Nicolaas Maartin Vergunst (born 1 September 1958 in Cape Town) is the author of Knot of Stone: the day that changed South Africa's history. Knot of Stone is a historical murder mystery about the first recorded massacre and earliest known murder in South African history, and published in the United Kingdom and United States in 2011 by Arena Books.
Nicolaas Vergunst studied fine arts and cultural history at Stellenbosch University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. From 1988–2004 he worked at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town (later assimilated into Iziko South African Museum) where he curated Hoerikwaggo: Images of Table Mountain, an exhibition about the ever-shifting European perceptions of the South African landscape. [1] [2] The book produced for this exhibition had several reprints and is now a collector's item. [3]
Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park, and part of the lands formerly ranged by Khoe-speaking clans, such as the !Uriǁʼaes. It is home to a large array of mostly endemic fauna and flora.
Dom Francisco de Almeida, also known as the Great Dom Francisco, was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492. In 1505 he was appointed as the first governor and viceroy of the Portuguese State of India. Almeida is credited with establishing Portuguese hegemony in the Indian Ocean with his victory at the naval Battle of Diu in 1509. Before Almeida returned to Portugal he lost his life in a conflict with indigenous people at the Cape of Good Hope in 1510. His only son Lourenço de Almeida had previously been killed in the Battle of Chaul.
The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It became an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture Its collection consists largely of Dutch, French and British works from the 17th to the 19th century. This includes lithographs, etchings and some early 20th-century British paintings. Contemporary art work displayed in the gallery is selected from many of South Africa's communities and the gallery houses an authoritative collection of sculpture and beadwork.
The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, originally known as the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, is a multidisciplinary museum which serves Kimberley and the Northern Cape, established in 1907.
The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important African zoology, palaeontology and archaeology collections.
Tyrone Appollis is a South African artist and poet.
David Lurie is a South African photographer, living and working in Cape Town. Lurie has exhibited in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East.
Knot of Stone: the day that changed South Africa’s history is a 2011 historical murder mystery written by South African/Dutch author Nicolaas Vergunst.
Pieter Hugo is a South African photographer who primarily works in portraiture. His work considers the role of photography between documentary and art traditions with a focus on peripheral communities. He lives in Cape Town.
The Meermin slave mutiny took place in February 1766 and lasted for three weeks. Meermin was one of the Dutch East India Company's fleet of slave ships. Her final voyage was cut short by the mutiny of her cargo of Malagasy people, who had been sold to Dutch East India Company officials on Madagascar to be used as company slaves in its Cape Colony in southern Africa. During the mutiny half the ship's crew and almost 30 Malagasy lost their lives.
Meermin was an 18th-century Dutch cargo ship of the hoeker type, one of many built and owned by the Dutch East India Company. She was laid down in 1759 and fitted out as a slave ship before her maiden voyage in 1761, and her career was cut short by a mutiny of her cargo of Malagasy people. They had been sold to Dutch East India Company officials on Madagascar, to be used as company slaves in its Cape Colony in southern Africa. Half her crew and almost 30 Malagasy lost their lives in the mutiny; the mutineers deliberately allowed the ship to drift aground off Struisbaai, now in South Africa, in March 1766, and she broke up in situ. As of 2013, archaeologists are searching for the Meermin's remains.
James Webb is a South African artist best known for his interventions and installations incorporating sound. Webb also works as a sound designer, curator and teacher. His sound installations place special emphasis on the sourcing and presentation of the sound clips, as well as the social significance and context of these sounds. Often referred to as a "collector of sounds," Webb is interested in the role that aural events play in our everyday life. The physical presentation of the work, including the installation space and the logistics of speakers, are also deliberate choices for Webb.
Svea Josephy is currently a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art (photography) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. She is best known for her work with "twin towns," where she draws parallels between settlements and suburbs surrounding South African cities to other places around the world. Josephy's work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
George Hallett was a South African photographer known for images of South African exiles. His body of work captures much of the country's turbulent history through Apartheid and into the young democracy.
Mikhael Subotzky is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. His installation, film, video and photographic work have been exhibited widely in museums and galleries, and received awards including the KLM Paul Huf Award, W. Eugene Smith Grant, Oskar Barnack Award and the Discovery Award at Rencontres d'Arles. He has published the books Beaufort West (2008), Retinal Shift (2012) and, with Patrick Waterhouse, Ponte City (2014). Subotzky is a member of Magnum Photos.
Penny Siopis is a South African artist from Cape Town. She was born in Vryburg in the Northern Cape from Greek parents who had moved after inheriting a bakery from Siopis maternal grandfather. Siopis studied Fine Arts at Rhodes University in Makhanda, completing her master's degree in 1976, after which she pursued postgraduate studies at Portsmouth Polytechnic in the United Kingdom. She taught Fine Arts at the Technikon Natal in Durban from 1980 to 1983. In 1984 she took up a lectureship at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. During this time she was also visiting research fellow at the University of Leeds (1992–93) and visiting Professor in Fine Arts at Umeå University in Sweden (2000) as part of an interinstitutional exchange. With an Honorary Doctorate from Rhodes University, Makhanda - Siopis is currently Honorary Professor at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town.
Zelda Nolte (1929–2003) was a South African- British sculptor and woodblock printmaker.
Jeannette Unite is a South African artist who has mined for her paint box by collecting oxides, metal salts and residues from mines, heritage and industrial sites, to develop paint, pastel and glass recipes for her large scale artworks that reflect on the mining and industrial sites where humanity's contemporary world is manufactured.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cape Town:
The Battle of Salt River was a small military engagement between the crew of a Portuguese fleet led by Francisco de Almeida and the indigenous ǃUriǁʼaekua Khoikhoi clan. It is notable for being the first military encounter between Europeans and indigenous people in what would later become South Africa. The battle resulted in a massacre of Portuguese forces and a victory for the ǃUriǁʼaekua.
