Cape slave-import network expands across the Indian Ocean

During the late seventeenth century, the VOC expanded the transport of enslaved people to the Cape from Madagascar, Mozambique, India and the Indonesian archipelago. People arrived through Company voyages, private shipping and transfers within the wider Dutch Indian Ocean system, bringing varied languages, religious traditions, skills and family histories into Cape society.

Significance

The expanding network made coerced labour central to the colony’s agriculture, construction, domestic service, language, religion and family life.