Cape Coloureds

Cape Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kaapse Kleurlinge) are a South African group of Coloured people who are from the Cape region in South Africa which consists of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Their ancestry comes from the interracial mixing between the White, the indigenous Khoi and San, the Xhosa plus other Bantu people, labourers from South Asia, slaves imported from the Dutch East Indies, immigrants from the Levant or Yemen (or a combination of all). Eventually, all these ethnic and racial groups intermixed with each other, forming a group of mixed-race people that became the "Cape Coloureds".
Although Coloureds represent only 8.15% of people within South Africa, they make up 42.1% of the population in the Western Cape, representing a plurality of the population of the province. (according to the 2022 South African census)
They are generally bilingual, speaking Afrikaans and English, though some speak only one of these. Some Cape Coloureds may code switch, speaking a patois of Afrikaans and English called Afrikaaps, also known as Cape Slang (Capy) or Kombuis Afrikaans, meaning Kitchen Afrikaans. Cape Coloureds were classified under apartheid as a subset of the larger Coloured race group.
Recent studies of Cape Coloureds using genetic testing have found ancestry to vary by region. Khoe-San ancestry is higher in inland regions and towards the North into present-day Northern Cape. Although it is prevalent throughout the Cape, the partial Bantu-Speaking ancestry (most predominantly Xhosa) gets higher going Eastwards into present-day Eastern Cape. The European-related ancestry is highest along the coast. In Cape Town and the rest of the Western Cape province, the partial Asian ancestry is high and diverse due to the arrival of Asian and African slaves that mixed with Europeans (colonists/immigrants/tourists) and existing mixed race (Khoisan-European) which formed the modern day Cape Coloureds and Cape Malay due to the creolisation of all those populations. At least 4 genetic studies indicate that the average Cape Coloured has an ancestry consisting of the following, with large variation between individuals:
Below are the approximate ranges for each ancestral component based on genetic studies and historical accounts:
African Ancestry:
Range: ~ 30-68%
European Ancestry:
Range: ~ 20-70%
Asian Ancestry:
Range: ~ 20-40%
Middle Eastern Ancestry:
Range: ~ 5-15%
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, and individual results may vary. The ancestry of Cape Coloureds can be diverse and complex.
The genetic reference cluster term "Khoisan" itself refers to a colonially admixed population cluster, hence the concatenation, and is not a straightforward reference to ancient African pastoralist and hunter ancestry, which is often demarcated by the L0 haplogroup ancestry common in the general South African native population, which is also integral part of other aboriginal genetic reference cluster terms like "South-East African Bantu".
A separate Dutch Reformed Church, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC), was formed in 1881 to serve the Cape Coloured Calvinist population separately from the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK). It was merged in 1994 with the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA, formed 1963) to form the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa.
Success in the spread of Catholicism among Afrikaans speakers, including Coloured communities, remained minimal until the death throes of Apartheid during the mid to late 1980s. As Catholic texts began to be translated into Afrikaans, sympathetic Dutch Reformed pastors, who were defying the traditional anti-Catholicism of their Church, assisted in correcting linguistic errors. By 1996, the majority of Afrikaans-speaking Catholics came from the Coloured community, with a smaller number of Afrikaner converts, most of whom were from professional backgrounds.
Sunni Islam remains in practice among Cape Malays, who were generally regarded as a separate ethnoreligious group under apartheid.
The first and the largest phase of interracial marriages/Miscegenation in South Africa happened in the Dutch Cape Colony which began from the 17th century, shortly after the arrival of Dutch settlers, who were led by Jan van Riebeeck. When the Dutch settled in the Cape in 1652, they met the Khoi Khoi who were the natives of the area. After settling in the Cape, the Dutch established farms that required intensive labour therefore, they enforced slavery in the Cape. Some of the Khoi Khoi became labourers for the Dutch farmers in the Cape. Despite this, there was resistance by the Khoi Khoi, which led to the Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars.
