- Dept. of Historical Studies
University of Johannesburg
PO Box 524
Auckland Park 2006
South Africa - +27 11 559 2001
- Historical Studies, Social History, Early Modern History, Gender History, Gender, Atlantic World, and 26 moreIndian Ocean World, History of Slavery, Urban History, South Africa (History), Colonial Studies, History of European Expansion, Dutch East India Company, Dutch History, Dutch overseas history, Family history, African History, History of Crime and Punishment, Consumption and Material Culture, Book History, History of the Book, Women's History, Colonialism and Imperialism, History, Gender Studies, Historical Linguistics, Afrikaans (Language and Literature), Criminal Justice History, Business History, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, History of Alcohol and Drug Use, and History of Elitesedit
- Gerald Groenewald is an historian of the Cape of Good Hope during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.edit
Trials of Slavery is a first in South African historiography, a collection of 87 verbatim records of trials involving slaves at the Cape during the 18th century. The cases are drawn from the exceptionally rich archives of the Council of... more
Trials of Slavery is a first in South African historiography, a collection of 87 verbatim records of trials involving slaves at the Cape during the 18th century. The cases are drawn from the exceptionally rich archives of the Council of Justice at the Cape of Good Hope under the rule of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and illuminate not only the grim details of crime and punishment at the Cape in that century, but also abundantly details telling features of the lives, labours, languages and outlook of slaves and other inhabitants of the Dutch colony. Reading these case records provides glimpses of these slaves as flesh and blood people instead of as a faceless, silent mass, the object only of outsiders’ observations and enumeration. The transcriptions are printed in the original Dutch, along with an English translation and historical commentary.
Research Interests: Gender History, Urban History, Atlantic World, Criminal Justice History, Slavery, and 10 moreHistory of Slavery, South Africa (History), Indian Ocean World, 18th Century, History of Race and Ethnicity, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, History of Crime and Punishment, Dutch overseas history, and Cape of Good Hope
In 1652 the Dutch East India Company founded a maritime service station in Table Bay on the southwestern coast of Africa for its fleets to and from the East Indies. Within a few years, this outpost developed into a fully-fledged settler... more
In 1652 the Dutch East India Company founded a maritime service station in Table Bay on the southwestern coast of Africa for its fleets to and from the East Indies. Within a few years, this outpost developed into a fully-fledged settler colony with a free-burgher population who made an existence as grain, wine, and livestock farmers in the interior, or engaged in entrepreneurial activities in Cape Town, the largest settlement in the colony. The corollary of this development was the subjugation of the indigenous Khoikhoi and San inhabitants of the region, and the importation and use of a relatively large slave labor force in the agrarian and urban economies. The colony continued to expand throughout the 18th century due to continued immigration from Europe and the rapid growth of the settler population through natural increase. During that century, about one-third of the colony's population lived in Cape Town, a cosmopolitan harbor city with a large transient, and overwhelmingly male, population which remained connected with both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds. The unique society and culture that developed at the Cape was influenced by both these worlds. Although in many ways, the managerial superstructure of the Cape was similar to that of a Dutch city, the cosmopolitan and diverse nature of its population meant that a variety of identities and cultures co-existed alongside each other and found expression in a variety of public forms.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Maritime History, African History, Atlantic World, Indian Ocean History, and 15 moreSouth Africa (History), Social History, Indian Ocean World, Atlantic history, Settler Colonialism & Its Legacies, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Settler colonialism, Early Modern Atlantic World (1500-1815), Colonial History, Dutch colonialism, Cape Colony, Dutch overseas history, Dutch Colonialism In South Asia, and CAPE History
The chapter opens with an introductory section discussing the various opinions of 17th and 18th century Dutch legal authorities on the different types of honour for women and men, and the ways in which its loss could be compensated. This... more
The chapter opens with an introductory section discussing the various opinions of 17th and 18th century Dutch legal authorities on the different types of honour for women and men, and the ways in which its loss could be compensated. This leads me to the central question of the paper: how were the customs, manners and laws inherited from the Dutch Republic changed and adapted in a different socio-economic context, in particular a colonial situation marked by huge differences in power between the free and unfree, and by the formation of new identities and status groups, increasingly marked by an awareness of race? How did men and women of European descent at the Cape view their own honour with regards to sexual morals, how did others view their actions, and how did these attitudes change over time in a setting which became socially and politically more complex?
The first section deals with the ways in which women viewed and defended their sexual honour and does so through the lens of breach of promise cases, especially ones which involved pre-marital births. Whereas in the Dutch Republic a whole repertoire of informal actions existed through which women could restore their honour, at the Cape they mostly turned to the courts (either the matrimonial or the civil court). In these cases they often produced testimonies of their honourable conduct, revealing their own perception of themselves and that of the community. Interestingly, in most cases the woman herself brought the action, and not her father, indicating the importance of personal honour in sexual matters. In cases where the men in question could not be convinced to honour their promise of marriage, the women’s loss of honour was ‘amended’ through monetary awards.
The second section investigates how the sexual behaviour of colonist men affected their perceived status in society. I do so by focusing on cases of divorce on the basis of adultery involving slave women. Roman-Dutch law considered sex with any person except one’s spouse adultery, and did not allow a difference in status to affect the crime (unlike Roman and Germanic law where sex with a slave did not constitute adultery). This may be the case in law, but was more social opprobrium at the Cape attached to colonist men who cheated on their wives with slave and Khoi women? I discuss these issues with relation to cases from the 1760s-1780s which caused much stir. I demonstrate that these seemingly private affairs impacted on the public standing of prominent men who could be ruined and stripped of their public honour through their private misconduct in a society which was becoming more and more aware of social and racial status differentiation.
The third section picks up on the issue of how the public censure of private morality changed over time and increasingly started to involve race. Here I discuss the treatment of children born out of wedlock by the Dutch Reformed Church, in particular their admittance to the sacrament of baptism. Whereas for most of the Dutch period, the Church had no qualms about admitting such children, this started to change significantly in the 1780-90s when the morality of unmarried mothers was being questioned and sometimes publicly censured. This change was the result of the impact of pietist and Enlightenment ideas about the behaviour of ‘a good mother’ at the Cape, within the context of a rapidly changing society during the Revolutionary wars. The fact that this moral regulation was aimed at mostly working class women, often of mixed race, paved the way for the more familiar public discussion and concern over morality of the nineteenth century.
