A warm welcome to members and visitors this the 21st AGM of The Egyptian society of South AfricaOnce again, I can say that this has been an interesting, eventful and enjoyable year; like last year the committee operated with 5 instead of 6 committee members, your friendly and committed committee managed very well; on occasion we have had the help of society members at teatime for which we are very grateful.
Thanks to TESSA vice-chairman & organiser Ria Robinson, for her assistance to me and her tenacity in tracking down new speakers. Thanks to treasurer, Pamela Smith, who manages society finances so well and for her lovely ideas for treats for the members at teatime.Coordinator Jolene Joffe is our liaison with Stephen Bornman at St George’s & TESSA librarian Colleen Cox – and also assists at the front desk.
Thank you, Jolene Thank you Elmarie Reinke, my secretarial assistant, for her help with society notices and who on occasion helps man the front ‘desk’ or the tea table. My sincere thanks to these ladies for making committee meetings so pleasant.
I want to most sincerely thank John Lombard for the tremendous work he does for TESSA – he arrives at 5pm, sets out the sound equipment on his own, controls the sound during the meetings, afterwards putting it all away again with the little help the ladies can give him. John took on this job many years ago and continues faithfully to perform the task alone. I would like to appeal to the men or ladies, of the society to stay for a short while after the meeting to give John a hand, even if you can just help roll up all the many electrical cords. John your faithfulness and dedication to TESSA is greatly appreciated.
Thank you to Mireille Farah, Press & PR for your diligence in ensuring that our lectures are always advertised timeously in the various media. This society is grateful for your consistent ‘behind the scenes’ endeavours.
DONATIONS
Together with the welcome small donations from members, two very generous donations were received this year – we thank member Sandy Bean for his generous donation of R8000, to commemorate his 80th birthday. Dr Rob Brown who kindly donated his honorarium for his Day School lecture, back to TESSA.
SHEMU
Our newsletter SHEMU continues to bring interesting news items to members – articles are sourced by Jane Mulder & Jean Smith. Jane is SHEMU copy editor who edits where necessary and has supplied some of her own writings for SHEMU. Thank you, Jane, it is a pleasure to work with someone of your high standards and integrity. TESSA could not do without our ‘layout’ person Nerine Dorman who continues to maintain her exemplary standards, thank you Nerine for your help and for giving of your time to do this work for TESSA.Contributors of SHEMU lead articles this year have been Anand Balaji, Dr Heidi Köpp-Junk and 2 leads supplied by member Jane Mulder. We thank them for their contributions.
WEBSITES AND FACEBOOK
Our website continues to attract visitors from all over the globe– with over 400 ‘unique’ visitors in 2018. Our Facebook page is active & as at 31st October there were 1883 members.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership numbers remain stable at about 150 members – it’s not possible to be precise about numbers as we are in the midst of taking annual renewal of subscriptions. For 2019 membership fees at R125, distance members & students at R65. Excellent value for money when one considers what is offered for that small fee.
LECTURES
Thank you to organiser Ria for her diligence in sourcing speakers for our meetings. This year we enjoyed the following presentations – January – Dr Lambert Vorster [Double lecture] – ‘The Desert Fayyoum & El-Alamein Revisited’. February – Dr Shadreck Chirikure [Double lecture] – ‘Metals in Ancient Egypt’. March – Joseph Koetsier [Double lecture]– ‘Ancient Egypt & Classical Music’. April – Dr Franziska Naether [Double] – ‘Ancient Egyptian oracles’ & ‘On Dice and their use in the Ancient World’. May – Dr Renate Van Dijk-Coombes [Double lecture] ‘Bull Cults in Ancient Egypt’ & Bull Cults in Ancient Near East‘. June – Jean Smith – ‘Creation Myths of Ancient Egypt’ [in place of advertised speaker Eve Dunnell] August – Bruce Collins – ‘The Rise & Fall & Rise Again of Artisanal Beer – the Origin of Beer in the Ancient World.’ September – John Lombard [Double lecture] – ‘Overview of the Works of David Roberts.’ October- Rabbi Dr Richard Newman – ‘The Movement of a Biblical people from Babylon………. with special reference to the Egyptian Aspect of their journey’. November – After the AGM formalities – ‘A Belly Dance Display by Michelle Potgieter.’ There were 3 members platforms this year – June – Prof. Anthony Humphreys – ‘Witches in Ancient Egypt’. August – Angie Whitehead – ‘Aromatherapy as used in Mummification’ October – Jos Koetsier – ‘The First Polish Mufti’.
DAY SCHOOL
Our day school, was held at St George’s GS as has become usual, on the 14th July. The speakers were Anlen Boshoff – ‘The Senusret-hotep – the workers Village at El-Lahun in the Fayyum.’ Keith Grenville – ‘Once Upon a Time…and they Lived happily Ever after’ – a look some workers Tombs in Qurna’. Professor Rob Brown – ‘What the Egyptians Perpetuated for medicine Today’. Our thanks to the lecturers for agreeing to share their knowledge with us.
