Know our heritage: Meet Mrs Julie

Cape Town - When slaves were brought to the Cape, they were given new names by their owners, often after the months of the year. That’s why many Capetonians have surnames such as April or Augustus.

Brand activation company Geometry Global sought out elders in each of these families and interviewed them about their family heritage. Geometry produced a “Slave Calendar”, which features 12 Capetonians whose surnames – one for each of the calendar months – hark back to this practice. It was recently awarded a gold Loerie and will be exhibited at the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum.

In the lead-up to Heritage Day, the Cape Argus will be featuring each of the 12 interviewees. Here’s the seventh instalment in the series:

Meet Mrs Julie

Margaret Julie married into the Julie clan when she was 20 years old. She didn’t know that her new family name was a remnant of slavery in the Cape - a sign that her husband was descended from slaves who arrived at their destination in the month of July.

“I don’t know much about slavery in the Cape,” Julie said. “I didn’t know slaves were given calendar month surnames.”

After finding out about the roots of her surname, she said she felt connected.

“It makes me feel good because I’m one of them,” she said. “I also got a surname that some of the others got, and sometimes you get people who have the same surname, but they don’t know each other.”

She felt welcomed into the Julie clan on her wedding day.

“We had all the family together, and my mother-in-law was very proud of me because I was the eldest daughter-in-law and I married the second eldest son,” Julie said.

“We still communicate with each other. We come together with one another once in a while.”

But, like many extended families, Julie said the different branches had drifted apart, and many of the grandchildren and cousins had grown up not knowing each other very well.

“More could have been done because they are so far spread away now, it’s so hard to come together,” she said. “We always call a family reunion and that’s what we’re busy doing now because they want us to come together as a family in the new year.

“The children are big and they don’t know each other.”

But her children and immediate family enjoy a close bond.

“My Julie children and I have a very close relationship,” she said. “We are together every week. Every Saturday night, every Sunday we had lunch together, with the grandchildren as well.”