The first section deals with the ways in which women viewed and defended their sexual honour and does so through the lens of breach of promise cases, especially ones which involved pre-marital births. Whereas in the Dutch Republic a whole repertoire of informal actions existed through which women could restore their honour, at the Cape they mostly turned to the courts (either the matrimonial or the civil court). In these cases they often produced testimonies of their honourable conduct, revealing their own perception of themselves and that of the community. Interestingly, in most cases the woman herself brought the action, and not her father, indicating the importance of personal honour in sexual matters. In cases where the men in question could not be convinced to honour their promise of marriage, the women’s loss of honour was ‘amended’ through monetary awards.
The second section investigates how the sexual behaviour of colonist men affected their perceived status in society. I do so by focusing on cases of divorce on the basis of adultery involving slave women. Roman-Dutch law considered sex with any person except one’s spouse adultery, and did not allow a difference in status to affect the crime (unlike Roman and Germanic law where sex with a slave did not constitute adultery). This may be the case in law, but was more social opprobrium at the Cape attached to colonist men who cheated on their wives with slave and Khoi women? I discuss these issues with relation to cases from the 1760s-1780s which caused much stir. I demonstrate that these seemingly private affairs impacted on the public standing of prominent men who could be ruined and stripped of their public honour through their private misconduct in a society which was becoming more and more aware of social and racial status differentiation.
The third section picks up on the issue of how the public censure of private morality changed over time and increasingly started to involve race. Here I discuss the treatment of children born out of wedlock by the Dutch Reformed Church, in particular their admittance to the sacrament of baptism. Whereas for most of the Dutch period, the Church had no qualms about admitting such children, this started to change significantly in the 1780-90s when the morality of unmarried mothers was being questioned and sometimes publicly censured. This change was the result of the impact of pietist and Enlightenment ideas about the behaviour of ‘a good mother’ at the Cape, within the context of a rapidly changing society during the Revolutionary wars. The fact that this moral regulation was aimed at mostly working class women, often of mixed race, paved the way for the more familiar public discussion and concern over morality of the nineteenth century.
Research Interests: Women's History, Gender History, Comparative History, History of Slavery, History of Sexuality, and 13 moreColonialism, History of Childhood and Youth, History of Childhood, South Africa (History), Social status, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Honor, Dutch Reformed Church, Honour, Dutch overseas history, Law and Morality, and 18th Century Cape of Good Hope
Why is Southern Africa so rarely covered in volumes on the Atlantic World? Although, in the wake of the Second World War, some pioneer historians and advocates of a unified analysis of the four continents bordering the Atlantic considered... more
Why is Southern Africa so rarely covered in volumes on the Atlantic World? Although, in the wake of the Second World War, some pioneer historians and advocates of a unified analysis of the four continents bordering the Atlantic considered southern Africa to be part of this ‘community’, this was not borne out in the subsequent developments of Atlantic history which has been little concerned with the deep southern part of the ocean. Thus, a major new synthesis such as Thomas Benjamin’s “The Atlantic World” contains no discussion of Africa south of Angola and hardly mentions the Cape of Good Hope. This state of affairs is partly related to the fact that early practitioners of Atlantic history viewed the ocean as ‘a basin around which a new civilization slowly formed’. But this basin was not completely bounded or closed-off: the original purpose for crossing the Atlantic was to connect Europe with the East Indies, and this the passage around the Cape of Good Hope in the south Atlantic continued to provide throughout the period covered by this volume (1450-1850), as is increasingly being acknowledged. But perhaps the main reason for this state of affairs in the historiography of the Atlantic is the result of the isolation of South African historians until the 1980s and their own inward-looking habits and practices. For a long time historians of the colonial Cape tended to look to the hinterland and the interior of Africa, forgetting that the inhabitants of the Cape during this period were mostly ocean-oriented. This is what will be described in this chapter, which also affords one the opportunity to rethink the traditionally conceived notion of the Atlantic World as being bounded and closed-off. Serving as it did as a pivot between two oceans; the existence of a colonial society at the Cape of Good Hope made possible the development of a globalised, unified oceanic world by the nineteenth century.
Research Interests: Maritime History, Atlantic World, Slavery, History of Slavery, World History, and 13 moreIndian Ocean History, South Africa (History), Southern Africa, Global History, The Age of Revolutions in the Atlantic World, Indian Ocean World, Atlantic history, Maritime and Oceanic History, Dutch East India Company, Early Modern Atlantic World (1500-1815), Dutch overseas history, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, and Cape of Good Hope
"The origins and establishment of Afrikaans"
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, Social Identity, Urban History, Business History, Atlantic World, and 14 moreSocial Stratification, History of Alcohol and Drug Use, South Africa (History), History of Elites, History of Identity, 18th Century, Social status, Urban Elites, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Port cities, Settler colonialism, Honour, and Cape of Good Hope
Research Interests: Book History, Intellectual History of Enlightenment, History of Reading and Writing, History of the Clergy, South Africa (History), and 8 moreChurch History, History of Collections, History of knowledge, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch overseas history, and Cape of Good Hope
Research Interests: Criminal Justice History, Slavery, History of Slavery, Biography, South Africa (History), and 10 morePolice History, History of prisons, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, History of Crime and Punishment, Batavia, Convict Transportation, Dutch overseas history, Dutch East Indies, and 18th Century Cape of Good Hope
Research Interests:
The vicissitudes of the Griqua people in nineteenth-century South Africa have been characterised variously as a "tragedy" and an "injustice". Although once a significant factor in the internal politics of the country, their history is... more
The vicissitudes of the Griqua people in nineteenth-century South Africa have been characterised variously as a "tragedy" and an "injustice". 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 handwritten 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.
