bruinman

2007-09-04T01:18:00.000+02:00

I’ve finally decided to write a response to the aftermath of what is the Cliff Jennings story.

In my initial letter to News24 I vowed never to watch another episode. Well it took me 4 days to break that promise. Why? Because I wanted to see Cliff Jennings of course!
I wanted to see how MNET was going to explain the whole debacle.

Surprise, Surprise they neither confirmed nor denied the story.

What I find more interesting is the responses from other quarters.
The online community and fellow bloggers have come out is support of my amateur investigative journalism. Thank you all for your support (Shaun Oakes/Eishman and many others)
The responses on this blog and Facebook haven’t been so flattering. On Facebook there’s even a group called “I hate Bruinman”.
On this blog:

“get a life you brown piece of sh## “

“i hope you die a slow brown/black death”

“fokof hotnot”

“You're an absolute wanker! You obviously couldn't hack it as a journo, so you thought you'd bolsh your way in this way. Still won't get there. Such a dork.”

I must have upset quite a few people. I will however bet that he has disappointed more people than I’ve upset. He claims to be living the Dream and on his Facebook quotes he states more than once “Keep it real”. What was real about it? Numerous messages on Facebook have stated that Cliff is/was inspiration to many watchers of Idols. They have found out earlier than later that their inspiration was a fake. He was paid by an agency to do it. He is an actor. He did it for money.

"Cliff Jennings" a fake

2007-08-29T10:56:00.000+02:00

This year's Idols is producing a phenomenon. That phenomenon is known as "Cliff Jennings". Cliff auditioned in Johannesburg and sang his own song. It was terrible. He gave everyone his myspace address ( Randall refused). He showed up in Cape Town and sang my African Queen. This was just as bad and again he was chased by the judges. To no-one's surprise he showed up at the Margate auditions. Before he could get a word in, the Brown ou Randall, chased him away like a sick dog. This has created Cliff a cult following in certain circles.Cliff has a MySpace profile, a Facebook profile and numerous of groups on facebook.

I Bruinman after some asking and nudging and can now reveal “Cliff Jennings” to be film-maker and director Eduan van Jaarsveldt.
Along with fellow film-maker Stephen Abbott he runs Stealth Donkey moving pictures.
Eduan van Jaarsveldt was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to
Johannesburg when he was 12 years old.
After graduating high school, he enrolled at The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in the School of Arts.
In 2005, during his fourth year at Wits, he signed with an actor’s agency and secured his
first acting roles in the South African feature Tsotsi ,he had a small role as a policeman, and the television mini-series The Gothica Caper.

Many industry insiders know the truth. Randall has to know, hence his reactions:
JHB he walked out
CPT "The last rung on the evolutionary ladder," was Randall’s word.
In Margate he chased him in an over the top manner. Believe me he knows!

Eduan played "Sergeant Piet" in Catch a Fire.

He once again plays a policeman(Sgt Chris Brits) in Goodbye Bafana which is the story of Robben Island warder, James Gregory.

Here is a link ,on the Mnet site, to an interview with Eduan about Catch a Fire.
http://mnetnmvideo.m-net.co.za/mnetVideo/e-mnet-mnetmedia-go_gzone_live_bonniehenna_100k.wmv

Back in Town

2007-08-29T03:54:00.001+02:00

Hi
I'm back from an extended paternity leave. Baby is now 4 months old and I'm back at work.

Working on a scoop

Bruinman

Ham's Curse part 2

2007-02-19T12:30:00.000+02:00

Please read the previous post first.

The first step to take to deprogram oneself and others from this gargantuan distortion of the truth is to realize clearly that this curse was placed on Canaan and his descendents, not Ham (Genesis 9: 20-27).

And Noah began to be a husbandman. And he planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and was drunk. And he was uncovered inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders. And they went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backwards, and they did not see their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and came to know what his younger son had done to him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan. He shall be a servant of servants to his brothers. And he said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. And Canaan shall be their servant.

