(1805)
Early history The broad ethnic designation of "Khoekhoen" refers to the peoples originally part of a pastoral culture and language group to be found across Southern Africa. Mellet, citing Ehlpick, claims that a people he calls "proto-Khoe" emerged between 400 BCE and 100 CE in southern
Zimbabwe in the context of engagement between the
San foundation peoples Tshua and Khwe, and the slow migratory drift of herding communities from East Africa. He adds that those engagements and genetic mixing also occurred in northern
Botswana, along the
Limpopo River as well as in the northern parts of present-day
South Africa. "Khoekhoe" groups include
ǀAwakhoen to the west, and
ǀKx'abakhoena of South and mid-South Africa, and the Eastern Cape. Both of these terms mean "Red People", and are equivalent to the
IsiXhosa term "". Husbandry of sheep, goats and cattle grazing in fertile valleys across the region provided a stable, balanced diet, and allowed these lifestyles to spread, with larger groups forming in a region previously occupied by the
subsistence foragers.
Ntu-speaking agriculturalist culture is thought to have entered the region in the 3rd century AD, pushing pastoralists into the Western areas. The example of the close relation between the (High clan), a cattle-keeping population, and the (High clan children), a more-or-less sedentary forager population (also known as "Strandlopers"), both occupying the area of
ǁHuiǃgaeb, shows that the strict distinction between these two lifestyles is unwarranted, as well as the ethnic categories that are derived. Foraging peoples who ideologically value non-accumulation as a social value system would be distinct, however, but the distinctions among "Khoekhoe pastoralists", "San hunter-gatherers" and "Bantu agriculturalists" do not hold up to scrutiny, and appear to be historical
reductionism. While there are several theories about the Damaran and their links to the rest of the Khoekhoe, it is undeniable that they were originally the first inhabitants of Namibia along with the San, as such it is dubitable that the Nama and Damara peoples both had a hand in the creation of the Khoekhoe language as it spread southward. Following the migration of Bantu groups such as the Herero, the Damaran were displaced and migrated throughout all corners of what is today Namibia, this can be noted in a word used by Damaran when referring to the country.
Arrival of Europeans Portuguese explorers and merchants are the first to record their contacts, in the 15th and 16th centuries A.D. The ongoing encounters were often violent. In 1510, at the
Battle of Salt River,
Francisco de Almeida and fifty of his men were killed and his party was defeated by ox-mounted ("" in Dutch approximate spelling), which was one of the so-called Khoekhoe clans of the area that also included the ("", also known as "Strandlopers"), said to be the ancestors of the !Ora nation of today. In the late 16th century, Portuguese, French, Danish, Dutch and English but mainly Portuguese ships regularly continued to stop over in Table Bay en route to the Indies. They traded tobacco, copper and iron with the
Khoekhoe-speaking clans of the region, in exchange for fresh meat. The local population reduced after
smallpox epidemics spread through European contact. The Khoe-speaking clans suffered high mortality due to a lack of acquired immunity to the disease. This increased, as military conflict with the intensification of the colonial expansion of the
United East India Company that began to enclose traditional grazing land for farms. Over the following century, the Khoe-speaking peoples were steadily driven off their land, resulting in numerous northwards migrations, and the reformulation of many nations and clans, as well as the dissolution of many traditional structures. According to professors Robert K. Hitchcock and Wayne A. Babchuk, "During the early phases of European colonization, tens of thousands of Khoekhoe and
San peoples lost their lives as a result of genocide, murder, physical mistreatment, and disease." During an investigation into "bushman hunting" parties and genocidal raids on the San, Louis Anthing commented: "I find now that the transactions are more extensive than did at first appear. I think it not unlikely that we shall find that almost all the farmers living near this border are implicated in similar acts ... At present I have only heard of coloured farmers (known as Bastards) as being mixed up with these matters." "Khoekhoe" social organisation was thus profoundly damaged by the colonial expansion and land seizure from the late 17th century onwards. As social structures broke down, many Khoekhoen settled on farms and became bondsmen (bondservants, serfs) or farm workers; others were incorporated into clans that persisted. Georg Schmidt, a
Moravian Brother from
Herrnhut, Saxony, now Germany, founded
Genadendal in 1738, which was the first mission station in southern Africa, among the Khoe-speaking peoples in Baviaanskloof in the
