Heritage & History Matters

The Merry Month Of May
The month of May celebrates the advent of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
We want to celebrate a pioneering South African couple who are making waves in both hemispheres.
Their English estate, The Newt, is the official sponsor of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show.
While their South African estate, Babylonstoren, is acknowledged as the only (RHS) Royal Horticultural Society Partner Garden in Africa ... Read More

Why This Protea Is Our National Flower
There are many reasons why this protea is South Africa's national flower. I like these survive & thrive analogies ...
Proteas are hardy plants that can survive harsh conditions; drought, heavy rains and even massive bush fires because they are re-sprouters, a very effective survival strategy, but won’t be happy in temperatures below -4C
... Read More

Air Under Your Wings
Celebrating the opening up of air routes. Direct flights from the USA reduce travel time to Cape Town by more than five hours, which means more time to enjoy the beauty and majesty of South Africa. Get an idea of the sheer size of Africa with this tool! ... Read More

Proof of Endurance
The Telegraph in the UK has declared Cape Town, South Africa “the greatest city in the world to visit right now'', & that ''the city of wine and waves is back with a pop and a fizz.”
And the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton - The Endurance is found. Proof indeed! ... Read More

Flowers & the Meaning of Life
Flowers are a lens on human nature and our search for meaning.
A metaphor for a mortal world suddenly fathoming its fragility and resilience.
More than a pretty object to be admired, they are a ravishing system of aliveness — a kind of silent symphony of interconnected resilience.
... Read More

Shaped By Geography
Few people realise how big Africa is. It's three times bigger than the USA. You could fit the USA, Greenland, India, China, Spain, France, Germany and the UK into Africa and still have room for most of Eastern Europe. Maps shine a light into our understanding of geography ... Read More

Honouring Heritage
According to legend, more than 250 years ago, a prophecy was made that there would be a Sacred Circle around the Cape. We celebrate a watershed moment as select shrines dotting the Peninsula are declared National Monuments ... Read More

SA’s Gift to the Act of Rememberance
How the tradition of 2-minutes of silence during Remembrance occasions was born, a unique South African gift to world, a simple peaceful gesture that in deep solitude remembers the end of all war – not the beginning ... Read More

Acclaimed No.1 City in Africa
Cape Town is South Africa's crown jewel, worth visiting year-round. Ranked No. 1 City in Africa by Travel + Leisure, its iconic Table Mountain has been voted as Africa’s leading tourist attraction by the 2021 World Travel Awards ... Read More

Bequeathing To Posterity
National Arbor Week is a time for us to plant indigenous trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management. ''Each generation of humanity takes the earth as trustees … We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed'' ... Read More

A Plant That ‘Cannot Die’
A director of Kew Gardens in London remarked, “it is out of the question the most wonderful plant ever brought to this country and one of the ugliest.” Some plants are over 3,000 years old, growing since the beginning of the Iron Age, when the Phoenician alphabet was invented and David was crowned King of Israel ... Read More

About Overcoming Poverty
On Mandela’s birthday the call is out for people everywhere to honour him by acting on the idea that each person has the power to change the world.
By devoting 67 minutes of their time – one minute for every year of Mandela’s public service – people can make a small gesture of solidarity with humanity and a step towards a global movement for good ... Read More

The Best Foodie Destination
Cape Town has just been voted the "premier South African city for food, catering for every taste and style – haute cuisine, street food to die for, eclectic pop-ups." And the historic Groot Constantia wine estate has just been rated the best in the world for its Sanvignon Blanc. Not bad going from South Africa’s oldest wine farm which was established in 1685 ... Read More

It’s All About Perspectives
''If you take history seriously, the real point is to understand one's own history and work with the grain, not against it. It means learning from mistakes and not clinging to yesterday's theories and visions" - R.W.Johnson ... Read More

First People & San Place in History
The San are one of the last hunter-gatherer societies left on earth, living across six countries in southern Africa, whose ancient way of life, languages, and culture are under grave threat. See why the genetic story of The First Peopleis is so special ... Read More

