Liewe Heksie
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Liewe Heksie ('Liewe' means 'dear' and 'Heksie' means 'little witch' - pronounced "lee-vuh heck-see") is a fictional character created in 1961 by Afrikaans children’s books author Verna Vels. The Liewe Heksie series consisted of a number of books. It was also dramatised on the Afrikaans radio station and made into a popular Afrikaans language television programme from 1981, with marionettes. In both the radio and TV versions, Vels herself provided the voice of Liewe Heksie. The television series was directed by well-known children's programme writer and director Louise Smit, who created more than 4,000 children's shows for South African television.
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[edit] Story and characters
Liewe Heksie is a rather incompetent and forgetful witch who lives with her friends the elves in Blommeland (“Flower Land”). Her stupidity and lack of magical skill leads to many funny situations in the stories. Her given name is Levinia.
Her best friends are the elves Blommie (“Little Flower”), her kitten Matewis (Afrikaans for Matthew and a common name for a cat in South Africa, possibly originating from this very series) and the sophisticated Karel Kat, an anthropomorphic cat who drives a car and owns a helicopter, from the city. Other characters include the magical horse Griet (who only appears whenever Liewe Heksie exclaims, "Ooo Griet!" ("Oh dear!") He has a girl's name, but Heksie claims that all the boys' names were taken by the time she named him), 'Koning Rosekrans' (“King Rose Wreath”) who rules Blommeland. Even though he likes Heksie very much, he gets frustrated with her, but not angry enough to chase her out of Blommeland. Kwaaitjie Kabouter ("Littly Angry Elf"), a bad-tempered elf, and his baby brother Kwaai Babatjie ("Angry Little Baby"). He even lets her babysit Kwaai Babatjie when he has to deliver messages for the king.
There is also the evil Geel Heks ('Yellow Witch'), who with her minions, the Gifappeltjies ('Little Poison Apples'), are constantly trying to take over Blommeland. The two Gifappeltjies are also dressed in yellow and orange, and aptly named Kerrie (Curry) and Borrie (Turmeric), and are menacing-looking elves who call Liewe Heksie 'die dom heks' (the dumb witch).
Blommeland is protected by the Silwer Roos ('silver rose') which is under guard in the palace. On a number of occasions the Gifappeltjies and the Geel Heks try to steal the Silwer Roos to take it to their land (Gifappeltjieland). Should they succeed all the other flowers in Blommeland would die and the beautiful land of the elves would become dry and barren. However, on each of these occasions Liewe Heksie manages to save the day (albeit accidentally) and is hailed as a heroine.
Sometimes the Feekoningin ("Fairy Queen") intervenes, and lets Heksie believe that she has done some real magic. Heksie sometimes calls her Koningin By (Queen Bee). Liewe Heksie is the only witch in Blommeland, therefore she doesn't know any other witches there. She once went to Gifappeltjieland (that is dry and arid, and resembles the lunar surface) with the help of Karel Kat and his helicopter, and thought mistakenly that she'd gone to the Moon.
She has a sterretjieskombuis (star-filled kitchen) because the corrugated iron roof covering her kitchen, was blown away by the wind when she rolled the rocks and pumpkins (that kept it down) off it, in order to paint it. The Feekoningin helped her by putting in a skylight, so that Heksie can see the stars above her kitchen at night.
[edit] Bibliography
Liewe Heksie books (1960s-70s) illustrated by Dorothy Hill
- Die Groot Liewe Heksie-storieboek (1983) illustrated by Dorothy Hill
- Lekker Liewe Heksie stories (1983) illustrated by Dorothy Hill
- Liewe Heksie en die rugbywedstryd (1988) illustrated by Nikki Jones
- Liewe Heksie en die rekenaar (1999) illustrated by Piet Grobler
- Die Liewe Heksie omnibus (2002) illustrated by Piet Grobler
[edit] Full story list
- Liewe Heksie kry 'n verjaarsdag (Dear little witch gets a birthday)
- Liewe Heksie en Blommie Kabouter sing in die straat (Dear little witch and Little Flower Elf sing in the street)
- Liewe Heksie en die bikini (Dear little witch and the bikini)
- Liewe Heksie en die motor (Dear little witch and the motorcar)
- Liewe Heksie maak die koning gesond (Dear little witch makes the King better)
- Liewe Heksie en die toorwoorde (Dear little witch and the magic words)
- Liewe Heksie en die donkie (Dear little witch and the donkey)
- Liewe Heksie word babawagter (Dear little witch becomes a babysitter)
- Liewe Heksie in die land van die Gifappeltjies (Dear little witch in the land of Poison Apples)
- Liewe Heksie en die dief (Dear little witch and the thug)
- Liewe Heksie en die koekoek (Dear little witch and the cookoo-clock)
- Liewe Heksie en die wals (Dear little witch and the waltz)
- Liewe Heksie kry 'n kat Dear little witch gets a cat)
- Liewe Heksie en die mini (Dear little witch and the mini)
