************Aman Makoye***********
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TOPIC 1. GENERAL OVERVIEW
•
The most important feature of South African history
which makes it an immensely interesting and rewarding region to study is the
great variety of people (who are these people?) leading very different
kinds of lives. Therefore, the history of these African communities has been dominated by :
ü The movements of various groups of people
ü The reaction of one community (group) upon another
ü The story of how different groups either accepted or were
forced to accept changes.
•
In most cases every group tried to maintain
its traditional way of life. For example:
ü The San fought hard for the survival of their nomadic
(hunter-gatherer) existence
ü
The Bantu fought hard to defend their land
ü The Boers in their trek (1830s) away from
the Cape demonstrated their burning desire to retain a way of life established
over a period of two hundred years.
•
Despite this fight for the retention
of traditional ways of life and territory, there
has always been a mixing between the different racial
groups and from this exchange of cultures, there
developed a growth of South African civilization. What does this
mean?
•
Thus, different ways of living, ideas
of government and administration, and modern scientific and
technological knowledge have crossed barriers of color
and shown that people can adopt a culture different from the one
into which they are born.
•
Beyond the movements of people and the effect they had
on each other, South African history focuses on:
ü The setting up of African states in the 19th
century and how after the discovery of precious minerals in the
interior, these African states were undermined /eclipsed/ overshadowed
by the increased power of the European communities.
ü The different methods of African resistances
to European control.
ü
How apartheid policy strengthened
white domination in the region and African reaction to apartheid
policy through the careers of major African leaders such as Lithuli,
Mandela and Sobukwe.
•
Sources of South
African History
•
A variety of sources have greatly assisted in
compiling the history of South Africa. The most important ones are:
Ø Oral histories; this has
provided a way to learn about the South African past from people
with first hand knowledge of historical events or their own
experiences, which in themselves from the raw data/materials of
history.
o Historians and other people find out about the lives of ordinary
people through spoken stories. Oral histories provides important
historical evidence about people, especially minority or marginalized
groups (old people, uneducated people, women, children, etc) who were
excluded from mainstream histories (written histories).
o A good example of this oral history is the “praise poem” from indigenous South African culture, which predates
European contact, and tells us about leaders and events in
the time before and during the history writing of white settlers in South Africa.
Ø Archaeological evidence, that is the
remains of stone tools, bones, sticks,
shelters and fire places found in campsites.
These kind of materials have been particularly well preserved in some caves
and rock shelters along the southern coast of the Cape. The
interpretation of these archaeological remains have provided valuable
information for the reconstruction of South African history
Ø Paintings, there are paintings made
by the San on the walls of their rock shelters.
These depict people as well as animals, tools,
weapons and other objects. Many fine examples of rock art
are to be found in Drankensberg mountains of South Africa and
parts of Lesotho as well as in the hills and rock shelters of Zimbabwe,
Botswana and Namibia.
Ø Written records of early
European travelers, traders, missionaries
and colonists who came at the Cape from the 17th
century onwards. Their writings often provide useful descriptions about peoples'
life ways.
Ø There is evidence of the ways of life of the San’s descendants.
Anthropologists have recent years intensively studied those few who still live
a hunting and gathering existence, especially in the remote desert regions of
Botswana. These studies of modern hunter-gatherer communities can tell the
historians much about how their ancestors probably lived many hundreds of years
ago.
•
Brief
Historiography of South Africa
•
Many books written by Colonial historians
and Anthropologists have been published on the history of South
Africa. However, most of these suffers from a number of fundamental weaknesses:
ü They were mainly written through the eyes of the white men.
These authors were preoccupied with the history of Europeans in
South Africa as seen by Europeans and ignored the contributions
of Africans to the total history of the country.
ü
Due to the official policy of apartheid
based on the fiction of the superiority of the white race, the vast majority
of these books are biased against Africans and
other non-white .
ü While most books on the history of South Africa tells us a great
deal about events in South Africa since white settlement,
they tells us little about African societies and states
both before and since the coming of the whites.
Thus, for most part, Africans are simply mentioned in connection with fiction
with whites. To authors of such books:
o The African was merely a passive character who was
incapable of initiating change and development or influencing policy, thus,
making history.
