5.2 Khoikhoi
PS
5.2 Khoikhoi
by Peter Snyders in association with Unison Music and Literary Publications
When Bartholomew Dias’s two vessels were first seen by the Khoikhoi herders in 1488 at Mossel Bay, he noted that they had many cattle and sheep. So, he called the place Angra dos Vaqueiros, meaning ‘the Cove of Cowboys.’ The Khoikhoi, seeing for the first time people coming across the seas, were disturbed and drove their cattle inland.
Dias’s men were by this time wearied and greatly afraid of the heavy seas they had encountered and wanted to return home. The Portuguese crew sighted the unknown Cape and called it ‘Tormentoso’ (Cape of Storms). When King Joâo heard about it, he changed the name to ‘The Cape of Good Hope’ because of the hope it meant for completing the voyage to India. (R. Raven-Hart: Before Van Riebeeck, pp. 1– 2)
On Wednesday, 8th November 1497, Vasco Da Gama with his four vessels cast anchor at St. Helena Bay and remained there for eight days. He noted the dark-complexioned Khoisan, a mixture of Bushmen and Khoikhoi who had left their Khoekhoe (Khoikhoi) tribe. He says, “They eat sea-wolves and whales and the flesh of gazelles and the roots of plants.” They had no livestock. (R. Raven-Hart: Before Van Riebeeck, p. 3)
The next day, they captured a local man gathering honey. They took him to the Commander’s (Da Gama’s) ship, where he was placed at a table with the Commander, ‘and he ate everything we ate.’ Raven-Hart (p3) adds that this story was obviously most unlikely because the Khoisan man would have been so scared that he would not have been able to eat. He did show by signs that his home was about three kilometres away in some hills.
On Friday, the Khoisan was clothed and given some trifles such as little bells and glass beads, and with signs, Da Gama told him to bring his men to see him. On the 11th of November, about fourteen Khoisan came, and Da Gama tried to give them cinnamon, cloves, seed-pearls, gold, and other things, but they were not accustomed to them. When Da Gama bartered a small copper coin for a sheath one of them wore over his private parts, he saw that they knew and prized copper.
(R. Raven-Hart: Before Van Riebeeck, p. 4)
There was a misunderstanding later when the gentle Khoisan people changed into fearsome people.
When Da Gama came to Mossel Bay, he had to use many signs to show some ninety Khoikhoi that they had to carry on going where they were off to. He used signs to advise them that only two indigenes should approach them. The next day, about two hundred Khoikhoi came with about twelve oxen and cows and four or five sheep. When Da Gama and his men went ashore, the Khoikhoi played harmoniously on four or five flutes. The commander told his musicians to play their trumpets, and both Khoikhoi and Da Gama’s men danced.
(R. Raven-Hart: Before Van Riebeeck, p. 6)
Dias killed one Khoikhoi at Mossel Bay, and Da Gama was aware of this. So, when there was an argument about their water-gathering, Da Gama arranged to have two small cannons firing only to show the indigenous beings that the Portuguese were militarily stronger. The Khoikhoi dropped their arms and their covering skins about their shoulders and ran off.
Before we sum up, we must mention that both Bartolomew Dias and Vasco da Gama set up a padrâo at several places they landed on their way in search of a sea route to India. A padrâo is a pillar carried by early Portuguese explorers, to be set up as a claim of Portugal to the territory. This was the attitude of all the colonists, who appeared to think that wherever they came, there were no other than savages and their land could just be confiscated, and they could be subdued by the violent arms of their ‘superior’ technology.
With both the Portuguese explorers and the Khoikhoi at Mossel Bay, when the indigenes were uncertain or suspected a feud, they drove their livestock inland. The Khoikhoi had advanced intuition and could sense when there was a likelihood of ‘war,’ something that the Europeans did to confiscate the land they had ‘won’ in war. War was the order of the day in Europe for a long time.
Because they could not understand each other’s language, they resorted to signs and pointing. This is the very first characteristic of a pidgin language where the colonists remained long enough to make this possible. After Vasco da Gama, there were many callers at the Cape from Portugal, England, and Holland. There were also a few from France and Denmark. They only stopped over for fresh water and, if they were lucky, to barter for livestock from the Khoikhoi.
When the indigenes did not have any livestock (Khoisan) but resorted to hunting and gathering whatever was available, they, like the animals and birds, expected to attain food; all they had to do was to find it.
With these people, like those at St. Helena, Da Gama made contact, and Aushumao (‘Harry’ as the Dutch renamed him) and his clan were Hunter-gatherers. Since they were comprised of two Khoikhoi peoples, Bushmen and Khoikhoi, we also refer to them as Khoisan.
There are many made-up tales about Africa, and particularly the Cape. Among them are intentionally untrue reports that the Khoisan and Khoikhoi were lazy and uncivilized. The local people were also accused of having no religion, while the Europeans contrasted their own violent religion with that of the natives of the Cape.
Forgetting their own Inquisition, the Europeans never asked, “Did the Khoikhoi ever give anyone the death penalty?” It could also be asked, “Who taught the Khoikhoi and San the arts and sciences of painting, astronomy, botany, medicine, about animals, and music?” Or “Were the Khoikhoi and San depraved by money, wars, sovereignty, riches, etc.?”
So-called ‘misunderstandings’ were serious to the Khoikhoi. After the Viceroy, Francisco d’Almeida, in 1510, and fifty to eighty of his men were killed by the Khoikhoi, because they did not tolerate the invasion of their houses and the theft of their children as slaves by the Portuguese. We are going to see this side of the Khoikhoi further on several times. This incident caused the Portuguese to lose interest in the Cape.
The scaring of the Khoikhoi with gun and cannon shots was something that the Dutch, like Van Riebeeck, wanted to use to just seize a thousand cattle. The Seventeen Lords of the Dutch East India Company were wisely not in favour of such action.
We will unpack many of these incidents in our future posts.
28.5.2024 18.9.2026