African Sands Blog

Sir Francis Drake declared it the “Fairest Cape of them all” when he rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1577 in search of the fabled spice route to India and I agree, it is truly a beautiful city, tucked neatly in a natural harbour, protected by an iconic mountain.

With such a beautiful city, there of course is always an interesting history and I thought I would share a brief overview of the trials and tribulations of the “Mother City” of South Africa.

Although many passed by the Cape of Good Hope, it wasn’t until 1652 when the Dutch man Jan Van Riebeeck, a member of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) arrived in the Cape and settled down to create a service station to supply fresh fruit and vegetables to all the passing ships that the European / colonial expansion really began in South Africa.

Jan Van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape with 3 ships – Reijer, Dromedaris and Goede Hoop, accompanied by 82 men and 8 women (including Maria de la Quellerie, his wife). The Walvisch and the Oliphant ships arrived later, having experienced a really bad sea voyage where they were forced to bury 130 souls at sea, many due to the dreaded disease “scurvy”. Until their arrival the land had mainly been dominated by the Hottentots and Khoi San, local hunter gather tribes.

With the arrival of the new settlers, a whole new society was created in this new and exciting “De Kaap”. A truly eclectic mix of cultures, races and religions.

Initially the VOC had no desire to conquer or colonise the land (they didn’t want the administrative headache), they only wanted a fresh fruit and vegetable supply, however with war breaking out between the Dutch Republic and England, there was intense pressure to obtain as much land as possible to help supply the war relief.

To ensure the security of the foundling land, Jan set about building a fortress in Cape Town, right on the sea, he named it after the first ship to arrive in the Cape – de Goede Hoop – and made it of mud, clay and timber, with 4 corners named after the first 4 ships to arrive in the Cape. (The Castle of Good Hope is still standing today on Adderly Street in Cape Town, with the recession of the sea and the land reclaiming in Cape Town, it is now located more inland than it would have been when it was originally built. It is the best surviving example of VOC architecture and the oldest building in Cape Town)

This building required an awful amount of labour and it was then that slaves started being sent to De Kaap, mainly from other Dutch territories including Angola, Madagascar and Batavia (now known as Java). These slaves banded together and became known as the Cape Malay – today they are the heart and soul of Cape Town with their culture, traditions and religious ceremonies. 

When the war settled down (around 1657), the VOC issued the first permits to free 9 company servants – who became known as Free Burghers – to farm along the Liesbeek River. This was the start of permanent settlement in the Cape.

Jan Van Riebeeck remained leader of the Cape until 1662, at which stage the settlement only numbered 134 officials, 35 free burghers, 15 women, 22 children, and 180 slaves.

Simon Van Der Stel, after whom the town of Stellenbosch is named, arrived in 1697 to replace Van Riebeeck as governor of Kaapstadt. Van der Stel is widely credited with founding the Cape wine industry by bringing the first grape vines with him on his ship. As the land in the Stellenbosch region was perfect for grape harvesting, this industry settled well and quickly grew to be important part of their trade and economy. Wines from the Cape were well respected and were soon imported back to the Dutch Republic. Simon Van Der Stel also promoted territorial expansion in the Colony.

The first non-Dutch immigrants to the Cape (apart from the slaves being brought in to work the land) were the Huguenots who arrived in 1688, and were fleeing from anti-Protestant persecution in Catholic France. Initially they fled to the Netherlands, where they were offered free passage to the Cape as well as farmland by the VOC. This was an intrinsic move by the VOC to increase the wine production in the Cape. The Huguenots who knew a lot about wine making settled in an area they called “Franschhoek” (French Corner) and immediately set about making it home – including celebrating all their French Traditions. (Today, they still celebrate Bastille Day in Franschhoek.)

The settlement in the Cape grew rapidly over the next few years and by 1754, the population of the settlement on the Cape had reached 5,510 Europeans and 6,729 slaves.

However, as usual, war had a great impact on the fledgling Cape Colony and when in 1780, France and Britain went to war against each other, The Netherlands entered the war on the French side, and thus a small garrison of French troops were sent to the Cape to protect it against the British. They didn’t remain long in the Cape and were soon sent back to France in 1784. As usually happens, old allies soon became enemies and when in 1795 France invaded the Netherlands, the Prince of Orange was forced to flee to their old enemy England for protection.

As news took so long to travel to the Cape, the Governor of the Cape only knew of this new alliance when the English arrive in Cape Town bearing a letter from the Prince of Orange stating that they be allowed to protect Cape Town from the French.

