Glimpses Into South African History

By Inno Monsma

South Africans are generally well informed about the major milestones that occurred in the history of the country. However, the finer details leading up to these events are generally only known to the avid readers of history as the details leading up to these events are scattered over a multitude of publications.

In the book I have collected all the bits and pieces from various publications so that the history leading up the reviewed events can be read as one story and hopefully give the reader a better understanding. In the book I have focused on four vastly different major events and researched the history leading up to them.

The first chapters try to answer why the Dutch settled at the Cape of Good Hope and not the Portuguese who discovered it. It also looks at early contact between the indigenous and the seafaring interlopers before the arrival of Van Riebeeck.

The next section is a completely different story and concerns the Moravian Missionaries. These missionaries were the first to establish a mission station at the Cape, viz. Genadendal, intended to proselyte Khoikhoi people. It takes the reader back to 9th century in Eastern Europe where the movements found its roots.

The next section moves to Natal and looks at the earliest contact with the Nguni people. It goes on to investigate the reasons behind to Imperial Government annexing Natal when it already had enough trouble in their widespread colonies around the world. I am sure that India will come to the readers mind immediately. But they had their hands full in trying to control the frontiers closer to home, the Eastern Cape Frontiers. What pressure was brought to bear on the Cape Administration and from where?

The final chapter covers the life of a famous Voortrekker leader and tells in broad terms how they took possession of land long occupied by the various indigenous tribes.

About the Author

Inno Monsma was born in Holland and immigrated as a young boy. Most of his education was received at CBC Boksburg and went on to become an associate member of The Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Inno spent most of his life working in the chemical industry in financial and management positions. He retired in 2002 as managing director of a chemical distribution company. Inno’s interest in South African history was re-ignited when the country became a democracy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inno Monsma
• Release date: Sep 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005886417

Book preview

Glimpses

into South African

History

Inno Monsma

Copyright © 2020 Inno Monsma

Published by Inno Monsma Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Inno Monsma using Reach Publishers’ services,

Edited by Bronwen Bickerton for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

1. The First Voyages of Exploration

2. Opening Trade Routes to the East

3. The Stories of Early Shipwrecks and Their Survivors

4. The New East Indian Traders

5. The History of the Founding of the Moravian Brethren and their First Mission Station at the Cape

6. The Story of Natal Before Colonisation

7. The Arrival of the First Settlers in Natal

8. The Rise and Fall of Dingane and the Zulu Empire

9. The Story of Andries Hendrik Potgieter – A Leader in the Great Trek

Bibliography

Introduction

This book came to see the light of day as the result of my realisation that the average person has only a very limited knowledge of the history behind many major historical events that have shaped the destiny of South Africa. In this book I have investigated the history behind some of these events.

The initial four chapters look at the history of events leading up to the establishment of a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope by the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie. It examines why the Portuguese decided to explore a way to the East and why the Dutch, who monopolised the trade in eastern merchandise in Western Europe, mostly obtained from Portugal, decided to find their own way to the East. The chapters also look at the earliest contacts between the indigenous people of South Africa and the seafarers who made land as survivors from ships wrecked along the coast.

The next chapter tells the story of the founding of the Moravian missionary movement and events leading up to the establishment of the first mission station at the Cape, which had as its sole objective the proselytization of the indigenous people of the Cape, the Khoikhoi. Their first station was established at Baviaanskloof, now known as Genadendal. This chapter takes the reader back to the 9th century when the Moravian movement found its roots in Eastern Europe. The chapter traces the progression of the movement through the middle ages and the reformation period into the 18th century when it became a world missionary society.

The following three chapters look at events leading up to the annexation of then Natal by the British. It takes the reader back to the initial voyage by Da Gama and the early contacts that shipwrecked survivors had with the Nguni people along the east coast. It traces the relationships of early settlers with the Zulu kings, Shaka and Dingane, and events leading up to the final annexation of Natal by the British crown.

The final chapter looks at Andries Hendrik Potgieter, the Voortrekker leader, who, with his followers, opened up the Soutpansberg area to European settlement. He was a man revered by his followers and detested by many missionaries who described him as cruel and evil.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Grace Henaghan, Stephanie Hunter and my dear wife Dvina for the many hours spent on reading and editing the manuscript and the many suggestions which have helped to improve the flow of the text.

I W Monsma

25th February 2020

Chapter One

The First Voyages of Exploration

By the 15th Century, Europe still knew very little about Asia and Africa, as the rulers of Persia, and later the Muslim rulers of the Middle East refused Christians the right to travel further than areas around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Syria and Palestine.

It was around 1250 that these rulers temporally lifted the ban on Christians travelling into Asia, and a considerable number of adventurers and merchants took the opportunity to travel to those far off destinations. One of these travellers was a Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, who wrote an account of his travels through Asia and about his visits to the various courts. This travel book became one of the most widely read travel books of its time and has now become a classic found on bookshelves still today.

