DOCSLIB.ORG

Russia and South Africa Before the Soviet Era

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Russia and South Africa Before the Soviet Era Apollon Davidson RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA BEFORE THE SOVIET ERA BASIC RESEARCH PROGRAM WORKING PAPERS SERIES: HUMANITIES WP BRP 21/HUM/2013 This Working Paper is an output of a research project implemented at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). Any opinions or claims contained in this Working Paper do not necessarily reflect the views of HSE. Apollon B. Davidson1 RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA BEFORE THE SOVIET ERA2 This article is devoted to relations between Russia and South Africa from the mid-17th to the early 19th century. It covers first attempts at sending Russian expeditions around the Cape of Good Hope by Peter the Great and Catherine II and describes how the first Russians reached the Cape from the other end, from Kamchatka. It goes on to describe the trips to the Cape by Russian naval officers and other Russians, some of whom spent a long time in South Africa and left interesting descriptions of the Cape. A unique testimony to the fact that black South Africans knew about Russia is presented in the letter of a Pondo chief to the Russian tsar. The most significant part of Russia’s relations with South Africa was its preoccupation with South African affairs during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1900, when Russian volunteers went to fight for the Boers and two medical detachments were sent to treat their wounded. At that time Russia even established diplomatic relations with Transvaal. Mutual interest in the mining sphere is also analysed, and relations between some Russian and South African intellectuals are mentioned. Immigration of Russian Jews to South Africa is also described. Key words: South Africa, Transvaal, Anglo–Boer War, Peter the Great, Witsen, Cathrine the Great, Beniovsky, Golovnin, Goncharov, van Riebeeck, Nicholas II, Grand Duke Alexei, Pondo, Olive Schreiner, Leipoldt, Maximov, Russian Jews. JEL Classification: N97. 1 Ordinary professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Academician, Russian Academy of Sciences; Ph.: +7 495 939 0521; e-mail: [email protected]. 2 This study was carried out within “The National Research University Higher School of Economics’ Academic Fund Program in 2012-2013, research grant No. 11-01-0040) The history of relations – or attempted relations – between South Africa and Russia began much earlier than one might think, with the establishment of the Cape Colony. There were unlikely connections, little-known plans and incredible voyages long before mutual visits between the two countries became commonplace. From Jan van Riebeeck to Peter the Great It was not really a surprise for us to discover how much the first Dutch administrators of the Cape Colony knew about Russia: seventeenth-century Holland had close trade and other relations with its neighbours. Muscovy was one of them. Jan van Riebeeck, the founder and first commander of the European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, mentions ‘Moscovy’ in his diary as early as September 1652, soon after his arrival at the Cape. Van Riebeeck thought of using seals’ fat for food, ‘considering how much train oil is annually extracted from seals in Moscovy’.3 Among the early Cape settlers there was at least one émigré from Moscow, Johannes Swellengrebel (Schwellengrebel), father of the first Cape Town-born governor of the Cape Colony, Hendrik Swellengrebel. Johannes was born in Moscow in 1671 and died in Cape Town in 1744. His father, Heinrich Schwellengrebel, was born into an Amsterdam worker's family and in 1643 became a trader in Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1699. Johannes spent most of his life in Russia before becoming an official of the Dutch East India Company in the Cape. This ‘Russian from Moscow’, as the South African Dictionary of National Biography called him, could have told a lot about Russia – and not only to his son, the governor. 