A 350-YEAR JOURNEY TO LIBERATION (1652-1994)

The arrival of the Europeans

The first European settlement in southern Africa was established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Table Bay (Cape Town) in 1652. The Dutch were not the first Europeans to visit: Portuguese seafarers made landfall in the late 1400's, interacting and trading with the Khoekhoen. Over the next century English, Scandinavian and French ships made stopovers at the Cape. The VOC settlement was created to supply passing ships with fresh produce, and the colony grew rapidly as Dutch farmers arrived to grow crops. Slaves were soon imported from East Africa, Madagascar, and the East Indies (mostly from what is today Indonesia and Malaysia). To establish the farms the Dutch appropriated the lands of the Khoekhoen who were forced into less fertile areas. Resisting this invasion the Khoekhoen embarked on a series of unsuccessful armed uprisings against the Dutch and within 100 years the indigenous communities around what is today Cape Town had been dispossessed of their lands and independent means of existence. In addition, many died of smallpox brought by Europeans or were assimilated into colonial society as servants.