As a result, the Dutch imported slaves from other parts of the world, especially the Malay people from present-day Indonesia and the Bantu people from various parts of Southern Africa. To a certain extent, slaves were also imported from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, Mauritius and elsewhere in Africa. The slaves were almost invariably given Christian names but their places of origin were indicated in the records of sales and other documents so that it is possible to estimate the ratio of slaves from different regions. Often, slaves were given their masters' surnames, surnames that were of biblical origin (e.g. Adams, Thomas, Jacobs, Matthews, Peters, Daniels) or surnames that reflected the month in which they arrived (e.g. September, March, October, April). These slaves were, however, dispersed and lost their cultural identity over the course of time.
Because most of the Dutch settlers in the Cape were men, many of them married and fathered the first group of mixed-race children with Khoi Khoi women. Soon after the arrival of slaves in the Cape, the Dutch men also married and fathered mixed race children with the Malay from Indonesia, the Southern African Bantu, Indians and other enslaved ethnic groups in the Cape. To a certain extent, the slaves in the Cape also had interracial unions with each other and mixed-race children were also conceived from these unions as well because the slaves were of different races (African and Asian). Unlike the One-drop rule in the USA, mixed-race children in the Cape were not viewed as "white enough to be white", "black enough to be black" nor "asian enough to be asian", therefore, mixed race children from all these interracial unions in the Cape grew up and married amongst themselves, forming their own community that would later be known as the "Cape Coloured".
The first interracial marriage in the Cape was between Krotoa (a Khoi Khoi woman who was a servant, a translator and a crucial negotiator between the Dutch and the Khoi Khoi. Her Dutch name was "Eva Van Meerhof") and Peter Havgard (a Danish surgeon whom the Dutch renamed as "Pieter Van Meerhof"). Having conceived 3 mixed-race children, Krotoa was known as the mother that gave birth to the Coloured community in South Africa.
Eventually, more Dutch people settled in the Cape, amongst them were the Van Wijk family (whose descendants became 'Van Wyk') who arrived in the Cape in 1686 and the Erasmus family that arrived in 1689.
The Huguenots (also known as 'French Huguenots') were French Protestants who escaped from the banishment and persecution of protestants in France and many of them immigrated to the Dutch Cape Colony to seek refuge amongst the existing Dutch community during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Despite being refugees, they played a huge role on the history of the current Afrikaans-speaking community, the Cape region as a whole and the rest of South Africa. Coming from a country that has a rich history of wine production, these French refugees pioneered the vineyards of the Cape Winelands, turning it into one of the biggest wine producers in the world. Although many Huguenots who arrived in the Cape were already married, their children and descendants were soon absorbed into the entire Cape society and after few generations, they spoke Dutch, not French. Just like many White-Afrikaans speakers, many Coloured-Afrikaans speakers also have some ancestry from France due to the Huguenots who integrated with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape region. Through the impact of the Huguenots in the Cape, French names and the French version of other names became very popular within the Afrikaans speaking community (both White and Coloured) e.g. Jacques, Cheryl, Elaine, André, Michelle, Louis, Chantel/Chantelle, Leon, François, Jaden, Rozanne, Leroy, Monique, René, Lionel. Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, there are many Afrikaans surnames of French origin e.g. Le Roux, De Villiers, Joubert, Marais, Visagie, Du Plessis, Pienaar, De Klerk(from 'Le Clerc'), Meyer, Fourie, Theron, Cronje, Viljoen (from 'Villion'), Du Toit, Reyneke, Malan, Naude, De Lille, Fouche, Blignaut, Retief, Boshoff, Rossouw, and Louw.
