South Africa General

‘The Bird Calendar’ as it is affectionately known throughout our country and much further afield too may have become just another victim of modern technology.

The proliferation of smart phones, watches and other wonder toys that include time and date info, combined with financial considerations brought about by the effects of Covid-19 may have deprived a great many birders of their beloved desk calendar now that AECI Limited has made the decision to suspend production of its legendary Bird Calendar, at least for 2021.

Highly prized and long regarded as a desirable collector’s item, the calendar became synonymous with the AECI name during its 80-year lifetime. Due to reduced print runs in the 21st century it has become something of a rara avis among ornithologists and others who simply “like the birds”.

But how many enthusiasts know that ‘The Bird Calendar’ was first produced in tandem with Roberts’ Birds of South Africa (using the original illustrations by Norman C K Lighton) and first saw the light of day six months before the first edition of that august tome?

AECI’s involvement goes back to 1935 when one of the company’s directors, Mr John Voelcker, an avid naturalist, started the South African Bird Book Fund after having identified the need for a comprehensive handbook on the country’s avifauna. The startup of the fund was given a sound financial footing when Mr Voelcker leaned on friends, associates and colleagues in the mining industry to assist the project. Dr Austin Roberts of the Transvaal...

Here is some exciting news for the heritage community. Dr Ronald Levine, antiquarian book collector and dealer, is offering a remarkable Railway manuscript and some attachments for sale as a single lot, on the Antiquarian Auction in June 2020 (see www.antiquarianauctions.com).

The central item, the manuscript, is an original Cape Railway contract in calligraphic script dated 1858. This document is unique and I concur with the view of Dr Levine that this is one of the earliest and most important items of South African railway history or Railwayana. It is a South African heritage treasure and an extraordinary legacy item from the Cape colonial era of the 19th century. For this reason Dr Levine has restricted sale to South Africa, which will ensure that the sale of the manuscript will comply with the National Heritage Resources Act and remain in South Africa.

The first page of the contract in calligraphy - hand written on parchment

When Dr Levine shared the news of this auction with me, my curiosity was roused and I decided to read up and give the document some historical context.

South Africa was relatively late to acquire its first railway lines. From the early 19th century, Railways and the steam engines revolutionised long distance travel between towns and across...

Every loved domestic dog, no matter how humble their origin, remains the best dog in the world in the eyes of their masters.

We affectionately refer to dogs as our best friend. They also happen to be humankind's oldest "friend" in the animal kingdom in that Canis familiaris, the domestic dog, was the first animal species to be domesticated by humans.

The South African produced photographs included in this article span a 40-year period (1875 to 1915), more or less the same period that witnessed the unfolding of the majority of today’s established dog breeds.

The photographs included, plus any other existing photographs of this era that may not have been uncovered to date, are also a valuable source in assisting scientists and researchers conducting research on modern dog breeds.

Photographed - South African domestic dogs in front of the lens

The stereotype of the exceedingly serious sitter staring stiffly at the studio camera during Victorian and Edwardian time belies the fact that our ancestors also loved and cared for their dogs with the same passion as most of us do today. The images included provide evidence of these familial and emotional attachments to their dogs.

Since the commercialisation of photography in South Africa (largely early 1860s onwards), man’s best friends have also been allowed into some South African photographic studios. Not all photographers at the time would however have endorsed having dogs in their studios.

Photographing dogs (and children) was not an easy task at the time due to...

The gladius is a short sword which narrows near the base of the blade. This shape makes the sword effective at cutting as well as thrusting. The gladius is best known as a primary weapon of the Roman legions. It forced Roman soldiers to get in close to their enemies and to kill quickly. It was the Roman defeats of the famous Greek hoplites that showed the sword to be more deadly than the spear.

The Greek hoplites used swords as secondary weapons and could not compete with the more mobile and diversified Roman forces. Phalanx formations had become the pinnacle of spear combat, but hoplites were developed to use lesser trained soldiers who were not as good with their swords when a phalanx broke.

The earliest surviving examples of the Roman gladius come from the first century BCE, but they were produced in the Rhineland, and the earliest records of the Roman gladius refer to it as “the Spanish sword”. The four-ring scabbard pattern of the Roman gladius is a copy of the Spanish scabbard. It appears that the gladius was in widespread use in the Iberian Peninsula and in Germanic territory where the gladius is referred to as the Mainz-type sword. 

The earliest widespread Roman adoption of the short sword begins with 5th Century BCE Celtic attacks through Northern Italy. The Celts had arrived with new fighting methods and after sacking Rome, the Romans searched for new methods of defending themselves. The problems Rome faced included the large...

In its heyday, black African competitive cycling on South Africa’s gold mines received little publicity either locally or internationally. Nevertheless, it flourished for nearly three decades, beginning in the late 1950s and extending into the mid-1980s. Today it has been almost totally forgotten. However, a recently published biography of a leading South African cycling personality of the period, entitled Basil Cohen: South Africa’s Mr. Cycling, vividly recalls this lost history of Black South African cycling.

Drawing extensively on this biography and supplemented by several other related sources, this article traces the rise and then the decline of black cycle sport on South Africa’s gold mines in the latter half of the 20th century. Basil Cohen’s central role in this development warrants an outline of his biography.

Basil Cohen (1939-2014): South African Cycling personality extraordinaire

The 2013 biography by Igor Broes is a tribute to Basil Cohen as an indefatigable cycling enthusiast, ambassador and entrepreneur. Nevertheless, Basil’s name remains largely unknown to all but the cognoscenti of South African competitive cycling. The book itself is a profusely illustrated, privately-produced limited edition volume distributed exclusively amongst Basil’s family and his close cycling friends of the time, making it a rare piece of Africana sporting history. 

