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"Discover the Vibrant Essence of Kaaps Culture: Unveiling Rich Heritage, Dynamic Traditions, and Inspiring Stories".

Explore the Vibrant Kaaps Culture

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<h3 style="white-space:pre-line">About us</h3>
Kaaps Culture is a cultural website based in Cape Town, Western Cape. Our mission is to showcase the vibrant and diverse culture of the Kaapse people, who are the descendants of the Malay slaves and indigenous Khoi people. We strive to promote cultural awareness and appreciation through our platform, which features articles, videos, and events that highlight the unique traditions, language, music, and cuisine of the Kaapse community. Our team consists of passionate individuals who are dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich heritage of the Kaapse people. Join us on this cultural journey and discover the beauty of Kaaps Culture.
 
<h3 style="white-space:pre-line">Oo Os</h3>
Kaaps Culture is n cultural website wat gebase is op Kaaps en Kaapsers. Os miessen is ommie liewendage en diverse culture vannie Kaapse mense te vetoon, wat afstammelinge is vannie Maleise slawe en inhiemse Khoi – mense. Os striewe daarna ommie kultuur bewusheid en waadering te bevorde deur os platform, wat articles, viedeos en gelienthiede feature wat die unique tradiesies, taal, musiek en kookkuns vannie Kaapse gemienskap beklemtoon. Os span bestaan uit passionate individuals wat dedicated is ommie ryk inheritance vannie Kaapse mense te bewaa en te vier. Join os oppie cultural reis en ondekie beauty vannie Kaapse Culture.

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Kaaps Culture is a fantastic cultural website that truly captures the essence of Kaaps. Thank you for providing such a valuable resource for those looking to explore the rich culture of Kaaps!

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The purpose of this blog is to discuss the origin of the language, Kaaps. Kaaps has five phases: (i) Pidgin-Kaaps (ii) Creole Kaaps (iii) English influence (iv) Afrikaans influence, and (v) Modern Kaaps. We will also use posts that are related to Kaaps and its speakers, Kaapsers. We will begin with the origin or history of humans. We will also post attachments, such as the free download of Kora, the language spoken by the Khoikhoi at the Cape before and during the time of the colonisers. Finally, in the first month, we will post the blog, Meta-language, explaining why we have chosen English.
By Peter Snyders