During the 1600s and the 1700s, Germany was the Netherlands' biggest trading partner in Europe and due to their good relations, hundreds of thousands of Germans were recruited by the VOC making Germans the largest foreign Europeans in the Dutch empire. Throughout the Dutch rule, the VOC sent nearly 15 000 Germans to the Dutch Cape Colony to work as officials, sailors, administrators and soldiers. Just like the French Huguenots, the Germans in the Dutch Cape Colony were also assimilated into the existing Dutch community and they also learnt Dutch which replaced German. Eventually, Germans in the Cape became farmers, teachers, traders and ministers. Almost all Germans who settled in the Cape throughout the Dutch rule were men and therefore, almost all German men in the Cape married women outside their culture (especially African and Asian women). Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, there are many Afrikaans surnames of German origin e.g. Botha, Grobler, Hartzenberg, Pretorius, Booysen, Steenkamp, Kruger (from 'Krüger'), Botha, Venter, Cloete, Schoeman, Mulder, Kriel, Breytenbach, Engelbrecht, Potgieter, Maritz, Liebenberg, Fleischman, Weimers, and Schuster. Some few Portuguese people also settled in the Cape and were integrated into the Cape society, which is how the Portuguese surname 'Ferreira' ended up being an Afrikaans surname as well.
With the arrival of more Europeans (as mentioned above), more African and Asian slaves and the recruitment of more Khoi Khoi labourers in the Cape Colony, there were more interracial unions with more mixed-race children who were absorbed into the Cape Coloured community. The recruitment of Khoi Khoi labourers and the importation of African and Asian slaves continued until the Cape fell under British rule in the early 1800s and eventually, these slaves and labourers were absorbed into the Cape Coloured community.
The predominant Asian slaves in the Cape were the Malays who came from Indonesia while some also came from Malaysia. Because Indonesia and Malaysia are both predominantly Muslim-states, the slaves who were taken from these 2 countries were the ones who introduced Islam in the Dutch Cape Colony, which became the 2nd largest religion amongst Cape Coloureds, after Christianity. Many Malays were also sent to the Dutch Cape Colony as exiled prisoners who ended up as slaves as a punishment for rebelling against Dutch rule in Indonesia(which was then called the Dutch East Indies). Although most Malays in the Dutch Cape Colony were interracially absorbed into the Cape Coloured community, a small minority of them preserved their own community and culture, therefore, they became known as the 'Cape Malay'. Eventually, other Muslims(especially Indian slaves and merchants from the Middle East and North Africa) were absorbed into the Cape Malay community. However, during Apartheid, the Cape Malays were classified as a sub-group of 'Coloureds' due to similar ancestry with the Cape Coloureds and because South Africa's population was grouped into four races under the Population Registration Act, 1950: Black, White, Coloured and Indian. Therefore, many Cape Malays were forced to live in Coloured communities during Apartheid.
During the 17th century (in this case, from 1652-1700), the Dutch Cape Colony consisted only of present-day Cape Town with its surrounding areas (such as Paarl, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek etc.). From the 18th century until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the territory of the Cape expanded gradually to the north and east. The expansion of the Dutch Cape Colony was mainly caused by the dry and infertile nature of its immediate interior, therefore farmers needed fertile land because farms could only be settled where there were springs to provide permanent water. However, the expansion was also influenced by emigration of the Trekboers, who left the Dutch Cape Colony and migrated into the Karoo during the 18th century and due to British rule during the 19th century. By the 1750s, the territory of the Dutch Cape Colony had reached present-day Swellendam and by the end of the Dutch rule (after British annexation in 1814), the territory of the Cape had already reached certain parts of present-day Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape, leading to the arrival of Afrikaners/Boers with their multiracial slaves in different parts of the Cape. When the Cape fell under British rule during the 19th century, it continued to expand until it reached the border with other colonies and with the Boer republics. With the gradual expansion of the Cape, the migration of the trekboer, the migration of Afrikaners/Boers with their multiracial slaves and the additional arrival of various European nationalities (such as the British, Irish etc.), there were more interracial unions throughout the Cape: this time between the white and the Khoisans in present-day Northern Cape, and between the white and the Xhosa in present-day Eastern Cape, with more mixed race children being conceived, who also became part of the Cape Coloureds.