•
It was against these serious weaknesses that Nationalist
Historians found it important to review and re-write
the history of South Africa so as to overcome the weaknesses by portraying
developments among Africans and other non-white
societies and by emphasizing the roles of Africans
as well as that of the whites, in the development of South
Africa.
•
Generally, Nationalist Historians who
reviewed South African History have attempted to break away from
the European approach which was common to colonial historians,
that is, Africans were inferior and incapable of initiating their
own development.
– The emphasis of Nationalist Historians became the history of the
majority black population of South Africa. As far as possible, attempts have
been made to interpret South African historical events in African perspective.
TOPIC 2. SOUTH AFRICA BEFORE FOREIGN INTRUSION
•
Archaeological evidence suggests that South Africa was
inhabited by man many years ago. Between half a million and two million years
ago, the country was already peopled by early man. These early
men are called australopithecine (Southern apes) , the specie
from which modern man descended.
– The Australopithecine are said to have had a small brain size,
a huge lower jaw with large molars (teeth used for
crushing food). In most cases they used born implements.
– As man became more advanced, so also his culture and implements
for cutting, defense, hunting, and
even for digging up roots for food became more and more efficient
as they were more refined.
•
During the late stone age when tools
were widely in use, this long process of change, adaptation,
and advancement led to the emergence of a group of people similar
to the present Bushmen of the Kalahari desert.
These people lived by hunting, fishing and gathering.
The peopling of South Africa, their economy, social
formations and political organization
The Bushmen
These are said to have
been the earliest inhabitants of South Africa. In South Africa,
they are known by various names:
– Europeans calls them Bushmen ( a name first given to them
by the Boers who referred to them as Bosjesmannes, that is “men
of the bush”
–
The Xhosa call them the “Twa”
–
The Sotho call them the “Roa”
–
The Hottentots call them the “San” or “Saan”
•
The Bushmen’s early occupation of the country is
partly proved by numerous relics (remains) of their stone
tools, rock paintings and sculpture, all
these are found in places like Damaraland, the Orange Free
States (OFS), the Transvaal and Transkei.
Physical characteristics of the Bushmen
– They are short and yellow or brown
skinned
– Their language is characterized by the use of “clicks”,
that is, it has click sounds
– They are generally hospitable and peaceful
although they hate intrusion by strangers into their privacy
and their hunting grounds, for they are great hunters. Any intruders
are attacked with poisonous arrows.
–
The hair is weak in growth, in age it
becomes grey
– A hollowed back and protruding stomach are
frequent characteristics of their figure
– The amount of fat under the skin in both
sexes is remarkably small; hence the skin is as dry
as leather and falls into strong folds around the stomach
and at the joints.
Economy
– Although the Bushmen had only simple tools, the early Bushmen had no
major difficult in getting food. They lived on wild animals , wild
roots, fruits, locust, wild honey,
caterpillars, etc.
– They supplemented their rich diet with fish which they
caught in numerous rivers such as the Kei, Vaal, Tsomo
and Tugele.
– They did not grow food crops and they kept
no domestic animals except the dog, which they used for
hunting.
– They did not engage in pottery or basketry
making. In order to store/ keep their food and water,
they used ostrich egg shells.
– They owned little properties collectively, there was no individualism,
for example, hunted wild animals were shared among themselves.
– They did not posses iron tools as they
lacked iron technology. Their weapons were made up of woods,
stone and animal and fish bones.
–
In order to survive and have enough food, the Bushmen
have developed a division of labor based on gender. Women
perform the food gathering and men perform the hunting
Social and political organization
•
The kind of life the San lived did not encourage a high
degree of social and political organization.
– As there was plenty of land and people lived by hunting
and gathering, the Bushmen lived a predominantly nomadic life .
– They moved from one place to another looking for animals to hunt
depending on weather.
–
They lived in caves or temporary
shelters made up of grasses or bushes
•
The San were very good at rock paintings and
stone carvings.
•
Animals were represented in paintings on rocks,
stone and ostrich egg shells as well as walls
of caves.
– They made their paints out of animal fats and vegetable
dyes and applied it with sticks or feathers
.
– The most common colors were red,
orange, yellow and brown.
– Among the later paintings, the largest antelope, the eland
occurs most frequently. It is believed that this was a sacred
animal.
– They lived in small family groups of about 12 to a
maximum of 30 people.
