Khoekhoen
The Khoekhoen, also known as Khoekhoe in singular form, are an Indigenous group primarily located in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. Traditionally defined by their pastoral lifestyle, the Khoekhoen are distinct from their neighbors due to their lighter skin and unique click-based languages. Historically, they are associated with several subgroups, including the Namaqua, Gouriqua, Attaqua, and Gamtoos, and are often collectively referred to with the San people under the term Khoisan.
The origins of the Khoekhoen have been the subject of study, with current theories suggesting they are descendants of ancient Indigenous populations of southern Africa. Their transition from hunter-gatherers to pastoralists is debated, with some scholars proposing that they either adopted herding practices from neighboring farming cultures or developed them independently. Historically, the Khoekhoen engaged in both competition and cooperation with the San, leading to complex socioeconomic relationships.
The impact of European colonization has been profound, marked by significant persecution and discrimination, culminating in events such as the Herero and Namaqua genocide in the early 20th century. Today, the Khoekhoen population, estimated at around 100,000, encompasses both those who maintain traditional pastoral practices and those who have integrated into modern communities, reflecting a diverse cultural heritage.
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Khoekhoen
Related civilization: South Africa.
Also known as: Khoikhoi (outdated); Hottentots (outdated, derogatory).
Locale: South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia
Khoekhoen
The Khoekhoen (singular: Khoekhoe) were long a people defined in part by their pastoral lifestyle, in part by their morphologic differences from their darker-skinned neighbors, and in part by their linguistic differences from the Bantu speakers who lived next to them. Their name, derived from one of their own languages, means something like “the real people.” They are often grouped together with the hunter-gatherer San under the name Khoisan. Major Khoekhoen subgroups known in historic times include the Namaqua, Gouriqua, Attaqua, and Gamtoos. In the twenty-first century, most Khoekhoen reside in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.
The origins of the Khoekhoen have been a matter of great speculation since the arrival of the Dutch in the seventeenth century because of their relatively lighter skin color and distinctive language, which incorporates click sounds. During the 1700s, scholars suggested a variety of origins for the Khoekhoen: They were Jews who fled from Asia sometime after the biblical flood; they were descendants of shipwrecked children; or they were migrants from a northern homeland. Scholars have since discarded these ideas in favor of a hypothesis that the Khoekhoen, like the San, are Indigenous inhabitants of southern Africa, descended from stone tool-using Indigenous people.
Some modern anthropologists believe that the Khoekhoen were originally hunter-gatherers, like the San, who adopted herding technology after exposure to immigrant farming cultures from the lakes region of East Africa. Others now think that the Khoekhoen developed pastoralism independently of outside influences. Still others, such as historian Richard Elphick, believe that the Khoekhoen migrated with their stock from an area north of the Kalahari Desert in modern Namibia sometime around the second century CE. Some archaeological finds support Elphick’s interpretation, showing that domesticated small stock moved south to the western coast of South Africa sometime between 200 and 400 CE.
Whether the Khoekhoen adopted a pastoral lifestyle from other peoples or developed it independently, they quickly came to use the possession of cattle or sheep or goats as a means of social distinction. The need for pasture for their stock brought them into direct competition with the San, who relied on the same environment for their livelihood as did the Khoekhoen pastoralists. This led to conflict between the two groups: In historic times, for instance, records show that San hunters stalked or stole Khoekhoen cattle. Eventually, however, some Khoekhoen and San developed an interdependent economic relationship—San helped care for the stock and provided extra food through hunting and gathering in exchange for a few cattle to start a herd of their own. After the arrival of the Dutch in 1652, this relationship was common between Khoekhoen and San, and Europeans adopted it as well. Khoekhoen cattle helped maintain the original Dutch colony at Cape Town for many years.
The Khoekhoen, like many other Indigenous populations in Africa, faced frequent persecution, hardship, and discrimination throughout the centuries of European colonization of Africa. In addition to widespread mortality from diseases such as smallpox, the Khoekhoen suffered reduced civil rights and violence at the hands of Dutch and, by the nineteenth century, British settlers. This persecution continued into the twentieth century; notably, from 1904 to 1907, Germans living in the colony of German South-West Africa, located in present-day Namibia, committed a genocide against the Khoekhoen and other Indigenous peoples. This genocide, referred to as the Herero and Namaqua genocide and considered the first genocide of the twentieth century, claimed an estimated 10,000 lives. In May 2021 Germany officially acknowledged the genocide and offered a reparations payment to Namibia worth €1.1 billion ($1.34 billion).
Present-day Khoekoen populations, which numbered around 100,000 in the early 2020s, are spread out across the countries of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, with this population subdivided into a number of large clans. Some families still live a traditional pastoral lifestyle, while others have settled in permanent residences and adopted the professions and some cultural customs of their respective communities.
Bibliography
Boonzaier, Emile, Penny Berens, Candy Malherbe, and Andy Smith. The Cape Herders: A History of the Khoikhoi of Southern Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1996.
Clark, J. Desmond, and Steven A. Brandt, eds. From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
"Germany Officially Recognises Colonial-Era Namibia Genocide." BBC News, 28 May 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57279008. Accessed 23 Jun. 2023.
Inskeep, R. R. The Peopling of Southern Africa. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
"The Khoisan." South African History Online, www.sahistory.org.za/article/khoisan. Accessed 23 Jun. 2023.
Smith, Andrew B. "Pastoralism in Africa." Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 26 May 2021, oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-1066;jsessionid=8563C9DCC39871CC4DFAECA150FB82E8?rskey=fnq2gh&result. Accessed 23 Jun. 2023.
"Who Are the Indigenous Peoples of Southern Africa?" The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-Coordinating Committee, www.ipacc.org.za/southern-africa/. Accessed 23 Jun. 2023.