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RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY
In a letter to Imrie Ross, Erika Cloete, wife of the dominee in Nieu-Bethesda, wrote that Helen told her husband
that she was not an atheist but had no need for formal religion. Cloete also wrote that Helen did not attend
church services. Helen grew up in a strict Calvinist home where household devotions were a daily ritual.
The Camdeboo area, which includes Graaff-Reinet and Nieu-Bethesda, was settled by frontiersmen and in
the 18th century, farmers had to travel 800 km to have their children baptised. Their kinsmen in Cape Town
and Stellenbosch expressed fears that they were becoming Africanised and this might have established a
foundational fear in the community.
As a religious awakening spread across the Cape Colony in the 1790s, the first Dutch Reformed congregation
in Graaff-Reinet was established in 1792. During this period, being a Christian was a political identity as it
reinforced a person’s Europeanness in contrast to other races, who were often termed heathens. The town
of Nieu-Bethesda was founded as a church centre in the late 19th century and the huge Dutch Reformed
Church is a dominant presence. In Helen’s day, the dominee wielded considerable power and influence,
enforcing the church’s patriarchal values.
Although Helen largely rejected the rigid strictures of the community and church, she had a deep interest in
religion and spirituality. Religious themes are prevalent in the yard, where Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and
Christianity are referenced. It has been argued that Helen used the Islamic holy site of Mecca as a symbol of
a spiritual destination or goal. She created structures out of beer bottles, which she called Meccas that were
big enough for her to physically enter. There are also miniature churches, resembling the town’s massive
church, dotted around the yard. Many of the other figures and structures have religious connotations, such
as the shepherds, several nativity scenes and the pyramids, connected to ancient Egyptian religion as the
tombs of pharaohs and their consorts.
258 FOR THE LOVE OF LIGHT
FOR THE LOVE OF LIGHT 259