Our Talks and Videos
Tsitsikamma Rivers Project – quest to understand and conserve our rivers
Speaker: Geoff McIlleron The Tsitsikamma Rivers Project, launched in 2008, is a quest to understand and conserve the river systems of the Tsitsikamma mountains which are...
Diggings and important findings in the Blombos Cave
Speaker: Petro Keene A South African archaeologist with a considerable international reputation, Professor Christopher Henshilwood discovered Still Bay’s important prehistoric cave site in 1991. He has close ties with two leading Universities –...
Unlimited Child Expedition to the South Pole: The Last Degree
Speaker: Peter Berning This bit of trouble that I got into began at UCT (Smuts Hall, 1968). Iain Buchan and I were new men together and both products of the Transkei, where our...
The Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
Speaker: Timothy Twidle In the mists of time, Africa South of the Limpopo, was an endless land of scattered riches and infinite variety. The continental divide crowded the eastern coast, fencing off a well-watered belt that rounded the southern end of the...
Who planted the beacon on Beacon Island?
Speaker: Andrew Duminy The local legend: According to Pat Storrar, the beacon was erected on the Island in 1772 (the Van Plettenberg website says 1771),...
30 years ago : Defining moments
Speaker: Peter Duminy This Talk has been substantially motivated by recollections, especially remembrance of straws in the wind that preceded – and help to account for – the formation of our Society 30 years ago. I have called them ‘Defining Moments’. Why?...
The English Settlers in the Crags until 1900
Speaker: Clive Noble The Read Family James Read came to South Africa in 1808. He was a shipwright. He lived and worked in Cape Town. He went to George in 1823 where he married Anna Terblanche. They had 3 children. The 2 sons, Ignatius and...
Cape Rebels 1899-1902
Speaker: Dr Taffy Shearing Today I have been asked to talk about aspects of the South African War from the Cape Colony perspective. And I have decided to stick to ‘Cape Rebels 1899-1902’; and to introduce you all to The Rebel Record,...
New ideas about old caves
Speaker: Prof Judith Sealy The many caves and open-air archaeological sites on the Robberg Peninsula have long been known to contain a wealth of archaeological material, some of it many hundreds of thousands of years...
The history of Soetkraal and its people
Speaker: Edwin van Huyssteen My grandfather and grandmother van Huyssteen had, with two ox-wagons, moved to Soetkraal in 1936 . They had come from Clarence – that was on the de Vlugt side. They were in their early-fifties and had...