The great debate and the origins of South African historiography

Journal of African History

Volumn 38, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 261-281

  Bank, Andrew ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0008336618     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853797006993     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. C. Saunders, The Making of the South African Past (Cape Town, 1988), 2, 10.
2. Ibid. 18-43.
3. See A. Bank, ' Liberals and their enemies : racial ideology at the Cape of Good Hope, 1820 to 1850' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1995), ch. 2; S. Trapido, 'The emergence of Cape liberalism and the making of "Hottentot nationalism", 1815-1834' (Collected Seminar Papers of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London, vol. 17, 1990).
4. See A. Bank, ' Liberals and their enemies : racial ideology at the Cape of Good Hope, 1820 to 1850' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1995), ch. 2; S. Trapido, 'The emergence of Cape liberalism and the making of "Hottentot nationalism", 1815-1834' (Collected Seminar Papers of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London, vol. 17, 1990).
5. For an illuminating recent history of this Eastern Cape frontier conflict, see C. C. Crais, White Supremacy and Black Resistance in Pre-industrial South Africa : The Making of the Colonial Order in the Eastern Cape, 1770-1865 (Cambridge, 1992).
6. A. Du Toit and H. Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, 1780-1830 (Cape Town, 1983), 195-9, 210-13; C. Crais, 'The vacant land: the mythology of British expansion in the Eastern Cape, South Africa', Journal of Social History, XXV (1991), 256-7, 264-8.
7. A. Du Toit and H. Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, 1780-1830 (Cape Town, 1983), 195-9, 210-13; C. Crais, 'The vacant land: the mythology of British expansion in the Eastern Cape, South Africa', Journal of Social History, XXV (1991), 256-7, 264-8.
8. R. Ross, Beyond the Pale : Essays on the History of Colonial South Africa (Hanover and London, 1993), 193, 211.
9. The Memorandum of Commissary J. A. de Mist (Cape Town, 1920), 165-84.
10. E. Elbourne, '"To colonise the mind": evangelical missionaries in Britain and the Eastern Cape, 1790-1837' (D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1992), 280-1.
11. J. Philip, Researches in South Africa, vol. i, 2. The discussion below is premised specifically on the more tightly structured narrative of volume one; the second volume of the Researches is more diffuse, lacks the same historical depth and had less ideological impact than his history of Khoikhoi dispossession.
12. Philip, Researches, vol. i, xiv.
13. Ibid. 2-3.
14. Ibid. 16-17.
15. Ibid. 18.
16. Ibid. 18-34.
17. Ibid. 55.
18. Ibid. 58.
19. Ibid. 116.
20. Ibid. 147-8, 176.
21. Ibid. 141.
22. Competing English literary periodicals were far less successful: Pringle and Fairbairn's South African Journal was censored after only two editions; A. J. Jardine's Cape of Good Hope Literary Gazette lasted from 1830 to 1835. Numerous local newspapers also folded within a few years of establishment.
23. The November-December edition in 1831, for example, contained a lengthy account of Dutch heroism at sea. Het Nederduitsch Zuid-afrikaansche Tydschrift, 301-5.
24. C. Rassool and L. Witz, 'The Jan van Riebeeck tercentenary festival: constructing and contesting public national history in South Africa', J. Afr. Hist., XXXIV (1993), 447-68.
25. This is not, of course, to posit any continuous or unilinear projection of Van Riebeeck as icon from the 1820s into the 1950s. The actual content of the memory of Van Riebeeck changed significantly over that period.
26. H. B. Thom (ed.), Journal of Van Riebeeck (Cape Town, 1952), XXV-ix.
27. Het Nederduitsch, vol. 1, no. 2, 103. L. Witz, 'Commemorations and conflicts in the production of South African national pasts: the 1952 Jan van Riebeeck tercentenary festival' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1997), 95-102.
28. Het Nederduitsch, vol. 1, no. 2, 103. L. Witz, 'Commemorations and conflicts in the production of South African national pasts: the 1952 Jan van Riebeeck tercentenary festival' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1997), 95-102.
29. H. B. Thom (ed.), Journal of van van Riebeeck (Cape Town, 1982), vol. i, xxxiii.
30. Het Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Tydschrift, vol. 1, no. 1, 70.
31. Het Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Tydschrift, vol. 7, no. 3, 222-3.
32. Witz, 'Commemorations and conflicts', 44.
33. Du Toit and Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, 195.
34. Het Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Tydschrift, vol. 7, part 5 (Sept.-Oct. 1830), 375. For a more directed satire of Philip's romanticized portrait of the pre-colonial Khoikhoi, see the leading article in De Zuid-Afrikaan, 18 Mar. 1831.
