The forgotten frontier: colonist and Khoisan on the cape's northern frontier in the 18th century

Abstract

In South African history, the Eastern Cape frontier has been traditionally regarded as the pre-eminent zone of contact between colonists and indigenes. But there was an earlier frontier in the history of the country where the conflict between Dutch colonists and indigenous herders and hunters, the Khoi and San (Hottentots and Bushmen), was in many ways more decisive in its outcome, more brutal and violent in its manner, and just as significant in its effects on later South African history. This was the frontier north of Cape Town, which from the earliest days of Dutch settlement began advancing through fits and starts into the interior. By the end of the 18th century, the frontier had reached the Orange (Gariep) River and the indigenous Khoisan people, after initial resistance, had been defeated and absorbed as an underclass into the colonial world or else expelled beyond it, to regions where new creole communities emerged. Filled with extraordinary personalities and memorable episodes, and set in the often harsh landscape of the western and northern Cape, this title will appeal both to the general reader and to the student of history.

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