Krotoa

Krotoa
Native name	Krotoa
Born	circa 1642
Died	29 July 1674
Other names	Eva van Meerhof
Ethnicity	Goringhaicona
Spouse(s)	Pieter van Meerhof

Krotoa, or Eva (c. 1643 – 29 July 1674) was a Khoi woman who served as a translator for the Dutch during the founding of the Cape Colony.

Biography

Krotoa was born in 1643 as a member of the Goringhaicona (Strandlopers) tribe, and the niece of Autshumato, a Khoi leader and trader. When she was young, she worked in the household of Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor of the Cape colony. As a teenager, she learned Dutch and Portuguese and like her uncle, worked as an interpreter for the Dutch who wanted to trade goods for cattle. Unlike her uncle however, Krotoa was able to obtain a higher position within Dutch hierarchy as she additionally served as a trading agent, ambassador for a high ranking chief and peace negotiator in time of war. Her story exemplifies the initial dependency of the Dutch newcomers on the natives who were able to provide reasonably reliable information about the local inhabitants.

The Dutch’s initial arrival in April 1652 was not unilaterally viewed as negative. Many Khoen people saw the Dutch’s arrival as an opportunity for personal gain as middle men in the livestock trade; others saw them as potential allies against preexisting enemies. At the peak of Krotoa’s career as an interpreter, she held the belief that the Dutch presence could reap benefits on both sides.

There are multiple accounts of how Krotoa came to work under the household of Jan Van Riebeeck. One account paints the story of how the Dutch forcefully kidnapped the child Krotoa, however no hard evidence confirms this account. Circumstantial evidences supports the theory that at the time of the Dutch arrival, Krotoa lived with her uncle Autshumato (also known as Harry by the Dutch). The circumstantial evidence being that Krotoa showed consistent hostility to the Goringhaiqua clan and by associated to her own mother, who lived with them. In contrast Krotoa’s fate and fortunes were closely aligned to those of her uncle Autshumato and to his clan known as the Goringhaicona. The Goringhaicona people who were sedentary, non-pastoral hunter-gathers are believed to be one of the first clans to make acquaintances with the Dutch people. Prior to the Dutch’s arrival Autshumato served as a postal agent for passing ships of a number of countries. If the theory of Krotoa lived with her uncle is true, then Krotoa’s early service of to the Dutch may have not as been as violent of a transition as made out to be.

It is believed that the birth of the first baby of chaplain/sick-healer Willem Barentssen Wijlant, and his wife coupled with the rapid spreading of a virulent disease in the settlement sparked the initial negotiations to obtain services from a local girl. As Autshumato had a long history of working for Europeans, it is believed that the Dutch first turned to Autshumato for negotiations. It is quite possible that Autshumato offered up his niece for servitude in order to better his standings with the Dutch.

On 3 May 1662 she was baptised by a visiting parson, minister Petrus Sibelius, in the church inside the Fort de Goede Hoop. The witnesses were Roelof de Man and Pieter van der Stael. On 26 April 1664 she married a Danish surgeon by the name of Peter Havgard, whom the Dutch called Pieter van Meerhof. She was thereafter known as Eva van Meerhof. (See Geni/MyHeritage) She was the first Khoikoi to marry according to Christian customs. There was a little party in the house of Zacharias Wagenaer. In May 1665, they left the Cape and went to Robben Island, where van Meerhof was appointed superintendent. The family briefly returned to the mainland in 1666 after the birth of Krotoa’s third child, in order to baptize the baby. Van Meerhoff was murdered on Madagascar on 27 February 1668 on an expedition.

Krotoa returned to the mainland on 30 September 1668 with her children. Suffering from alcoholism, she left the Castle in the settlement to be with her family in the kraals. In February 1669 she was imprisoned at the Castle and then banished to Robben Island. She returned to the mainland on many occasions just to find herself once more banished to Robben Island. In May 1673 she was allowed to baptise a child on the mainland. Three of her children survived infancy. She died on 29 July 1674 in the Cape and was buried on 30 September 1674 in the church in the Fort.

Pieternella and Salamon, Krotoa’s two youngest children from her marriage to van Meerhof, were taken to Mauritius in 1677. Pieternella, who was known as Pieternella Meerhof or Pieternella van die Kaap, later married Daniel Zaaijman, a VOC vegetable farmer from Vlissingen. They had four sons and four daughters, one of whom was named Eva, and the family moved back to the Cape in 1706. Their granddaughter, Engela Catharina Zaaijman married Abraham Peltzer, son of Abraham Peltzer, a VOC soldier from Hamburg, Germany and Elizabeth van den Berg.

Legacy and cultural references

The novel Eilande by Dan Sleigh (1938), translated from Afrikaans by André Brink (in Dutch: 'Stemmen uit zee'/in English: 'Islands'), describes the lives of Krotoa and her daughter Pieternella from the viewpoints of seven men who knew them.

As late at 1983, under the name of Eva, she was still known in South Africa, as a caution against miscegenation.

In 1990, South African poet and author Karen Press wrote a poem entitled "Krotoa’s Story" that attempted to reimagine Krotoa’s life, emotions, and conflicting desires partly from her perspective. The poem was based on an earlier children’s story by Press entitled Krotoa, which was created as part of an educational initiative by the South African Council for Higher Education designed to inform schoolchildren about colonization from the perspective of indigenous South Africans.

In 1995, South African performer Antoinette Pienaar created a one-woman play entitled Krotoa. The work was first performed at the Little Karoo National Arts Festival, where it was awarded the “Herrie” prize. The play is unique in its depiction and memorialization of Krotoa as a mother to the nation, a symbolization which had been previously rejected by white South Africans.

See also

• History of Cape Town

Sources

• 'Die Suid-Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordeboek', by W.J de Kock and D.W. Kruger, Volume 2, page 227 - 228
• 'Jan van Riebeeck en sy tyd', by E.C. Godee Molsbergen
• Sleigh, Dan (2002). Eilande, Tafelberg.

External links

• Robben Island Museum page