An Alternative South African Chronology

6th-century BCE , Phoenicians voyage around the Cape and plant cedar trees.

1421 Chinese fleet under command of  Zheng He reaches Southern Africa

1510 Cape Peninsula Khoi Khoi repulse an attack by Francisco d’Almeida, viceroy of Portugal’s possessions in India. 65 Portugese including d’Almeida are killed.

1594-1601 Cape Khoisan trade with English navigator James Lancestor.

1631 Autshumau, agrees to go to Batavia, returns with Dutch to act as “postman”.

1659 Khoi protest white encroachment

1660 Krotoa a Khoisan woman converted to Christianity and was baptized as Eva. She learnt Dutch in the Van Riebeeck household and eventually became principal interpreter for the Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1660

1671-73 (Second) Khoi-Settler War

1696 Pirate Captain Kidd sets course for the Cape coast, where his vessel was reported to have been spotted on 20 January 1697.

1706 Adam Tas leads protest against administration of W A Van de Stel and is imprisoned. Considered to be first Afrikaner revolutionary.

1795 Rebellion of Republics of Swellendam and Graaf Reinet

The Jew, Joseph Suasso de Lima, arrives at the Cape in 1793/4

1803 Batavian Republic period (1803-1806) under Jansens and De Mist, brought unprecedented level of freedom to the Cape, but was unfortunately exceedingly brief, lasting three years. De Mist was said to be “primed with new principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” and, publishes an ordinance of religious toleration (July 25 1804) giving equal protection to all “religious societies which for the furtherance of virtueand good morals worship in the Almighty Being” to enjoy rights.

1813 Griqua Republic founded, comprising people of mixed descent (Khoi, Free slaves, Dutch etc)

1815 Slachters Nek rebellion

1833 Abolition of Slavery (some 59 000 slaves freed)

1856 Nongqawuse, a xhosa prophetess has a vision that is only realized in 1996

1862 Abu Bakr Effendi, a Turkish muslim, arrives at the Cape, proceeds to write and publish one of the first books in Afrikaans, using Arabic script (Bayad-ud Din) Explanation of the Faith.

1865 Kaffraria becomes part of Cape Colony posing the question, what was Kaffraria?

1871-1936 Eugene Marais, a talented writer, poet, naturalist, lawyer and journalist charged with treason for criticizing Paul Kruger.

1894 Gandhi develops his non-violent principles of satyagraha whilst in South Africa.

Modern Era

1905 Bambata Rebellion, Zulu armed protest against a poll tax imposed by colonial authority

1928 Trader Horn, aka Alfred Aloysius Horn publishes his Southern African travelogues to popular acclaim in the United States.

1935 Fritz Perls, father of Gestalt Therapy arrives in South Africa from Vienna, and proceeds to write Ego, Hunger and Aggression, a revision of Freudian Analysis, a seperation from Freud, and Gestalt Therapy, excitement and growth, in Johannesburg, before leaving in 1946.

1937 Sholom Schwartzbard, the Ukranian anarchist and friend of Joseph Kropotkin arrives in Cape Town but dies one month later. He is buried in the Maitland Jewish cemetery.

1963 Boswells buys into Wilkie’s Circus to create the Boswell Wilkie Circus

1966 Creda Mutwa, mystic, publishes Indaba My Children

1972 Fook Island invented by Walter Battiss

1974 Ruth First, wife of SACP leader, Joe Slovo, writes 117 days , the story of her time in solitary confinement

1975 Breyten Breytenbach arrested under Terrorism Act, and also for defying immorality legislation.

1983 Achmat Dangor published Bulldozer, a work of poetry, UDF formed.

1987 University of Cape Town student revolt closes the campus, End Conscription campaign is banned

1988 Tutu defies seperate amenties legislation.

1989 Purple Rain Riot (Purple Shall Govern)

1990 The Transition Period 1990-1993 like the Batavian Republic, the transition only lasted three years to four years, measured from announcement of the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, to the announcement of an election in April 1994.