SOUTH-AFRICA-L Archives

Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2001-11 > 1004713189


From: Lehmkuhl <>
Subject: St Helena's 500th birthday
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 09:59:49 -0500


In May 2002 the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena celebrates the
500th anniversary of its discovery by Portuguese seafarers, and the island
will celebrate with a year-long festival.

St Helena, which is 10 564km north-west of Cape Town, is a tiny British
overseas territory with close social, trade and tourism ties with South
Africa. It has a population of just under 5 000 people. It was discovered
by Portuguese seafarers in May 1502 and is perhaps best known as the last
home of its most famous prisoner, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was kept in exile
by the British there until his death in 1821. South Africans were
incarcerated there too, including the Zulu chief Dinizulu, son of King
Cetewayo, and 6 000 Boer prisoners of war during the Anglo-Boer War in the
early 1900s.

The RMS St Helena is the only supply and passenger ship which services the
island 10 times a year from Cape Town. There is no airport on the island
and the RMS St Helena is the island's only regular link with the outside
world. Four or five extra voyages have been scheduled for next year to
ensure St Helenians, known as Saints, living elsewhere in the world, as
well as tourists, will be able to visit the island.

The celebrations will include a focus on the Dutch occupation of the island
in the 17th century and the Dutch East India Company; the role of the
British since the days of the British East India Company in 1659; the
Portuguese and the island's discovery; the French and Napoleon's exile to
the island in 1815; the South African connection; and the incarceration of
the Boer prisoners of war.

Some 442 St Helenians emigrated to Durban in 1873. Hundreds more have since
moved to South Africa to seek work, primarily settling in Cape Town, as a
result of the collapse of the island's flax industry after a decision by
the British Post Office to switch from flax to nylon string.

For more information visit the St Helena Q5 website on www.sthelena2002.com

Anne Lehmkuhl
Genealogist specialising in South African genealogy & family history research.
Publisher of Generations - a monthly South African genealogy newsletter.
Web site: http://www.rupert.net/~lkool/

This thread: