Knowledge and colonialism : eighteenth-century travellers in South Africa / / by Siegfried Huigen.

• Superior document: Atlantic world, v. 18
• Author: Huigen, Siegfried.
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Atlantic world (Leiden, Netherlands) ; v. 18.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (326 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The establishment of a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the seventeenth century and an expansion of the sphere of colonial influence in the eighteenth century made South Africa the only part of sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans could travel with relative ease deep into the interior. As a result individuals with scientific interests in Africa came to the Cape. This book examines writings and drawings of scientifically educated travellers, particularly in the field of ethnography, against the background of commercial and administrative discourses on the Cape. It is argued that the scientific travellers benefited more from their relationship with the colonial order than the other way around.

Table of Contents

Wagon routes : an introduction -- Peter Kolb's Defence of the "Hottentots" (1719) -- Expeditions from Fort Lijdsaamheijd : the voc and the geography of Southern Africa in the beginning of the eighteenth century -- Trade and science : reports of the VOC expedition by Hendrik Hop from 1761-1762 -- Xhosa and Khoikhoi "households" : representations of inhabitants of Southern Africa in the Gordon atlas -- The adventures of a Surinamese Frenchman in South Africa : the travel accounts of François le Vaillant -- A 'Black legend' of Dutch colonialism in the Travels (1801-1804) of John Barrow -- Batavian colonial politics and travel accounts about South Africa -- The first ethnographic monograph : De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika (1810) by Lodewyk Alberti -- Conclusion: Knowledge and colonialism -- Annex 1: Independent editions and translations of Peter Kolb's Capvt bonae spei hodiernvm in the eighteenth century -- Annex 2: Structure of the Nieuwste en beknopte beschryving van de Kaap der Goede-Hope.