Very few people know about the Filipino heritage of Kalk Bay, a fishing village not far from Cape Town in South Africa. Kalk Bay was established in 1742 and has a current population of about 700. A literal translation of the name from the original Dutch would be “Lime Bay”, which has its origin in the vast deposits of mussel shells found there. Early settlers used to burn these shells to make lime for construction.
There is not a lot of material available about the first Filipino settlers in Kalk Bay and they differ about when the first group arrived. Some say that a shipwreck in 1840 caused surviving Filipino seafarers to settle in Kalk Bay, which at that time was only a small settlement inhabited by freed slaves relying on fishing for their livelihoods. Other sources say that the first Filipinos in Kalk Bay were two seafarers who deserted from their ship in Simons Town in the 1830s and eventually settled in Kalk Bay. One of them was Staggie Fernandez, whose son, Pedro, became a legendary fisherman along the False Bay coast. Pedro’s grandson, Cyril Fernandez, was apparently the last person to be trained as a harpooner in False Bay.
Being devout Catholics, the Filipino settlers were instrumental in establishing the St James Parish in Kalk Bay in 1859. There were Spanish-language church services at St James until the mid-1920s, by which time the descendants of the first settlers were more comfortable speaking one of the local languages than they were speaking Spanish. The church was originally located in what is the Kalk Bay Railway Station today, but a new church that was built in 1880 is still there today. Recorded in the church records are names such as Fernandez, de la Cruz, Florez, Padua, Pepino, Simonpong, Manuel, Pasqual, Garcia, Croza, Palma, Torrez, de la Varcia and Bonaventura, which are all descendants of the original Filipino settlers.
Most sources make some reference to Felix Flores, who arrived in Kalk Bay in 1863 and was considered by many as the “godfather” of the Filipino community in South Africa. He was born on Panay Island in 1840 and arrived in Cape Town on board the CSS Tuscaloosa, which was promptly seized by the British Royal Navy (long story!) leaving the crew stranded for a long time. Felix Flores decided to stay, settled in Kalk Bay and encouraged friends and family in the Philippines to make the journey and to settle in the village.
Flores’ arrival in the Cape coincided with a period of great instability in the Philippines and many people left the country to escape Spanish colonial rule. Between 1870 and 1872, at the time of the Labios Revolt and the Cavite Mutiny against Spanish rule, there was a dramatic increase of Filipino exiles arriving in the Cape and by 1882 there were 68 Filipino families, commonly known as the “Manillas of the Cape” living in Kalk Bay. Some of them returned to the Philippines at the end of the Spanish colonial period.
Earlier this year, the Kalk Bay Historical Association submitted a proposal to the Mayor of Cape Town (Kalk Bay is administratively part of the City of Cape Town) to formally name a flight of concrete steps leading from Boyes Drive to an old Filipino cemetery as the “Manila Steps”. In its proposal, the Association said that their proposal was motivated by the desire to honour to Filipino heritage of their village. Tony Trimmel, who is driving the process on behalf of the KBHA, is a fifth generation descendant of the Erispe family. Members of the public had until the end of July 2017 to comment on the proposal and it is now before the Naming and Nomination Committee for the City of Cape Town. Should they be in favour of the proposal, it will be submitted to the Mayor of Cape Town for final approval.
The photo is of Franzina, one of the daughters of Felix Flores, her husband Christiaan Adams, and their family.
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