`Museum van de Caab' launched on wine farm
2005-11-03
ABOUT 300 guests attended the launch of an unusual new museum on the Solms-Delta wine estate in Groot Drakenstein on Sunday.
The ‘Museum van de Caab’, in the original wine cellar dating back to 1740, commerates the social history of the 315-year-old estate.
It is a few metres from the Stone Age settlement recently excavated on the farm, as well as the foundations of a 17th century hunting lodge found on the werf.
These archaeological treasures were discoverd by researchers of the University of Cape Town, where the owner, Prof Mark Solms, is currently professor in Neuropsychology.
The museum honours the Cape slave heritage and the ancestral residents of the farm. The emphasis is on the ordinary people who live and worked on the farm from precolonial times to the present.
One of the walls is covered by 200 stone plaques, each a testimony to an individual life given to the farm through slavery.
“Museum van de Caab tells the true story of what happened here - warts and all”, says Solms.
“The disposseion of the pre-colonial inhabitants and the roles of slaves feature prominently alongside the hardship and courage of the early settlers.
The museum opening, with author André P Brink and a cousin, Prince Friedrich of Solms-Baruth as guests of honour, coincided with the release of the first Solms-Delta wines, made by Hilko Hegewisch.
Entry to the museum is free, seven days a week. It seeks to record the complex and fascinating history of the country through the individuals who lived on the farm from the pre-historic past to the present.
Excavated Stone Age artefacts are displayed in glass cabinets as
well as Khoi pottery shards and the blue-and-white porcelain of the East.
In the building with its rough layered floors and stripped stone and clay-brick walls, the voices of the people who played a role in the farm’s history merge with recordings of San music and speech, while in a video the present day farm workers also contribute.
Their stories also engage visitors through illuminated glass panels.
They include the tales of slaves such as Philda and Candaza van de Caab, among the 200 slaves who lived on the farm over a 150 year period. Excavations on the farm continue.
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