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6 December 1497: the Khoekhoe, the Portuguese and the limits of written history
15 November 2023, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm
Research Seminar with Dr Scott Nethersole
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Queenie Lee – History of Art
Location
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IAS Forum, Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)South WingWilkins BuildingLondonWC1E 6BT
Tearing down monuments set up by colonisers is nothing new in South Africa, even if its long history has been forgotten. One of the first moments of contact between the Portuguese and the Khoekhoe, which occurred at what is now Mossel Bay late in 1497, was marked by just such an action. At the instruction of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese tried to raise a cross and a stone monument (or padrão), which the Khoekhoe immediately cast down into the sea. Confounded by a lack of textual or oral history, this paper will ask what evidence can be brought to bear on this inaugural act of resistance.
IMAGE: Probably Khoekhoe (or San), The Porterville Galleon, probably 17th or 18th century, red ochre, near Porterville, Western Cape, South Africa
About the Speaker
Dr Scott Nethersole
Reader in Italian Renaissance Art, 1400-1500 at Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Scott Nethersole is Reader in Italian Renaissance Art, 1400-1500 at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. From January 2024, he will be Professor in the History of Art and Architecture, 500-1500 CE, at Radboud University at Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
More about Dr Scott Nethersole