ABSTRACT
German and South African policy toward Bushmen, vacillatory as it was, shared a number of common assumptions and contradictions. The South African Occupation forces were concerned to show the world how much better they were than their German predecessors and consequently were more tolerant toward Bushmen. Then there were the "semitame or wild" Bushmen, who came from beyond the Police Zone to work on settler farms on a temporary or seasonal basis. There are several versions of how the magistrate of Gobabis, F. J. van Ryneveld, went "unarmed" to discuss peace with Bushmen but was treacherously shot with a poisoned arrow and later died in excruciating agony. Magistrate van Ryneveld was then ordered to investigate by contacting the Bushmen through intermediaries to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. The van Ryneveld case also provides a valuable case study of the workings of the informal justice system and Bushman resistance.
