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 fifth instalment in the series:
Meet Mr May
Slavery was a taboo topic in the May household. Despite being descended from slaves and carrying a calendar month surname like so many Cape families with slave heritage, Alfred May was never told about his roots.
“My grandfather never talked about slaves; that was a very quiet subject. We never talked about that. What I know about slaves I learned at school, but we never mentioned slaves in the house,” May said.
He learnt the rudimentary facts about slavery thanks to primary school history classes. “Slavery was introduced when they brought the Indian people here, and then it included the blacks. Slavery wasn’t good. I don’t agree with slavery and I don’t want to elaborate on that.”
But while May’s knowledge doesn’t stretch back to his ancestors who were probably brought to Cape Town on ships from the East, he has a rich memory for details about his immediate family.
“My grandfather was a wood chopper,” he said. “He came home with trees on his shoulders, he was a big man.”
May’s grandfather had a practical tradition that he stuck to come winter or summer. “He used to wear a red scarf every day, hot or cold. Because if he came across a tree, he would fold up that red scarf, put it on his shoulder, pick up that lumber on his shoulder and bring it home.”
He would haul it into their spacious yard, May said, where it would be loaded onto saw horses to be chopped up. “We had to cut it up, we used to sell wood,” he said.
“My grandfather made a garden. We had roses, carnations we were selling. That was our living: wood and flowers.
“Most weekends we used to make bundles of 100 and just put it outside the gate and even European people used to come round and buy the wood.”
He was brought up with strict discipline from his grandparents.
“When I came home from school, I had to chop the wood. That was my job and then I had to do homework. We were brought up very stringent, we couldn’t step out of line.”
Instead of rebelling against the strict responsibilities he was expected to shoulder, May said that it kept him out of trouble.
“I remember one time I was six years old and I fought with another boy and I bit him. I got the hiding of my life and I never had another one since because I know what discipline is. I could have been a gangster or anything, but that hiding kept me on the straight and narrow.”
It was a story May used to tell his children when they were growing up. Along with the story, he passed on his grandparents’ harsh disciplinary methods.
“I’m the father of four boys and one girl,” he said. “They’re all married now, but when they were young, I used to hit them. That’s how I brought my children up.”
May said that even though slavery was a taboo topic in his household, he has come to be proud of his heritage.
“We shouldn’t be embarrassed about our heritage because it’s slaves who built the country,” he said. “I am proud of my surname. From what we were until now, we’ve excelled.
“We came from the ashes, and we came out. God lifted us up.”
Cape Argus