Indigenous Peoples of South Africa
Who are They and Where are They Coming from
It is believed that the San people had been present in Africa as long as two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand years. This means they have been on the continent longer than any other ethnic group. There is physical evidence of their presence in the form of stone-age tools and rock-art, discovered by archaeologists throughout the southern, central and eastern parts of Africa.
As migration of black Africans advanced into these parts of the continent, the San tribes were pushed out of their habitat. Bloody clashes were the result of the difference in culture and tradition between the two ethnic groups. Black Africans were traditionally herdsmen who prided in the huge herds of cattle they owned while the San people were hunters and foragers. Neither group had any concept of landownership, but San also did not know about ownership of animals. The clashes were mainly caused by the San mistaking the herds of cattle as easy prey for hunting.
The San were pushed so far back south and west that very few were still living east of the Namib and Kalahari deserts by the end of the eighteenth century. They were dispersed all over southern Africa and along the coastal areas as far east as the Fish River in the Eastern Cape. They intermixed with Khoikhoi people who were also herdsmen, but lived from hunting and foraging. Eastward from the Fish River was the newly inhabited territory of the Xhosa people, one of the black African tribes that had migrated from the northern parts of the continent.
What followed was the intermarrying between members of the Khoisan tribes in the area, and Xhosa people, a mixed “race” resulted who had also adapted both cultures into the mix. The integration of the cultures were not without obstacles, but smoothed by clicking consonants taken up from the Khoisan languages into the Xhosa language. If language barriers can be overcome, communication becomes easier and integration becomes likely to take place.
This is probably why today there are tall Khoisan people with very dark complexions. Originally, San (formerly call Bushmen) were less than five feet tall, their bodies big and round with protruding backsides, relatively thin, short arms and legs and small feet and hands. Their skin colour is a yellowish light-brown. Their teeth are also of a light brownish colour. (This could possibly be caused by the felt food they dig from the soil; roots, bark, bulbs and herbs used also for medicine. No one knows desert and felt food and herbs better than they do). The Khoi people (formerly called Hottentot) were also small, mostly skinny and of darker complexion, resulting in a fair mixture between the Khoi and San, and features of both are still present today among the Khoisan. The most famous Khoi woman was Saartjie Baartman, #saartjiebaartman born in 1789, (who was exploited for her exceptionally big backside and her story ends quite tragically in a French museum). In comparison, the Xhosa people are tall, evenly proportioned and dark skinned, priding large, bright white teeth.
About a thousand years after the beginning of this mixing of Xhosa and Khoisan blood and culture, the Europeans appeared on the scene. Portuguese explorers Bartholomeus Diaz and later Vasco Da Gama sailed round the southern coast of Africa on discovery routes to India. But it was no less than two centuries before the Dutch East India Company sent Jan van Riebeeck with three ships filled with Dutch farmers to settle in the Cape of Storms as it was called, and later renamed Cape of Good Hope. They landed in Table Bay on the 6th April 1652.
These Dutch people were commissioned to make a garden in order to have fresh-produce available for passing ships as scurvy was a major problem on the long journey to India. Right from the start they traded with the indigenous people beads, copper, iron and cloth for whatever the bushmen, as they called them, were offering. The possibility of a permanent settlement was never considered.
That was however not how it ended. The Dutch settled comfortably in the Cape and a community began to form. A fort was built, a governor was appointed and land ownership was registered. The Dutch were commission initially to make a garden, grow vegetables and fruit to supply ships that needed fresh supplies on the journey to India. The project was meant to be a refreshment station. After five years, the farmers were released of their contract with the Company, were given land and became self-sufficient land owners. They were now called “Vryburgers”, (free citizens). The Company bought their fresh produce at a fair price and supplied the ships with whatever they needed.
This practice of land ownership clashed with the indigenous Khoisan people who lost much of their territory to new land owners. The Vryburgers were forbidden to use Khoisan as labourers on their farms and were encouraged to maintain good relationships with them. Therefore they kept on trading with them.
