Top speakers at Plett History Fest

PLETTENBERG BAY - Following a very successful first instalment last year, the second Watercourse History Festival in Plettenberg Bay is on the cards this month with a line-up that includes some of South Africa's most knowledgeable speakers.

It is scheduled to take place at the Piesang Valley Community Hall and 1989 Restaurant on 25 and 26 February and will focus on the theme "War and Peace".

Among the speakers are some top academics and popular historians, as well as experienced "peace-workers" who will share insights in the field of human conflict in Southern Africa and Africa.

The festival is set to kick off with a talk by Professor Ruben Richards - an author, peace negotiator, teacher and commercial farmer - who will touch on early Khoikhoi resistance to colonisation by the Dutch East India Company.

Former editor of Getaway magazine, travel writer and author David Bristow, will then take over with a discussion about "War or Peace: from free burghers to trekboers".

Author of historic works and journalist David Hilton-Barber is scheduled to then deliver a talk about the 1820 Settlers and conflict in the Eastern Cape. Fatima Swartz of the Institute for the Healing of Memories is also set to lead a workshop titled "Finding each other again".

Festival convenor and long-standing anti-nuclear activist Mike Kantey will take the stage to talk about the history of the South African nuclear bomb programme. Author Kevin Vos' topic will be "Salute the Eagle: my national service as a paratrooper during Operation Savannah in Angola, 1975-76".

Knysna military historian and former councillor Ian Uys will talk about some citations and honours among SADF combatants in Angola.

Dr Anthony Turton, who served in the Chief Directorate Covert Operations (CDCO) of National Intelligence Service (NIS) during the last battle of the Cold War; founding member of the South African Secret Service and author, will speak on "Understanding the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in its strategic context".

This will be followed by a dialogue on "False Promises, Wasted Opportunities - reflections on South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC)" by former participants Piers Pigou and Zenzile Khoisan. Well-known anthropology professor and author Mike de Jongh will bring the festival to a close with a discussion on "The Human, the Humane, and even the Humorous - Untold stories from the Anglo-Boer War in the Karoo" - and reflect on what drives humans to war and how they might find each other again in peacetime.