The document discusses the San and Khoikhoi peoples who inhabited the Western Cape region of South Africa in the 16th century, prior to European colonization. It describes the San as the earliest inhabitants who lived as hunter-gatherers, while the Khoikhoi were also hunter-gatherers but supplemented their diet by herding livestock. As European settlers established colonies in the Cape in the 17th-18th centuries, they appropriated land from the Khoikhoi and San peoples, disrupting their way of life and forcing many into servitude on farms. Racial mixing occurred between European men and Khoikhoi/San women and slave women imported to the Cape, laying the foundations

1. Themes in the History of the Cape
Colony
Theme 2:
San and Khoikhoi of the
Western Cape

2. Distribution of Population
Groups (16th century)
1. Remnants of Mapungubwe & Great
Zimbabwe
2. Sotho-Tswana Chiefdoms
3. Ndwandwe & Mthethwa Chiefdoms
4. Xhosa & Thembu Chiefdoms
5. San
6. Khoikhoi

3. The San
• It is not certain who the earliest inhabitants of
southern Africa were - however, it is generally
accepted to have been the San;
• Believed to be the direct descendants of Later Stone
Age people who inhabited central Africa – approx.
20 000 years ago;
• Widely regarded as the aboriginal inhabitants of
southern Africa – they moved southwards into
modern SA from modern-day Botswana and areas
further north - within the past few thousand years.

4. • Dominant mode of subsistence: hunting & gathering;
▫ The men hunted and gathered, while the women gathered;
▫ When hunting was poor, the group often depended upon the
roots, berries, plants, insects etc. gathered by the women;
• Akin to Stone Age people as they did not domesticate animals
– this occurred very late in southern Africa, perhaps more
recently than in many other parts of the world;
• Forced southwards towards the Cape by other groups also
moving southwards – these groups were pastoralists or agro-
pastoralists (some were Iron Age peoples);
• The San moved about in areas such as the Karoo & the
Drakensberg Mountains.

5. Social Structure of the San
• Widely dispersed over vast tracts of the region;
▫ Seasonal migration between the summer and winter
rainfall band;
 Coastal foragers;
 Inland hunter-gatherers;
 Gariep hunter-gatherers;
• Small family groups – the size depended upon
the availability of water and resources;
▫ In times of drought, the groups became smaller and
more mobile.

6. The Khoikhoi
• Dominant mode of subsistence: also hunting and
gathering, but domesticated livestock animals, in particular
cattle;
▫ Pastoralists (herders);
• As with all pastoral groups, the ownership of cattle was a
marker of status and social position – the accumulation of
property set the Khoikhoi apart from the San;
• The Khoikhoi acquired cattle in the region of modern day
Angola, northern Botswana and Zambia some 2 500 years
ago;
• Began moving southwards towards modern day SA shortly
afterwards;
• Sought favourable pastures for their cattle.

7. Khoikhoi migration into southern africa

8. • Larger in numbers – and with more centralised political
organisation – the Khoikhoi tended to either absorb or force
out the San, who migrated to areas less suited to
pastoralism, such as the Kalahari;
• Domesticated livestock within the past two millenia, unlike in
regions further north in Africa:
▫ Sahara – 7 000 years ago;
▫ East Africa – 4 000 years ago;
• It appears that as other groups began to exhibit
characteristics of Iron Age people, the herders moved further
southwards;
▫ As one civilisation becomes more sophisticated and politically
organised, so less organised groups tend to either be absorbed or
forced out.

9. • Great deal in common with the San;
• Both groups spoke variations of „click‟ languages
distinctive to southern Africa (and some parts of
eastern Africa);
• Most important differences:
▫ The Khoikhoi supplemented their hunting and gathering
with pastoralism;
▫ The Khoikhoi had larger family units and more structured
political organisation – hereditary chiefs;
▫ However, determining ethnic, or physical, differences is
difficult – European eyewitness accounts are unreliable.