Purpose of the Blog

Recent blog posts

1.1 Origin of the HumansBy Peter SnydersAs we will do with everything we discuss, we will go to the foundation, or the origin. This time, we will be zeroing in on the Coloured people, per se. True to our style, we will go to the source, which is the origin of Humankind. From there, we will proceed to one of our ancestors, the Bushmen, some of whom still exist today.We will always be quoting reliable sources just as we did when we looked at Genesis Chapter 1 to Chapter 2: 1 – 4. This time, we will be looking at the origin of humankind from a scientific perspective. We urge you to look at the article on <a data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution" title="Human Evolution">Human Evolution </a>on Wikipedia. You will then have all the references to support our summary.At the end of paragraph two, Wikipedia says: “Anatomically modern humans emerged in Africa approximately 300 000 years ago.” Some white scientists did not like the first proofs of this. If this is in fact the case, does this make all humans African in origin? How can this be? Africans are black, and Europeans are white?Fossils found at Blombos Cave in Heidelberg, some 300 km east of Cape Town, indicate that South Africa may be the birthplace of the lineage of humans. While it still leaves the possibility open that there could still be multiple places of human origin, the facts show that Homo sapiens (intelligent humans) reached South Africa about 100 000 years ago. (Patric Tariq Mellet: The Lie of 1652 pp 32-3)Google ‘Blombos Cave’ or the ‘Cradle of Humankind’ and access places where human fossils were found. You will see that Africa – and especially South Africa – features strikingly. Do these finds contradict the Garden of Eden, which was not far from Baghdad, the capital of Iraq today?Let’s leave the teaser there for a while and get back to our ape ancestors. Back in Wiki, we are informed that African hominids [erect bipedal ape-like mammals comprising recent humans] diverged from orangutans about 14 million years ago. &nbsp; Humans parted from the gorillas between 8-9 million years ago and separated from chimpanzees 4-7 million years ago. Human DNA is approximately 98.4% identical to that of chimpanzees. (See your copy of Wikipedia: Human Evolution ± p.4)Humans who made tools from stone (homo habilis) emerged in Africa approximately 300 000 years ago. They evolved larger brains. They could also lock their knees as women with short skirts do.&nbsp;The opening in their skull through which the spinal cord passes to become the medulla oblongata enlarged because of their larger brains. From here on, they are no longer hampered by a little evolved brain but could instinctively learn to do things such as to control fire and start cooking their meat. This led to them needing smaller teeth.&nbsp;All these progressions entitled them to be called homo erectus [humans characterized by firm or rigid straightness in bodily posture], that is, modern humans that do not sleep in trees any longer. (Wikipedia: Human Evolution ± p.9)In Europe and Asia, evidence was found of a group called Neanderthals from 400 000 to about 28 000 years ago. The Khoikhoi people that Jan van Riebeeck called savages and brutes looked incredibly handsome compared to the constructions of the Neanderthal ancestors of the Europeans.&nbsp;When the ice age broke out, there is a narrative that, unlike the other pre-human species that migrated to the warmer torrid zone of Africa, many of the Neanderthals chose to remain in Europe. Some of them could adapt to the frigid environment, but a sizable number of them perished from the extreme cold. Those who survived developed a keenness of sight which proved useful in the dimmer light of glacial Europe.&nbsp;By 28 000 years ago, all Neandertals had died out, but they left some of their useful acquisitions to the primitive European humans. All non-Africans have about 1% to 4% Neandertal DNA. The Neanderthals also appear to have passed on depression in their genes to modern-day Europeans, according to a study conducted by Corinne Simoneti Vanderbilt University in Nashville. (Refer again to Wiki’s Human Evolution)Next, we will look at homo sapiens (meaning ‘wise” or “intelligent” humans in Latin). They emerged in Africa around 300 000 years ago. In South Africa, the San (or Bushmen) are the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, where they have lived for at least 20 000 years. (There are many scientific sources to confirm this, but we took this information, including the bold type, from the San - Siyabona Africa / Kruger National Park Site.)&nbsp;It is possible that our ancestors were part of the intelligent species of humans that emerged in Africa some 300 000 years ago. We will be tracing the origin, nature, and destiny of human beings until we feel that we have arrived at the Bushmen origin and then stop contributing to this site, but continue it under another section dealing more fully with, first, the Bushmen, then the Khoikhoi, Khoisan, and then, to a lesser extent, with other groups like the Bantu and Europeans. We will also deal distinctively with our slave ancestry, but all in its time. And as always: with proofKoran: The Prophet Joseph – Yusuf 74: What shall be the recompense [a return for something done], if you prove to be lying?Bible: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