4 There were, of course, no South Africans in Russia in those days. What little knowledge the Russians had about South Africa came from books – and this luxury was available only to the chosen few. Until the end of the seventeenth century only theological books were printed in Moscow. Secular books were written and copied by hand and were, of course, very expensive and rare. However, those who had access to them could find all sorts of interesting information about distant lands, some real, some invented. The best sources of such information were the so-called cosmographies, hand-written geographies of the time. The most famous surviving cosmography dates back to 1670. Based on the work of a Flemish 3 Journals of Jan van Riebeeck, vol 1, 1651‒1655. Cape Town: AA Balkema, 1952, p 58. ‘Train’ here is a horse-drawn sledge used in Russia in winter. 4 Dictionary of South African Biography, vol 2. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1972, p 726; E Rosenthal (ed), South African Dictionary of National Biography. London: F Warne, 1966, p 369. 3 author, Gerard Mercator (1512‒1594), the expanded Russian edition contained references to Africa and Madagascar. South Africa was clearly depicted on maps brought to Russia from abroad. A Dutch mission presented Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (who ruled from 1645 to 1676) with a huge seven-foot copper globe made by pupils of the famous Dutch geographer and cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu. The globe still exists and is housed in a museum in the Red Square at the very centre of Moscow. One can still discern the words Caput de Bonae Speranca at the southern tip of the African continent. It was, perhaps, this globe that struck the imagination of Aleksei Mikhailovich’s son, Peter the Great, arousing his passion for travel. Peter was 25 when, in 1697, he spent more than four months in Holland as Peter Mikhailov, learning every possible naval skill from carpentry to mathematics and navigation. Every day he and his companions worked and dressed as common workers, sail makers, mast builders, or seamen. Peter’s dream was to build his own fleet and open the southern seas for Russia, which was not a naval power at that time. Among Peter's friends in Holland was Nicolaas Witsen, burgomaster of Amsterdam and one of the directors of the Dutch East India Company. It was he who gave Peter and his companions permission to work at the Company's docks. Witsen accompanied Peter to his meetings with many important people, first of all with the Prince of Orange, William III, who simultaneously held the titles of Stadholder of Holland and King of England. 5 The culmination of the friendship was the gift that Witsen gave Peter in the name of the citizens of Amsterdam when the Tsar’s visit was finally over. It was one of the ships that was built during Peter’s stay. One of Peter’s biographers wrote: ‘Peter was so delighted that he threw himself on Witsen's neck. He accepted the present with gratitude and gave the vessel the name Amsterdam.’6 Witsen was a well-educated and well-travelled man who visited many European countries and studied astronomy, mathematics and classics at the University of Leiden.7 His interest in Peter – at that time an uncouth youth – was scholarly too. In 1664 he spent about a year in Russia and subsequently published three volumes of his impressions and notes about this trip. These volumes were thought sufficiently interesting to be published again three 5 V Kliuchevski, Kurs russkoi istorii (The Course of Russian History), part IV. Petrograd, 1918, pp 29‒30. 6 O Browning, Peter the Great. London: Hutchinson, 1898, p 102. 7 JFL De Balbian Verster, Burgomeesters van Amsterdam in de 17e en 18e eeuw. Zutphen: WJ Thieme en Cie, 1932, pp 99‒ 105; A Boeseken and M Cairns, The Secluded Valley. Tulbagh: 't Land van Waveren 1700‒1804. Cape Town and Johannesburg: Perskor, 1989, p 20. 4 centuries later.8 During Peter’s stay in Amsterdam Witsen was working on another book which was to provide detailed descriptions of several countries and regions of the world, including Central Asia, Northern Persia, the Caucasus, the Crimea, China and Japan. Russia, with its eastern regions, was to occupy the central place in this publication. To have the Russian tsar as a consultant on his own country was a real stroke of luck for the author. Two large volumes of this book were published in 1705. They were beautifully illustrated, supplied with maps and detailed descriptions of many Russian cities and towns, geographic features, traditions and habits. As a source for his information Witsen often gave ‘the Russian court’. This clearly meant Peter. Naturally, he dedicated his book ‘To Tsar and Great Prince Piotr Alekseevich’.9 This friendship is important for us here, as, without a doubt, Witsen was the person who got Peter interested in Southern Africa. Witsen had already been a director of the Dutch East India