35. Het Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Tydschrift, vol. 7, part 5 (Sept.-Oct. 1830), 375. For a more directed satire of Philip's romanticized portrait of the pre-colonial Khoikhoi, see the leading article in De Zuid-Afrikaan, 18 Mar. 1831.
36. Het Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Tydschrift, vol. 7, part 5, 379.
37. Du Toit and Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, 197.
38. See C. Brand, 'Concerning the method and law of acquiring colonies', in Du Toit and Giliomee, Afrikaner Political Thought, 206-8.
39. 'Iets over het zoogenaamd vroeger eigendomsregt der Hottentotten op dit land ', Het Nederduitsch, May-June 1838, 295-304. See also J. de Wet, 'Voorlezing over het koloniseren aan de Kaap de Goede Hoop ' (uit het Engelsch vertaald), Het Nederduitsch, 13, 1 (1836), 35-45.
40. 'Iets over het zoogenaamd vroeger eigendomsregt der Hottentotten op dit land ', Het Nederduitsch, May-June 1838, 295-304. See also J. de Wet, 'Voorlezing over het koloniseren aan de Kaap de Goede Hoop ' (uit het Engelsch vertaald), Het Nederduitsch, 13, 1 (1836), 35-45.
41. R. F. M. Immelman, Dictionary of South African Biography, vol. i, 241.
42. Het Nederduitsch, May-June 1838, 296.
43. Ibid. 297.
44. Ibid. 299.
45. Ibid. 299.
46. Het Nederduitsch, vol. 1, Mar.-Apr. 1824, 25.
47. De Zuid-Afrikaan, 'Tulbagh versus Philip', July 1830.
48. J. Du Plessis, 'Colonial progress and countryside conservatism: an essay on the legacy of Van der Lingen of Paarl, 1831-1875' (M.A. thesis, Stellenbosch University, 1988), 120. The account of Van der Lingen's ideas and influence presented here owes much to this study.
49. Ibid. 116.
50. See J. Mason, 'Slaveholder resistance to the amelioration of slavery at the Cape' (Seminar Paper presented at the Roots and Realities Conference, University of Cape Town, 1986).
51. Cited in Du Plessis, 'Colonial progress and countryside conservatism', 11. For a penetrating analysis of the orthodox-liberal debate within the Dutch Reformed Church at the Cape in the mid-nineteenth century, see A. Du Toit, 'The Afrikaners' failed liberal moment, 1850-1870', in J. Butler, R. Elphick and D. Welsh (eds.), Democratic Liberalism in South Africa : Its History and Prospects (Connecticut, 1987).
52. Cited in Du Plessis, 'Colonial progress and countryside conservatism', 11. For a penetrating analysis of the orthodox-liberal debate within the Dutch Reformed Church at the Cape in the mid-nineteenth century, see A. Du Toit, 'The Afrikaners' failed liberal moment, 1850-1870', in J. Butler, R. Elphick and D. Welsh (eds.), Democratic Liberalism in South Africa : Its History and Prospects (Connecticut, 1987).
53. See J. N. Gerstner, The Thousand Generation Covenant (Leiden, 1991).
54. See Ross, Beyond the Pale ; A. Du Toit, 'No chosen people : the myth of the Calvinist origins of Afrikaner nationalism and racial ideology', Amer. Hist. Rev., LXXXVIII (1983).
55. See Ross, Beyond the Pale ; A. Du Toit, 'No chosen people : the myth of the Calvinist origins of Afrikaner nationalism and racial ideology', Amer. Hist. Rev., LXXXVIII (1983).
56. W. G. A. Van der Lingen, 'Discourse at the opening of the 5th session of the South African College, 1834', trans. A. N. E. Changuion (Cape Town 1834), 11.
57. Ibid. 13.
58. See R. Miles, Racism (London, 1989); N. Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science : Great Britain, 1800-1960 (London, 1982); M. Banton, Racial Theories (Cambridge, 1987).
59. See R. Miles, Racism (London, 1989); N. Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science : Great Britain, 1800-1960 (London, 1982); M. Banton, Racial Theories (Cambridge, 1987).
60. See R. Miles, Racism (London, 1989); N. Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science : Great Britain, 1800-1960 (London, 1982); M. Banton, Racial Theories (Cambridge, 1987).
61. See A. Bank, Of "native skulls" and "noble Caucasians": phrenology in colonial South Africa', J. Southern Afr. Studies, XXII (1996), 387-403.
62. For the history of scientific racism in South Africa in more full-fledged form in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, see the path-breaking recent work of S. Dubow, Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa (Cambridge, 1995).
