Coloured people () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and to a smaller extent Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South Africa began in the 17th century in the Dutch Cape Colony where the Dutch settlers mixed with Khoi Khoi women and female slaves from different parts of Africa and Asia, creating mixed-race children. Eventually, interracial mixing occurred throughout South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa with various other European nationals (such as the Portuguese, British, Germans, Irish, French etc.) who mixed with other African tribes leading to more mixed-race people whose descendants would later be officially classified as 'Coloured' under the Population Registration Act, 1950 during Apartheid.
The majority of Coloured people are found in the Western Cape, but are prevalent throughout the country. According to the 2022 South African census, Coloureds represent 8.15% of people within South Africa, while they make up 42.1% of the population in the Western Cape and 41.6% in the Northern Cape, representing a plurality of the population in these two provinces of South Africa. In the Western Cape, a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed. Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.
Ancestral background
South Africa South Africa is known as a 'Rainbow nation' because of its diverse cultures, tribes, races, religions and nationalities. Coloured people as they are known today are result of a diverse range of ancestries, regions, languages, and ethnic groups.
Dutch Cape Colony/Cape Colony/Cape Province
The first and the largest phase of interracial marriages/miscegenation in South Africa happened in the Dutch Cape Colony and the rest of the Cape Colony which began from the 17th century, shortly after the arrival of Dutch settlers, who were led by Jan van Riebeeck, through the Dutch East India Company (also known as the 'VOC'). When the Dutch settled in the Cape in 1652, they met the Khoi Khoi who were the natives of the area. After settling in the Cape, the Dutch established farms that required intensive labour, therefore, they enforced slavery in the Cape. Some of the Khoi Khoi became labourers for the Dutch farmers in the Cape. Despite this, there was resistance by the Khoi Khoi, which led to the Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars.
As a result, the Dutch imported slaves from other parts of the world, especially the Malay people from present-day Indonesia and the Bantu people from various parts of Southern Africa. Slaves were also imported from Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh (also known as 'Bengal'), Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Madagascar, Mauritius and the rest of Africa. Because of this, the Cape had the most diverse slave population in the world. The slaves were almost invariably given Christian names but their places of origin were indicated in the records of sales and other documents, so that it is possible to estimate the ratio of slaves from different regions. Usually, slaves were given their masters' surnames, surnames that referred to the characters in the bible (e.g. Adams, Jephta, Thomas, Esau, Solomons, Jacobs, Matthews, Peters, Daniels), surnames that reflected the month when they arrived in the Cape (e.g. September, March/Maart, January/Januarie, April), surnames that referred to Greek and Roman mythology (e.g. Cupido, Adonis, Titus, Hannibal) or surnames that referred to the geographical location where they came from (e.g. 'Afrika' from different parts of mainland Africa, 'Balie' from Bali in Indonesia and 'Malgas' which referred to the Malagasy people from Madagascar). These slaves were, however, dispersed and lost their cultural identity over the course of time.
Even in the early years of colonialism, the area that became known as 'Cape Town', received international interest because it was the perfect halfway point for the trade route between Europe and Asia, which made Cape Town a vital trading station. This is the main reason why the Cape was colonised by the Dutch so that the VOC could control and benefit from the Cape-Sea Route. This is also the main reason why the Dutch Cape Colony (especially in Cape Town) became a melting pot of people who came from different parts of the world and this melting pot still exists. The majority of the early Europeans who settled in the Cape were men because they were mostly traders, sailors, soldiers, explorers, farmers and politicians who hardly brought their families with them; therefore, they created new families in the Cape.
Because most of the Dutch settlers in the Cape were men, many of them married and fathered the first group of mixed-race children with the local Khoi Khoi women. Soon after the arrival of slaves, the Dutch men also married and fathered mixed-race children with the Malay from Indonesia, the Southern African Bantu, Indians and other enslaved ethnic groups in the Cape. To a certain extent, the slaves in the Cape also had interracial unions with each other and mixed-race children were also conceived from these unions as well because the slaves were of different races (African and Asian). Some of these slaves also intermixed with the local Khoi Khoi workers and another breed of children were born with diverse heritage. Unlike the One-drop rule in the United States, the Dutch settlers in the Cape did not view mixed-race children as "white enough to be white", "black enough to be black" nor "Asian enough to be Asian", therefore, mixed-race children from all these interracial unions in the Cape grew up, came together and married amongst themselves, forming their own creole community that would later be known as the "Cape Coloured" (a term that was given by the Apartheid regime during the 20th century).
