On Wednesday 4 October, the University of the Third Age (U3A) Helderberg will celebrate 20 years of flourishing existence in the basin.
To mark this auspicious occasion, an insightful talk by Prof Ian Glenn will take place in the Strand Town Hall at 10:00. Glenn returns to the rostrum, having last addressed U3A audiences on wildlife filming in Southern Africa last November. This time he tells of his own 25-year “safari” in tracking down the travel notebooks of François Levaillant, renowned French author and travel writer, explorer, naturalist, zoological collector and ornithologist of the late 18th century. In the 1780s he travelled around Cape Town and Saldanha, east as far as the Fish River and north to Namaqualand. He also co-produced the famous King’s Map, a gift to Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution.
Levaillant is a man of many firsts: first and greatest South African birder, first major figure of modern ornithology, the creator of the first safari, first anthropologist of the Cape and first investigative journalist to criticise colonial brutality. He also predicted the rebellion of the frontier Boers and portrayed the dilemmas of coloured identity.
Levaillant’s travel writings were a watershed in our history: a place of curiosities and alleged reports became a destination with a literary agenda and new genres, diaries, survival and notes gave way to hunting, safari and wildlife documentation, stories evolved into ornithology and ethnology, racial identity and its effects were explored, and exploitation and expropriation were examined through an anthropological and anti-colonial lens.
In an almost unrelated quest Glenn found himself spending many years, 25 to be exact, searching for Levaillant’s travel notebooks and collections as he tried to solve the mysteries of this man’s life. Glenn’s “safari” took him from the Orange River to the far-flung destinations of Theefontein, Pampoenskraal and Kokskraal and on to the vaults of Paris museums housing 30 000 bird specimens and the Bloubok exhibit of extinct animals.
Glenn is Emeritus Professor of Media Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Research Fellow in Communications Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS). He has published widely on Levaillant, including The First Safari, and is working on a translation and abridged edition of Levaillant’s Birds of Africa with the original illustrations. He was the curator of the King’s Map exhibition at the Iziko Museum in 2012-13. His Wildlife Documentaries in Southern Africa: from East to South was published this year.
If anyone can tell Levaillant’s remarkable story, it is Glenn!
A limited number of copies of his book, The First Safari will be on sale for R250. Please note, no card facilities will be available.
This promises to be another excellent address to U3A Helderberg members and visitors. The past 20 years have been characterised by excellent presentations on a wide variety of topics by experts in their fields. U3A Helderberg also offers activities ranging from art and photography, palaeontology, chess and bridge to exercising, yoga and hiking and smaller group meetings focused on travel, gardening, history, finances and book discussions as well as outings to different destinations, eateries and the theatre. Many older citizens of the area have benefited greatly from the efforts of this entirely voluntary organisation. To mark this occasion every person attending will receive a small gift.
Entry for members is free; visitors pay R20 at the door.
For enquiries, contact Denise Fourie on 072 211 1173.
