Without Boer settlement, could the Bantu have reached the Cape?

[TheLobby]

Let's say there were never any Dutch farmers who settled in South Africa in the 17th century, how would the region have evolved?

The Cape has a temperate Mediterranean climate not suited to the tropical agriculture of the Bantu, but could the Bantu have somehow reached the Cape of Good Hope by adapting to the region's climate? Or was the Cape doomed to become a European settlement?

 

[Legalize Crack]

Doomed?

 

[Thomas Lloyd]

Without the Dutch, it would have been the British or the French, or even someone else, like the Portuguese or the Germans. The Cape is prime territory for a colony, certainly pre-Suez.

Actually, having the Dutch colonize it is a blessing for the local tribes because the Dutch were the least interested in colonization, and the least populousnof the colonizers. Most likely, another power would have settled the Cape Colony more heavily.

 

[twovultures]

The only way I see the Bantu adapting to the region's climate is by abandoning farming entirely (a difficult proposition) and taking up pastoralism. Thing is, the Cape Khoisan already had pastoralism (in fact, pre-colonization they regularly provisioned European ships with livestock IIRC). Pastoralism will support Khoisans and Bantu at similar population densities, so the Bantu won't have the population advantage that let them assimilate the Khoisan in other parts of South Africa.

I *suppose* you could get a Bantu breakaway group using iron weapons to conquer the cape-iron weaponry is definitely an advantage, but I don't know if it's a decisive advantage without the overwhelming numbers that agriculture gives. And of course, the Khoisan could just start trading livestock for iron weapons from the Bantu homelands, wiping out that advantage.

 

[TheLobby]

The only way I see the Bantu adapting to the region's climate is by abandoning farming entirely (a difficult proposition) and taking up pastoralism. Thing is, the Cape Khoisan already had pastoralism (in fact, pre-colonization they regularly provisioned European ships with livestock IIRC). Pastoralism will support Khoisans and Bantu at similar population densities, so the Bantu won't have the population advantage that let them assimilate the Khoisan in other parts of South Africa.

I *suppose* you could get a Bantu breakaway group using iron weapons to conquer the cape-iron weaponry is definitely an advantage, but I don't know if it's a decisive advantage without the overwhelming numbers that agriculture gives. And of course, the Khoisan could just start trading livestock for iron weapons from the Bantu homelands, wiping out that advantage.

Couldn't a European power teach the Bantus how to farm in a temperate climate and recognize their supremacy over the region? In exchange, the European country could obtain Khoisan slaves and food supplies for its ships from the Cape (without having to send its own settlers).

 

[Ana Luciana II]

Let's say there were never any Dutch farmers who settled in South Africa in the 17th century, how would the region have evolved?

The Cape has a temperate Mediterranean climate not suited to the tropical agriculture of the Bantu, but could the Bantu have somehow reached the Cape of Good Hope by adapting to the region's climate? Or was the Cape doomed to become a European settlement?

The Xhosa were on the march westwards by the 17th century, bringing with them more advanced warfare and iron weapons, without a European power to oppose them I don't see why they couldn't have conquered the Cape. In the event I expect the local Khoisan will be absorbed into the Xhosa tribes as their co-ethnics in eastern South Africa were during the initial Bantu migrations. As @twovultures says though, there's less of an incentive for them to conquer this region, due to its less favorable climate for the kind of agriculture the Xhosa practiced.

 

[TheLobby]

The Xhosa were on the march westwards by the 17th century, bringing with them more advanced warfare and iron weapons, without a European power to oppose them I don't see why they couldn't have conquered the Cape. In the event I expect the local Khoisan will be absorbed into the Xhosa tribes as their co-ethnics in eastern South Africa were during the initial Bantu migrations. As @twovultures says though, there's less of an incentive for them to conquer this region, due to its less favorable climate for the kind of agriculture the Xhosa practiced.

Okay, so I think that these Bantuized Khoisan (assimilated to the Khosa culture as you said) could be technologically developed enough for the Europeans to treat them more as equals and for the Cape to become a simple trading post (where the Europeans stock up on food supplies and slaves as I said in my previous post) instead of a settlement colony.

 

[TheKutKu]

At their historical pace, for Cape Town, no
But of course, the mfecane, environmental pressures, technological improvements and appeal of trade will means they will absolutely reach the cape in the 19th century

 

[Ana Luciana II]

Okay, so I think that these Bantuized Khoisan (assimilated to the Khosa culture as you said) could be technologically developed enough for the Europeans to treat them more as equals and for the Cape to become a simple trading post (where the Europeans stock up on food supplies and slaves as I said in my previous post) instead of a settlement colony.

Certainly. I think the Khoisan would be in a stronger position to oppose colonising powers, making negotiations more even, and this would likely lead to European colonisation being more staggered.

 

[TheLobby]

At their historical pace, for Cape Town, no
But of course, the mfecane, environmental pressures, technological improvements and appeal of trade will means they will absolutely reach the cape in the 19th century

Can corn be grown in the Cape region? The introduction of corn in South Africa was one of the causes, in OTL, of the Bantu demographic explosion and the formation of the Zulu kingdom in the 19th century.

 

[TheKutKu]

Can corn be grown in the Cape region? The introduction of corn in South Africa was one of the causes, in OTL, of the Bantu demographic explosion and the formation of the Zulu kingdom in the 19th century.

It's unlikely to be any different, new world crop dispersion in the old world, subsaharian africa included, generally vastly preceded european settlement and conquest.
It seems like maize production in the western cape is definitely not optimal without elaborate irrigation, and marginal to this day.

 

[HyperMuscularDemon]

How about Arabic and Swahili and Malagasy merchants and traders? Given that the Swahili Coast stretched all the way to Sofala in the middle of Mozambique and the Arabian Peninsula traded with the Swahili Coast, it could be possible for Arabic, Swahili, and Persian traders and merchants to sail along the coast and come into contact with the Bantu in South Africa, trading food and technology to them which gives the Bantu more food to feed a greater population, which could be the motivation needed to move towards the Cape of Good Hope.

 

[TheLobby]

Doomed?

Don't speak very well English, sorry. I wanted to say "voué à devenir" in French.