Welcome to The Hermanus History Society
HERMANUS HISTORY INTEREST GROUP
Next Members Meetings:
MONDAY6 May 2024 @ 3 pm in the Catholic Church Hall
Diving for abalone and diamonds and diver training - an oral history culminating in the Hermanus New harbour.
Colourful local character Gottlieb (Boet) Scheun shares his love of adventure and lifelong passion for diving that led to a successful business in Hermanus. His unique story includes sport and commercial diving, fishing for crayfish and perlemoen and touches on diamond diving and oil rigs.
Oral history provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by putting small history (personal) in context of big history (seismic events).
MONDAY 8 April 2024 @ 3 pm in the Catholic Church Hall Professor Andrew Smith Emeritus Professor Archaeology, UCT will address us on:
The ‘invisible’ Khoekhoen of the Overberg
Few people in South Africa know that herding society and domestic animals arrived only 2000 years ago. I will discuss what is known of the origins of the Khoekhoen from an archaeological perspective. Even though they are well documented in the Dutch records of the 17th century, having lived for over a decade in the Overberg, I will talk about how the mobile life of these herders has made it difficult to find archaeological traces of them in the 21st century.
Many publications, most recent: First People- The Lost History of the Khoisan 2022
Khoekhoe Family on the move-late C17 drawing (National Library. South Africa)
BACKGROUND
The interest in history started in 2007 when the late SJ duToit a well-known writer of the people and places related to Hermanus and Stanford, introduced Angela Heslop to local history. Five key people formed a group to undertake the task to create a time line of the history of Hermanus, requested by the Heritage and Aesthetics committee.
OUR MISSION
The Hermanus History Society (HHS) is working towards becoming the premier source of information concerning the history of the greater Hermanus area (from Voelklip to Fisherhaven), the Hemel-en-Aarde valley and selected inland rural areas. This information will be made freely available to all interested parties.