Eve Hall
Eve Hall was born on 20 March 1937 in Paris, France, to a Jewish father and a German mother. When the Second World War broke out, her father was on a visit to South Africa, leaving her mother to cope with a half-Jewish child under Nazi occupation. Defiantly, she refused to pin the yellow Star of David (an identifier that Jewish people had to wear) on her daughter’s clothes.
Sumboornam Pillay
Sumboornam (Sam) Pillay, who later became known as Sam Moodley, was born in 1948*. She grew up in the multi-cultural community of Dundee, Northern Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), where African, Indian and Coloured families lived together peacefully before the Group Areas Act tore the community apart.
Natures Valley, Garden Route
Nature's Valley, and the surrounding Coastline, was occupied by Old Stone Age or Paleolithic, 1 Million Years ago. Paleolithic man lived in the Area in caves and under overhangs, collecting food in the tidal zone and hunting for a rich variety of wildlife.
Odendaalsrus, Free State
Having been established in 1912, this is the oldest gold mining Town in the District. The Town was a group of Farms with one central Church. However, when gold was found in 1946, Odendaalsrus earned its place on the map, attracting a number of settlers who wanted to be a part of the Gold Rush. This is where the richest Gold Reef in the World, was discovered. In 2000, it was incorporated into the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, with the City of Welkom. There are a number of gold Mines in and around Odendaalsrus.
Pearston, Eastern Cape-Karoo
Pearston, in common with many of the small town and villages scattered across the Great Karoo, had its origins as a parish of the Dutch Reformed Church. Since 1850 parishioners would gather in the shade of a large pear tree on the farm Rustenburg, owned by Casper Lotter, to celebrate communion. The minister of the church in Somerset East travelled the 48-kilomtres, over the Bruintjieshoogte to celebrate Communion.
Mary Matilda Brown
Mary Matilda Brown was born in Sea Point, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa on 20 July 1847. She advocated for social and moral reform and was a campaigner for women’s rights. Brown trained as a midwife in Scotland. She actively participated in the temperance movement against the trade of alcohol.
Omar Badsha: Recording the roles of the ordinary by Niren Tolsi (Mail and Guardian), 17 September 2020
This moment’s gaping generational divide, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with its accompanying sense of history being lost and collective memory fading, comes into sharp focus when speaking to social documentary photographer and artist, Omar Badsha.
The 75-year-old Badsha is a political and cultural elder. A colossus.
Language
Huguenot Memorial Museum, Franschhoek
The story of the Huguenot Memorial Museum is quite fascinating, and lends the Building and its contents a certain charm and intrigue. In the 1700’s, the Saasveld Building was the home of: Baron Willem Ferdinand van Reede from Oudtshoorn, who built it in 1791.