Just Nuisance to Standby Diver: Exploring the cultural heritage of Simon’s Towns as a British Naval Port and South African Navy Base

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Port of Call: Archaeologies of Labor and Movement through Ports", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Simon’s Town, in South Africa, served as naval port and harbor first for the British and later for the South African Navy. Cultural connections to other parts of Africa, United States, and the Far East are an equally important part of the historical narrative and naval identity of the False Bay. Kroomen from West Africa who served on British naval vessels, often retired here. Enslaved fishers, whalers and port workers who supported the naval community were deserters from American ships or came from Indonesia and the Swahili coastline. Drawing upon an array of data sets including interviews with Kroomen descendants, naval gravestone markers, shipwreck sites, and architectural heritage spanning from 1795 to WWII this paper examines and analyzes the labor community and global naval legacy of port situated on a strategic sea route at the tip of Africa.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Port of Call: Archaeologies of Labor and Movement through Ports

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow