BIG READ: The Cape slaves: why they are at the core of SA identity
Koeksisters, boerewors and kwaito are used to market the country. None would have existed without slavery at the Cape
When my wife and I backpacked through Europe in 1984, being well educated rebels we looked out for resonances of the George Orwell novel. We came closest in the least expected country: the Netherlands. There, in Amsterdam’s Scheepsvaartmuseum, we found nothing on the Cape of Good Hope. The colony, and therefore all its victims, and we ourselves to boot, might not have existed, written out of history.
On December 19 prime minister Mark Rutte apologised for 250 years of Dutch involvement in slavery, but it emerged that while seven ministers had been despatched to former colonies to spread the message, none had come to SA. ..
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