WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We have a stack 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:04.700 of research on the table today that I think is 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:06.599 going to fundamentally change the way you look 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:09.439 at a map of South Africa. It really might. We 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:12.240 usually talk about history in very, you know, 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.599 binary terms, right? Black and white, colonizer 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:18.079 and colonized. But today we're looking at a group 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:21.940 of people who existed in the gray area. Or maybe 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.280 they created their own area entirely. That's 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:26.260 a better way to put it. It's a story that really 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:28.440 challenges that whole rainbow nation concept 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:31.750 because Well, it suggests there was a Rainbow 00:00:31.750 --> 00:00:34.579 Nation happening about... Two centuries before 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:36.759 Nelson Mandela ever used the phrase. Exactly. 00:00:36.899 --> 00:00:39.740 We are talking about the Greek people. And just 00:00:39.740 --> 00:00:42.399 looking at these sources, it is a paradox from 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:44.719 start to finish. I mean, you have a group that 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:47.820 considers itself South Africa's first multiracial 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:50.619 nation. Yet if you look at standard history books. 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:52.880 They're a footnote. They're a footnote. Or they're 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:54.560 just lumped into the colored category without 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.219 any real distinction. But the reality is, and 00:00:57.219 --> 00:00:59.079 the sources are clear on this, these were state 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:01.320 builders. I mean, they had constitutions. They 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:04.420 had standing armies. were trekking across the 00:01:04.420 --> 00:01:08.239 interior of Southern Africa long before the famous 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:10.680 war trekkers were even, you know, packing their 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:13.219 wagons. And that is the part that I think surprises 00:01:13.219 --> 00:01:16.180 people the most. We all have this image of the 00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:18.980 Great Trek, the white boars moving away from 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:21.980 British rule on the Cape as the defining pioneer 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:24.200 moment of the 19th century. Right. It's a big 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:26.530 one. But the Greek were already doing it. They 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:28.390 were doing it first. They were the pioneers of 00:01:28.390 --> 00:01:31.090 the interior. They were the ones mapping the 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:34.209 routes, finding the water sources and establishing 00:01:34.209 --> 00:01:37.590 the towns that later settlers would eventually 00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:40.030 occupy. OK, so here's the mission for this deep 00:01:40.030 --> 00:01:42.349 dive. We have a lot of ground to cover. And I 00:01:42.349 --> 00:01:43.989 mean that literally. We're going from the Cape 00:01:43.989 --> 00:01:46.810 Colony. up through the rugged, arid interior 00:01:46.810 --> 00:01:49.469 of the Northern Cape, then over the Drakensberg 00:01:49.469 --> 00:01:52.569 Mountains, which is no joke, and even up into 00:01:52.569 --> 00:01:55.030 Namibia. It's an epic journey. It really is. 00:01:55.189 --> 00:01:57.750 And along the way, we need to unpack the origins 00:01:57.750 --> 00:02:00.930 of this distinct ethnicity. How do you get a 00:02:00.930 --> 00:02:03.950 group forming from Dutch colonists, Kwekhoi slaves, 00:02:04.409 --> 00:02:06.489 and other indigenous groups that doesn't just 00:02:06.489 --> 00:02:08.789 dissolve into the population, but forms a hard 00:02:08.789 --> 00:02:11.409 political identity? That is the absolute key 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:13.849 question. And as part of that, we have to deal 00:02:13.849 --> 00:02:17.330 with some very... heavy, very loaded terminology. 00:02:18.009 --> 00:02:20.270 I'm looking at words in these historical records 00:02:20.270 --> 00:02:24.349 like bastard and Afrikaner. And I think you're 00:02:24.349 --> 00:02:26.569 going to be shocked at how the meanings of those 00:02:26.569 --> 00:02:29.590 words have completely flipped 180 degrees. That 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:31.889 part about the word Afrikaner, honestly, it stopped 00:02:31.889 --> 00:02:33.270 me in my tracks when I was reading the prep. 00:02:33.370 --> 00:02:35.490 I had to read it three times, but we'll get there. 00:02:35.789 --> 00:02:37.349 Let's start at the very beginning. We're in the 00:02:37.349 --> 00:02:39.710 17th and 18th centuries in the Cape Colony. This 00:02:39.710 --> 00:02:42.370 is the soup, so to speak. What are the ingredients 00:02:42.370 --> 00:02:44.870 that created the Greek of people? Well, it's 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:47.490 a very specific set of circumstances. You have 00:02:47.490 --> 00:02:50.030 the Dutch East India Company establishing its 00:02:50.030 --> 00:02:52.349 refreshment station at the Cape. And it is a 00:02:52.349 --> 00:02:55.389 very male -dominated society. Not a lot of European 00:02:55.389 --> 00:02:58.150 women around. Very few, especially in the early 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:01.169 decades of the colony. So naturally, relationships 00:03:01.169 --> 00:03:04.490 formed across the color line. The primary patriarchs, 00:03:04.490 --> 00:03:07.229 the... Fathers of this new group were European 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:10.289 men, mostly Dutch, but also some German, some 00:03:10.289 --> 00:03:12.969 French Huguenot. And the matriarchs, the mothers. 00:03:13.229 --> 00:03:16.030 The matriarchs were primarily Khoi Khoi women, 00:03:16.229 --> 00:03:18.849 the indigenous pastoralists who were already 00:03:18.849 --> 00:03:21.750 living in the Cape, and also women who were enslaved, 00:03:21.889 --> 00:03:23.930 who were brought in from places like Indonesia, 00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:27.650 Madagascar, or East Africa. So initially, you 00:03:27.650 --> 00:03:30.189 just have these children of mixed descent. Now, 00:03:30.229 --> 00:03:32.449 in a lot of colonial societies, these children 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:34.509 would just be absorbed into the lowest rungs 00:03:34.509 --> 00:03:37.210 of society, right? But something different seems 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:39.590 to have happened here. The sources say they didn't 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:42.090 just assimilate. That's the crucial pivot point. 00:03:42.250 --> 00:03:44.129 If they had just married back into the white 00:03:44.129 --> 00:03:45.770 settler population, they would have eventually 00:03:45.770 --> 00:03:48.629 been absorbed, you know, over generations. If 00:03:48.629 --> 00:03:50.330 they had married back into the traditional Khoi 00:03:50.330 --> 00:03:52.810 tribes, they might have lost that European cultural 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:54.770 connection. So what did they do? They started 00:03:54.770 --> 00:03:57.060 marrying each other. They formed an endogamous 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:00.860 group. By marrying among themselves, they created 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:03.280 a community that was distinct. It was a conscious 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:05.500 choice. So they were sort of caught in the middle. 