Each year Bloemfontein’s Catholic Portuguese celebrate their May Feast at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in St George Street. This religious festival – typically held over a weekend in May – honours Our Lady of Fátima. Rosa Maria Jardim of Bloemfontein explained that the local May Feast was originally initiated by the Portuguese community to “honour and thank the Virgin Mary for blessings received”.
National Museum Portuguese Project
Say ‘Portuguese soccer legend’ and the name of international football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo probably comes to mind. A Portuguese soccer legend he certainly is, but he is not the only one. Although fading from living memory, the name ‘Eusébio’ still causes goosebumps among supporters of the esteemed Portuguese football club Benfica. Eusébio was the Wunderkind of professional European soccer in the 1960s.
Before 1994, white South Africans – Afrikaners in particular – commemorated the Battle of Blood River on 16 December, also known then as the Day of the Vow or Geloftedag in Afrikaans. For conservative whites that day was equal to the Sabbath, a holy day to be respected and not disgraced by worldly activities.
When Lord Roberts and his army of 34,000 men triumphantly marched into Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900 (Image 1) to occupy the capital of the former Orange Free State republic, they were welcomed with open arms.
For many black[1] people who have lived through apartheid (1948–1994), the hated passbooks they had to carry every day is emblematic of their traumatic experiences of that time. Although the passbook is synonymous with apartheid, the ideology behind it is much older.