Notwithstanding, the Khoisan frequently launched attacks on the Vryburgers, who aggressively retaliated. After two wars, the Khoisan were defeated and some were driven away, others had no choice but went to work on the farms. As a result, many women fell pregnant by their masters, but they as well as their children retained the status of servant. Very few Khoisan are of pure blood today. Most of them have European blood in their veins. Strangely enough, many claim to have Scottish or German ancestry, not Dutch as expected. They all speak Afrikaans as their first language with at least elementary proficiency in English. Very few Khoisan know their original language of click sounds. With a few exceptions they have all grown up in the Christian faith and still cling to it
As the sea traffic increased the demand for fresh produce escalated and the Vryburgers could hardly keep up with supplying enough. They demanded that workers be imported. This provided a good way of dealing with criminals and political prisoners who were imported from East African colonies as well as Indonesian colonies whose lingua franca was Malaysian The latter were all of the Moslem faith.
Many of these people were educated or skilled in some useful trade. The Indonesians kept to themselves, did not intermix with the indigenous Khoisan and diligently practiced their faith. Until today, they are still a close community round Cape Town in spite of displacements by previous governments. They live in colourful houses on Signal Hill, Lions Rump facing Table Mountain, and at the foot of Devil’s Peak.
Being skilful musicians, they have an annual festival, a carnival that walks from the parade grounds in the inner city of Cape Town to the “Waterkant” in Greenpoint, singing, dancing and playing their traditional music, all dressed up in colourful, shiny costumes. Every year until now, one band is crowned as winner with the best costumes and music.
The origin of this festival came from the time they were workers on the Vryburger farms. They had one day off from work, which was the day after New Year. That day was their day for fun and games and music and up until now, the carnival is held within the first few days of January each year. Immediately after the festival, planning for the following year commences.
In the nineteenth century Indians were imported from India to work in the sugar cane fields in Natal. Most were from lower castes and not skilled for any other than farm work, almost like slaves. Like the Indonesians, a number of Indians were skilled and educated to some extent. In recent times their descendants are successful business owners while the descendants of the workers have also advanced to become educated and they work in government offices and businesses. Their faith is either Moslem or Buddhist. A large number of Indian people in Natal and in Johannesburg converted to Christianity.
To sum up, the only indigenous people in southern Africa are the Khoi and San peoples. Blacks are migrant “incomers” that had settled and established kingdoms. The same are whites that were sent with a mission to establish a refreshment station, but stayed and settled and formed their own communities and their own governments. These three main groups, together with Indians and Chinese, (imported in the late nineteenth century to work in the mines on the Witwatersrand), make out the population in South Africa: Blacks, Cape Coloureds, (Khoisan and Indonesians who prefer the more politically correct name of Brown People), Whites, (made up of many different groups of European descendants, like Dutch, Jews, British, American, German, Portuguese, Italian, French and Spanish and a very small number of eastern Europeans), Indians and Chinese.
The vast majority of South African people are at least bilingual. Many are multilingual and fluent in more than one black language such as Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Venda, Swazi, as well as English and Afrikaans and any of the European languages. (The only Spanish speaking people I have personally met are immigrants from Paraguay and Afrikaners who had returned from Argentine, but I am sure there must be more).
In a country of such variety of languages, cultures and traditions, whether our ancestors have been here for millenia, centuries or decades, we who are born on African soil and love the country are in fact indigenous and have the right to stay, work and live in peace. We all have to find a way to accommodate each other. Unfortunately, politics get in the way causing division and blow up hatred racism and reversed racism among different groups that used to co-exist.
They say birds of a feather flock together, which I believe is true. Black seeks black, brown seeks brown, white seeks white. That does not mean black, brown and white cannot live in peace next to each other. More importantly, born of the Spirit of Yahweh, old feathers are shed, no matter their colour. New, born-again feathers grow and seek one another. Yet again, politics stir up dissention among those weak in faith and lure them back to their old ways of racial hatred. Chaos and destruction is the result.
The same chaos that rules South Africa is racking havoc all over the world. What the future holds no one can predict. There are many conspiracy theories but there are also prophecies that are coming true, one by one. All we can do is hold on to the faith in the Creator who made us the way we are; the only One who can save.