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:08.479 Exactly. They were too European for the tribes. 00:04:08.659 --> 00:04:10.139 I mean, they spoke Dutch. They were Christians. 00:04:10.199 --> 00:04:12.300 They wore European clothes. But they were too 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:14.620 non -white for the colonial administration to 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:17.100 ever treat them as equals. So they created their 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:19.379 own space. And modern science actually backs 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:21.379 this all up, doesn't it? I saw a note here about 00:04:21.379 --> 00:04:25.379 some 21st century... genetic studies. Yes, the 00:04:25.379 --> 00:04:28.399 genetic data is fascinating because it confirms 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:30.920 the oral history, but it also adds all this new 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:34.319 nuance. It shows a clear mix of European Khoi 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.560 Khoi and slave ancestry, which you'd expect, 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:40.180 but it also shows lineages from Tawana, San, 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.399 and even Exosa groups. So it wasn't just a one 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:45.779 -time mix. No, it wasn't just a Cape phenomenon. 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:49.240 As they moved, as they trekked, they absorbed 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:51.709 other people. It was a true melting pot in a 00:04:51.709 --> 00:04:53.730 way that very few other groups were at the time. 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:56.350 Okay, so we have to talk about the name. The 00:04:56.350 --> 00:04:59.110 sources are very clear that for a long, long 00:04:59.110 --> 00:05:02.529 time, this group referred to themselves as bastards 00:05:02.529 --> 00:05:06.490 or bastards. Now, in modern English, that is 00:05:06.490 --> 00:05:09.410 a slur. If you call someone that today, you are 00:05:09.410 --> 00:05:11.949 absolutely looking for a fight. Absolutely. But 00:05:11.949 --> 00:05:14.089 the notes suggest it had a completely different 00:05:14.089 --> 00:05:17.470 vibe back in the 18th century. You really have 00:05:17.470 --> 00:05:19.910 to strip away the modern English pejorative. 00:05:20.189 --> 00:05:22.750 The word comes from the Dutch bastard, which 00:05:22.750 --> 00:05:26.069 essentially just meant hybrid or mixed. In the 00:05:26.069 --> 00:05:28.990 context of the 18th century frontier, it wasn't 00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:31.449 necessarily an insult about the legitimacy of 00:05:31.449 --> 00:05:34.209 your birth. It was a classification. A classification. 00:05:34.410 --> 00:05:36.509 Yes. And for the people who use it for themselves, 00:05:36.790 --> 00:05:39.029 it actually became a badge of honor. How on earth 00:05:39.029 --> 00:05:40.730 does that become a badge of honor? Well, think 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:42.870 about the hierarchy at the time. You had the 00:05:42.870 --> 00:05:44.629 civilized colony and then you had the savage 00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:47.250 interior as they saw it. By calling themselves 00:05:47.250 --> 00:05:50.509 bastards, they were signaling, we are not savages. 00:05:50.509 --> 00:05:54.110 We are Christians. We speak Dutch. We live in 00:05:54.110 --> 00:05:57.589 houses. We ride horses. We shoot guns. Ah, so 00:05:57.589 --> 00:05:59.790 it was a way of distinguishing themselves. Exactly. 00:05:59.889 --> 00:06:02.990 A way of distinguishing themselves from the tribal 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:06.230 Khoi Khoi or from the enslaved population. It 00:06:06.230 --> 00:06:08.939 was a claim to status. to a higher rung on the 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:11.160 social ladder. So it's almost like saying we 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:13.519 belong to the class of people who are part of 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:15.879 the colonial economy, who have these valuable 00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:18.620 skills. Precisely. They were highly skilled. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:20.980 They were the craftsmen, the transport riders, 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:23.300 the people who could fix a wagon wheel in the 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:25.449 middle of nowhere. If you were a baster, you 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:27.829 had skills that were incredibly valuable to the 00:06:27.829 --> 00:06:30.829 colony. But then we get to the other term, Afrikaner. 00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:32.750 And this is the big one. The source material 00:06:32.750 --> 00:06:35.910 here notes that for over 350 years, the word 00:06:35.910 --> 00:06:38.910 Afrikaner was used to describe mixed race people. 00:06:39.069 --> 00:06:42.170 This is a massive, massive historical reclamation. 00:06:42.490 --> 00:06:44.949 If you look at the records from the 1700s and 00:06:44.949 --> 00:06:48.009 the early 1800s, when people wrote about Afrikaners, 00:06:48.089 --> 00:06:50.350 they were almost exclusively talking about these 00:06:50.350 --> 00:06:54.240 mixed race groups, the Orlum. Not white people. 00:06:54.459 --> 00:06:56.560 Not white people. They were the Africans of European 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:59.259 culture and descent. The white settlers at the 00:06:59.259 --> 00:07:01.180 time referred to themselves as Dutch or Berger 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:03.800 or Christians. They did not call themselves Afrikaners. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:06.420 So when did that change? Because today, of course, 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:09.480 Afrikaner is completely synonymous with white 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.339 South Africans of Dutch descent. It's a surprisingly 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:15.319 recent shift. It didn't really happen until around 00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:19.500 1876. There was a political and cultural movement. 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:23.220 By a group of Boer intellectuals, specifically 00:07:23.220 --> 00:07:26.660 a group called the Genutskap van Rekte Afrikaners, 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:29.439 which means the Fellowship of Real Afrikaners. 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:31.600 The Fellowship of Real Afrikaners. Right. And 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:33.480 they wanted to build a white national identity 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:36.680 specifically to counter the growing British influence 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:39.779 in the region. They needed a name, a label that 00:07:39.779 --> 00:07:42.300 tied them to the soil, to the continent of Africa. 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.560 They just took the name. They appropriated it. 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.180 Effectively, yes. They took the term Afrikaner, 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.040 which had been used by the Grieca and other mixed 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.259 race groups for centuries, and they completely 00:07:52.259 --> 00:07:54.620 redefined it to mean white Dutch speaker. They 00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:57.100 racialized it. That is ironic on so many levels. 