Grateful thanks to the donors of the raffle prizes. They are – Marina Robertson, Freda Shearer, Armand Munkes; Geraldine Berry, Jolene Joffe, Pamela Smith, Thank you, Pamela, for organising the main prizes of a visit for 2 to the Aquila Game park from Maxleigh Derman and the selection from Cape Herbs & Spices.
LIBRARY
Librarian Colleen Cox presented her report as follows – To begin with I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs. Jackie Weitsz, who has faithfully served as my Library Assistant for the past 18 years, for her loyal and dedicated service, and invaluable assistance. I would also like to thank Mrs. Jolene Joffe for taking on the role of being my Library Liaison on the Committee.
There has been much diligent work done behind the scenes this year, the continuation of slowly processing the backlog of donations from the past few years, while dealing with the cache of donations currently being received. Mireille Farah donated 4 Egyptian-themed pictures to the Library, (being 3 framed & 1 unframed) for the purpose of raffling, to raise Library funds to assist in the purchase of stationery. The Raffle, which was a success, ran from April to June. R452 was initially raised from the ticket sales.
Additional Donations made by Elaine Weckesser (R50); Mireille Farah (R10); Marina Robinson (R10); Wendy Johnston (R10); Deanne McQueen (R5) and Sebastian van as (R50) which raised the full Total of the Library Fundraiser to R587. Jackie and I are very grateful for the kind generosity of Members who so enthusiastically assisted us in raising these funds for the costs of Library Stationery requirements. We are thankful to you all, including the kind response to this endeavor by members who bought several tickets at a time!
The Prize Winners were: 1st Prize: Roeland Middlekoop; 2nd Prize: Victoria Short; 3rd prize: Jenny Kruger; and the 4th prize: Val O’Carroll. Lambert Vorster donated a self-published copy of his book on the Badarian Culture of Ancient Egypt, which was his submitted thesis in obtaining his Doctorate at the University of South Africa. Eve and Alan Dunnell donated a rolled papyrus picture of Tutankhamun & his wife, as well as three Egyptian-themed postcard fold-outs, a papyrus writing pad and a pamphlet on Fredrick Goodall’s painting “The subsiding of the Nile.” Mavis and Craig Dobson donated a British Magazine containing an Egyptian-themed article within. Geraldine Berry donated a Egyptian-themed tablecloth with a dozen cloth napkins, which was forwarded to the TESSA Committee. John Lombard donated a 2017 Calendar with Egypt-related pictures for Library use. Wendy Steytler donated a large format Egyptological calendar illustrated to resemble the Journal of the Archaeologist Emily Sands, who vanished without a trace in 1926. This included a fold-out playable game of Senet, which may yet be utilized for a future TESSA function. Two members Wendy Amyot (R30) and Duncan Mothupi (R20) purchased over-and-above book copies this year, which brought in R50.
Jackie and I would like to express our grateful thanks to everyone who made donations and contributions to the Library this year. There were 78 book donations. The breakdown is as follows: Mavis & Craig Dobson 1; Lambert Vorster 1; Keith Grenville 2; Marina Robertson 7; Mireille Farah 7; Eve & Alan Dunnell 15; John Lombard 25; Veronica Barrell Wilson
Of the 78 book donations, however, 10 were over-and-above Library requirements, which reduces the total to 68 Book Donations. Added to the previous total from last year of 1, 111 books, this brings the overall total to 1,179 books in all.
This concludes the summary of how things stand at the end of 18 years of the TESSA Lending Library.
GENERAL SOCIETY NEWS
It was with sadness that we reported the death of member Heletia Oosthuizen.
In March the committee organised an outing to Stellenbosch Artisanal Brewery. A visit to the ‘brewing house’ was followed by lunch and beer tasting – we were royally treated by brew master Bruce Collins.
After a request from Esther Esmyol, Iziko curator, for TESSA’s assistance in the proposed refurbishment of the ‘Egyptian Room’ at the Slave Lodge, a meeting was organised between most of TESSA committee and the curator and representatives of the ‘Exhibition Design’ team. The committee members present agreed to make a donation and this was discussed at a later committee meeting. It was agreed that a donation was appropriate as the TESSA constitution – under ‘Aims and Objectives 2.c – (c) to promote and encourage the work of the Iziko museums in Cape Town with regard to the Egyptian Collection’.
The committee agreed to donate R5000 towards the refurbishment and that was paid unto the Iziko account by Pamela Smith. A letter of thanks was received from Esther Esmyol.
GENERAL THANKS
The committee would like to thank the following – auditor Kevin Kushner, Stephen Bornman and the St George’s caterers for their part in making our day school so enjoyable. Thanks to our speakers for agreeing to share their knowledge with us, and to all who have tried to promote TESSA wherever they can.
Very grateful thanks to our loyal members without whose support this society could not exist.
In conclusion, we wish all members and their families a happy, peaceful and safe holiday season until we meet again on January 22nd here at St George’s.