Children of Hope - The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiophia to S.A.

Join us for the launch of “Children of Hope: The Odyssey of Oromo Slaves From Ethiopia to South Africa.” This is a story about 64 children who were abducted from Ethiopia and shipped to Yemen to be slaves in 1888. British Navy rescued them and, as it was the practice then, brought them to South Africa. They were sent to Lovedale College in 1889. Bhisho Jarsa, one of the children later became a teacher, lived in PE and was a grandmother to Dr Neville Alexander.

This story brings to the fore the history of ‘oceanic slave trade’ and construction of identity in SA. An estimated 90 000 people from Mozambique, Madagascar, Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Indonesia were enslaved in Cape Colony [EC and WC] between 1653- 1828.