Crowns, Knighthoods & Knock-outs
If winning was a country, it would be South Africa right now! Accolades, awards and reasons to celebrate, showing that hope is alive and local talent is prodigious ... Read More

Cape Town voted best city in the world
The votes have been counted, the results are in ... the greatest city in the world is a coastal gem, ... Read More

The Relevance of Rememberance
Imaginative and innovative projects show how to properly honour the past a century later, and not let remeberance become a hollow ritual ... Read More

How Great Is Thy Art?
The new Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria gives the city of jacarandas (and the whole country) a new cultural landmark & window into the past with the Mapungubwe Collection ... Read More

Learning From The Royals
Cape Town celebrated Heritage Day with the Duke & Duchess of Sussex - Prince Harry & Meghan, as reminder of South Africa's cultural diversity and chance to express national unity ... Read More

10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Fourth of July
With 243 years of tradition behind it, the Fourth of July is one of America's most cherished holidays. Here are 10 other facts you may not have known about ... Read More

Wanderlust Renegades : Part 1
If you're on a trip and start to ask yourself, I wonder who came up with those e-scooters? Or the ... Read More

The Case For Visiting Cape Town
You really can't overstate the case for visiting Cape Town. It's just come tops in the Telegraph award for The World's 50 Best Honeymoon Hotels & Destinations ... Read More

South African Activist to Become First Disabled Person in Space
Eddie Ndopu, a South African activist and humanitarian, plans a flight on a commercial trip into space and deliver an address to the UN while he’s up there ... Read More

SAY AFRICA
This song inspires an incredible pride in South Africans … Many of whom remember the track from the opening ceremony ... Read More

One Of Our Greatest Gifts
Did you know that the two minutes silence and its association to Armistice Day (11/11/11) or 'Remembrance Day' has a South African origin? ... Read More

Park & Play with Panoramic Views
Battery Park is Cape Town's new urban park connecting the V&A Waterfront to the city. It’s a green space with a series of scenic routes, recreation and retail activities - to say nothing of spectacular views ... Read More

The Past Is Still Unfolding
Reflecting on different architectures of dominance linked to entrenched powers of colonialism, racism & relentless capitalism ... Read More

Art’s Voice Returning to Africa
Another good day in Africa. Yinka Shonibare's multifaceted oeuvre grapples with the lasting legacy of colonialism ... Read More

South Africa’s 10th World Heritage Site
Mountains referred to as the ‘Genesis of Life’ with the best preserved ancient rocks on Earth, contain the oldest signs of life in the world ... Read More

The Night That Changed The World
An event that sowed the seeds of Satyagraha - about which Mandela said of Gandhi: 'India’s soul truly does lie in South Africa' ... Read More

Even Starbucks has “Ubuntu”
Starbucks was started with some basic fundamentals of "Ubuntu" in mind, giving it the longevity to build a very strong brand with intrinsic valued staff ... Read More

Insights behind Zeitz MOCAA
Hear how this groundbreaking contemporary art museum in Cape Town's V&A Waterfront came about - its design highlights and architectural challenges ... Read More

The Story of a Ceramic Wall
''In two hundred years time people may gaze on our wall and wonder what some of the creatures are, as they were last seen in 2074" ... Read More

Visionary Plan By Pioneering Women
Migration to Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront's Silo district is a clever paradigm shift around the desirability & economic potential of local South African design
... Read More

Twist To The Human Story
Spectacular South African fossils are revolutionizing the human family tree & radically changing our understanding of evolution ... Read More

A Beacon That Welcomes
You've seen so many images of Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain - which IS a World Heritage Site with good ... Read More

Ethical Photos?
Fed up with being treated like a human safari during township tours in Cape Town, some ''locals'' responded. See how the ''privileged'' reacted
... Read More

Transformative Trailblazers
An innovative land reform deal in the Cape Winelands represents how owners & workers can co-own their production (sweat equity) and co-exist on land they are all tied to ... Read More

Random Acts of Kindness
Let's hear about the most heart-warming help you've ever received from a stranger abroad?
How to ''pay-it-forward” in the name of cultural connectivity, respect, appreciation & solidarity ... Read More

