Overview
Identifiers
Record Administration
Monuments
Monuments & Memorials Recordings
Identifiers
Classifications
It commemorates South African troops, officers and crew who sank with the SS Mendi ship in world war 1. Communities around the world commemorate the SS Mendi incident on 21 February every year. There are memorials erected in South Africa, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France. In South Africa SS Mendi memorials are located at New Brighton in Gqeberha, Mowbray in Cape Town, Avalon Cemetery in Soweto( unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 23March 1995) and Ga-Mothakga Resort in Atteridgeville.
Archaeology
Archaeology Recordings
Identifiers
Location
Location
- City of Cape Town
Management
Administration of Protections
Action Status: Accepted
Site Action: Grading
Gradings
Grading
Grading by: South African Heritage Resources Agency
The Mendi Memorial, located at the southeast corner of the University of Cape Town’s
soccer fields, is a symbolic reminder of the South African lives lost on the steamship Mendi
in 1917 and of the long-ignored and forgotten history of the South African Native Labour
Corps. It is a reminder of the role played by black South Africans in World War I and of the
links these events have to the Liberation Struggle in South Africa. The University of Cape
Town soccer fields were formerly the Rosebank Showgrounds which were used during
World War I as the national assembly camp and depot for the South African Native Labour
Corps. It was at this camp that all the men enlisted in the corps from all over South Africa
and Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho assembled, were kitted out and received their basic
training, and from which they departed to Cape Town harbour to take ship to France. For
many of the men on the Mendi, this was where they spent their last night on South African
soil.
Declarations
Declaration
The Mendi Memorial, located at the southeast corner of the University of Cape Town’s soccer fields, is a symbolic reminder of the South African lives lost on the steamship Mendi in 1917 and of the long-ignored and forgotten history of the South African Native Labour Corps. It is a reminder of the role played by black South Africans in World War I and of the links these events have to the Liberation Struggle in South Africa. The University of Cape Town soccer fields were formerly the Rosebank Showgrounds which were used during World War I as the national assembly camp and depot for the South African Native Labour Corps. It was at this camp that all the men enlisted in the corps from all over South Africa and Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho assembled, were kitted out and received their basic training, and from which they departed to Cape Town harbour to take ship to France. For many of the men on the Mendi, this was where they spent their last night on South African soil.
Media
Media
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