Company for four years by the time Peter appeared in Amsterdam, and the Cape Colony was constantly on his mind. His signature appears on many Company letters addressed to the governor of the Cape. Moreover, this governor, Simon van der Stel, was Witsen’s personal friend, who even named a mountain range in the Tulbagh area after him. Later this range, Witsenberg, gave Witsen's name to one of South Africa’s famous wines.10 During Peter’s reign Russian knowledge of Africa accumulated exponentially. In 1713 the first map of Africa, based on a map by a famous Dutch cartographer, Frederick de Witt Senior (1616‒1689), was published in Moscow. In 1719 the first Russian book containing a detailed description of Africa was published. It was a translation of a book by the German geographer, Johann Hübner.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Calvinism in the Context of the Afrikaner Nationalist Ideology
    ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, 78, 2009, 2, 305-323 CALVINISM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE AFRIKANER NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY Jela D o bo šo vá Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia [email protected] Calvinism was a part of the mythic history of Afrikaners; however, it was only a specific interpretation of history that made it a part of the ideology of the Afrikaner nationalists. Calvinism came to South Africa with the first Dutch settlers. There is no historical evidence that indicates that the first settlers were deeply religious, but they were worshippers in the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church), which was the only church permitted in the region until 1778. After almost 200 years, Afrikaner nationalism developed and connected itself with Calvinism. This happened due to the theoretical and ideological approach of S. J.du Toit and a man referred to as its ‘creator’, Paul Kruger. The ideology was highly influenced by historical developments in the Netherlands in the late 19th century and by the spread of neo-Calvinism and Christian nationalism there. It is no accident, then, that it was during the 19th century when the mythic history of South Africa itself developed and that Calvinism would play such a prominent role in it. It became the first religion of the Afrikaners, a distinguishing factor in the multicultural and multiethnic society that existed there at the time. It legitimised early thoughts of a segregationist policy and was misused for political intentions. Key words: Afrikaner, Afrikaner nationalism, Calvinism, neo-Calvinism, Christian nationalism, segregation, apartheid, South Africa, Great Trek, mythic history, Nazi regime, racial theories Calvinism came to South Africa in 1652, but there is no historical evidence that the settlers who came there at that time were Calvinists.
    [Show full text]
  • South Africa
    CultureGramsTM Republic of World Edition 2014 South Africa provisions station at Cape Town. It supplied ships with fresh BACKGROUND foods as they sailed around the tip of the continent. French Huguenot refugees joined the Dutch colony in 1688 and Land and Climate Germans came later. The colonists became known as Boers Area (sq. mi.): 470,693 (farmers). They clashed at times with indigenous groups but Area (sq. km.): 1,219,090 stayed mainly in coastal areas. Britain gained formal possession of the Cape Colony in 1814. Dissatisfaction with South Africa is about the size of Peru, or slightly larger than British rule led many Boers to migrate to the interior between the U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma 1835 and 1848. Their migration, which they call the Great combined. The country's large interior plateau averages about Trek, led to war with the indigenous Zulu, Xhosas, and other 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) above sea level. Primarily savanna Africans. The Boers won most of the battles and took control and semidesert, the plateau is rimmed by a narrow coastal of large tracts of land. belt, which is subtropical along the east coast and has a After the discovery of gold and diamonds in these Boer Mediterranean climate along the southwestern cape. South territories in the late 19th century, Britain annexed parts of Africa's most important rivers are the Orange, Vaal, and the area. Tension erupted into the First Boer War (1880–81) Limpopo. and the Second Boer War (1899–1902), which is also called Snow is confined to the Drakensberg and Maluti the South African War.
