Cape Town
The Freedom struggle in Cape Town
Table of contents:
- Black Consciousness and student revolt in the Cape
- Cape Town Civic and Community Organisations, 1980s
- Negotiations and the transition
- Early struggles, contact and conflict in the Cape Colony
- Establishment of the Cape and its impact on Khoikhoi and Dutch
- Slavery
- The growth of trade unionism in Cape Town and the formation of early political organisations
- Growth of African Nationalism and Defiance
- Increasing repression and the turn to the armed struggle
- Growing social unrest: Community mobilisation, strikes and student protests in the Western Cape in the 1980s
- Conflict among civic organisations
- Formation and launch of the UDF
- Conclusion
Slavery
Table of Contents:
Slavery was introduced to the Cape Colony by the VOC in its desire to boost the agriculture and food supply while retaining control in the new settlement. As the settlement expanded, slavery also spread. Historian Nigel Worden points out that slavery “…became the mainstay of arable farming in the western districts, played a significant role in the functioning of Cape Town as a centre of exchange and was used for pastoral and domestic labour in the remoter northern and eastern districts...The vast majority of Company slaves worked in Cape Town, although some were based on company outposts and used in rural labour... ” (Worden, N, (1985), Slavery in Dutch South Africa, (Cambridge University Press), p. 9)
The increase in the slave population was associated with the growth of the burger population and the expansion of agriculture. Cape Town expansion also led to the increase in the number of slaves. Slaves lived and worked under harsh conditions with long working hours maintained by the use of force. For serious offences slaves were hanged or broken at the wheel with coup de grace or without coup de grace.
