Khoikhoi

(1805).]] The Khoikhoi ("people people" or "real people") or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen (or San, as the Khoikhoi called them). They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD. When European immigrants colonized the area in 1652, the Khoikhoi were practising extensive pastoral agriculture in the Cape region, with large herds of Nguni cattle. The European immigrants labeled them Hottentots, in imitation of the sound of the Khoisan languages, but this term is today considered derogatory.

Archaeological evidence shows that the Khoikhoi entered South Africa from Botswana through two distinct routes – traveling west, skirting the Kalahari to the west coast, then down to the Cape, and travelling south-east out into the Highveld and then southwards to the south coast. Most of the Khoikhoi have largely disappeared as a group, except for the largest group, the Namas.

History

The Khoikhoi were originally part of a pastoral culture and language group found across Southern Africa. Originated in the northern area of modern Botswana, the ethnic group steadily migrated south, reaching the Cape approximately 2,000 years ago. Khoikhoi subgroups include the Korana of mid-South Africa, the Namaqua to the west, and the Khoikhoi in the south. Husbandry of sheep, goats and cattle provided a stable, balanced diet and allowed the related Khoikhoi peoples to live in larger groups than the region's previous inhabitants, the San. Herds grazed in fertile valleys across the region until the 3rd century AD when the advancing Bantu encroached into their traditional homeland. The Khoikhoi were forced into a long retreat into more arid areas. Today, in the southwest country of Namibia, the majority of the Khoikhoi people are mixed with one of the Bantu groups known as the Damara – today, they have a mixed-light skin tone, resulting from the light color of the Khoikhoi people and the darker color of the Bantu people. This people group – known as either Damara or Khoikhoi – live around the Erongo region of Namibia. They speak the language known as "Khoikhoigobab" or simply (the more wide spread term) "Damara".

Migratory Khoi bands living around what is today Cape Town intermarried with San. However the two groups remained culturally distinct as the Khoikhoi continued to graze livestock and the San subsisted as hunter-gatherers. The Khoi initially came into contact with European explorers and merchants in approximately AD 1500. The ongoing encounters were often violent. Local population dropped when the Khoi were exposed to smallpox by Europeans. Active warfare between the groups flared when the Dutch East India Company enclosed traditional grazing land for farms. Over the following century the Khoi were steadily driven off their land, which effectively ended traditional Khoikhoi life.

Khoikhoi social organization was profoundly damaged and, in the end, destroyed by European colonial expansion and land seizure from the late 17th century onwards. As social structures broke down, some Khoikhoi people settled on farms and became bondsmen or farm workers; others were incorporated into existing clan and family groups of the Xhosa people.

In recent years the Khoikhoi have fought a bitter battle against the Herero cattle herders, who have attempted to take their traditional lands.

Massacre

From 1904 to 1907, the Namaqua, a Khoikhoi group living in present-day Namibia, along with the Herero took up arms against the Germans, who had colonized Namibia. 10,000 Nama, half of the total Nama population, perished.

Culture

The religious mythology of the Khoikhoi gives special significance to the moon, which may have been viewed as the physical manifestation of a supreme being associated with heaven. Tsui'goab is also believed to be the creator and the guardian of health, while Gunab is primarily an evil being, who causes sickness or death. Recently, many Khoikhoi in Namibia have converted to Islam and make up the largest group among Namibia's Muslim community.

The traditional Khoisan are a hunter and gatherer society. They live in simple and disposable huts made of long sticks bound at the top with vines or other fiber then covered in grass. Each family has their own hut. However children that are older may live in separate huts with others in their age group. The Khoisan are polygamous (more than one wife). Wives may share or occupy different huts depending on how well they get along. Visitors are entertained outside the home unit around the fire.

See also

Herero and Namaqua genocide

Namaqua

Khoikhoi mythology

History of South Africa

Hottentot Venus

Publications

P. Kolben, Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1731–38);

A. Sparman, Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope (Perth, 1786);

Sir John Barrow, Travels into the Interior of South Africa (London, 1801);

Bleek, Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or Hottentot Fables and Tales (London, 1864);

Emil Holub, Seven Years in South Africa (English translation, Boston, 1881);

G. W. Stow, Native Races of South Africa (New York, 1905);

A. R. Colquhoun, Africander Land (New York, 1906);

L. Schultze, Aus Namaland und Kalahari (Jena, 1907);

Meinhof, Die Sprachen der Hamiten (Hamburg, 1912);

Richard Elphick, Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa (London, 1977)

References

External links

Cultural Contact in Southern Africa by Anne Good for the Women in World History website

An article on the history of the Khoikhoi

Category:Indigenous peoples of Southern Africa Category:Ethnic groups in Namibia Category:Ethnic groups in South Africa Category:African nomads Category:Reduplicants Category:Ancient peoples Category:History of Africa