Genealogy has been a very sensitive issue here in South Africa. We seem to be obsessed with race. When Dr Hans Heese published Groep Sonder Grense in 1985 it was received with much consternation and had a profound effect on South African society. The secret truth was that many if not most so-called white, settler South Africans of European descent were not as "lily white" as first believed. They also sported African and Asian blood in their veins. Heese's work was later published in English as Cape Melting Pot. It is a must read for the South African genealogist and historian.
I am of African descent too! I am related to Eva Krotöa as many Afrikaans speaking South Africans are. She was my tenth great-grandmother. Eva was of Khoikhoi descent born on Robben Island…
Colin G Garvie (1946)
+--Cornelia Elizabeth Koch (1919)
+----Bartholomeus Stephanus Koch (1886)
+------Bartholomeus Stephanus Koch (1843)
+--------Alida Christina Diederiks (1813)
+----------Hendrina Catharina Bruynswaard (1788)
+------------Bartholomeus Bruynswaard (1763)
+--------------Johanna Regina Zaayman (1745)
+----------------Bartholomeus Zaayman (1717)
+------------------Pieter Zaayman (c1688)
+--------------------Pieternella Meerhoff (c1655)
+----------------------EVA KROTÖA(c1642)
Pieternella's story has been beautifully recorded in Dalene Matthee's novel, Pieternella, Daughter of Eva. Eva Krotöa is equally fascinating. Her story is related in Trudie Bloem's book (to mention one), Krotöa - Eva, The Woman from Robben Island.
I share Andre van Rensburg's view, "The nearest I have come to royalty or chiefdom is through Eva who was an indigenous Khoikhoi (Hottentot)."
Andre writes...
"Eva also known as Krotoa was born c 1642 at the Cape. She was a member of the Goringhaikona. Strandloper (beachcomber), Hottentot, (this particular tribe consisted about fifty individuals according to Malherbe). Her uncle Herry also known as Autohoemao was the captain of this tribe. She rode on the back of an ox - denoting a high station amongst Khoikhoi. Like the biblical Eva she can be considered to be the stammoeder of the Afrikaner (at least mine), since her union in marriage with Pieter van Meerhoff was the commencement of the Afrikaner, having their roots in Europe but they are also the seed of Africa."
More about Eva's life and influence can be read at Andre van Rensburg's pages:
http://www.oocities.com/athens/rhodes/1266/genetic-eva.htm
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=erasmussa&id=I1358
Also see: Wikipedia
Eva, my tenth great-grandmother from Robben Island, connects me to Africa in as much as I am connected to Scotland and Germany through others. I am a South African. If I have any land claim at all, it would be through Eva's ancestors, to all the beaches of the Cape of Good Hope!
I am proudly Scottish but proudly South African too!
God bless Africa! God bless our Mothers!
Picture: Painting from PW Laidler, Growth and Government of Cape Town, 1939
©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za
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