Background | Activities | Facilities
THE EGYPTIAN SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA
P.O Box 60600, Table View. 7441. South Africa
Tel. +27 (0)21 557 5082
Email: scarab@telkomsa.net
Background
Following a series of Egyptological lectures in Cape Town and having escorted a number of tour groups to Egypt, I became aware that there was clearly a place and a need for an Egyptian society in South Africa.
At the time, no such organisation existed in the country. Just two years earlier in 1994 the new South Africa had emerged and South African passport holders were once again able to visit Egypt.
On November 4th 1996 (coincidentally the anniversary of the discovery of the first step to Tutankhamun’s tomb), an inaugural meeting was held and the Cape Town Egyptian Society was initiated with 143 people joining that same evening – the enthusiasm was palpable. Soon afterwards members joined from across South Africa and in a very short time it became apparent that this was a Society with national interest and six months after its founding in April 1997 the Society’s name was changed to THE EGYPTIAN SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA which also provided a useful acronym – TESSA. A year later we formed and welcomed a branch of the Society in Johannesburg which sadly ceased to exist in 2000.
Activities
In accordance with the name it is incumbent on the Society to pursue both a national identity and international visibility. Accordingly, outstanding events have included national lecture tours of South Africa by Professor Kent Weeks (American University in Cairo & Theban Mapping Project), Professors Mostafa el Abbadi and Azza Kararah (University of Alexandria).
To mark the 10th anniversary year of the Society in 2006, the redoubtable Dr. Zahi Hawass (Secretary General – Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities) was invited to address audiences in Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Johannesburg.
Mention should be made of Dr. Toby Wilkinson‘s (Durham & Cambridge Universities) visits to the Society.
A wealth of lecturers from the Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and the Western Cape has graced our podium, as well as a multitude of external lecturers and many in-house lecturers.
In 2003 a literary exhibition called Egypt Described: Herodotus to Hawass was arranged in association with the University of Cape Town at Cape Town’s Irma Stern Museum.
Facilities
TESSA boasts a comprehensive Lending Library and Reference/Archive Library with several hundred volumes including rare books. Well supported monthly meetings are arranged in Cape Town at a central meeting place – St George’s Grammar School, Mowbray.
An annual Day School at the Baxter Theatre Centre has been a feature of the Society’s calendar since the inauguration.
A quarterly newsletter, SHEMU, containing news and information is circulated to members across South Africa and abroad. It is also distributed to embassies, South African universities, schools, public libraries, press and media organisations as well as British and American Egyptological institutions – a further example of the Society’s focus on national and international communication.
Our logo, designed by the late international artist Angus McBride, symbolises the connection between South Africa and Egypt, using two iconic images which are internationally identifiable with our two countries. The South African component is an outline of Table Mountain in Cape Town – with Egypt represented by the Great Pyramid of Giza and its three satellite pyramids. The logo is redolent of the familiar expression “from the Cape to Cairo” which epitomises the breadth of the goals, aims and objectives of TESSA and of its loyal members.
Keith Grenville
20 July 2008
CHAIRMAN’S ANNUAL REPORT 22 November 2011
Once again, may I extend a warm welcome to all members and visitors to this the 15th Annual General Meeting of The Egyptian Society of South Africa. As we reach another mile-stone – 15 years of existence – I am pleased to report on yet another eventful andsuccessful year. This is due in the first place to a wonderful team of highly committed Committee members. At the beginning of theyear we welcomed Bill Weckesser to the Committee and Bill has proved to be a valuable and congenial asset. Bill replaced Lila Komnick who resigned because of being over extended and we are grateful to her for her service on the Committee and for the innovations which she introduced. Her commitment to TESSA has not diminished, however, and, as will become evident later in this report, she continues to serve the Society in other capacities. The Committee members and their portfolios were as follows: Jean Smith, Vice-Chairman and Secretary; Mike Beaumont, Treasurer; John Lombard, Organiser; Bill Weckesser, Co-ordinator and Shirley Beaumont, Catering. From my side, it has been a pleasure working with such dedicated people and I can assure you that TESSA owes a great deal to them all. As always, every one of our monthly meetings was quorate. After 10 years as Treasurer, Mike Beaumont has decided to retire from the Committee. We are extremely indebted to Mike for his devoted service and good humour at meetings. Shirley Beaumont has also decided to call it a day and we are equally grateful to her for her 10 years of service in maintaining a steady flow of tea and coffee at TESSA meetings and for the benefit of her wisdom and insight at our monthly Committee meetings. Over and above these good people, we are, as ever, grateful to our Patron and Founding Chairman, Keith Grenville, for his unfailing interest, support and wise council.
