Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I I 199 1 1 7 - 3 3
THE ANTHROPOLOGIST ROBERT THORNTON HAS SUGGESTED THAT TRADITION AND CULTURE ARE
used by groups within a society to create identity and status boundaries. Such activity
occurred in the development of the South African colonial town of Montagu. By the mid-
nineteenth cen tury the small-farmer elite of the area had marked out a clear s tatu s hierarchy
on the landscape through the form of their residential architecture . This architecture relied
on British patterns of space making and British-inspired systems of detail that connoted the
concept of progress that was important to their self-image. But the archi tectural symbolisms
chosen by this first generation represented only a transitional phase in the overall develop-
ment of the architectural form of the town. As Montagu changed from an agricultural
se ttlement to a more complex town b y the end o f the century, old symbolisms were r e placed
by a new order whose distinctions were more subtle. This new order, which was influenced
inversion of the previous tradition. In the case of both styles , however, the deployment of
arch itectural form in the interest of social boundaries involved both " basic form" and "style
different architectural system was developed, with different Among architectural historians, the construction of churches
building types and details. The paper concentrates mainly on in tural Cape farming communities is often cited as the most
the first phase, when local ideas from eighteenth- and early important cause of their urban development.3 Once churches
nineteenth-century traditions of urban and rural building were built, or so the argument goes, the regular weekly
were combined with British-inspired practices to accommo- patronage of churchgoing farmers provided the opportunity
date and represent the new form of social organization and the for commercial expansion. Alternatively, social historians and
new cultural aspirations of village residents. cultural geographers have suggested that what the growth of
Cape villages and towns primarily reflected was the spread of
We begin by establishing the context for Montagu's early commerce to the countryside 4 These proposals contain a
buildings. The paper discusses the urban history and urban common thread: both assume that from the moment settle-
form of the settlement and the range of building types which ments began to appear, "urban" and "tural" could be clearly
it originally contained. Following the theories ofanthropologist distinguished both functionally and environmentally.
Robert Thornton, we argue that tradition and culture should
be seen as resources which can be used to create boundaries and Our research seems to indicate that this image of settlement
identity . We show how the interaction of traditional and is too simplistic. It also makes it impossible to explain the
imported types, technologies, space arrangements, and details characteristic cultural landscapes of mid-nineteenth-century
in Montagu's buildings contributed to the definition of status "urbanization." The case of Montagu suggests a different
boundaries . We then illustrate, referring particularly to high- raison d 'etre than those above, one which may not have been
status houses, how English-influenced concepts of spatial universal, but was certainly not unique. ' As in most nine-
arrangement and English detailing changed the character of teenth-century Cape settlements, the physical presence of the
local building. We argue that "Englishness" in architecture church in Montagu was commanding, and the church did play
came to represent the idea of progress, which had recently an important role in social, political, and even economic
emerged as an explicit discursive concept in the farming affairs. But the settlement was not established around a
sector. We then briefly contrast the characteristics of pre- and church built by local farmers; nor was it primarily a commer-
post-1885 architecture in Montagu to illustrate the complete cial center established around a nucleus of shops. Montagu
transformation of the architectural system that accompanied came about through the agency of a speculator-farmer from
its change from an agricultural settlement to a town. the Wellington district, a certain D.S van der Merwe. The
commodity which van der Merwe offered for sale when he
subdivided a farm he bought for the purpose was agricultural
THE ORIGINS, FUNCTIONS AND POPULATION land suitable for intensive cultivation of market-oriented
OF EARLY MONTAGU agricultural products such as wine and dried fruit.