    [Show full text]
  • The Third War of Dispossession and Resistance in the Cape of Good Hope Colony, 1799–1803
    54 “THE WAR TOOK ITS ORIGINS IN A MISTAKE”: THE THIRD WAR OF DISPOSSESSION AND RESISTANCE IN THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE COLONY, 1799–1803 Denver Webb, University of Fort Hare1 Abstract The early colonial wars on the Cape Colony’s eastern borderlands and western Xhosaland, such as the 1799–1803 war, have not received as much attention from military historians as the later wars. This is unexpected since this lengthy conflict was the first time the British army fought indigenous people in southern Africa. This article revisits the 1799–1803 war, examines the surprisingly fluid and convoluted alignments of participants on either side, and analyses how the British became embroiled in a conflict for which they were unprepared and for which they had little appetite. It explores the micro narrative of why the British shifted from military action against rebellious Boers to fighting the Khoikhoi and Xhosa. It argues that in 1799, the British stumbled into war through a miscalculation – a mistake which was to have far-reaching consequences on the Cape’s eastern frontier and in western Xhosaland for over a century. Introduction The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century colonial wars on the Cape Colony’s eastern borderlands and western Xhosaland (emaXhoseni) have received considerable attention from historians. For reasons mostly relating to the availability of source material, the later wars are better known than the earlier ones. Thus the War of Hintsa (1834–35), the War of the Axe (1846–47), the War of Mlanjeni (1850–53) and the War of Ngcayecibi (1877–78) have received far more coverage by contemporaries and subsequently by historians than the eighteenth-century conflicts.2 The first detailed examination of Scientia Militaria, South African the 1799–1803 conflict, commonly known as Journal of Military Studies, Vol the Third Frontier War or third Cape–Xhosa 42, Nr 2, 2014, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Teacher Notes on Apartheid
    Teacher notes on Apartheid APARTHEID I. History The first European settlers come to the Cape of Good Hope around 1600. 1652, Dutch, German and French come to Cape for religious and economic motives Dutch Boers (farmers) begin to move north and live with native Africans and a new culture develops: The Afrikaner or the white African tribe. Their language was a mix of Dutch and various African languages. They were devoutly Christian and very racist. (They believed they were the chosen people in a hostile world.) 1795 the British seize control of the Cape and surrounding area and more Boers are driven north. Many Afrikaners died in battles with "natives" while adapting to harsh land and climate. Hatred of the British and Blacks deepened Afrikaner solidarity. The Boer War 1899-1902: British want gold and diamonds discovered on Afrikaner land. A fierce war ensued with atrocities on both sides, Britain wins ultimate control and makes South Africa a commonwealth. Independence was granted in 1910. While the Afrikaners made up only 13% of population, they dominated the government. II. Apartheid In 1948 the Afrikaner Nationalist Party gained control of the South African Parliament, and established the system known as apartheid. Apartheid means "separateness" or "apartness" and included 317 laws which reserved civil rights for 5 million whites and denied them to 25 million blacks. All citizens were classified by race Marriage and sexual relations across color lines were made illegal Separate residential areas; whites get all of the best, over 80% of the population was crowded into areas which covered less than 13% of the total land mass.
    [Show full text]
  • The Boers and the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) in the Twentieth-Century Moral Imaginary
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by South East Academic Libraries System (SEALS) Victorian Literature and Culture (2003), 429–446. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright C 2003 Cambridge University Press. 1060-1503/03 $9.50 THE BOERS AND THE ANGLO-BOER WAR (1899–1902) IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY MORAL IMAGINARY By M. van Wyk Smith IN 1891 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, father of the more famous Winston, visited South Africa and the soon-to-be Rhodesia on a trip that was intended to combine big-game hunting with the even more exciting prospects of entering the gold mining business. During the eight months of the visit, Churchill contributed a series of letters to the Daily Graphic on his thoughts and experiences, in one of which he had this to say about the Boers: The Boer farmer personifies useless idleness. Occupying a farm of from six thousand to ten thousand acres, he contents himself with raising a herd of a few hundred head of cattle, which are left almost entirely to the care of the natives whom he employs. It may be asserted, generally with truth, that he never plants a tree, never digs a well, never makes a road, never grows a blade of corn .... He passes his day doing absolutely nothing beyond smoking and drinking coffee. He is perfectly uneducated. With the exception of the Bible, every word of which in its most literal interpretation he believes with fanatical credulity, he never opens a book, he never even reads a newspaper.
