Our Talks and Videos
“A failed experiment” The Silkworm Industry of Gouna
Speaker: Rayno Sciocattis In 1881 Rayno Sciocatti’s Italian ancestors were brought out by the Cape Government to start a silk industry in Gouna – about 14 miles northwest of Knysna and over 900 meters above sea level. The immigrants were farming people of substance...
Paul Scheepers: Rosalind Ballingall
Speaker: Paul Scheepers In 1969 When I was a student at UCT there were other students who shared our cafeteria. There was one striking girl. Six foot tall, slim very pretty with red hair and wore a hippy dress down to the ground This was Rosalind ...
Sophy Gray
SPEAKER: NATIE DE SWART Sophy or Sophia Gray was a multi-faceted person who happened to be a woman. It would be easy to talk about her and her achievements for a long time. What I would like to do is to talk about the person and to put her in...
The glory and demise of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies.
Speaker: Dr Giovanni Coci I was born in Naples, Southern Italy and I am quite passionate about the culture and the history of this beautiful part of the world. The purpose of my talk is to share with you some facts about the history of Southern Italy which may not be...
The De Poort Murders of 1802
A United Front of Khoikhoin Gounaqua & Amagqunukhwebe SPEAKER: Mike Kantey Events leading up to the 19th Century The first major driver behind the dispossession and fateful resistance of the indigenous and migrant African tribes of what became South Africa...
The Battle of Omdurman
SPEAKER: David Hall-Green The country which we know today as Sudan is the biggest on the African continent. It would virtually swallow up most of Western Europe without so much as a hearty belch. The ancient Egyptians called it Nubia, and it was the source of slaves...
The Van Reenens of Knysna
SPEAKER: Garth van Reenen The ancestor of the family was the noble Graaf Jacob Van Reenen of Memel in what was then Prussia, who came to the Cape in 1721 in a sturdy little ship, the Astria. His brother Daniel was the Mayor of Allenburg in Prussia and it is said that...
An Extraordinary History of Boxing & Fisticuffs
SPEAKER: Clive Noble Mesopotamia The first recorded history of boxing was found in Mesopotamia in the Tigris Euphrates Valley. A terracotta relief of 2 bare fisted boxers was found in the Ninto temple dated about 3000...
The Story of the Griqua Re-visited
SPEAKER: Sean O’Connell The Griqua Story starts well before any influence of Western Civilisation ever reached the shores of the Cape of Good Hope. To understand the Griqua Story it is necessary to understand the Heritage of those people who...
Suitable approaches to preservation of the Old Timber Shed
Speaker: Len Raymond Commissioned in 1788, Plett’s Timbershed is an important symbol of the economic development of our sub-continent as envisaged and thereafter made good in the late-18th Century. For it came to be built and commissioned here at...