Hankey

Name

Hankey is named after William Hankey, treasurer of the London Missionary Society in the early 1820s

Attractions

Also see the neighbouring towns

Gamtoos Valley at Hankey.
Photo by Derrich Gardner.

Gamtoos River Valley

Hankey is situated on the eastern end of the Gamtoos River Valley which stretches about 50Km long, and is the oldest town in the valley.

Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area

The Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area lies to the west of Hankey. The area stretches west to Willowmore.

Yellowwoods Park

Yellowwoods Park, 1Km from town on the Klein River road, offers camping.

Sun Dial

The largest Sun Dial in Africa, with a diameter of 36.4m, is located in Hankey. This sun dial consists of a series of stones place on the circumference, and a long pole planted in the middle of the circle that drops shadows on the peripherial stones that indicate hours.

The Sun Dial
Photo by Derrich Gardner.

Phillips Irrigation tunnel

Phillips Irrigation tunnel was built in 1844. Today it is a national monument.

Apple Express

The Apple Express narrow gauge steam train passes Patensie.

Sport

9-hole Hankey Golf Course

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History

Khoi-San people were the first known tribes to settle her, followed by the Mfengu tribe.

Hankey began as a mission establised by the London Missionary Society in 1822.

Sarah Bartman, the Hottentot Venus

Sarah Bartman was born in 1789 and died in 1815 at the age of 25 possibly of syphilis. Sarah was born of the Griqua tribe of the Khoisan people, near Hankey, but from a young age worked as a slave in Cape Town.

Sarah Bartman (1789 - 1815)

Griqua people typically have large buttocks and genitalia, but hers were extra large, which fascinated European settlers. William Dunlop, a doctor on a British ship that visited the harbor, examined her, and persuaded her to join him to go to England. There Dunlop charged spectators to ogle at Sarah's extraodrinary features.

La Belle Hottentot
French print of Sarah Bartman being viewed

Sarah spent 4 years in London, and was on display ostensibly for scientific purposes, but more likely as a curiosity because of her extreme physical features. In those days circus exhibitions included circus acts, zoological exhibition and freak-shows, the last of humans with uncommon features, such as hair all over their bodies (including faces), very tall or very short people, excessively fat people, and so on. Sarah was one of the unfortunate people with uncommon features. In today's more politically correct era we frown upon such matters.

Despite the popularity of freak-shows, the British public became uncomfortable with the situation and pressurised Dunlop to stop his exhibits, whereupon he took her to Paris (France) and continued with the exhibitions.

In Paris the French scientist, Georges Cuvier, examined her. After her death her body was dissected and the parts preserved and displayed in Paris until 1974, when it was removed from the public view.

In 1994 President Nelson Mandela suggested that her remains be returned to South Africa. In January 2002 her remains were returned and buried near Hankey, where there is now a memorial grave.

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Economy

In the Gamtoos Valley gows: citrus fruit, potatoes, vegetables, tobacco, avocados.

Climate

Today's Weather for Patensie, near Hankey

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