OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Penn, Nigel"

Browsing by Author "Penn, Nigel"

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Open Access
The arrival of Grey : a re-evaluation of George Grey's governance at the Cape of Good Hope, 1854-1861
(2015) Keegan, Thomas; Penn, Nigel
This dissertation studies the period of George Grey's governance at the Cape from 1854 to 1861. This is examined as a period in which change in British administration impacted imperial policy pertaining to the Cape. The relationships between Cape governors, particularly George Grey, and successive British administrations has received inadequate attention. When Grey first arrived, he was allowed a great degree of freedom by Whig politicians; this had changed by the end of his appointment, when Conservatives had come into power. During this period the granting of greater constitutional independence to settler populations across the British Empire was being undertaken and this led to misunderstandings and conflicts over colonial governors' functions and responsibilities. In this context, Grey himself is an object of study. Numerous historical portrayals define him as a figure of great historiographical interest and dispute. Arguments about Grey often revolve around his treatment of native peoples. Engaging this, I attempt to compare and contrast his representations of different native peoples, particularly the Maori and the Xhosa, discussing why such differences may have existed. This dissertation defines this period as one of scientific growth at the Cape, and Grey's influence in promoting the growth of a self--‐conscious public sphere in colonial society is thus investigated. As the Cattle-Killing holds a prominent place within various Cape histories, historiographical examination of this event has taken place. The Cape populations' reactions to Grey's policies have been examined. Suggestions are made that Cape 'victory' over the Xhosa, following the Cattle-Killing, coincided with this growth in scientific endeavour in promoting the place of the Cape in the 'civilised' British colonial order.
Open Access
The Cape Squadron, Admiral Baldwin Walker and the suppression of the slave trade (1861-4)
(2003) Chiswell, Matthew; Penn, Nigel
This dissertation is a study of the Royal Navy's campaign against the slave trade from their base at the Cape of Good Hope from 1861-4. During this period the Cape Squadron (which included the West African Station at this point) was under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker. Under his command the first major successes against the East African slave trade were achieved. The study comprises of three main sections. The first gives background information about the Royal Navy, international relations and the state of the slave trade suppression at the time. The second examines the actions of the Cape Squadron under Walker's command. The third section gives detail of the cruises of specific Royal Navy ships and evaluates their success ( or otherwise) in suppressing the slave trade. Themes explored in this dissertation include the international nature of the slave trade, the policy of substituting legitimate trade for the slave trade, the influence of naval technology and how interactions between 'men on the spot' affected the success of suppression. Also explored is Britain's motivation for undertaking so difficult and expensive a task. Conclusions drawn are that the international nature of the slave trade and the lack of treaties (regarding the right to search shipping) with some powers, particularly France, greatly hindered the Royal Navy's suppression efforts. The substitution of legitimate trade for the slave trade worked successfully on the West African Coast but many of the legitimate enterprises relied upon slave labour, a fact which the British and other European powers chose to ignore. The personal interaction between men on the spot proved to be an important factor in determining the success (or failure) of the slave trade suppression efforts. New naval technologies were not as effective as they could have been in suppressing the slave trade due to the poor quality of ships assigned to the slave patrol (although this was remedied somewhat during Admiral Walker's tenure as Commander-in-Chief of the Cape Squadron). Britain's motivation for undertaking the suppression of the slave trade is shown to have been a combination of humanitarian concerns and political and economic expediency.
