“OUT OF OKLAHOMA”
AFRICAN BOMA IN OKLAHOMA
There’s a little bit of Africa in Oklahoma, if you know where to look. Wander down the hill in front of our friends’ house - fondly called the B&K - in the countryside outside the small town of Perkins. Nestled in a small clearing next to their 22 acres of woods is....a boma. Yes, a boma. A real African boma. The author of “Out of Africa”, Isak Dinesen, would be proud.
It was built by our friends Ed and Kathy after their most recent visit to South Africa and a number of meals in a tourist boma. The thinking went from “Oh, a boma’s nice” to “I wish we could have our own boma” to “Maybe we could make a boma” to “Let’s do it”. They found a clearing just below the house and Ed began by setting pine posts in cement, eight feet apart, in a large oval with an entrance corridor along one of the longer sides. There are three cross boards between each pair of posts and each 8-foot segment has 24 pickets. Each picket has five nails, so we can see why it took many months of weekend work, hammering in of posts and poles, and carrying of big rocks up from the pond to line the edge of the sand-filled central fire pit and the braai pit on one side.
But, it got done and the Inauguration and Dedication of the Boma was on March 16, 2002.
Ed and Kathy had it beautifully set out for the event. A comfortable camping chair for each guest, with a holder for beer bottles, was arranged around the brightly burning wood fire. No shortage of wood here, not with all the dead branches and twigs in their woods. The atmosphere was set: a large table with a blue-purple guinea-fowl print cloth and matching cloth napkins, bright African batiks pinned to the picket walls behind the table, many citronella lamps on poles around the inner perimeter, a braai pit with two metal lamps so the cooks can see, small torches hanging on hooks at the start of the corridor, one for each guest so they can see their way up and down the rough path back up to the house. And, the crowning glory....genuine wooden West African masks, each a previously owned mask with a story and a history, hanging on nails next to the lamps around the inner edge, the faces smiling and grimacing in the dancing firelight. What stories they could tell about other boma parties in Africa!
The Dedication Ceremony involved a genuine South African ‘braai’ menu :
pap en tomatie saus
boerewors, cooked to perfection on the open fire
whole mielies cooked on the coals in their skins
green salad
melk tert
and lots of South African red wine (Roberts Rock Shiraz/Malbec, Rust en Vrede Merlot, and Shiraz)
Music by Miriam Makeba, her distinctive voice with its clicks filling the boma and wafting out over the walls into the night.
The Dedication “VIP” was Rod Mackie, wearing his black ‘dopper’ hat. He gave his Inauguration speech in three ways: firstly, in Afrikaans, the language that developed from the Dutch used by the old Voortrekkers; in very British English, delivered as the Queen would like; and lastly in English with a strong African accent. All highly amusing and well received by those in the boma. Finally he said, “And now I declare the boma open”, to much clapping and calling of“Yay!”
It was a magical evening. Briefly the world and its problems receded. The big velvety sky with a few crystalline stars was reminiscent of the wide African skies, and here in the woods it was so quiet and peaceful we could imagine we were in the wilds of southern Africa. Being only March in Oklahoma it was a little windy and cool, but the walls of the boma mostly kept out the wind and kept in the warmth from the roaring wood fire. We felt as if we were in an insulated, protected, secure area, which was the purpose of an original boma ---to bring in the people and animals at night for protection, from hungry wild animals and from hostile tribes. We could each escape from our own “wild animals”, the stress of modern day living, financial worries, family matters.
People ask Ed and Kathy why they need a boma. They say “to keep the lions out”, but those who haven’t been to Africa don’t understand the significance - or the joke - of this. Obviously, we didn’t see (or hear) any lions, and the rhinos and giraffes were very elusive. But, we did hear coyotes howling up the hill nearby, wild turkeys calling, a great-horned owl hooting, and deer snorting as they shuffled around getting comfortable for the night. And we were content.
Kathy pointed out the only potential problem; if any friends now go to Africa they’ll likely say, on their return, “Oh, that was just like Oklahoma!”
They plan to turn this into an annual event, with a “State of the Boma” speech each March, so stay tuned for developments.
