The early Cape was settled not only by ex-VOC workers who became free burghers and the Huguenots but also by slaves who lost their freedom and was brought to the Cape. To fix a date for the arrival of slaves at the Cape is a variable since we know that slaves were ship wrecked and [...]
Monthly Archives: June 2008
Abbreviated Coloured History
Saddled with the burden of apartheid and colonial-slanted textbooks, South Africans have tended to take their identities from their political leanings. But “mixed marriages” are as old as South Africa itself. As the meaning of democracy dawns, more people are finding family tree research the key to understanding their own heritages. The first written records of [...]
Posted in History, Identity Tagged Ancestral Mothers, Dutch, FW de Klerk, Heritage, History, Jan Smuts, Jan van Riebeeck, khoi, Krotoa, mixed marriages, Paul Kruger, Pieter Meerhof, Robben Island, Zaaiman Leave a comment
History: Indian slaves in South Africa
Soon after Jan van Riebeeck set up a Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, to supply provisions to Dutch ships plying to and from India and the East Indies, people from India were taken to the Cape and sold into slavery to do domestic work for the settlers, as well the [...]