the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 59 seen from archaeological remains in the area such as stone tools and middens, some extending back to between 250,000 and 10,000 years ago. The KhoiKhoi, the ancestors of the Nama people, once occupied the lands of the south-western part of Africa, (southern Namibia and most of what are today the Western and Northern Cape Provinces of South Africa). Together with those whom they called the San (Bushmen) and with whom they shared much of this area, they are generally regarded as the most ancient of human beings and are hence quite probably the custodians of the most ancient of cultures. A nomadic people, perhaps better termed as practitioners of transhumance, bands of KhoiKhoi migrated with their herds of cattle and sheep over relatively short distances and within territories that belonged to the clan of which they were a part. Movement took place on a seasonal basis, and the people lived in portable homes, |haru oms, that were easily transported by the pack oxen they used to carry their possessions from camp to camp. The legacy of the KhoiKhoi is very evident in the landscape of the sub-continent in the form of archaeology and rock art, the latter of which, whilst not as well-known as that of the San, is nevertheless an important record of human occupation of the region. The earliest written records concerning the KhoiKhoi date from the late 15 th Century when European explorers first made their way down the south-western cost of Africa and east along its southern coast. From that time onwards there is a substantial record of the culture and practices of this unique people and a history of their societies under the impact firstly of contact with and later occupation by Europeans of various nationalities. The first substantial record of KhoiKhoi cultural practices was made by the German academic Kolbe, who in the 1690s spent time at the Cape studying the indigenous people. He was followed by sundry travellers, missionaries and officials who over the next two centuries left impressions of the KhoiKhoi in the form of diaries, travelogues, government records and formal publications. There is also a fairly substantial 20 th Century academic literature on the KhoiKhoi which continues to grow in the current decade. Colonial Expansion and Displacement
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 60 At the time of first contact with Europeans, the KhoiKhoi were organised into clans which, whilst sharing similar language and cultural practices, occupied different territories, often in competition with one another and the San. Family groupings or bands within a clan moved from camp to camp over the course of the seasons with movement depending upon the condition of the grazing and availability of water. From fairly soon after the first rounding of the Cape in 1488 European travellers to and from the Far East put in along the southern and south-western coast of Africa to replenish water supplies and trade with the KhoiKhoi for much needed fresh meat. It was due to the need for a permanent source of fresh meat and water and a place in which to grow fresh produce to replenish its ships on the longs voyage from Europe to the East that in 1652 the VOC established a permanent station in the region at what is today Cape Town. The early history of the resulting livestock trade with the local KhoiKhoi and attempts to grow vegetables in the Company Gardens at Cape Town is well documented. Trade in livestock quickly became the source of the first major conflicts between indigenous South Africans and Europeans as pressure was exerted on the local representatives of the VOC to build up substantial herds of sheep and cattle in anticipation of the annual visits of the outgoing and incoming Dutch fleets. This rapidly led to stock shortages on the side of the KhoiKhoi and coercion, or common theft, was often the only means whereby the Dutch could acquire livestock. Within a few years of the establishment of Cape Town the local KhoiKhoi had moved away from the settlement or become impoverished due to the loss of their livestock. The result of livestock shortages and the inability of the Company to grow sufficient crops to replenish its fleets was that it was forced to find other means of acquiring the produce it needed. It was hence that in 1657 it introduced a system of freehold farming that created the first permanent European settlers on the sub-continent. In permitting the introduction of freehold farming the VOC envisaged agriculture on a similar scale and intensity to that which at the time prevailed in the Netherlands.
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