Episode 64 – The amaXhosa “strolling” days are numbered as Lieutenant-General Sir John Cradock arrives

This is episode 64 and we’ve rejoined Lieutenant colonel Richard Collins and Governor Caledon in Cape Town. If you remember last episode we heard about Collins’ military intelligence gathering trip to the eastern Frontier.He’d returned with two main ideas about what to do about the amaXhosa still living in the Zuurveld. His report of 6th August 1809 is another one of those key moments in South African history.
In response, Caledons first initiative was to setup a mechanism to regulate the employment of the Khoekhoe labour force called the Hottentot Proclamation of November 1809. The Caledon Code as it became known decreed that work-contracts had to be drawn up before a magistrate, thus according the Khoekhoe some form of legal protection from exploitation.
But this was negated almost immediately by the fine print – that the Khoekhoe had to register a fixed place of abode which forbid their movement without a certificate issued by a landdrost. The pass system’s first proper installation was at hand.
This meant the Khoekhoe had to live and work on farms which meant they could no longer live the life they’d been used to roaming about on the landscape which they’d done for thousands of years.
However, Caledon was loathe to enforce Collin’s second proposal. In the interest of preserving peace in the eastern districts, all future contact between colonists and amaXhosa would be prevented by expelling all amaXhosa beyond the Fish River.
And he went further. As some former VOC and British officials had suggested, he wanted a rigid boundary backed up by powerful fortifications along the river.
Lord Caledon’s response was negative -but he had also resigned.
And now, at this crucial juncture, a new Governor arrived. Lieutenant-General Sir John Cradock with one D disembarked in Cape Town on 5th September 1811. It took him only three weeks to declare war on the amaXhosa. He was a man of action, a military man, and he was being advised by fellow soldiers.