Chapter 15: Southern Africa to the Eighteenth Century

CHAPTER 15: SOUTHERN AFRICA TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

KEY POINTS

Foundation of the Colony

Early Boer settlement and Khoesan reaction

The expansion of white settlement: farmers and trekboers

Patterns of resistance: the loss of Khoesan independence

Conflict on the Cape/Xhosa frontier

Namibia and northern Botswana

Peoples of the highveld

The south-eastern lowveld

Southern Africa before 1650

Namibia: Ovambo farmers and Herero cattle-herders
Central highveld: Sotho-Tswana lineage groups
East of Drakensberg: Nguni-speaking chiefdoms
Khoesan pastoralists and hunter-gatherers: from Namibia to Cape and interspersed with Bantu-speaking peoples
Mixed Khoe/Xhosa chiefdoms in FishRiver region
Most: self-sufficient + inter-regional trade

The early CapeColony: white settlement and Khoesan resistance, 1650-1770

Foundation of the Colony

European ships trading with Asia calling at Table Bay (S-W Cape) by 16th century
Fresh water and meat traded from local Khoesan
50 000 Khoesan in S-WCape
Peaceful trade gave way to raid and counter-attack
1652: Dutch East India Company - small permanent settlement
Aim: regularise meat trade (keeping down prices), grow fresh fruit and vegetables, supply other ships as well as their own
Built fortress to protect settlement from rival Europeans

Early Boer settlement and Khoesan reaction

Failure of peaceable trading: Khoesan prepared to sell only a limited amount of livestock (their basic livelihood); Company only selling luxuries, not iron or guns
Company began seizing Khoesan cattle
Former Company soldiers, released from contract, settle on Khoesan grazing land
Khoe clans unite in first Khoe/Dutch war (1659-60); but unable to over-run fortress
Dutch commander, van Riebeeck, declared ‘right of conquest’ over Khoesan land [quote from van Riebeeck’s journal, pp.220-1]
Henceforth, Company and settlers assumed land was ‘empty’ and theirs to colonise
Company provoked rivalry among Khoesan clans:
Second Khoe/Dutch war (1673-7) further weakened Khoesan

The expansion of white settlement: farmers and trekboers

From c.1670 freeburger ‘Boers’ expanded settlements across CapeFlats
Direct immigration of white settlers from 1680s
From 1700 exporting wheat, fruit, wine
Labour: mostly slaves from Madagascar, Mozambique and Indonesia
By 1800: white population, 21 000; slave population, 25 000
Main agricultural settlements: moist, fertile valleys near Cape, mostly owned by wealthy
From 1700, ‘trekboers’ push inland for hunting and pastoralism
Company recognised their ‘farms’ of 2500 hectares
Frequent moving as land overgrazed and younger sons sought own farms as their ‘birthright’
Farms stocked with cattle and sheep, traded or raided from Khoesan

Patterns of resistance: the loss of Khoesan independence

Khoesan weakened by smallpox epidemics from 1713
Reaction to trekboer expansion:
(1) Military resistance; (2) withdrawal to interior; (3) accept subservience
(1) guerrilla warfare, raiding Boer livestock: Boer ‘commandos’ hunted ‘Bushmen’ to near extinction
Military resistance continued for most of 18th century
(2) Withdrawal northwards – Kora, Oorlams, Griqua
Some of these were mixed-race and/or colonial outcasts
Many became hunter-raiders along middle Orange River
(3) Acceptance of fate: often orphan products of Boer raiding: the slavery of ‘apprenticeship’
Absorbed Khoesan always subservient in colonial society
During 19th century, Khoesan and mixed/race referred to in Colony as ‘Cape Coloured’ (one of the designated ‘ethnicities’ of 20th century South Africa)

Conflict on the Cape/Xhosa frontier

States and societies of the southern African interior, 1600-1800

Namibia and northern Botswana

16th century: pastoral Herero pressing south from northern Namibia
Khoe-speaking Nama clans pressing north (with flocks of sheep) from southern Namibia
Kalahari to east, Namib desert to west prevented east-west expansion
18th century: competition for scarce grazing of central Namibia between Nama and Herero
Kalahari: sparsely inhabited by Khoesan hunter-gatherers and crossed by Griqua and Tswana long-distance hunters and traders
Northern Botswana: specialised riverine settlements by Mbukushu, Subiya and Yei

Peoples of the highveld

Tswana developed large states on central and western highveld (east of Kalahari)
Large central town, nearby agricultural land, extensive grazing of large herds of cattle, and hunting
The ‘kgosi’ was religious as well as political leader
Dynastic disputes, or times of environmental crisis (e.g. drought), prompted splits and foundation of new chiefdoms
Initiations ceremonies helped provide cohesion within the state
Ancestors of modern Tswana identities across highveld from Vaal to Kalahari from at least 17th century
Northern and north-eastern highveld (south of LimpopoRiver): Pedi (northern Sotho), and Lobedu and Venda (origins from north of Limpopo)
South of Vaal, southern Sotho, numerous chiefdoms, especially in valleys of CaledonRiver and southern tributaries of Vaal (Fokeng, Tlokoa, Koena, Taung)
Some movement and interaction across Drakensberg: Nguni-speaking Zizi and Ndzundza on southern highveld

The south-eastern lowveld

Moist, hilly environment east of Drakensberg: small chiefdoms
Absorption of Khoesan brought ‘click’ sounds into Nguni languages
18th century: Portuguese introduction of maize: expansion of population, heightened competition for resources: formation of larger states
Woodland cleared for cultivation expanded grazing potential: growth of cattle herds
Initiation ceremonies integrated formation of military regiments: used for both defence of herds and state expansion
Late 18th century, main centralised kingdoms: Ngwane of Sobhuza, Ndwandwe of Zwide, Mthethwa of Dingiswayo
Rivalry for resources and struggle for survival between them would dominate early 19th century [see Chapter 18, pp. 263-71]