First nations: the embodiment of Khoe heritage at Princess VleiEvery place tells a story, but are different ways to reveal these.
A palynological study of a core drilled in Princess vlei revealed a palaeoenvironmental sequence of almost 4000 years. This tells us that Khoekhoen herders wandered the banks of Princess Vlei, some 1700 years before European settlers arrived in the 17th Century But this Khoe history is also carried in the hearts of the people living nearby today. Khoe identity was brutally assaulted by colonialism and genocide. Lives, cultural practices, family and tribal connections, collective wisdom, languages were all lost or destroyed. Khoe and San residents were enslaved or hunted down, their descendants marginalised and repressed by successive regimes. Stories passed down through the generations were therefore critical threads keeping these connections alive. One such story, the legend of the Princess, is a vivid, living legacy of those long ago Khoe people who lived on its banks. The story has much to tell about our wounded history, and holds a thread both with the long lost first nations of our city, our country and our world, and with their first encounter with European settlers. The Princess Vlei has became an important space for the memorialisation of the first nations, and for the practices and expression of cultural identity. |
Tanyan Gradwell, an indigenous revivalist and social activist, reads a poem at a symbolic tree planting to honour these Khoe women: the Princess of Princess Vlei, Sarah Baartman, and Krotoa. Read more here.
|
The Treaty Tree
IN 2019, a significant tree was planted to commemorate the Princess of Princess Vlei. This tree is a sapling of the ‘Treaty Tree’ - a 500 year old Milkwood still growing in Woodstock. A battle between the KhoeKhoe and the Portuguese sailors under De Almeida took place near the tree in 1509 - 64 sailors were killed (depicted right). Later slaves were sold under the tree, and the Blaauwberg Treaty granting the Cape to the British was signed there in 1806. Planting this tree was an act of symbolic healing, and honouring those brutalised and annihilated by our history.
Read more here.
IN 2019, a significant tree was planted to commemorate the Princess of Princess Vlei. This tree is a sapling of the ‘Treaty Tree’ - a 500 year old Milkwood still growing in Woodstock. A battle between the KhoeKhoe and the Portuguese sailors under De Almeida took place near the tree in 1509 - 64 sailors were killed (depicted right). Later slaves were sold under the tree, and the Blaauwberg Treaty granting the Cape to the British was signed there in 1806. Planting this tree was an act of symbolic healing, and honouring those brutalised and annihilated by our history.
Read more here.
A depiction of Jan van Riebeeck’s party meeting Khoi inhabitants for the first
time,
painted by Charles Bell (1813 - 1882)
The Legend of Princess Vlei
There are several versions of this legend passed down orally by slaves and their descendants at the Cape. The Constantiaberg backdrop to the vlei is known by locals as Prinseskasteel, for the Princess is said to have lived in the cave near the top. This cave is also called the Elephant’s Eye because the mountain resembles an elephant's back.) Two streams - Prinseskasteelrivier and Prinskasteelrivier - flow from the mountain to the wetlands.
The legend recounts that when Europeans first dropped anchor at the Cape, a lone Khoe woman was apprehended and attacked by invading sailors, while bathing at Princess Vlei. The atrocity is variously told - violation, murder, abduction. The woman’s tears were unstoppable and thus Little Princess Vlei was formed. In some versions, she retreated to the Prinseskasteel, and her tears trickled down the mountain to form Princess Vlei. When viewed from above, Princess Vlei is in the shape of a tear drop - and the profile of a young woman can be seen forming its eastern shore.
In some versions, there is a darker side to the Princess - some claim that the Princess would take a life of a young man every year. Many young men have drowned in Princess Vlei, but whether at the hands of a wounded spirit, or due to other factors, is not clear. This side might also have been spread by mothers anxious to stop their children from swimming in the vlei.
The Princess represents the dignity of a people, who were brutally abused. Although the Khoe did not recognise a hierarchy that might include a princess, the legendary woman is a princess in that she is recognised as having value, dignity and significance.