However, in the middle of the 14th century, the curtains were again drawn on Asia and as such that part of the world would not be visited in numbers until the start of the 16th century. It must, however, be noted that a small number of European travellers, mainly merchants, did manage with the assistance of the local populace to reach India via Arabia.

Africa would, however, remain a mystery for much longer. The source of the gold, ivory and slaves sold by Arab traders along the Mediterranean coast was a secret jealously guarded from any interference by European traders and travellers by the Arabs. Arab aggression prohibited the Europeans from reaching these sources overland and there was little they could do about that. Neither could they reach these treasurers by sea because of the perceived dangers they would encounter if they tried to go by that route.

It was believed that the sea along the Moroccan coast was dark green and inhabited by large monsters, while the equator was rumoured to be a boiling sea that would destroy all who were not burned black by the sun. There were thus great psychological hazards to overcome if the Europeans wanted to find out more about Africa and share in the wealth that emanated from that continent.

Reliance on the Arab world for trade items coming out of Africa and from the East was accepted by leaders and merchants in the 15th century, and as such no effort was made to find out the truth about the mythological dangers of the sea around the North African coast. Further, little was known by the navigators about ways to position their vessels once they lost sight of land. All that changed, in the middle of the 15th century due to the efforts of Prince Henry the Navigator, a son of King John I of Portugal, who took an interest in finding ways of circumnavigating the Arab trade monopolies.

Prince Henry was driven by the motive of profit and his desire to be independent from his reliance on the Arabs. As a young man he had fought for Portugal in a war against Morocco and realised that, as a small nation, they could not hope to conquer such a large country with its endless mountains and desert. However, as a seafaring nation they might be able to get to the source of these supplies, or perhaps intercept the supply route and channel future trade via Portugal. A further objective common to most explorers of the time was to spread Christianity to the barbarians, an objective that would in time become a very important aspect of colonisation. It was believed that the native would be more docile as a Christian, and a Christian chief would be more co-operative than the barbarian ones proved to be.

Under the leadership of Henry, Portuguese navigators slowly moved south along the African coast. In 1441 an expedition returned with a cargo of slaves from Rio de Oro, a coastal area south of Morocco. This trade in human beings became a critical aspect of Portuguese trade until it was outlawed by the British in the early 1800s. By 1460, the year in which Prince Henry died, the Portuguese had reached the coast of Gambia. Unfortunately, with his death, the drive to seek the sources of the Arab riches also died. Instead the focus reverted to the profitable slave trade; gold and ivory were forgotten.

While the Portuguese were exploring the coast of North Africa, the Spaniards, also a nation of seafarers, had still not set out. In 1473 the Portuguese crossed the equator without any of the seafarers turning black, being devoured by monsters or being lost to the boiling seas.

It is important to draw attention to the limited navigational aids mariners had at their disposal at this time. They merely had the aid of a compass which would indicate north and south, and the sun and the stars, which allowed them to calculate their distance from the equator or their degrees of latitude. The instruments available to do these readings were, however, primitive and inaccurate, which was compounded by the movement of the ships in the waves.

Longitude, or distance travelled from east to west or vice versa, could not be measured with any degree of accuracy. The only available method was to estimate the distance travelled from a given point, for which very rudimentary methods were available. The speed of the ship was estimated and an hourglass was used for time keeping. If a sailor forgot to turn the hourglass on time, the calculations were lost. The early mariners used the seaweed and flotsam they detected in the water to know that they were approaching land, and also the seabirds they saw which they knew needed land from time to time. Further, knowledge of the trade wind patterns was also limited, as mariners were forbidden to discuss any knowledge gained during their travels in order to prevent competitors from engaging in the same exploration. Breaching this rule would result in severe punishment in a world where the smallest transgression was met with barbaric forms of punishment. As a result, knowledge of the seas spread slowly, but did eventually spread as mariners moved from one port to another.

It was with these limited navigational aids that Bartholomew Diaz, a royal employee in charge of the king’s warehouses and an experienced mariner left Portugal in August 1486 on the instructions of King John II, who sent him sailing into the unknown with a brief to find a way around Africa to the East.

Another objective of the voyage was to try and make contact with Prester John, the legendary Christian priest and ruler who was said to rule somewhere on the African continent. In order to improve the chances of getting a message to him, Diaz took four slave women aboard. They would be dropped off along the coast in the hope that they would be able to establish contact in the court of Prester John and tell him about the great nations that resided beyond the big waters. These women were all convicts due to be executed, so this was seen as their last chance of survival. It is not known what happened to them after they were dropped off on land. It is, however, known that one convict was dropped off at Luderitz, and thus stood no chance of survival in the middle of that inhospitable environment.