Prescient Commemoration
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Churchill's concern was that the loss of the past would mean “the most thoughtless of ages. Every day headlines and short views.” ... Read More

Changing perspectives about Africa
Images that speak eloquently about the historic change underway in Africa and the opportunities for African businesses and the world … ... Read More

Honouring Fearless South Africans
TIME magazine’s 2016 list of the 100 most influential people in the world includes public protector Thuli Madonsela & palaeo-anthropologist Lee Berger ... Read More

The Big Frieze – Epic Undertaking
'The largest work of art created in Rome since the Sistine Chapel' - William Kentridge's most ambitious project to date ... Read More

Crowing About Cape Town
Cape Town is one of the world’s top places in which to ''be & see'', but don't just take our word for it, see the accolades and awards the city has received ... Read More

The dawn of the “Anthropocene”
The indelible imprint left by human beings on Earth has become so clear that it justifies naming a new geological epoch after itself ... Read More

A Fitting Tribute to Mandela
A giant tapestry provides a constant reminder to the millions of people passing through Cape Town International airport about Mandela's legacy ... Read More

Crossing Oceans and Connecting People
''There are stories out there of solutions, hope, and leadership. Stories that can build a sustainable future, when we come together to protect what we love. That is what Hōkūle'a has always done'' ... Read More

Cultivating the Future
its World Food Day. Let's consign hunger & malnutrition to the dustbin of history. And forge a society that protects the right to access of food ... Read More

Flower Mecca
It’s springtime in South Africa and the Western Cape is spectacular beyond dreaming, with the flower mecca of Postberg in the West Coast National Park a mere hour's dive away ... Read More

The Face That Changed The Human Story
As champion of South Africa's claim to be the true birthplace of humankind, palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger has added two completely new species to the human family tree ... Read More

Symbol of South Africa’s Pre-colonial Past
Described as South Africa's equivalent of Tutuankhamun's mask, the golden rhinoceros of Mapungubwe is the defining symbol of its pre-colonial civilisation ... Read More

Courageous Cultural Ambassadors
Against the odds, with no formal training, a group of traditional dancers is representing SA at the acclaimed World Championships of Performing Arts in Hollywood ... Read More

Hunters’ eviction of 40,000 Maasai
Tanzania to evict 40,000 Maasai pastoralists from their ancestral land so that the royal family of Dubai can hunt big game ... Read More

In Remembrance
Armistice day was remembered in a unique way today... 11 November 2014 marks the centennial anniversary of Armistice Day, which ... Read More

”Make It New”
What a striking timeline of the Cape’s rich craft and design heritage - a must see exhibition currently on display at the V&A Waterfront's just-opened Watershed ... Read More

“Cape Town is the best city in the world for …”
... blending urban culture with the great outdoors - the top of Table Mountain can feel as pristine as when the Dutch first pitched up in the early 17th century ... Read More

Planting The Seeds
Urban or city farms aren’t a new concept, globally. You can find them on rooftops in Bangkok, San Francisco and London ... Read More

What Gandhi gave South Africa, 100-yrs on
Mandela said that Gandhi was “the archetypal anti-colonial revolutionary” - who shaped the course of South African liberation history ... Read More

Chelsea garden winners inspired by history
Congratulation to No Man’s Land, designed by Charlotte Rowe for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, with a Warhorse puppet & its handlers stealing the show on press day ... Read More

Rest in Peace – Shapeshifter Extraordinaire
''When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace'' ... Read More

From Bowling Green to Bowl of Greens
The Oranjezicht City Farm is a catalyst for relationship building, nutrition, health, treading lightly on the planet and seeing another way to be in the world ... Read More

Topical Collaboration
The Keiskamma Kuru Exhibit at the 2013 Kirstenbosch Biennale is a botanical display based on the medicinal and traditional use of plants of southern Africa ... Read More

Kirstenbosch Gardens’ Centenary Celebration
Kirstenbosch Gardens are a refuge for the Cape's Floral Kingdom & its diverse descendants who have shaped history from Stone Age man to Khoi herders & colonialists ... Read More

The Green and Gold
South African plant bounty goes global ... and endemic flora graces the world's medicine chests and grocery cupboards ... Read More