10. San/Khoikhoi Ethnicity
• Ethnicity – the distinctive physical features of a
particular group and the culture this engenders –
cannot be determined by the ownership of cattle only;
▫ The Elphick model:
 Argues that rather than being separate ethnic groups, the
San (Bushmen) and the Hottentots (Khoikhoi) were part of an
economic cycle;
 Those that acquired cattle were named as Hottentots in the
colonial records;
 Those that lost their cattle, due to drought or conflict
perhaps, were referred to as Bushmen;
 The boundaries between the two groups were therefore
permeable – a cycle of upward and downward mobility;
▫ San debate

11. The „Khoisan‟
• Owing to the uncertainties surrounding their
ethnicities, the portmanteau „Khoisan‟ has
become increasingly popular of late;
▫ A neutral term – an organising concept;
▫ Points towards the numerous similarities between
the hunter-gatherers and the herders;
 Especially with regards to their languages;
• However, there is also opposition to this, as it
tends to undermine the „unique‟ characteristics
of each group – especially the San.

12. Dominant Khoikhoi groups at the
Cape before contact with
Europeans – interspersed with
San
1. Nama
2. Guriqua
3. Cochoqua
4. Peninsulars
5. Chainouqua
6. Hessequa
7. Attaqua
8. Gouriqua

13. The Dutch Sphere of Influence –
17th century
Note the importance of Dutch trading interests in Indonesia (Java, Sumatra &
Borneo)

14. • The VOC – driven by commercial interests – began to
appreciate the significance of the Cape of Good Hope as a
convenient half-way stopover between the Netherlands and
the East;
▫ Could sail due east from the Cape on the reliable
westerly trade winds;
▫ Could return by the south-east trade winds directly to
Natal and then sail on to round the Cape;
▫ Regular landfall by Europeans in modern SA had
begun;
▫ The benefits of establishing a more permanent
presence at the Cape became evident.

15. • 1652: Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape under
instructions to establish a fort and plant gardens for
passing ships;
▫ The VOC did not intend to „colonise‟ the territory;
▫ The Cape settlement was intended to be a refreshment
station (trading post) – supplying passing VOC ships with
necessary supplies;
▫ In time, ships from Britain and France also stopped over at
the convenient half-way settlement (the pre-cursor to Cape
Town);
▫ In order to supply the demand for food, firewood &
freshwater, the Dutch realised that they needed to engage in
trade with the indigenous Khoikhoi of the Cape Peninsula.

16. • With regards to supplies, the passing ships
required meat and vegetables;
▫ The Company planted gardens – the Company
Gardens – to produce vegetables;
▫ However, they relied upon the Khoikhoi to provide
sheep and cattle for meat;
▫ Also, in time, the Company‟s gardens couldn‟t
meet the growing demand;
▫ Wine was also in demand;
▫ In order to address this, the VOC decided to make
their presence at Table Bay more formal and thus
began the colonial conquest of the territory.

17. • In order to transform their trading post into a
formal settlement, the VOC had to achieve the
following:
▫ They had to appropriate land in order to
expand their farming & livestock activities;
 Land was acquired through force; two wars were
fought early on in the Colony‟s existence between the
VOC and the Peninsular Khoikhoi;
 Other Khoikhoi chiefdoms further inland were less
disrupted at this time, although they were eventually
drawn into the colonial trade network – due to their
possession of sheep and cattle;
 For those Khoikhoi who lost their sheep and cattle due
to coercion, dispossession, or unfavourable trade
relations, the consequences were dire.

18. • Khoikhoi polities disintegrated as they lost the most
important cultural marker of authority and wealth:
cattle;
• Large numbers of dispossessed Khoikhoi (of land &
cattle) joined ranks with San groups in the Cape interior
where they forcefully resisted further colonial
encroachments;
▫ They often employed guerilla tactics – due to the
technological superiority of Dutch weaponry;
 Attacked inland farms; stole cattle; murdered
farmers and farm workers;
▫ This conflict began in the 1680s and continued
until well into the 1800s.

19. ▫ A social order had to be created by which
the emerging Cape Colony could be
governed;
 To achieve this, foreigners were encouraged to settle
at the Cape;
 They were expected to farm so as to meet the
growing demand for fresh produce, meat and wine;
 Two types of immigrants:
▫ Free immigrants from Europe – were granted land to
farm (free burghers); most notably the French Huguenots
(fleeing Catholic prosecution in Europe) who settled in the
Franschoek Valley (late 1600s);
▫ Involuntary immigrants – slaves from various corners
of the world – mostly from Indonesia, Madagascar & India;
▫ Between 1652 & 1807 (the abolition of the slave
trade), approx. 60 000 slaves were imported to the Cape.