Research Interests: Indigenous Studies, South Africa (History), British Empire, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Migration History, and 9 moreSouth African history, History of Migration, Settler Colonial Studies, Settler Colonialism & Its Legacies, Settler colonialism, Cape Colony, Ego documents, Colonialism and Imperialism, and Khoesan Studies
Contrary to popular opinion, the recent interest in the role of slaves and Khoikhoi in the genesis of Afrikaans is not merely a reaction to current political realities. Instead, Afrikaans historical linguistics originated at the turn of... more
Contrary to popular opinion, the recent interest in the role of slaves and
Khoikhoi in the genesis of Afrikaans is not merely a reaction to current political realities. Instead, Afrikaans historical linguistics originated at the turn of the 20th century in the very debate about the contribution of slaves and Khoikhoi to the development of Afrikaans. This article traces this history, and demonstrates that considerations of the role of slaves and Khoikhoi in the history of Afrikaans have formed a golden thread in debates about the origins of the language throughout the 20th century until the end of apartheid in 1994. The aims of this article are
twofold: to trace how various of the most influential Afrikaans linguists have viewed the role of slaves and Khoikhoi in the genesis of Afrikaans, on the one side; and to investigate how and to what extent they have used external history (as opposed to the internal development of the language) in the construction of their theories, on the other side. The article demonstrates how increasingly Afrikaans linguists have come to realise how and to what an extent history determines the parameters within which linguistic proposals should be sought to trace development of Afrikaans.
Khoikhoi in the genesis of Afrikaans is not merely a reaction to current political realities. Instead, Afrikaans historical linguistics originated at the turn of the 20th century in the very debate about the contribution of slaves and Khoikhoi to the development of Afrikaans. This article traces this history, and demonstrates that considerations of the role of slaves and Khoikhoi in the history of Afrikaans have formed a golden thread in debates about the origins of the language throughout the 20th century until the end of apartheid in 1994. The aims of this article are
twofold: to trace how various of the most influential Afrikaans linguists have viewed the role of slaves and Khoikhoi in the genesis of Afrikaans, on the one side; and to investigate how and to what extent they have used external history (as opposed to the internal development of the language) in the construction of their theories, on the other side. The article demonstrates how increasingly Afrikaans linguists have come to realise how and to what an extent history determines the parameters within which linguistic proposals should be sought to trace development of Afrikaans.
Research Interests: History of Linguistics, Intellectual History, Historical Linguistics, Slavery, History of Slavery, and 13 morePidgins & Creoles, South Africa (History), History of Linguistic Thought, Intellectual and cultural history, Afrikaans (Language and Literature), Origin of Language, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Cape Colony, Pidgins and Creoles, Origins and evolution of language, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, and Khoesan Studies
Afrikaans was first introduced in Namibia’s current territory by migrant Oorlam and Baster groups who imposed it in its Cape Dutch form as a prestige language and inter-ethnic medium of communication. The status of Afrikaans in Namibia... more
Afrikaans was first introduced in Namibia’s current territory by migrant Oorlam and Baster groups who imposed it in its Cape Dutch form as a prestige language and inter-ethnic medium of communication. The status of Afrikaans in Namibia was consolidated during the South African regime which systematically promoted it while preventing indigenous languages from spreading out of their intra-ethnic contexts of use. A linguistic consequence of independence, which Namibia gained in 1990, was that English suddenly became the country’s only official language, as well as the dominant language in education. Despite the hegemonic status that English acquired in Namibia, Afrikaans is today still popularly represented as the main lingua franca in Namibia, or at least as an important one. However, the position of Afrikaans in
urban areas could nowadays be under threat from the sustained influx of migrants from Namibia’s northern districts, including those that constitute the traditional homeland of the Ovambo, the country’s numerically dominant group, where English is better known than
Afrikaans. An indication of the pressure that Afrikaans might be subject to in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital city, is the demographic preponderance that the Ovambo group has locally acquired within the last three decades. Based on a qualitative survey conducted among an
ethnoracially representative sample of young Namibians, this article provides a description of the status and use of Afrikaans in contemporary Windhoek, as well as a reflection on its
potential for locally maintaining itself as a lingua franca. It generally shows that Afrikaans has to compete with English in that function, while indigenous languages are still largely restricted to intra-ethnic contexts of use. Afrikaans is clearly perceived as the lingua franca
with more “covert prestige” in that it is associated with informality and a sense of local identity. By contrast, English is generally associated with overt prestige and formal functions, and it is characteristically used as a lingua franca within groups that do not understand Afrikaans, such as among particular Ovambo migrants. It is not enough, however, to give an
account of Windhoek’s sociolinguistic profile in which English and Afrikaans are presented as the two main lingua francas without specifying which form of Afrikaans is used in which contexts as a lingua franca. Standard varieties of Afrikaans do not seem to possess enough
neutrality to function as a medium of inter-ethnic interaction as they are perceptually amalgamated with “White Afrikaans”, that is, the linguistic marker of an ethnoracial group, namely, the Afrikaners, that is still largely seen as self-insulating in the context of Windhoek. Those varieties of Afrikaans perceived as more neutral for the purpose of inter-ethnic
communication are Coloured varieties of Afrikaans, with which various Non-Coloured ethnic groups seem to identify. However, there are indications that English rather than those varieties tends to be used by Non-Whites in communication with Whites, even when Afrikaans is
notionally shared as a native language. Where Standard Afrikaans is used in inter-ethnic communication, it is mostly unilaterally by Afrikaners, as it is apparently not widely used in informal contexts outside of that group. Also relevant to a description of the uses of Afrikaans as a lingua franca in the context of Windhoek is the practice among Non-Whites of combining it with English in the form of Afrikaans-English mixed codes. As regards the long-term prospects of Afrikaans in Windhoek, the data suggest that Afrikaans in its local Coloured varieties has potential for spreading as an attribute of a local urban identity among migrant groups, as it already has done among Ovambo born in the city or in the southern districts in general, to the point that language shift might be taking place among them from Oshiwambo to combinations of Afrikaans and English.
