History of Rural South Africa COVER

In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias erected a stone cross on the Eastern Cape coast. Within decades, it had disappeared and even its location was lost. In the 20th century, thanks to the determination of a dedicated historian, the cross, by then

In the foyer of the University of the Witwatersrand’s William Cullen Library is Bartolomeu Dias’s Padrão de São Gregorio, named in honour of Saint Gregory. More than 530 years old, the almost 2m-tall structure is testimony not only to a historic voyage of discovery, but to the perservance of a remarkable academic, Dr Eric Axelson of the university’s Department of History.

en route to the east

From the early 1480s to the late 1490s, three Portuguese seafarers, Diogo Cão, Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama, sailing their small, swift, lateen-rigged caravels, forged a route from Europe to India around Southern Africa. During this period, they erected more than 10 padrãos along the West, Southern and East African coasts.

These inscribed limestone structures, each comprising a small cross atop a tall pillar, were erected to stake Portugal’s claim to parts of Africa, and as symbols of Christianity.

Cão was the first to reach the Namibian coast in 1483. Dias rounded the Cape in early 1488, but it would be Vasco da Gama who eventually reached India in 1497.

To Kwaa ihoek

Dias set off for the West Coast of Africa from Portugal in August 1487 with two caravels and a square-rigged store ship. By January 1488, the store ship was anchored with nine crew off the coast of South-West Africa while Dias and his two caravels continued south.

Swept around the Cape in a terrific storm, they finally made landfall near today’s Mossel Bay, where they found water and