'Race', warfare, and religion in midnineteenth-century Southern Africa: The Khoikhoi rebellion against the Cape Colony and its uses, 1850-58

Abstract

This paper examines the rebellion of much of the non-white population of the frontier districts of the Cape Colony in 1850 and subsequently, when many rose in support of the Xhosa during Mlanjeni's War of 1850 to '53. I am inspired in part by such concerns of Terence Ranger's as the invention of tradition, the role of narrative in selfunderstanding, and the complex relationship between religion and politics. The war has been read as a redemptive moment of unity, whether of class or of race. I argue that while both narratives have strong elements of truth, reality was more complicated. A critical feature of the rebellion was the way in which it entrenched ideas about 'white' and 'black' for many participants. Many whites saw the war as 'race warfare' and issued calls for 'white' unity in the face of 'black' barbarism. 'Black' unity was of great strategic importance to rebels, particularly in a military context in which the British administration relied on black troops for colonial defence and tried to pit different African groups against one another. On the other hand, many rebels were motivated by a belief in what might be called a 'pan-Khoikhoi nation' (despite the fact that their communities were quite ethnically diverse). The hope for a new so-called 'Hottentot' territory jostled uneasily with the quest for black unity. The narrative of black unity also obscures the role of loyalists, who tried to piece back together with great difficulty the 'divided self' of colonialism. Other important motivating factors for rebels included the desire to restore honour and manhood. Religion played an important role, as rebels and loyalists disputed the meaning of Christianity. In the end, the rebellion reinforced growing pessimism about 'race' in Britain and about the liberal assimilative project; it also provided a justification for the appropriation of Khoikhoi land, often by white land speculators. The rebellion stands as an important moment in the evolution of racial hatred in South Africa, even as it ironically marked the end of the political mobilization of 'Khoikhoi' ethnicity on a colony-wide scale.