Early Cape Research Articles

“Theologising the Bounds of Community: VOC Religious Policies in the Early Cape Colony”

“Theologising the Bounds of Community: VOC Religious Policies in the Early Cape Colony”

A Forgotten History: A Historical Overview of Kuilsriver Primary School 1908-2023

This article focuses on the history of Kuilsriver Primary School as it is known today. Whilst this specific school has a very interesting, sometimes difficult, but also a very proud background, not many people in Kuilsriver know and understand its history. This year, 2023, the school is 115 years old. It is really a remarkable achievement for an institution which had to endure extreme hardships through its history. Kuilsriver Primary School, as it is known today, was first called Kuilsrivier Laer Kleurling Skool. This name was given to the school long before legalised apartheid came into being in South Africa. Currently there is no publication on the history of the school. The school opened its doors in January 1908 in Van Riebeeck Road, the main road of Kuilsriver. The placement of the school was a welcome relief to the learners of Brackenfell and Bottelary who had to walk almost six km to the nearest school namely, Sarepta Primary School. After 1948 the country experienced the draconian political system called Apartheid. The area where this school was located was proclaimed as a white area in 1958. The school was therefore removed and relocated to the coloured area of Sarepta. Various attempts were made to disaffirm the existence of the school in the main road. The school also experienced a name change to Jan Bosman Primary School in 1970 but reclaimed the original name in 2011. The old school building structure in the main road of Kuilsriver was demolished in January 1970. The only proof that is left of the school building is a photo of the school.1 The purpose of this article is to put the school's history into perspective in the Kuilsriver area as well as in the broader South African context as Kuilsrivier was part of the early Cape Colony. This article also refers to a similar situation regarding the relocation of a coloured school in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape.

A Social Life of Pots in Southern Africa

The movement of objects both within and across contexts often helps to define social relations. This article explores this notion by focusing on five specific examples of pottery production and use in the history of southern Africa, with examples ranging from early Cape colonial coarse earthenware vessels to 19th- and 20th-century pots produced in and around the central interior, and contemporary South African ceramics. By exploring the contextual production and function of such objects, as well as their formal significance and the movement of such objects across cultural and social boundaries, one can see how pottery in southern Africa maintains a central role in the formation and maintenance of cooperative and interdependent relationships.

Palaeoenvironment and provenance in the early Cape Basin of southwest Gondwana: sedimentology of the Lower Ordovician Piekenierskloof Formation, Cape Supergroup, South Africa

The lowermost unit of the Table Mountain Group (Cape Supergroup), the Ordovician Piekenierskloof Formation is a siliciclastic succession that formed during the initial stages of the Cape Basin development in southwest Gondwana. This contemporary sedimentological re-evaluation of the depositional history and provenance of the Piekenierskloof Formation provides new insights into the palaeoenvironment and tectonic setting of the early Cape Basin. Outcrop-based sedimentary facies analysis revealed distinctive depositional features, dominated by large trough cross-bedding, which suggest a shallow, perennial, sand-bed braided fluvial style with bedload transportation in roughly 1 to 2.5 m deep and relatively wide channels. This fluvial style was possibly influenced by the global absence of substrate stabilizing terrestrial flora in pre-Devonian rivers. Based on an integrated approach of clast count, framework petrography and palaeocurrent studies, the provenance analysis show that the source rocks of the Piekenierskloof Formation were likely situated in source areas characterized by two main rock types: (1) a dominant low metamorphic rank metasedimentary rock suite with parent rocks of variable grain-size, and (2) minor plutonic rocks. The data also suggest that the parent rocks were locally intruded by quartz veins and/or pegmatites. Consistent palaeoflow to the southeast and east further indicates that these source areas were located to the northwest and west of the clastic sediment depocentres in the Cape Basin of southwest Gondwana in the Early Ordovician. Accessible outcrops of the Piekenierskloof Formation are mostly laterally limited and sparsely distributed, which hinder stratigraphic correlations, and therefore inferences of tectonic activity during the sedimentation in the Early Ordovician cannot be convincingly made. For a better understanding of the Early Palaeozoic evolution of the Cape Basin in southwest Gondwana, systematic outcrop studies acquiring high-resolution digital imagery using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and terrestrial laser scanning, coupled with subsurface facies analysis should be undertaken. The Piekenierskloof Formation and the rest of the Table Mountain Group, with their exceptionally extensive, but rather inaccessible cliff faces, are excellent candidates for such high-resolution digital-based studies.

