Cape Dutch

For the architectural style, see Cape Dutch architecture.

For the language or dialect, see Afrikaans.

Cape Dutch

Regions with significant populations
Languages
Afrikaans, South African English
Religion
Protestant (Afrikaner Calvinism, Reformed churches)
Related ethnic groups
Boer Cape Coloured Baster Griqua

Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe the more affluent, apolitical section of the Cape Colony's Afrikaner population which did not participate in the Great Trek or the subsequent founding of the Boer republics.

History

Following the establishment of the Dutch East India Company's initial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, it became home to a large population of "vrijlieden", also known as "vrijburgers" (free citizens). The earliest vrijburgers were Company employees who applied for grants of land and permission to retire in South Africa as independent farmers. Most were married Dutch citizens who committed to spend at least twenty years on the African continent. In exchange they received plots of thirteen and a half morgen apiece, a twelve year exemption from property taxes, and loans of seeds and agricultural implements. Reflecting the multi-national character of the Company's workforce and overseas settlements, smaller numbers of German and French Huguenot immigrants were also allowed to settle in South Africa, and by 1691 over a quarter of the Cape's European population was not ethnically Dutch.

Meanwhile, their pastoral trekking kinsmen, the Trekboers, were migrating away from the Western Cape to carve out a distinct culture and dialect with a strong desire for independence. The term Cape Dutch is believed to have been coined by Trekboers to show that the Cape Dutch did not share the Trekboers' culture and interests or desire for independence. The Cape Dutch tended to have not much affinity for their rustic Trekboer kinsmen, whose language, culture, and frontier lifestyle they sometimes deemed inferior.

The Voortrekkers (mainly descendants of Trekboers) embarked on a series of mass migrations caused by the invading British, later known as the Great Trek.

During the early twentieth century, the descendants of the Cape Dutch and the Boers of Voortrekker and Trekboer descent would collectively become known as Afrikaners. Although the term Afrikaner was used for both Boers and Cape Dutch the term was and still is rejected by the Boers to keep their separate identity. That term is based on the language they spoke, Afrikaans, which directly evolved from Dutch dialects with minor English, Malay, French and African influences. The Cape Dutch spoke a dialect called Cape Afrikaans or Western Cape Afrikaans, while the Trekboers and most Voortrekkers spoke a dialect called Eastern Border Afrikaans. The Griquas (a métis of Boer, Tswana and Khoi) spoke a dialect called Orange River Afrikaans.

The descendants of the Cape Dutch in the twentieth century were considered more "liberal" and internationalist, while their northern, somewhat estranged kinsmen, the descendants of Voortrekkers and Trekboers, were considered more conservative, republican and nationalist.

During the referendum of 1960 which asked voters if they wanted to exit from the British Commonwealth and adopt a republic in South Africa, many Cape Dutch descendants voted not in favour while most Republican Boer descendants voted in favour.

The Republic of South Africa was adopted on a 52% result of the referendum due to the popular support of the Republican Boer descendants.

The term Cape Dutch also refers to the early form of Afrikaans spoken at the Cape and also refers to a style of architectural design used in houses, farm steads, wine estates and public buildings of the 17th and 18th centuries in the Cape, particularly around Cape Town, but also in towns like Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Swellendam, Tulbagh and as far off as Graaff-Reinet.