00:07:57.300 --> 00:07:59.300 I mean, it means the Grieca are the original 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:01.459 Afrikaners, at least in terms of the terminology. 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:05.600 It completely flips the script. If you restore 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.360 that original definition, the whole history of 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:10.439 African internationalism starts to look very, 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:12.579 very different. It implies that the cultural 00:08:12.579 --> 00:08:15.379 roots of that identity, the language, the frontier 00:08:15.379 --> 00:08:18.019 lifestyle, were actually pioneered by people 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:20.019 of color. Okay, let's go back to the bastard 00:08:20.019 --> 00:08:22.199 name for a second. Even though they seem to have 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:25.199 been proud of it, eventually it became a PR problem, 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:27.720 didn't it? It did. And for that, you can thank 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:30.339 the missionaries. specifically the London Missionary 00:08:30.339 --> 00:08:34.299 Society, the LMS. They arrived in the early 1800s 00:08:34.299 --> 00:08:38.340 with the goal of converting and civilizing the 00:08:38.340 --> 00:08:41.120 people on the frontier. And they found it incredibly 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:43.320 awkward to have a congregation that was proudly 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:46.480 calling themselves the Bastards. I can just imagine 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:49.039 the letters back to London. Dear Board of Directors, 00:08:49.179 --> 00:08:51.360 the Bastard congregation is doing exceptionally 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:54.399 well this month. Exactly. It just didn't fly 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:57.179 in polite Victorian society. It sounded terrible 00:08:57.179 --> 00:09:01.000 in English. So in 1813, a missionary named Reverend 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:03.820 John Campbell sat down with the leaders and basically 00:09:03.820 --> 00:09:06.299 said, look, we need a rebrand. And he's the one 00:09:06.299 --> 00:09:08.179 who suggested Grieco. Was he just making that 00:09:08.179 --> 00:09:10.139 up? Did he pull it out of a hat? No. And this 00:09:10.139 --> 00:09:12.299 is really important. He didn't just impose some 00:09:12.299 --> 00:09:15.000 European name on them. He actually looked at 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.940 their history, their lineage. He knew that many 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.860 of them, a core group, descended from a specific 00:09:20.860 --> 00:09:23.580 Kikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwikwik. 00:09:26.429 --> 00:09:28.110 Right. The sources mentioned that the first big 00:09:28.110 --> 00:09:31.590 leader, Adam Koch I, had married into that specific 00:09:31.590 --> 00:09:34.549 line. Yes. Adam Koch's wife was the daughter 00:09:34.549 --> 00:09:37.909 of a Charu Grika chief. So by adopting the name 00:09:37.909 --> 00:09:40.169 Grika, they were doing two brilliant things at 00:09:40.169 --> 00:09:43.179 once. First, they were satisfying the missionaries 00:09:43.179 --> 00:09:46.399 by dropping the bastard label. But second, and 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:49.039 more importantly, they were proudly reclaiming 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:51.240 their indigenous African heritage. They were 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:54.259 saying, we are of this land. We have roots here. 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:56.240 We are the Grica. And that brings us right to 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:59.120 Adam Kokes. This name, Cook, it means cook, right? 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:02.320 In Dutch. Yes. It's Dutch for cook or chef. So 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:04.659 we have the founder of an entire nation, a dynasty, 00:10:04.759 --> 00:10:07.600 who is named after his job when he was a slave. 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:10.490 That's his origin story. And it's an incredible 00:10:10.490 --> 00:10:15.409 one. Adam Koch. I was born a slave. He worked 00:10:15.409 --> 00:10:18.350 as a cook. But he was clearly an extraordinary 00:10:18.350 --> 00:10:21.330 individual. He didn't just escape. He navigated 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:23.769 the system. He actually bought his own freedom. 00:10:23.850 --> 00:10:26.190 Which must have been incredibly difficult. Incredibly. 00:10:26.289 --> 00:10:28.649 And not just that. He went on to acquire burger 00:10:28.649 --> 00:10:31.149 rights, citizenship rights that were usually 00:10:31.149 --> 00:10:33.649 reserved for whites. And he even bought his own 00:10:33.649 --> 00:10:36.870 farm near Peckerburg. So he made it. By the standards 00:10:36.870 --> 00:10:39.190 of the time, he had the farm, the rights, the 00:10:39.190 --> 00:10:42.549 freedom. So why did he leave? Why trek into the 00:10:42.549 --> 00:10:45.750 unknown? Because in a colonial society, rights 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:49.009 for a person of color are always, always precarious. 00:10:49.269 --> 00:10:51.429 As the white settler population expanded and 00:10:51.429 --> 00:10:53.470 the racial laws started to harden, he saw the 00:10:53.470 --> 00:10:55.850 writing on the wall. He was facing constant discrimination, 00:10:56.190 --> 00:10:58.090 social pressure, and land encroachment. He knew 00:10:58.090 --> 00:11:00.110 it wouldn't last. He realized that to be truly 00:11:00.110 --> 00:11:02.470 free, he couldn't just be a free black inside 00:11:02.470 --> 00:11:04.610 a white -run colony. He had to go where the colony 00:11:04.610 --> 00:11:07.049 wasn't. He had tied his own society. So he packs 00:11:07.049 --> 00:11:09.110 up. And this isn't just a single family moving. 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:11.669 He gathers a significant following. He becomes 00:11:11.669 --> 00:11:15.309 a magnet for people. Other freed slaves, other 00:11:15.309 --> 00:11:19.049 bastards, coy people who were losing their land 00:11:19.049 --> 00:11:21.529 to the settlers, they all rallied around him. 00:11:21.629 --> 00:11:23.909 And he leads them north. beyond the official 00:11:23.909 --> 00:11:26.330 borders of the Cape Colony up towards the Orange 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:28.909 River. And this is where the state building part 00:11:28.909 --> 00:11:31.450 really kicks in. The critique we saw earlier 00:11:31.450 --> 00:11:34.009 mentioned that we often gloss over this. We might 00:11:34.009 --> 00:11:35.509 say, oh, they had a government and then just 00:11:35.509 --> 00:11:38.029 move on. But looking at these notes, this was 00:11:38.029 --> 00:11:40.309 sophisticated stuff. This wasn't just a chief 00:11:40.309 --> 00:11:42.889 sitting under a tree making decisions. No, not 00:11:42.889 --> 00:11:44.690 at all. This was a constitutional republic in 00:11:44.690 --> 00:11:47.070 the making. They drafted a written constitution. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.600 Just think about how radical that is for a group 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:54.379 of semi -nomadic frontiersmen in the early 1800s 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:56.080 in southern Africa. It's incredible. So how did 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.519 it work? Who was in charge? The leader held the 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:01.259 title of captains, which is Dutch for captain. 