The Northern Cape frontier zone, 1700 - c.1815

• Main Author: Penn, Nigel
• Other Authors: Worden, Nigel
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2016
• Subjects: Historical Studies
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19713

This thesis is a history of the northern Cape frontier zone between the years 1700 and c.1815. It describes and analyses the interactions which occurred between the principal peoples of this spatio-temporal area as the Cape colony expanded into the arid heartland of South Africa. The study's geographical focus of attention moves, with the frontier zone itself, from the banks of the Berg River in the south-western Cape of 1700 to beyond the northern banks of the Orange River in the early nineteenth century. The western and eastern limits of this area are formed by the Atlantic Ocean on the one hand and the eastern frontier district of Graaff-Reinet on the other. Within the frontier zone of this vast and hitherto neglected region, it is argued, there emerged, during the course of the eighteenth century, a set of practices and attitudes which, precisely because they were prototypical, exerted a profound influence on the subsequent colonial history of South Africa. Although developments within the northern Cape frontier zone are not seen as being more important than those which were taking place elsewhere in the colony (such as the south-western Cape or the eastern Cape frontier zone) they are seen as being equally important. Our picture of eighteenth century colonial society in South Africa has, until now, been a lopsided one in that the archival evidence for the largest part of the colony - the northern Cape frontier zone - has been underutilised. This thesis, based on extensive archival research, attempts to rectify this imbalance by discussing key themes in northern frontier history as they emerged and developed over a period of more than one hundred and ten years. A primary concern of this study is to provide an account of the dynamics of colonial expansion which is based on a consideration of both the principal productive activity of the frontier zone - pastoral production - and the most important political and military institution of the frontier zone - the commando. In the course of this account the focus of attention falls on those colonists who took up the life of semi-nomadic pastoralists (trekboers) in the Cape interior. Related to this, and of equal importance, is an examination of the impact which colonial expansion had on the Khoisan societies of the Cape interior. The processes by which these societies were either conquered, annihilated or incorporated into colonial society are discussed. So too are the ways in which the Khoisan resisted colonial domination. Thus, a large part of this thesis deals with the various forms or practices which shaped intergroup relationships on the frontier, ranging from genocidal warfare, at one extreme, to symbiotic co-operation and collaboration at the other Particular attention is paid to the conditions under which many Khoisan became unfree labourers within the colonial economy. The many instances of primary resistance, guerrilla warfare, rebellion, flight and protest which are discussed in these pages serve as testimony to the fact that the subjugation of the Khoisan was neither quick nor easy. Indeed, the pervasive violence arising from the protracted struggle for dominance in the northern Cape frontier zone is, in itself, an important thematic concern of this study. Although the major protagonists of the frontier zone were the colonists and Khoisan there were other important frontier societies which are discussed here. New groups emerged as a result of the processes of interaction and acculturation taking place within the frontier zone. People of mixed racial or cultural origin (known in the parlance of the day as "Bastaards" or "Bastaard- Hottentots") gradually acquired a new cultural and political identity. Some of them, in an attempt to escape the increasing discrimination which they experienced in the colony, removed themselves beyond the limits of colonial settlement altogether. These Oorlam groups, as they became known, played an important part in the history of the frontier zone and their contribution is given due consideration. Also important were a variety of other colonial fugitives - runaway slaves, Company deserters, bandits, murderers and assorted criminals - whose impact on both Khoisan societies and colonial fanners was frequently immense. The significance of such drosters (deserters) is acknowledged here. The thesis concludes with a consideration of those forces which tended towards promoting the social, economic and political closure of the frontier zone. In this respect the exertions of missionaries become particularly important since they first appear in the northern Cape in the last years of the eighteenth century and herald the arrival of a new era in frontier history. Missionary activity was, amongst other things, a symptom of the desire for greater state control over the turbulent regions of the colony's northern limits. The state-approved conversion of the leader of the most powerful Oorlam bandit group ( 1815) marked an important symbolic moment in the closure of the frontier zone. Even more important, however, was the promulgation of the Hottentot Proclamation of 1809 for this signalled that the new British government of the Cape intended to recognise and entrench the colonists' subjugation of their Khoisan and "Bastaard- Hottentot" labourers. For the first time there was a government at the Cape powerful enough to impose its will on the frontier regions. Unfortunately, by backing the colonists, this government endorsed and ensured the outcome of the long process of struggle, decided in the northern frontier zone, for the land, labour and livestock resources of the Khoisan of the Cape interior.