Knowledge and Colonialism

Siegfried Huigen is Associate Professor of Dutch Literature and Cultural History at the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa. He publishes regularly on early modern representations of the extra-European world.

• PrefaceList of illustrations1. Wagon routes: an introduction2. Peter Kolb’s defence of the “Hottentots” (1719)3. Expeditions from Fort Lijdsaamheijd: The VOC and the geography of southern Africa in the beginning of the eighteenth century4. Trade and science: Reports of the VOC expedition by Hendrik Hop from 1751-17625. Xhosa and Khoikhoi “households”: Representations of inhabitants of Southern Africa in the Gordon Atlas6. The adventures of a Surinamese Frenchman in South Africa: The travel accounts of François le Vaillant7. A ‘Black Legend’ of Dutch colonialism in the Travels (1801-1804) of John Barrow8. Batavian colonial politics and travel accounts about South Africa9. The first ethnographic monograph: De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika (1810) by Lodewyk Alberti10. Conclusion: Knowledge and ColonialismAnnex 1. Independent Editions and Translations of Peter Kolb’s Capvt Bonae Spei Hodiernvm in the Eighteenth CenturyAnnex 2. Structure of the Nieuwste en Beknopte Beschryving van de Kaap der Goede-HoopSources and BibliographyIndexIllustration Section

"This book shows that doing history is an ongoing interaction between reading, translating, and interpreting—which together further historiographical discourse." - Alette Fleischer, in: Isis 102.3 (September 2011), pp. 567-568"In documenting the changing views that reached Europe over the decades concerning the peo-ples of South Africa, notably the San, Khoikhoi, Xhosas, mixed-race Bastaards, and, not least, white settlers of Dutch origin, Huigen documents an important early chapter in the history of anthropology and ethnography. [...] The text is closely tied to and powerfully reinforced by this visual material [39 glossy color plates with 46 illustrations], much of it strikingly beautiful." - James E. McClellan III, in: Centaurus, European Journal for the History of Science 53.3 (August 2011), pp. 247–248"...valuable overview of eighteenth-century scientific knowledge at the Cape [...]" - Saul Dubow, in: British Journal for the History of Science 43.3 (2010), pp. 490-491"Siegfried Huigen zeigt auf, wie man ein solch spannendes Kapitel aus der Geschichte der Entstehung unseres europäischen Wissens über eine fremde Region und über die dortige Bevölkerung wissenschaftlich exact kategorisieren und analysieren kann. Das Buch leistet darüber hinaus einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Geschichte der geographischen Erforschung Süd-afrikas." - Ulrich van der Heyden, in: Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Missiongeschichte, 28 (June 2010)