1.1. Origin of Humans

<h3>1.1 Kaaps&nbsp;</h3>Copyright © 26.12.2024 by Peter Snyders (G)We are now ready to begin writing about Kaaps, the native language of many South African speakers. The mission is to integrate Kaaps into South Africa's multi-linguistic setup.When Bartholomew Dias entered Mossel Bay in 1487, the Khoikhoi of the area drove their livestock inland at the sight of his two ships and a small vessel.&nbsp;On 10th November 1497, Vasco da Gama set free a Khoisan man and, with signs at St. Helena Bay, indicated to him to bring back some of his men. The next day, fourteen or fifteen Khoisan men came to where Da Gama had moored his ships. The locals had no livestock and were not violent. They could not communicate except with signs. This continued until late 1613, when the ship Hector took Coree, an Indigenous leader, to England to have him learn English. He was returned on 18th June 1614.Coree could speak a few English words, but in 1630, the English took Hadah (Autshumao) with them to Bantam (Java) so that he could learn English while on the ship. Autshumao (also called Herrie by the Dutch) became the interpreter for the English.Why was it so hard for a Khoikhoi to learn a Western language? It was because they spoke two nearly completely different languages. Khoikhoi was so unique, being the only language (including all the ethnic groups and clans) that uses a click.&nbsp;The European visitors and the local Khoikhoi used a Pidgin language only to barter. They would settle on single-fettered words like baa for an ox or cow and boo for a sheep. This was agreeable to the Khoikhoi because it used the simplest of their language, Kora. Because there were many Portuguese, English, and Dutch ships, with French and Danish to a lesser degree, this would make even the Pidgin language difficult to create.The English had an innovative idea to get a Khoikhoi man to learn their language, which would, of course, also be very difficult. Coree and Harry had some insight into the value of things and could thus increase their costs by being the managers of the assignments.&nbsp;The baby hears mostly the language of the mother, which is why it is called the mother tongue. The child will hear this language spoken by others in the family.&nbsp;The sounds of the language would be so ingrained in the individual that any new sounds would be discarded. So, when bartering was to take place, the Khoikhoi people could only hear their language.&nbsp;We must begin at The Origin of Kaaps, so that we can have a solid foundation. There is so much background that must be explained first, and no Foreword or Introduction would suffice. Metalanguage is one of the first reasons why we are writing these discussions on Kaaps in English. Another bonus, linguists and ordinary people all over the world can understand what we are establishing, and many will be able to use our resources to explain away all the irrational hostility towards their language.&nbsp;Since we would all like to see a Wordlist and Spelling Rules of Kaaps, I look forward to you all taking part. If you add meanings to the words you are using in our Wordlist, we could also have a Dictionary of Kaaps. All of these would be sufficient reasons for everybody to seriously consider Kaaps as at least a language whose linguistic rules need more attention.You are free to participate in any of the projects we will be presenting. &nbsp;Since we would all like to see a Wordlist and Spelling Rules of Kaaps, we look forward to you showing us how you speak and write in Kaaps. If you would like to send us your way of writing in Kaaps, make sure that the context in which you use the word is clear. Kaaps has five phases. This latest phase, Modern Kaaps, contains words like notch, bakvissie, bossies, tjais, nwata, etc., that not everyone understands.We will show you how you can either make your own book or be part of a book where this information is given. All our many engagements of Kaaps can even lead spontaneously to not only a Kaapse Wordlist, but a Dictionary of Kaaps can issue from it, where all the rules of Kaaps are given a chance to show how rationally ordered our language is. All of these would be sufficient reason for anybody to seriously consider Kaaps as a language whose linguistics are comparable to any other so-called civilised language.Moving on, we assume that all of us have Kaaps as our mother tongue or have a familiarity with our language to an appreciable degree. We have in our sources: (i) Bo-Kaap Kaaps (ii) Griqua Kaaps (iii) Namakwalands Kaaps (iv) and Rehoboth Basters Kaaps, and of course, the mother of all, (v) Kaapse Kaaps. Anyone from any Coloured community anywhere in South Africa is welcome to contribute their variant of Kaaps. If you look at the history of people of colour, you will discover that they all took Creole with them to wherever they went.To call these dialects variants of Afrikaans is not correct because Afrikaans did not exist until Die Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners came together in 1875 to standardise Afrikaans. We will (as always) prove that Kaaps had its existence long before that time. All variants of Kaaps are daughter languages or dialects of Kaaps and not of Afrikaans.

