The next talk will take place on Tuesday the 31st of May. We are indeed fortunate to have as our guest speaker Dr. Dan Sleigh. The Cape’s storied past contains some tenacious fiction that even managed to find its way into school history books and tourism brochures. Tour guides, popular magazines and inferior encyclopedias like S.E.S.A. and Wikipedia help to spread and perpetuate these myths. The best known ones are accepted as the truth and are never questioned. Quite harmless in themselves, they become ugly when bureaucracy makes it difficult to expose them, laws are made in their support and politicians use them as a stick to beat a dog.

Dan Sleigh is the leading authority on the VOC / DEIC era at the Cape and contributor to De Grote Atlas (2009) – the wonderful atlas of colour maps and descriptions of the DEIC’s maritime outposts. In this illustrated talk he will examine and dismantle some of the ‘mythteries’ from the VOC period (1652-1795) eg. distribution of Khoina clans in pre-colonial SA, "van Riebeeck's Hedge", muzzle loading cannon on all the "Kanonkops", "Kat Wall & Balcony" at the Castle, "Ou Kaapse Weg".

DATE:             Tuesday 31 May at 8pm

VENUE:           Kalk Bay Community Centre

SPEAKER:        Dr Dan Sleigh