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:04.200 But he wasn't a dictator or an absolute monarch. 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:07.860 His power was checked by the rod or the council. 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:12.019 And the rod was like a parliament. Sort of. It 00:12:12.019 --> 00:12:14.340 was a body of nominated counselors who would 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:18.379 debate policy. judicial matters, decisions about 00:12:18.379 --> 00:12:22.279 war and peace. The captain had a veto, yes, but 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:24.100 he couldn't just rule by decree. He had to work 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:26.549 with the rod. to get their consensus. It really 00:12:26.549 --> 00:12:29.490 sounds like they were mirroring the Dutch systems 00:12:29.490 --> 00:12:31.750 they had seen, but adapting them for their own 00:12:31.750 --> 00:12:35.009 use on the frontier. Precisely. They had magistrates 00:12:35.009 --> 00:12:37.570 to hear court cases. They had a police force 00:12:37.570 --> 00:12:40.029 of sorts. They used titles they were familiar 00:12:40.029 --> 00:12:42.350 with, like Veldkornet for their local officers. 00:12:42.610 --> 00:12:45.110 If you committed a crime in Gricketown, you didn't 00:12:45.110 --> 00:12:47.710 just get beaten up. You went before a magistrate 00:12:47.710 --> 00:12:49.730 and your case was heard according to their written 00:12:49.730 --> 00:12:51.919 law. They were projecting an image, weren't they? 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:53.940 Absolutely. They were projecting the image of 00:12:53.940 --> 00:12:56.159 a civilized Christian state to the outside world, 00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:58.539 especially to the British, to show that they 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:01.120 were worthy of respect and, crucially, worthy 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:03.539 of treaties. And the capital of this state was 00:13:03.539 --> 00:13:06.179 Gricketown, which was originally called Clearwater. 00:13:06.419 --> 00:13:09.509 Right. Clearwater means clear water. It was renamed 00:13:09.509 --> 00:13:12.830 Gricketown after that big meeting in 1813. And 00:13:12.830 --> 00:13:14.990 it became a real hub. It wasn't just a few tents. 00:13:15.149 --> 00:13:18.350 They built stone houses, a church, schools for 00:13:18.350 --> 00:13:20.429 their children. For a long time, it was the most 00:13:20.429 --> 00:13:22.950 significant town north of the Orange River. So 00:13:22.950 --> 00:13:25.269 if you were a traveler, an explorer, or a missionary 00:13:25.269 --> 00:13:27.490 going into the interior. Gricketown was your 00:13:27.490 --> 00:13:31.059 last stop. It was your last chance for supplies, 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.720 for news, for a bit of civilization before you 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:35.899 plunged into the unknown. OK, let's talk about 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:38.159 the military aspect, because you can't build 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:40.480 a state in this kind of environment on a volatile 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:43.220 frontier without being able to defend it. The 00:13:43.220 --> 00:13:45.299 sources talk a lot about the commando system. 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:48.620 How did the Greek become such fearsome fighters? 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:51.120 It's another one of those ironies. Their skills 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.320 were given to them by their oppressors. It goes 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:55.120 all the way back to their time in the Cape Colony. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:57.600 The Dutch East India Company was constantly at 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.559 war with. the San or Bushmen, and the Exosa on 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:02.159 the eastern frontier. And they didn't have enough 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:05.139 soldiers? Not nearly enough. So they conscripted 00:14:05.139 --> 00:14:07.879 the so -called baster men into their commando 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:09.820 units. So they taught them everything they knew. 00:14:09.899 --> 00:14:11.899 They handed them guns and trained them. They 00:14:11.899 --> 00:14:14.460 gave them guns. They put them on horses. And 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:17.360 they taught them commando warfare. which is basically 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:20.220 a highly mobile guerrilla style of fighting. 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:23.080 You ride fast, you shoot accurately from the 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:26.320 saddle, you disengage, you flank. The Greek became 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:28.899 absolute masters of this. Better than the Boers? 00:14:29.139 --> 00:14:30.980 Many contemporary accounts say they were better 00:14:30.980 --> 00:14:33.039 shots and better riders than the Boers. This 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.059 was their specialty. And this leads to this concept 00:14:36.059 --> 00:14:38.720 of the Orlum. We need to define this because 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.100 the term pops up a lot in the sources. Orlum 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:43.220 is a fascinating and slightly slippery term. 00:14:43.379 --> 00:14:46.370 It generally refers to people who were acculturated 00:14:46.370 --> 00:14:48.789 to the colony. They spoke Dutch, they were Christian, 00:14:48.909 --> 00:14:51.450 they used European technology, but they had moved 00:14:51.450 --> 00:14:53.950 out of the colony to live independently. So the 00:14:53.950 --> 00:14:57.730 Graeca are an Aurelian group. Yes. In this context, 00:14:57.750 --> 00:14:59.669 it often refers to these highly mobile groups 00:14:59.669 --> 00:15:03.309 of armed, mounted, Dutch -speaking marksmen who 00:15:03.309 --> 00:15:06.269 left the Cape to live a free and often predatory 00:15:06.269 --> 00:15:09.440 lifestyle in the interior. They were the trek 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:11.879 boars before the actual Boer Great Trek. You 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:13.980 said predatory. We have to be honest about the 00:15:13.980 --> 00:15:16.679 history. They weren't just peaceful farmers looking 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:20.759 for a new home. They were heavily armed men entering 00:15:20.759 --> 00:15:23.139 territories that were already occupied by other 00:15:23.139 --> 00:15:25.200 groups like the San, the Tswana, the Karana. 00:15:25.539 --> 00:15:28.039 They needed cattle. They needed resources. They 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:30.740 needed grazing land. So there was conflict. A 00:15:30.740 --> 00:15:33.179 lot of conflict. Sometimes they traded, but very 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:35.580 often they raided. This brings us to a specific 00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:38.519 event that I really want to zoom in on. The tragedy 00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:42.039 of Mordkopp. The notes here paint a really cinematic 00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:45.620 and just horrific picture. This was a clash between 00:15:45.620 --> 00:15:49.179 a Greek commando and the end of Belorite. Yes, 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.340 and this is a story of hubris, of overconfidence. 