Indian Ocean Slaves in Cape Town, 1695–1807

The most immediate and visible connection of early colonial Cape Town to the Indian Ocean world lay in its sizeable slave population. This article will examine new data from household inventories to enumerate in more precise ways than has previously been possible the Indian Ocean origins of slaves imported into the town in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In particular, it identifies the importance of south Asian sources in the earlier parts of the 18th century and the shift to the African coast in the later 18th and 19th centuries. Both of these regions are neglected in current academic and popular perceptions of the origins of slaves in the city. Comparisons will be made throughout with slavery in other colonial Indian Ocean port cities of the period.

Tavern of two oceans: Alcohol, taxes and leases in the seventeenth-century Dutch world

The retail of alcohol was so central to the economy and society of the Cape of Good Hope during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that it earned the nickname “tavern of two oceans”. This retail business was organised on the so- called lease or monopoly (pacht) system whereby a person paid the authorities for the right to sell a certain type of alcohol for a given period in a specific area. This article traces the intellectual origins of this system of alcohol retail at the Cape during the VOC era. It does so by tracing both the idea of using leases or monopolies, first in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century, and by investigating the ways in which various products, including alcohol, were leased off in the largest and most significant of the VOC’s colonies, Batavia, during the first half of the seventeenth century. It is demonstrated that the ways in which alcohol retail and other economic activities were organised at the Cape developed out of practices established elsewhere in the seventeenth-century Dutch world, but that the exact nature of the system was adapted to unique local circumstances at the early Cape. As such, this comparative article serves as an illustration that developments at the Cape in such a central sphere as business practices were the product of both global and local forces and influences.

Opening a Window on Early Twentieth-Century School Sport in Cape Town Society

An attempt was made at recording structured sport in non-White schools in Cape Town, South Africa, prior to 1956. The study was introduced with a historical presentation of sport at mission schools. It was shown how these schools inherited a legacy of deprivation and neglect that impacted upon sport participation. Yet, champion sportspersons at these schools gained some recognition in a racist and hostile society. This was possible due to the efforts of a few Teachers' League of South Africa (TLSA) campaigners who saw sport development as part of their mission of uplifting children in their charge. The TLSA attempted organising athletic meetings from 1916 onwards. Teachers belonging to this organisation were instrumental in establishing the first mass-based school sport organisation in Cape Town in 1928, the Central School Sports Union (CSU). This organisation was the only avenue of meaningful sport participation for most of Cape Town's marginalised children. A study of the CSU enables historians to open a window not only on social and political complexities of school sport but also on the broader early twentieth-century Cape society.

Reconstruction of major maternal and paternal lineages of the Cape Muslim population.

The earliest Cape Muslims were brought to the Cape (Cape Town - South Africa) from Africa and Asia from 1652 to 1834. They were part of an involuntary migration of slaves, political prisoners and convicts, and they contributed to the ethnic diversity of the present Cape Muslim population of South Africa. The history of the Cape Muslims has been well documented and researched however no in-depth genetic studies have been undertaken. The aim of the present study was to determine the respective African, Asian and European contributions to the mtDNA (maternal) and Y-chromosomal (paternal) gene pool of the Cape Muslim population, by analyzing DNA samples of 100 unrelated Muslim males born in the Cape Metropolitan area. A panel of six mtDNA and eight Y-chromosome SNP markers were screened using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP). Overall admixture estimates for the maternal line indicated Asian (0.4168) and African mtDNA (0.4005) as the main contributors. The admixture estimates for the paternal line, however, showed a predominance of the Asian contribution (0.7852). The findings are in accordance with historical data on the origins of the early Cape Muslims.

Other Atlantics:

Other Atlantics:

Creolization, colonial citizenship(s) and degeneracy: A critique of selected histories of Sierra Leone and South Africa

This work examines the nexus between creolization, colonial citizenship(s) and discourses of degeneration. It focuses on two sites: (1) 19th- and 20th-century Freetown, Sierra Leone, and (2) the early Cape and 20th-century South Africa. The author engages three key thinkers: Edouard Glissant, Jean-Loup Amselle and Mahmood Mamdani to illustrate how these colonial administrations deployed creolization to construct partial citizenships derived from ideas of ‘mixed race’ and ‘corrupted’ or ‘lacking’ culture. The author argues that ‘Creole’ and ‘creole’ signified, in the colonial imagination, a ‘degenerate type’ behind its legal category, ‘non-native’, and shows how uses of the concepts ‘creolization’ and ‘creole’, in selected histories of the Cape and Freetown, surrender to their colonial meanings, obscure their biopolitical significance and so, collude with discourses of degeneration. The article concludes first, that Edouard Glissant’s conception of creolization as method counters ethnological reasoning and second, that his concept ‘Relation’ enables citizenship(s) that contest social inequality and live with difference.

