The month of August - an Annales approach to the history of the Kowie: August 1881 to August 1914

Abstract

The Annales is an internationally renowned French school of historical analysis founded by Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch and brilliantly expounded by Fernand Braudel in his classic work on rhe Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world (first published in 1949). By its emphasis on history that happened off the beaten track, the' Annales lends itself particularly well to rhe study of a local community. Its aim is inter alia to capture a community's mentalité, namely its peculiar attitudes and ethos as shaped by even the most elemental facts of its existence, including its pattern of weather. This article is an effort to analyse the mentalité of the Eastern Cape coastal community of the Kowie (Port Alfred) over a period of more than thirty years.