- Liewe Heksie gaan skool toe (Dear little witch goes to school)
- Liewe Heksie en die winkel (Dear little witch and the shop)
- Liewe Heksie en die troeteldier (Dear little witch and the pet)
- Liewe Heksie en die feekoningin (Dear little witch and the fairy queen)
- Liewe Heksie en die helikopter (Dear little witch and the helicopter)
- Liewe Heksie en die orkes (Dear little witch and the band)
- Liewe Heksie en Griet (Dear little witch and Griet)
- Liewe Heksie en die sneeu (Dear little witch and the snow)
- Liewe Heksie hou partytjie (Dear little witch has a party)
- Liewe Heksie vang vis (Dear little witch goes fishing)
- Liewe Heksie en die toneelstuk (Dear little witch and the play)
- Liewe Heksie en die alpeviooltjies (Dear little witch and the flowers)
- Liewe Heksie en die klompe (Dear little witch and the shoes)
- Liewe Heksie in die sirkus (Dear little witch and the circus)
- Liewe Heksie en die tuppels
- Liewe Heksie en die tent (Dear little witch and the tent)
- Liewe Heksie gaan maan toe (Dear little witch visits the moon)
- Liewe Heksie en die vlieende piering (Dear little witch and the UFO)
- Liewe Heksie se geskenk (Dear little witch's present)
- Liewe Heksie en die rugbywedstryd (Dear little witch and the rugby tournament)
- Liewe Heksie en die rolskaatse (Dear little witch and the rollarskates)
- Liewe Heksie en die rekenaar (Dear little witch and the computer)
- Liewe Heksie en die rotbende (Dear little witch and the rat-gang)
- Liewe Heksie en Botterblom (Dear little witch and Butterflower)
- Die dag toe Liewe Heksie se kop gedraai het (The day when Dear little witch's head turned)
- Waar is Klein Kwaaitjie Kabouter? (Where is Little angry baby?)
- Liewe Heksie en Adspersus (Dear little witch and Adspersus)
[edit] Impact on South African culture
Liewe Heksie had a big impact on the way people who grew up watching the television show.[citation needed] She always gets everyone's names wrong because she's so absent-minded and forgetful. She calles 'Koning Rosekrans 'Koning Rosedoring' (King Rose Thorn) or 'Koning Rosebaard' (King Rose Beard). She calls Karel Kat's helicopter a 'meulikopter' and calls the Geel Heks 'Die Pers Heks'(the purple witch).
She speaks in a very monotonous tone of voice, and doesn't understand "big words" that Blommie and the other kabouters (elves) often use. She often says "Haai oe Blommie" (Oh, wow, Blommie) for everything new or interesting she hears. Whenever she does something stupid and the other kabouters laugh at her, she gets shy and says "Moenie vir my lag nie" (don't laugh at me). She also says "Ek wil nou nie snaaks wees nie, maar..." (I'm not trying to be funny now, but...) whenever she makes obvious observations.
Another thing she says a lot when she's panicking, is "Oo Griet!" ("Oh Griet" but similar to "oh dear!"). Whenever she says this, her magical horse Griet appears and helps her out of trouble.
[edit] Puppets of TV
Tiny puppets were used. Each puppet was about 9 centimetres (3.5 in). Most of them were rod puppets, with latex faces and hands. The mouths could move, the eyescould shut and a special mechanism inserted into the Liewe Heksie puppet made her cry, and even her hat could move over her eyes when she was shy A special separate marionette version of Liewe Heksie was used when she flew on her broom. Special sets were built for the puppets complete with little houses and flowers. They had to make a little hole for each scene for the puppets controls to go through the set for the puppeteers to handle and manipulate. The best puppeteers at that time were hired, including Antoinette Snyman and Althea Oelofse. Some of these puppets still exist today, but they are in very bad shape. The latex had begun to crumble. Most have been disposed of, while others remain in a storage facility of a museum, waiting for preservation and restoration.
[edit] Radio, Records, Cd's
Most of the voices were primarily performed by Vels, if she was the storyteller; many of these recorded stories also appeared on records, and more recently on CD.
Several children's music albums followed the success of the series, and the theme song to the TV show is very well known and still popular today, especially among the 30-something generation who grew up listening to and watching it. It was written by Vels, and the choir was directed by Sophie Faul.
[edit] Parodies
The Liewe Heksie series was also parodied on local comedian Casper De Vries's show Die Casper Rasper Show with Verna Vels as a guest on the show. The sketch uses foul language, with costumes that don't really resemble the shows outfits. It suggests that Blommie and Koning Rosekrans are gay. It also suggests that Liewe Heksie has an affair with a Gifappel. It also has a lot of references to the show's history.
[edit] Revival
There were plans for the show to be redone in 3D-CGI animation and be released in 26 episodes of 11 minutes each in 2007. It was to be animated by Anamazing Workshop, and produced by Meerkat Media, but economic conditions were poor and the project was scrapped.