In the Mid-twentieth century, author Jose Berman wrote an account linking the legend of the Princess to the documented conflict between the crew of Francisco d’Almeida’s vessel that was anchored at Table Bay on a return voyage to Lisbon, and the Gorachoqua Khoi. History relates that after the Portuguese had killed some fifty Khoi (allegedly in revenge for the Khoi taking more than was offered to them in a bartering transaction) near the river at what would be Observatory today, the Khoi gave chase. They killed more than sixty Portuguese on the beach at Table Bay, including d’Almeida, who died with a Khoi spear in his throat. In Portuguese history this was considered a serious defeat, as not only was d’Almeida an aristocrat with connections to the King of Portugal, but the Portuguese far outnumbered the Khoi.
The significance of the Legend of Princess Vlei
In the words of local resident Philip Bam, “Ek glo die storie wat my ma my vertel het! The legend that holds our story is the one we must hold fast, the one to treasure. The significance of a legend is that in speaking the truth to us individually or collectively, it serves our different needs." Community conservationist Kelvin Cochrane said “Saving the Vlei from commercial development is a chance for the people to restore dignity to the Princess, to the Vlei, and to themselves.”
The legend holds the collective woundedness arising from the dispossession, enslavement and physical and cultural genocide of the world's oldest peoples. Saving the Princess Vlei from commercial development was an important step in honouring the heritage of the Princess and the first nations. The Forum continues to work with Khoe cultural revival groups to explore ways to honour and build awareness of this rich history, including lobbying to have the Princess Vlei declared a Heritage Site.
This is how we reclaim ourselves.
There are several versions of this legend passed down orally by slaves and their descendants at the Cape. The Constantiaberg backdrop to the vlei is known by locals as Prinseskasteel, for the Princess is said to have lived in the cave near the top. This cave is also called the Elephant’s Eye because the mountain resembles an elephant's back.) Two streams - Prinseskasteelrivier and Prinskasteelrivier - flow from the mountain to the wetlands.
The legend recounts that when Europeans first dropped anchor at the Cape, a lone Khoe woman was apprehended and attacked by invading sailors, while bathing at Princess Vlei. The atrocity is variously told - violation, murder, abduction. The woman’s tears were unstoppable and thus Little Princess Vlei was formed. In some versions, she retreated to the Prinseskasteel, and her tears trickled down the mountain to form Princess Vlei. When viewed from above, Princess Vlei is in the shape of a tear drop - and the profile of a young woman can be seen forming its eastern shore.
In some versions, there is a darker side to the Princess - some claim that the Princess would take a life of a young man every year. Many young men have drowned in Princess Vlei, but whether at the hands of a wounded spirit, or due to other factors, is not clear. This side might also have been spread by mothers anxious to stop their children from swimming in the vlei.
The Princess represents the dignity of a people, who were brutally abused. Although the Khoe did not recognise a hierarchy that might include a princess, the legendary woman is a princess in that she is recognised as having value, dignity and significance.
In the Mid-twentieth century, author Jose Berman wrote an account linking the legend of the Princess to the documented conflict between the crew of Francisco d’Almeida’s vessel that was anchored at Table Bay on a return voyage to Lisbon, and the Gorachoqua Khoi. History relates that after the Portuguese had killed some fifty Khoi (allegedly in revenge for the Khoi taking more than was offered to them in a bartering transaction) near the river at what would be Observatory today, the Khoi gave chase. They killed more than sixty Portuguese on the beach at Table Bay, including d’Almeida, who died with a Khoi spear in his throat. In Portuguese history this was considered a serious defeat, as not only was d’Almeida an aristocrat with connections to the King of Portugal, but the Portuguese far outnumbered the Khoi.
The significance of the Legend of Princess Vlei
In the words of local resident Philip Bam, “Ek glo die storie wat my ma my vertel het! The legend that holds our story is the one we must hold fast, the one to treasure. The significance of a legend is that in speaking the truth to us individually or collectively, it serves our different needs." Community conservationist Kelvin Cochrane said “Saving the Vlei from commercial development is a chance for the people to restore dignity to the Princess, to the Vlei, and to themselves.”
The legend holds the collective woundedness arising from the dispossession, enslavement and physical and cultural genocide of the world's oldest peoples. Saving the Princess Vlei from commercial development was an important step in honouring the heritage of the Princess and the first nations. The Forum continues to work with Khoe cultural revival groups to explore ways to honour and build awareness of this rich history, including lobbying to have the Princess Vlei declared a Heritage Site.
This is how we reclaim ourselves.