Sadly, the reaction from the commissioner was mixed and the English had to fight their way into the Cape in the Battle of Muizenberg. Typically, a period of backwards and forward began with the Cape being ceded back to the Dutch in the treaty of 1803 and then returned to the English in 1806.

However, from 1806, once the English were firmly in, they took control of the town and set about making it a more advanced city to live in. They sent home for settlers and soon in 1820 the English began to arrive in their droves. With more people arriving each day, this began the expansionism (mainly by the original Dutch, now known as Afrikaner or Boer (farmer) settlers) into the inland of the country and soon colonies were set up in the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

Soon, conflicts between the Boer republics in the interior and the British colonial government in Cape Town resulted in the Second Anglo Boer War of 1899-1901 being fought. Britain with its stronger military might and man power eventually won the war, however, not without some considerable effort fighting against the Boer guerrilla warfare tactics.

In 1910, Britain established the Union of South Africa, which unified the Cape Colony with the two defeated Boer Republics and the newly established British Colony of Port Natal. Cape Town became the legislative capital of the Union, and later of the Republic of South Africa.

Over the next few years, both English and Afrikaans people lived in relative harmony in this new union and many beliefs and values become common among the people in the Union of South Africa.

In the 1948 national elections, the National Party won an astounding amount of support based on their policy of Apartheid (racial segregation). They won this under the slogan of “Swart Gevaar” (in English this means Black Threat). They taught people to beware of the Black people and wanted them to see them as a threat to their lives and their jobs. This soon lead to policies such as the Group Areas Act being put in place, which meant that all people who lived in South Africa were classified according to their race and skin colour. Many stringent tests were put into place to prove people were either black, coloured or white – one of the most ridiculous ones being the pencil test, where a pencil was inserted into a person of suspicious colours hair, and if the pencil remained in the persons hair, it meant they were black as these people often tended to have more woolly hair. This is quite logical of course!? And meant that same families were divided amongst themselves being classified as both black and white in the same family which of course caused immense hardship and suffering to the whole family.

With the race classification, soon came the living segregation where people of colour and non colour were not allowed to live in the same areas. Formerly multi racial suburbs of Cape Town were purged of people of colour and their homes were demolished. One of the most famous examples of this is “District Six” where in 1965 it was declared a white’s only area and more than 60,000 people were forcibly removed and their homes destroyed. Nothing further was done with this land; it was just a statement of segregation! Many of these residents were relocated to areas such as the Cape Flats and Lavander Hill.

Under the Apartheid rule, Cape Town was considered a “Coloured Labour preference area”, meaning that you could employ a coloured person, but you could not employ a “Bantu” black person. Whites obviously had first preference, but in dire need you could employ a coloured person.

As you can imagine, with this many rules, acts and forms of segregation, life for many people was truly oppressive. However, not all white and coloured people supported the Apartheid regime and there were many, especially in the Cape Town area that began and joined the Anti Apartheid struggle.

Sadly, it took a long time and a lot of heartache and suffering before things started to make progress.

Robben Island, a former penitentiary island 10 kilometres from the city, was famous for its many political prisoners, some of whom were held for years. The most famous inmate was Nelson Mandela who was incarcerated for 27 years, yet in all that time, he never gave up hope that a “New” South Africa could be achieved.

The end of the apartheid era was firmly symbolised, when Nelson Mandela made his first public speech in decades on 11 February 1990 from the balcony of Cape Town City Hall, just hours after being released from Robben Island. His emotive speech, filled with passion and joy heralded the beginning of a new era for the country.

The first democratic election in South Africa was held four years later, on 27 April 1994.

This was the beginning of the new Rainbow Nation, the land for everyone.

To me, South Africa really does represent the best of human spirit, the triumph of good over evil and the power of people and perseverance. If you believe in something hard enough and work at it, eventually it will come to pass.

From 1994, with the new South Africa firmly in place, the people could concentrate on show casing their beautiful city to the rest of the world. And beautiful it is.

There is so much to see and do in Cape Town that you need a minimum of 4 or 5 days to explore this fantastic region. From the City itself, to Cape Point, to the winelands, to township tours, whale watching, sky diving, deep sea fishing, Harley Davidson riding, mountain biking, horse back riding, hot air balloon safaris, fine dining, museums, great shopping to just relaxing at the Victoria and Alfred waterfront and taking it all in.

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