00:15:51.539 --> 00:15:53.899 You have a Greek commando, several hundred strong, 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:57.279 led by a man named Gert Hoeyman. And they decide 00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:59.399 to launch a major raid into the territory of 00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:01.480 the Ndebele people. And the Ndebele at this time 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:04.179 were led by King Zilikazi. Zilikazi, one of the 00:16:04.179 --> 00:16:06.200 most formidable military strategists in all of 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:08.019 Southern African history. He was a former general 00:16:08.019 --> 00:16:10.940 of Shaka Zulu. You do not mess with Zilikazi 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:13.600 lightly. But the Greek had a massive technological 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:16.679 advantage. They had guns and horses. The Ndebele 00:16:16.679 --> 00:16:19.379 warriors had spears and shields. Exactly. And 00:16:19.379 --> 00:16:21.539 that technological superiority made them arrogant. 00:16:21.950 --> 00:16:24.289 They rode in. They managed to raid a massive 00:16:24.289 --> 00:16:26.669 number of cattle, thousands of them. And they 00:16:26.669 --> 00:16:28.809 started driving them back toward Grika territory. 00:16:29.210 --> 00:16:31.549 So far, so good for them. So far, so good. But 00:16:31.549 --> 00:16:35.090 Huimin, the leader, he was nervous. He knew Menzilikazi. 00:16:35.309 --> 00:16:37.830 He told his men, we need to keep moving. Don't 00:16:37.830 --> 00:16:41.070 stop. Menzilikazi will send a regiment after 00:16:41.070 --> 00:16:43.330 us. They will follow us. But the men didn't listen. 00:16:43.669 --> 00:16:46.669 They were victorious. They were tired. And they 00:16:46.669 --> 00:16:48.190 were hungry. They're looking at all this cattle 00:16:48.190 --> 00:16:50.649 they've just captured. They decided to stop at 00:16:50.649 --> 00:16:54.230 a hill. near the Val River to feast. They slaughtered 00:16:54.230 --> 00:16:56.710 some of the captured oxen, they started the fires, 00:16:56.870 --> 00:16:59.330 and they had a massive barbecue. A celebration. 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.009 A huge celebration. And afterwards they fell 00:17:02.009 --> 00:17:04.509 asleep with full bellies, completely confident 00:17:04.509 --> 00:17:07.130 that their guns made them invincible. And Zilikazi's 00:17:07.130 --> 00:17:09.369 men were watching the whole time. Zilikazi's 00:17:09.369 --> 00:17:11.690 impi had been tracking them silently. They attacked 00:17:11.690 --> 00:17:14.390 at dawn, or just before, in complete silence. 00:17:15.089 --> 00:17:18.109 They used the classic Zulu horns of the buffalo 00:17:18.109 --> 00:17:21.079 formation to completely encircle the hill. The 00:17:21.079 --> 00:17:23.799 Greek were caught sleeping. Completely. Their 00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:26.599 guns were useless in the dark and the chaos of 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:28.700 hand -to -hand combat. It was an absolute massacre. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:31.599 The sources say around 1 ,000 Greek men were 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:34.460 killed. 1 ,000 men. That's a generation of fathers 00:17:34.460 --> 00:17:37.319 and sons wiped out in a single night. It was 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:40.880 utterly devastating for the Greek nation. The 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:44.619 hill was named Mordkop, which means murder hill. 00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:47.819 But there's a twist to this story that I find 00:17:47.819 --> 00:17:50.769 fascinating. It wasn't just a massacre. It was 00:17:50.769 --> 00:17:53.109 also a moment of unexpected cultural transfer. 00:17:53.309 --> 00:17:56.250 How so? What do you mean? Well, the Ndebele captured 00:17:56.250 --> 00:17:58.730 some of the survivors, mostly women and children 00:17:58.730 --> 00:18:00.509 who had been with the wagon train that was following 00:18:00.509 --> 00:18:02.750 the commando. And this included the granddaughter 00:18:02.750 --> 00:18:06.089 of another famous Greek leader, Berend Berends. 00:18:06.190 --> 00:18:08.269 Her name was Trudy. And what happened to them? 00:18:08.549 --> 00:18:10.750 These captives were integrated into the Ndebele 00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:13.109 nation. They were absorbed. So they became Ndebele. 00:18:13.269 --> 00:18:15.650 Yes, but they brought their Orlum knowledge with 00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:18.579 them. The sources note that these Greek captives 00:18:18.579 --> 00:18:20.960 were the ones who introduced brick building technology 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.259 to the Ndebele. They taught them how to repair 00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:25.880 wagons, how to repair guns, and they even introduced 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:27.920 elements of Christianity. Wait, wait. So you're 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:31.460 saying that years, maybe decades before the first 00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:33.880 European missionaries arrived to bring civilization 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:37.420 to the Ndebele, the Ndebele are already learning 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:39.799 these skills from the Greek people they captured 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.930 in battle. That is exactly what the sources suggest. 00:18:43.049 --> 00:18:46.009 It completely challenges that simple timeline 00:18:46.009 --> 00:18:49.930 of colonial influence. The Greco were the intermediaries. 00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:52.210 They were the vectors of technology and ideas 00:18:52.210 --> 00:18:55.049 moving into the interior, even when they were 00:18:55.049 --> 00:18:56.769 on the losing side of a battle. That is just 00:18:56.769 --> 00:18:59.289 wild. Let's look at the map again. Segment four 00:18:59.289 --> 00:19:01.869 in our outline talks about the great migrations, 00:19:01.869 --> 00:19:04.329 and it really emphasizes that. These guys were 00:19:04.329 --> 00:19:06.289 constantly moving. It wasn't just one trek and 00:19:06.289 --> 00:19:08.029 they were done. No, it was a state of perpetual 00:19:08.029 --> 00:19:11.390 motion. And it was almost always caused by dispossession. 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:13.490 The pattern was tragic and it repeated itself 00:19:13.490 --> 00:19:15.710 over and over. What was the pattern? The Greek 00:19:15.710 --> 00:19:18.890 would move to a frontier area. They would settle 00:19:18.890 --> 00:19:21.410 it, build a town, maybe a church and establish 00:19:21.410 --> 00:19:24.789 law and order. Then white trek borers would start 00:19:24.789 --> 00:19:27.109 to arrive, attracted by the stability. And then 00:19:27.109 --> 00:19:29.289 the government would follow. The colonial government 00:19:29.289 --> 00:19:31.529 would eventually extend its borders to include 00:19:31.529 --> 00:19:34.690 the area. And the Greco would be told, you don't 00:19:34.690 --> 00:19:36.670 really own this land because you aren't white 00:19:36.670 --> 00:19:39.930 or your land titles aren't valid under our law. 00:19:40.109 --> 00:19:41.769 And they would be pushed further and further 00:19:41.769 --> 00:19:44.029 north. So they go up to the Orange River. Then 00:19:44.029 --> 00:19:46.069 some of them go all the way to Natal on the East 00:19:46.069 --> 00:19:48.930 Coast. And then they have to turn back. It's 00:19:48.930 --> 00:19:51.170 this epic zigzag across the country. They went 00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:53.450 into Natal, hoping to settle there. It was good 00:19:53.450 --> 00:19:56.890 land. But then the British annexed Natal. And 00:19:56.890 --> 00:19:59.619 the Greco leadership realized. We can't stay 00:19:59.619 --> 00:20:01.680 here. We'll be under the British thumb again. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:04.680 So they turn around and... trekked back over 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:07.380 the Drakensberg Mountains. Let's talk about Greekland 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:09.980 West. This is the area around modern -day Kimberley, 00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:12.480 and this story is basically a legal thriller 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:15.420 that ends with the discovery of diamonds. It 00:20:15.420 --> 00:20:18.380 is the ultimate story of a resource curse. The 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:21.980 Greek in this western area were led by captains 00:20:21.980 --> 00:20:24.380 like Nicholas Waterboer and Andres Waterboer. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:27.480 For decades, nobody cared about their land. It 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:30.519 was dry, it was scrubby, it was semi -desert. 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:32.099 So the British were happy to leave them alone. 00:20:32.619 --> 00:20:34.700 More than that, the British were happy to sign 00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:37.900 treaties recognizing Waterboer as the sovereign 00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:40.259 leader of a treaty state. They essentially said, 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:42.940 you keep the peace up there on our northern border 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:45.200 and we formally recognize that it's your land. 00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:48.900 And then 1866 happens. A child finds a shiny 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:51.400 pebble on a farm. It turns out to be a diamond. 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:55.619 Then another is found. And suddenly, this dry, 00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:59.480 worthless scrubland is the most valuable patch 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:01.700 of dirt on the entire planet. And what happened 00:21:01.700 --> 00:21:03.740 to those treaties? Effectively, they were shredded. 00:21:03.940 --> 00:21:06.359 You suddenly had three players all claiming the 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:09.279 land. The Graeca, who legally owned it, according 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:12.059 to the treaties. The Boer Republics of the Orange 00:21:12.059 --> 00:21:14.619 Free State in the Transvaal, who suddenly decided, 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.160 actually, this has always been our land. And 00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:19.099 the British. And the British, who decided that 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.220 they needed to stabilize the region, which is 00:21:21.220 --> 00:21:23.140 a convenient way of saying they were taking the 00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:24.920 diamonds. I'm reading here about the Transvaal 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:27.980 president at the time, Pretorius. He just declared 00:21:27.980 --> 00:21:31.329 the diamond fields were Boer property. By proclamation. 00:21:31.690 --> 00:21:35.109 Yes. In 1870, she just issued a proclamation 00:21:35.109 --> 00:21:37.829 and sent in some officials. But the British weren't 00:21:37.829 --> 00:21:39.589 going to let the Boers have it. So the British 00:21:39.589 --> 00:21:42.150 moved in and annexed the entire territory in 00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:44.869 1871. And the Graeca, the actual owners. They 00:21:44.869 --> 00:21:46.869 were the ultimate losers. They lost their sovereignty. 00:21:47.339 --> 00:21:49.660 They lost the mineral wealth. Nicholas Waterborne 00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:52.500 was eventually jailed in 1876 for trying to support 00:21:52.500 --> 00:21:54.880 a rebellion of his own people against this very 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:57.559 dispossession. It completely broke the back of 00:21:57.559 --> 00:21:59.839 the Gricca nation in the West. So if you lose 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:02.259 the West, you go East. This leads to the most 00:22:02.259 --> 00:22:05.519 famous trek of all, the trek to what became Gricca 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:08.180 Land East. This was an incredible feat of human 00:22:08.180 --> 00:22:12.339 endurance, led by Adam Cocke III. In 1861, he 00:22:12.339 --> 00:22:14.079 realized they were being squeezed out of their 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.779 lands in the Free State area, and he made a momentous 00:22:16.779 --> 00:22:19.180 decision. He would lead his entire people to 00:22:19.180 --> 00:22:21.440 a so -called no -man's land that the British 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.619 had offered them. Where was this land? It was 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:25.640 a piece of territory wedged between Pondaland 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:28.940 and the colony of Natal. But to get there, they 00:22:28.940 --> 00:22:31.640 had to cross the Drakensberg Mountains. I've 00:22:31.640 --> 00:22:33.829 hiked in the Drakensberg. It is spectacular, 00:22:34.009 --> 00:22:36.450 but it is brutal terrain. We're talking about 00:22:36.450 --> 00:22:40.309 3 ,000 meter peaks, sheer cliffs. It's not wagon 00:22:40.309 --> 00:22:43.089 country. And imagine doing it with ox wagons. 00:22:43.109 --> 00:22:46.190 They had 2 ,000 people, something like 20 ,000 00:22:46.190 --> 00:22:49.829 sheep and other livestock, and 300 wagons. In 00:22:49.829 --> 00:22:51.950 some places, they had to completely disassemble 00:22:51.950 --> 00:22:54.349 the wagons to lower them down precipices with 00:22:54.349 --> 00:22:56.990 ropes. They blasted rocks out of the way. It 00:22:56.990 --> 00:22:58.970 took them two years to complete this migration. 00:22:59.500 --> 00:23:02.000 It's comparable to Hannibal crossing the Alps. 00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:04.259 But with families and livestock and all their 00:23:04.259 --> 00:23:06.460 worldly possessions, it's an epic of survival. 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:08.640 And they established Coxdad on the other side. 00:23:08.779 --> 00:23:11.779 Named after Adam Koch, yes. And here, in this 00:23:11.779 --> 00:23:15.039 new land, Koch tried one last desperate innovation 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:17.740 to try and save his people's territory. He introduced 00:23:17.740 --> 00:23:19.980 the concept of private land titles. Why was that 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:22.640 considered so innovative at the time? Well, traditionally, 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:25.900 African land tenure was communal. The chief or 00:23:25.900 --> 00:23:28.400 king held the land in trust for the entire tribe. 00:23:28.890 --> 00:23:31.769 But Koch had seen how the British and Boers operated 00:23:31.769 --> 00:23:34.789 with their legal systems. He thought, if my people 00:23:34.789 --> 00:23:37.309 have a piece of paper, a title deed, that says 00:23:37.309 --> 00:23:39.589 this farm belongs to me under British -style 00:23:39.589 --> 00:23:42.130 law, maybe the white settlers won't be able to 00:23:42.130 --> 00:23:46.029 just take it. A logical idea. Did it work? Tragically, 00:23:46.029 --> 00:23:48.609 no. It completely backfired. Because once you 00:23:48.609 --> 00:23:50.410 have a title deed, it means you can sell the 00:23:50.410 --> 00:23:53.470 land. And the Gricca people were impoverished. 00:23:53.789 --> 00:23:56.089 They lost most of their cattle during that brutal 00:23:56.089 --> 00:23:57.950 trek over the mountains. So they were vulnerable? 