History of Cape Town, South Africa

While Cape Town's modern history started with the arrival of Jan Van Riebeeck and his merry band in 1652, the first known inhabitants of the area arrived about 110,000 years prior to that. These inhabitants, known as the San (or Bushmen), were a tribe of hunter-gatherers whose culture had no conception of private property. They believed all resources were endowed by the Creator according to need.

The San were gradually displaced by the pastoralist Khoikhoi (also known as Khoekhoe or Hottentot, although this term is now considered offensive), who migrated from the north around 20,000 years BC. They found adequate grazing in the fertile southwestern parts of the country, and settled there.

The San and Khoikhoi lived in relative peace until the arrival of the Dutch, who under the command of The Netherlands' Dutch East India Company set up a trading post for ships rounding the Cape on their way to the East Indies. Slaves were imported for labour from Indonesia and Madagascar, and would later form the Malay and Cape Coloured communities of the Western Cape.

The British then took control of the Cape in 1795 after the brief Battle of Muizenberg. After some fluctuations in colonial ownership the Cape settled under British control and was incorporated into the British Empire. The population of the settlement at the Cape grew under British rule and their colonial influence is still present in the city today.

Apartheid played a large role in shaping present-day Cape Town. District Six was a vibrant colourful community until the apartheid government sent in the bulldozers and in a few short years scattered these residents to the sprawling Cape Flats, a legacy that remains to this day. The scars remain but the healing has begun. The place and its people are not forgotten and the District Six Museum offers an excellent insight into its fascinating and tragic past.

And of course, Robben Island, lying beyond Cape Town's harbour, is a reminder of the most poignant events of apartheid - the incarceration and eventual release of Nelson Mandela.

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