226 Leslé Jansen and Rayna Sutherland
and San Council & Cederberg Belt Indigenous Farmers Representatives, 2019,
p. 30). This violent apartheid legacy was confirmed in this effect by the UN Special Rapporteur, Prof. Rodolfo Stavenhagen (2005) in his UN M ission Report
on the situation of Indigenous peoples in South Africa. Finally, the Khoikhoi
were once again forcibly removed with the onset of the Group Areas Act of 1950
which facilitated systemic spatial disruption “clearly along racial lines” (National
Khoi and San Council & Cederberg Belt Indigenous Farmers Representatives,
2019, p. 30). Many of these communities were forcibly removed from the foothills of sacred mountains, such as Hoerikwagoo, now known as Table Mountain,
to the Cape Flats. Since 2004, Table Mountain remains a renowned UNESCO
Natural World Heritage Site and demarcated protected area. In contrast, the
Cape Flats is rich in culture; yet, as it is ongoingly neglected by government
development priorities, it is also a “crime ridden, impoverished wetland area
with extreme social and economic challenges” (ibid., p. 30).
Contemporary Socio-political Challenges
Colonial and apartheid legacies of these forms of violence live on today as many
Khoikhoi people continue to serve as commercial farm labourers on lands in
which they “hold deep ancestral claim to” (National Khoi and San Council
& Cederberg Belt Indigenous Farmers Representatives, 2019, p. 29). Yet, they
“hold no real land and resource rights on these farms, other than some residential rights and informal employment” (ibid., p. 29). Following the early colonial
criminalisation of the Khoikhoi and the later facilitated prison slave labour for
Afrikaner commercial farmers under apartheid, the Khoikhoi continue to be
disproportionately incarcerated 200 years later (ibid.). The legacies of the dop
system live on to still affect the health of Khoikhoi as foetal alcohol syndrome
is seven times higher in their communities in comparison to the world average.
Since the colonial era, the African Indigenous identity of the Khoikhoi has
been disregarded or marginalised to where the Khoikhoi continue to experience a lack of social and political visibility in the new democratic state. As an
ongoing apartheid legacy, the Khoikhoi continue to be homogenised under the
category of “Coloured” in official state statistics which still mirror apartheid
typologies of race which never reflected the existence of the Khoikhoi as Indigenous peoples (Le Fleur & Jansen, 2013). For example, 2011 census data was
disaggregated by racial categories of (i) Black South African, (ii) White, (iii)
Coloured and (iv) Indian/Asian (Alexander, 2018). Similarly, while there are 11
official languages represented in South Africa, none of the Khoikhoi people’s
Indigenous languages are included among them. As a result, to advocate for the
human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Khoikhoi as Indigenous peoples,
the UN Special Rapporteur, Radolfo Stavenhagen, recommended in his 2005
report “that indigenous communities be recognized as such constitutionally and
that legal institutions maintaining the stigma of their classicisation as ‘Coloured’
by the apartheid regime be removed” (Stavenhagen, 2005, p. 3). The South
and San Council & Cederberg Belt Indigenous Farmers Representatives, 2019,
p. 30). This violent apartheid legacy was confirmed in this effect by the UN Special Rapporteur, Prof. Rodolfo Stavenhagen (2005) in his UN M ission Report
on the situation of Indigenous peoples in South Africa. Finally, the Khoikhoi
were once again forcibly removed with the onset of the Group Areas Act of 1950
which facilitated systemic spatial disruption “clearly along racial lines” (National
Khoi and San Council & Cederberg Belt Indigenous Farmers Representatives,
2019, p. 30). Many of these communities were forcibly removed from the foothills of sacred mountains, such as Hoerikwagoo, now known as Table Mountain,
to the Cape Flats. Since 2004, Table Mountain remains a renowned UNESCO
Natural World Heritage Site and demarcated protected area. In contrast, the
Cape Flats is rich in culture; yet, as it is ongoingly neglected by government
development priorities, it is also a “crime ridden, impoverished wetland area
with extreme social and economic challenges” (ibid., p. 30).
Contemporary Socio-political Challenges
Colonial and apartheid legacies of these forms of violence live on today as many
Khoikhoi people continue to serve as commercial farm labourers on lands in
which they “hold deep ancestral claim to” (National Khoi and San Council
& Cederberg Belt Indigenous Farmers Representatives, 2019, p. 29). Yet, they
“hold no real land and resource rights on these farms, other than some residential rights and informal employment” (ibid., p. 29). Following the early colonial
criminalisation of the Khoikhoi and the later facilitated prison slave labour for
Afrikaner commercial farmers under apartheid, the Khoikhoi continue to be
disproportionately incarcerated 200 years later (ibid.). The legacies of the dop
system live on to still affect the health of Khoikhoi as foetal alcohol syndrome
is seven times higher in their communities in comparison to the world average.
Since the colonial era, the African Indigenous identity of the Khoikhoi has
been disregarded or marginalised to where the Khoikhoi continue to experience a lack of social and political visibility in the new democratic state. As an
ongoing apartheid legacy, the Khoikhoi continue to be homogenised under the
category of “Coloured” in official state statistics which still mirror apartheid
typologies of race which never reflected the existence of the Khoikhoi as Indigenous peoples (Le Fleur & Jansen, 2013). For example, 2011 census data was
disaggregated by racial categories of (i) Black South African, (ii) White, (iii)
Coloured and (iv) Indian/Asian (Alexander, 2018). Similarly, while there are 11
official languages represented in South Africa, none of the Khoikhoi people’s
Indigenous languages are included among them. As a result, to advocate for the
human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Khoikhoi as Indigenous peoples,
the UN Special Rapporteur, Radolfo Stavenhagen, recommended in his 2005
report “that indigenous communities be recognized as such constitutionally and
that legal institutions maintaining the stigma of their classicisation as ‘Coloured’
by the apartheid regime be removed” (Stavenhagen, 2005, p. 3). The South