– It was common for girls of seven (7) or eight
(8) years to be married to boys of 14 or 15 years.
– Boys underwent initiation which included a test of their skills
as hunters.
– Polygamy (one man with more than one wife ) was widely practiced.
The Hottentots/Khoi/KhoiKhoi
The Hottentots originally
call themselves “KhoiKhoi” that
is “Men of Men” meaning real
people / people people, the term used to show their pride
in themselves. Europeans called them Hottentots and their language Hottentot.
– The Hottentots are taller than the Bushmen, but like the
Bushmen, they are yellow skinned and their language is full of clicks.
The Hottentots are also
another indigenous people in South Africa who came from Botswana. They moved
from Botswana to occupy South Africa around 500 BC.
– Archaeological evidence shows that the Khoikhoi entered South
Africa through two
distinct routes:
• travelling west, dodging the Kalahari to
the west coast, then later, down to the Cape, and
• travelling south-east out into the Highveld and then southwards
to the south coast
– When the Portuguese arrived in Southern Africa in 1487, they found the
Hottentots living at Table bay(west coast)and Mossel bay(east
coast). By the mid of the 17th century they were living around the Cape,
along the banks of the Orange river and Natal.
Economy
–
The Hottentots kept large herds of
cattle and flock of sheep, which formed the basis
of their life and economy.
– Since they were cattle keepers, the Hottentots had to
move from place to place with their herds of cattle and flock of sheep in
search of fresh pasture and water.
– Although they kept numerous animals, the Hottentots rarely killed
them for food, except when there was an important function such as a ceremony.
– The Hottentots also fed on honey, wild fruits and
roots and fish. Thus, like the Bushmen, the
Hottentots were hunters and gatherers. They did not
grow any food crops.
Social and political organization
– The Hottentots had a large and more efficient
social and political organization than the Bushmen.
– They lived in large groups or camps, each
of which consisted of several related clans.
– Each camp was therefore a large village. The camp also enclosed
all the herds of its inhabitants.
– The Khoi society was the earliest unequal society in
South Africa. This means that some people managed to accumulate
wealth as they owned large herds of cattle than others.
– As a result, they developed a social
hierarchy, for example chieftaincy, that is some people
became rulers because of their wealth, hence leadership
was based on wealth and seniority.
– It was in this ground that each camp had a chief who
ruled with the help of the head of clans comprising his
territory, that is a camp village.
– Since they were animal keepers who moved from one place to another,
they sometimes became competitors with the San.
–
The Khoikhoi were more centralized and lived in large
communities than the San. At a later stage, the San were in cooperated
by the Khoikhoi through intermarriage.
– The Khoikhoi were religious people. They had few
religious ceremonies as such, but they believed in the existence
of a supreme God. This supreme God was responsible for bringing thunderstorms
which refreshed the pasture
– The Khoi also believed that the spirits of their
ancestors inhabited natural features of the landscape such as valleys,
rivers, and mountains.
The Bantu
•
Until at least the 1960s, South African historians
and white politicians had a very distorted view of
South African early history:
– They believed that black Bantu- speaking, iron working
farmers were fairly recent immigrants into South Africa.
– Furthermore it was claimed that, these Bantu migrations first crossed
the Limpopo between 1500 and 1600AD, and certainly not
earlier than 1000AD.
– The Blacks were said to have swept into South Africa from
the North in large successive, and conquering waves of
migration.
•
However, since the 1970s, archaeological
research, linguistics evidence
and the use of carbon 14 dating have totally overturned
this distorted and biased version of Southern
Africa history.
The new evidence suggest
that:
1. The first Bantu speaking people seem to have crossed the
Limpopo into Southern Africa by about 200AD. Therefore,
the Bantu were not recent immigrants of South Africa as suggested
by colonial historians and politicians.
2. By 300 AD they had pushed Southwards into the present
day Natal and by 400AD their settlement were
evident in the Transvaal. However, there is no evidence of large scale migrations
as suggested by colonial historians. The Bantu travelled and settled in small,
and fairly sized groups.
• What does the above arguments
imply?
– The Bantu entered in South Africa earlier than the period
suggested by Europeans / colonial scholars (1500-1600AD)
– The Bantu did not enter in South Africa in large successive and conquering wave of
migrations as suggested by these scholars, but rather in small and fairly sized
groups
3. Archaeological
evidence recovered very few skeletal remains of the early Bantu
in South Africa. This little evidence shows that the Bantu were larger
than the Khoikhoi and the San.