Miscegenation in the eastern part of the Cape (which is now the 'Eastern Cape') dates to the late 1600s which began as a result of the shipwrecks. The Wild Coast Region of the Eastern Cape (which stretches from the provincial border with Natal to East London and Port Alfred) is named after its wilderness and the stormy seas that caused thousands of shipwrecks, especially during the 1700s. Survivors of the shipwrecks (most of whom were Europeans while some were Asians) settled on the Wild Coast. Having no means to return home, most survivors remained permanently in the Eastern Cape and mixed with the Xhosa. Within the same period, many escaped slaves from the Dutch Cape Colony found refuge amongst the Xhosa, then they were assimilated into Xhosa society, and then they were soon followed by the Trekboers who were on their way to the Karoo, while some of them settled in the Eastern Cape where they mixed with the Xhosa and the Khoi Khoi. The most notorious Trekboer to do so was the Coenraad De Buys who fathered many mixed race children with his many African wives (who were Khoi Khoi and Xhosa) and one of them was Chief Ngqika's mother, Yese, wife of Mlawu kaRarabe. During the last years of Dutch rule, the territory of the Dutch Cape Colony had reached the Western portion of the Eastern Cape, especially in the Graaff-Reinet region which led to the arrival of Boers/Afrikaners with their multiracial slaves. Miscegenation in the Eastern Cape continued during the 1800s until the early 1900s with the arrival of British, Irish and German settlers, many of whom mixed with the Xhosa and eventually multiracial people in the Eastern Cape also became part of the Cape Coloured.
In the Northern region of the Cape (which now the 'Northern Cape'), miscegenation began in the 1700s, shortly after the arrival of the Trekboers that left the Dutch Cape Colony (fleeing from autocratic rule) and many settled in the Karoo while some settled in Namaqualand. Some Trekboers even went as far as the Orange River and beyond to the Southern part of the Kalahari and in all these areas, they met the Khoisans(the San and the Khoi Khoi). To survive in this hot and dry region, the Trekboers adopted the nomadic lifestyle of the Khoisans and some even mixed with the Khoisans. During the last years of Dutch rule, the territory of the Dutch Cape Colony had reached the Southern portion of the Northern Cape, leading to the arrival of Boers/Afrikaners with their multiracial slaves. In the early 1800s, the Griqua people left the Dutch Cape Colony and half of them migrated to the North of the Karoo where they established a Griqua state called 'Griqualand West'. Then the Basters, Oorlams and some Cape Coloured migrated to the North as well and some of them even went as far as present-day Namibia. In the latter half of the 1800s, large sums of diamond, Uranium, Copper and Iron ore were discovered in the Northern Cape which attracted many Europeans, many of whom mixed with the San, Khoi khoi, Tswana in the North-East and the Xhosa in the South-East and then multiracial people in the Northern Cape also became part of the Cape Coloured.
After British annexation in 1814, slavery was abolished in the Cape in 1834, which lead to the Great Trek when the Boers left the Cape as Voortrekkers and migrated into the interior of South Africa to form the Boer republics. Most of the freed slaves (who became Cape Coloureds) remained behind. Many freed slaves moved to an area in Cape Town that became known as District Six. Throughout the 1800s (especially after the abolishment of slavery in 1834) and the early 1900s, the Cape received an influx of refugees, immigrants and indentured labourers from: Britain, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania, St Helena, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Middle East, West Africa, North Africa and East Africa(majority of all these groups were absorbed into the Cape Coloured community).
In the 1800s, the Philippines, at the time a Spanish colony, experienced a harsh rebellion against Spanish colonial rule, so many Filipinos fled to different parts of the world. In the late 1830s, the first Filipinos to arrive in the Cape settled in Kalk Bay, Cape Town where they fished for a living and then Kalk Bay became their new home. When word reached the Philippines, many more Filipinos flocked to Kalk Bay, and they were soon scattered throughout Cape Town and other parts of the region that is now the Western Cape, where most of them were eventually absorbed into the Cape Coloured community. As a result, many Cape Coloureds can trace some of their roots to the Philippines due to the Filipinos of Kalk Bay. Many Filipinos who settled in the Cape were also mixed with some Spanish ancestry as a result of the Spaniards who mixed with the indigenous people of the Philippines while some were simply Spanish Filipinos of Spanish descent, therefore, some Cape Coloureds can also trace some of their roots to Spain due to the Filipinos of Kalk Bay. Within the Cape Coloured community, surnames from the Filipinos of Kalk Bay (which are mostly Spanish surnames that the Filipinos got from the Spaniards) are Gomez, Pascal, Torrez, De La Cruz, Fernandez, Florez(also spelt as 'Floris'), Manuel, and Garcia.
