Steps bear history of Filipino community
City invites public to comment on renaming Kalk Bay stairs
THE FISHING community of Kalk Bay is a rope made of strands of diversity and a shared loved of the sea and now a particular strand is about to be remembered. The city council this week invited public comment on the naming of an unnamed flight of concrete steps the Manila Steps. The steps are off Boyes Drive, on the corner of Quarterdeck and Kimberly roads.
Yesterday, Kalk Bay Historical Society member Tony Trimmel who proposed that the steps be named in honour of Filipino fishermen who came to settle in Kalk Bay in the mid-1800s, said it is something “positive for Kalk Bay”, a celebration of the diversity of the many nationalities, who settled in the town.
“I don’t think anybody is going to say anything negative about the naming of the steps,” he said.
As a fifth generation descendent of the Erispe family, one of Kalk Bay’s well-known Filipino families, Trimmel said the town would have a “big celebration when the city approves the naming”.
“So many of the family names are still around today and many of the descendants have become prominent members of the community, while others are making their mark all over the world. Some of the old Spanish names from the Philippines are Erispe, Pepino, Da Souza, Menigo, Fernandez and De la Cruz. They will come for the big celebration,” said Trimmel.
After the first settlers arrived in the mid1800s, more families who had heard about Kalk Bay arrived in the 1870s, during a period of uprising against Spanish rule in the Philippines. Some of the latter settlers returned home in the late 1890s when the political climate had stabilised, but the majority remained in the area.
Near the steps there is a headstone that marks the spot where the Filipino cemetery was situated until the late 1800s. Remains from the cemetery have since been exhumed and reburied at Muizenberg cemetery.