The first interracial marriage in the Cape was between Krotoa (a Khoi Khoi woman who was a servant, a translator and a crucial negotiator between the Dutch and the Khoi Khoi. Her Dutch name was "Eva Van Meerhof") and Peter Havgard (a Danish surgeon whom the Dutch renamed as "Pieter Van Meerhof"). Having conceived three mixed-race children, Krotoa was also known as the mother that gave birth to the Coloured community in South Africa.
Eventually, more Dutch people settled in the Cape until the Cape fell under British rule in the early 19th century. Amongst them were the Van Wijk family (whose descendants became 'Van Wyk') who arrived in the Cape in 1686 and the Erasmus family that arrived in 1689. The arrival of more Dutch people in the Cape led to the recruitment of more Khoi Khoi labourers and the importation of more slaves from different parts of Asia and Africa. From the mid-17th century until the 19th century and the 20th century, all the Dutch surnames in the Cape region and the rest of South Africa evolved into Afrikaans surnames which are the most common surnames amongst White South Africans and Coloured South Africans e.g. Van Niekerk, Strydom (from 'Strijdom'), De Waal, Pietersen, Van Rooyen, Van Tonder, Hanekom, Steenhuisen, De Jongh (from De Jong), Van Wyk, Van Der Walt, Van Der Merwe, Koekemoer, Meintjies, Beukes, Van Der Bijl, Uys, Oosthuizen, Theunissen, Pieterse, Willemse, Nieuwoudt.
The Huguenots (also known as 'French Huguenots') were French Protestants who escaped banishment and persecution of Protestants in France. Many of them emigrated to the Dutch Cape Colony to seek refuge among the existing Dutch community during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Despite being refugees, they played a huge role on the history of the current Afrikaans-speaking community, the Cape region as a whole and the rest of South Africa. Coming from a country that has a rich history of wine production, these French refugees pioneered the vineyards of the Cape Winelands, turning it into one of the biggest wine producers in the world. The town of Franschhoek (which means "French corner" in Dutch and Afrikaans) in the current Western Cape, was named as a refuge where many Huguenots were allocated by the VOC. Many Huguenots were also allocated to Stellenbosch, Paarl and the rest of the Cape Winelands because this was the perfect environment (in terms of climate and fertile land) for them to plant their vineyards and produce wine.
Although many Huguenots, who arrived in the Cape, were already married, their children and descendants were soon absorbed into Cape society and after few generations, they spoke Dutch, not French. Just like many White-Afrikaans speakers, many Coloured-Afrikaans speakers (especially those from the current Western Cape, Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape) also have some ancestry from France due to the Huguenots who integrated with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape region. White-Afrikaans speakers and Coloured-Afrikaans speakers who specifically originate from the sub-region of the Cape Winelands (especially from the Franschhoek area, the Stellenbosch area and the Paarl area) may have more French ancestry because this is where most Huguenots in the Cape Colony where allocated for the purpose of wine-making. Through the impact of the Huguenots in the Cape, French names became popular within the Afrikaans-speaking community (both White and Coloured) e.g. Jacques, Cheryl, Elaine, André, Michelle, Louis, Chantel/Chantelle, Leon, François, Jaden, Rozanne, Leroy, Monique, René, Lionel. Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, many Afrikaans surnames are of French origin e.g. Delport, Nel, Du Preez, Le Roux, De Villiers, Joubert, Marais, Du Plessis, Visagie, Pienaar, De Klerk(from 'Le Clerc'), Fourie, Theron, Cronje, Viljoen (from 'Villion'), Du Toit, Reyneke, Malan, Naude, Terblanche, De Lille, Fouche, Minnaar, Blignaut, Retief, Boshoff, Rossouw, Olivier and Cilliers.
During the 1600s and the 1700s, Germany was the Netherlands' biggest trading partner in Europe and due to good relations, more than 100 000 Germans were recruited by the VOC making Germans the largest foreign Europeans in the Dutch empire. Throughout Dutch rule, the VOC sent nearly 15 000 Germans to the Dutch Cape Colony to work as officials, sailors, administrators and soldiers. Just like the French Huguenots, the Germans in the Dutch Cape Colony were also assimilated into the existing Dutch community and also learnt Dutch which replaced German. Eventually, Germans in the Cape became farmers, teachers, traders and ministers. Almost all Germans who settled in the Cape throughout Dutch rule were men and therefore, almost all German men in the Cape married women outside their culture (including African and Asian women). Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, there are many Afrikaans surnames of German origin e.g. Klaasen, Ackerman, Vosloo, Hertzog, Botha, Grobler, Hartzenberg, Pretorius, Booysen, Steenkamp, Kruger (from 'Krüger'), Louw, Venter, Cloete, Schoeman, Mulder, Kriel, Meyer, Breytenbach, Engelbrecht, Potgieter, Muller, Maritz, Liebenberg, Hoffman, Fleischman, Weimers, and Schuster.