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The Khoikhoi people of South Africa, who once roamed the region with their cattle, were called “Hottentots” by Dutch settlers due to their language’s unique sounds. Settlers displaced and discriminated against them, but some small communities still farm and tend livestock today.
“Hottentot” is a derogatory term for the Khoikhoi people of South Africa, who once roamed vast expanses of this region of the world along with the cattle they raised. Khoikhoi means ‘people’ and this ethnic group had lived in South Africa for thousands of years before settlers arrived. The appearance of European settlers radically changed the life of the Khoikhoi, almost completely eliminating their tribal existence. Only small numbers of so-called Hottentots still exist today, typically in very small and sometimes nomadic communities.
The term “Hottentots” is believed to come from the Dutch word for “stuttering.” The Dutch used this term to describe the Khoikhoi they interacted with, referring to the Khoisan language spoken by the Khoikhoi, which includes sounds that would seem quite foreign to Europeans. Khoisan languages are famous for including clicks and detached pronunciations that are markedly different from European languages. Describing their encounters with the natives of Africa, the Dutch called them “Hottentots” and the name stuck into the 20th century, at which point most people dropped it, calling it offensive.
The Khoikhoi grazed their cattle, moving them to take advantage of the changing seasons. This differed from their related Khoisan neighbors, who used hunting and gathering to support themselves. The Khoikhoi are believed to have practiced intensive agriculture in South Africa, shaping the land to suit their needs and developing their own unique culture separate from that of other Khoi peoples.
When settlers arrived, they quickly displaced the natives they called Hottentots, establishing their own farms and ranches and using Africa’s natural resources in a variety of new ways. Some of the displaced Khoikhoi actually ended up as servants or slaves in settlers’ homes, while others were subsumed into neighboring tribes. Although Khoikhoi communities have been greatly destroyed by colonialism, some small settlements have survived and continue to farm and tend livestock as they have done for centuries in Namibia and South Africa.
Like many native peoples, the Khoikhoi were treated as inferiors by the settlers, who used their different appearance to discriminate against them. For the Khoikhoi, being called a Hottentot was probably quite demoralizing, as it denied their age-old identity as a people. Discrimination against native Africans, especially nomadic peoples, continues to be a problem.
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