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Hartbees house
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Also Hardebiesieshuis, Hartbeeshuis, Hartebees house, Hartbeest house, Hartebeest house

Strictly, the hartbeest house is the earliest variety of mat or thatch on sprung ribbed framework, in the style of a longhouse but with bowed sides, a technology possibly borrowed and adapted from the Matjieshuis of the Khoekhoen. Today a distinction is made between a structure of clay walls and thatched roof, now understood as a form of 'hartbeest' house, and an all-roof structure, now termed a kapstyl or A-framed house.

Walton (1952:92-95) has it that 'these were of such widespread occurrence in the early days of settlement across the Orange [Gariep River] that they may be regarded as the typical house-type of the period' (p92). further he states that 'Many of the Griqua and Coloured people gathered around the mission stations also adopted them ... (p93).

For its construction 'the collecting of timber, reeds and grass was a communal task in which all the menfolk [also] took part and when the necessary material was assembled the outline of the house was marked out by a shallow trench. Holes, some three feet [900mm] deep, were dug at each corner and every few feet along the sides to accommodate the poles. Once the poles were firmly planted they were bent over in pairs and tied together at the top with riempies, so producing a series of arched couples. These were strengthened with tie beams, hanebalke. A ridge-tree was secured to the top and battens, dwarslatte, were fastened to the couples a foot [900mm] to a foot and a half [1 350mm] apart.

Owing to the curvature a separate door framework was constructed. This consisted of two vertical posts, the height of the doorway, set close to the feet of the couples. The top of the doorway projected a foot [300mm] or two [600mm] from the sloping walls, producing type of a porch. The framework was covered with reeds, grass and bushes tied to the battens by means of riempies . ... The door was usually only a reed screen hinged and fastened by means of riempies. The only window was a small opening in the wall and often this was absent. Inside, a curtain divided the hardbieshuis into living and sleeping quarters. There was no kitchen: all cooking was done outside on a simple fireplace of three stones, sheltered by a screen [skerm] (p95).

The 'Hartbeeshuis' (haru-bies huis) is described by Baines (1848) as follow 'The Hartebeest houses are usually built of reeds, and are sometimes plastered with mud: they are in the form of roofs, but the lower part of their sides often approaches towards perpendicular'. Here the door is placed in the middle of one of the long sides of the structure. The lower portions of the dwellings were sometimes mud-built walls.

The derivation of the term 'hartbees' is contentious. The name is confused both in the variety of spellings and the way it is loosely applied to any rustic shelter. As Trigardt1 relates in his diary: 'Carolus went to chop wood for the hartbees houses we usually make at such times.' Latrobe (1818) 'A hartebeest-house, having a roof, put upon a wall about two feet in height ...';2 Backhouse (1844) 'The Hartebeest houses ... are usually built of reeds, and are sometimes plastered with mud; they are in the form of roofs, but the lower part of their sides often approaches toward perpendicular;'3 Baines (1848) of those seen in Shiloh and illustrated by him '...a number of hartebeest houses resembling a thatched roof destitute of walls...;

Some derive the term 'hartbees' from the 'harde biesies'9 or the hardy reeds used for the construction. Backhouse10 has a fanciful account of the derivation of the word:
the Hartbeest houses are so called from an imaginary similarity in the figure to the outline of a species of buffalo, called in South Africa, the Hartebeest: they are usually built of reeds, and are sometimes plastered with mud: they are in the form of roofs, but the lower parts of their sides often approaches towards perpendicular. Some of them have holes in the roof to let out smoke'.

Spoelstra’s11 explanation is equally picturesque:
-and house surely got its name because hartebeest and wildebeest so often stormed in there as if it were their home-'

Nienaber12 sees it as a hybrid form of the Khoi 'harub' (=reed mat) + 'biesie' (Cape reed) forming a tautalogical aglutination 'haru-bies' which corrupted into hartbees.

The sense of the temporary and rustic nature persists in a later description:
'The hartbees house was a temporary construction of thatch on a framework of wood. There were no walls: walls and roof were one. Even the doors and windows were of grass... In some parts of the country the walls were of clay sods and the roof thatched with reeds.'13

  1. Trigardt, 1964: 19 (translated from the original Afrikaans)
  2. Latrobe, 1818: 256
  3. Backhouse, 1844: 357
  4. Baines, 1961 [1848]: 65
  5. Lion Cachet, 1882:
  6. Mansvelt, 1884
  7. Schonken, 1914: 84
  8. Van Dale, 1950: 695
  9. 'Biesies' is a native marshlands plant of the Cape which is like a reed in appearance but quite different in anatomy, the reed being of the grass family. Chondropetalum tectorum is one of the common Cape thatching reeds.
  10. Backhouse, ?
  11. Spoelstra, 1924: 73 (translated from Afrikaans)
  12. Nienaber, ?
  13. Van Niekerk, 1950: 463

[See Fisher et al. 1998 Architecture of the Transvaal for full references.]

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A footnote to an article titled ''Rough Notes of a Shooting Expedition to the Orange Free State'' by 'Seo' describes the Hartebeest House of a Mr Bain, situated in close proximity to the Modder River. Seo, with two fellow officers of the North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot, had embarked on a hunting expedition from Grahamstown in November 1861.

'Hartebeest hut... so called because the framework is lashed together with riems or thongs of the Hartebeest hide. The hut to which allusion is made above, was built somewhat in this fashion. Poles were placed resting against one another much in the shape of the letter A for the gable ends, and then a crosspole was lashed to the apex of each end to form the ridge of the roof. Smaller poles, resting with one end on the ground and the other against the crosspole, answered for the rafters, and along these, in a transverse direction, other smaller poles were firmly lashed with the hartebeest riems. The roof was then thatched with reeds and grass, a door was constructed with a small porch, and the interior was plastered with mud. The ends were wattle and daub (a kind of basket-work of branches smeared over with mud).'

Transcribed from page 227 of:

The North Lincoln Sphinx - A Regimental Periodical 1860 - 1862; Reprinted by the State Library, Pretoria, 1968.

Originally printed for private circulation only, it was compiled by the Officers and Men of the Second Battalion of the Tenth Regiment of the North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot and was printed on the Regimental Press, in Grahamstown and Keiskammahoek.

Submitted by William MARTINSON.



Buildings on this website in Hartbees house style

Books linked to this entry

Fisher, RC, Le Roux, SW & Maré, E (Eds). 1998. Architecture of the Transvaal. Pretoria: UNISA pp 39-40

Frescura, Franco & Myeza, Joyce . 2017. Illustrated glossary of southern African architectural terms; English-isiZulu. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press pp 69, 70 ill

Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1970. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 1 Aan-Bac. Cape Town: Nasou pp 542 ill, 543

Walton, James. 1965. Homesteads and villages of South Africa. Pretoria: J.L. Van Schaik pp 93-95