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South Africa History
A 1595 engraving of Khoikhoi pastoralists © SA National Library
South Africa History - The earliest people
Visiting South Africa for your safari? Why not get some idea of the fascinating history
which has taken the country to where we are today? I've devoted a few
pages to this subject and it makes for interesting reading. The
earliest representatives of South Africa's diversity - at least the
earliest we can name - were the San and Khoekhoe peoples (otherwise
known individually as the Bushmen and Hottentots or Khoikhoi;
collectively called the Khoisan). Both were resident in the southern
tip of the continent for thousands of years before its written history
began with the arrival of European seafarers.And
before that, modern human beings had lived here for more than 100,000
years - indeed, the country is an archaeological treasure chest.The
hunter-gatherer San ranged widely over the area; the pastoral Khoekhoe
lived in those comparatively well-watered areas, chiefly along the
southern and western coastal strips, where adequate grazing was to be
found. So it was with the latter that the early European settlers first
came into contact - much to the disadvantage of the Khoekhoe.
South Africa History As
a result of diseases such as smallpox imported by the Europeans, of
some assimilation with the settlers and especially with the slaves who
were to arrive in later years, and of some straightforward
extermination, the Khoekhoe have effectively disappeared as an
identifiable group.Other
long-term inhabitants of the area that was to become South Africa were
the Bantu-speaking people who had moved into the north-eastern and
eastern regions from the north, starting at least many hundreds of
years before the arrival of the Europeans.The
Thulamela site in the northern Kruger National Park is estimated to
have been first occupied in the 13th century. The ruins of Mapungubwe,
where artefacts from as far away as China have been found, are the
remains of a large trading settlement thought to stretch back to the
12th century. Agro-pastoralists, these people brought with them an Iron
Age culture and sophisticated socio-political systems. South Africa History - Settlers and slavesTheir
existence was of little import to Jan van Riebeeck and the 90 men who
landed with him in 1652 at the Cape of Good Hope, under instructions by
the Dutch East India Company to build a fort and develop a vegetable
garden for the benefit of ships on the Eastern trade route.Their
relationship with the Khoekhoe was initially one of bartering, but a
mutual animosity developed over issues such as cattle theft - and, no
doubt, the growing suspicion on the part of the Khoekhoe that Van
Riebeeck's outpost was becoming a threat to them.Perhaps
the first sign that the threat was to be realised came in 1657 when
nine men, released from their contracts, were given land to farm. In
the same year the first slaves were imported. By the time Van Riebeeck
left in 1662, 250 white people lived in what was beginning to look like
a developing colony.
South Africa History Later
governors of the Cape Colony encouraged immigration, and in the early
1700s independent farmers called trekboers began to push north and
east. Inevitably, the Khoisan started literally losing ground, in
addition to being pressed by difficult circumstances into service for
the colonists.The
descendants of some of the Khoisan, slaves from elsewhere in Africa and
the East, and white colonists formed the basis of the mixed-race group
now known as "coloured". It is noteworthy that the slaves from the East
brought a potent new ingredient to South Africa's racial and cultural
mix, especially with their religion of Islam.
South Africa History continued: Colonial Expansion
Source: SouthAfrica.info The official guide and web portal to South Africa.
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