urban areas could nowadays be under threat from the sustained influx of migrants from Namibia’s northern districts, including those that constitute the traditional homeland of the Ovambo, the country’s numerically dominant group, where English is better known than
Afrikaans. An indication of the pressure that Afrikaans might be subject to in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital city, is the demographic preponderance that the Ovambo group has locally acquired within the last three decades. Based on a qualitative survey conducted among an
ethnoracially representative sample of young Namibians, this article provides a description of the status and use of Afrikaans in contemporary Windhoek, as well as a reflection on its
potential for locally maintaining itself as a lingua franca. It generally shows that Afrikaans has to compete with English in that function, while indigenous languages are still largely restricted to intra-ethnic contexts of use. Afrikaans is clearly perceived as the lingua franca
with more “covert prestige” in that it is associated with informality and a sense of local identity. By contrast, English is generally associated with overt prestige and formal functions, and it is characteristically used as a lingua franca within groups that do not understand Afrikaans, such as among particular Ovambo migrants. It is not enough, however, to give an
account of Windhoek’s sociolinguistic profile in which English and Afrikaans are presented as the two main lingua francas without specifying which form of Afrikaans is used in which contexts as a lingua franca. Standard varieties of Afrikaans do not seem to possess enough
neutrality to function as a medium of inter-ethnic interaction as they are perceptually amalgamated with “White Afrikaans”, that is, the linguistic marker of an ethnoracial group, namely, the Afrikaners, that is still largely seen as self-insulating in the context of Windhoek. Those varieties of Afrikaans perceived as more neutral for the purpose of inter-ethnic
communication are Coloured varieties of Afrikaans, with which various Non-Coloured ethnic groups seem to identify. However, there are indications that English rather than those varieties tends to be used by Non-Whites in communication with Whites, even when Afrikaans is
notionally shared as a native language. Where Standard Afrikaans is used in inter-ethnic communication, it is mostly unilaterally by Afrikaners, as it is apparently not widely used in informal contexts outside of that group. Also relevant to a description of the uses of Afrikaans as a lingua franca in the context of Windhoek is the practice among Non-Whites of combining it with English in the form of Afrikaans-English mixed codes. As regards the long-term prospects of Afrikaans in Windhoek, the data suggest that Afrikaans in its local Coloured varieties has potential for spreading as an attribute of a local urban identity among migrant groups, as it already has done among Ovambo born in the city or in the southern districts in general, to the point that language shift might be taking place among them from Oshiwambo to combinations of Afrikaans and English.
Research Interests:
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... more
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.
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.
Research Interests:
In Cape Town under the rule of the Dutch East India Company (1652-1795) free trade was severely restricted. During its founding years, the free inhabitants all shared the same socio-economic background, yet three to four generations later... more
In Cape Town under the rule of the Dutch East India Company (1652-1795) free trade was severely restricted. During its founding years, the free inhabitants all shared the same socio-economic background, yet three to four generations later a stratified society had developed with a clearly identifiable elite. Partly this was the result of some burghers amassing large capital resources through utilising the possibilities afforded by the lucrative alcohol trade. A large measure of this success was due to the exploitation of an intricate network of connections built up through kinship and social capital. This article concentrates on the cultural aspects of the lives of the most successful alcohol entrepreneurs, taking a multi-generational view. If they were the financial elite of Cape Town, were they also the social and cultural ones? How did they view themselves and how were they viewed by others? In order to answer these questions the article uses Bourdieu’s concept of ‘symbolic capital’, arguing that it operated in tandem with economic and social capital. Two broad aspects of the cultural lives of wealthy alcohol traders are addressed. Firstly, the article discusses their consumption patterns and the use of material culture in showcasing their wealth such as choice of address, the use of slaves and carriages, and the display of jewellery, paintings and curtains. Secondly, it investigates to what extent these people’s status was acknowledged by others – both in concrete terms by being elected to major civic functions (especially in the burgher militia) and in symbolic terms, notably their role in formal processions through the town.
Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, Cultural History, Self and Identity, Social Identity, Material Culture Studies, and 12 moreSouth Africa (History), History of Elites, History of Identity, Consumption and Material Culture, Identity Formation, Material Culture and Consumerism, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Symbolic Capital, Dutch overseas history, Sumptuary Legislation, and 18th Century Cape of Good Hope
After 1680, alcohol retail at the Cape of Good Hope was controlled through a lease (pacht) system whereby free burghers could buy, on a competitive basis, the right to sell a specific type of alcohol in a certain region for one year. In... more
After 1680, alcohol retail at the Cape of Good Hope was controlled through a lease (pacht) system whereby free burghers could buy, on a competitive basis, the right to sell a specific type of alcohol in a certain region for one year. In this way, the VOC remained assured of a major direct source of revenue. However, this lease system was not in place with the establishment of a VOC outpost in 1652, but had a troubled and complex development in the decades before 1680. This article traces this development and shows how it was linked to changing ideas about the role of free burghers in the nascent colony, their economic conditions, and their relationship with the VOC authorities. It is argued that the system of alcohol retail as it was established in 1680, constituted a victory for free burgher interests, and that this development demonstrates how local political and economic interests were linked to the changing fortunes of the VOC in a wider context.
Research Interests:
A hallmark of colonisation was extensive social reconfiguration, leading to the development of local elites which differed from the metropolitan and indigenous patterns. Historians of the Cape of Good Hope during the VOC era have... more
A hallmark of colonisation was extensive social reconfiguration, leading to the development of local elites which differed from the metropolitan and indigenous patterns. Historians of the Cape of Good Hope during the VOC era have identified the development of a local elite during the eighteenth century. The Cape gentry, consisting of grain and wine farmers in the hinterland of Cape Town, consolidated their power and influence over several generations through capital accumulation in the form of land and slaves, and through contracting endogamous marriages. This article contributes to this scholarship by adding a missing dimension: urban entrepreneurs in the form of the alcohol pachters (lease-holders). It traces how kinship, entrepreneurship and social capital were used by these people to gain economic advancement, and how the use of these factors changed over time. The article argues that the 1770s present a change-over from an earlier era when alcohol entrepreneurs were largely immigrant-based and used their cultural identities to their advantage, to a system where the urban and rural elites increasingly contracted business and social alliances. As such this study argues that the foundations of the Cape gentry lay in more than the accumulation of land and slaves. The entrepreneurial activities of alcohol pachters in Cape Town and their increasing alliances with the rural elite played an important role in creating an intricate network of wealthy and influential elite families at the Cape of Good Hope by the end of the eighteenth century.
