Following the screening of Marion Edmund’s documentary Troopship Tragedy in 2017, John Gribble will be talking about the research he has done into this iconic South African wreck and its story. 

He will describe the loss of the Mendi and more than 600 members of the South African Native Labour Corps in the English Channel in February 1917 and discuss its place in the wider context of World War I and South Africa’s politics of the time. He will also look at what we now know about the wreck itself – the physical remains of the Mendi as she lies on the seabed - something which until recently has not been part of the Mendi narrative but which provides a powerful focus for our ongoing interaction with this tragic but largely forgotten and ignored moment in our South African history.

• Date: "The Mendi: Wednesday 25 April 2018 at 6pm. 
• Venue: Iziko South African Museum, 25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town 
• Cost: Members on presentation of valid 2018 membership card–free of charge Non-members: a donation of R 30
• Email samfriends@iziko.org.za for additional information