Cabo

If you have genealogical skeletons in your cupboard, do you, with George Bernard Shaw, let them dance? I certainly think we should: skeletons from the past make good stories! When I at last begin to find out more about my Great- Aunt Marion she turned out to be a remarkable woman, both of and beyond her time, and though she certainly had a few skeletons there were none that needed relegating to the cupboard. As I delved more deeply into her life I was surprised that the family seemed to have known so little about what she did. The only consistent memory was that she was very beautiful, with lovely curly blond hair, and that she had a daughter.

The Mowbray Maternity Hospital dates back to 1916 and therefore celebrated its centenary last year. The celebrations kicked off with a media launch in March, 2016, with a nine-month countdown to 13 December 2016 – emulating a ninemonth pregnancy! The hospital – or rather the property – has quite a rich history spanning a period of five centuries.

Every city has a history, a chronological unfolding of generation upon generation of people who influenced the events that find expression in everything we observe about the city today. A walk along the bustling streets of Cape Town reveals a rich diversity of people whose individual roots are composed of a complex weave of family trees that include ancestors from many different parts of the world. These people swarm, as if in a hive, along asphalt boulevards, ducking and diving into structures of many different styles built up over time. The history of Cape Town is documented by written accounts since the arrival of the first European settlers over 300 years ago. But what about its history prior to the arrival of Europeans?