History

    Having rich fossil evidence, in South Africa, one is safe to conclude that mankind has its cradle embedded deeply in the roots of African history. This is evidence that the human family has evolved in Africa, dating back to millions of years. Some of the early inhabitants of this area included modern humans who lived in that area over 100,000 years ago (Keppel-Jones). The ancestors of the San and the Khoikhoi, who lived during that particular period in the Southern part of Africa, were hunters and gatherers from the Stone Age, who made a vast collection of rock art. Thus the peoples who are though to be distinct to this area are the Khoisan (Khoikhoi and the San) who according to the early European terminology were referred to as the Bushmen and Hottentots. The Khoikhoi generally practiced pastoralization, herding their cattle, which they came to acquire much later after the sheep, over long distances covering the current Namibia up to the coast towards the eastern side of the Cape (Hofmeyr). The San on the other hand were hunters and gatherers and their population was scattered all over the southern part of the continent. At around the same time, the first Bantu speakers started migrating into the southern part of Africa, giving birth to the Iron Age and the domestication or rearing of crops, which they later further developed in to animal husbandry (Hopkinson).

       When the first Europeans arrived, South Africa was not as populated as the rest of Africa at that particular time. They in fact, never came to Africa to settle, but rather to gather supplies for their ships during their long voyages running Southern Asia from Europe. During the Europeans first settlement, there was little or no resistance from the natives, and it even took some time before there was the first conflict, which involved indigenous and foreign Europeans with a little touch of African resistance (Johnson). In 1652, South Africa was the earliest settlement site for these early European settlers, when there was a supply base for a certain Dutch company, in Table Bay where the current Cape Town is situated at. Over the subsequent 150 years after 1652, the Dutch settle in the area surrounding the East Coast surrounding the area of Table Bay, making a colony know as Cape Colony. As these settlements grew and their populations expanded as time went by, they encountered the natives of that area who are the indigenous Khoisan and the Bantu (Keppel-Jones). The first group of peoples they encountered was the Khoisan, who was forced to flee due to decimation and slavery. As the European settlement grew even further towards the east over the next few generations, they encountered the Xhosa, who are Bantus, who later came to be trade partners and were also well armed. The Boers, the name by which the Dutch settlers came to be known by, meant farmer, and this was due to the fact that they hard large tracts of land that they converted into farms. Large farms meant that they needed much manual labor, and so they imported slaves, which was extraordinary considering that the rest of Africa was exporting slaves (Lewis H. Gann).

    The Napoleonic Wars brought about some changes in the coast, with the British seeking to control the coast that was the main route that led to the east, as a military strategy against the French. This was in 1759, but in 1803, the British returned control of the coast to the Dutch but again repossessed control over it three years later. It is therefore no surprise to find out that the Dutch really disliked the British rule, as much as it had its economic benefits. Such benefits included opportunities to export ivory acquired from hunting, and the wool got from the farmers who reared sheep (Theal). The British even further angered the Dutch when they abolished slavery, but made the effects seem less impacting by the introduction of a new law in 1809, which was famously known as the Hottentot Law. The law required black Africans to always carry with them a certain pass that included the name of their current employer and their place of residence, whenever they were out in public places. If one was found without that pass, a black person could be taken up by any white and be put to be a laborer. The law required that a black person sign a contract with his or her employer, under which if the contract was breached by the employer, which in this case is the white person, the black was able to sue (Lewis H. Gann). Christian missionaries arrived in the southern part of Africa after 1815 from Britain and fought for the rights of the black people, which put the government under pressure to abolish the restrictive options in the law, and thus introduce the Ordinance 50 introduced in the year 1828. The major blow to the Boer community, which they just couldnt stand no more, came when the British finally completely banished slavery, following a parliamentary concession that passed the law. This was especially disastrous to the poor Boers, since affording labor was difficult to them thus it prompted the Trekboer, which was basically a mass movement or migration to Natal, but then unfortunately, the area became annexed by the British in the year 1845, which forced them to move on further to Orange Free State, and finally ending up in Transvaal, which was a tributary (Johnson). The British further made no effort to stop the Boer community from moving from the mainland, considering that it reduced tension within the area which they considered their territory. Instead, they offered two treaties that made the situation more permanent. These treaties included the Sand River Convention, in the year 1852 and the Bloemfontein Convention in the year 1854 (Theal). The former was recognized as the independence of Transvaal, with the latter recognizing that of the Orange Free State. Some Boers however remained in Cape colony and this gave rise to tension between them and the British administration. There were even African kingdoms which were independent and the British labeled them as provocative, and this made the tension even worse. The annexing of the site where the Kimberly diamonds were discovered at West Griqualand in the 1870s further increased the tension between the British and the Boers (Hopkinson).

    In 1867, there was discovery of diamonds somewhere in the Vaal River, 550 miles from Cape Town, which gave rise to a mad diamond rush, with people from all over the world migrating into Kimberly transforming it into a town with a population of 50,000 plus within a short span of 5 years. Initially, blacks and whites mined as independent miners, but then the mines got deeper and deeper, and made it more difficult to mine. It was not until 1886, that a major discovery of the worlds largest deposit of the second major mineral which was a gold bearing ore was discovered, some 30 miles off the Boer capital at a place called Pretoria. It was discovered a cliff called Witwatersrand by the locals, meaning white water ridge. As long as a European had enough capital to set up equipment for mining, they would get involved. This is due to the fact that heavy machinery was involved and this required massive investment in capital. Black Africans couldnt own their own mining companies, due to laws passed by the government, forcing them into manual labor as the whites got jobs in the skilled labor department and as foremen (Keppel-Jones). Furthermore, black Africans were prohibited by law from living in whichever area they wished, and were forced into segregated areas.

    There was an independent state to the southeast of Africa that was governed by the Zulu, which posed a threat to the Transvaal Boers. The Zulu were a branch of the Bantu group Nguni, and were settled at the slopes of the eastern part of South Africa and at the coastal plain. Nguni are nomadic pastoralists who rear staple crops in the rainy seasons, and were organized into independent homestead which have organized themselves into small states. At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a period of drought which was later followed by a period of constant and reliable rainfall, which led to population growth, and subsequently the expansion of territories. This definitely, led to overcrowding of the more fertile areas in a bid to compete for farm land, which led to conflict. In the 1820s, owing to group alliances within the Nguni, the Zulu become very powerful, after a series of wars. This was also coupled with the fact that the Zulu used very tactical skills in war, and with the war victories, the losers fled towards the Drakensberg mountains and came to encounter the Trekboer (the migration of the Dutch). Since the Zulu were a threat at that time, the Boers did not resist the British annexing their lands (Lewis H. Gann). When the Zulu were conquered the Boers from Transvaal said that the annexation made in 1877 had violated the twin treaties (Bloemfontein and Sand River conventions). Further annexations made by the British included the 1868 annexation of an area called Basutoland, in the Drakensberg Mountains and in 1885 Bechuanaland. The discovery of gold in Witwatersrand is what finally out a light edge in the balance of power in the area in the year 1886 (Theal).

    The Anglo-Boer war which started on October 11th 1899 saw a major change in land policy all over the area. With the Boer finally defeated, they signed a peace deal on 31st May 1902, which is known as the Peace of Vereeniging, signed in Pretoria. This war also raised a couple of questions locally and internationally about the British policies with others questioning why was Britain interested in the conquest of European farmers. The death at concentration camps set up by the British during the war also questioned the morality of Britain. It was also during this era that due to the large tracts of land owned by the white farmers, the government put in place policies that ensured that black farmers could own large tracts of land (Hofmeyr).