The Cape Colony was formed by the Dutch in 1652, established by the Dutch East India Company. Their goal was to establish a harbor around the Cape of Good Hope in order for the Company (VOC) to provide refuge for their ships on the long journeys back and forth from Europe to Asia. It gradually grew to a settlement, establishing an ethnic group known as Afrikaners. From 1688 onward the Cape attracted some French Huguenots, most of them refugees from the protracted conflict between Protestants and Catholics in France.
The VOC ruled over the colony, and due to its strict laws, a lot of farmers moved inland to escape them, causing more and more of South Africa to become European colonized. As the only permanent settlement of the Dutch East India Company not serving as a trading post, it proved an ideal retirement place for employees of the company. After several years of service in the company, an employee could lease a piece of land in the colony as een Vryburgher ("a free citizen"), on which he had to cultivate crops that he had to sell to the Dutch East India Company for a fixed price. As these farms were labor-intensive, Vryburghers imported slaves from Madagascar, Mozambique, and Asia, which rapidly increased the number of inhabitants. After King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes (October 1685), which had protected the right of Huguenots in France to practice Protestant worship without persecution from the state, the colony attracted many Huguenot settlers, who eventually mixed with the general Vryburgher population.
The Bantu Peoples inhabited the area of South Africa before and during the Dutch colonization. The term "Bantu" to describe these peoples was not used until the late 1800s.
Most settlers were of Dutch origin, however, others included French, German, Scandinavian and Belgian.
Bantu Beliefs
All Bantus traditionally believe in a supreme God. The nature of God is often only vaguely defined, although he may be associated with the Sun, or the oldest of all ancestors, or have other specification. God is almost never described as the Creator of all things, as in most Bantu mythologies the universe is eternal and has no beginning. Animals are also a part of this eternal universe. While not its creator, God is intimately related to the universe; animals are sometimes referred to as "His people", and in some of the myths about God moving away from men it is clear that God's discontent with men has to do with their habit of manipulating and corrupting the natural world. In most African cultures, including Bantu cultures, veneration of the dead plays a prominent role. The spirits of the dead are believed to linger around and influence the world of the living. The living, through clairvoyants and seers, may address the dead in order to receive advice or ask for favors. If a spirit takes offense in something done by a living person, he may cause illness or misfortune to that person; in that case, a clairvoyant may help that person to amend his mistake and pacify the angry dead. Catastrophes, such as famine or war, may be the consequence of serious misbehavior of the whole community.
Dutch Reformed Church
The largest Protestant movement following the Reformation. It developed during the Protestant Reformation, being shaped theologically by John Calvin, but also other major Reformed theologians. It was founded in 1571.
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