4. This archaeological
evidence further suggests that, these early Bantu were of a definite Negroid
racial type though with signs of intermixing with the
local Khoikhoi and San population.
5.Linguistic evidence
further suggests that, the earliest iron age immigrants (who are
believed to be the Bantu) into Southern Africa were probably speakers of early
forms of the Bantu family language. There are today more than 300
Bantu languages between Cameroon in West Africa and the Southern
coast of South Africa.
– By studying similarities and differences between them, linguists have
concluded that probably all stem from an original parent language
somewhere in the region of modern Cameroon.
– The iron age farmers, therefore, were almost certainly the earliest
ancestors of the Black Bantu speaking people who forms the vast
majority of the population of Central and Southern
Africa today.
Economy
•
The Bantu were mixed farmers; their
economy was more advanced, combining agriculture with pastoralism
and their standard of living was a great deal higher than that of
their predecessors ( the San and the Khoi).
– They grew millets, sorghum, melons,
and beans.
– They kept sheep, goat, and cattle.
– They also hunted a wide range of animals of
all sizes and gathered wild plants especially fruits.
– From rivers they obtained fish and those near the coast collected shell
fish.
•
The Bantu managed to do all these because:
–
They knew and introduced
the art of iron working. With their efficient tools, they could clear
the forests and bushes and cultivate the soil on a large scale.
Thus , their growing population
could be sustained by food from the soil
and cattle products
– They kept many herds of cattle. Cattle were greatly
valued as a source and form of wealth. Cattle were
used for important functions such as payment of bride wealth and
they valued for their milk , meat and skin.
•
Because the Bantu kept cattle and also grew food
crops, their population increased fast. The mixed economy of cattle keeping and
agriculture supported a fairly high population by contemporary standards.
People had enough to eat, more important they had rich and balanced diet.
•
The arrival of the Bantu had a negative
impact on the Bushmen and the Hottentots
economic, social, and political life ways. They were conquered
and dispossessed of their favorite hunting grounds by
the Bantu.
As a result:
–
They were pushed into the remote
areas of the country where game and food
were scarce and life difficulty, and many of them
even had to flee to the Kalahari desert for refuge
– Some were absorbed by the Bantu, living among them as
people without their own independence, identity and
intermarrying with them.
–
A few other had a worse fate/destiny.
They were either killed in clashes with the Bantu or died
as a result of social and economic hardship
following their defeat and dispossession.
Political organization of the Bantu
– As time went on there emerged three distinct divisions
among the Bantu of South Africa. This division based on language
groups:
• The first group is the Nguni speaking Bantu:
these lived in the Eastern coastal area from Zululand
and Natal to the border of the Cape colony. Among
others, the group consists of the Zulu, Ndebele, Swazi,
Xhosa, all of whom speaks dialects of the same
language.
• The second group f the Bantu consisted of three
main subdivisions. These are:
– The Tswana or Bechuana who mostly live in Botswana
– The Southern Sotho who lives in Lesotho
– The Northern Sotho of Central and Northern
Transvaal
• The third major group of the Bantu is represented by the Herero
and Avambo. These live in Namibia and are generally
called the South Western Bantu.
Particularly, all these
Bantu groups have been influenced by the Bushmen and Hottentots
with whom they came into contact. This is why the Nguni languages have clicks,
just like the languages of the Bushmen and the Hottentots.
– Each tribe had its own territory, central clan,
central family and a chief. The chief always came
the central family and clan.
– In both tribes the chief was very powerful,
but an autocratic and unpopular chief could not
last longer, his people could desert him and join a friendly
and just ruler.
– The chief was highly respected as the symbol of tribal unity
and the focus of loyalty in the tribe.
– In addition the chief was the head of the tribe in all
matters relating to religion, administration of justice,
government and welfare.
– Appeals could be made from small courts to his
court served as the country’s supreme court and was the only
competent to try murder cases.
Administration.
•
To enable the chief do his duties properly:
– The whole territory was divided into several subdivisions.
The most important of these were the provinces and below them,
were the districts.
– The system of administration was strengthened through the appointment
of Indunas. These were special state officials in
various fields, both military and civil. They were permanent
and assisted the chief in his duties.
