Blasting cannons, looting pirates, iron ox wagons and epic battles. Sounds like scenes from Game of Thrones or Pirates of the Caribbean, but this is the history that characterises the Eastern Cape.
Blasting cannons, looting pirates, iron ox wagons and epic battles. Sounds like scenes from Game of Thrones or Pirates of the Caribbean, but this is the history that characterises the Eastern Cape.
In a short, educational discovery walk through the rocky outcrops of Gunfire Hill during Scifest Africa, Basil Mills, with his leather game ranger hat and ‘knobkerrie’ walking stick, took a group on an unforgettable adventure through Grahamstown by putting the 'story' back into 'history'.
Mills is an education officer for the National English Literary Museum (NELM) and well known for his extensive knowledge of South African natural and human history, battle re-enactments, animal rescue and rehabilitation work and restoration projects.
Mills says his tours are for “all children ages six to 96; [after that]I consider you an adult.”
His larger-than-life personality coupled with his love of nature and history meant he was the perfect person to lead a Scifest discovery walk, a group of young Kingswood College and home-schooled students crowding round him, eagerly asking about canons.
Mills explained to them that some pirates wore eye patches because they lost an eye from incorrectly lighting the gun powder.
He should know, being one of 18 people in South Africa licensed to fire a cannon.
During the discovery trail he told tales about the amakala (aloe vera) and other fauna and flora in the surrounding area.
He drew everyone in with stories of naughty boys, amakhwekhwe, who accidentally sat on a termite hill while secretly eating honey, and how getting bitten helped led the elders to an important discovery.
Termites could be used as natural sutures by “putting honey in a wound and letting them (termites) bite it and tearing their bodies off before they released their bite,” Mills explained.
His love of history leads him annually to the reenactment of the memorial battle in April.
The battle marks the founding of Grahamstown and is a memorial to all amaXhosa and soldiers who lost their lives.
When asked what books he would recommend for more information, he recommended A Literary Guide to the Eastern Cape by Jeanette Eve, to which he also contributed. It tells the folktales of the Eastern Cape.
