We took our car for a service yesterday and I was intrigued by a fenced off area that held a monolith with this statue on it!
Ah! This is a statue of the great Vasco da Gama. He landed in St. Helena's Bay in 1497 and claimed to discover the new land. He named the place St. Helena Bay. Helena was a religious woman and she was the mother of Constantine the Great!
But the KhoiKhoi San were already living there and they wounded him in his thigh with a spear.
The site where this Memorial is, was vacant for many years, until some motor manufacturers bought the stand! The new owners had to keep the statue as it was declared as a heritage item. They fenced it off and built their premises behind it!
And here is a plaque that is mounted behind the statue on a wall! I presume it has the names of those that were present to unveil the statue in 1999.
But of course there is also another story behind this hero!
In order to establish the Portuguese trading route and in search of gold, he sailed along the coast at the southernmost tip of Africa. He travelled past Durban, which he named Natal and upwards around the east coast.
Wherever he found inhabitants in the land, he bargained with them and if some of the peoples wouldn't listen to him, he tortured them severely. So severely that he even cut off their noses and their ears.
My personal feeling is that this sowed the seed of the distrust between blacks and whites in Africa.
And to boost this distrust, the slave trade later also didn't do much good to the white man's reputation.
Many souls say; "Oh, but they were barbarians"!
Today we know better! We know that all life is sacred and deserves respect, honor and most importantly LOVE!
Think about it!
Thank you for your kind visit to this page of the @papilloncharity
Information re; Vasco da Gama taken from www.sahistory.com
All photos are my own and taken with a Canon SX60
Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone
All life is sacred. Yes. Tip!
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Thank you once again Lady Melinda! You are a STAR! A very bright one! Blessings! Stephen
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Hi @papilloncharity! @melinda010100 is sending you 0.1 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
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Like the blue delft tiles used even that long ago @papilloncharity life and times have changed. Explorers must have had huge egos thinking they ruled wherever they landed and planted a flag.
We reap what we sow, and at the end of the day the world is the only home for everyone.
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Impressed by your knowledge Lady Joan! I have forgotten about Blue Delft tiles a long time ago! So true about the reaping part! People to this day cannot understand that what you do to another, you are in fact doing to yourself! Blessings! Stephen
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