– The most important was the chief Induna:
• He could deputize
for the chief in his absence
• He could give orders
and instructions in the chief’s name.
• He had the responsibility of keeping the chief well informed
about public opinions and about any dangerous developments such
as rebellion.
• No wonder the chief Induna came to be regarded as the eyes of the
chief.
– Head of districts took the title of Izikhulu. These had
the responsibility of trying cases at lower levels,
and they also received tributes and fines from the
inhabitants of the districts they administered within the kingdom. Thus the
king ruled in conjunction with this men.
– Both the king and the Izikhulu formed the council
of state. This was called the Ibandia, that is the highest
administrative organ in the kingdom.
– Among the Nguni speakers there was a rigid age group system
and sexual division of labor. One of the results of such social organization
was that, the king was able to have control over the institution of
marriage.
• No youth would get married until he/she had gone through all the tasks
demanded of his or her age group.
•
For example, boys were called upon to herd
the king’s cattle. Politically, this was referred to as “drinking the
King’s milk”
Thus, this meant that one
could enter into marriage in an advanced stage of adulthood(when they were
already adult).
– The restriction of marriage:
• Allowed the king to divert labor power from individual
homesteads to his own service (this process allowed the king to get enough
labor power for his own use)
• This also allowed the king to have control over the process of reproduction
( birth rate) in his kingdom. By delaying marriage in this manner, the king was
able to control the rate of population growth.
Social formation
– Among the Bantu, Crop
production and livestock keeping were the major economic
activities.
– Trade or exchange transactions involved bulls
while cows were retained for the purpose of maintaining
and increasing wealth.
– The basic unit of production was
the homestead.
– The homestead was made up of small segments or units and
a homestead head.
–
Each segment comprised of the wife and her
children
– Each segment was supposed to provide for its own means of
subsistence and to be self sufficient
–
Majority of the homestead were made up of the homestead
head, two or three wives and children
– The essential goods that could not be produced by the home stead were
obtained through barter.
– Land on which the
society depended for its production and reproduction
belonged to the king. Individuals gained rights over land on the condition
that they remained loyal (trustworthy) to the king.
–
Occasionally individuals would be called
upon to render services to the king or his officials.
These services would be in the form agricultural labor, herding
the king’s cattle or direct military service.
• Thus theoretically, all adult men were members of the state
army, although in practice the standing army was composed of youth.
– The army was used to forcibly appropriate and accumulate
wealth for the king.
• Internally this took the form of tribute
and fines for offences (the army was used in the collection of
fines and tributes). Thus irrespective of the nature of the offence, part of
the fine imposed had to remain in the king’s court.
• Externally, all the wealth plundered
and brought to the state as a result of raiding or war fare,
belonged to the state. This practically meant that such wealth
was at the disposal or under the control of the
king.
The Newcomers
•
Towards the end of the 17th century, South
Africa received newcomers from outside the continent. These were:
–
Europeans;
This group is divided into two sections:
• The Afrikaners, that is, the people of Dutch origin
who first settled in the Cape in 1652.
Another name used to describe the Afrikaners is “Boers”, which
should be used more strictly to refer to an “Afrikaner farmer”.
• The other major European group is English speaking group
and has been associated with South Africa since the beginning of the 19th
century (1806)
–
The people of mixed racial
origin. These are called the “Coloreds”.
Nearly all of them occupied the Cape province. They were of a mixed
race, being the result of the union between the Boers
and the slaves (imported from outside i.e. Indonesia and
Madagascar), Hottentots, Bushmen, and Xhosa.
TOPIC 3: THE MERCANTILE ERA
WHITE COLONIZATION OF THE CAPE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The history of South
African colonization goes back to the journeys of discoveries
organized by the Portuguese. The climax of these dangerous
and tiresome sea journeys came in 1497 when the
famous Portuguese Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of
Good Hope as far as the present day Natal.
Since then, the route
around the Cape of Good Hope became very important in European commercial
relation with Asia. These commercial relation between Europe and Asia
were dominated by British Dutch, and Portuguese
through their chartered companies.
For example
– In 1600 the English East India company was founded (
British company)
– Two yeas later, that is in 1602, various Dutch companies amalgamated
to form the Dutch East Indian Company, what was financially powerful
than the English one.