(Gen 9:20-27) http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/kjv/gen009.htm

The question is, what is this curse? Canaan the son of Ham was cursed. A curse in the Bible is simply a negative prophecy pertaining to temporal life. Canaan was to be "A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers" (verse 25). This means that he was to be the lowliest of servants. The descendants of Canaan (Canaanites) would be servants first to their own brethren, the Hamites (verse 25), then to the Shemites (verse 26), and finally to the Japhethites (verse 27). We know from Bible history that the Egyptians were Hamites, the "brethren" of Canaan. They subjugated Canaan in the 15 century B.C.. When we read Genesis chapter ten we learn that the Assyrians and Babylonians were Hamitic peoples. They dominated Canaan from the 8th to the 6th centuries B.C.. When the Shemitic Israelites invaded Canaan in the 14th century the second part of the prediction was fulfilled. During the conquests of Alexander the Great Canaan fell under the domination of the Japhethites. What we must understand is that the prophecies of Noah are a capsule of ancient history.

This "curse" must be considered as an "announcement" that the descendants of Canaan would manifest the same propensity for immorality as their ancestor Ham. The Canaanites would then be justly punished for their gross sin by being enslaved by one nation after another. This is exactly what the Bible reveals.

Four Sons of Ham:
1. Mizraim (Egypt)
2. Cush (Sudan, Ethiopia)
3. Put (Libya)
4. Canaan (Hivites, Jebusites, Arvadites, Girgashites, Amorites, Arkites, Sinites,
Hittites,Sidonians, Perizzites, Zemarites)

Remember that Canaan was not the progenitor of the Black race. Therefore the curse had nothing to do with skin color. This completely destroys the argument proffered by the bigots of this world.

Gam met 'n gggeee

2007-02-16T12:48:00.000+02:00

Where does Gam come from? Not us Hotnots. The name?
There is a joke that it is not from Mohammed( pronounced with the Afrikaans 'g' sound). Nor is it from the son of Noah, Ham. It is a very old word derived from the word "gamors".

The reason I told this joke is that I want to explore the curse of Noah. For centuries the curse of Noah has been used to justify certain prejudice and injustices on black people.

This curse, which was misinterpreted as a curse on all black skin, gave birth to erroneous statements in the Jewish Babylonian Talmud. This was followed by European colonialism using the same 'curse' to justify the brutal enslavement of Africans and later on was used by the Dutch Reformed Church to justify Apartheid. The Catholic Church itself was until the last century still under the spell of the 'curse of Ham'.

The Watchtower on Oct.8, 1977 states:
"Even up to a hundred years ago the Catholic Church held the view that blacks were cursed by God. Maxwell explains that this view "apparently survived until 1873 when Pope Pius IX attached an indulgence to a prayer for the `wretched Ethiopians in Central Africa that almighty God may at length remove the curse of Cham [Ham] from their hearts," (p. 29; see also the 2/8/82 Watchtower, p. 14-15.)

It is absolutely stunning to consider the untold death and destruction that has surpassed on account of this centuries old 'white lie'.

More tommorrow on this maybe Monday I'll see.
Ok another joke

IF YOU SEE A BLACKMAN RUNNING..... he's being chased by the police!
IF YOU SEE A WHITEMAN RUNNING....... he's just exercising!
IF YOU SEE AN INDIANMAN RUNNING...... he's got a sale in his shop
IF YOU SEE A COLOURED RUNNING........ The bottle store is about to close

Bruinman

White only at work

2007-02-06T09:52:00.000+02:00

The very conditions that led to the formation of the Coloured population were made illegal in apartheid South Africa by the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) and the Immorality Amendment Act (1950). This helped to reinforce a Coloured identity based on race as one separate from whites, blacks and Indians for a diverse population with a multiplicity of identities. What I always wonder about the whites who were really coloured? What of the coloureds who were classified white? Three of my mother’s father’s brothers were classified white. Two of them married coloured women? They only held their white id card for work purposes but for all other purposes they were coloured? What are they? Are their children coloured? You would be surprised.