20. • Therefore, during the 17th & 18th centuries, Cape
society exhibited a tripartite structure:
▫ The settlers/masters;
 High-ranking VOC employees & free
burghers;
 Acquired land – culturally, they brought a
distinctly European conception of private
property with them to the Cape;
▫ The slaves;
 Both Company owned slaves & privately
owned slaves;
 Many worked on the docks loading &
unloading ships;
 Treated as private property / sub-human.

21. ▫ The Khoisan
 Who had lost their land and cattle and who had been
forced into a position of subservience within the
fledgling Colony;
 Legally, the Khoisan remained free people – they were not
officially enslaved;
 Why?
 This was a characteristic policy of the early colonial powers –
they were reluctant to enslave indigenous populations ;
 Slaves were more malleable when imported from foreign
lands;
 The indigenous population knew the land and so were more
likely to desert;
 They were also more likely to forcefully resist colonial
settlement – draw on traditional structures;
 The indigenous population at the Cape was too small to meet
the growing labour demands of the growing Colony – had to
be supplemented by slave labour.

22. European Population
Settlement in the Early Cape
Colony
• Cape Town – commercial &
administrative hub; the only
market in the Colony; seat of the
VOC authority.
• Farms of the south-western
Cape – wine & wheat were the
dominant crops (suited to the
Mediterranean climate); these
farmers quickly emerged as an
influential gentry.
• Farms across the Cape Fold
Belt – settled from 1690 onwards;
as land became more difficult to
come by in the south-western
Cape, farmers with little capital
sought to settle further in the Cape
interior.

23. • The farmers who settled the Cape interior disrupted the Khoisan‟s
transhumant migrations;
▫ Their access to water & land was severely curtailed;
▫ Herds of game were shot out – some species went extinct
(Blauwbok & Quagga);
• The Khoisan‟s guerrilla resistance was met by brutal
retaliation – civilian militias called Commandos hunted down
groups;
▫ The men were often killed, the women & children captured to
work on the farms;
• Widely regarded as genocide (colonial context);
▫ Numbers are sketchy, but only remnants of the Khoisan
populations were left;
▫ Many fled even further into the arid Karoo, others sought shelter
in the Drakensberg;
▫ Still others aligned with the Xhosa in the East.

24. The Cape Frontier
• Frontier: a zone of interaction among people practicing
different cultures;
• These people – both indigenous & immigrant – forge
socio-economic & political relations, often, but not solely
through violence;
• Determined by power – which group has & exercises
more power?
▫ Open frontier – an irregular balance of power;
▫ Closing frontier – one of the groups begins to
achieve ascendancy;
▫ Closed frontier – the same group achieves
dominance.

25. Frontier Regions of the Cape Colony, early 19th century
• Transgariep/Transorangia frontier zone: -----------
• Northeastern Cape frontier zone: -----------
• Eastern Cape frontier zone: -----------

26. Miscegenation at the Cape
• In spite of the master/servant divide, Cape society remained fluid
early on;
• In the male-dominated society, European men married Khoisan &
slave women & had Khoisan & slave mistresses;
▫ Growing numbers of mixed-race people were born at the Cape
during 17th & 18th centuries;
▫ Referred to as miscegenation;
▫ “When children are born of parents of different races, especially
when one parent is white”;
• For slave women, marrying a free man would automatically grant
them their freedom (manumission);
• 1656 – first marriage of a European man to a slave woman at the
Cape (Jan Woutersz & Catharina of Bengal)
• 1664 – first marriage of a European man to a Khoisan woman at the
Cape (Pieter van Meerhoff & Eva)

27. • Many matriarchs of Afrikaans families were either slaves or
Khoisan;
• 1669 – Arnoldus Willemsz Basson married Angela of Bengal –
she became the matriarch of the Bassons;
• Also, there is evidence of white women marrying freed slave
men;
▫ Christoffel Snyman (son of Antony of Bengal) married
Marguerite de Savoy (daughter of a prominent Huguenot
family);
▫ He became the patriarch of the Snymans;
 Brits, Slabbert, Fischer, Ackerman, Nel, Grobler – all
are descendants of slaves or Khoisan;
• Race was not yet a marker of separation – not yet cemented in
social psyche;
• The „mixed-race‟ offspring are the ancestors of the Coloured
community.