Research Interests:
During the past three decades, historians of the Cape Colony during the period of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) rule have transformed our view of the role of slavery. Slavery has moved from an issue of marginal importance to one... more
During the past three decades, historians of the Cape Colony during the period of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) rule have transformed our view of the role of slavery. Slavery has moved from an issue of marginal importance to one which is now considered central to the establishment and growth of a colonial society in South Africa. Most of this work, however, focused on the agrarian areas of the colony, and there has, until recently, been relatively little attempt to plumb the uniqueness of the experience of slaves and free blacks in VOC Cape Town. This topic deserves interest because of the cosmopolitan nature of the urban environment and its links with the wider world of the Indian Ocean. This article is a synthesis of the most important recent research on the experience of slaves and free blacks in Cape Town. It shows that although there is general agreement about the origins and development of slavery, its demographic nature and its economic significance, Cape historians have yet to fully utilise the available sources to trace the cultural and social history of urban slavery. This article indicates some of the areas – such as family history, the role of religion, material culture and the creation of meaning – which are in need of research, and suggests some of the sources and approaches which could be utilised.
Research Interests:
Two of the many consequences of the expansion of Europe during the early modern period were the spread of Christianity to areas outside of the Mediterranean world and the large-scale forced migration of enslaved people to work in European... more
Two of the many consequences of the expansion of Europe during the early modern period were the spread of Christianity to areas outside of the Mediterranean world and the large-scale forced migration of enslaved people to work in European colonies. How did the institution of slavery impact on the practice of Christianity in a Protestant colony such as the Cape of Good Hope? This article investigates this question with a study of how the larger context of church practice and dogma influence the reality of a slave-owning society in the district of Stellenbosch during the VOC era. It shows that although a few slave individuals were baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church, only a very small number of them became actual members of the Church. This, it is argued, was related to the inherent contradiction between the requirements of the Church - that its members be knowledgeable and led moral lives - and the reality of a slave's existence - which allowed little opportunity for free time and study and made relationships between men and women technically illegal by not allowing formal marriage. It is for these reasons that so few slaves could be Christians - at least in the eyes of the official Church - in eighteenth-century Stellenbosch.
Research Interests: History of Religion, Religion and Colonialism, Calvinism, Slavery, History of Slavery, and 10 moreProtestantism, Baptism, South Africa (History), Church History, Dutch East India Company, Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch overseas history, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, Censureship, and Church Discipline
Afrikaans is the mother tongue of a sizeable group of speakers in the Republic of Namibia, where it also serves as a lingua franca among speakers of different languages. This article investigates the establishment, spread and use of... more
Afrikaans is the mother tongue of a sizeable group of speakers in the Republic of Namibia, where it also serves as a lingua franca among speakers of different languages. This article investigates the establishment, spread and use of Afrikaans as a lingua franca in precolonial and colonial Namibia until the annexation by South Africa in 1920, when the language achieved official status. Afrikaans was introduced to Namibia at the turn of the 19th century by the Oorlams, Westernised Khoikhoi groups who mostly used a form of Dutch for communication. During this same period, missionaries started to labour among the Oorlams and the indigenous Nama of South and Central Namibia, which led to greater stability in the local communities. Due to the greater socio-economic and political power of the Oorlams, their language became the prestige language which was increasingly used by both the Nama and other groups with whom they came into contact. During 1810–1840 Afrikaans spread as a lingua franca over a large part of Namibia due to the hegemony of the Oorlams. From this period until the German annexation during the 1880s, Afrikaans was widely used for diplomacy, teaching, religion and trade by both mother-tongue and non-mother-tongue speakers. Although the German annexation led to the loss of certain higher function for Afrikaans, the language remained being widely used as a lingua franca, a position which was strengthened by the arrival of the Basters and European farmers from South Africa from the 1870s onwards. The latter event increased the number of speakers of Afrikaans and spread its use over an even wider geographic area. By the time of the South African annexation of Namibia, Afrikaans was already widely used as a lingua franca in a large number of functions, which ensured the longevity of the language in that country.
Research Interests: Contact Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Colonialism, Lingua Franca, Pidgins & Creoles, and 12 moreSouth Africa (History), Language and Migration, Migration History, Khoisan languages, Afrikaans (Language and Literature), Language contact, Namibian history, Khoesan History & Identity, Namibia, Cape Colony, Namaqualand, and German South West Africa
This article uses the career of Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen at the Cape between 1702 and 1741 to illustrate the mechanisms free burghers could use to create wealth in an economically restrictive environment. By making use of the concept of... more
This article uses the career of Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen at the Cape between 1702 and 1741 to illustrate the mechanisms free burghers could use to create wealth in an economically restrictive environment. By making use of the concept of entrepreneurship and its attendant issues, the article describes Eksteenʼs rise to fortune and prestige through his exploitation of a combination of economic opportunities afforded by Cape Townʼs position as a port servicing passing ships. Crucial to Eksteenʼs later success was his successful use of the opportunities provided by the monopolistic alcohol retail market at the Cape. Eksteenʼs initial success in this arena provided him with a capital base to pursue other opportunities in agriculture, fishing and meat provision, making him the wealthiest man at the Cape by the 1730s. The article also illustrates how Eksteenʼs upward mobility was linked to his use of social capital and the cultivation of large social networks through kinship. It demonstrates, furthermore, that economic success was wound up with social power and prestige. In using the biography of Eksteen, the article argues for the importance of economic history in the study of the early modern Cape, but calls also for a study which links economic developments with social and cultural ones through a focus on individual entrepreneurs. Shown, too, is the fact that the existing conception of the rise of a Cape gentry in the eighteenth century needs to be revised to take into account the role of entrepreneurship, the urban foundations of wealth creation, as well as the role of the free black community in this process.
Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, Business History, Social Capital, Biography, History of Alcohol and Drug Use, and 9 moreSouth Africa (History), History of Elites, Social Mobility, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Port cities, Dutch overseas history, Austrian School of Economics, and 18th Century Cape of Good Hope
This article explores the treatment of unmarried mothers by the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) at the Cape of Good Hope during the VOC period (1652-1795) in the belief that by concentrating on this exceptional group of people much is... more
This article explores the treatment of unmarried mothers by the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) at the Cape of Good Hope during the VOC period (1652-1795) in the belief that by concentrating on this exceptional group of people much is revealed of normative practices. For most of its history at the Cape during this period the DRC was not overly biased against unmarried mothers and their illegitimate children, continuing to baptise such children and never acting against the mothers. This changed in the 1780s when the Church started to deny access to its two sacraments – baptism and Holy Communion – to illegitimate children and their parents. Through a detailed exploration of baptismal petitions for illegitimate children and censure cases involving unmarried mothers, this article reveals the growing obsession with regulating the conduct of single women. It is suggested that the origins of this movement lie both in local Cape developments, viz. the socio-economic upheavals caused by the Revolutionary wars, and – perhaps primarily – in changing attitudes towards motherhood created by Enlightenment ideas and Pietistic religion. At the Cape this new ideology was disseminated by the DRC minister H.R. van Lier who used existing Reformed dogma about the sacraments to regulate the morals of unmarried mothers.
Research Interests: Women's History, Gender History, Religion and Sexuality, Single Mothers, History of Sexuality, and 22 moreHistory of Childhood and Youth, History of Childhood, Baptism, South Africa (History), Church History, History of the Family, Pietism, Religious History, Family history, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Moral Regulation, Early modern religious history, Motherhood, Dutch Reformed Church, History of childbirth and midwifery, Dutch overseas history, Motherhood Studies, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, Illegitimate children, Single Motherhood, and The Legal Enforcement of Morality
Many mothers in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Cape Town produced prenuptial or out-of-wedlock children. Yet little is known of either the mothers or their bastards; due not to a lack of sources, but to the neglect gender and family... more
Many mothers in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Cape Town produced prenuptial or out-of-wedlock children. Yet little is known of either the mothers or their bastards; due not to a lack of sources, but to the neglect gender and family history has suffered in colonial South African historiography. Because of this neglect, I propose to address in this exploratory article some of the issues raised by illegitimacy and to present some of the sources that are available to historians. This I do by concentrating on the legal framework: illegitimacy is first of all a legal and not primarily a moral category. Who were the parents of illegitimate children and what sort of sexual relations resulted in their birth? How did the specific social conditions at the Cape impact on the different types of relations that existed between men and women? And, above all, how was this regulated – what was the impact of family law on the relations between parents and the status of their children? A further question – albeit one which can be dealt with less fully due to the restrictions of the archival record – is what happened to such children. Were they allowed to live? What provisions were made for them, and what was the legal impact of their status as bastards? In spite of the legal focus of this article, it must be remembered that the way in which the law was interpreted and enforced at the Cape of Good Hope was influenced by the social contexts of both early modern Europe and the society which developed here during the Dutch period.
Research Interests: Early Modern History, Gender History, Family Law, Law and Society, Single Mothers, and 13 moreHistory of Slavery, History of Sexuality, History of Childhood and Youth, South Africa (History), History of the Family, Family history, History of Law, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Honour, Dutch overseas history, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, and Illegitimate children
This article forms part of a wider, ongoing investigation into the development of social stratification in Dutch colonial Cape Town when it formed part of the Dutch East India (VOC) empire (1652-1795). The alcohol 'pachters' (lease... more
This article forms part of a wider, ongoing investigation into the development of social stratification in Dutch colonial Cape Town when it formed part of the Dutch East India (VOC) empire (1652-1795). The alcohol 'pachters' (lease holders) are the centre of this investigation, not because they were unique or exclusive, but because they were so prominent, and, in terms of data collection, they form an easily identifiable yet sufficiently diverse group of people active in Cape Town trade. This article presents a synchronic analysis of a group of people who had one thing in common: they invested in the alcohol retail business during the 1730s. By making use of a combination of prosopography or collective biography and the analysis of certain qualitative material, it suggests answers to two sets of questions. The first deals with issues of social mobility: what factors in their background or their VOC careers could have played a role in the success of some 'pachters'; to what an extent did kin and social networks aid their advancement and how did this interact with economic factors? The second set deals with issues of status and identity: was there a link between the economic importance of this group and their social status? Did they enjoy some form of prestige and how did this interact with their business activities? Finally, how did they view themselves and their role in Cape society? Can one argue that the alcohol 'pachters' of Cape Town were different from the rural gentry – did they form a Cape bourgeoisie? Throughout this discussion, the question hovering in the background – one with a much wider application than just the alcohol 'pachters' – is: what factors influenced social mobility at the Cape during the VOC period?
Research Interests: Urban History, Business History, Social Capital, Prosopography, Social Stratification, and 14 moreSouth Africa (History), History of Elites, Self Identity, Social Mobility, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Bourgeoisie, Class Formation, Honour, Dutch overseas history, Ports, Gentry Studies, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, and Social Capital;social Stratification and Mobility
Research Interests:
Perhaps one of the saddest consequences of the demise of traditional Khoikhoi societies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is the loss of their languages. Contemporary reports by visitors abound with references to how... more
Perhaps one of the saddest consequences of the demise of traditional Khoikhoi societies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is the loss of their languages. Contemporary reports by visitors abound with references to how difficult the Khoi language was to learn, while at the same time commending the Khoikhoi for their ability to learn European languages. By about 1700, only half a century after Dutch colonisation, most Khoikhoi living in the colonised areas of the Western Cape could speak some form of Dutch in addition to their own language. However, the rapid spread of European settlers deeper into the interior, on the one hand, and the acculturation of the Khoikhoi and their inclusion in the colonial polity and economy, on the other hand, meant that by the end of the eighteenth century Khoi was spoken only on the fringes of the Cape colony. Cape Khoi was increasingly replaced by (a form of) Dutch as the first language of the native inhabitants of the Cape. Thus, on his tour of Southern Africa in 1803-1806, Heinrich Lichtenstein could observe that ‘on the borders alone are some Hottentots to be found who speak their own lariguage; but among them several foreign words are introduced, spoken with the Hottentot accent and snort’. Cape Khoi was by this stage rapidly dying out.