The day I saw a grown man cry

2007-02-05T10:15:00.000+02:00

In 1960, bruinman's father was in high school. When he came home for the December holidays he received the fright of his life. The family had moved and he hadn't been informed. The house he was born in, the house his father was born in and the house his grandfather had been born in, was not the one he went home to. They were forced to move to a new house in the coloured area. His father had not told him because of how upset he would have been at school (hostel). I think the reason he didn't tell him was the shame and humiliation of losing the only thing in life that was yours from birth. When my father took me and my brother to show us where he grew up, I saw a grown man cry. There was nothing. No pear tree. No chicken coup. No House. Nothing. Not even another house. Fokol. I didn't understand that day. I think I do now. I understand that I have no idea the suffering and humiliation my ancestors went through to get where we are today. I also cannot for one second fathom their sacrifices and resign myself to forget.

Officially moved

2007-02-02T09:30:00.000+02:00

In 1950 the government passed the Group Areas Act of 1950. The crux of this act was to assign races to different residential and business areas in urban areas. The law was essentially to exclude any non-White from being allowed to live in established towns or to live and work in any established economically viable areas - all of which were proclaimed to be White areas. The Coloured population suffered heavily under this Act mostly as a result of forcible removals. By 1982, more than 60 000 people (from District Six alone) had been relocated to the comparatively bleak Cape Flats. Family and neighbourhood networks broke down, making childcare and running a household economy far more difficult. The housing scheme was gray and anonymous. Employment was situated further away than before. Young people were often without parental guidance or recreational activities, and many joined street gangs operating protection rackets. Two 'super gangs' emerged, the Cape Town Scorpions and Born Free Kids, who recruited from reformatories and planned how to make their money once their sentences were up.

1950 Officially Coloured

2007-02-01T10:27:00.000+02:00

Since the beginning of the settlement of the Colony, an ambiguous and complicated issue has arisen. Most whites have always seen Coloured as not being white enough. Due to the comparatively privileged and advantageous lifestyle of Coloured, they have found themselves disliked by the African population. Black and White were clearly defined in South Africa. Coloureds and all else found themselves lingering between the two. In 1950 the government passed the Population Registration Act of 1950. This act officially created four classifications: White, Black, Indian and Coloured.

Growth of Afrikaans

2006-11-22T10:47:00.000+02:00

As stated in earlier blogs the origins of Afrikaans lay in the slave, Khoi and Dutch interaction. Through this interaction the so called coloured ethnic group were born. The Afrikaans language was known as a baster Taal for a long time.The Cape Argus, published in Cape Town, called Afrikaans a ‘miserable, bastard jargon’, not worthy of the name of language at all However the rise of Afrikaner nationalism triggered by the South African War (1899-1902) and widespread Afrikaner poverty in the early decades of the twentieth century created the conditions for the rapid growth of Afrikaans as public language.By the end of the eighteenth century Cape Dutch had largely become what is now Afrikaans. In the Western Cape the main variety ofAfrikaans took root as the shared cultural creation, in countless small-scale localities, of Europeans and non-Europeans, whites and blacks, masters and slaves and servants. By the 1840s the first Afrikaans book, printed in Arabic script, was used in Muslim schools in Cape Town. By the 1850s it was the established medium of religious instruction in the Cape Muslim community. In the Boer Wars the English defeated the Boer republics. They introduced English as the only language of the ex-republics.This led to a rise in Afrikaner nationilism. The war also impoverished most Afrikaners. This eradicated the social and economic gap between Afrikaners. Thus Afrikaans became the symbol of Afrikaner identity. In 1925 D.F. Malan introduced a bill that added Afrikaans to Dutch and English as an official language.