In 1888, Oromo slave children from Ethiopia (who were headed for Arabia) were rescued and freed by British troops. In 1890, the British troops brought these freed Oromo slaves to Lovedale Mission in present-day Eastern Cape where many of them became part of the Cape Coloured. The late Dr Neville Alexander's grandmother, Bisho Jarsa, was a freed Oromo slave from Ethiopia.
By the turn of the 20th century, District six became more established and cosmopolitan. Although its population was predominantly Cape Coloured, District Six (just like many places in the Cape) was diverse with different ethnicities, races and nationalities living there (this includes Blacks, Whites, Jews, Cape Malays and Asian immigrants such as the Indians, Chinese, Japanese etc.) Many of these groups were absorbed into the Cape coloured community. The whole Cape Colony (including the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape) also attracted many European immigrants of various nationalities(including Scandinavians, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians etc.), many of whom married into the Cape Coloured community while some mixed with other ethnic groups, whose children got absorbed into the Cape Coloured community, further diversifying the ancestry of Cape Coloureds.
During the 20th century (under British rule from 1910-1948 and Apartheid regime from 1948-1994), many Khoisans living in the Cape Province were assimilated into the Cape Coloured community, especially in the North of the Cape(now the 'Northern Cape'). As a result, many Cape Coloureds, especially from the Northern Cape, share close ties with the San and the Khoi Khoi, especially those living in the Namaqualand region, around the Orange river and the Kalahari region.
As a result, the Cape Coloureds ended up having the most diverse ancestry in the world with a blend of so many different cultures mixed together.
A group of Cape Coloureds were interviewed in the documentary series Ross Kemp on Gangs. One of the gang members who participated in the interview mentioned that black South Africans have been the main beneficiaries of South African social promotion initiatives while the Cape Coloureds have been further marginalised.
The 2009 film I'm Not Black, I'm Coloured – Identity Crisis at the Cape of Good Hope (Monde World Films, US release) is one of the first historical documentary films to explore the legacy of Apartheid through the viewpoint of the Cape Coloured community, including interviews with elders, pastors, members of Parliament, students and everyday people struggling to find their identity in the new South Africa. The film's 2016 sequel Word of Honour: Reclaiming Mandela's Promise (Monde World Films, US release)
Various books have covered the subject matter of Coloured identity and heritage.
Patric Tariq Mellet, heritage activist and author of 'The Camissa Embrace' and co-creator of The Camissa Museum, has composed a vast online blog archive ('Camissa People') of heritage information concerning Coloured ancestry tracing to the Indigenous San and Khoe and Malagasy, East African, Indonesian, Indian, Bengal and Sri Lankan slaves.
The term "coloureds" is currently treated as a neutral description in Southern Africa, classifying people of mixed race ancestry. "Coloured" may be seen as offensive in some other western countries, such as Britain and the United States of America.
The most used racial slurs against Cape Coloureds are Hottentot or hotnot and Kaffir. The term "hotnot" is a derogatory term used to refer to Khoisan people and coloureds in South Africa. The term originated from the Dutch language, where "Hottentot" was used to describe a language spoken by the Khoisan people. It later came to be used as a derogatory term for the people themselves, based on European perceptions of their physical appearance and culture. The term is often used to demean and dehumanize Khoisan and coloured people, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and discrimination against them. The term "Kaffir" is a racial slur used to refer to coloured people and black people in South Africa. It originated from Arabic and was used to refer to non-Muslims. Later, it was used by European-descended South Africans to refer to black and coloured people during the apartheid era, and the term became associated with racism and oppression. While it is still used against Coloured people, it is not as prevalent as it is against black people.