28. • Of course, Khoisan & slaves also bore children;
• Social relations were fluid;
• Racial mixing was a common characteristic of Cape
society in the 17th & 18th centuries – until such time that
the white or European immigrant community began to
grow (during the late 18th century);
• European conceptions of race were quickly changing –
influenced by religious conceptions of the „elect‟ & the
„damned‟ (Calvinist doctrine);
▫ Offspring of whites & Khoisan/slaves were increasingly
referred to as Bastaards;
▫ Offspring of Khoisan & slaves as Bastaard-Hottentots;
▫ These were the ancestors of mixed-race groups such as the
Griquas & Oorlams (consolidated in the northern Cape
beyond the borders of the Colony).

29. Final Stages of the Dutch Phase at the Cape
• Late 1700s – the Dutch were being eclipsed by
the French & the British;
• Shifts in international power relations were
taking place;
▫ 1776-1783: American War of Independence (the
American settlers were aided by France);
▫ 1789: French Revolution (revolutionary ideas
spread from the US to France);
▫ 1770s-1780s: the VOC encountered financial
difficulties – no longer the dominant
multinational corporation.

30. VOC Monopoly – Trade & Government
• As a Chartered Company, the VOC was both
merchant and government at the Cape;
• Awarded contracts to settlers to provide
Company needs (meat, wine, wheat, etc.);
• Favouritism and cronyism often determined who
was awarded contracts;
▫ The growing farming community was becoming
increasingly disgruntled with VOC rule;
▫ Demanded representation in the Colonial
government.

31. • 1795 – the VOC was officially bankrupt;
• Concerned that revolutionary France would attempt to
take over control, the British were quick to occupy the
Cape;
▫ First British occupation: 1795-1803;
▫ Cape returned to Batavian rule: 1803-1806
▫ Second British occupation: 1806
• The Dutch phase of colonisation had:
▫ Totally disrupted (in some instances destroyed) Khoisan
social & political organisation;
▫ Introduced slavery;
▫ Begun commercial farming through attracting a settler-
farming class (by the late 1700s - an influential gentry);
▫ Opened up the Cape interior to exploration, mission
work and settlement.

32. The British Phase
• Began due to events in Europe;
• Highlights the significance of the Cape as a
strategic geo-political base at the time;
• Social, political & economic relations in the
Colony were affected by the British style of
administration;
▫ The Cape could now access the growing British
commercial markets;
▫ A boost for wine production in particular;
▫ British merchant capital and immigrants entered
the Cape.

33. • British imperialism in the early 19th century was
influenced by the Enlightenment;
▫ Intellectual & philosophical developments which
began in Europe in the 18th century;
▫ Questioned religious authority & the divine right
of kings;
▫ Called for more rights for common people;
▫ Influential thinkers:
 Adam Smith, ‘The Wealth of Nations’;
 Jean Jacques Rosseau;
 Founding fathers of the USA;
▫ Also, an evangelical revival – individuals could
access the „truths‟ of religion.

34. • Britain (and the other imperial powers) believed they
were on a civilising mission;
▫ Natural rights could only be granted to individuals
who were „civilised‟ – those who exhibited certain
„markers‟ of sophistication;
▫ Determined by European standards & expectations:
 Dress;
 Religion;
 Education;
 Family;
 Gender roles;
 Etiquette;
 Morals
▫ This philosophy lay the foundation upon which the
Cape Liberal Tradition was based.

35. • 1808 – abolition of the slave trade (not slavery itself);
▫ Meant that the Khoisan were pursued even more as labourers for
the Colony‟s expanding labour network;
▫ How were the colonial Khoisan to be „civilised‟ & incorporated as
colonial subjects?
• Role of the missionary societies;
▫ To be explored in more detail in Theme 4: Missions and the
Humanitarian Movement

36. ▫ In a bid to regulate Khoisan labour, the British passed several
acts (or codes);
 1809 – Caledon Code;
 Hottentots in the Colony had to enter into labour contracts
with farmers;
 They had to have a „fixed place of abode‟;
 They had to carry passes to prove they were employed;
 Those caught without a pass were classified as vagrants;
 1811 – Circuit Courts;
 Judges travelled to the distant districts to ensure the
proper administration of justice;
 Served as an oversight mechanism;
 1812 – Apprenticeship Law;
 Hottentot children were apprenticed to their parent‟s
employer until the age of 18 if they had been born and raised
to the age of 8 on the employer‟s property.