00:23:58.589 --> 00:24:00.970 Extremely. White settlers arrived with cash, 00:24:01.210 --> 00:24:03.609 with liquor, with goods, and they bought up the 00:24:03.609 --> 00:24:06.710 farms, often for a pittance. Within a single 00:24:06.710 --> 00:24:08.910 decade, most of the prime land in Grickoland 00:24:08.910 --> 00:24:11.690 East was owned by white farmers. That is just 00:24:11.690 --> 00:24:13.650 heartbreaking. It feels like they tried to play 00:24:13.650 --> 00:24:16.009 by the colonizers' rules and the rules were just 00:24:16.009 --> 00:24:18.049 used against them again. It's a real tragedy 00:24:18.049 --> 00:24:20.829 of good intentions. Adam Koch tried to modernize 00:24:20.829 --> 00:24:23.490 his state to save it, but the economic pressures 00:24:23.490 --> 00:24:25.430 were just too great. Let's shift gears a little 00:24:25.430 --> 00:24:27.410 bit. We've talked a lot about war and politics 00:24:27.410 --> 00:24:30.089 and land. Let's talk about culture and economy. 00:24:30.589 --> 00:24:32.970 How did they survive day to day? They weren't 00:24:32.970 --> 00:24:35.730 just soldiers. No, not at all. For much of their 00:24:35.730 --> 00:24:38.029 history, they were the great middlemen of South 00:24:38.029 --> 00:24:41.279 Africa. They were the intermediaries who facilitated 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:43.980 trade between the Cape Colony and the deep interior. 00:24:44.220 --> 00:24:47.480 They traded in ivory, cattle, ostrich feathers, 00:24:47.660 --> 00:24:50.480 and hides. And they also had a unique export, 00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:53.819 according to the notes. Something called Grickatown 00:24:53.819 --> 00:24:57.160 Gold. I love this name. It sounds so romantic. 00:24:57.660 --> 00:25:00.420 But it's not actually gold. What is it? It's 00:25:00.420 --> 00:25:03.079 tiger's eye. That beautiful, shimmering, golden 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:05.920 -brown gemstone that's found in abundance in 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:08.390 the Northern Cape. The Grieco were the first 00:25:08.390 --> 00:25:10.230 to really commercialize it. They were mining 00:25:10.230 --> 00:25:13.049 it and trading Grieco town gold long before it 00:25:13.049 --> 00:25:14.789 became a staple in jewelry stores around the 00:25:14.789 --> 00:25:17.170 world. And religion played a huge role in their 00:25:17.170 --> 00:25:19.109 culture, too. We mentioned the missionaries earlier, 00:25:19.190 --> 00:25:21.250 but the Grieco seemed to have taken Christianity 00:25:21.250 --> 00:25:23.490 and really made it their own. They absolutely 00:25:23.490 --> 00:25:26.509 did. They were devout Protestants, very much 00:25:26.509 --> 00:25:29.470 influenced by the Dutch Reformed Calvinist tradition. 00:25:30.259 --> 00:25:32.619 But they grew tired of being treated as second 00:25:32.619 --> 00:25:35.720 class citizens in churches run by white missionaries. 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:37.539 Yeah. They wanted their own space to worship. 00:25:37.700 --> 00:25:40.599 So they founded their own church. Yes. They established 00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:42.680 the Grica Independent Church. And you can make 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:45.519 a strong argument that this was the first. Truly, 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:48.099 indigenous, independent African church in South 00:25:48.099 --> 00:25:51.180 Africa established decades before the more famous 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:53.859 Ethiopian church movement began. And that church 00:25:53.859 --> 00:25:56.140 is still around today. It is. If you go to places 00:25:56.140 --> 00:25:58.539 like Kockstad or Campbell or even in parts of 00:25:58.539 --> 00:26:01.200 Namibia today, the Greek church is the absolute 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.400 heartbeat of the community. It's not just a religious 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:06.400 institution. It's the repository of their history, 00:26:06.579 --> 00:26:08.980 their culture, and their identity. We also need 00:26:08.980 --> 00:26:11.640 to touch on language again. We said Afrikaner 00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.039 meant mixed race. It seems to follow that the 00:26:14.039 --> 00:26:16.380 language Afrikaans was largely developed and 00:26:16.380 --> 00:26:19.720 spoken by them too. Absolutely. The simplified 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:22.700 Creolized Dutch that evolved into what we now 00:26:22.700 --> 00:26:26.160 call Africans was the lingua franca of the mixed 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:29.720 race servant class in the Cape and of the Grieco 00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:31.920 and Orland communities on the frontier, long 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:33.920 before it was standardized by white academics. 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:35.980 So they were speaking at first. They were speaking 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:39.160 Afrikamans while the educated Boers were still 00:26:39.160 --> 00:26:41.819 trying to speak and write in a formal high Dutch. 00:26:42.579 --> 00:26:45.160 Many of the words, the idioms, the grammatical 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:47.559 structure, it was all cooked up in the kitchens 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:50.000 of the Cape and on the commandos of the colored 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:52.509 and Grieco people. So there are linguistic pioneers 00:26:52.509 --> 00:26:55.190 as well as geographic ones. They are, in every 00:26:55.190 --> 00:26:57.369 sense. Okay, let's move forward into the 20th 00:26:57.369 --> 00:27:00.269 century. The apartheid era. 1948 comes around. 00:27:00.450 --> 00:27:03.109 The National Party takes power with its ideology 00:27:03.109 --> 00:27:06.390 of strict racial segregation. Where do the Greek 00:27:06.390 --> 00:27:09.529 fit into this new system? They fit nowhere and 00:27:09.529 --> 00:27:11.829 yet everywhere. The apartheid government was 00:27:11.829 --> 00:27:14.150 obsessed with categorization. They had Bantu 00:27:14.150 --> 00:27:16.470 or black homelands. They had a white South Africa. 00:27:16.690 --> 00:27:18.890 And then in the middle, they had this catch -all 00:27:18.890 --> 00:27:20.950 category of colored. And the Greco were just 00:27:20.950 --> 00:27:24.309 lumped into colored. Yes. And this was a profound 00:27:24.309 --> 00:27:27.410 form of erasure for them. Unlike, say, the Zulus 00:27:27.410 --> 00:27:30.930 or the Exosis, who were given their own admittedly 00:27:30.930 --> 00:27:33.329 fake independent Bantu stands like KwaZulu or 00:27:33.329 --> 00:27:36.069 Transke, the Greco got nothing. There was no 00:27:36.069 --> 00:27:38.470 Greco stand. Their specific history was just 00:27:38.470 --> 00:27:41.319 ignored. Their entire history of being a sovereign 00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:44.279 nation with captains and constitutions was completely 00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:46.779 ignored. They were just coloreds, period. So 00:27:46.779 --> 00:27:49.559 what did that do to the people, to their identity? 00:27:50.059 --> 00:27:52.769 It fractured them. To survive in that system, 00:27:52.910 --> 00:27:55.630 many people began to downplay or hide their Griega 00:27:55.630 --> 00:27:58.309 heritage. If you could pass as Cape Colored, 00:27:58.309 --> 00:28:00.390 maybe you got a slightly better job or could 00:28:00.390 --> 00:28:02.410 live in a slightly better area than if you insisted 00:28:02.410 --> 00:28:05.509 on being a tribal Griega. It led to a terrible 00:28:05.509 --> 00:28:08.190 loss of identity for generations. People stopped 00:28:08.190 --> 00:28:10.109 telling the stories. But that's changing now. 00:28:10.210 --> 00:28:12.690 Since the end of apartheid in 1994, there's been 00:28:12.690 --> 00:28:15.240 a renaissance, hasn't there? A massive one. A 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:17.559 huge resurgence of pride. People are coming out 00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:19.900 of the woodwork to reclaim the identity. The 00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:21.680 current population is estimated to be around 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:25.380 775 ,000, but it's incredibly hard to count because 00:28:25.380 --> 00:28:27.880 of that history of hiding and assimilation. And 00:28:27.880 --> 00:28:30.059 is the new South African government recognizing 00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:33.980 them? Slowly. It's a process. We now have the 00:28:33.980 --> 00:28:36.119 National Khoisan Council. which represents their 00:28:36.119 --> 00:28:38.779 interests. They are fighting for the same recognition 00:28:38.779 --> 00:28:41.079 as other traditional leaders, like the Zulu king. 00:28:41.500 --> 00:28:43.819 And there have been huge symbolic victories. 