Gerrit Schutte

The Swellengrebel family is known in South Africa in connection with Hendrik Swellengrebel, the only local-born governor of the Cape Colony. Using Russian and Dutch archival sources as well as comprehensive studies of the Dutch merchant communities in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Moscow and Archangel, we traced the transformation of this family from Pomeranian clothiers into leading Russian arms importers and Cape agriculturalists. The earliest-known correspondence between residents of Russia and the Cape, the letters from Heinrich Swellengrebel in Moscow to his son in Cape Town, was also studied. We established that the Amsterdam burgomaster and friend of Peter I, Nicolaes Witsen, was a patron of Johannes Swellengrebel, a native of Russia and the first Swellengrebel who settled at the Cape. Having achieved a high social status in Russia and at the Cape, members of Swellengrebel family gravitated towards Western Europe, their ancestral homeland. The history of this family...

The Swellengrebels were the most important family at the Cape under Dutch East India Company (VOC) rule to become members of the Netherlands governing elite. Hendrik Swellengrebel was the colony's only locally-born governor, while his father and other members of the family at the Cape were born in Russia. Their migration between Europe, Africa and Asia reflected the development and functioning of the Dutch trade and patrimonial networks. Even on the periphery, at the Cape and among Dutch expatriates in Russia, those networks provided opportunities for overseas employment and upward social mobility. The case of the Swellengrebels shows that not only goods but also people could make their way from Russia to the Cape and the VOC Asia. Patronage enabled both spatial and upward social mobility. Keeping mutually beneficial relations with influential patrons such as Nicolaes Witsen, members of the Swellengrebel family navigated their way within the Dutch trade networks and achieved pro...

Abstract Over the last fifteen years Karel Schoeman, Afrikaans author of well-esteemed novels, described the history of the Cape Colony during the years of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in an ongoing series of historical studies, narratives, non-fiction, biographies and monographs. This article is an attempt to evaluate Schoeman's contribution to South African historiography: his approach and presentation, the subjects emphasised and interpretations given, and the scholarly quality and significance of his work. Characteristic of Schoeman is his ability to capture the character of the past enabling the reader to really understand it. The past is a country, far away, difficult to enter but there is a road to understanding: Verstehen, a mind open to historical sensation, listening to the voices from the past, seeing the past in its heritage. In his historical novels, Schoeman adapts history to the fictional world he creates. In his historiography, popularising scholarly knowledge with literary skills, Schoeman remains critical of many traditional stories and portraits a new, non-fiction Cape – a refreshment station for the maritime VOC empire situated halfway between Europe and Asia on African soil; a struggling colony of people of various backgrounds, poor people without history mostly; a colony full of problems, contrasts and contradictions, but also a surprising society, multiracial, multicultural, open, and full of possibilities.

... Lauts, Jorissen, Lion Cachet, Kuyper - their works were all appropriated by generations of South Africans, as were many other Dutch history books ... and novels for young and old, such as those by PJ Kloppers, De Wreker (1899), Louwrens Penning, De Leeuw van Modderspruit ...

In 1690, Jan Mijndertsz Cruywagen left the Netherlands for the Cape of Good Hope, accompanied by his wife and son. For a short time, he served in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a miller, but soon became a freeburgher, selling wine and running an inn.

Robert Shell's article on 'the short life and personal belongings of one slave: Rangton of Bali, 1673 - 1720' in Kronos 18 (October 1991) is a welcome and stimulating contribution to the study of the lives of slaves and free blacks at the Cape in the era of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It is exemplary in using archival material such as inventories as sources for the reconstruction of their material culture and lifestyle. At the same time, Shell's article demonstrates the problems and difficulties of such an approach. Poor command of the Dutch language and insufficient knowledge of the character of the VOC empire, including its emerging colonial culture, have led him astray. Neither mystery nor dubious legality surrounded the visit of the Zwaag to the Cape in 1698. For some years before, the flute Zwaag sailed the VOC's inter-Asian trade routes after arriving from the Netherlands at Batavia on the 31st of August 1695. Early November 1697 it was sent to the ...

Ons herdenk in hierdie dae Paul Kruger. Die seun van die Groot Trek wat sy spore nie net op die Transvaalse Hoeveld nagelaat het nie. 'n Gelowige Calvinis wat selfs in die grootste teenspoed sy oog laat verlig het deur die troostende woord van God se vaste beloftes. "Die Mozes van Zuid-Afrika, die zijn volk een zoo schoone toekomst opende", om woorde van 'n eeu gelede aan te haal - woorde van die Nederlandse Eerste Minister in 1904, sy geesverwant en broer in die Here, dr. Abraham Kuyper.

South African historiography is haunted. It is haunted by the spectre of Calvinism and the spirits of the Dutch and Afrikaner followers of John Calvin; haunted by a train of known and unknown churchgoers, theologians and politicians, some life and kicking, others dating from years even before 1652. In South African newspapers, magazines and novels, Calvinism nowadays often plays the part of a scapegoat. 'Selfs uit Afrikanergeledere moet ons toenemend hoor dat Calvinisme die skuld vir die een of ander misstand pf ontoereikend moet kry. Of dit om diskriminasie teen die vrou gaan, of om ongelykheid in besit, of om blote rassisme, watter vermeende of ware sondes ... ook begaan word'.1 This does not come as a surprise, since 'Dit (Calvinism) is mos-onvriendelik. (...). Dit skryf vir ons ouderwetse maniere voor; dit verstaan min van die moderne wereld'.2 Moreover, 'Die rede waarom die Calvinisme in Suid-Afrika 'n siegte naam onder sommige mense gekry het, is juis o...

