Early Dwellers of the West Coast - the GuriQua

The Khoikhoi pastoralists or herders densely occupied the west coast regions which were known as the land of the CochoQua, stretching from Saldanha Bay to Vredenburg.

The lower Berg River area, St Helena Bay and points around Piketberg were occupied by the ChariGuriQua or GuriQua. Archaeological sites on the West Coast, like Kasteelberg, attest to occupation by herders between 1800 and 1600 years ago.

It is well known that whale meat was used by the Khoikhoi and this meat was obtained in places known as 'whale traps' where whales often strand themselves along the shore.

These Cetacean Traps are places where minima in the earth's magnetic field cross the shoreline and where there are often offshore reefs. St Helena Bay, or more specifically, Slipper Bay appears to be one of these 'cetacean traps', approximately 12km from Kasteelberg.

The history of the Khoikhoi and the SonQua after 1652 is well documented although west coast history makes light of the early history of the GuriQua and the SonQua Bushmen, who were here to witness the arrival and departure of many early visitors to the coast, including Vasco da Gama.

With the arrival of explorers from other faraway lands, came sicknesses and a way of life hereto unknown by these people. Also, many liaisons were formed by the visitors with the indigenous people.

The 1713 small-pox epidemic, was one of the main causes for the virtual disappearance of the Khoikhoi from the south-western Cape. The remnants of the ChariGuriQua of the region followed Adam Kok, the founder of the Bastaard or Baster group who were descendants of mixed unions between European settler farmers and Khoikhoi women.

Since there are no records written by the indigenous peoples for the pre-colonial period we can only rely on Anthropological and archaeological research to give us tools to form a picture of a people and culture lost in time. Our only other sources of information is the few ships journals and diaries of visitors written from 1488 to 1652.