    [Show full text]
  • Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-Century Travellers in South Africa Atlantic World
    Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-century Travellers in South Africa Atlantic World Europe, Africa and the Americas, 1500–1830 Edited by Wim Klooster Clark University and Benjamin Schmidt University of Washington VOLUME 18 Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-century Travellers in South Africa By Siegfried Huigen LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 On the cover: “Coba Caffer Captein” (Gordon Atlas, G75). Courtesy of the Rijkspren- tenkabinet, Amsterdam. This book was originally published as Verkenningen van Zuid-Afrika. Achttiende-eeuwse reizigers aan de kaap (2007). This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Huigen, Siegfried. Knowledge and colonialism : eighteenth-century travellers in South Africa / by Siegfried Huigen. p. cm. — (Atlantic world : Europe, Africa, and the Americas, 1500–1830 ; v. 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17743-7 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Cape of Good Hope (South Africa)—Description and travel. 2. Cape of Good Hope (South Africa)—Description and travel—Sources. 3. Travelers—South Africa—Cape of Good Hope—History— 18th century. 4. Europeans—South Africa—Cape of Good Hope—History—18th century. 5. Ethnology—South Africa—Cape of Good Hope—History—18th century. 6. Ethnological expeditions—South Africa—Cape of Good Hope—History—18th century. 7. South Africa—History—To 1836. 8. South Africa—Colonial infl uence. 9. South Africa—Description and travel. 10. South Africa—Description and travel— Sources. I. Title. II. Series. DT2020.H85 2009 968.03—dc22 2009017888 ISSN 1570-0542 ISBN 978 90 04 17743 7 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishers, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
    [Show full text]
  • Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa
    Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa Reference code: C. 62, pp. 22−35. Dingsdagh den 22e December 1722, voormiddags. Alle present, uijtgesondert den Heer independent fiscaal, Cornelis van Beaumont. Door den Edelen Heer Gouverneur ter vergadering ingebragt sijnde de overgeleverde nominatien, soo van burgerraden, weesmeesteren, commissarissen van civile en huwelijxe saken, als de kerkenraden van de Caab, Stellenbosch en Drakenstijn, [1] Soo is naar gehoudende besoigne goedgevonden en geresolveerd in steede der afgaande burgerraden Fredrik Russouw en Jan Casper Rigter, weeder om tot burgerraden te verkiesen Mattheus Bergsted en Valentijn Kleijnveld. Mitsgrs. in plaatse van de afgaande weesmeesteren Philip Rudolph de Savoije, Johannes Blankenberg en Gijsbert Lafebre, Isacq Scheepers, Fredrik Russouw en Johan Casper Rigter. Tot commissarissen van civiele en huwelijxe saken sijn insgelijx verkoren in plaatse van de afgaande Hendrik Swellengrebel, Johan Fredrijk de Lits en den overledene Francois Poulle, Evert Walraven Cochius, Christoffel Brand en Johannes Needer, en gelijk den president van dat collegie, den E. Kaje Jesse Slotsboo, ter vergaderinge bij monde versoek deede om van dat presidie te mogen werden ontslagen, Soo is sulx hem geaccordeert, en weeder tot president van commissarissen van civiele en huwelijxe saken aangestelt den onderkoopman en Secretaris deeser Vergadering, Adriaan van Kervel, dog belangende de gedane doleantie over de continueele afweesigheit van den mede commissaris Christoffel Hasewinkel, Soo is verstaan dat onsent weegen haarlieden bij missive sal werden betuijgt ons misnoegen over diergelijken disrespectieus en nalatig gedrag, en daaromme ook vorders gelast deesen Raad per naaste kennisse te geven bij aldien den voorme.
    [Show full text]
  • Fashion and the World of the Women of the VOC Official Elite
    Fashion and the World of the Women of the VOC Official Elite Liza-Mari Coetzee, University of Johannesburg, [email protected] Abstract During the early modern period material culture increasingly started to serve as a symbol of identity and status rather than merely fulfilling a basic need. One example of such possessions that was particularly relevant for demonstrating social position is clothing. By using markers of distinction such as clothing, individuals could affirm or reaffirm their identities and could denote an association with a certain status group. At the Cape this means of distinction was utilised by the societal elite that consisted of a small group of senior officials with the Governor at the head. The Governor was appointed by the VOC and in all cases but one, was not locally born. Equally, many members of the VOC elite were temporarily stationed at the Cape and would return to Europe or move to another VOC station at the end of their tenure, most often taking their wives and daughters back with them. The aim of this article is to discuss women belonging to the VOC elite of Cape society and to determine firstly whether these women maintained their status through the use of status objects (in particular clothing and other items used for personal adornment). The second aim of the article is to determine what effect this use of clothing as a symbol of status had on the social consciousness of the importance or unimportance of a particular object. The article will also aim to determine how these women in the top echelons of society influenced and determined what types of fashion, dress and accessories were seen as status objects.
