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Illustrations for 'The Magic Bojabi Tree' picture book (pp 25, plus end papers with texts by Dianne Hofmeyr)

These illustrations were developed in response Dianne Hofmeyr’s retelling of an African folk tale, ‘The Magic Bojabi Tree’ aimed at very young children (4-8 years). The tale is prevalent in several cultural environments on the African continent and possibly originated in the Gabon. Devoid of human characters, its theme – recurrent in several African tales – is one of drought and rivalry to obtain food, explored through caricatured, anthropomorphised portrayals of animals. Grobler deployed water colour, ink and felt tip pens to achieve a bleak, earthy African Savannah landscape predating European human settlement. The book in which the illustrations would be published was intended for a Western readership and Grobler’s approach was to exploit familiar picture book codes, humour and caricature as a means of engaging readers with the visual and written text.

Grobler’s approach was consistent with conceptions of skopos theory (a branch of translation theory) often underpinning his collaborative work with translators and rewriters of tales based on African folklore and fables. Skopos theory proposes the cultural context/objective of the production as being the main determining influence upon its appearance and ‘meaning’, informing, in Grobler’s research, his approaches to characterisation, form and mood: a combination of ‘loyalty’ and ‘functionality’ (Christiane Nord) resulted in a narrative true to early written recordings of the tale, and illustrations in a visual language recognisable to a contemporary young European readership.

Interaction between image and text included hand-lettering alluding to decorative patterns appropriated from West-African artefacts and textiles and rhythmic patterns referring to principles of aural story telling. Decorative lettering was also ‘personalised’ to support each animal character’s pronunciation of the name of the magic tree.