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Year 4 – 6
ACTIVITIES
Early South African cultures
Australian Curriculum
ACHHS 081, 084, 085, 086, 098, 101, 104, 105 ACHHK 078, 080
Context
San - As the earliest known people in modern South Africa
they did not have a term to refer to themselves. Traditionally
hunter gatherers, they were called San by the Khoikhoi people,
or Bushmen by the Europeans. A 2009 genetic study found the
San are one of 14 known ‘ancestral population clusters’ from
which all modern humans evolved.
Khoikhoi – first recorded at the Cape 2000 years ago, the
Khoikhoi (meaning ‘people people’) are distinct from the San
as they had a more pastoral lifestyle. The Khoikhoi raised
livestock which allowed them to live in larger and more stable
groups than the San. The Khoikhoi had ongoing violent
encounters with the European explorers, as the VOC cape
settlement overtook traditional grazing lands and introduced
diseases like smallpox to which they had no immunity. While
the VOC settlers were not allowed to enslave the Khoikhoi,
they still lost much of their independence, culture and
language as servants on European farms in exchange for food,
clothing, alcohol and tobacco.
Afrikaners – Descended from Europeans of the VOC
settlement, including Dutch Calvinists, French Huguenots, and
German settlers. They speak Afrikaans, a modified form of
Dutch with adopted vocabulary from Malay, German,
Portuguese, Khoisan and Bantu languages. The first white
person to identify themselves as an Afrikaner was Hendrik
Biebouw in 1707, who stated ‘Ik ben een Afrikander’ (I am an
African) when he resisted expulsion from the Cape, the first
recorded sense of belonging to the territory of modern South
Africa rather than a European homeland.
Boers – a distinct group of the larger Afrikaners, the Boers
were freemen who left the Cape colony during the nineteenth
century to escape British rule. Originally called Voortrekkers
as they trekked east
For more information
See Stories for Teachers and Students 2013: Dancing into the
spirit world; Frustrated negotiations; Claiming spaces, knowing
places; Starry nights; Rainbow cuisine.
Lesson Idea
For a History lesson create a timeline of South African
cultures, including first identified arrival and distinguishing
cultural characteristics. The timeline should note that these
cultures overlap; not exist exclusive to each other.
For a History or English lesson, imagine you (with the
assistance of time travel) are making a documentary of one of
these cultures. Identify what cultural characteristics should be
recorded, and how you could capture this footage.
For a History or English lesson, write a narrative of one event
from two different perspectives. The two stories should
demonstrate how an interaction is understood differently from
two different cultural viewpoints.
For a History lesson, compare and contrast the experiences of
the Khoikhoi with the experiences of an Australian Indigenous
group. The comparison (in table or other form) should include
historical and modern characteristics, including housing,
livelihood, health, language, population, family structures,
origin beliefs, and interaction with European explorers.
IMAGE/ Charles Davidson Bell (1813–1882), Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Table Bay in April 1652. Source: Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis in Beeld (1989) by Anthony Preston. Bion Books.
FAR FROM HOME: ADVENTURES, TREKS, EXILES & MIGRATION
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