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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2003-12 > 1070544611


From: "Elizabeth Teir" <>
Subject: [ZA] Wet-nurse RSA
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 15:30:11 +0200
In-Reply-To: <00e001c3ba64$fadeb0a0$027e19ac@admin1>


Good Afternoon,


Minnemoer is Loved Mother an old world not in the present dictionaries
specially not in HAT. However minne is - met die betekins Liefdes -
Meaning of Loves. If I recall the history of Afrikaans correctly it will
be right to say Afrikaans, Netherlands, Flaams, old Norse - Swedish are
all from the same language group. Germanic dialects. In Swedish mor
means mother and is pronounce moer.


Rgds
Elizabeth Teir

I apologise for sending it to the editor but surely the reply button
problem is not been solved but genoeg is genoeg if I recall it
correctly.

-----Original Message-----
From: Editor [mailto:]
Sent: den 4 december 2003 14:07
To:
Subject: [ZA] Fw: Wet-nurse RSA


Hi Elizabeth, Listers

I think Elizabeth meant this for all of us, but her reply must have
defaulted to me.

To add to "minnemoer", "moer" has many meanings, most of which are
contractions of Nederlands "moeder" (mother) & "baarmoeder" (uterus,
womb). It has many slang usages, one of which I won't translate in such
polite company (;-), but also refers to any sediment in a liquid, like
"koffiemoer" (coffee grounds); to "moer" someone is to hit them really
hard, usually with a fist; to be "die moer in" is to be really angry;
the eye of a potato is a "moer"; it's also the nut of a bolt; & to say
something is a "moerse plesier" means a great pleasure, or "dit was a
moerse party", it was the mother of all parties. (Source:
_Etymologiewoordeboek van Afrikaans_, WAT,
2003)

Regards
Maureen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Teir" <>
To: "'Editor'" <>
Sent: 04 December 2003 01:17
Subject: Wet-nurse RSA


Good Afternoon All,

This is said under correction - My grandmother mentioned the topic first
and explain where the word "aiya" come from. Left it there till recently
I stumble cross it in literature, burgers called them "minnemoer".....
>From grandmother I also understood it was a practise even in poverty
homes in the case of a infant become orphaned just after birth or
shortly there after. There were complications to this practise for the
women...... Slaves was also employed as wet nurses and contribute to the
fact that there duties was never specified.

Moving abroad, French, it was during the Industrial period up to the
19th century wet nurses was employed by either the state (7 francs per
month??) or wealthy families which paid a handsome price. There the term
milk cow or élévage humain to the raising of the abandoned children
(breeding like in cows) comes from. It was second common profession
among women in poverty, prostitution was the first. Wet nursing is still
practise in Africa, India, Middle East.

It will be quite interesting to discover more on the topic.

Rgds
Elizabeth Teir


-----Original Message-----
From: Editor [mailto:]
Sent: den 3 december 2003 22:19
To:
Subject: Re: [ZA] Wetnurse


Hi Elizabeth

You've raised a very interesting question, one of those "hidden" women's
issues. I don't know the answer right now, but I will keep my eyes open
& let you know if I come across anything of significance, but maybe
other Listers have already researched this.

All I can add at this stage is that wet nurses have always tended to be
a custom among the most privileged strata of any society, so my
suspicion is it must have been as common among the upper classes at the
Cape in the 18th century as it might have been anywhere else, like
Europe. Only thing, the "upper class" at the Cape in the 1700s was
really small. There is, however, an ancient & concurrent practice in SA
for privileged "white" children to be raised by servants (& slaves until
their universal emancipation by the British in 1833) that continued
throughout the 20th century & continues into the 21st. I am not aware of
statistics that might show to what extent any of these women also
assumed the role of wet nurses.

Unless someone's examined this already (& published something about it,
probably as an article in some obscure history journal), it would take
a lot of primary archival research to establish the extent to which this
was practiced at the Cape at any particular stage in SA's history.

Regards
Maureen


----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Teir" <>
To: <>
Sent: 03 December 2003 02:57
Subject: [ZA] Wetnurse


> Good Afternoon All,
>
> How common was the practise of wetnurses (soogvrou) in the 18th
> century in the Cape?
>
> Rgds
> Elizabeth Teir
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ==== SOUTH-AFRICA Mailing List ====
> *****************************************************************
> If you need a translation from Afrikaans into English please visit my
> website at http://home.global.co.za/~mercon/words.html for a list of
volunteers who
> are prepared to do translations for you.
>


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