The Lie of 1652: A Decolonised History of Land by Patric Tariq Mellet

Author:Patric Tariq Mellet [Mellet, Patric Tariq]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B08HR4QJ2X
Published: 2020-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

The revolutionary period of upheaval: The early 1800s

The first two decades of the 19th century in the Cape Colony was a revolutionary period among indigenes and slaves. They saw the emergence of great leaders, revolutionary movements and revolts of various types. Military struggles, missionary influence and the ‘Captaincy’ leadership concept imposed by colonial authorities impacted negatively on egalitarian gender roles in the governance system of the Khoe. Male leadership came to dominate the political and military space, and this in turn dominated the civil space. But as the Orlam and Griqua polities came under pressure and were brought under colonial control, women again came to the fore. One can see this, for instance, in the roles played by Margarete Kok and Rachel Kok in rebuilding the East Griqua leadership.

At this stage there were two tendencies among mission stations. While most of them supported colonial efforts to indoctrinate the Khoe and teach them to follow colonial dictates, a minority of missions stood up for the rights of the Khoe and San. The latter group became refuges for those persecuted by the colonial authority and European settlers.

The period further showed that indigenous communities had not remained locked in time. They met the modern circumstances as equals of the oppressors of their times, grappling with the questions thrown up by their modern circumstances. At the same time they did not fit the old mould of 17th-century Khoe structures, nor did they attempt to revive lifestyles and structures of the Khoe in antiquity. Instead, they embraced creolisation and adaptation.

If we look at the pioneering Griqua Revivalist Khoe political model, it was at one stage the only modern polity developed in the south of Africa. It was independent of colonial rule, and it also did not operate within the traditional state structures of any of the traditional African kingdoms. The Griqua were the only independent largely refugee community that had fled the colonial territory and authority that consciously used a written political framework

To get an understanding of this era, one needs to look at the many well-researched books and papers on the Griqua dynasty. It all started with an act of manumission. The slavery system allowed for owners to grant freedom (manumission) from slavery to their slaves, and the enslaved could also buy their freedom if agreed to by the owner. Adam Kok I was such a manumitted slave (or freed slave) who had acquired a farm near Piketberg. From1771 he gathered a following from among his wife’s people, the Griguriqua, as well as refugees who were called ‘Hottentot-Basters’ by the colonial authorities.56 A decade later he and his community were pushed off their farm by Boers and they moved north to settle at Kamiesberg in Namaqualand. By this time Adam Kok57 was a substantial leader of a large community of followers known as Bergenaar Basters, who had very strong feelings about their independence.

As the community grew, its original base, which comprised Cape Khoe, Free Blacks, enslaved people who had escaped, and descendants of relationships

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