The significance of Willem Lodewycksz’s pre-colonial representation of the
initial Dutch cross-cultural encounter on the coast of Southern Africa and its
relevance to a future colonial discourse
Nico Lamprecht
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Prior to 1996, South African Dutch studies had largely been determined by the rigid
historical and geographic boundaries of a traditional framework which focussed on the
period between 1652 to 1925 and on topics regarded as typically South African. Siegfried
Huigen in De Weg naar Monomotapa (1996) not only questioned these limitations but
introduced a revised time frame including the period 1596 to 1652.
This extended framework provided an opportunity to study texts such as Willem
Lodewycksz’s De Houtman se Eerste Schipvaart naar de Ooste (1595-1597), which
included a representation of the initial cross-cultural encounters on the coast of Africa.
The literary qualities are of lesser concern with the prime focus being on both the initial
encounter and the the representation of ‘the other’ and the relevance of both to a
developing discourse.
Since the initial representation, future texts have hardly presented more than a
variation of the same theme. The initial texts not only had a profound influence on the
future discourse but significantly impacted on future relations in Southern Africa.
Furthermore the text confirmed the existence of both a far more inclusive Dutch frame of
reference and a more extensive presence on the coast of
presumed.
Africa than previously