•
However, for the traders, the journey from Europe to
the far East was too long and tiresome. By the end
of the journey for example:
–
The traders and crew (all
the people who work on the ship) were extremely tired.
–
Quite frequently they run out off fresh water
(note that ocean water are too saline to drink)
–
They also run out of fresh vegetable
and fruits
– Many died on the way as a result of diseases
– Many more suffered scurvy as a result of lack
fresh supply of vegetable and fruits.
– Their ship were greatly wrecked by storm
•
As a result of all these problem, it was quiet clear
that there was a need for a calling station/ refreshment
station/ half way life, where:
–
The long journey could be broken down
–
Fresh supplies of food and water
could be obtained
–
The wrecked ship could be repaired
–
The sick could be treated
– The ship could be refueled.
–
The crew could
get refreshments
•
Thus, between 1619 and 1647
several attempts to identify and establish a
calling station were made by traders and sailors
without success.
– In 1647, the Haarlem, a Dutch East Indian Company’s ship
was wrecked at the Table bay, the region around
modern Cape Town. The traders and the crew
remained there for six months.
– To sustain their lives, they had to grow vegetables
and bartered /exchanged them with the local people for meat.
– Throughout that period of their stay, they realized the area had
favorable climate and fertile soils, and thus was
suitable for settlement.
– On their return home after repairing their wrecked ship
(Haarlem), these traders and the crew who stacked
at the Cape for six months, gave a good report about the area
(Table bay)
– Such good news triggered the Dutch East Indian
Company to establish a calling station at the Table
Bay.
–
The responsibility of establishing a
calling station was given to Jan Van Riebeck who officially arrived at the Cape on 4th
June, 1652.
– Jan Van Riebeck was instructed by the company that the
station would serve four important functions:
• A fort called Good Hope was to be
built at the Cape to
accommodate a garrison for defensive purposes (to
defend and foster Dutch commercial interests)
• The station was to supply sailors with vegetables,
fruits, and meat, and therefore vegetable
gardens had to be established . Meat had to be obtained
by exchanging European goods for cattle and sheep from Hottentots.
• The station was to act as a place of refreshment
for the sailors following long journeys.
• A hospital was to be built to treat the sick,
and here sailors could get treatment and rest.
Ø However the practicality of establishing a refreshment
station and running it in a distant and unfamiliar
land was a great challenge to Jan Vaan Riebeck and other
employees at the station.
Thus, the first ten (10)
years were full of disappointments. The common problems
that Jan Vaan Riebeck and other employees of the company encountered
at the Cape included the following:
– They arrived during the dry season . Therefore, from the
very beginning , the company’s servants
at the Cape suffered from malnutrition, scurvy and
generally poor health caused by unexpected and prolonged
drought and therefore, they were unable to grow food.
Thus, most of them were disappointed with the living conditions
at the Cape.
– When the rain season came, it brought a lot of discomfort/
embarrassment. The company’s men lived in old tents and
poorly constructed wooden huts. Leaking roofs, wet
floor and cold huts became additional problems.
– The rain also came with severe dysentery (severe
diarrheas with loss of blood)
–
Cattle and sheep for barter / exchange
were not always available at the right
time as the Hottentots pastoralists were constantly
moving with their cattle in search of pasture.
– Though the settlers were expected to grow some food, they were too
few for the task, and they were not experienced farmers
– They were required to grow wheat and barley
which needed much care and money, particularly
during the first few years of experimentation.
•
Thus, if the refreshment station at the
Cape was to serve the purpose for which it was built,
a new policy for overcoming the obstacles had to be adapted.
Thus, Jan Vaan Riebeck proposed several recommendations to improve
the situation:
– It was decided to expand the settlement to bring more and
more land under cultivation in order increase
agricultural production.
– It was decided to increase the number of workers
and more men were also needed
–
The workers should be free men and
not employees of the company and then, these
workers would be given plots of
land free of charge.
•
These recommendations were accepted by the company. Thus, in February 1657,
the first group of settlers were discharged from company’s
service and given plots around the Cape to begin implementing the
recommendations.
•
With the establishment of this settlement, the process
of European colonization of South Africa began. Generally,
progress was so low, however, by 1672, there were only 64 colonists / settlers
at the Cape.