Open Access
Casting off the old Kaross: the Little Namaqualand missions, 1805-1848
(2022) Rawson, Kathryn; Penn, Nigel
This thesis is a history of the development of missionary activity in the Little Namaqualand region of southern Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century. Through a rich analysis of the archival documents of the various missionary societies who worked in the region, it attempts to fill in the wide gaps present in the historical narrative. Little Namaqualand, an area north of the Olifants River and south of the Orange River, during the nineteenth century was the epicentre of the north-western frontier zone of the Cape Colony. It had long been home to the Little Namaqua, a Khoikhoi group, who occupied the central and mountainous region of the Kamiesberg, the San, who moved between the Kamiesberg and Bushmanland to the east, and ‘baster' (mixed race) groups who migrated from the Cape in the eighteenth century. It has since been a relatively under-studied area despite it being the hub of missionary activity in the north-west in the nineteenth century. An environmentally harsh and politically turbulent region, home to a nomadic people, it presented a unique and trying set of circumstances for the incoming missionaries. The European missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS), Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMMS) and later the Rhenish Missionary Society (RMS) moved through the region in waves during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Their intended destination, however, was not Little Namaqualand, but Great Namaqualand across the Orange River. For the first fifteen years of the century the missionaries moved between Little and Great Namaqualand, unable to establish a permanent and successful settlement. They faced many difficulties – the colonial government's changing attitudes and legislation towards missionary activities in and outside of the colony's borders, the mounting financial strain of maintaining a mission station in such a barren, desolate and sweltering region and existing inter-group tensions between those amongst whom they ministered. From their first arrival in the region in 1805, the early German missionaries of the LMS relied on local and powerful mixed-race groups to facilitate their stay, both financially and logistically. These groups had long been desirous of a missionary in the region for both their spiritual and temporal benefits. On the north-western frontier, access to trading networks and firearms was pivotal to the survival of many groups who relied almost solely on hunting and ivory trading. Many missionaries, themselves struggling to survive under such trying environmental conditions, themselves resorted to hunting and trading to supplement their pitiful income. By 1811, after a devastating attack on their Great Namaqualand mission, the LMS retreated into Little Namaqualand where they paid more attention to establishing themselves on a more permanent basis. A fresh wave of young and enthusiastic German missionaries greatly aided this effort. The Wesleyans joined shortly after in 1816. Both missionary societies were still understaffed and, due to unique regional circumstances, relied heavily on Namaqua and baster translators and teachers. Many of these would become missionaries in their own right. The northerly stations of Little Namaqualand, Steinkopf and Pella, utilised these African evangelists to run the various outposts or satellite stations (necessitated by the people's nomadic habits). The same took place at the southern stations of Leliefontein and Komaggas. From Leliefontein, several Namaqua converts were sent out. Many of them ministered to Sotho-Tswana and Coranna groups in the east. These African evangelists, and the pivotal role they played in facilitating and sustaining the Little Namaqualand missions, form the core of this thesis. Their names have been excavated from the archival records and the often limited anecdotes of their lives have been brought to life. This thesis shows that the spread of Christianity in the region pre-dated the formal arrival of the European missionaries. After their arrival, it was through African mouths that the message of Christianity took on a new form and was more successfully prorogated through the region. The majority of those who heard the gospel message responded emotionally. Most negotiated with what they heard, rejecting some tenets of the message while accepting others. They thus embraced and created a wholly new rendition of Christianity, one which saw to their immediate needs and offered both a remedy and an explanation for their suffering.
Open Access
Dithakong and the 'mfecane' : a historiographical and methodological analysis
(1992) Hartley, Guy Frere; Penn, Nigel
This thesis will aim to explore the relationship between the battle of Dithakong and 'mfecane' theory in connection with the growing critique led by Julian Cobbing. Essentially, it will be argued that certain aspects of 'mfecane' theory appear in fact tenable, with particular reference to the upheavals west of the Drakensberg in the years 1822-4, as the thesis seeks to establish the original version of events at Dithakong. Ever since Cobbing has questioned the fundamental tenets of 'mfecane' theory and suggested rather that the destabilizations within black society during the 1820's sprang from European penetration, there have been efforts to give his ideas academic credibility. Dithakong is one key event within the 'mfecane' diaspora that has been attempted to be explained without reference to African agency. Julian Cobbing, Jurg Richner and Jan-Bart Gewald have presented these alternative analyses which, although similar in broader intention, are distinct in detailed explanation. Whereas in the past, Dithakong has been viewed as a defensive battle against the threatening advance of a numerous and destitute 'mfecane' migratory group, the latest versions interpret the events in terms of a raid on an unprovoked and unaggressive people. Although noting the advances made by Cobbing and others, it will be argued that with regard to Dithakong their analyses are forced and suited to meet the respective demands of their larger suppositions, which ultimately brings their singular Eurocentric theory of violence into question. To this end, certain elements within 'mfecane' theory require to be reconsidered.
