Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-Century Travellers in South Africa(18 Atlantic World)

The establishment of a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the seventeenth century and an expansion of the sphere of colonial influence in the eighteenth century made South Africa the only part of sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans could travel with relative ease deep into the interior. As a result individuals with scientific interests in Africa came to the Cape. This book examines writings and drawings of scientifically educated travellers, particularly in the field of ethnography, against the background of commercial and administrative discourses on the Cape. It is argued that the scientific travellers benefited more from their relationship with the colonial order than the other way around.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
"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)