins]
''National character in South African English children's literature'' – Page 6
/ref> Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
, a good friend of FitzPatrick, also took part in these story-telling evenings and eventually persuaded him to collect these tales in book form.[
''Jock of the Bushveld'' was first published in 1907 and had an extremely warm reception, being reprinted four times in that year alone. Since then it has achieved the status of a classic South African book and has been also widely read abroad – more than one hundred editions have been printed and it has been translated into ]Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
, Dutch, French, Xhosa
Xhosa may refer to:
* Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa
* Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people
See als ...
and Zulu, amongst others. Illustrations for the book were done by Edmund Caldwell, a brother of Mary Tourtel
Mary Tourtel (born Mary Caldwell on 28 January 187415 March 1948) was a British artist and creator of the comic strip Rupert Bear. Her works have sold 50 million copies internationally.
Early life
Mary Tourtel was born Mary Caldwell, 28 January ...
, creator of Rupert Bear
Rupert Bear is a British children's comic strip character and franchise created by artist Mary Tourtel and first appearing in the ''Daily Express'' newspaper on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival ''Da ...
.
A widely available 'modernised' South African edition published by AD Donker Publishers, according to its editor Linda Rosenberg, has been cleansed of its 'prejudicial racial references', while 'the esoteric charm and innocent philosophical tone have been left scrupulously intact'.
Death
The main version of how Jock died is told as follows : When Fitzpatrick went to live in Barberton, he realised Jock was miserable living in a town and gave the dog to his friend Tom Barnett, who ran a supply store in what became Mozambique. One night when Tom Barnett called him, he mistakenly shot Jock, because he was thought to be the dog killing chickens on the farm (when Jock had meanwhile already killed the other intruding dog). See Gelert
Gelert () is a legendary wolfhound associated with the village of Beddgelert (whose name means "Gelert's Grave") in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. In the legend, Llywelyn the Great returns from hunting to find his baby missing, the cradle overturne ...
and "Faithful Hound" folk-tale motif, which lives on as an urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
. It is classified as Aarne–Thompson type 178A.
The exact location of Jock's grave is unfortunately not officially marked or known. However, in 1947 Fitzpatrick's daughter Cecily Niven, backtracked her father's
travels according to the
description in "Jock of the Bushveld" and wrote about her findings in her book "Jock & Fitz" published 1968.
Mrs. Niven claimed to have located the area of the grave and stated the coordinates as: 25°46'5.0"S 32°20'4.0"E .
Any remnants of Tom Barnett's store and the wild Fig tree, under which Jock was buried and "Jock" had been carved upon, was long gone.
Fragments of building materials and broken china was uncovered at the site. Today the area is only 400m from the N4 road near Sonte, Mozambique
According to Gubbins in a letter dated 4 August 1933, the site of the fig tree bearing Jock's name, was close to the Possene railway station. The fig tree was cleared around 1933 and he tried with the assistance of railway personnel to mark the spot. Gubbins communication is held by the University of the Witwatersrand. According to Dr Gerrit Haarhoff another older Gubbins was present during Jock's trek.
Sir Percy Fitzpatrick himself is buried at 33°28'25.2"S 25°36'21.1"E .
Statue
Percy FitzPatrick's daughter and only surviving child, Cecily Niven promoted her father's legacy in the Lowveld by erecting bronze plaques and statues at places of significance to the story of Jock. The most famous statue of Jock was sculpted by the well-known South African artist, Ivan Mitford-Barberton
Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry.
Early life and education
Mitford-Barberton was born in Somerset East, in Cape Colony, in 1896. He was a descendant of several 1820 Settler families. His g ...
. It was erected on a farm in the Lowveld, but was moved to the Barberton, Mpumalanga
Barberton is a town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, which has its origin in the 1880s gold rush in the region. It is situated in the De Kaap Valley and is fringed by the Makhonjwa Mountains. It is south of Mbombela and east of Johann ...
Town Hall in 1984, during the town's centenary.
Movies
The book was made into a movie
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
in 1986, starring Jonathan Rands, Gordon Mulholland and Jocelyn Broderick with Mfubu as Jock. The movie did not prove popular with American audiences however, primarily due to its sad ending. Another fictional movie with an ending that was more palatable to this audience was therefore released in 1994.
At the end of 2007 Duncan MacNeillie together with a small team of animators moved from Nelspruit
Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit) is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River (Mpumalanga), Crocodile River, Mbombela lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, ea ...
to Johannesburg to start production on Jock of the Bushveld. It took a team of 25 animators 3 years to complete the film. Midway through 2009 the decision was made to complete the film in Stereoscopic. Scheduling the release of a 3D animated movie called ''Jock the Hero Dog
''Jock the Hero Dog'' (also known as ''Jock of the Bushveld'') is a 2011 South African-American 3D computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by Duncan MacNeillie. It features the voices of Bryan Adams, Donald Sutherland, Helen Hunt, Ted ...
'' on 24 July 2012, Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
singer Bryan Adams
Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...
voiced the title character.
Criticism
Recent readings of the book have called for its colonial narratives to be viewed critically, especially given its racially problematic language, colonial tropes and idealization of imperialism. In the ''Postscript to Jock'' FitzPatrick refers to Tsonga people as Zulu people who have "degenerated by mixture with inferior races". Critic Stephen Gray points out that the book is an instrument of FitzPatrick's imperial values. Drew Forrest argues that the book is opposed to post-apartheid values in South Africa but maintains that it should still be available even in its unabridged form because of the value it holds in teaching lessons about this era of South African history.
See also
* List of individual dogs
This is a list of individual famous actual dogs; for famous dogs from fiction, see List of fictional dogs.
Actors
Advertising
* Axelrod, Basset Hound, appeared in commercials and print ads for Flying "A" Service Station advertisements in ...
References
External links
''Jock of the Bushveld''
at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
(scanned books first editions color illustrated)
*
Jock Safari Lodge
Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends from north to south and from ea ...
''Jock of the Bushveld'' (1986 film)
at IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
''Jock of the Bushveld'' (1994 film)
at IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
''Jock the Hero Dog'' (2011 film)
at IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
SA's best loved legend
*
{{Authority control
Individual dogs
1907 books
South African non-fiction books
Dog monuments
20th-century South African literature