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Rock Art, battlefields and monuments together tell the story of an eclectic mixture of Xhosa, San, English and German history and will transport you back to a bye gone era.


Bushman Rock Art
One of the slogans for the Eastern Cape Tourism Board is 'The Land of Giants' and rightly so. Blessed with the only region that boasts the 'Big Seven', the largest elephant park in the world, Madiba, the oldest fossil to be discovered, the province with the longest stretch of coastline, it is indeed an apt name.

The eScape Route has a few giants of its own including Victor Biggs and the Rock Art Centre at Old Thomas River Historical Village. To spend a few hours there and learn about the fascinating life of the Bushman, the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, is a stimulating experience. To then be able to view original Bushman Rock Art in the immediate area is not only a remarkable phenomenon but a privilege.

What started as a childhood interest when staying with his grandfather in the Kei Valley, soon became a hobby and days were spent searching for caves and shelters. In adulthood, while farming in Matatiele this became a passion and after many years of studying the ancient culture and depicting the paintings, Victor now calls it his obsession.

The Rock Art Centre has been exquisitely built and reflects the feeling of a cave. Painted entrance walls in the exact replica of an original site, give one the first taste of what is to come. Victor is a fountain of knowledge and all around the walls are photographic displays, paintings and artifacts from both the early and late Stone Age. The oldest painting in Southern Africa was discovered in Namibia and dates back 27000 years and over time the changing history is shown in the paintings by the addition of sheep and cows, men with spears and finally soldiers with guns. With such an expansive range of time, the actual art work remains similar with the same colouring and style up until fairly recently when finger painting became the norm and inferior paint was used.
Cathcart Shrine
As you travel from Stutterheim in the direction of Queenstown, you come to Cathcart. A little town surrounded by soft green hills, after a good rainfall. The “Wind Vogel” mountain and its foothills are seen from far. The first road on the right is Rhodes Street, and halfway up, at No. 22, you find the most peaceful little place, called “Schoenstatt”. It bears a shrine, dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Schoenstatt shrine.

This very shrine was built in 1949; it was the first of its kind on African soil. Today there are 9 in Africa. The original or Mother shrine, after which all others are build as replicas is in Germany, Vallendar near Koblenz on the river Rhine. Its original history goes back to 11 hundred with more recent history resuming to 1914. On the 18th of October 1914 Father Josef Kentenich, together with some minor seminarians who had to break their studies and go to war, entered a “covenant of love”.

Cata Cottages
The village of Cata is nestled in a beautiful crescent in the Amathole Mountains, approximately 50km from Stutterheim

Place of brutal apartheid-era forced removals in the 1960’s, the village now is a thriving model of integrated, community-driven development.

Development initiatives in the village include an agricultural co-operative, a forestry project and a tourism venture.

Stutterheim Engine Museum
The museum is thought to have one of the largest and most comprehensive collection of restored stationary engines, all in mint running condition, in the world.

The oldest gem is a Mietz & Weitz engine dating back to 1905. Forgotten names like Ruston Hornsby, Wholesly, Bamford, Lister and Massey Harris are all there, saved from a scrap yard where they would have been crushed and melted down to be lost forever. The development and advancement of technology can be followed in the engines on display, some dating back almost a century to the very recent, world class, advanced Mercedes C200 Kompressor engine.

Sandile’s Grave

Sandile’s grave is an interesting historical monument situated about 16kms from Stutterheim on the King Williams Town road, at the foot of Mount Kemp (Isidenge Mountain). A bronze plaque erected at the grave site in 1941 reads as follows:

Sandile

Chief of the Gaikas. Born about 1920.
Killed in the ninth Frontier War 1877-1878
and buried here on 9.6.1978

The grave site has now been fenced. A tombstone in memory of the chief was laid by Paramount chief A.M. Sandile in 1972. Sandile was buried between the graves of troopers A. Dicks and F. Hillier, who were killed in the same war.

History of Mgwali Mission
Mgwali village is situated 25 km east of the town of Stutterheim, it is one of the oldest settlements in the Eastern Cape.

In June 1820, John Brownlee a Scottish missionary arrived in the Eastern Cape where he founded the Tyhume mission station at the confluence of the Mgwali and the Tyhume Rivers – the present-day Mgwali.

Close to the Tyhume mission station lived Soga with his large family. His youngest son, Tiyo was taken to Scotland where he trained as a teacher. He came back to Mgwali but later returned to Scotland and was trained as a minister. He married a Scottish lady, Janet Burrside and returned in 1856.

During the last frontier war of 1857, Chief Sandile donated a piece of land to the Scottish Missionary Society. Reverend Soga was very excited at arriving back in Mgwali as this had been to him the land of promise during his stay in Scotland. To the Xhosas, Mgwali was a land of milk and corn and in fact still is.

Reverend Tiya Soga
Soga, John Henderson. Xhosa missionary and writer. Emgwali 1860 – Southampton March 1941.

The second son of Tiyo Soga and his wife, Janet Burnside, he was named after his father’s benefactor in Scotland. From early youth he was lame in one leg. In 1870 he and two of his brothers were sent to Scotland to be educated. He studied at the University of Glasgow and completed his theological training at the United Presbyterian Divinity Hall, Edinburgh. After marrying Isabel Brown, he returned to work as a missionary in the Mount Frere district and in 1888 succeeded his brother, Dr WA Soga at the Miller mission station near Elliotdale, Bomvanaland. With contributions received from both Bantu and White people he built a church in which he held services for both.

Cata Community Museum
Cata community museum is one of the only museums in South Africa to trace the story of the forced removals and land redistribution. This fascinating story tells the tale of a community torn from their ancestral lands by an extremely violent and powerful oppressive regime and the slow transition and healing of the New South Africa. The museum includes indoor displays as well as outdoor exhibitions.

Visitors to the area are also encouraged to visit the toposcope. Contact: Ms Zanele Semane on 043 742 0173

Mgwali Cultural Village
Mgwali Mission is unique - the first mission station in the nineteenth century to be governed by a black man, the Reverend Tiyo Soga. The early buildings of the Mgwali Mission are the suriviving structures of what was part of a group of famous black educational institutions on the continent. Ultimately Mgwali is significant as it remains a testimony to the life and work of Reverend Tiyo Soga. See also The History of Mgwali.

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