Browsing by Author "Samuels, Damian"

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    Cape-�Helena: An exploration of nostalgia and identity through the Cape Town -� St. Helena migration nexus
    (University of the Western Cape, 2018) Samuels, Damian; Hayes, Patricia
    For an Island measuring merely 128 square kilometers, and in spite of its remote location in the mid-�South Atlantic, St. Helena �punches way above its weight in history�, earning and occupying a privileged place in British scholarship of its imperial thalassocratic age. However, prior to this period in which the Island was indispensible to British Empire formation, it had passed through the hands of at least two former European naval nations before it was eventually laid claim to and effectively colonised by the British. The Portuguese, who were the first to stumble upon the uninhabited Island in 1502 -� naming it St. Helena in honour of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great�s mother -� managed to keep its existence a closely guarded secret for over eight years. For nearly a century, the Island was reserved for exclusive use by the Portuguese as a port for recuperation, replenishing and re-�provisioning, which they usually visited on their homebound journey from trading (and conquering) in the East Indies. This Portuguese monopoly of use of the Island, however, ended during the last decade of the sixteenth century when other maritime nations, particularly Dutch and later English traders, became aware of and started frequenting the Island. The initial overlap period, constituting the first three decades of the seventeenth century when mostly the Dutch and Portuguese shared use of the Island, was cause for occasional hostile encounters between the two nations. Apparently, continued Dutch and English harassment of Portuguese (and Spanish) ships made visiting the Island untenable for the Portuguese who opted to avoid St. Helena and instead make use of a number of their other port �possessions� along the West African coastline to replenish and repair their ships.
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    Cape-�Helena: An exploration of nostalgia and identity through the Cape Town -� St. Helena migration nexus
    (University of the Western Cape, 2018) Samuels, Damian; Hayes, Patricia
    In the following two chapters I will attempt to offer a more systemic account of St. Helena immigration to South African between 1838 and 1948. To date, no such study has been undertaken, despite a vibrant oral tradition amongst the descendants of St. Helena immigrants celebrating their St. Helenian heritage and often, in peculiar fashion, romanticise their Island of provenance. The commencement date for my chosen timeframe emerges from a need to authenticate rather tenuous historical accounts of St. Helena�s first mass emigration for the Cape of Good Hope in 1838. Where cases of migration are discussed, these are either incidences of large-�scale 41, often aided, migration and settlement, or of those St. Helena migrant workers initially employed under temporary contacts to work in South Africa, specifically within burgeoning industrial sectors of the late-�nineteenth or early-�twentieth century South Africa.