Shemu continues to develop as an academic resource of which we can justly be proud. The Editor of Shemu, Nerine Dorman, maintains her usual high standards, while she is ably assisted by Jean Smith as “Shemu content manager” and Lila Komnick as “Shemu copy editor” who source material and often re-write it to conform to our particular style. Jean Smith has been able to commission original pieces written especially for Shemu by active Egyptologists. Some notable contributors this year include Maria Nilson, Kent Weeks, Colin Reader, Anthony Holmes and Joann Fletcher. Jean Smith does a sterling job in issuing occasional electronic “Bulletins” with cutting-edge reports on developments relating to finds in Egypt. These have been particularly important this year given the political unrest in Egypt and the alleged looting of sites.
Our Society website – www.egyptiansociety.co.za – has continued to be a great success. We had 15 152 hits during the year with the main countries being South Africa, Britain, the United States and, interestingly, Malaysia. Jean Smith is our webmaster and is continually updating the information on the site. Anyone who has not visited the site is missing out on another valuable resource as we have links to a number of important Egypt-related sites. There is also a variety of sites which are temporarily automatically linked to our site, so a daily visit is almost a must.
MEMBERSHIP
TESSA, as I have always maintained, remains the best value for money society in the country. We have been able to maintain our subscription rates at R80.00 for ordinary members and R45.00 for distance and student members for a number of years. This R80.00, which is much less than the equivalent of two cinema tickets and a box of popcorn, buys you ten lectures a year plus a substantial discount for the Annual Day School with its three lectures and now famous Egyptian-style buffet lunch, four issues of Shemu and free access to our Lending Library. Our membership remains fairly constant at just under 300 members but, as always, it is difficult quote precise figures here and now as we are in the midst of the annual renewal of subscriptions and virtually every monthly meeting yielding three or four new members to replace those who fall away owing to developing other interests or leaving town. New members are always acknowledged in Shemu for members’ information.
LECTURES
Thanks to the persistence of John Lombard, our Organiser, our regular monthly lectures have spanned a wide range of topics and this year we were able to enjoy the following presentations:
January: (double lecture) Secrets of the Pyramids: Latest research about how they were built by Peter Loyson;
February: Jackal Among the Tombs by Keith Grenville;
March: Cleopatra and the ‘Race’ Debate – Some reflections by Anthony Humphreys;
April: The State of Egypt’s Antiquities Following the Recent Turmoil by Jean Smith;
May: More than Words and Images by Gillian Russell;
June: The Phoenician and Egyptian Connection by Robin Hammond;
August: In the Beginning: Egypt Before the Pharaohs by Lambert Vorster;
September: Morocco Through My Lens by Gunther and Lila Komnick;
October: (double lecture) Classical Music in Ancient Egypt Revisited by Jos Koetsier;
November: After the formalities tonight, John Lombard will bring us up to date with Breaking News in 2011.
The Members’ Platforms were similarly varied and consisted of the following:
February: Alexander’s Sarcophagus in Istanbul by Keith Grenville
March: Agatha Christie and Ancient Egypt by Anthony Humphreys;
April: Capitals and Pharaohs by John Lombard;
May: Egypt Through My Lens by Gunther Komnick;
June: Napoleon’s Egypt and the Empire Style by Patricia Weckesser;
August: When is an Asp an Asp? by Anthony Humphreys;
September: Horse and Chariot in Ancient Egypt by Jean Smith.
