Inboekstelsel

Last updated

Inboekelinge child labour instituted by Europeans in Southern Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries. [1] The word is derived from the Dutch verb inboeken (register; literally "in-book"), referring to the requirement of entering the names and details of the inboekeling (also spelled inboekseling), or apprentices, in the Landdros's register. [2] It is widely seen as a form of slavery by historians of South Africa. [3]

Contents

The system had its origin in the Cape Northern Frontier during the second half of the 18th century, when settlers would capture native children, and force them to work as indentured labourers until adulthood. [4] When Boer trekkers migrated into the Transvaal during the 1840s, they brought the inboekstelsel system with them. [5] Inboekelinge children were captured during raids, or handed over as apprentices by their conquered parents in return for land or goods. [1] In some cases they were sold by Boer settlers to other burghers, in what became known as the trade in "black ivory". [6]

In the Transvaal, the inboekelings numbered about 4,000 in 1866, nearly one for every ten settlers. [2] In 1869 the synod of the Dutch Reformed Church adopted a resolution condemning the practice, but rescinded it two years later on the grounds that the system no longer existed. [6] In the Transvaal, legislation required that males be released from indenture at the age of 25, while females were released at 21, but the law was not always observed in remote frontier districts. [1]

British attitudes towards the Inboekstelsel system were ambivalent. The British administration of Transvaal between 1877 and 1881 did not affect it. [7]

Historians like Elizabeth Eldredge and Fred Morton have argued that Inboekstelsel was a system of slavery. [3] Although legal slavery was formerly abolished in the Cape colony in 1834, the inboekstelling system allowed white settlers to continue to practice forced labour.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boers</span> Descendants of Afrikaners beyond the Cape Colony frontier

Boers are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled Dutch Cape Colony, but the United Kingdom incorporated it into the British Empire in 1806. The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Colony</span> British colony from 1806 to 1910

The Cape Colony, also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, then became the Cape Province, which existed even after 1961, when South Africa had become a republic, albeit, temporarily outside the Commonwealth of Nations (1961–94).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of South Africa</span>

The first modern humans are believed to have inhabited South Africa more than 100,000 years ago. In 1999, UNESCO designated the region the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. South Africa's first known inhabitants have been referred to as the Khoisan, the Khwe and the San. Starting in about 1,000 BC, these groups were then joined by the Bantu tribes who migrated from Western and Central Africa during what is known as the Bantu expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afrikaner Calvinism</span> 19th-century Afrikaner cultural and nationalist movement

Afrikaner Calvinism is a cultural and religious development among Afrikaners that combined elements of seventeenth-century Calvinist doctrine with a "chosen people" ideology based in the Bible. It had origins in ideas espoused in the Old Testament of the Jews as the chosen people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mpumalanga</span> Province in South Africa

Mpumalanga is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares borders with the South African provinces of Limpopo to the north, Gauteng to the west, the Free State to the southwest, and KwaZulu-Natal to the south. The capital is Mbombela.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indentured servitude</span> Consensual or punitive unpaid labor

Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or service, purported eventual compensation, or debt repayment. An indenture may also be imposed involuntarily as a judicial punishment. The practice has been compared to the similar institution of slavery, although there are differences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Bartle Frere</span> British colonial Welsh administrator (1815–1884)

Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, was a British colonial administrator. He had a successful career in India, rising to become Governor of Bombay (1862–1867). However, as High Commissioner for Southern Africa (1877–1880), he implemented a set of policies which attempted to impose a British confederation on the region and which led to the overthrow of the Cape Colony's first elected government in 1878 and to a string of regional wars, culminating in the invasion of Zululand (1879) and the First Boer War (1880–1881). The British Prime Minister, Gladstone, recalled Frere to London to face charges of misconduct; Whitehall officially censured Frere for acting recklessly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Boer War</span> Military conflict in present-day South Africa (1880–1881)

The First Boer War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. The war is also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boer republics</span> Former countries in southern Africa

The Boer republics were independent, self-governing republics formed by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders – variously named Trekboers, Boers, and Voortrekkers – settled mainly in the middle, northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of present-day South Africa. Two of the Boer republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The republics did not provide for the separation of church and state, initially allowing only the Dutch Reformed Church, and later also other Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition. The republics came to an end after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, which resulted in British annexation and later incorporation of their lands into the Union of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griqua people</span> Southern African ethnic group

The Griquas are a subgroup of mixed-race heterogeneous formerly Xiri-speaking nations in South Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Dutch Cape Colony. Like the Boers they migrated inland from the Cape and in the 19th century established several states in what is now South Africa and Namibia. The Griqua consider themselves as being South Africa’s first multiracial nation with people descended directly from Dutch settlers in the Cape, and local peoples.

Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, educated section of the Cape Colony's Afrikaner population which did not participate in the Great Trek or the subsequent founding of the Boer republics. Today, the Cape Dutch are credited with helping shape and promote a unique Afrikaner cultural identity through their formation of civic associations such as the Afrikaner Bond, and promotion of the Afrikaans language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griqualand West</span> Area of central South Africa

Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, who established several states outside the expanding frontier of the Cape Colony. It was also ancestral home to the Tswana and Khoisan peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in South Africa</span>

Hinduism is practised throughout South Africa, but primarily in KwaZulu-Natal. Approximately 1.1% of the South African population professed to be Hindu, according to the 2022 census. This is down from the 1.4% based on the 1996 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oorlam people</span> Ethnic group from southern Africa

The Oorlam or Orlam people are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony to Namaqualand and Damaraland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colony of Natal</span> British colony from 1843 to 1910

The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its provinces. It is now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of South Africa (1815–1910)</span> Formation of the Nation of South Africa

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Cape Colony was annexed by the British and officially became their colony in 1815. Britain encouraged settlers to the Cape, and in particular, sponsored the 1820 Settlers to farm in the disputed area between the colony and the Xhosa in what is now the Eastern Cape. The changing image of the Cape from Dutch to British excluded the Dutch farmers in the area, the Boers who in the 1820s started their Great Trek to the northern areas of modern South Africa. This period also marked the rise in power of the Zulu under their king Shaka Zulu. Subsequently, several conflicts arose between the British, Boers and Zulus, which led to the Zulu defeat and the ultimate Boer defeat in the Second Anglo-Boer War. However, the Treaty of Vereeniging established the framework of South African limited independence as the Union of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boer commando</span> Military unit

The Boer Commandos or "Kommandos" were volunteer military units of guerilla militia organized by the Boer people of South Africa. From this came the term "commando" into the English language during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902 as per Costica Andrew.

Afrikaners are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Until 1994, they dominated South Africa's politics as well as the country's commercial agricultural sector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Wars (1879–1915)</span> Series of conflicts

The South African Wars, including but also known as the Confederation Wars, were a series of wars that occurred in the southern portion of the African continent between 1879 and 1915. Ethnic, political, and social tensions between European colonial powers and indigenous Africans led to increasing hostilities, culminating in a series of wars and revolts, which had lasting repercussions on the entire region. A key factor behind the growth of these tensions was the pursuit of commerce and resources, both by countries and individuals, especially following the discoveries of gold in the region in 1862 and diamonds in 1867.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in South Africa</span>

Slavery in South Africa existed from 1653 in the Dutch Cape Colony until the abolition of slavery in the British Cape Colony on 1 January 1834. This followed the British banning the trade of slaves between colonies in 1807, with their emancipation by 1834. Beyond legal abolition, slavery continued in the Transvaal though a system of inboekstelsel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 C. H. Feinstein (2005-06-23). An Economic History of South Africa: Conquest, Discrimination, and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. 53. ISBN   978-0-521-85091-9.
  2. 1 2 Breckenridge, Keith. "Power Without Knowledge: Three 19th Century Colonialisms In South Africa" (PDF). University of KwaZulu-Natal. pp. 22–29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. 1 2 Morton, Fred (2019-05-28), "Slavery in South Africa", Routledge, pp. 251–269, doi:10.4324/9780429306105-10, ISBN   978-0-429-30610-5, S2CID   199314684 , retrieved 2022-05-26{{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ Gwyn Campbell (2013-01-11). Abolition and Its Aftermath in the Indian Ocean, Africa and Asia. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN   978-1-135-77078-5.
  5. ↑ Gwyn Campbell; Suzanne Miers; Joseph Calder Miller (2007). Women and Slavery: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic. Ohio University Press. p. 196. ISBN   978-0-8214-1723-2.
  6. 1 2 Hermann Giliomee (January 2003). The Afrikaners: Biography of a People. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 184–185. ISBN   978-1-85065-714-9.
  7. ↑ John Laband (2005). The Transvaal Rebellion: The First Boer War, 1880-1881. Pearson/Longman. p. 41. ISBN   978-0-582-77261-8.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.