AFRICAN BOMA IN OKLAHOMA
There’s a little bit of Africa in Oklahoma, if you know where to look. Wander down the hill in front of our friends’ house - fondly called the B&K - in the countryside outside the small town of Perkins. Nestled in a small clearing next to their 22 acres of woods is....a boma. Yes, a boma. A real African boma. The author of “Out of Africa”, Isak Dinesen, would be proud.
It was built by our friends Ed and Kathy after their most recent visit to South Africa and a number of meals in a tourist boma. The thinking went from “Oh, a boma’s nice” to “I wish we could have our own boma” to “Maybe we could make a boma” to “Let’s do it”. They found a clearing just below the house and Ed began by setting pine posts in cement, eight feet apart, in a large oval with an entrance corridor along one of the longer sides. There are three cross boards between each pair of posts and each 8-foot segment has 24 pickets. Each picket has five nails, so we can see why it took many months of weekend work, hammering in of posts and poles, and carrying of big rocks up from the pond to line the edge of the sand-filled central fire pit and the braai pit on one side.
But, it got done and the Inauguration and Dedication of the Boma was on March 16, 2002.
Ed and Kathy had it beautifully set out for the event. A comfortable camping chair for each guest, with a holder for beer bottles, was arranged around the brightly burning wood fire. No shortage of wood here, not with all the dead branches and twigs in their woods. The atmosphere was set: a large table with a blue-purple guinea-fowl print cloth and matching cloth napkins, bright African batiks pinned to the picket walls behind the table, many citronella lamps on poles around the inner perimeter, a braai pit with two metal lamps so the cooks can see, small torches hanging on hooks at the start of the corridor, one for each guest so they can see their way up and down the rough path back up to the house. And, the crowning glory....genuine wooden West African masks, each a previously owned mask with a story and a history, hanging on nails next to the lamps around the inner edge, the faces smiling and grimacing in the dancing firelight. What stories they could tell about other boma parties in Africa!
The Dedication Ceremony involved a genuine South African ‘braai’ menu :
pap en tomatie saus
boerewors, cooked to perfection on the open fire
whole mielies cooked on the coals in their skins
green salad
melk tert
and lots of South African red wine (Roberts Rock Shiraz/Malbec, Rust en Vrede Merlot, and Shiraz)
Music by Miriam Makeba, her distinctive voice with its clicks filling the boma and wafting out over the walls into the night.
The Dedication “VIP” was Rod Mackie, wearing his black ‘dopper’ hat. He gave his Inauguration speech in three ways: firstly, in Afrikaans, the language that developed from the Dutch used by the old Voortrekkers; in very British English, delivered as the Queen would like; and lastly in English with a strong African accent. All highly amusing and well received by those in the boma. Finally he said, “And now I declare the boma open”, to much clapping and calling of“Yay!”
It was a magical evening. Briefly the world and its problems receded. The big velvety sky with a few crystalline stars was reminiscent of the wide African skies, and here in the woods it was so quiet and peaceful we could imagine we were in the wilds of southern Africa. Being only March in Oklahoma it was a little windy and cool, but the walls of the boma mostly kept out the wind and kept in the warmth from the roaring wood fire. We felt as if we were in an insulated, protected, secure area, which was the purpose of an original boma ---to bring in the people and animals at night for protection, from hungry wild animals and from hostile tribes. We could each escape from our own “wild animals”, the stress of modern day living, financial worries, family matters.
People ask Ed and Kathy why they need a boma. They say “to keep the lions out”, but those who haven’t been to Africa don’t understand the significance - or the joke - of this. Obviously, we didn’t see (or hear) any lions, and the rhinos and giraffes were very elusive. But, we did hear coyotes howling up the hill nearby, wild turkeys calling, a great-horned owl hooting, and deer snorting as they shuffled around getting comfortable for the night. And we were content.
Kathy pointed out the only potential problem; if any friends now go to Africa they’ll likely say, on their return, “Oh, that was just like Oklahoma!”
They plan to turn this into an annual event, with a “State of the Boma” speech each March, so stay tuned for developments.
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