Have you ever wondered about the civilization before Jan van Riebeeck set foot on Cape Town Docks on 6 April 1652?
Well here are some interesting stuff to read whilst wondering
1. Artefacts of the Stone Age are still visible in your places like Blombos Cave; Knysna; Table Mountain; Cederberg etc in the form of Rock Arts that's been the ! HAISI-AMS or Messages left by our Khoi Aboxan
2. Cultural Identity in the form of Stone Tool technology with iron metal and glass stuff created by Indigenous People; Material Culture in the Form of Kaross clothing . An Economic Economy showing how these peoples had traded with Europeans before 1652 when the Refreshments Centre was erected by the VOC in order by the HERE XVII of Amsterdam; so where does this notion come from that Khoi People perceived as Coloureds are a lazy nation?
All these activities took place in South western Cape (modern day City of Cape Town; Cape Winelands District; Overberg; Hessaqua; Bitou; Kannaland; Little Karoo)
3. These people were Hunter Gatherers who used sea food as medium of food; moved southward because weather changes on the coastline: present day Cape Agulhas where the shoreline of Atlantic and Indian Ocean meets.
4. Maps (1720c) by Francois Valentyn(1971) shows between Stellenbosch and Drakenstein( modern Cape Winelands epi centre) shows Khoi Tribes as map by Louis Maingard in 1931:
Western Cape Berg River formed traditional border Goringhaiqua & Gorachoqua.
The Peninsular Khoi used pastures between Hottentot Holland Mountain and Cape Peninsula till Malmesbury in the far north
Chariguriqua in lower Berg River of Piketberg and Cochoqua from Vredenburg -Saldanha till Porterville
Caledon (Chainoqua) these were stock traders
In the area of 1713 these leaders power and area designated geography were "ended" by loss of life and outbreaks of Smallpox.
REFERENCES:
Elphick (1977) KhoiKhoi and the founding of white South Africa - Kraal and Castle
Goodwin AJH & Van Riet Lowe C (1929) Stone Age Cultures of South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 27:1-289
Stellenbosch Heritage Museum
Archaeology of Stellenbosch and Winelands
Raper PE
Dictionary of Southern African Place Names (1987)
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