Knowledge and Colonialism ─ Eighteenth-Century Travellers in South Africa

Noting the important role played by South Africa in the formation of the European idea of Africa during the long 18th century, Huigen (Dutch literature and cultural history, U. of Stellenbosch, South Africa) analyzes how Southern Africa was represented in words and images during the period when the Cape Colony was under the jurisdiction of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch state from 1652 to 1814. He generally emphasizes the ethnographic representations in travel accounts and in images. The sequence of chapters reflect both the chronology of the topic as well as a thematic order based on the objectives that played a part in the representations: the Dutch East India Company's endeavors to investigate the economic potential of the interior, the efforts of scientifically interested individuals to gather knowledge about South Africa, and the Batavian government's wish to get an administrative hold on the colony and its frontiers. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Siegfried Huigen is Associate Professor of Dutch Literature and Cultural History at the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa. He publishes regularly on early modern representations of the extra-European world.