The Chinese in the early Cape Colony: a signifi cant cultural minority

Chinese South Africans form one of the smallest culturally identifi able communities in South African society. Despite their demographic insignifi cance, and contrary to popular belief, they have been an integral part of this country’s multicultural identity since the inception of European hegemony in the Cape in the latter half of the seventeenth century. This article proposes to take a closer look at the presence and cultural identity of the Chinese community in the colonial Cape. While remaining a physically and culturally identifi able and relatively insular group, they were later to become one of the fi rst communities in South African history to be singled out and discriminated against in a blatantly racist manner. It will be argued that besides their own markers of cultural identity, the manner in which they were portrayed, perceived of, treated and discriminated against, contributed to their cultural visibility and in turn possibly entrenched a cultural cohesionKeywords: Overseas Chinese; culture; identity; Cape Colony; minorities; DEIC; intergroup relations

Explaining ship traffic fluctuations at the early Cape settlement 1652–1793*

The first Europeans to settle in South Africa arrived in 1652 to establish a halfway station for ships sailing between Europe and the East Indies under the command of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The settlement was intended as a place of recovery for VOC ships and sailors and, perhaps more importantly, as a source of fresh produce for passing ships. Consequently, it is not surprising that historical descriptions of the early Cape Colony contain many references to ships and their role in economic life.

Islam, Democracy, and Public Life in South Africa and in France

During 3-5 September 2007, scholars associated with University of Witwatersrand’sDepartment of Anthropology and key members of the Johannesburg-based Institute of French Studies in South Africa explored ways toengage South African and French scholars in forms of cooperation. Toaddress this event’s focus, “Muslim Cultures in South Africa and France,”the organizers brought along the School of Social Sciences and Humanities(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) and the Institut d’Etudesde l’Islam et des Societes du Monde Musulman (Ecole des Hautes enSciences Sociales [EHESS]) to partner with them.The theme, “Islam, Democracy, and Public Life in South Africa and inFrance,” identified three basic objectives: to re-imagine Islam as an objectof academic enquiry, explore the epistemological dimensions of the study ofIslam, and foster scientific networks. The organizers highlighted a key question:“How do Muslims employ their religion to explain and clarify theirposition and role in public life in South Africa and France?” and identifiedthree focus areas: The Status ofMinority Religions: The Case of Islam; ReligiousIdentity - Political Identity; and Trans-nationalism/regionalism.The “Southern Africa” panel, chaired by Aurelia Wa Kabwe-Segatti(French Institute of South Africa [IFAS]), consisted of Alan Thorold’s (Universityof Melbourne) “Malawi and the Revival of Sufism,” SamadiaSadouni’s (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research [WISER])“Muslim Communities in South Africa,” Liazzat Bonate’s (Eduardo MondlaneUniversity) “Leadership of Islam in Mozambique,” and Eric Germain’s(EHESS) “Inter-ethnic Muslim Dialogue in South Africa.” Sadouni examinedsuch crucial concepts as religious minorities and extracted examplesfrom both countries. Thorold, who analyzed Sufism’s revival in Malawi,relied on the work of ErnestGellner. Some participants, however, argued thathis ideas have been surpassed by more informed theoretical scholarship.Bonate reflected upon the differences that played out within northernMozambique’s Muslim communities vis-à-vis the government. Germain,who explored early Cape Muslim social history, provocatively argued thatmuch could be learned from this community’s make-up and attitude. Asexpected, he was criticized for sketching a romantic picture.The “Media and Power” panel, chaired by Eric Worby, featured GabebaBaderoon’s (post-doctoral fellow, Penn StateUniversity’sAfricana ResearchCenter) “Islam and the Media in South Africa.” She traced how Islam ...

Knowledge free and ‘unfree’: Epistemic tensions in plant knowledge at the Cape in the 17th and 18 th centuries1

ABSTRACT This article utilises the same epistemic objects, particular indigenous medicinal plants of the Cape region, to explore the gamut of epistemologies in contested, dynamic tension in the early Cape Colony: That of the frontiersman, the Khoikhoi, the Sonqua or Sankwe, and the slave. Drawing on a transdisciplinary set of literatures, the article puts Africana studies, the study of indigenous knowledge systems, and social studies of science and technology in wider conversation with each other, and argues for the adoption of an epistemic openness, methodologies which ‘braid’ seemingly separate strands of social history and differing knowledge practices, and cross-border collaboration among scholars of African and African diasporic knowledges. The findings and interpretation suggest new ways to view the ‘multiplexity’ of early indigenous southern African botanical, therapeutic and ecological knowledges, as well as the necessity for rethinking both the construction of colonial sciences and contemporary concerns about indigenous knowledge, biosciences and their 21st century interaction.

