Before the fifteenth century little was know of Southern Africa. Following Diaz’s discovery of the Cape in 1486, southern Africa remained of little interest to the Europeans. It appeared to have nothing to offer beyond its geographical location. In the name of King John of Portugal, Diaz and his men erected a marble cross at the site of their landfall, today known as Angra Pequena. That cross lay neglected for hundreds of years but today it stands in the Lisbon Maritime Museum, a treasured memory of Portugal’s contribution to Africa’s history. It was King John’s expectation that the Cape might open a passage from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, thence to the Portuguese- controlled East Indies.

Ten years later Vasco da Gama landed at the Cape, but only to replenish his water supplies. Curious Khoi gathered to stare in awe at their first white men, only to be shot at by archers armed with crossbows. The Khoi fled and the die was cast for future mistrust between the races. Vasco da Gama then sailed further north along the lush coastline, far beyond the point previously reached by Diaz, and on Christmas Day in 1497 he named the spray-swept coast Terra Natalis before sailing on to cross the Indian Ocean. Due to the dangerous and fast cross currents and treacherous ocean breakers that pounded the African shoreline, the green hills of the interior were to remain unexplored until the mid seventeenth century.

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