The iconic bokkom

Writer: Dr Anina Lee.

My mother grew up on a farm near Kalbaskraal, a small settlement just southwest of Malmesbury. Her family’s favourite coastal holiday town was Velddrif – the home of bokkoms.

If you don’t know a bokkom, the closest description is ‘fish biltong’. It’s called a bokkom with reference to the Dutch name for a Billy goat. It is said that the dried bokkom looks like a goat horn, but I suspect it had more to do with the smell of an old Billy goat. If you are not born to bokkoms the smell can be overpowering.

Having pleasant memories of summer holidays at Velddrif, my mother had a thing for bokkoms. Even when my parents moved to Johannesburg, she ordered bokkoms from Velddrif. The bunch of dried fish on a string was duly despatched by train and a railway truck arrived at our gate with the precious delicacy – just like that, a bunch of fish on a string – no modern-day packaging.

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