Wildcliff Nature Reserve: History

What happened to the Khoisan people?

We know that when the first white settlers came to the Cape, in the 1600s, there were people already living there, the Khoisan. There were two groups: the Khoikhoi, formerly called "Hottentots", but now a pejorative term, lived as pastoral herders and tended sheep; the other group were the San people, the Bushmen, also now a pejorative term, who were hunter-gatherers. See www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/mafikeng/settlement_history.html

San Hunter

Khoikhoi house

Khoikhoi man

One can read more about these people at: www.sanparks.org/parks/bontebok/tourism/history.php

"The Hessequa Khoi Khoi entered the Overberg region some 2,000 years ago. They were a clan of herders; farming fat tailed sheep and long horn cattle. The Hessequa’s moved freely across the western area of the Overberg and lived on the banks of the Breede River where they grazed their large herds. Every Khoi Khoi settlement was controlled by a captain and at times up to 17 captains would set up camp with their nomadic dwellings at the settlement of the most powerful Hessequa chief."

Interesting to read that there were female captains as well:

"... a remarkable female captain by the name of Lang Elsie. Between 1734 and 1800 she lived with her followers at the southern part of the Park, grazing their stock all the way to the Buffeljags River.

Visitors to the park can still see the open werf area where Lang Elsie’s kraal of woven reed huts was situated. Next to this open space are the ruins of a small stone house where Captain Lang Elsie lived, according to the author of Geskiedkundige Swellendam (Tomlinson, 1934)."

The inevitable conflicts ensued over the next four hundred years, with the invading Europeans from Holland, Britain and France bringing guns, alcohol and disease, mainly smallpox which decimated the Khoikhoi. The Bushmen were persecuted by the farmers in retaliation for raiding the farmers' cattle, and were either wiped out, or forced to retreat to the far wilderness of the desert lands further north. The remaining Khoikhoi became servants on the farms of the white immigrants. Children of the occasional relationships tended to retain the lowly status of the mother.

The Bantu peoples had not yet reached this part of South Africa when the white settlers arrived, and even today, in the Overberg area, and along the Garden Route, the indigenous people tend to be descendants of the Khoikhoi, or Coloureds, the term given to those descendants of slaves and workers imported from Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar and Mozambique, as well as those born from the union of these people with the white settlers. Generally the Coloureds speak Afrikaans. With their political rights reinstated, it is to be expected that they are gradually assuming positions of authority and ownership in this beautiful land. See also this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Coloured

Some so-called Coloureds resent this term and wish to re-establish themselves as Khoisan - see: moderntribalist.blogspot.com/2005/12/khoisan-to-reaffirm-identity-as-first.html

History of the Western Cape

The history of the white settlement of the Cape is well-known, but can be read in greater detail online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Colony

Briefly, the Dutch East India Company first created a "refreshment station" for their shipping trade at Cape Town in 1652, under the leadership of Jan Van Riebeeck. A hundred and fifty years later, the British took over the Cape, and an influx of British settlers poured in to South Africa (unbeknownst to the 1820 Settlers who landed in Port Elizabeth, they were being used as a tool of the British government, and were expected to provide a buffer (with guns) between the Bantu peoples who were gradually moving south, and the settlement in the Western Cape.)

Vineyard near Cape Town

A number of French Huguenot settlers also emigrated to the Cape in 1687 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, whereby Protestants lost their right to practise their religion. They were welcomed at the Cape where they soon set about building one of the world's finest wine industries. See this wikipedia link.

Vineyard
near
Cape
Town

There was much dissatisfaction amongst the Dutch farmers at the Cape even before the British took over, but once they had been governing for a while, the Boer leaders could stand it no more, and decided to leave the Cape with their families and servants to look for land unfettered by the English and their picky laws about slavery etc. 1836 saw the beginning of the Great Trek.

From Wikipedia: "The primary motivations included discontent with the recently imposed British rule, its Anglicisation policies, restrictive laws on slavery and its eventual abolition, arrangements to compensate former slave owners, and the perceived indifference of British authorities to border conflicts along the Cape Colony's eastern frontier." wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Trek

Settlements Near Wildcliff

However, throughout the preceding few hundred years, farmers looking for more land to graze their cattle and sheep had constantly been pushing further and further afield, creating settlements and farms, and building schools and churches. In the Wildcliff area, Swellendam, Suurbraak, Heidelberg and Riversdale are towns of note.