A few years earlier, in 1482, in his attempt to find a way to India, the explorer Diogo Cam reached the mouth of the Congo River and ventured up the estuary where he made contact with a local tribe. He then ventured further down the coast, reaching northern Namibia. Upon his return from the voyage in 1484 he was honoured by King John II with a title and a life annuity. He, however, did not achieve the set objective of finding a route to the East.

Thus Diaz left Portugal in August 1486 with three ships; two caravels and a square rigger which carried their supplies and was under the command of his brother Diogo Diaz.

Like his predecessors, he hugged the coast of Africa on his way south, stopping at the Portuguese fortress of Sao Jorge de Mina where they picked up further supplies. When he had crossed the equator, he transferred provisions from the supply ship, which he then left behind in the care of nine sailors. He continued his course along the coast and first set foot on land again at a group of islands which he called Angra dos Ilheos in Namibia, which now form part of the Luderitz harbour. They went ashore but found an inhospitable and desolate land, as it remains today. They found no fresh water but were able to supplement their diet with bird eggs, bird meat and a plentiful supply of fish. This was the first recorded landing of a European on Southern African soil.

The party did not stay there for very long. However, before leaving, a marble cross embossed with the Portuguese coat of arms was erected as a sign that the land had been claimed by them for the king of Portugal. On the way further along the coast, still staying close to land, they came across another bay which Diaz named Angra dos Voltas. It is believed to have been the mouth of the Orange River, now known as the Garieb River.

By the time they reached this part of the African coast, they had entered the season in which the south-eastern wind blows. These strong winds made it difficult and dangerous to stay too close to land and they veered west away from the coast. After about 13 days and with the wind having abated, Diaz decided to sail back east in order to again get closer to land. However, having sailed east for a few days and not sighting land during that time, he came to the conclusion that they must have passed land and he decided to sail north.

After a few more days sailing they reached a bay which he called ‘The Bay of Herds’, because of the number of head of cattle they saw grazing along the coast. The exact position of this bay is no longer known. After a further few days sailing, on the 3rd February 1488, he entered another bay which he named the Bay of Saint Blaise after the Catholic Church Saint, whose feast day is celebrated on that day. Today the town of Mossel Bay is situated in this area.

A little further along the coast they went ashore, and for the first time met up with the indigenous people, the Khoikhoi. It was probably also the first meeting the Khoikhoi had with people from a western civilisation.

Initially the contact appears to have been friendly; they exchanged gifts and bartered some cattle. However, after a few days the Khoikhoi appear to have become suspicious of these intruders and they attacked. At that point Diaz himself picked up a crossbow and killed one of the indigenous people, whereupon the Khoikhoi fled inland and the sailors retired back to their ships to continue their journey.

Further along the coast they sailed into a bay they named Algoa Bay. Here they spent a few days investigating the coastline with the view of going further north along the coast. At this point the crew objected to the idea of continuing with the journey. The supplies were running low and a large part of their provision had been left on the supply vessel along the west coast. The crew felt that they had more than completed their task, having gone some 1,400 miles further than the previous expedition. After consulting with his officers Diaz was able to persuade the crew to sail further east for a few more days. They reached what is believed to have been the Kowie River. It was at this point, due to pressure from the crew that Diaz decided to return home.

On the home journey Diaz landed somewhere along the southern Cape coast and placed another marble cross. This actual placement is a mystery to this day. Diaz called the cape the ‘Cape of Storms’ for good reason, however, his king held a different view, as he saw it as the route to the East and the wealth that came with it, and he renamed it the Cape of Good Hope.

On their way back Diaz discovered the Cape Peninsula which he called Cabo de Boa Esperance. They stopped somewhere along the coast to place yet another marble cross which he named Sao Philippe. This cross, like those before it, has never been found. Rounding the Cape, he hugged the west coast and eventually found his supply ship nine months after leaving it. Only three of the nine men he left aboard had survived. The other six had lost their lives in clashes with the local natives during their trading activities.

Diaz took the survivors and any remaining supplies on board and then burned the supply ship. One of the survivors from the supply ship died before they reached the home port. En route he called in on Princes Island where he found and rescued a number of his compatriots who had been shipwrecked.

In order to supplement his supplies, he also called in at Sao Jorge de Mina, where he took on board the treasures that had been accumulated at this out station, and eventually he reached Lisbon during December 1487. While we know that only two of the nine sailors who had been left behind on the supply ship survived, it is not known how many of the sailors perished during their nearly 17-month journey.

This journey is believed to be the first trip around the Cape going from west to east. It is, however, recorded that a certain Egyptian sailed around the Cape coast during the 26th dynasty (630-537 BC). He sailed along the African coast until he had the noon sun on his starboard and returned to Egypt via the Strait of Gibraltar.

Upon receiving the news that the southern point of Africa had been found and a way to the East could now be explored – which would possibly give Portugal a potential open sea route – King John II immediately started making arrangements for a further expedition. Now, however, with the objective of reaching India and lost no time in giving instructions for the necessary timber to be cut and vessels to