SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA / SUID-AFRIKA.

Third centenary of arrival of first French Huguenots at the Cape.
Map of France with the regions of origin of the Huguenots.
Second stamp in a set of 4, issued on 13.04.1988.
Face value: 30 cents of South African rand.
Design: Hein Botha (b. 1945).
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 29 x 38 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 728.
- Scott No. 711.
- South African Stamp Catalog No. 651.
- StampWorld No. 767.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 638.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 645.

The term Huguenots is the name that was given to the French Protestants of Calvinist doctrine during the Wars of Religion. On October 18, 1685, Louis XIV of France decided to revoke the Edict of Nantes and initiate the systematic conversion of the Protestant French, which involved cruel persecution that forced many of them to emigrate: it is estimated that between 1685 and 1715 they emigrated some 200,000 Huguenots to the Netherlands, Switzerland, England and various German cities and Prussia. Many others settled in the British colonies of the Cape and America and began their own colonization initiatives, whose descendants would contribute to the founding of modern nations like South Africa and the United States.