Open Access
Elandskloof : land, labour and Dutch Reformed Mission activity in the Southern Cedarberg, 1860-1963
(1993) Anderson, Megan; Penn, Nigel
Restricted
Great escapes: deserting soldiers during Noodt's Cape Governorship, 1727 - 1729
(2007) Penn, Nigel
Between 1727 and 1729, there were three cases of group desertion and one attempted rebellion committed by soldiers in the employment of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in southern Africa. Though desertion and disobedience among Company soldiers was nothing new, the scale and timing of these acts of military resistance were extraordinary and suggest that there must have been something unusually intolerable about the late 1720s. What was it?
Open Access
"The host of vagabonds" : origins and destinations of the vagrant in Cape history and ideas
(2007) Anderson, P R; Schalkwyk, David; Penn, Nigel
South African history in the crisis of the early 19th century, and South African literature ever since then, have been preoccupied with the vagrant in much the same manner and degree as was the European Renaissance. The subject of this thesis is the history and culture of vagrancy, and specifically the trajectory by which the Renaissance idea of the vagrant becomes transposed to the indigenous population of the colonial Cape and works itself out in literary and historical texts of that society and its successors. It has as its central thesis the claim that a history of the vagrant is not properly to be sought in social and economic realities, but first in the cultural (and here especially textual and literary) forms of the idea by which the vagrant is brought into being. In advancing an apprehension of vagrancy as the ideological accusation of hegemonic order, this thesis argues that the vagrant figures in ideology as the inordinate, and in so doing becomes metonymic for inordinate historical passages - especially revolution and the frontier, moments of rupture and narrative loss, or moments where history’s character of mutability reaches its extreme. Above all, the vagrant represents the inordinate event of history itself~ and exemplifies the necessity of a scholarship in which historicist literary criticism and textual analyses of history are conjoined Renaissance representations of the vagrant are forged in the nexus of feudal dissolution and capitalist emergence, and themselves belong to a rapidly developing culture and economy of textual commodification. There exists a marked correspondence between these representations and the development of colonial representations of the indigenous 'other', a correspondence by which the colonised is anticipated as a vagrant and thus cast as an extension of the disorderly lumpenproletariat from which imperial capitalism most profitably, and with state sanction, recruits its labour. The first half of this thesis traces exemplary instances of the transfer of vagrant attributes to the colonial subject, and then looks to the manner in which, especially between 1828 and 1834, the idea of vagrancy comes to dominate cultural and political delineation in the Cape. From the Renaissance schedules of Hannan, Awdeley and others, through the canonical accomplishments of King Lear, to texts of the historical record in the Cape, and the doggerel squib of A G. Bain's 'Kaatje Kekkelbek', the vagrant is pursued into the more explicitly literary occasions of the thesis's latter half. Here we find the vagrant at the centre of Fugard and Coetzee, major authors preoccupied with history and indebted to it. A consideration of the vagrant's persistence at the core of 20th century South African literature offers insights into the 'destination' of the vagrant idea, which is to say, just what the depth of the practice of that idea may be, and why - and the thesis concludes by discovering the particular correspondence between vagrancy and history itself.
Open Access
Kat River revisited
(2018) Blackbeard, Susan Isabel; Penn, Nigel
There is a paucity of oral-history works on Kat River. Likewise, although various histories of Kat River/Stockenstrom exist, few have focused on the forced removals of Stockenstrom coloured people in the 1980s, the effects of displacement on them, and their involvement in current land claims issues. This dissertation seeks to redress these lacunae and provide information from "the underside" on the Kat River Rebellion of 1851-1853. In order to accomplish this, between 2011 and 2016 the author interviewed, with their consent, people of Khoikhoi descent in Kat River, recording, transcribing and analysing the interviews. The interviews, which range from conversations with male and female subsistence farmers and lay preachers to activists - such as the late Manie Loots, aka James Stewart - are set in the broader context of a selective Kat River history from 1829 to the present. Vagrancy legislation during the historical period is discussed; showing the link between pauperism, vagrancy, and colonial perceptions of disease such as leprosy, which was often associated with "loose" women. It is argued that the above perceptions, together with fear, led to the targeting of women and lepers during the attack on Fort Armstrong in 1852. Despite attempts to marginalise them, it was found that both colonial women, including rebels, and women in present-day Kat River exercised, and continue to exercise, remarkable agency. This thesis also reassesses the ideological bases of the Kat River Settlement, arguing that they were cultivation and militarism, with the latter exemplified in the Kat River settlers' service in frontier wars. Further, it found that neo-Marxist theories of commoning can shed light on the etiology of the Kat River Rebellion, and that people, whose access to their commons or other rights is restricted or denied, become radicalised. It was also found that, although their dispossession from Kat River took place in the 1980s, the interviewees, who all demonstrated strong ties to the land on which they grew up, still feel the effects of it, their all-consuming aim being the recognition of their land claims and the restoration of their titles.
