I.A’s source booklet

• The history of Paarl is one of slavery, displacement, and a rich proud culture
• The west side of Paarl is now full of coffee shops, boutique shops, restaurants, galleries, supermarkets and wine shops with tasting rooms catered for tourists
• On the other side of the Berg River, a different world begins - busy, lively, and home to many criminal neighbourhoods in South Africa. There is also plenty of poverty.
• But there's also life. And hope. And pride. As well as an increasing sense of history
• The experience in the Cape, where the VOC established a refreshment station after the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in the mid-17th century, diverged from the stereotype of large-scale slavery found in the New World
• Almost every farm in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Paarl - the three oldest colonial towns - had one or more slaves. But there were no plantations, which prevented the large-scale slavery found in the New World
• Slaves were more successful in preserving their culture and faith than their counterparts in the Americas. Even their language did not completely disappear - Bahasa Melayu, of the East Indies, was for quite a while the language in which slaves communicated and in which Islam was spread
• Public practice of Islam was forbidden but "underground" prayer groups in the homes of ex-slaves, in the forests and in the mountains kept the faith alive. The fact that many Muslims knew the Koran partly or completely by heart made the transfer of knowledge easier.
• It is no coincidence that some of the earliest written examples of Afrikaans at the Cape came from the descendants of the slaves, not their masters, who first wrote in what would later be shaped into "their language"
• The substantial growth in the Muslim population in the Cape began at the end of the 18th century as a result of the entrepreneurial spirit that motivated the Dutch colonists
• Many burghers encouraged the conversion of their slaves to Islam, as the law of matrilineal descent allowed the enslavement of children of Muslim slaves but not Christian ones
• The mosque in Dorp Street attracted people from Africa, India, the Dutch East Indies and Madagascar, free blacks, ex-slaves, Khoi-San labourers and labourers. The place grew into an inclusive institution in an exclusive colonialist society
• In Paarl on a smaller scale, a Muslim community had formed there around 1850. The most important families were traders, carpenters, builders, cart makers - craftsmen. One of the most prominent members was master builder, property owner and developer, Koef du Toit, who had bought a piece of land in Breda Street.
• A wealthy "coloured" middle class developed in Paarl. Many of them had a slavery background, even though this is often difficult to trace because the burghers, farmers and VOC employees generally did not register their paternity if they had impregnated a slave woman.
• Plants and humans share many of the same genes, like the Eyes Absent (EA) genes, which help flies build eyes, aid in human development, and contribute to plant embryogenesis.
• Plants are different from humans in many ways but perhaps not as many as you think. At the DNA level, genes give us clues about how related we are to other organisms, even flies and plants.
• The human egg is a unique and beautiful cell, with amazing superpowers that enable the continuation of the human species. It is believed that a female fetus nine weeks into gestation will contain all the eggs she will have for the rest of her life.
• Heritage includes, but is not limited to, preserving and bringing a collection of old buildings, monuments, artworks, songs, recipes, and other cultural artifacts from the past.
• Heritage is an expression of the present we live in and of the future we desire.
• Eshe: 'I want to go home. How far is home now? I keep thinking if mama, papa, and the rest of the village is looking for me. I hope not. I may be 16, but I am smart enough to know I am too far away from them.'
• when the first slave was brought to the cape: 'he looked at the mome mountain which roots us to an eternal beauty hundreds of years later, and affirmed I am as free and as tall as this mountain this mountain is more chained than i am I will climb to the top one day and call the adhaan before dawn my voice will carry across the seas to my loved ones in a land I may never see again and they will know that i and the treasures I carry within me are safe and always will be for as long as beauty and this mountain survive'
• I want to go home. How far is home now? I keep thinking if mama, papa, and the rest of the village is looking for me. I hope not. I may be 16, but I am smart enough to know I am too far away from them. My name is Eshe, and with the Igbo people, my name means 'life' or to 'live forever'. A week ago, I arrived in 'America'. They washed me, fed me, rubbed me with oily water and took my clothes away. I am just happy I made it off the ship alive, when so many of my friends did not. Master Thompson said we belonged to him. We were his property.


  1845
• Source Q

  • Cor's Ladder
  • Tumbling Blocks
  • Money Wrench
  • Wagon Wheel
  • Carpenter's Wheel
  • Bear's Paw
  • Broken Dishes
  • Basket
  • Crossroads
  • Log Cabin
  • Shoofly
  • Britches
  • Bowtie
  • Flying Geese
  • Birds In The sky
  • Drunkard's Path
  • Sailboat
  • North Star
  • Nine Patch
  • Wreath of Roses
• Archaeological


  The scientific study of material remains such as tools, pottery, jewelry, stone walls, and monuments of past human life and activities
• Adhaan


  A call to prayer
• Burghers


  Free Burghers were early European settlers in the 18th century who had been released of their service contracts to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and had become full citizens
• Embryo


  An unborn animal or human being in the very early stages of development
• Embryogenesis


  The formation and development of the embryo
• Fetus


  The offspring of a human or other mammal in the stages of pre-birth development that follow the embryo stage (in humans taken as beginning eight weeks after conception)
• French Huguenot


  French Protestants who were members of the Calvinist Reformed Church that was established in 1550
• Genome


  The complete set of DNA (genetic material) in an organism
• Gestation


  The carrying of young in the uterus/Pregnancy
• Madrassa


  The Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning
• Mosque


  A place of worship for Muslims
• Oocyte


  A female egg before maturing