Klopse

2006-11-21T08:57:00.000+02:00

In 1862 the Alabama, a Confederate war ship, came into port in Cape Town. This ship patroled the South Atlantic during the Civil War in America. This is where the song "Daar kom die Alibama" comes from. African-Americans dressed in their minstrel outfits gave impromptu musical recitals at the dockside where the Alabama was docked. When the local population inquired the whites responded by saying "These are just our Coons!" South Africans had their next contact with African-Americans and African-American music on June 19, 1890, when the minstrel troupe of Orpheus Myron McAdoo's Virginia Jubilee Singers from Hampton, Virginia presented a series of concerts in Cape Town. This forms the basis of the Klopse as we know it.

2de Nuwe Jaar

2006-11-20T16:13:00.000+02:00

The 2nd of January is known as 2de Nuwe Jaar(2nd New Year). This day is when the Kaapse Klopse, or Coon Carnival (known as Cape Town Minstrel Carnival ) takes place. This day celebrates festivals the slaves in Cape Town held to commemorate New year (This wasn't always a minstrel festival). The reason is that this was the time that slaves were given off to celebrate. The festival has a strong American influence which we will discuss later. Participants are typically from Afrikaans-speaking working class "coloured" families who have preserved the custom since the mid-19th century. +- 12000 minstrels gather in Cape Town and march in groups called Klopse. These groups are usually formed in neighbourhoods (eg Lentegeur Entertainers). Festivities include street parades with singing and dancing, costume competitions and marches through the streets.

A joke is told about the date the festival is held:

Van Riebeeck arrived here in April 1652. They had very few white women. Thus the first coloured children were born 9 months later. The time of the festival.

Bruinman's story

2006-11-17T10:13:00.000+02:00

I have a story(true) of a South African family. The patriach arrived in South Africa from England in mid 1800's. He settled in the platteland. He married an ex-slave from Mozambique. They had one son. He married a "colored" woman from the area. They had 3 children, one dark, one mixed and a girl with blue eyes. The dark son married a light of complexion women. Her family had Asian and a strong Khoi influence. They had six sons ranging from dark with straight hair to fair with curly hair. The eldest son (dark) married a light skin woman with straight hair. Half her family had been declared white. They had 4 children all curly hair. The eldest is Bruinman.

Birth of Us

2006-11-16T12:52:00.000+02:00

Lets say we have Jan a Dutch man. We have Angela from India. We have Sonqua a Khoi woman and Miggel a runaway slave from Angola. Jan and Angela have a son Daan. Sonqua and Miggel have a duaghter Katie. Daan would normally have a lightish complexion with straight hair. Katie would be darker and have coarse hair. If Daan and Katie had children the range of Asian,European and African traits and combinations is diverse. Now imagine if you swap the partners.Now add the mixture of already mixed offspring as well as Malaysia, Batavia, Java, Madagascar and Sri Lanka to name a few. The results of these liasons has resulted in the colored population we see today.JH Coetzee opines, in The Coloured challenge(1975), that the use of the exspression "coloured" to designate this component of the South African population, suggesting one ethnic, cultural or racial group is wrong. The only common factor that can be found is the existence of a racial intermixing and resulting in a perceptible diffirence in skin color from Europeans and ethnic Africans.

Influence on Afrikaans

2006-11-15T20:12:00.000+02:00

posted thanks to A.M. van Rensburg:
Malay words have been maintained such a baadjie -jacket, baie - a lot or plenty, piering - saucer, sjambok - wip, blatjang - chutney, piesang - banana, pondok - hut, rotang - cane. Some other words are outa - used for elderly man or servant, aia - for a lady servant and kaija - rough dwelling. It is rather interesting that most words deals with food, punishment or dwelling. Achmat Davids wrote an article: The Words the Slaves Made. In it he refers to some other words: nonnie, tronk from 'tarungka' meaning jail, baie from 'bannyak' meaning plenty or much, tamaai from 'utama' meaning big, soewaar which was first said as tjoewaar coming from 'tjoba' meaning assuredly. Other words include baklei - fight, sosatie, kabaai, katel, bobotie, oorlam, (oor)krabbetjie, amper, saam-saam from tjakki-tjakki.
According to Hans den Besten, during the greater part of the 18th Century many slaves came from India-Sri Lanka and the others from Indonesia. The slaves from the sub-continent and some from Indonesia used Creole Portugese, others who had Indonesian parents, whether they came from India or Indonesia they used a non standard Malay. One can observe the inluence of Creole Portugese: 'tronkoe' became 'tronk, '. The Mollucans (Ambon) influence can be seen in the use of titles: "Moenie Oom/ Dokter vir my pla nie"; "Jan-hulle". Other Creole Portugese words in Afrikaans: sambreel, tarentaal, kombers, koperkapel, kraal, mielie, ramkie, brinjal, kiepersol.