Open Access
Land and Society in the Komaggas region of Namaqualand
(2010) Bregman, Joel; Penn, Nigel
This paper explores the history of Namaqualand and specifically the Komaggas community. By taking note of the major developments that occurred in the area, the effects on this community over the last 200 or so years have been established. The focal point follows the history of land; its usage, dispossession and importance to the survival of Namaqualanders. Using the records of travellers to the region, the views of government officials, local inhabitants as well as numerous analyses of contemporary authors, a detailed understanding of this area has emerged. Among other things, the research has attempted to ascertain whether the current Komaggas community has a claim to a greater portion of land than it currently holds. Overwhelming evidence exists that supports the idea that the Khoi grouping known as the Nama did indeed make use of a large portion of Namaqualand practicing transhumance in order to survive. Centuries of beneficial use led to local systems of understanding whereby certain tribes had predominance in particular areas and assumed a right to these lands through continual usage. Following colonisation, the movement of Europeans away from the original settlement at Cape Town, slowly but steadily began to undermine the original inhabitants of the Cape. While Namaqualand was able to withstand this push longer than other areas by virtue of its location, its inhabitants began to be negatively affected by the 1800s. The Nama began to lose their most important commodity, cattle, suffered disease, and were pushed off their ancestral lands and denied access to water sources. A lack of understanding and rationalisation of aboriginal practices relating to land usage and various other customs, as well as a growing racially-charged landscape meant that the Nama, like other Khoi groups, while not explicitly relegated to second class citizens by government, were certainly not supported or given equal treatment. As Europeans were able to secure title and tenure to the best lands in the region, the Nama were sidelined. When Namaqualand became profitable because of copper in the 1850s, the quest for land became even more fervent. The building of an infrastructure over the next decades would facilitate the diamond industry that began in the 1920s, a defining moment that signalled the end of any autonomy of movement for the people of Komaggas. Apartheid further relegated their position in society and today Komaggas is a poor and underdeveloped place with few prospects. However, given the importance of the land agenda in post-1994 South Africa and the success of the Richtersvelders in gaining compensation for loss of land, there is hope for Komaggas. The evidence will show that the Komaggas community certainly made use of lands outside its current boundaries. Examining the doctrine of aboriginal title it will be argued that they certainly have a claim to some form of land redistribution or restitution. This is based on historical evidence as well as the present need to increase agriculture production and to have access to more land for their livestock.
