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