ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the eighteenth century labour relations between the colonists and the Khoisan of the Western Cape were characterised by semi-cooperative symbiosis. By the end of the century however, the majority of the Khoisan in the area had been transformed into wage labourers. This chapter examines some of the features of Khoisan-colonial labour relations at different periods during the century and provides details of specific relationships in order to illustrate the processes of transformation involved. It makes a distinction between the south-western Cape and the Western Cape. The movement of colonial pastoralists, or Trekboers, into the Western Cape initiated competition between them and the Khoisan for land, grazing and water resources. To a large extent the history of the period 1700 to 1740 is simply an account of the processes whereby the Khoi were stripped of their livestock and denied access to grazing and water resources–unless they were prepared to work for the colonists.