Open Access
Land rights & identity: the establishment of the Leliefontein Mission and its impact on the Little Namaqua of the Kamiesberg
(2018) Rawson, Kathryn; Penn, Nigel
This thesis attempts to provide an extensive historical narrative of the Kamiesberg region of Little Namaqualand in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In doing so it focuses on the indigenous occupants of the region, a group of Khoikhoi pastoralists known as the Little Namaqua. The Little Namaqua were few in number, but a people rich in cattle who occupied the area from the Groen Rivier in the south to the Buffels Rivier in the north for approximately the past 2000 years. Through the use of archaeological sources, written testimonies of 17th and 18th century travellers and the colonial archive this paper offers an in-depth analysis of both the pre-colonial and colonial occupation of the Kamiesberg. The patterns of transhumance adopted by the pre-colonial Little Namaqua were put under severe pressure at the dawn of the 18th century with the arrival of the first wave of European farmers known as 'trekboers'. Here, the Namaqua's notions of shared land-use and territoriality were confronted with the differing European perceptions of private land-ownership and property rights. Thus began the process of Namaqua displacement and land-encroachment at the hands of the trekboers who often settled around favourable watering points. This, paired with the ills of illegal cattle trading and the smallpox epidemic of 1722, resulted in both a cattless and a virtually landless Little Namaqua by the dawn of the 19th century. With few other alternatives, many enlisted into the workforce of European farmers or fled further north over the Orange River. Others instead opted for the protection afforded to them by a mission station. It is this group of Little Namaqua, those under Chief Wildschut, who form the basis of this research. By 1816 the Little Namaqua under Wildschut had invited the Wesleyan missionary, Barnabas Shaw, to establish a mission station at Leliefontein. The early years of the mission station, 1816-1850, were prosperous as both agricultural yields and livestock numbers increased rapidly. The latter half of the 19th century however saw the station in decline. This thesis argues that the virtually unprecedented move on the part of Wildschut and the Little Namaqua to invite a missionary to settle on their lands was a highly strategic one on the part of the Little Namaqua. The establishment of the station not only allowed them to hold onto land which would have otherwise been pilfered from them but it also provided them the necessary protection against the mischiefs of neighbouring farmers. Records suggest that the Little Namaqua were fullyaware of the consequences and benefits of this decision and thus this thesis posits that far from the victimised and marginalised people that history has moulded them to be, the Little Namaqua were instead a people with strategic foresight and thus should be credited with the agency that their actions necessitated.
Open Access
Lunacy, leprosy and legislation: medical practice and colonial control at the Cape, c. 1820-1831
(2017) Boyd, Michael; Penn, Nigel
This paper examines a series of medical related topics within the context of the Cape Colony in the 1820s. The focus on these specific healthcare issues highlights broader themes in terms of authority, control and power in the governance of the Cape during this period. In addition, the thesis explores the interconnected nature of the Colony within the British Empire and assesses how this position affected standards of treatment and the regulation of the medical profession. The thesis is not intended to be an all-encompassing examination of Cape based health care during the 1820s, however it seeks to highlight a series of interesting cases and their connections to wider trends and notions of authority. The thesis begins by situating the Cape Colony within the wider framework of the Empire during this period. This involves examining characteristics of governance and networks of information that epitomised the era. Having established this broad context, the paper narrows its focus to the specifics of the Cape medical system and how it was supposed to be functioning. Throughout this process a variety of different roles and structures are explored before an in-depth examination of the Cape's place in a medical network is undertaken. How such a structure was utilised is then discussed by looking at specific cases of medical malpractice and negligence. Thereafter, the thesis moves on to look at the Colony's treatment and response to the conditions of 'lunacy' and leprosy within the 1820s. This final chapter uses the focus on these illnesses to act as case studies which underline a number of the themes and factors highlighted in the preceding chapters. As the paper progresses, the inability of both local and metropole officials to exercise influence over the different structures and practitioners of the Cape becomes more and more apparent. This process relies heavily on records from the Cape Town Archive which serve as the cornerstone of the research used in this paper. These are accompanied by contemporary newspaper articles and reports from Commissions' of Enquiry add to this context. From these records a number of interesting micro-historical examples are utilised to speak to general trends, but also indicate spaces in our understanding. The thesis concludes by pointing out the unique nature of medical care and regulation in the Cape context, but also the space for future research.
