Cultural Heritage

I. Western Cape

3. Elim

Elim is a little Moravian mission settlement some 200 kilometres from Cape Town. The church, with its simple Moravian architectural style, stands amid 12 fountains and 70 palm trees and is the centre of this coloured community. The village has the only monument in South Africa that commemorates the freeing of the slaves in 1834. Today, Elim’s small band of residents are restoring their village, offering visitors a peep into their unique history. Each year, just before Easter, all of the cottages that line the road are white-washed. Some are original two-roomed, thatched mission-style Elim huisies, such as those once occupied by the freed slaves. The original slave cemetery was recently rediscovered, and many of the gravestones still bear the impersonal names – such as January or September – given to slaves by their masters according to the month in which they arrived or were sold.

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