Afrikaans

2006-11-15T12:33:00.000+02:00

Under the Dutch East India Company, which governed the Cape Colony between 1652 and 1795, Dutch was the language of administration and of the Dutch Reformed Church.As slaves of the same origin were never held together this resulted in the only common language being Dutch. The mixture of "pigeon" or Creole led a new language. One scenario can be that white children and children from farm workers/slaves and labourers had each other as playmates. Their communication was ,as children would do, a middleground between Dutch and all other languages. The the inlfuence of Malaya and pigeon Portugese in Afrikaans are some classic examples of these liasons.

First liasons

2006-11-13T19:21:00.000+02:00

According to old records Van Riebeeck arrived a the Cape with very few women. Company authorities decided to import slave labor from the East Coast of Africa, Madagascar, the Indonesian Archipelago, Bengal, South India and Sri Lanka.In 1654 the first Asians arrived at the Cape. They were banished here by the High Court in Batavia. Many mixed marrieges occured. Some between whites and Khoi women. Some between whites and slaves. Some between Khoi and slaves. Some between "vryeswartes" and the above-mentioned groups.The ensuing encounters with indigenous "blacks" in the 18th and 19th century also led to more intermixing.This left a infinite and diverse mix of combinations and intermixture.The integration of "Bushman" culture and language had a deep impact on all these intermixed cultures.

6 April 1652

2006-11-07T10:42:00.000+02:00

A Dutch expedition of 90 Calvinist settlers, under the command of Jan van Riebeeck, founded the first permanent settlement near the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.They arrived in the harbour of modern-day Cape Town on 6 April 1652 with five ships:the Drommedaris, the Reijger, and the Goede Hoop.The Walvis and the Oliphant arrived late, having had 130 burials at sea. Skipper Coninck landed on 6 April 1652 and found letters left under a stone for Van Riebeeck stating that Jan van Teyling had left horses with the "english speaking Ottento"( most probaly Harry).Van Riebeck found a suitable site for the fort somewhere near what is now the middle of Adderley Street, where the river (from Table mountain)could be led round it to form a moat with land for a garden behind it.

Before Landfall.

2006-11-03T14:25:00.000+02:00

In 1647 ship Nieuwe Haerlem is wrecked in Table Bay. A survivor, Leendert Janszen, is instructed to remain behind with some crew to look after the cargo. The shipwreck victims built a small fort that they named the "Sand Fort of the Cape of Good Hope." They stayed for nearly one year. Jan Van Riebeeck was part of the fleet that salvaged the cargo form the Haarlem. When they got to Holland they laid their heads together and wrote a memorial(Remonstrance) to their High Mightinesses the Dutch East India Company. They showed that by making a fort and a garden in Table Valley, and protecting it with a garrison of 60 or 70 soldiers, the Company would save the lives of hundreds of their men. In early December 1651 Van Riebeeck left Holland with a mandate to sart a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope. On April the 4th Table Mountain was sighted.

