Cape Town - Afrikamasutra, an Afrikaans version of the ancient Kama Sutra is to be launched with its own images drawn by local artists.
The original Kama Sutra was written in India in Sanskrit in about 400BC and contains detailed instructions on different sex positions such as the “erotic V”, where the woman sits on the edge of a table and the man stands in front of her with his legs bent.
Written by Vatsyayana, Kama referred to erotic pleasure and love and Sutra referred to something that linked everything and everyone.
”A few years ago I started a website for people to openly talk about sex and sexuality. Out of that I got background material and decided on an Afrikaans version of the Kama Sutra,” author Ilse Groenewald said on Monday.
She said images for the book to be launched in Pretoria on Thursday were made by three local artists – Hardus Koekemoer, Diek Grobler and Marna Schoeman – who had been given a clear brief.
“I said to them – here is the text, now you go and make it beautiful. And they came with very beautiful images,” said Groenewald.
She said Afrikamasutra had taken three years and she would consider producing an English version.
“The original translation took about a year and at the end of that we added another section on old-fashioned recipes.
“It is about how to win your lover’s heart,” said Groenewald. She said that like Kama Sutra, Afrikamasutra was not purely about sex.
“It is about life and being a good human being. We must celebrate life and not see sex as something dirty and disgusting.
“We must talk about it openly and realise sex is something beautiful,” Groenewald said.
“Sex is a natural part of life and if we demonise it, it cannot be good.” - Cape Times
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