Mireille Farah continues her invaluable service in ensuring that our meetings are always advertised timeously in the various media – local daily newspapers, community papers and on Fine Music Radio. She even manages to maintain appropriate advertising while on visits overseas! It is this type of quiet behind the scenes work that keeps the Society running smoothly. Thank you, as always, Mireille, for your consistent reliability.
Yvonne Viljoen, Chairperson of the Western Cape Branch of the South African Archaeological Society, maintains a permanent reminder of TESSA details in their regular newsletters, which is much appreciated.
DAY SCHOOL
The annual Day School continues to be the highlight of the year and was held on 23rd July. This year’s theme was The Great Pyramids of Ancient Egypt and consisted of the following three lectures: The Emergence of the Early Pyramids by Anthony Humphreys, The Giza Family of Pyramids by Keith Grenville and The Era of the Decline of the Pyramids by Jean Smith. A fuller report is available on our website. As always, the day was a sell-out.
Thanks are due to “The Forum” for continuing the traditional Egyptian-style buffet lunch and to Craig Dobson for his usual invaluable technical input.
LIBRARY
Our Library continues to be run most efficiently by Colleen Cox and Jackie Weitsz. Few people, I think, realise how much work these two ladies put into the Library – and have done for the last 11 years – and we are extremely grateful for their sustained and dedicated services.
Our librarians report as follows: Thanks are due to Lila Komnick, Graham Rodgers and Robin Hammond who contributed various cuttings and articles both for the Scrapbook and the Egypt File, lodged in the Archives. Also to Joan Engelbrecht, who kindly donated R5 to the Library Sundries Account, and through the sale of an excess-stock Library book, another R20.00 entered the coffers of the Library Sundries Account.
28 videos were donated this year; of these, 22 were donated by Freda Heese and six by Wendy Johnstone. Keith Grenville donated 21 National Geographic magazines, with Egypt-related articles. 23 books were donated to the Library, of which three were Egyptian Archaeology Bulletins, and one was an Egypt Exploration Society Journal, which was received through the Society’s membership of the EES in London (along with various Newsletters and Events flyers). The book donations are as follows:
7 by Karen Vermeulen
6 by Keith Grenville
2 by Carol Prior
2 by Wendy Steytler
1 by Thea Grobbelaar
1 TESSA Committee purchase: “The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt” by Toby Wilkinson.
At the end of last year 721 books were registered in the Library; along with the additional 23 acquired this year, the tally now stands at 744 in all.
Last year ended with our Librarian issuing three copies of John Tunstall’s book “Vanishing Kingdoms” as prizes to loyal members as a commemoration of 10 years of the TESSA Lending Library.
A flash-drive was also purchased towards the end of the year, as an update for storing Library data.
Profound thanks are due to Keith Grenville for volunteering and willingly undertaking the arduous task – which has taken almost two years – of personally transferring the videos in the Library to DVD format. These were delivered to him in batches of six at a time, almost every month, during the course of these two years. It now it remains for the new DVD Library to be launched after the re-sorting, re-categorizing and cataloguing of the collection, as well as the preparation of the new DVD boxes with their illustrated and coded covers. This should all be in place by the first TESSA meeting next year.
As you can see, many people have contributed to the development and building up of our Library. It is this sort of dedication and commitment to TESSA that encourages and motivates the Committee. Warm thanks are due to all for their generous support.
GENERAL THANKS
Apart from the people mentioned above, the Committee is also most grateful to the following: Corporate Member “Egypt Today CC” for its continued support; our auditor, Ralph Pond; the St George’s Grammar School people – Headmaster, Julian Cameron; Liaison Person, Stephen Bornman and Estate Manager, Ivan Smith. Master Photographer Gunther Komnick provided unfailing photographic assistance and technical advice. Most importantly, thanks are due to the various speakers for sharing their knowledge with us and for the effort involved in putting their presentations together.
Finally, of course, thanks are due to you, our loyal members, for your continuing support, which makes it all worthwhile. It now remains only for me to wish you all a happy and safe holiday period until we foregather for the beginning of our 16th year next January and further exploration of “things Egyptian.”
PROF ANTHONY HUMPHREYS
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