21/06/2026
The Italian Silkworms of Gouna: A Promised Land Betrayed
Imagine abandoning your homeland for a grand promise across the ocean, only to be dropped into an untamed, wild jungle. This is the incredible, bittersweet history of Knysna’s Gouna Forest—a story of a grand silk dream that turned into a fierce battle for survival.
In the autumn of 1881 a small group of 32 Italian immigrants (consisting of three families and a few single men) arrived at the port of Knysna on the SS Natal. They were from Northern Italy and carried surnames like Sciocatti, Fardini, Mangiagalli, Polonia, and Robbolini. They were not unskilled laborers; they were highly trained silk specialists, spinners, and master breeders of silkworms.
Leaving Italy was a profound sacrifice. The families left behind deep ancestral roots and a 1,200-year-old Roman Catholic church. The heartbreak began before they even set sail: at the Genoa docks, they discovered they couldn't load their furniture onto the ship and had to leave it on the quayside, packed with only a single trunk of essentials per family.
The immigrants were lured to South Africa by an invitation from Henry Barrington, an English gentleman-farmer from Portland Manor, who pitched the idea to the Cape Colonial Government. Because it was a government-sponsored project, the Italians were under the firm impression that houses, allocated land, a living wage, and thriving mulberry plantations were already established and awaiting their expertise.
The reality was a devastating deception. After a grueling three-week ox-cart journey from the harbor into the dense Gouna forest, they found no houses and no sheds to protect their delicate silkworms. Instead they were met with a dense jungle where wild elephants, buffalo, and baboons roamed unchecked.
Worst of all was the lie about the trees. Local promoters failed to realize that the "plentiful mulberry trees" they spoke of were Trimeria grandiflora—an indigenous wild species completely useless for feeding silkworms. When the Italians tried to plant the correct white mulberry (Morus alba), the saplings died at just 1m tall because their roots hit an impenetrable layer of hard clay.
Stranded, isolated, and treated with deep suspicion by local Protestant settlers, they had to abandon the silk industry entirely. To survive, they lived in basic tents, relied on government rations, and were forced to become woodcutters and road builders.
For ten long years, the families toiled away, pressured to learn Afrikaans and attend local Protestant churches. Finally in 1891 the tiny San Ambroso chapel was built for them by Reverend Rooney. Named after Saint Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan and domestic animals, this small church became their sanctuary.
Though later vandalized by squatters who stole the yellowwood ceilings, it was painstakingly restored for R600,000 by Rayno Sciocatti, a fourth-generation descendant. Reopened in 2005 as a chapel and museum, its opening was even attended by historical figures like Kenneth Kaunda and P.W. Botha. Today, it stands as a permanent symbol of faith, courage, and the remarkable resilience of Gouna's Italian pioneers.