    [Show full text]
  • History'and Ethnography Africa South of the Zambesi
    HISTORY'AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF AFRICA SOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI VOL. II. By Dr. G. M. THEAL. SERIES I. HISTORY AND ETHNOGR,APHY OF AFRICA SOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI. FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE PORTUGUESE AT SOFALA IN SEPTEMBER, 1505, TO THE CONQUEST OF THE CAPE COLONY BY THE BRITISH IN SEPTEMBER, 1795. VOL. I.-The Portuguese in South Africa from 1505 to 1700. VOL. H.-Is the one in the reader's hands. VOL. III.-Account of the Dutch, Portuguese, Hottentots, and Bantu to September, 1795. SERIES II. HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA SINCE SEPTEMBER, 1795 ' VOL. I., 1795-1828• VOL. II., 1828-1846. VOL. III., 1846-1860. VOL. IV. (The Republics and Bantu States), 1854-1872. VOL. V. (The Remainder of South Africa), 1860-1872• HISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF AFRICA SOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE PORTUGUESE At SOFALA IN SEPTEMBER 1505 TO THE CONQUEST OF THE CAPE COLONY BY THE BRITISH IN SEPTEMBER 1795, BY GEORGE MCCALL THEAL, LITT.D., LL.D. FOUIG,. M.... a 01' THR ROYAL ACA;DDIV OF SCIENCBS, At.IST&RDAM, CORRESPONDING M&M88.R 0' TH. ROYAL HI$TORICAL SOCIETY, LONDON. BTC., ETC., aTe, .. ou.... y KKK .... OJ' TUB ARCHIVES 011' THB CAPS COLOMY. AltD AT PRBSENT COLONIAL HISTORIOGRAPHBR IN THREE VOLUMES WITH MAPS AND PLATES VOL. II. FOU:NDATlON OF THE CAPE COLONY BY THE DUTCH LONDON SW AN SONNENSCHEIN & <;0.• LIM. 25 High Street, Bloomsbury 1909 An righta n81WlJf!d W. JOLLY & SONS ~lhltttl! lIu" 38 BRIDGE STREET ABERDEEN CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. JAN VAN JUEBEElt, COMMANDER, LANDED IN SOUTH AFRICA 7TH APRIL J652, RETIRED 6TH MAY J662.
    [Show full text]
  • Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa
    Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa Reference code: C. 71, pp. 115−118. Saturdagh den 17 Junij 1724, voormiddags. Extraordinaire vergaderin[g]. Present den Edelen Heer Gouverneur en alle de leeden. Door den Edelen Heer Gouverneur de schippers van de aanweesende scheepen Prattenbur[g], Berkenroode, Leijden, de Theodora en de Johanna ter vergaderinge afgevraagt geworden zijnde of zijlieden geduurende haar legtijd alhier niet ten genoege waren voorsien geworde[n] met goede en deugtsame ververssinge van moescruijden, vers vleesch en brood, is door deselve betuijgt zulx ten volle contentemente genoten te hebben, dog op de afvraging wanneer zijlieden dierhalven [1] vermijnden in staat te kunnen zijn om de rheijse na Batavia en Ceijlon aan te neemen, is door de schippers de[r] scheepen Berkenroode en d' Theodora vermeijn[d] dat haar monsterdag bij handsaam weeder vastgesteld zoude kunnen werden op Woensdag den 21en deeser, werdende nogtans door de schippers van Prattenburg, Leijden en de Johanna versogt dat zulx ten haren reguarde mogte uijtgesteld blijven tot Saturdag den 24 daaraan volgende, alsoo ten dien eijnde tot nog toe in geen volle gereedheijd waren gebragt; welken aangaande dan gedelibereert zijnde, besloten is dat Berkenroode en d' Theodora op Woensdag den 21en, en Prattenburg, Leijden en d' Johanna op Saturdag 24 deeser lopende maand bij toelatinge van weer en wind zullen werden gemonstert en naar Batavia en Ceijlon gedimitteerd. Waar naar door den Edelen Heer Gouverneur is voorgesteld hoe door 't overleijden van den Heer independent fiscaal, Cornelis van Beaumont [2] , die bedieninge was komen te vaceeren, welk emploij ook niet leedig diende gelaten te werden, tot handhavinge der justitie en voorkominge van disordres en ongeregeltheeden, daaromme ook van den dienst der E.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 GJ Groenewald the Vicissitudes of the Griqua People in Nineteenth
