The Griqua Mission at Philippolis 1822 - 1837 - Karel Schoeman

Vrijstatia series number 15. First edition 2005 with 142 pages in new condition.

Over the past few decades South African historiography has begun to recover from its previous Eurocentric bias to reflect the realities of a multiracial society. Over the past few decades South African historiography has begun to recover from its previous Eurocentric bias to reflect the realities of a multiracial society. Most of the various nonwhite groups which form part of the population of the country have begun to receive closer attention, but two have still been largely neglected the Korana, who no longer exist as an identifiable group, and the related Griquas, who still form a largely recognisable people with a sense of their own identity. In an attempt to help recover something of the Griqua past, the author has compiled a collection of official and semiofficial documents emanating from the Philippolis Captaincy, which has been published by the Van Riebeeck Society under the title Griqua Records the Philippolis Captaincy, 18261861. In order to put to use the large amount related material he has collected which could not be used in this work, as well as the knowledge of the subject he has acquired in the course of his research, he has now written what may be described as an accompanying sociocultural and historical survey of the Captaincy, consisting mainly of precis of and quotations from contemporary nonGriqua sources. The author here describes fully for the first time the rise, development and collapse of the Philippolis Captaincy, and gives a detailed account of its organisation and administration and the lives of its inhabitants.