Ostrich feathers

In the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the 20th century, ostrich feathers were a valuable commodity. So valuable that in PE they built this ostrich feather hall. The building is really three buildings, each successively larger as the trade in ostrich feathers expanded. At top is the grand staircase in the entrance, in the middle is the huge pipe organ, and the photo at bottom gives one an idea of the size of this huge trading hall.

Downtown PE

The old city center has some interesting buildings. At top is the Opera House, the oldest in South Africa. Next is the public library with a statue of Queen Victoria in front. Next is PE city hall. At bottom, is a monument to Prester John, the mythical Christian king in Africa that many explorers in the 1500s were hoping to possible encounter.

Fort Frederick

In 1799, a British garrison was sent to Algoa Bay to prevent an invasion of French troops during the Napoleonic wars. The commander of the fort when the 1820 settlers arrived was Captain Francis Evatt and he is buried in the fort. The fort was never attacked. At top is a view from the battlements, next a student exploring, and lastly the stone walls of the fort.

Donkin Reserve and harbor

The Eastern Cape is marked by the great influence of the 1820 settlers. Britain had conflicts with the Afrikaners as well as the Xhosa people in the Eastern Cape and in 1820 decided that one way to settle the problems was to settle more Britons in the area. While their influence is pervasive, two cities very much connected to the new settlement were Grahamstown (about which more will be said later) and Port Elizabeth. Above are several photos of the Donkin Reserve in the center of PE. Sir Rufane Donkin was an early acting governor of the cape and was devoted to his wife. He had named the new settlement Port Elizabeth after her but she died shortly afterward from the arduous voyage. In her memory, he built the Donkin Memorial pyramid. The lighthouse was built in 1861. The site is now a national memorial. The next two photos are of a private school and a Victorian hotel that are also on the site. Finally, a view of the harbour. PE is South Africa's fifth largest city and third largest port (behind Cape Town and Durban).

The Horse Memorial

Over 400,000 horses were killed in the Boer War. About 100,000 of them were imported through Port Elizabeth from the United States. The statue bears some historically accurate bits. One can see that the officer watering his horse has removed the markings from his uniform so that he cannot so easily be identified as an officer. British officers were prime targets for Boer snipers. African pigeons, meanwhile, like pigeons everywhere, show no respect.

Rocky Road

Just outside of Port Elizabeth, or PE, is a trail that runs along the coast. It is called the Sacramento trail because one of the many shipwrecks off the coast was the Sacramento. Above are some of the students exploring the rocky coast.

Algoa Bay

I found this quote about the discovery by the explorer Bartolomeo Diaz in 1488 in Joshua Slocum s book, _Sailing Alone Around the World_:

"The early Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far as Algoa Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small island, now called Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross, and swore they would cut the captain's throat if he attempted to sail farther. Beyond this they thought was the edge of the world, which they too believed was flat; and fearing that their ship would sail over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their commander, to retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year later, we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape of Storms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the way to India was easy."

One of the highlights of Port Elizabeth in the natural environment. There are long stretches of beautiful beach in and near the city.

Window on South Africa

I arrived safely in South Africa besides the bizarre situation of having to change airports in NYC. Yep, I arrived at La Guardia and had two hours to get to JFK. It worked but wasn't easy and made more complicated by a couple of mistakes that were solely my fault. I would not recommend doing this. Interestingly, I sat on the plane to South Africa next to a woman from Dillon, Montana, only about 90 miles from Anaconda. Naturally, being Montanans, we knew some people in common. She had been in the Peace Corps in Swaziland and was returning to visit her Swazi friends.

On the plane from Joburg to Port Elizabeth, I struck up a conversation with the young lady next to me and discovered she was one of my students, Emily from Pennsylvania. Nuala, a lead staff person in the international office at NMMU, met us at the airport. Her great energy and warm and enthusiastic nature would become a staple of the visit.

The students were in The Bantry, dorm-like housing in a neighborhood called Humewood near the beach and not too far from the university. I was a couple blocks away in the Crow's Nest. Both were self-catering flats.

The best part about my loding was the view out of window overlooking historic Algoa Bay, renamed today, Nelson Mandela Bay.

Genesis of project

My first experience in Africa was in February of 2008. I undertook the trip to South Africa for personal reasons. One was that a great old friend of mine from graduate school, Heather Shafer, had married a Portuguese diplomat and they were living in Maputo, Mozambique. The other reason is that my grandfather, Thomas McNay, was a private in the British Army's regiment of the Lancashire Fusiliers and served in the Anglo-Boer War, otherwise called the South African War, 1899-1902.

I never met my grandfather since he died in the 1930s. He and his wife, Bridget, had immigrated to Anaconda, Montana, in 1908, two years after he was discharged from the army. Above is a photo of the happy couple shortly before they immigrated from Wigan, England. While an unknown conflict to most Americans, I had heard about the war ever since I was young. Over the years, especially as I became a historian, I studied the conflict. While I am mainly a cold war historian, the blend of diplomatic, military, and international history involved in a study of the Boer War definitely dovetails with my interests.

On a trip the Britain's National Archvies to do some other research, I dug out Tom McNay's military record. With that in hand, I was able to visit some sites in South Africa where I know my grandfather was - for example, the Spion Kop battlefield and Venter's Spruit, the location of a clash between the Boers and the Brits where my grandfather was wounded.

This was such a great experience and South Africa such a fascinating place, that I contacted Kurt Olausen, director of UC's International Programs, when I returned. I suggested that a history course in South Africa could be a successful venture and he was very enthusiastic. So we began planning for the program.

The result of our plans was a program based at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, June 16-July 25. This blog is an effort to tell the story of that effort to investigate with a group of students the history and culture of South Africa.