Open Access
Marital Miseries: A History of Marital Conflicts in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony, 1828-1900
(2023) Sinn, Isabella; Penn, Nigel
Work on the family in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony has focused on the themes of gender and sexuality, and within this framework, significant research has been done with regards to slavery, sexual violence, illegitimacy, infanticide, health and medicine. The monogamous, Christian marriage took on particular political and social significance during this period of unstable and shifting social and economic identities, specifically within the context of the full emancipation of slaves in 1838. While important research has been conducted in this field, there is a gap in the literature which this study attempts to fill around the individual, personal experiences of the breakdowns of the institution of marriage and what it was imagined to symbolise as a sign (and the foundation) of social stability. This dissertation is particularly invested in what people's individual experiences, personal feelings and emotions may illuminate about white British working- and middle-class identity at the Cape and its concerns, tensions, pressures and anxieties, as well as what they might exemplify about the ideas around femininity and masculinity during this period. This research is grounded in a history of emotions, which has in my view been under-researched in this context, as well as a history of intimacy. Through an exploration of the records of marital disputes brought before the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony from 1828, following the introduction of the Supreme Court, until 1900, and primarily through a microhistorical examination of a number of these cases, this dissertation demonstrates how some of these cases can be conceived of as instances of ruptures of the dominant social order and ideals around the family, gender and sexuality. Moreover, it endeavours to show how although the law could be used as a tool for perpetuating patriarchal authority, it was also mobilised as a resource to end marriages by many women who can be seen to have attempted to challenge the patriarchal colonial order. In doing so, how the legal domain was permeated with social meaning and emotions is investigated, while through an examination particularly of the personal letters included in the records of some of these marital conflicts the ways in which these individuals understood the events around these struggles is explored. Ultimately, this work attempts to provide an intimate, emotional exploration of legal marital conflicts which offer considerable insight into ideas around the family, gender and sexuality at the Cape during this period.
Open Access
Negotiating freedom: the free black farmers of Jonkershoek, 1697-1710
(2023) Van, Der Linde Paul; Penn, Nigel
During the late seventeenth century, a section of Cape Town's ‘free black' (vrijzwart) population, a group comprised primarily of formerly enslaved people, took up farming in the Jonkershoek Valley of Stellenbosch. Despite initial prosperity, these free black farmers ceased to exist as an independent socio-political entity by the 1720s. Scholars of the Dutch Cape Colony, such as Hermann Giliomee and Karel Schoeman, have attributed this decline to a lack of capital, high labour costs, the distance from the market and the specialised nature of wheat farming at the Cape. Yet white farmers, confronted by similar obstacles, managed to transcend them and coalesce into a permanent agrarian class. This thesis attempts to account for this disparity by examining hitherto unexplored socio-economic factors that contributed to the rise and fall of free black farmers in Jonkershoek, particularly the patronage network between the free blacks and the Van der Stel dynasty. An extensive perusal of archival sources and secondary literature has facilitated two key observations. Firstly, the influx of free black farmers into Jonkershoek was contingent on the direct intervention of Governor Simon van der Stel, who hoped to supplant the recalcitrant white farmers with a more compliant group of agriculturalists. Imperatively, Van der Stel's policy of encouraging free black settlement in Jonkershoek via land grants was maintained by his son and successor, Willem Adriaan van der Stel. Secondly, the association between the Van der Stels and the free black farmers left the latter vulnerable to economic exclusion when Willem Adriaan van der Stel became embroiled in a dispute with the white settler faction and was subsequently dismissed on corruption charges in 1707. These findings demonstrate that, despite their status as free individuals, free black farmers occupied a precarious position within Cape society and were constantly compelled to negotiate their freedom.
