Recent Activities

REPORT OBTAINED FROM RHODES UNIVERSITY WEBSITE (https://www.ru.ac.za/) Dr Shell presenting Dr Cornelius with a copy On 18 February 2020, the Cory Library hosted the launch of Indoda Ebisithanda (The Man Who Loved Us): The Reverend James Laing among the amaXhosa 1831-1836, edited by Dr Sandy Shell, Senior Research Associate at Cory Library. This volume was compiled from the journals of Rev James Laing, writing about his missionary life among the amaNgqika at Mkhubiso/Burnshill in the Amathole Mountains of the [...]

A new Council of the Society was elected on 27 November 2019 and held its first meeting on 10 February 2020. The members of Council appear in the photo below HiPSA Council (10 Feb 2020) Back row from the left: Mr Rolf Proske, Mr Andrew Duncan, Prof  Susan Newton-King, Dr Anton Ehlers, Dr Russell Martin, Mr Justice Ian Farlam, Ms Najwa Hendrickse, Mr Danie de Villiers, Mr Hugh Amoore, Prof Adam Mendelsohn. Front row from the [...]

On 17 March 2018, in a somewhat cramped Protea bookshop on a hot Stellenbosch morning Francois Cleophas, Elizabeth van Heyningen, Chris van der Merwe and Con de Wet presented a thoroughly interesting talk on the 2017 volume, Selections from the Letters of President M.T. Steyn, 1904-1910. There was a small but very engaged audience present. A call to join the VRS was made, and each chair had a pamphlet on it. We'll see whether there will be any new members [...]

The 98th AGM was a momentous occasion as the great majority of the members present, as well as others voting by proxy, decided that the time has come to change the name of the Van Riebeeck Society. The name was originally chosen as a compromise and an attempt at unifying the Dutch/Afrikaans and English groups in the country. The name has lost relevance and is in any case not descriptive of the range of publications produced by the Society. [...]

The VRS has won the prestigious Archives Advocacy Award for 2016-2017 presented annually by the Western Cape’s Department of Cultural Affairs. The citation for the award reads: "The Van Riebeeck Society, founded in 1918, has done a lot of good work over many years promoting archives by publishing transcribed primary sources. In this way, the society has made available archival sources to many people and has made the public aware of the richness of history and sources available. The publications [...]