Krotoa

2006-11-02T10:13:00.000+02:00

Krotoa known as Eva to the Dutch was born in 1642. She was the neice of Autshumato.She underwent her !nau-rites of passage in Khoi Khoi attire, and who is written about in Dutch Journals would attest to. While she was young, she worked in the household of Jan van Riebeeck. While still a teenager, she learned Dutch and Portuguese and like her uncle, worked as an interpreter.Eva was baptised on 3rd May 1662 at the fort.By 1664 she had married a prominent member of the Dutch colony, junior surgeon Pieter van Meerhoff, who was then assigned to be superintendent of the prison on Robben Island.Eva returned to the mainland in September 1668 after her husband was killed on an expedition(It is rather ironical that she inherited slaves from her husband as a consequence of his death on a slave purchasing expedition) and returned for a time with her children to the mainland.Suffering from alcoholism, she left the Castle in the settlement to be with her family in the kraals. In February 1669, she was imprisoned at the Castle and then banished to Robben Island. Eva-Kroata is the progenitor of a number of Afrikaner first families. These include the Krugers, Van Riebeecks, Bruyns, Van Rensburgs, Zaimans, and Pelzers, to name a few. Paul Kruger, the great revered Boer hero, is a descendant of Eva through her daughter Petronella Meerhof.She died in 1674. She was buried in the little church at the new Castle.

Die Groot Krokodil

2006-11-01T08:14:00.000+02:00

PW Botha died in his sleep in George yesterday. History will judge him. History will judge him and his chronies. History will judge him and his chronies and his supporters.

In August 1961 he was elevated to full minister with the portfolio Community Development and Coloured Affairs.In a typical example of apartheid double-speak his ministry was responsible for the destruction of District Six and the displacement of its people to the sandy and now gang-riven Cape Flats during his tenure.He held this post for about five years, giving it up in April 1966 to become Verwoerd's Minister of Defence. Under Botha's rule up to 20 000 blacks were killed or imprisoned, the security forces fomented black-on-black violence by supplying arms to rival factions, blew up church property where radicals met and bombed countries that harboured the African National Congress. Botha took a dim view of its search for truth and reconciliation, famously calling it a "circus".Other than providing written answers to questions, Botha shunned the commission, refusing to appear before it to the point of rather preferring the dock in the George magistrate's court.He was convicted in 1998, at age 82, of holding the commission in contempt and was fined, but successfully appealed both conviction and sentence in the Cape High Court.A tribute came from an unexpected quarter in late 1999, when then-recently retired president Nelson Mandela told a SABC television programme that Botha as well as De Klerk had played a "critical role" in the peaceful transition of South Africa to non-racial democracy.

Autshumato

2006-10-31T09:52:00.000+02:00

Autshumato, aka Harry die strandloper of Herrie soos die Hollanders hom genoem het,was taken by the British to Batavia and learned English and Dutch. He became thus the official interpreter used by the Dutch. He moved to Robben Island, with his clan of Goringhaicona a sub- tribe of the Goringhaiquas who at that time was under the leadership of Khoeque Gogosoa and his sons, called princes by the Dutch, and became the local agent and postmaster for passing ships. Mundy's account of a visit to the Island in 1634 reveals that Autshumato was dressed in 'English habit from head to foote'; he and his band of followers, sixty in all, lived in seven 'little Cottages'.In 1658 Autshumato was banished to Robben Island. He however became the first prisoner to also escape imprisonment on the Island.One year later Autshumato applied for and received permission to again live and work near the Dutch settlement, resuming his role as an interpreter. He died in 1663. Reflecting on his time on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela has even mentioned how he drew comfort from the memory of Autshumato and his escape. Today, one of the ferries transporting visitors to the island is named after Autshumato.

Draw in,convert, divide and colonise

2006-10-30T10:00:00.000+02:00

Colonist have regularly abducted indigenous leaders and influential tribesmen and taken them to their countries, taught them their language, shown them their modern achievements, in an attempt to make it easier for them to be colonised and subjugated. This happened at least three times in Khoi-Khoi history. The first was Quore or !Kora in 1614 and later Autshumato and Nammöa to Java in 1630 by John Hall and Cuneas. Thus, before the arrival of Jan Van Riebeeck these two Khoi-Khoi Chiefs of the Goringhaiquas were already proficient in at least two European languages, English and then French and then Netherlands. Then already, they thus as interpreters attached an economic value to themselves for acquiring these languages.

