1. Historical Background (Cape Town)
The San (hunter –gatherers) and the Khoi –Khoi (Pastoralists) were the first people to live in South Africa.
The Khoi-Khoi were scattered around the Cape Peninsula and most of the best grazing land in along the South and West Coast.
They co- existed with their close relatives the San who were nomadic hunter –gatherers and withstood even the driest /harshest corner of Africa.
The San /Twa people were very artistic and lived in tune with nature and wildlife. Using all the elements of the surroundings as a way of life.
The women collected bulbs, tubers and fruit and used natural colours and dyes to decorate the
Rock faces of their caves and shelters. They used the Fynbos (indigenous plants) in and around Cape Town mainly as medicine.
Beautiful examples can be seen throughout the Western Cape .The accuracy / vividness and graceful
A movement (antelopes) of their paintings is breathtaking.
Small hunting bands with a leader moved from one area into the next foraging food and grazing
Ground.
In 1924 the fossilised skull of Mrs Ples was discovered near Taung in the old Transvaal. (SA)
Bones and Tools were also discovered dating 1.5 million years old.
By the late 17th century the San had been absorbed into other Cultural groups and the click sound of their language integrated in the Khoisan language and with other groups in contact with them.
The Kkoi (men of men) kept cattle as a basis of their personal status.
Their animals were used in warfare (especially chosen and trained war –oxen) and their homes were simple shelters woven of branches. Twigs and grass which can be carried around from one shelter to the next.
As the two groups spread out (evidence shows Khoi/San reverted to living along the coastline feeding on fish and shellfish) numerous shells middens along these beaches East of Cape town up to the Great Fish River and beyond confirmed the spread.
Copyright.shaik2013-08-28
2. Western Cape (the earliest people):
In the early times Khoi –Khoi tribes with their pastoral minds and the San as hunter gatherers inhabited the Cape Peninsula and most of the best grazing land along the South and West Coast.
They co existed in harmony and later mixed with the Nguni Tribes around the Great Fish River.
By the time the Dutch came (1652) the Nguni people migrated as far as Eastern Cape and by the 17th-18th century the San/Khoi was absorbed into other cultural groups, especially the Nguni and
Sotho –Tswana peoples.
The first Europeans arrived in the 17th century under the leadership of Jan Van Riebeeck.
As they moved inland in the 18th century it created direct confrontation with the different tribes,
Mainly the Xhosa people who were moving towards the Cape.
Serious wars for grazing land between the two spanned for over a 100 years.
The Dutch remained in control until the British took over in 1795.
The Cape was to remain a British colony until the union of South Africa in 1910.
Copyright.f.shaik2013-08-28
