When the Dutchman Jan Van Riebeeck arrived in present-day Cape Town in 1652, he encountered neither the Zulu nor the Xhosa ethnic groups. The only ones in the region were scattered tribes of Khoi and San.
The conflicts began when the Dutch, later called Boers, started farming on the land of the Khoi and San peoples. Only over 100 years later did the Europeans come into conflict with other black ethnic groups, who themselves expanded from the east.
– Blacks have legitimate claims to land from the Apartheid era, but at the same time the ANC has not wanted to touch on the fact that the land they are talking about already had inhabitants when the blacks arrived, says Desmond Latham, who runs South Africa’s most popular history podcast “History of South Africa”.
“Putting the finger on South Africa’s complex history”
Instead of full recognition, the Khoi and San have been classified as ‘coloured’, a wider group with mixed backgrounds. And when the ANC party pursued the land issue, it was based on the 1913 “Natives Land Act” onwards, when blacks were expelled.
– The Khoi and San issue puts the finger on South Africa’s rich and complex history, says Desmond Latham.
The Khoisan king does not intend to leave the garden of the presidential palace until his demands for recognition of his people are heard. He has chickens, grows vegetables and a large marijuana plant grows right by the entrance.
– I have everything I need here, he says.
Join us on a visit to the “Khoisankungen” in the video above.