Open Access
The Northern Cape frontier zone, 1700 - c.1815
(1995) Penn, Nigel; Worden, Nigel
This thesis is a history of the northern Cape frontier zone between the years 1700 and c.1815. It describes and analyses the interactions which occurred between the principal peoples of this spatio-temporal area as the Cape colony expanded into the arid heartland of South Africa. The study's geographical focus of attention moves, with the frontier zone itself, from the banks of the Berg River in the south-western Cape of 1700 to beyond the northern banks of the Orange River in the early nineteenth century. The western and eastern limits of this area are formed by the Atlantic Ocean on the one hand and the eastern frontier district of Graaff-Reinet on the other. Within the frontier zone of this vast and hitherto neglected region, it is argued, there emerged, during the course of the eighteenth century, a set of practices and attitudes which, precisely because they were prototypical, exerted a profound influence on the subsequent colonial history of South Africa. Although developments within the northern Cape frontier zone are not seen as being more important than those which were taking place elsewhere in the colony (such as the south-western Cape or the eastern Cape frontier zone) they are seen as being equally important. Our picture of eighteenth century colonial society in South Africa has, until now, been a lopsided one in that the archival evidence for the largest part of the colony - the northern Cape frontier zone - has been underutilised. This thesis, based on extensive archival research, attempts to rectify this imbalance by discussing key themes in northern frontier history as they emerged and developed over a period of more than one hundred and ten years. A primary concern of this study is to provide an account of the dynamics of colonial expansion which is based on a consideration of both the principal productive activity of the frontier zone - pastoral production - and the most important political and military institution of the frontier zone - the commando. In the course of this account the focus of attention falls on those colonists who took up the life of semi-nomadic pastoralists (trekboers) in the Cape interior. Related to this, and of equal importance, is an examination of the impact which colonial expansion had on the Khoisan societies of the Cape interior. The processes by which these societies were either conquered, annihilated or incorporated into colonial society are discussed. So too are the ways in which the Khoisan resisted colonial domination. Thus, a large part of this thesis deals with the various forms or practices which shaped intergroup relationships on the frontier, ranging from genocidal warfare, at one extreme, to symbiotic co-operation and collaboration at the other Particular attention is paid to the conditions under which many Khoisan became unfree labourers within the colonial economy. The many instances of primary resistance, guerrilla warfare, rebellion, flight and protest which are discussed in these pages serve as testimony to the fact that the subjugation of the Khoisan was neither quick nor easy. Indeed, the pervasive violence arising from the protracted struggle for dominance in the northern Cape frontier zone is, in itself, an important thematic concern of this study. Although the major protagonists of the frontier zone were the colonists and Khoisan there were other important frontier societies which are discussed here. New groups emerged as a result of the processes of interaction and acculturation taking place within the frontier zone. People of mixed racial or cultural origin (known in the parlance of the day as "Bastaards" or "Bastaard- Hottentots") gradually acquired a new cultural and political identity. Some of them, in an attempt to escape the increasing discrimination which they experienced in the colony, removed themselves beyond the limits of colonial settlement altogether. These Oorlam groups, as they became known, played an important part in the history of the frontier zone and their contribution is given due consideration. Also important were a variety of other colonial fugitives - runaway slaves, Company deserters, bandits, murderers and assorted criminals - whose impact on both Khoisan societies and colonial fanners was frequently immense. The significance of such drosters (deserters) is acknowledged here. The thesis concludes with a consideration of those forces which tended towards promoting the social, economic and political closure of the frontier zone. In this respect the exertions of missionaries become particularly important since they first appear in the northern Cape in the last years of the eighteenth century and herald the arrival of a new era in frontier history. Missionary activity was, amongst other things, a symptom of the desire for greater state control over the turbulent regions of the colony's northern limits. The state-approved conversion of the leader of the most powerful Oorlam bandit group ( 1815) marked an important symbolic moment in the closure of the frontier zone. Even more important, however, was the promulgation of the Hottentot Proclamation of 1809 for this signalled that the new British government of the Cape intended to recognise and entrench the colonists' subjugation of their Khoisan and "Bastaard- Hottentot" labourers. For the first time there was a government at the Cape powerful enough to impose its will on the frontier regions. Unfortunately, by backing the colonists, this government endorsed and ensured the outcome of the long process of struggle, decided in the northern frontier zone, for the land, labour and livestock resources of the Khoisan of the Cape interior.
Open Access
Sam Sly's African Journal and the role of satire in colonial British identity at the Cape of Good Hope, c. 1840-1850
(2010) Holdridge, Christopher Arthur; Penn, Nigel
In 1843, William Sammons founded the peculiarly named Sam Sly’s African Journal (1843 -1851) in Cape Town. Claiming to be a ‘register of facts, fiction, news, literature, commerce and amusement’, the African Journal was a hybrid newspaper and literary and satirical periodical aimed at an Anglophone immigrant readership in the period between the abolition of slavery and the granting of representative government to the Cape Colony.
