A Picture Of The Past

South Africans can find much to connect with on a visit to St Helena

- James Bainbridge

It takes a surprisingly long time to tour the 120km2 island of St Helena, and it’s late afternoon by the time my party arrives at St Paul’s Cathedral. Curiously, the 19th-Century edifice is tucked away in the hilly hinterland, rather than in the more obvious location of the island’s capital, Jamestown – where churchgoers can instead attend the Southern Hemisphere’s oldest Anglican church, St James (1774). Our guide, Kevin George of Magma Way Tours, gives an intriguing explanation for the British settlers’ choice of this site: “They didn’t think Jamestown was worthy of having a cathedral located there.”

A few days later, a more direct tour guide clears up the mystery: “They built the cathedral up here because there was too much degeneracy in Jamestown, with all the brothels and taverns.” Not only is my informant typical of the island’s 4,500 inhabitants, with his mix of salt-washed pragmatism and quick-draw humour, but his revelation is a classic piece of St Helenian history. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, the strategic South Atlantic island was claimed by the British East India Company in 1659, and the trade winds soon brought a restive population of soldiers and sailors, pirates and prostitutes. It’s hard to guess from today’s quiet subtropical outpost, but a thousand ships once docked here every year.

Banished, but busy