1.1 Kaaps

<h3>The Khoisan (Khoesan)</h3>There are different concepts of the Khoisan. We have given you a view of who the Khoikhoi, the original group were. In: Andrew Hofmeyr’s Discover South African Culture: Who are the Ancient Khoisan People? on page 1 he says: “The San [Khoe or Khoi] were hunter-gatherers who maintained a close relationship with the environment, needing to read the signs of nature to survive. They traditionally relied on gathering wild fruits and plants, as well as hunting wild game, and therefore led a nomadic lifestyle. It is agreed that the San hunter-gatherers were the first people of South Africa. Paleo anthropologists believe that the San were living in South Africa about 20,000 years before any other groups.” &nbsp;The group split and some 20 000 to 30 000 years ago came into what is called South Africa today. They spread all over South Africa as the evidence of their art over this same period in South Africa indicates. The word Sān is thought of as foragers in the Kalahari and regions of Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Northern South Africa. All these groups picked things from the ground and did not own livestock.As such, it [Sān] was used in reference to all hunter-gatherer populations who came into contact with Khoekhoe-speaking communities and was largely referring to the lifestyle, distinct from a pastoralist or agriculturalist one, and not to any particular ethnicity. While there is attendant cosmologies and languages associated with this way of life, the term is an economic designator rather than a cultural or ethnic one.<a data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan">Wiki: Khoisan p.2</a>With the entry of the Khoikhoi [Men of Men] around 300 CE, these two groups would not even recognise themselves as the same, if it were not that they spoke a similar click language. Their ways of life were different so there was no reason for mixing except where they would be looking for a mate.&nbsp;When the huge herds of livestock of the Khoikhoi would drive away the wildlife of animals, the Sān would simply hunt an ox or sheep. This would cause an altercation which was summarily resolved. The Sān person may be put in charge of a part of the livestock he had raided. The feeling between the two peoples was in general one of intense animosity, though there were occasional instances of a kind of compact between a Hottentot &nbsp;[Khoikhoi] tribe and the Bushmen in its neighbourhood, under which the former provided food in times of great distress, and the latter acted as scouts and gave warning of any approaching danger. This was only the case, however, when the Bushmen were so reduced in number as to be incapable of carrying on war.&nbsp;George McCall Theal: History and Ethnography 1907: Hottentots, p.35Another way of existing when the wild animals took off to the north, was for the Sān to partake of seafood such as whales, seals and such like thrown out by the sea. They also picked off mussels and other seafood from the rocks. Catching fish was another way of acquiring food for the family.The Sān group was also a framework where Khoikhoi who had either been kicked out or left voluntarily would make its way. The eldest son of a Khoikhoi tribe inherited everything when the father died. The other sons were left disowned unless the heir was reciprocal. The Khoikhoi entities had an inclined love for liberty so that the brothers who were left uncared for, could go out on their own. The Sān racial entities and anatomical inclinations were not much different to the Khoikhoi, so, the Sān was the obvious group for the freedom seekers.In the Sān group, the women collected all the plants, berries, bulbs, and fruits while the men had to take care to bring in the flesh. They did not care about having a pastoral life as is thought of the Sān in Botswana where they 10 000 years ago acquired the keeping of cattle, sheep, and goats.When Vasco da Gama went ashore at St. Helena Bay on 8th November 1497, he found Khoi-Sān people who did not have any livestock.&nbsp;On 14th December 1601, Joris van Spilbergen describes the people of the Cape of Good Hope as “yellowish in colour, like mulattoes, very ugly of countenance, of middling stature, lean and thin of body, and very fast runners, having a very strange speech, clucking like turkeys. Their clothing is the skins of deer or other animals, worn like cloaks.” R. Raven-Hart: Before Van Riebeeck, Struik, 1967 p.28In the above, some 100 years after Da Gama, they came across seven men and a woman who did not respond with requested livestock for the whole period they were anchored at Table Bay. A Mulat is a child born of a black and a white parent.Autshumao (Harry) had a group of about 40 people of whom he was the head. They, too, did not have any cattle or sheep. Supported by Unison Music and Literary Publications

The Khoisan: South Africa’s First People and Their Way of Life

Ek is n Kleurling met n hoofletter, en my moedertaal is Kaaps. Maar my taal word nie deur hierdie regering erken nie, al praat min of meer vier miljoen mense hom op een of ander manier!

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