Open Access
The Children's Friend Society in the Cape of Good Hope and the question of labour c. 1830-1842
(2013) Williams, Kate; Penn, Nigel
This dissertation follows the lives of the children under the care Captain Brenton's Children's Friend Society to the Cape Colony in the period 1833- 1842. Using the works of prominent Cape Colony historians such as Banks, Worden and Ross, l give an overview of the Cape Colony around the time of emancipation. My work includes an in depth study of the results of the 1839 Commission of Inquiry, which contained summaries of over 400 interviews with CFS apprentices stationed in the Cape Colony. Furthermore, I place great emphasis on the reporting by The Times in London on the activities of the CFS. My research highlights their humanitarian and anti-slavery rhetoric with regards to the children. This work attempts to highlight the role of the Times in the falling of the Society, the treatment of the children in the Cape and the failure of the parties involved to enact any change in the situations experienced by the CFS apprentices.
Open Access
When shall these dry bones live?' : interactions between the London Missionary Society and the San along the Cape's North-Eastern Frontier, 1790-1833
(2007) McDonald, Jared; Penn, Nigel
This study is an analysis of the interactions between the London Missionary Society (LMS) and the San during the period from 1799, when the LMS first arrived at the Cape, to 1833, when the LMS abandoned Bushman Station, the last concerted effort on the part of the Society to administer a mission station directed towards the San. The LMS missions to the San, beginning with the Sak River mission of Johannes Kicherer and ending with Bushman Station under James Clarke, have been investigated with a view to gaining insight into the ways the San responded to pressures upon their cultural integrity and independence stemming from the steady northward advance of the colonial frontier as well as the consolidation of Griqua hegemony along the Middle Orange River during the early 19th century. The San have been widely treated as unreceptive to the work of the missionaries and incapable of acculturation and 'Christianisation' in South African historiography. The discussion draws extensively on first-hand missionary and traveller accounts of the day-to-day proceedings at a number of LMS mission stations established to minister to the San. These mission stations serve as a means to 'see' how the San did in fact adapt and acculturate in response to colonial processes of land dispossession and water alienation. By evaluating the motivations behind the founding of these mission institutions and by examining the numerous factors that resulted in the failure or closure of each one, the interactions between the LMS and the San begin to shed new light on how San individuals and groups responded to the social upheavals associated with the processes of an expanding Cape Colony. The first chapter considers how the northward movements of the trekboers undermined the independence of the San in the north-eastern Cape interior during the late 18th century and what influences these had on the efforts of the LMS to pacify, 'Christianise' and 'civilise' the San. The arrival of the LMS at the Cape and the initiation of the Society's first San missions at Blydevooruitzicht Fontein and the Sak River are considered within the context engendered by the violence and turbulence associated with the advancing frontier. This theme is maintained throughout the study, which goes on to investigate the establishment of the San missions at Toornberg and Hephzibah in the second chapter. The internal dynamics within and external influences upon the LMS at the Cape are also assessed in order to establish how these worked to facilitate or impede the Society's efforts among the San and any likely success those efforts may have had. This becomes particularly relevant in the third and final chapter, which discusses the founding of Philippolis and Bushman Station. Within the space of a few years, both missions were re-orientated towards other population groups. The LMS' commitment to the San waned and groups such as the Griquas attracted the attention of figures such as the Society's superintendent John Philip.
Open Access
Wupperthal: listening to the past
(1999) Bilbe, Mark; Penn, Nigel
The community of the Wupperthal Mission Station and its satellite stations, forms the focus of this text. The mission is situated in the Tra-Tra River Valley in the Cederberg Mountains of the Western Cape. In this text, I have sketched a series of vignettes to portray the lives of certain individuals, characters in the community's past and certain events throughout the history of the mission. The work is largely an oral history project, combined with a certain degree of philosophy of history as well as incorporating secondary sources where applicable. Though post-modem in certain aspects, this work incorporates sound modernist thought and academic practice. It is intended to be accessible to a wide readership, and prove to be entertaining as well as insightful. The scholarly endeavour driving this text is as sincere, as the history is real. It is a journey I encourage the reader to take with an open mind, taking time to savour the richness of the peoples' experiences. It is their quest for legitimacy, a combined search for truth, and my personal adventure.

Browsing by Author "Penn, Nigel"

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