00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:45.940 Do you remember the story of Sarchi Bartman? 00:28:46.380 --> 00:28:48.460 The coy woman who was taken to Europe in the 00:28:48.460 --> 00:28:51.299 early 19th century and exhibited. Yes, she was 00:28:51.299 --> 00:28:53.779 displayed as a freak in London and Paris because 00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:56.660 of her steatopygia, her anatomy. She died there 00:28:56.660 --> 00:28:59.140 and her remains were dissected and kept in a 00:28:59.140 --> 00:29:02.579 museum in Paris for over a century. It was grotesque. 00:29:02.619 --> 00:29:05.319 A terrible story. And the Greek people were at 00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:07.640 the absolute forefront of the campaign in the 00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:10.720 1990s to bring her remains home to South Africa 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:13.759 for a proper burial. It was about honoring the 00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:15.779 ancestors, wasn't it? It was about restoring 00:29:15.779 --> 00:29:18.579 dignity to the Khoi mother as they saw her. When 00:29:18.579 --> 00:29:20.339 she was finally returned and buried in the Eastern 00:29:20.339 --> 00:29:23.420 Cape in 2002, it was a massive moment of healing 00:29:23.420 --> 00:29:26.779 and reclamation for the Grika and all Khoi -descended 00:29:26.779 --> 00:29:29.200 people. Before we wrap up, I just want to ask 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:31.720 about the connection to Namibia. You mentioned 00:29:31.720 --> 00:29:35.259 bastards there. Are they the same people as the 00:29:35.259 --> 00:29:37.900 Grika? They're cousins, really. The Rehoboth 00:29:37.900 --> 00:29:40.200 bastards, who live in central Namibia, share 00:29:40.200 --> 00:29:43.400 the exact same origins, mixed descent from European 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:46.759 men and Khoi women in the Cape. They also trekked 00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:49.279 north to escape colonial rule. But they went 00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:52.039 a different way. A different way, yes. They settled 00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:54.680 in a place called Rehoboth, south of Windhoek. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:57.339 They consider themselves a distinct ethnic group 00:29:57.339 --> 00:29:59.980 from the South African Grika, but the history 00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:02.839 is almost perfectly parallel. They also had their 00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:05.859 own constitution, their own captain, and a fierce 00:30:05.859 --> 00:30:08.140 tradition of independence. It's just amazing 00:30:08.140 --> 00:30:10.680 to see how these threads of history spread out 00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:12.920 across the entire subcontinent. It really shows 00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:15.039 you that the frontier wasn't a simple line on 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:17.599 a map. It was a zone of intense creation and 00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:20.720 conflict. So we've covered centuries, we've crossed 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:23.599 mountains, we've lost and regained names. If 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:26.660 you had to summarize the so what of the Greco 00:30:26.660 --> 00:30:29.319 story, what is it? Why does this matter? I think 00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:31.640 the Greco story destroys the simple narratives 00:30:31.640 --> 00:30:34.380 we like to tell ourselves about history. We like 00:30:34.380 --> 00:30:36.380 history to be clean. The British did this. The 00:30:36.380 --> 00:30:39.160 Boers did this. The Zulus did this. The Greek 00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:41.559 show us that there was a fourth, a fifth, a sixth 00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:44.380 option. They represent a fusion that created 00:30:44.380 --> 00:30:47.019 something entirely new, something that was both 00:30:47.019 --> 00:30:49.400 indigenous and European, both African and Western 00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:51.480 at the same time. They were the future South 00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:55.539 Africa. That's a perfect way to put it. They 00:30:55.539 --> 00:30:57.960 were grappling with multiracialism, with hybrid 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:00.720 identity, with how to combine Western law and 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.299 African reality long before the modern state 00:31:03.299 --> 00:31:05.400 of South Africa even existed. And for me, the 00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:07.920 takeaway is just the resilience to build a state 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:10.900 and lose it. To build another one and lose that, 00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:13.680 to trek over the highest mountains and lose that 00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:16.779 land too, but to still be here, to still have 00:31:16.779 --> 00:31:20.220 the church, the name, the pride, that is an unbelievable 00:31:20.220 --> 00:31:23.339 tenacity. It truly is. I want to leave our listener 00:31:23.339 --> 00:31:25.660 with that thought we touched on earlier, the 00:31:25.660 --> 00:31:28.480 rugby team. You might be watching a Curry Cup 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:30.640 match and see the team from the Northern Cape, 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:33.460 the Grequas, playing. And you might just think 00:31:33.460 --> 00:31:36.000 it's a cool historical name for a team. Just 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:38.480 a name. But every time that team runs onto the 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:41.000 field, they are carrying the name of a nation 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.960 that trekked across deserts and over mountains 00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:47.440 time and time again just to find a place to call 00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:50.539 home. And here's the question that I think lingers 00:31:50.539 --> 00:31:54.640 long after you close the books. If the word Afrikaner 00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:58.460 meant... mixed race person for 350 years and 00:31:58.460 --> 00:32:01.079 was only changed by a deliberate political campaign 00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:05.319 in 1876, if we were to hit undo on that change, 00:32:05.579 --> 00:32:08.259 what does South African culture look like today? 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:11.059 Who are the real Afrikaners? That is a question 00:32:11.059 --> 00:32:13.180 that completely rewrites the history books in 00:32:13.180 --> 00:32:15.180 your head. Thank you for taking this deep dive 00:32:15.180 --> 00:32:17.240 with us. It's been a fascinating and really important 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:19.259 journey. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. We'll 00:32:19.259 --> 00:32:19.859 see you in the next one.