Dutch progress at the Cape
•
As already noted, Dutch progress at the Cape in the
early years was so slow. The slow development at the Cape was due to strict
regulations imposed by the company, which rigidly controlled the activates of
the colonists/settlers.
•
These regulations made it impossible for individual
colonists to prosper/flourish (do well) economically. For example:
– The colonists were required to remain in the country for 20 years without leaving the colony. This means that,
their stay in South Africa was a 20 years contract.
– The colonists had to participate in the defense of the colony/country,
apart from their normal farming function.
– The worst restriction was that prices of foodstuff they produced were
kept very low by the company, while the facilities for marketing such
commodities were severely limited. For example:
o All cattle had to be sold to the company at a fixed price, regardless
of cattle health, size, weight or age.
o The colonists were not allowed to pay more money to the Hottentots for
their cattle than the price paid by the company ( they were supposed to offer
the same price as the one offered by the company)
o In order to protect the company’s monopoly of trade in tobacco, the
colonists were not allowed to grow tobacco, and instead, they had to grow
sufficient vegetables to meet company’s needs. This aimed at minimizing
competition in tobacco production.
o In return for the right of pasturage, the settlers had to pay 10% of
their cattle to the company.
•
Thus, by the end of 1650s, the Cape settlement was
still very small and temporary in nature. It consisted of small number of fruit
growers, gardeners and keepers.
•
In other respect however, the settlement had some
improvements:
– A temporary hospital was built to offer medical service to the traders
and crew.
– Slave labor was introduced. This aimed at making labor abundant ,
cheap, and therefore, lower the cost of production. The first 12 slaves arrived
in 1657 from Java (modern Indonesia) and Madagascar, the following year 185
slaves were imported from West Africa. By 1708 the number of slaves scored
1200.
The use of slave labor
had far reaching effects in the history of South Africa:
– The policy of racial superiority and racial discrimination originated
from slave labor policy by the end of the 17 century.
– The Boers hated unskilled tasks and hard work. Hard work was considered
to be the domain of Non-Europeans who were regarded as hewers of woods and
drawers of water
ØThe use of slaves in South
Africa was the birth of an entirely new community, the Cape colored people.
These were people of a mixed race, being the result of the union between the
Boers , and the slaves, Hottentots, Bushmen, and Xhosa. By 1820 the Cape
coloreds had gradually abandoned their original languages and adapted
Afrikaans, the language spoken by the Boers.
Souring / unfriendly relations and wars between the
Boers and the Africans
•
As the number of the Boers grew at the Cape, they
found it important to expand further in the interior. Thus, by 1770s the Boers
had advanced some 500 miles east of Cape town. The reasons for their expansion
further into the interior include the following:
– In the early years there was plenty of unoccupied land. This encouraged the settlers to over
from one area to another
– The settlers used superior weapons especially firearms to crush down
any attempt made by local population to limit their expansion. In this way,
they were able to expand further in to the interior.
– The Hottentots had been greatly weakened by small pox epidemics of
1713, thus making unable to pose a stiff resistance against Boer expansion in
the interior. Following this epidemic, the Hottentots population sharply
declined, and they became highly disorganized. This provided a room for the
Boers to expand.
– Apart from the Cape area, most of the lad was a semi desert with scanty
and unreliable rainfall. This encouraged the Boers to migrate from one are to
another in search of good land with adequate rainfall and water supply.
– Company’s laws greatly restricted the economic activities of the
settlers. Prices of local products were kept extremely low for the farmers to
make high profit. This disappointment encouraged the settlers to move away from
the Cape to establish new homes in the areas where they would be free from such
restrictions and official control.
– Insecurity of land tenure (occupancy rights) had a negative effect of
discouraging improvements.
» For example:
• On the death of the owner of the land (farm),the buildings within the
farm and any other valuable properties, particularly permanent ones, were sold
by auction (public sale).
• The money obtained from the sale were then divided equally among the
heirs/inheritors of the deceased.
Therefore, this company’s
land policy made them to move away to areas where they would be free from such
restrictions.
•
This expansion made the Boers to come into direct
contact with the indigenous African population, especially the Hottentots. This
territorial expansion of the Boers therefore, took place at the expanse of the
indigenous Africans.
– For example:
• The khoi were dispossessed of
their grazing land
• The Khoi were dispossessed of their cattle
• The Khoi were forced to offer their labor power as laborers and
herdsmen.
