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A focus on the written word

The Village News

29 October 2026

In short

A tribute to poet Dr Diana Ferrus (72), who died in January this year, is planned at The Shed, Harbour Rd, Kleinmond.
It is on Friday 27 November, 19:00-20:30, with the Mengelmoesdigters, Frazer Barry and Khadija Heeger performing.
Her best-known poem is I've Come to Take You Home. Read how it played a part in bringing Sarah Baartman home.

Summary checked by our editor.

Performers: Mengelmoesdigters, Frazer Barry, Khadija Heeger

Time & place: Friday 27 November, 19:00-20:30 Location: The Shed,

Harbour Rd, Kleinmond

A focus on the written word — ABOVE: Diana Ferrus reading from her children’s book The Boy who Loved to Dance at last year’s inaugural Kleinmond cultural festival. PHOTO: Elaine Davie LEFT: The Mengelmoesdigters with Diana Ferrus (centre) at the launch of their poetry collection, Die Stoel Langsaan. PHOTO: Supplied

Dr Diana Ferrus (72), who died in January this year, was an internationally recognised poet, children’s book writer, storyteller, publisher, academic and women’s rights activist. She was also passionate about developing young writers.

A descendant of the Khoi people and colonial slaves, she was driven by a desire to secure recognition for them, as well as a restoration of their dignity. She excelled at forming deep connections with people, according to her close friend, Kleinmond musician Frazer Barry. He set many of her poems to music, and will be performing some of them at the Tribute.

The poem for which she is most celebrated is I’ve Come to Take You Home.

It’s about the desecration of the body of Sarah Baartman, a Khoi who was paraded as a ‘freak’ in colonial Britain and France in the 1800s. After Baartman died in 1815, her body was dissected. Her skeleton, brain and genitals were displayed at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris until the 1970s.

“Ferrus wrote the poem about Baartman’s dismembered body while she was a homesick exchange student in the Netherlands in 1998. The poem was later used by activists fighting for the remains to be returned for a dignified burial in South Africa.

“I’ve Come to Take You Home is perhaps the only work of literature to have been written into law. It is part of a French bill which allowed for the remains of Baartman to be repatriated to South Africa in 2002. Ferrus was a member of the South African delegation who travelled with the remains from France.”

Also performing at her Tribute will be the Mengelmoesdigters, established by her as a writing development project in 2013 at the Breytenbach Cultural Centre in Wellington.

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