63. See Miles, Racism; T. F. Gossett, Race : The History of an Idea in America (Dallas, 1963), 85-122, ch. 5 'The Teutonic origins theory' on the converging theories of history and 'race' through notions of national origin.
64. See Miles, Racism; T. F. Gossett, Race : The History of an Idea in America (Dallas, 1963), 85-122, ch. 5 'The Teutonic origins theory' on the converging theories of history and 'race' through notions of national origin.
65. For a sense of the degree to which this was mythologized, see H. Heese, Groep Sonder Grense.
66. Van der Lingen, 'Discourse', 15.
67. Ibid. 119.
68. Van der Lingen, speaking at the 1857 Dutch Reformed Church synod, cited in Du Plessis,'Colonial progress and countryside conservatism', 118.
69. Van der Lingen, 'Aanmerken oor de oordeelvelling van de "Zuid-Afrikaan"' (Cape Town, 1853).
70. Van der Lingen letter, De Zuid-Afrikaan, 13 Aug. 1844.
71. Du Plessis, 'Colonial progress and countryside conservatism', 143.
72. See Report of the Select Committee on Aborigenes (British Settlements) (London, 1837).
73. Cape Archives, OPB 1/2, Papers Relative to the Treatment of the Native Inhabitants of Southern Africa, Moodie to Gregory, 175-7.
74. C. Malherbe, 'Donald Moodie's Record' (Unpublished draft). I am grateful to Canby Malherbe for access to this draft paper.
75. D. Moodie, The Record (Cape Town, 1838-41), Part I, 61.
76. See footnotes in The Record, Part I, 44, 59 and Part III, 3.
77. See footnotes in The Record, Part I, 44, 59 and Part III, 3.
78. D. Moodie, A Voice from the Kahlamba : Origin of the Bushmen (Pietermaritzburg, 1855), 2, 29.
79. 67 Parts II and IV of The Record were never published. Moodie explained these discontinuities in terms of gaps in the documentary record. See Part I, 446; Part V, 1.
80. D. Moodie, Correspondence Between Donald Moodie, Esq., Compiler and Editor of the Cape Records and the Rev. John Philip, D. D., author of Researches in South Africa (Cape Town and London, 1841), 30.
81. 69 De Zuid-Afrikaan, 19 Mar. 1841. See also the leading article in De Zuid-Afrikaan 26 Mar. 1841 and the article 'Is our national character as Afrikanders worth defending?', in De Zuid-Afrikaan, 16 Apr. 1841.
82. 69 De Zuid-Afrikaan, 19 Mar. 1841. See also the leading article in De Zuid-Afrikaan 26 Mar. 1841 and the article 'Is our national character as Afrikanders worth defending?', in De Zuid-Afrikaan, 16 Apr. 1841.
83. 69 De Zuid-Afrikaan, 19 Mar. 1841. See also the leading article in De Zuid-Afrikaan 26 Mar. 1841 and the article 'Is our national character as Afrikanders worth defending?', in De Zuid-Afrikaan, 16 Apr. 1841.
84. B. Le Cordeur, Robert Godlonton as Architect of Frontier Opinion, 1850-57 (Cape Town, 1960), 7.
85. R. Godlonton, Introductory Remarks To A Narrative (Grahamstown, 1850), Part I, 113.
86. On the killing of Hintsa, see J. Peires, The House of Phalo : A History of the Xhosa People in the Days of their Independence (Berkeley, 1981), 109-10.
87. Ibid. 89-94.
88. On the spontaneous nature of the Xhosa invasion, see N. Mostert, Frontiers : The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People (London, 1993), 652-5.
89. C. Crais, 'The vacant land', 267-8.
90. R. Godlonton, Introductory Remarks, 206-8.
91. A. Wilmot and J. C. Chase, History of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1869).
92. Saunders, The Making of the South African Past, 19.
93. See D. Schreuder, 'The imperial historian as colonial nationalist: George McCall Theal and the making of South African history' in G. Martin, (ed.), Studies in British Imperial History (London, 1986), 115-17, 138-40 on the importance of these Dutch ancestors to Theal's invention of a white South African identity.
94. G. M. Theal, History of South Africa, vol. i, 36.
95. Ibid. 36, 49.
96. Theal, cited in Crais, 'The vacant land', 267. This paragraph draws directly on this article by Crais.
97. See M. Cornevin, Apartheid, Power and Historical Falsification (Paris, 1980), 63-79.
98. Theal, cited in Le Cordeur, Robert Godlonton as Architect of Frontier Opinion, 1850-57, 11.
99. Du Toit, 'The Afrikaners' failed liberal moment, 1850-70', 63.