Swellendam: town, Western Cape province, South Africa. It is situated in the Breede River valley 120 miles (190 km) east of Cape Town. The town lies inland from the Indian Ocean at the base of the Langeberg mountains. Founded (1743) by the Dutch East India Company, it was named for the Cape governor, Hendrik Swellengrebel, and his wife, whose maiden name was Damme. A local revolt against company authority in 1795 led to the establishment of the first of several local Boer republics. The town, stretching for 3 miles (5 km) along a tributary of the Breede River, is surrounded by natural beauty, preserved in the flower and scenic reserves and Bontebok National Park (11 square miles [28 square km]). The town's old Cape Dutch buildings include the Drostdy (former residence of the governing official), now a museum. Swellendam is the centre of an agricultural area producing cattle, sheep, grain, and fruit.

The inhabitants of Swellendam were at that time angered by the high taxes and the maladministration of the Cape Dutch East India Company and without much ado they declared themselves an independent republic. Shortly afterwards however, the British occupied the Cape and the new republic, consisting of a mere 20 houses along the river valley, disbanded again.
Before the fire of 1865, Swellendam, as administrative centre of the rich Overberg wool producers experienced an amazing boom period. These were the days of the commercial empire of Barry and Nephews, the merchants who dominated the scene issuing their own bank notes and trading on their own ships from Cape Town to Port Beaufort near the mouth of the Breede River, 60 kilometres down river from Swellendam.

Swellendam continues to be a busy centre of a thriving agricultural district notable for wheat and wool and the largest output of Youngberries in South Africa. Municipal status was received in 1904. On 5 December 2000 the town of Swellendam became a part of the enlarged municipality of Swellendam which embraced the towns of Suurbraak and Barrydale. The town occupies a scenically superb situation in the Breede Valley at the foot of the Langeberg range where the four conspicuous peaks known as 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock form natural sundials by which early farmers told the time.

The nearby town of Suurbraak, still a charming small village, was established by the London Mission Society. The town is about 25km from Swellendam, nestled beneath the Langeberg Mountains. It has a good visitors centre and can arrange guides to take visitors on local walks. Read more about it at: http://www.viewoverberg.com/Towns_Towns/Suurbraak.asp

Riversdale was established in 1838 and was named after Harry Rivers, a high-ranking government official.

Heidelberg was established in 1885 alongside the Duivenhoks River on the farm Doornboom. The town was named after Heidelberg in Germany. It's our closest town, just 20 km from Wildcliff, and its friendly shopkeepers are helpful and obliging. We can purchase most necessities here, but must look further afield for specialized equipment or luxury items. With its broad streets, stately churches, well kept public buildings, shops and houses, it looks like a model South African town, where the crime rate is low and neighbours tend to know one another.

Did you know that Wildcliff is situated in the Hessequa Municipality of the Western Cape? For details, I quote from Wikipedia:

Interesting to see that Hessequa means People of the Trees - perhaps once we have rid Wildcliff of the alien trees, we can start planting indigenous seedlings from our extant forest in the kloofs, and restore the original afro-montane forest to the river valleys where they used to flourish.

Dense afro-montane forest in Wildekrantz kloof - a stinkwood further up the valley bears the signatures of many previous owners

Though we are committed to eradicating the Australian black wattle, pine and other invasive damaging species at Wildcliff, we will not remove the stately and majestic oak trees. They are non-invasive, and form part of the human history of Wildcliff, planted about 150 years ago by early farmers in the area.

Black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) & Pine (Pinus pinaster)

Oak (Quercus robur) at Wildcliff

The title deed for the farm goes back to February 1845, when the farm, then named Hottentotsbosch, was sold to Barend Jacobus Erasmus.

A succession of owners followed, and we, on behalf of the Wild Cape Nature Trust, purchased the property in 2007 from Jeanne and Gordon Hewland who had lived there for fifteen years, farming cattle. As we learn more about the previous owners, we will add to this site any details about who built the old white house (Casa Blanca), the farmhouse (Talari), and the old brick house with its 19thC fireplace and chimney (Heron House).

The old white house - when was it built?