A team of four people, consisting of a writer and three artists are currently working on translating and illustrating the Kama Sutra, an ancient Hindu text offering advice on sex and spirituality into Afrikaans. The team hopes that the Afrikamasutra (as the project is officially known) will be completed by the middle of the year.

The Kama Sutra was assembled 18 centuries ago in India and has already been translated into the world’s most prominent languages.

Ilse Groenewald is translating the text from English. The artists, Hardus Koekemoer, Diek Grobler and Marna Schoeman are drawing an array of sketches that – just like in the ancient editions - illustrate the different sexual techniques described.

Two-tone shirt

"The idea for an Afrikamasutra was born out of a gap that I identified in the Afrikaner-psyche or frame of reference," writes Groenewald on the project's website. "You are either a married prude, or an unmarried slut and totally godless.



"I want to create a platform where we can talk about sexuality and spirituality without being judged."

Much of the artwork in the Afrikamasutra contains typical South African elements (An Adonis figure in a two-tone shirt, a nymph gamboling with a leopard) to make it more local.

South African flavour

Groenewald told Rapport that she came across the Kama Sutra via the work of other spiritual writers such as Osho and Deepak Chopra. "And then I thought: why don't I translate it into Afrikaans and get pictures that fit with our framework?"



Groenewald also edits the text here and there. "With the first draft I translate word for word, but ultimately we want to give it a more South African flavour.

"The original text includes parts about the Indian caste system and texts that stipulate that one should not sleep with women who have leprosy. Some of the quirks we’re going to keep, but it isn’t applicable everywhere."

The Afrikamasutra is being published by Griffel-media.

For more informartion visit Afrikamasutra.