‘A Loyal Liking for Fair Play’: Joseph Millerd Orpen and Knowledge Production in the Cape Colony

Abstract

Joseph Orpen's 1874 Cape Monthly Magazine article relating the testimony of Qing, a San man in the Maloti Mountains, is a bedrock text of southern San cosmology. For the last few decades, this article has been the subject of intense scrutiny by rock art researchers and archaeologists studying hunter-gatherer societies. Recently, scholars have questioned whether Orpen's encounter with Qing has been appropriately contextualised, citing lingering uncertainties over Orpen's motivations and biases that may have informed the article. This paper addresses these concerns through examination of Orpen's archival corpus. It draws on new archival data to articulate the development of Orpen's personal politics, research motives, and interpersonal relationships within Cape knowledge networks. When examined more broadly, Orpen's intellectual career appears primarily concerned with native history and land title rather than a specifically philological or anthropological agenda, and his encounter with Qing as having been overshadowed by his dedication to represent the interests of Basotho sovereignty.