• Trading relations and transactions among Africans were greatly
interrupted by the Boers expansion.
• They lost their political sovereignty and dignity.
•
Following massive expansion of the Boers, the Khoi
managed to unite in armed opposition several times. Despite their brave
attacks, the Khoi, were defeated.
•
Having accepted defeat, the Boers assumed that all
Khoikhoi land, no matter where it be, was free and empty land and therefore
,their to take.
•
Thus, by the end of the 18th century, the
Cape colony had considerably expanded. It had started as a temporary calling
station consisting of a few houses on shores of the Table bay. Gradually it
developed into a beautiful small town with the necessary defense systems and
basic social services.
British control of the Cape
•
In 1795 the British troops invaded the Cape colony,
and after some minor resistance, the British captured the Cape. British
invasion of the Cape aimed at controlling the Cape so as to have a strong
foothold over the sea route to India via the Cape.
•
A number of factors combined to weaken the Dutch, the
Dutch East Indian company and the Cape colony Dutch administration, thus,
causing the Dutch to finally lose the Cape colony to the British:
– The Dutch were faced with severe Dutch competition from the French and
the British, thus, undermining their commercial and economic position. This
weakened the abilities of the Dutch to have a strong control over the Cape.
– At the Cape, the Dutch suffered from administrative inefficiency,
corruption, and commercial restrictions which resulted to severe discontent on
the part of the settlers at the Cape. This also weakened the Dutch East Indian
company, and in 1794 it declared bankrupt.
• This implied then that, company administration at the Cape was
financially weak to support its army to resist British occupation of the Cape.
– Widespread discontent among
settlers. For example:
• The settlers felt that they were not adequately protected by the Cape
government against local Africans some of whom were brave and skilled fighters.
• They complained that, they, rather than the Cape administration be
given the burden of defense in their conflict with the Africans.
These complaints resulted to settler rebellion of 1795. these settler grievances and the
rebellion was clear indication that the Dutch administration
at the Cape was weak.
– British desire to prevent the Cape fro falling into the hands of the
French who also aimed at controlling the Cape. By this time, British was
getting a lot of wealth from India. For this reason, British control of the sea
route to India was important.
If the Cape fell under the French, then, the French would
prevent British ship from calling at the Cape on their way to off from India.
So it was necessary for the British to gain control of the Cape.
British reforms at the Cape
After capturing the Cape,
the British tried to win the confidence of the settlers. In so doing, they
introduced a number of social, economic, and political reforms.
Economy
– They introduced new paper money to replace the old Dutch notes which
greatly fallen in value.
– They reduced official salaries
– The government reduced the number of public projects and the amount of
money spent on them.
– The policy of giving financial assistance to new immigrants of the Cape
was stopped.
The church
– The Dutch reformed church which was dominant at the Cape was now given
a certain degree of freedom and government representatives ceased to attend the
meeting of its council. This church was introduced at the Cape in 1652 by Jan
Vaan Riebeck, it was almost a state church at the Cape as all the Boers were
the followers of this church
– For the Catholic church, the British government at the Cape decided to
pay their priests, a privilege already enjoyed by the Dutch reformed church.
This meant then, that, during British era, the Catholism dominated at the Cape
and replaced the Dutch Reformed Church.
– Generally, the position of the church improved and freedom of worship
was extended to all denomination at the Cape.
Language
– The British made a proclamation to replace Dutch language by English
language as official language. Thus, in 1828 English language became the
official language of the Cape.
The pres
– The new British government removed some of the restrictions on the press
which restricted the freedom of press. The press was given more freedom than it
was before. As a result, the number of papers increased and printed both in
Dutch and English.
The Judiciary
– A supreme court was introduced, and judges were to be appointed by the
British queen
– The Judges were supposed to be independent, in other words, they could
hold offices for as long as their conduct was proper and the Governor could not
dismiss them. This aimed at making the judiciary more reliable and just.
Administration.
– The Dutch settlers were not allowed to any important say in the running
of the state. They were the conquered people and had to be governed strongly.
– The advisory council was set up in Cape town. It consisted of the
Governor, chief Justice, and Colonial Secretary. Its functions were mainly
advisory, that is, to advise the Governor, although the Governor could reject
the advice.
***************The END*************************
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