Research Interests: Historical Linguistics, Intellectual History of Enlightenment, South Africa (History), Khoisan languages, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and 9 moreSocial History of Language, History of knowledge, Dutch East India Company, Khoesan History & Identity, Dutch overseas history, History of the Khoisan, Cape of Good Hope, Language Loss, and Nicolaes Witsen (1641-1717)
Research Interests: Travel Writing, Book History, History of the Book, Bibliography, Religious Conversion, and 11 moreHistory of Missions, South Africa (History), Danish History, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Khoesan History & Identity, Missionaries, Dutch overseas history, August Hermann Francke, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, and Khoekhoe
Book Review of Bruno Werz, The Haarlem Shipwreck (1647): The Origins of Cape Town
Research Interests:
Book Review of Grant Parker, South Africa, Greece, Rome: Classical Confrontations
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Book History, History of the Book, Historiography, Missionary History, History of Reading and Writing, and 10 moreSouth Africa (History), Historical Theory, South African Literature, History, Writing and Memory, History of Reading, Modern and Postmodern Historiography, Hayden White, Marginalia, Print Culture, Book History and the History of Reading, and Reading practices and marginalia
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
"Gerald Groenewald in conversation with Jessica Murray about the female body, gender and violence in South African slave narratives"
Research Interests:
An annotated bibliography on the topic of the role of slaves in the origins and development of Afrikaans contributed to R.C.-H. Shell, S. Rowoldt Shell & M. Kamedien (eds), "Bibliographies of Bondage: Selected Bibliographies of South... more
An annotated bibliography on the topic of the role of slaves in the origins and development of Afrikaans contributed to R.C.-H. Shell, S. Rowoldt Shell & M. Kamedien (eds), "Bibliographies of Bondage: Selected Bibliographies of South African Slavery and Abolition"
Research Interests: Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Historical Linguistics, Slavery, History of Slavery, Pidgins & Creoles, and 9 morePidgin and Creole Languages, Afrikaans (Language and Literature), Afrikaans, Creolistics, Dutch East India Company, Language Origins, Dutch overseas history, Origins and evolution of language, and 18th Century Cape of Good Hope
"Historians of the Cape break their isolation"
Research Interests:
The discussion which follows was recorded in Cape Town on 23 September 2004. Its subject is the feature film “Proteus”, directed by Jack Lewis (South Africa) and John Greyson (Canada) and released in 2003. The film script was based on the... more
The discussion which follows was recorded in Cape Town on 23 September 2004. Its subject is the feature film “Proteus”, directed by Jack Lewis (South Africa) and John Greyson (Canada) and released in 2003. The film script was based on the records of a trial conducted before the Cape Council of Justice in August 1735. The defendants were Rijkaert Jacobsz of Rotterdam, a sailor in the employ of the Dutch East India Company and Claas Blank, a Khoekhoe from the south-west Cape. They stood accused of 'mutually perpetrated sodomy' with one another and they faced the death penalty if convicted. Both were prisoners on Robben Island.
Research Interests: Film Studies, Gender History, Criminal Justice History, History of Sexuality, South Africa (History), and 10 moreGay and Lesbian History, Queer Cinema, History of prisons, Dutch East India Company, Khoesan History & Identity, History of Crime and Punishment, Dutch overseas history, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, Sodomy, and Khoekhoe
In 1657 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) released fourteen employees from its service who settled as free burghers at the Cape of Good Hope. By 1795 their number had grown to almost fifteen thousand. The original free burghers shared... more
In 1657 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) released fourteen employees from its service who settled as free burghers at the Cape of Good Hope. By 1795 their number had grown to almost fifteen thousand. The original free burghers shared the same socio-cultural background and were uniformly poor. Yet in the course of the eighteenth century they developed into a stratified society with a clearly identifiable elite. Hitherto this development had been ascribed to capital accumulation in the form of land and slaves, with a focus on the settled arable farmers. This thesis challenges these arguments by applying the theoretical concept of entrepreneurship to the history of the 198 individuals who served as alcohol pachters (lease holders) in Cape Town between 1680 and 1795. The thesis argues that a study of their economic and social activities leads to greater conceptual clarity and a better understanding of the way in which social mobility operated. This study reveals how intertwined economic success was with social factors; and traces the changing uses and functions of kinship and social capital in VOC Cape Town. It demonstrates the importance of the urban free burghers to the Cape economy and the ways in which this group was linked to the rural free burghers.
The first chapter treats the origins and operation of the alcohol pacht (lease) system and its contribution to the Cape economy. This is followed by a prosopographical analysis of all 198 of the alcohol pachters. Chapter three presents the biography of Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen as a vehicle with which to present the theoretical concepts attended on entrepreneurship, which are employed in the rest of the thesis. Chapter four illustrates the importance of social capital and kinship to what was still a largely immigrant society in the 1730s, while chapter five traces the changes which had occurred by the 1770s. These two chapters also demonstrate the ways in which the urban and rural elites coalesced over time. The final chapter shows to what extent the economic success of pachters was translated into other forms of power.
The first chapter treats the origins and operation of the alcohol pacht (lease) system and its contribution to the Cape economy. This is followed by a prosopographical analysis of all 198 of the alcohol pachters. Chapter three presents the biography of Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen as a vehicle with which to present the theoretical concepts attended on entrepreneurship, which are employed in the rest of the thesis. Chapter four illustrates the importance of social capital and kinship to what was still a largely immigrant society in the 1730s, while chapter five traces the changes which had occurred by the 1770s. These two chapters also demonstrate the ways in which the urban and rural elites coalesced over time. The final chapter shows to what extent the economic success of pachters was translated into other forms of power.
Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, Economic History, Women's History, Social Identity, Maritime History, and 21 moreBusiness History, Social Capital, Indian Ocean History, Social Stratification, White Settler Soceties, South Africa (History), History of Elites, History of Middle Classes, Indian Ocean World, Settler Colonial Studies, History of European Expansion, Cape Town, Dutch East India Company, Settler colonialism, Dutch colonialism, History of European Overseas Expansion, Dutch overseas history, 18th Century Cape of Good Hope, University of Cape Town, Social History of Credit, and Cape Colony Cape Town VOC
"Slaves, Khoikhoi and Dutch Pidgins at the Cape, c. 1590-1720: A Critical Investigation of the Socio-Historical Foundations of the Convergence Theory for the Genesis of Afrikaans" This study is a critical investigation of the... more
"Slaves, Khoikhoi and Dutch Pidgins at the Cape, c. 1590-1720: A Critical Investigation of the Socio-Historical Foundations of the Convergence Theory for the Genesis of Afrikaans"
This study is a critical investigation of the socio-historical foundations of the Convergence Theory for the genesis of Afrikaans, as developed by Hans den Besten. It is done within the theoretical framework of the study of Creole genesis as suggested by the gradualists (John Singler, Jacques Arends and Philip Baker) and the Complementary Theory of Salikoko Mufwene. These approaches stress the use of socio-historical material. In line with this the work of historians on aspects of the early Cape society, c. 1590-1720, especially the number, distribution, origins and mutual contact between the three main groups at the Cape, viz. the Khoikhoi, slaves and European settlers, is used. Material from primary sources such as travel descriptions is also used. This historical material is used to test and nuance the Convergence Theory. It is shown that the central proposition of this theory, viz. the existence of a stable pidgin among the Khoikhoi and slaves in the period before 1713, is not tenable. Moreover, many of the details of the theory still offers a useful framework for the study of the history of Afrikaans and that the rejection of a stable pidgin does not dispute the important role of the Khoikhoi and slaves in the genesis of Afrikaans.
The study consists of five main chapters. Chapter 2 discusses the development of Afrikaans historical linguistics and shows how two basic views developed about the role of the Khoikhoi and slaves in the genesis of Afrikaans. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the development of the gradualist hypotheses and Mufwene’s Complementary Theory against the background of theories of Creole genesis. The methodology, techniques and examples of the work of these theorists are stressed. Chapter 4 gives an overview of what the Convergence Theory entails and points out the problems which can be levelled against it from a socio-historical viewpoint. Chapter 5 is a detailed exposition of those historical aspects of Cape society, c. 1590-1720, that are of importance in the evaluation of the Convergence Theory. The demography of the Cape and mutual contact between the Khoikhoi, Europeans and slaves are emphasised, although other factors, such as the rise of the free-black community and the role of education, are also considered. The analysis is supported by quantitative data of historians on the number and origins of slaves (Addendum 8). Chapter 6 considers the criticisms that were levelled against the Convergence Theory in the light of the historical data presented in chapter 5. It is shown which aspects of the theory are unacceptable and which should be nuanced. Finally a short comparative perspective with two other Dutch colonies is given to show how decisive a role Khoikhoi and slaves played in the genesis of Afrikaans. Apart from quantitative data, the Addendum also contains a corpus of utterances in any form of Dutch or English by Khoikhoi and slaves in the period 1590-1720 which were noted in the course of this research project.
This study is a critical investigation of the socio-historical foundations of the Convergence Theory for the genesis of Afrikaans, as developed by Hans den Besten. It is done within the theoretical framework of the study of Creole genesis as suggested by the gradualists (John Singler, Jacques Arends and Philip Baker) and the Complementary Theory of Salikoko Mufwene. These approaches stress the use of socio-historical material. In line with this the work of historians on aspects of the early Cape society, c. 1590-1720, especially the number, distribution, origins and mutual contact between the three main groups at the Cape, viz. the Khoikhoi, slaves and European settlers, is used. Material from primary sources such as travel descriptions is also used. This historical material is used to test and nuance the Convergence Theory. It is shown that the central proposition of this theory, viz. the existence of a stable pidgin among the Khoikhoi and slaves in the period before 1713, is not tenable. Moreover, many of the details of the theory still offers a useful framework for the study of the history of Afrikaans and that the rejection of a stable pidgin does not dispute the important role of the Khoikhoi and slaves in the genesis of Afrikaans.
The study consists of five main chapters. Chapter 2 discusses the development of Afrikaans historical linguistics and shows how two basic views developed about the role of the Khoikhoi and slaves in the genesis of Afrikaans. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the development of the gradualist hypotheses and Mufwene’s Complementary Theory against the background of theories of Creole genesis. The methodology, techniques and examples of the work of these theorists are stressed. Chapter 4 gives an overview of what the Convergence Theory entails and points out the problems which can be levelled against it from a socio-historical viewpoint. Chapter 5 is a detailed exposition of those historical aspects of Cape society, c. 1590-1720, that are of importance in the evaluation of the Convergence Theory. The demography of the Cape and mutual contact between the Khoikhoi, Europeans and slaves are emphasised, although other factors, such as the rise of the free-black community and the role of education, are also considered. The analysis is supported by quantitative data of historians on the number and origins of slaves (Addendum 8). Chapter 6 considers the criticisms that were levelled against the Convergence Theory in the light of the historical data presented in chapter 5. It is shown which aspects of the theory are unacceptable and which should be nuanced. Finally a short comparative perspective with two other Dutch colonies is given to show how decisive a role Khoikhoi and slaves played in the genesis of Afrikaans. Apart from quantitative data, the Addendum also contains a corpus of utterances in any form of Dutch or English by Khoikhoi and slaves in the period 1590-1720 which were noted in the course of this research project.