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
...
assaulted all five components of independence
together: [they] absorbed livestock and labor from the Khoikhoi economy,
subjugated Khoikhoi chiefs to Dutch overrule and their followers to Dutch
law, encroached on Khoikhoi pastures, and endangered the integrity of
Khoikhoi culture.t'" Then came smallpox. Brought in by a homeward
38