De befaamde reiziger en ontdekker Robert Jacob Gordon (1743-1795), militair commandant van de Kaap de Goede Hoop, maakte in 1795 een eind aan zijn leven, een maand nadat hij de Kaap had moeten overgeven aan de Engelsen. De historiografie ziet een causaal verband tussen die twee activiteiten: Gordon pleegde zelfmoord, omdat iedereen hem minachtte als een laffe verrader, zelfs door de Engelsen. Dat beeld van Gordon de verrader/zelfmoordenaar is ontleend aan contemporaine geschriften van politieke tegenstanders en klakkeloos overgenomen en doorverteld in de Zuid-Afrikaanse geschiedschrijving, die een nationalistisch-antikoloniaal paradigma aanhangt. Maar Gordon was niet laf en hij heeft de Kaap niet verraden want hij had gedaan wat van een militair 18e-eeuwse officier werd verwacht; het besluit tot de overgave werd door de VOC-top als geheel genomen en werd niet geminacht door de Engelsen. Gordon pleegde dus geen zelfmoord uit wroeging en schaamte, maar omdat hij ziek was en de nog ver...

De voormalige Nederlandse marineofficier, cartograaf en tekenaar Charles William Meredith van de Velde (1818–1898) publiceerde in 1854 een Reis door Syrie en Palestina in 1851 en 1852. Van de Velde was een aanhanger van de Nederlandse opwekkingsbeweging, het Reveil. Hij had internationale contacten, was in de jaren 1860 bevriend met Henry Dunant en was medeoprichter van het Rode Kruis. In 1851–1852 (en in 1861–1862 opnieuw) reisde hij in het Nabije Oosten, met de bedoeling een betere kaart en beschrijving van het Heilig Land te maken. In 1854, na veertig jaren van anglicering, kochten maar kleine aantallen Kapenaren in voor Nederlandse boeken. Maar voor Van de Velde’s dure en tweedelige Reis naar het Heilig Land tekenden meer dan honderd mensen aan de Kaap in! Wilden zij het boek hebben omdat zij de auteur hadden gekend, toen hij 1848–1850 aan de Kaap verbleef? In die tijd had hij allerlei mensen ontmoet, had aandacht getoond voor evangelisatie en had zelfs Messenger of Mercy van de...

More than mere theology. Neo-Calvinistic perspectives on church and society in South-Africa. Comments on the Du Plessis case. For four years, 1928-1932, the orthodoxy / heterodoxy of the Stellenbosch theologian, Prof. Dr. J. du Plessis, shocked South Africa. In this affaire, various theological, ecclesiastical, religious, intellectual and sociocultural traditions clashed. Even the relationship of state and church was at stake. Up till now, this affaire, with its many aspects and effects, has never been studied thoroughly. According to many, Du Plessis stood for the Scottish-Calvinist tradition, the personal Methodist religion and an open, modern church, while his complainants - influenced by reactionary Princeton-based American fundamentalism - stood for a strict confessional church, biblicist and fundamentalist, for the type of Christian-national Calvinism and sturdy conservatism, if not even worse. This article asks for attention to the role of alumni of the Amsterdam Free Univers...

Questions concerning the drama at Schoonder Sigt: A closer look at the suicide of Robert Jacob Gordon in 1795 Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon (1743–1795) is a famous explorer of Southern Africa, its geography, people, flora and fauna. His reputation as Military Commander of the Cape of Good Hope is, however, not so good. His resistance against the British attack in 1795 was defensive, mostly evading direct combat, and after three months he surrendered. Subsequently, some five weeks later, on the 25th of October 1795, Gordon committed suicide. South African historiography, based on prevailing rumour at the time, was convinced: his suicide was due to feelings of shame and remorse, reaction to social isolation and contempt. People accused Gordon of cowardice

The Swellengrebels were the most important family at the Cape under Dutch East India Company (VOC) rule to become members of the Netherlands governing elite. Hendrik Swellengrebel was the colony's only locally-born governor, while his father and other members of the family at the Cape were born in Russia. Their migration between Europe, Africa and Asia reflected the development and functioning of the Dutch trade and patrimonial networks. Even on the periphery, at the Cape and among Dutch expatriates in Russia, those networks provided opportunities for overseas employment and upward social mobility. The case of the Swellengrebels shows that not only goods but also people could make their way from Russia to the Cape and the VOC Asia. Patronage enabled both spatial and upward social mobility. Keeping mutually beneficial relations with influential patrons such as Nicolaes Witsen, members of the Swellengrebel family navigated their way within the Dutch trade networks and achieved pro...

The Rev M.C. Vos (1759-1825), born at the Cape, clergyman in The Netherlands, at the Cape and Sri Lanka, is known as an initiator of the mission in South Africa. His life is mostly based on his autobiography Merkwaardig verhaal (1824). Some factual historical remarks learn, however, that his autobiography is far from a virtual (auto)biography, it is his story of God’s guidance in his life and an incentive to a religious revival.