The missing people - Accounting for the productivity of indigenous populations in Cape colonial history
(2015) In Journal of African History 56(2). p.195-215- Abstract
- Because information about the livelihoods of indigenous groups in Africa is often missing from colonial records, the presence of such people usually escapes attention in quantitative estimates of colonial economic activity. This is nowhere more apparent than in the eighteenth-century Dutch Cape Colony, where the role of the Khoesan in Cape production, despite being frequently acknowledged, has been almost completely ignored in quantitative investigations. Combining household-level settler data with anecdotal accounts of Khoesan labour, this article presents new estimates of the Khoesan population of the Cape Colony. Our results show that the Khoesan did not leave the area as a consequence of settler expansion. On the contrary, the number... (More)
- Because information about the livelihoods of indigenous groups in Africa is often missing from colonial records, the presence of such people usually escapes attention in quantitative estimates of colonial economic activity. This is nowhere more apparent than in the eighteenth-century Dutch Cape Colony, where the role of the Khoesan in Cape production, despite being frequently acknowledged, has been almost completely ignored in quantitative investigations. Combining household-level settler data with anecdotal accounts of Khoesan labour, this article presents new estimates of the Khoesan population of the Cape Colony. Our results show that the Khoesan did not leave the area as a consequence of settler expansion. On the contrary, the number of Khoesan employed by the settlers increased over time, as the growth of settler farming followed a pattern of primitive accumulation and drove the Khoesan to abandon their pastoral lifestyle to become farm labourers.We show that, in failing to include the Khoisan population, previous estimates have overestimated slave productivity, social inequality, and the level of gross domestic product in the Cape Colony. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5364151
- author
- Fourie, Johan and Green, Erik LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- South Africa, economic, labour, inequality, slavery, indigeneity
- in
- Journal of African History
- volume
- 56
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 195 - 215
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000356924400001
- scopus:84930842794
- ISSN
- 0021-8537
- DOI
- 10.1017/S002185371500002X
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ac8cca55-c91b-40b3-8239-4231b74c0d57 (old id 5364151)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:31:13
- date last changed
- 2024-02-21 18:25:54
@article{ac8cca55-c91b-40b3-8239-4231b74c0d57,
abstract = {{Because information about the livelihoods of indigenous groups in Africa is often missing from colonial records, the presence of such people usually escapes attention in quantitative estimates of colonial economic activity. This is nowhere more apparent than in the eighteenth-century Dutch Cape Colony, where the role of the Khoesan in Cape production, despite being frequently acknowledged, has been almost completely ignored in quantitative investigations. Combining household-level settler data with anecdotal accounts of Khoesan labour, this article presents new estimates of the Khoesan population of the Cape Colony. Our results show that the Khoesan did not leave the area as a consequence of settler expansion. On the contrary, the number of Khoesan employed by the settlers increased over time, as the growth of settler farming followed a pattern of primitive accumulation and drove the Khoesan to abandon their pastoral lifestyle to become farm labourers.We show that, in failing to include the Khoisan population, previous estimates have overestimated slave productivity, social inequality, and the level of gross domestic product in the Cape Colony.}},
author = {{Fourie, Johan and Green, Erik}},
issn = {{0021-8537}},
keywords = {{South Africa; economic; labour; inequality; slavery; indigeneity}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{195--215}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{Journal of African History}},
title = {{The missing people - Accounting for the productivity of indigenous populations in Cape colonial history}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S002185371500002X}},
doi = {{10.1017/S002185371500002X}},
volume = {{56}},
year = {{2015}},
}