Gilion

Gilion (English pronunciation: [ĠΪ 'ļΪ 'ãú n]; French pronunciation: Đĵΐ ‘ļi ‘áū) The Gilions were a Huguenot family that immigrated to South Africa in 1687 from Provence, France. The name Gilion is derived from Jilliáux; however, in English it is also often spellt Gillion.

Arrival in South Africa

On December 31, 1687 a band of Huguenots set sail from France to the Dutch East India Company post at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Individual Huguenots settled at the Cape of Good Hope from as early as 1671 with the arrival of Francois Villion (Viljoen) and an organized, large scale emigration of Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope took place during 1688 and 1689. A notable example of this is the emigration of Huguenots from La Motte d'Aigues in Provence,France. Many of these settlers chose as their home an area called Franschhoek, Dutch for French Corner, in the present day Western Cape province of South Africa

Family traits

The Gillions were known to have a very unique physique. In comparison to all their fellow Frenchman they were very often tall and muscular. They also possessed a peculiar ability to move their Pectoralis muscles individually. The Gilions were also known to be superb athletes particularly in the fields of sprinting and swimming. When the local Franschoek Olympic Championships took place, it seldomly happened that the swimming and sprinting categories where not won by a Gilion.

In the early years after arrival it was very popular under the Gilions to name one of their sons Yráux, however, in the latter years this changed to Hyron which became the most popular variation although, depending on personal taste the spelling often varied. The men were also known to be relatively attractive and very popular with the young women. Their only self induced obstacle was the fact that they were extremely childish. More often than not resulting in them only getting married at the age of forty while their brides were usually still between twenty to thirty years younger than them.

1700s–1800s

From approximately the third generation Gilions that were born in South Africa, inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages ,particularly with the Khoisan, became common practice, even though the marriages were not accepted by the rule of law. This started spreading rapidly after a few years which caused the then very conservative Dutch authorities to clamp down on such practices by threatening the people and burning down their vineyards and livestock.

This caused mass exodus from South Africa back to France where such relationships were possible without having to risk your life. By the late 1920s there were very few original French Huguenot Gilions left in the Cape as they had all fled back to France. The majority of those that didn't immigrate back to France moved to Hermanus, then a little town on the coast about one hundred and seventy km to the east of Cape Town. There they survived by hunting whales and selling the meat to feed the local population.

Apartheid

In 1948 when the Apartheid regime was installed the Gilions were forced to close their whale hunting business as most of the family members were non-whites. A small part of the family remained in Hermanus while most others moved to Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg to join the African National Congress (ANC) in the liberation struggle.