The Freedom struggle in Cape Town

Establishment of the Cape and its impact on Khoikhoi and Dutch

The formation of the VOC in Netherlands in 1602 increased Dutch dominance of the in the maritime trade. Acting on behalf of the Dutch government, the company expanded Dutch influence by taking possession of land, expanding trade routes and establishing trade outposts in the Dutch East Indies. In 1651 the VOC issued instructions to Jan van Riebeeck to establish refreshment station at the Cape to provide fresh supplies of vegetables, fruit and meat for VOC ships on their way to the East Indies.

Van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape on 6 April 1652 as an employee of the VOC to spearhead the establishment of the refreshment outpost at the Cape. Central to ensuring a stable supply of refreshments and meat was the acquisition of land to cultivate a garden and rear livestock. A mud and wooden fort was erected in the Table Bay area for shelter and defence. Its vulnerability to the elements such as strong winds and flooding drove the need to build a more permanent structure. In 1652 the VOC granted men permission to own land, build farms and improve food supply and by 1655 some company employees were growing their own vegetable plots near the castle. The vegetable garden also failed to thrive and produce enough food, while reluctance by the Khoikhoi to barter with Dutch settlers deprived them of fresh meat. In 1657 the VOC released some employees from their contracts and granted them freehold rights on lands along the Liesbeeck Valley for them to start farming.

It was Dutch encroachment and expansion into areas around Table Bay and beyond that resulted in conflicts with the Khoikhoi. Dutch perceptions of land as a commodity with monetary value which could be privately owned, exchanged or sold, was at odds with Khoikhoi views of land and grazing pastures as property of the community not individuals. This is highlighted by the early tensions over land occupied by the Dutch around the castle area. 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.

The Dutch continued to order 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. Van Riebeeck also ordered the plating of bitter almonds trees, brambles and thorn bushes as boundaries along farms to keep the Khoikhoi cattle out of ‘company owned’ land. These were lands that were grazing routes seasonally used by the Khoikhoi. The loss of grazing pastures became a constant source of friction between Khoikhoi and the Dutch. Van Riebeek noted that the Khoikhoi leaders complained and conceded that “ ...we had been appropriating more and more of their land which had been theirs all these centuries and on which they had been accustomed to let their cattle graze...It would be of little consequence if you people stay here at the fort, but you come right into the interior and select the best land for yourselves, without even asking whether we mind or whether it will cause us any inconvenience...As for you claim that the land is not big enough  for us both, who should in justice rather give way, the rightful owner of the foreign intruder?”  (As quoted in Feinstein, C. H, (2005), An Economic History of South Africa, p.15)

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