Riviersonderend Mountains. The colonial designation of "Baasters" came to refer to any clans that had European ancestry in some part and adopted certain Western cultural traits. Though these were later known as Griqua (Xirikua or Griekwa) they were known at the time as "
Basters" and in some instances are still so called, e. g., the Bosluis Basters of the
Richtersveld and the Baster community of
Rehoboth, Namibia, mentioned above. Arguably responding to the influence of missionaries, the states of
Griqualand West and
Griqualand East were established by the Kok dynasty; these were later absorbed into the
Cape Colony of the
British Empire. Beginning in the late 18th century,
Oorlam communities migrated from the Cape Colony north to
Namaqualand. They settled places earlier occupied by the Nama. They came partly to escape
Dutch colonial conscription, partly to raid and trade, and partly to obtain herding lands. Some of these emigrant Oorlams (including the band led by the outlaw
Jager Afrikaner and his son
Jonker Afrikaner in the
Transgariep) retained links to Oorlam communities in or close to the borders of the Cape Colony. In the face of gradual Boer expansion and then large-scale
Boer migrations away from British rule at the Cape, Jonker Afrikaner brought his people into Namaqualand by the mid-19th century, becoming a formidable force for Oorlam domination over the Nama and against the
Bantu-speaking Hereros for a period.
Kat River settlement (1829–1856) and Khoena in the Cape Colony .|alt= By the early 1800s, the remaining Khoe-speakers of the Cape Colony suffered from restricted civil rights and discriminatory laws on land ownership. With this pretext, the powerful Commissioner General of the Eastern Districts,
Andries Stockenstrom, facilitated the creation of the "Kat River" Khoe settlement near the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. The more cynical motive was probably to create a buffer-zone on the Cape's frontier, but the extensive fertile land in the region allowed people to own their land and build communities in peace. The settlements thrived and expanded, and Kat River quickly became a large and successful region of the Cape that subsisted more or less autonomously. The people were predominantly
Afrikaans-speaking !Gonakua, but the settlement also began to attract other diverse groups. Khoekua were known at the time for being very good marksmen, and were often invaluable allies of the Cape Colony in its
frontier wars with the neighbouring
Xhosa politics. In the
Seventh Frontier War (1846–1847) against the Gcaleka, the Khoekua gunmen from Kat River distinguished themselves under their leader
Andries Botha in the assault on the "
Amatola fastnesses". (The young
John Molteno, later Prime Minister, led a mixed commando in the assault, and later praised the Khoekua as having more bravery and initiative than most of his white soldiers.) However, harsh laws were still implemented in the Eastern Cape, to encourage the Khoena to leave their lands in the Kat River region and to work as labourers on white farms. The growing resentment exploded in 1850. When the
Xhosa rose against the
Cape Government, large numbers Khoeǀ'ona joined the Xhosa rebels for the first time. In addition to the Nama and Herero deaths, the Damara are lesser-known victims of the genocide who lost around 57% of their population.
Apartheid As native African people, Khoekhoe and other dark-skinned, indigenous groups were oppressed and subjugated under the white-supremacist
Apartheid regime. In particular, some consider Khoekhoe and related ethnic groups to have been some of the most heavily marginalized groups during Apartheid's reign, as referenced by previous South African president
Jacob Zuma in his 2012 state of the nation address. Some Khoekhoe in South Africa were classified as "Coloured" under Apartheid. While this meant that they were offered a few privileges not given to the population deemed "black" (such as not having to carry a passbook), they were still subject to discrimination, segregation, and other forms of oppression. This included the forced relocation caused by the
Group Areas Act, which broke up families and communities. The destruction of historical communities and the blanket designation of "coloured" (ignoring any nuances of the Khoekhoe peoples' specific cultures or subgroups) contributed to an erasure of Khoekhoe identity and culture, one which modern Khoekhoe people are still working to undo. Apartheid ended in 1994 and so too did the racial "Coloured" designation.
Modern era After apartheid, Khoekhoe activists have worked to restore their lost culture, and affirm their ties to the land. Khoekhoe and Khoisan groups have brought cases to court demanding restitution for 'cultural genocide and discrimination against the Khoisan nation’, as well as land rights and the return of Khoesan corpses from European museums. ==Culture==