PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - They say that history repeats itself. This will ring true for Plettenberg Bay when the Watercourse History Festival returns to town for a third time in February 2022, with the theme "Crossing Borders".
Veteran television personality and local resident David Hall-Green will open proceedings with a talk about "Kitchener's Revenge: the battle of Omdurman in the Sudan, 1898".
Next up is a discussion led by heritage consultant and Gorinhaqua activist Ron Martin on Khoekhoen resistance to Dutch settlement, followed by Dr Dan Sleigh talking about the "Return Fleets of the Dutch East India Company, 1602-1795".
Well-known anthropology professor and author Mike de Jongh will discuss the Eastern frontier legend Coenraad de Buys, while professor DJ Culpin will discuss French traveller and ornithologist Francois le Vaillant's travels into the interior of Africa.
His latest English translation will be launched by the Historical Publications of Southern Africa (HiPSA) and will equally serve as the launch of the festival.
Andrew Lamprecht of the Iziko/South African National Gallery will tell more about the gallery's 150th anniversary.
Professor Howard Phillips, who has done deep research in pandemics and epidemics in South Africa, will discuss the "Spanish Flu" of 1918 in SA.
Specialist in modern South African history Professor Vivian Bickford-Smith will discuss the significance of interracial friendships in the apartheid era.
Veteran journalist Chiara Carter will share her experience of alternative media in the 1980s, while researcher Josette Cole will discuss community histories from Crossroads to Observatory in Cape Town.
Rugby legend Nick Mallett will be the guest speaker on transformation in South African rugby at a gala dinner in aid of the Bitou Rugby Club.
The festival will come to a close with Piers Pigou, one of the interlocutors at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), who will speak on the current insurgency in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.
The festival runs from 23 to 26 February next year. Tickets are expected to start at R150 per session and will be available through Quicket soon.
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