37. Child Labour
• Apprenticeship;
▫ Hottentot children legally apprenticed if born on a
farm and provided for till the age of 8;
▫ Apprenticed for 10 years, until 18;
▫ Since 1770s, Bastaard-Hottentot children were legally
apprenticed until the age of 25;
• By apprenticing children, farmers were also ensured
of the labour of their parents;
• Child apprenticeship an important source of labour
for farmers in remote parts of the Colony;
• Slaves scarce and expensive outside of the south-
western Cape.

38. • Two effects of the early British laws:
▫ The Khoisan were now officially recognised as
bonded labourers
 Serfs or colonial subjects;
 Whole families were tied to farmers until their
contracts expired (sometimes indefinitely);
▫ The British intervened in the relations between
employers & employees / masters & servants
 The Dutch farmers were extremely unhappy with
British interference in their labour relations;
 Regarded the Khoisan & their slaves as socially
inferior;
 Believed they had the right to treat their
servants/slaves as they saw fit.

39. Khoisan Resistance and Acculturation
• Marks, “Khoisan Resistance to the Dutch in the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” (1972)
▫ “The expansion of the trekboer economy ultimately
brought about the destruction of their social system
and independent existence” – p. 68;
▫ But the process was more complex and took longer
than is usually realised;
▫ “Resistance was only one of their responses to the
Dutch and perhaps not the dominant one” – p. 76;
▫ Collaboration also characteristic of Khoisan/settler
relations;

40. • Acculturation
▫ Loss of ethnic identity, but also the absorption of
other cultural traits;
▫ Syncretism;
 All cultures, at all times, in all places, are in a
syncretistic state;
• Marks – “loose social organisation” partly
responsible for Khoisan acculturation to
„Hottentots‟ – p. 77;
▫ Options: resist; assimilate; flee to the interior;
▫ These options were not mutually exclusive.

41. Khoisan and Colonial Law
• Ross, “The Changing Legal Position of the
Khoisan in the Cape Colony, 1652-1795”
and
• Penn, “The Onder Bokkeveld Ear Atrocity”

42. • The rule of colonial law during the VOC period
was ambiguous for the Khoisan;
▫ Labour law intended to regulate the supply of
labour;
▫ But also provided „Hottentots‟ with a path to legal
recourse if they felt aggrieved;
▫ British colonial law at the Cape applied to both
Khoisan and settler;
▫ The colonial power as having the right to punish
servant and master;
• Khoisan assimilation in response to British
colonial intervention in the affairs of the Cape.

43. • British rule and colonial law (early 1800s)
▫ Enforce a monopoly over control in order to
legitimate colonial authority;
▫ Owing to the Enlightenment, different attitudes to
slavery and criminal punishment emerged;
▫ Khoisan as legal subjects of Britain‟s growing
empire;
▫ Both European settlers and Khoisan granted legal
rights;
▫ In the 1820s, slaves were also granted rights;
▫ Highlights the divergent agendas of the metropole
(Britain, London, the Colonial Office) and the
colony when it came to the Khoisan.

44. “Onder Bokkeveld Ear Atrocity”
• Incident occurred during the Governorship of
Sir John Cradock;
▫ 1812;
▫ The district was remote, extensive, sparsely
populated;
▫ An area in which fugitives, robbers, runaway
slaves – drosters – were known to be living and
raiding;
▫ Commando sent out to track down drosters who
had murdered a farm worker;
▫ The commando was made up of Khoisan and
Bastards.

45. Bokkeveld

46. ▫ Increasing numbers of farmers and servants
seeking the legal intervention of the colonial state;
▫ Rather than settling their disputes between
themselves;
▫ The theme of justice stands out;
▫ Concern to ameliorate the condition of the
Khoisan;
▫ Reformist motives of the Caledon Code, Circuit
Courts and Apprenticeship Law