Pre Colony

2006-10-27T13:48:00.000+02:00

In 1580, Sir Francis Drake sailed around the Cape in The Golden Hind,the peninsula inspired him to write - "This Cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest Cape in the whole circumference of the earth". In 1601 James Lancaster, an English navigator, explores the southern African coast and establishes trade relationships with the Khoikhoi. A very important thing happended on 20 March 1602, the Vereenigde Landsche Ge-Oktroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) or better known as the Dutch East India Company is established in the Netherlands. Somewhere around 1608 the Portuguese ship, Santo Esperitu, is believed to have been shipwrecked off the eastern coast of South Africa.

Table Mountain

2006-10-26T08:11:00.000+02:00

The original name given to the mountain by the first Khoi inhabitants was Hoeri 'kwaggo ("sea mountain"). Table Mountain was given its name in 1503 by Antonio da Saldanha, a Portuguese admiral and explorer. Antonio de Saldanha was the first European to land in Table Bay. He climbed the mountain in 1503 (1st European). He called it Taboa da caba ("table of the cape").. The great cross that the Portuguese navigator carved in the rock of Lion's Head is still traceable. Table Bay which was originally known as Saldanha Bay (Saldonia)

Portuguese

2006-10-25T15:17:00.000+02:00

In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape naming it the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by John II as the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the opening of a route to the east. In 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed from Europe to India for the first time. In 1500 The Viceroy of Portuguese India, Francisco d' Almeida, is killed in a skirmish with Khoikhoi at the mouth of the Salt River in Table Bay on his way back to Portugal. Thereafter, Portuguese traders tend to bypass the Cape itself, relying on Robben Island for fresh meat and water (otherwise we would probably be speaking Portuguese)

The Cape Peninsula's history.

2006-10-24T09:14:00.000+02:00

Prehistoric people first left evidence here more than 600,000 years ago. Evidence tools of these Early Stone Age hunter-gatherers were found in a depression near the Cape of Good Hope. The Middle Stone Age inhabitants (dating from 200,000 to 40,000 years ago) also left evidence of their life on the Peninsula. There are about six sites where artefacts, including scrapers and fragments of worked stone, dating from this period have been found and more than a 100 sites where signs of Late Stone Age habitation (from about 21,000 years ago) is evident. They survived the Ice Age, when water levels were around 120 metres lower than their current levels and the Cape and in particular the Cape Flats was covered in forests due to increased humidity. Fossils from around 8000 BC indicate that by that period the inhabitants of the region had developed bows and arrows which they used to hunt. Nearly 6000 years later, a large migration of tribes further inland brought the inhabitants of the Cape into contact with skilled agriculturalists, prompting them to grow crops.The San (or Bushmen) hunter-gatherers relied on the seashore for most of their food. This resulted in the Dutch naming, Strandlopers (beach combers). Refuse heap left by the San are found in a number of caves in the Cape and reveal a great deal about their lifestyle. About 2000 years ago the Khoikhoi migrated from the north, displacing the San, bringing with them their herds of cattle and sheep. It was the Khoikhoi who were the dominant tribe when the Europeans sailed into Table Bay.