Ethnobotany and antimicrobial activity of sieketroos ( Arctopus species)

Arctopus echinatus L. and related species are ancient Khoi-San medicinal plants adopted by the early Cape settlers who used them as a “comfort to the sick”, hence the Afrikaans vernacular name sieketroos. The earliest recorded medicinal use dates back to the days of Thunberg's travels in the eighteenth century when it was used as a remedy for venereal diseases. The rich ethnobotanical history of these interesting and pharmacologically largely ignored South African plants is recorded together with a synopsis of modern day usage. Antimicrobial activities of root extracts of Arctopus species on nine pathogens showed strongest activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis and moderate to good activity against Staphylococcus aureus.

Choosing respectability: The social mix of Cape Town between 1795 and 1840

Extracted from text ... Choosing respectability: The social mix of Cape Town between 1795 and 1840 Pawel Stempowski There were many changes in early nineteenth-century Cape Town. With the permanent arrival of the British in 1806, the city was transformed from the remnants of an undeveloped, highly regulated economy, administered by the eventually bankrupted Dutch East India Company, to `the capital of an expanding British Colony'. The arrival of the British brought with it the expansion of trade and the concomitant rise of a middle-class merchant strata that slowly increased its economic and social influence.1 Along with the British, came new administrators, soldiers ..

Socio-Spatial Practice and Racial Representations in a Changing South Africa

This article argues (a) that the content of racial representations in South Africa has changed historically, and (b) that these representations are grounded in concrete patterns of spatio-temporal interactions between blacks and whites that have characterised different historical epochs. These arguments are developed by means of a consideration of racial interactions and representations in four historical periods: the early Cape colony, the frontier, apartheid and the contemporary post-apartheid period. The bulk of the discussion concerns the kinds of representations that are being developed and perpetuated in the present desegregated context, where whites experience displacement at the hands of blacks, and blacks experience whites running away from them.

A field assessment of reproductive seasonality in the threatened wild Namaqua dune mole‐rat (Bathyergus janetta)

AbstractThe Namaqua dune mole‐rat Bathyergus janetta breeds seasonally, producing up to two litters during the early summer in the Cape. Females exhibit elevated urinary progesterone and oestradiol‐17β concentrations and males raised concentrations of testosterone, these correlate with the onset of the seasonal winter rainfall. The rains moisten the soil allowing excavation and provide the mole‐rats with the opportunity not only to extend burrow systems but also to search for mates. An increased incidence of hindfoot drumming and visitations to neighbouring burrow systems occurs during this period. Plural occupancy of burrows by adult mole‐rats was found during the onset of the winter, and pups, lactating and pregnant females were caught at the end of October and November (early Cape summer). Pups develop rapidly and their eyes open after c. 1 week. Pup body mass increases exponentially from birth to about 70 days. Inter‐sibling aggression increases progressively and after c. 60 days captive‐born pups had to be separated, suggesting that in the wild they would have dispersed.

Law, religion and the covenanted community: the impact of the Zurich Reformation on the early Cape settlement, 1652-1708

The Zurich Reformation was actively supported by the Dutch East India Company in its care for the religious, political and legal needs of the early Cape settlement. Not only the promotion of the Reformed religion by the Classis of Amsterdam but also the political and legal interests of the settlement were advanced on the basis of the Zurich reformation and its emphasis on the covenant. It was Huldrych Zwingli and his successor Heinrich Bullinger whose idea of the covenanted community served as the blueprint for the activities of the Sick Comforters, the proceedings of the Council of Justice and the decisions of the Council of Policy, rather than the influence of the Genevan reformer John Calvin. The so-called Calvinistic roots of the early settlement at the Cape, flowing from Calvin's doctrine of predestination, must therefore, be thoroughly revisited. Keywords: South African history, 1652-1708, Law & religion, Zwingli, Bullinger, Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis, Wet & godsdiens Acta Theologica Vol.22(1) 2003: 150-174

Dogs and the Public Sphere: The Ordering of Social Space in Early Nineteenth-Century Cape Town

Dogs and the Public Sphere: The Ordering of Social Space in Early Nineteenth-Century Cape Town