Cape Town the Segregated city

Early settlement patterns of exclusion

One of the earliest proposals by the VOC of creating a barrier between the Khoikhoi and the Dutch settlers was a trench between Salt and Liesbeeck rivers right up to False Bay. Jan van Riebeeck argued against the plan because he deemed it impractical. A new plan to carve boundaries and barriers was implemented. Van Riebeeck ordered the planting of bitter almond trees, all sorts of growing brambles and thorn bushes as boundaries along farms including his own in Wynberg. Van Riebeeck stated that:

“The belt will be so densely overgrown that it will be impossible for cattle and sheep to be driven through and it will take the form of a protective fence...” (Jan van Riebeeck’s diary as quoted in Worden et al, p. 25).

The hedge was aimed at protecting Dutch settlers from attacks by the Khoikhoi and preventing their cattle from wandering into VOC ‘owned’ land. To this end, palisades were constructed along the Salt River bank, towers and signalling systems to the fort were also put in place.

Loss of grazing pastures became a source of friction between Khoikhoi and the Dutch. For instance, in 1655 when the Khoikhoi built their shelter and grazed their cattle close to the fort, the Dutch attempted to chase them away. The Khoikhoi refused to move, declaring that the land was theirs and that they would attack the Dutch if they were not permitted to graze their cattle or build their huts wherever they chose. That same year the Dutch asserted themselves more by ordering the Khoikhoi to graze their cattle out of sight of the fort and company settlement. The VOC further inflamed the rising tensions by granting land to free burgers on Saldanha Bay, Swartland and Table Bay. These were lands that were grazing routes seasonally used by the Khoikhoi. The gradually building up tensions led to the outbreak of the first Khoi-Dutch war of 1659-60. After the war, the Khoi were barred from walking anywhere other than on footpaths designated by the VOC. Furthermore, the Khoi were barred  from inhabiting the area near the castle by 1676 and they were also excluded from official records such as population censuses.

By the late eighteen century the Khoi society was devastated by loss of grazing pastures to colonial farmers and smallpox. As a consequence they were forced to move further inland away from Dutch control. Thus, the Dutch erected both physical and imagined boundaries by demarcating places where the Khoikhoi could and could not graze or build their huts. The erection of boundaries as a way of excluding the Khokhoi laid down the foundation and defined what would later become a segregated city.

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