VOC concludes disputed land-transfer agreements with Khoikhoi leaders

VOC officials obtained written agreements in 1672 from Peninsula Khoikhoi leaders concerning land extending from Table Bay toward Saldanha Bay and Hottentots Holland.

View in timeline

disputed

treaty

In 1672, VOC officials obtained written agreements from Peninsula Khoikhoi leaders concerning the Cape district and land reaching toward Saldanha Bay and Hottentots Holland. The agreements were recorded in the Company’s legal and administrative framework as transfers of land, while the participating leaders’ authority and the meaning of the transaction remain matters of historical interpretation.

Significance

The agreements supplied the VOC with a documentary basis for expanding and defending its claims over land already affected by settlement and war.

Why it matters

The agreements supplied the VOC with a documentary basis for expanding and defending its claims over land already affected by settlement and war.

Disputed interpretations

Historians dispute the representatives’ authority, the translation and consideration recorded in the agreements, and whether the negotiations conveyed permanent alienation of communal grazing land.