For the people of Khoikhoi and slave antecedents, these options were
palliatives rather than cures. Although they were not technically enslaved,
lacking land and political power, most of them were effectivelyenserfed to
the white colonists. In the Cape Colony, the white settlers had repeatedly
demonstrated a determination to achieveand maintain a near monopoly of
the productive land. In 1799, for example, the Dutch authorities had
granted land on the Gamtoos River in the frontier zone .to a band of
Khoikhoi under David Stuurrnan; but in 18°9, when Stuurman refused to
surrender two Khoikhoi whose employer had not allowed them to leavehis
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