Born in Johannesburg in 1939 into a middle class Jewish family, Basil Cohen did not excel at school either academically or in sport and, in his early teens, he found solace in riding his first racing bicycle. This was an imported blue Phillips ‘Phantom’ built from...

JC Smuts was born on the farm Bovenplaats, part of Ongegund near Riebeek West, in the then Cape Colony, and what is now the Western Cape, to parents Jacobus Abraham and Catharina Petronella (nee de Vries) on 24 May 1870.

Bovenplaats by A Pretorious, 1986 (Collection University of Stellenbosch, R72)

Jacobus and Catharina Smuts, 1893 (by J Gribble, Paarl. Wikimedia Commons)

A picture of Mary Tait, one of Smuts’ granddaughters on a visit to Ongegund in 2019 (Chris Murphy)

The house in which he was born still stands, somewhat incongruously as part of the PPC Riebeeck facility after the farm was purchased for its lime deposits in 1946. After a period of neglect the main farmhouse was demolished, but Smuts’ birthplace was restored under the guidance of renowned architect Gawie Fagan, in...

After having been largely forgotten and ignored for decades, in the post-apartheid world of the new South Africa, Sol T. Plaatje (1878-1932), has been hailed as a pioneering figure in the African nationalist movement and the struggle for equal rights. The local authority of the diamond-mining centre of Kimberley in the northern Cape region where he lived for many years and where he is buried, has been renamed the ‘Sol Plaatje Municipality’ in his honour and a new university being established there is to be called the ‘Sol Plaatje University’.

South Africa at Union in 1910

Hitherto, despite the considerable attention recently accorded him, the significance of the bicycle and of cycling in enabling Plaatje to fulfil his role as an activist has been largely overlooked. This article examines how these came to play an important part in his socio-political activities.

The life and times of Sol Tshekisho Plaatje

At the time of his birth in the late nineteenth century, South Africa was not the unitary state it was later to become. Rather, it was an unstable patchwork consisting of British colonies, British protectorates and Boer republics which had resulted from decades of conflict in the region.

Sol Plaatje was born in 1878 in the dorp of Boshof in what was then the Boer republic of the Orange...

Herbert Maurice John Prins, distinguished architect, professional conservation and heritage architect and practitioner passed away on Wednesday, 15th April 2020, just 12 days short of his 93rd birthday. His was a long, rich and remarkably productive life. Herbert was a role model in his work and ongoing commitment to the heritage of Johannesburg and other parts of South Africa until just a couple of months before his death. It was a joy to celebrate his 90th birthday in 2017. His professional career extended over 72 years - surely a record. I found his last email letter to a discussion group was on 10th March 2020 (all about the draft regulations for property practitioners) and in January 2020 he took a stand on the proposal to move the oldest of Johannesburg’s war memorials, the Indian Memorial on the Observatory Ridge; Herbert firmly said “ no”.

Indian Monument on Observatory Ridge (Vinesh Selvan)

Herbert’s career fell into three parts - professional architect in his early career (1948 to 1970), an academic at Wits University (1970-1996) and then a third career as a specialist conservation consultant and eminent heritage authority, with his own practice (1997 to 2020). Of course there was a degree of overlap.

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I hardly Knew Robin fee personally except shaking hands in a restaurant was a warm experience. But his presence in the profession was known over 3 decades & more: 1960-1990s. He embodied much of the complexity that characterised architecture over this period. Complexity? I can only summarise- the profession was profoundly affected by the change in urban scale; the changes in perception with modernism profoundly challenged on several fronts; by the growing social & political crisis in our country & beyond; by the challenges in the economy; by the growing awareness that Johannesburg’s history needed valuation; & that I’m sure is only the briefest of summaries.

I was intrigued to learn that Robin as a schoolboy knew Stanley Furner in retirement in Tzaneen. There’s hardly a young architect in the 20s & 30s not influenced by Furner & his name was still bandied around in the 60s & more.

Fee’s career,working in New York under SOM (Skidmore Owings & Merril), arguably the most advanced practice anywhere @ that time, & then with SOM @ the Carlton Centre site was involved in what I have called the”major  transfer of technology & culture from New York to Jhb”.

Drawing of the Carlton Centre and Hotel

Fee has left a massive imprint on Jhb but the...

A 1:48 scale model of the Type VIIC German U-boat “U-96” was donated to the Museum in September 2019. The model is a true representation of the original submarine used in the Second World War (1939 – 1945) and was constructed by the donor, Mr Brian Echstein (see image above).

The Importance of the Donation

The original U-96 played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic, a vital campaign of the Second World War. This campaign arose as a result of the requirement for Britain to sustain herself through strategic supplies sent by ship from her dominions and colonies around the world and, more importantly, from North America. The termination of this supply line would have eventually starved Britain and forced her to make terms with Germany. Adm Karl Donitz, commander of the German U-boat force, recognised the strategic importance of the U-boat and was of the firm opinion that this aim could be achieved with 300 U-boats on station in the Atlantic.

Supply routes to Britain 1941 (Wiki Commons)

The development of the U-boat was based on the following considerations: Firstly, Allied merchant shipping was the principle target and should be attacked with no restrictions; secondly, operations should be carried according to the strategy of tonnage sunk exceeding that of tonnage constructed. This would eventually strangle Allied...