    ‘FAMILY RELATIONS AND CIVIL RELATIONS:’ NICOLAAS WATERBOER’S JOURNAL OF HIS VISIT TO GRIQUALAND EAST, 1872 GJ Groenewald The vicissitudes of the Griqua people in nineteenth-century South Africa have been characterised variously as a ‘tragedy’ and an ‘injustice’.1 Although once a significant factor in the internal politics of the country, their history is little known in modern South Africa and rarely studied by historians. Because of their peregrinations, documents about them are scattered all over the country, often in the most unexpected places. In this article, a recent discovery of a hand-written journal by Nicolaas Waterboer, the last Griqua kaptyn (captain), is presented. Although historians have known that he visited Griqualand East shortly after its establishment, it is now possible to have a first-hand account by a sympathetic observer who intimately knew the people involved and their history. This is a rare opportunity to hear the voice of an African indigene describing the history of his own people and proffering his own motivations. The Rise of the Griqua Captaincies In the nineteenth century, the Griquas considered themselves the descendants of Adam Kok, later called ‘the First’ to distinguish him from his subsequent namesakes. Supposedly the son of a slave, he was farming as a free man in the Piketberg district by the 1750s.2 Kok assembled a following consisting of bastaard-hottentotten (the eighteenth-century nomenclature for the biracial offspring of Khoikhoi and Europeans) and the remains of the Chaguriqua, a Khoikhoi tribe whose ancestral land was in this area. The Dutch authorities at the Cape recognised Kok as a kaptyn (captain) and awarded him a staff of office.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis White South Africans in Colorado
    THESIS WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS IN COLORADO: UNDERSTANDINGS OF APARTHEID AND POST-APARTHEID SOCIETY Submitted by Christine A. Weeber Department of Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2005 Copyright by Christine A. Weeber 2005 All Rights Reserved COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY March 31, 2005 WE HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER OUR SUPERVISION BY CHRISTINE A. WEEBER ENTITLED WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS IN COLORADO: UNDERSTANDINGS OF APARTHEID AND POST­ APARTHEID SOCIETY BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING IN PART REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS. Committee on Graduate Work Advisor 11 ABSTRACT OF THESIS WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS IN COLORADO: UNDERSTANDINGS OF APARTHEID AND POST-APARTHEID SOCIETY This pilot study focuses on the experiences of two white ethnic groups within the South African immigrant population, Afrikaners and English-speakers, who came of age during two different phases of apartheid, between 1958-1978 and 1979-1993. Race, ethnicity, generational standing, class, and nationalism remain important fault lines, so my analysis is structured to differentiate between the entrenchment and reproduction of these identities during apartheid and the disruption of these in the post-apartheid era and in people's migration to the U.S. Using a phenomenological approach, I investigate three issues: experiences of being white, the culture of apartheid, and immigration. Among the themes that emerged from my interviews are the "schizophrenic" nature of life under apartheid; guilt and responsibility; questions of truth, propaganda, and brainwashing; "Afropessimism" and racism; what it meant to be white under apartheid versus the present 'box of being white'; the 'push factors' of affirmative action and crime; and perspectives of race and racism in the U.S.
    [Show full text]