Rondebosch Down the Years
In April 1952, South Africa looked back with pride over three hundred years of achievement and expansion. Now in 1957, those of us who live in, and love Rondebosch, feel we have good cause to commemorate with gladness and gratitude the tercentenary of its founding, with the establishment of the Free Burghers along the Liesbeek River in March 1657. Until then, the settlement at the Cape had been only a victualling station; but that date saw the birth of a nation, for from those early farms civilization gradually spread over Southern Africa.
And what of Rondebosch itself? Could any nation wish for a lovelier “cradle of the race”? Untamed as it was in 1657, those early settlers fell in love with its streams and glades and mountain-slopes, and with the wonderful shelter it afforded from the turbulent winds that harassed them in Cape Town. The progress of three centuries has so far not dimmed its beauty, though it needs to be guarded jealously in these “flat-ridden” days, and we residents need to be more alive, not only to our civic rights, but also to our public responsibilities.
“Rondebosch Down the Years” is an attempt to tell the story of our suburb from 1657 to 1957, and to take stock of its position today. Compiled at extremely short notice, the brochure is a very modest effort, and we regret it has been impossible in the time available to make it fully bilingual. South Africans will nevertheless be grateful to the contributors, who freely devoted their time and knowledge in an effort to mark the historical occasion. The subject deserves more serious study — the material exists, and we hope this little book will be merely the prelude to a volume which will really present the history of Rondebosch in a worthy form.
In 1657 Rondebosch became a farming community. Today, above all else, it is an educational centre, with a great population of children and young people — the future citizens of South Africa. We hope their school and student days here will be happy ones, that they will learn what Rondebosch has achieved since 1657, and will develop a pride, a love, and a loyalty which will lead them in their turn to do great things for their country. “From quiet homes and first beginnings, out to the undiscovered ends”, may their Rondebosch days inspire them to be worthy of their fine heritage, and to make the coming century even more fruitful than those which have gone before.