would
repeatedly happen throughout their conquest of South Africa-the
Euro-
pean invaders established control with superior arms by exploiting inter-
nal divisions among the local people.
By 1713, the indigenous pastoral society of the southwestern corner of
Africa was disintegrating. Whites were in control of the fertile territory
below the mountain escarpment extending fiftymiles north and forty miles
east from Cape Town. The Khoikhoi had been unable to withstand
the
invasion of the Dutch East India Company and its settlers. They had lost
most of their livestock-their
most valued possessions: the records of the
company show that between 1662 and 1713 it received 14,363 cattle and
32,808 sheep from the Khoikhoi. Their fragile political system had col-
lapsed, and the chiefs had become pathetic clients of the company. In the
1680s, individuals and families had begun to detach themselves from their
society and serve burghers as shepherds and cattleherds. The southwestern
Khoikhoi were becoming a subordinate
caste in the colonial society, set
apart by appearance
and culture from both the Whites and the slaves;
technically free, but treated no better than the slaves.
Richard Elphick sums up the colonial system: "The Company and the
settlers in combination
...