Khoikhoi

2006-10-23T14:46:00.000+02:00

The Khoikhoi people in the Cape originated from the northern parts of Botswana, migrating south and settling near the Vaal river around the time of the birth of Christ bringing with them their herds of cattle and sheep that they had earlier secured from natives in East Africa. About 200AD the people in this large community had a major disagreement. The Korana stayed in the middle part of South Africa while the other two clans moved away, the Namaqua settling in Namaqualand to the west and the Khoikhoi moving south then west to the Cape of Good Hope. By the time the first white explorers passed the Cape of Storms the Khoikhoi had intermarried with the hunter-gatherer San (Bushmen) who were the region's original inhabitants. Over generations the difference between the two groups became less defined but the Khoikhoi continued to graze livestock and the San continued to hunt with bows and poisoned arrows. According to neutral (autosomal) gene analysis, the Khoisan are similar to other sub-Saharan African populations. The study of their Y-chromosomes however shows that their original Y-haplogroup A is the oldest human lineage and could diverge from the evolutionary tree of other humans more than 100 000 years ago (Knight et al. 2003). Khoisans thus actually represent the most archaic human group that was largely isolated from the rest of mankind for tens of thousands of years. A long time ago, a part of their ancestors headed for north and gave birth to modern Nilotes, which is evident from the presence of a subclade A3b2 in East Africa. According to Knight et al. (2003) Y-haplogroup A is today present in various Khoisan tribes at frequency of 12-44%. The rest is formed by recent admixture of Bantu male lineages E3a (18-54%) and in some tribes, a noticeable Pygmy traces are visible (B2b). The Khoisan also show the largest genetic diversity in mtDNA of all human populations. Their original mtDNA haplogroups L1d and L1k are one of the oldest female lineages as well. The San people themselves say they came first of all human beings, and while many cultures bear that same myth, each of themselves, not only genetic but archaeological evidence bears the Khoisan out. The distinct characteristics of all human varieties, from those of East Asia to those of Northern Europe and the Americas all may have beginnings in the physiology of the Khoisan people.

Broad analysis

2006-10-19T09:28:00.000+02:00

The Coloreds of South Africa are heavily concentrated in the Western Cape region in the southwest of the country. They are a mixed-race people. Some are descendants of liaisons between early black inhabitants of South Africa (called Khoisan) and white settlers; others are descendants of relationships between the Khosian and black slaves in Angola. They speak Afrikaans/Englishas well as other native languages. They are culturally distinct from the majority black community; however, there is a high level of within-group heterogeneity.
The apartheid system defined Coloreds as a distinct ethnic category. The apartheid system mandated total separation of races that resulted in the Coloreds living separately from both blacks and whites. Colored townships were closely associated with larger white cities and were administered by whites. They did not share the same privileges as whites in the country, yet they had higher status than blacks. Coloreds were granted some advantages under apartheid, including their own parliament that was largely powerless. They were generally better educated and earned more than the blacks. The Coloreds became an inward-looking group under the apartheid system, intent on protecting their few privileges.
Since the transformation of South African society in the 1990s, Coloreds have been in a somewhat ambiguous position. The group’s income is higher than that of blacks, but substantially lower than that of the minority white and Asian groups. In Western Cape, where the Coloreds are a majority, they are underrepresented in senior management positions. A majority of coloreds live in conditions of abject poverty; however, their living standards are higher than that of most blacks. A 2000 estimate showed that the median income for Coloreds was roughly twice that of blacks but one-third that of whites. While affirmative action policies benefit Coloreds to a limited extent, they are largely in favor of blacks. For example, the Equity Employment Act and Equality Act of 1998 mandates that companies mirror the demography of society. Coloreds are a very small percentage of the population, so this puts them at a disadvantage. The rate of HIV infection of Coloreds is higher than that among whites and Asians, but lower than that of the black community.

Who we R

2006-10-18T09:57:00.000+02:00

The term 'coloured' was not used until the mid-thirties of the 19th century.The so called coloured comprises roughly 9% of the SA population. The so called coloured has their roots in the western cape.The birth of an extra racial categoryor population groupis a result of contact between various ethnic and racial groups on the Southern tip of Africa for the last 350 years. Roughly five elements have been identified. A Khoi element,a San element, a white element, a slave element, a bantu speaking element.

Who R Us?

2006-10-17T13:33:00.000+02:00

Coloured, hotnot, boesman, hottentot, hottie, cape coloured, bushy, kleurling, bruinmens, chlora, gam, mixed, so-called "coloured", basters, khoi-san, bruin ous, bruin afrikaaner, griqua, nama, san, halfbreed, crossbreed, brownie, malua, nie-blanke, ander kleurige, other, aap, bobbejaan, coon, meid, gemmerkoekie, mongrel, skollie, bossiekop

Do any of these describe you? Well lets explore further.