As late as the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century The success of van der Merwe's venture was due to demand
colonial settlement at the Cape had produced no more than which had arisen as a result of contemporary land shortages,
four tiny villages outside Cape Town. l Fifty years later, how- price rises, and an increasing need for capital to farm competi-
ever, the landscape of settlement had been transformed by the tively. All these factors reflected structural changes in the
appearance of the country dorp. From about 1820 onwards , and nature of agriculture in the western Cape which followed the
particularly between 1830 and 1860, large numbers of gridiron emancipation of the slaves and the increasing absorption of
settlements were established, spaced at regular intervals farming into a developing capitalist economy. The result of
throughout the Cape countryside . these forces was that many aspiring young farmers could no
longer acquire land in established arable areas and had to
The first problem which confronts a would-be analyst of the choose between cultivating a village erf (lot) or migrating to
buildings in these settlements is that the historical context of a stock farm on the distant frontier. Montagu thus began as
their consttuction is far from clear. Although the 42 "mu- a transitional form of settlement with a clear economic ratio-
nicipalities and villages" enumerated in the 1865 census 2 are nale based on commerce and agriculture, but where agricul-
often recognized to have been among the first signs on the land ture remained the predominant land use until about 1885.6
of far-reaching social and economic change, historians have
paid relatively little attention to the processes that brought Even though the colonial administration seems to have had no
them into being, or to the composition of their populations, explicit rules governing the design of such settlements, the
their functions, and their character. Assumptions have been village was laid out according to a system that was so common
made, but in the case ofMontagu these are difficult to reconcile it was well understood by local surveyors.7 The plan was or-
either with the documentary or the material evidence. dered by three superimposed grids: a grid of roads, a cadastral
J A PHA : IDE N TIT Y T H R 0 UGH 0 ETA I L • 19
. ~~~ : - ~ -- ~
- -- -- -
- ~-==- -~ - - - -
~~~~~r¥~~""1!'*M'-"~~.""
" SalhSl~'1 "r
;
grid, and a g rid of water (FIGS. I, 2). The layout of the settle- Merwe from Wellington and in many cases were his relatives
ment was determined by the form of the best arable land, and and friends. 13 In the general context of Cape agriculture th ese
particularly by the optimum distribut ion of water for irriga- people cannot be regarded as particularly wealthy, but in the
tion from the p erennial Bath River. The plan offered two types small pond of village society they were the biggest fish. They
of lots. Some were served by a system of communal water served as the ouderlinge (elders) and deakons (deacons) on the
furrows and were therefore suitable for cultivation; these so- church committee. They became minor dignitaries, such as
called watererwe varied in size from one ro about five acres. Justices of the Peace .14 Their children were educated in the
Others, above the line of irrigation, were smaller and were church school , which offered an educational standard far better
called droeerwe(dry lots); they were about a quarter of an acre than the norm in rural areas. They owned much of the agricul-
in size and were probably intended for artisans and tuishuise. 8 tural land, from which they derived substantial incomes. 15
And they inhabited the larges t buildings in the town.
It has sometimes been sugges ted that there was little hierarchy
in the social structure of the rural Cape before about 1890. On
the one hand , it has been said, there were the dispossessed BUILDING TYPES AND SOCIAL STATUS,
indigenous population and ex-slaves and their descendants, 1850-1885
who lived in conditions of servirude and poverty. On the
other, there was an egalitarian colonist society with little As M ichael Steinetz has shown,16 fieldwork alone is not a
poverty and no class differentiation. reliable bas is on which ro reconstruct an architectural context:
in Montag u, as in many places, the surviving buildings are
Village society was certainly dominated by white colonists, mainly hig h-status houses. However, the full range of build-
and the m ajority of the approximately 400 black people and ing types and their statistical distributions (at least in respect
"Hottentots"9 enumerated in Montag u by the 1875 census lO to size) can be reconstructed from documentary so urces ,
were agricultural laborers or domestic servants who did live in comparisons with other villages, picrorial evidence , and the
poverty. But Colin Bundy has shown t hat poverty in the few simpler houses which survive .
villages was not restricted to black residents. I I Montag u no
doubt had its share of unskilled navviesand landless poor whi tes
forced to live in the village because they could no longer
survive on farms.
12 22 6 9 8 6 8 10
The census of 1875, which enumerated buildings by number cottages. These were one room deep, usually with double-
of rooms in every village and town in the colony, recorded 123 pitched, thatched roofs and gable ends (FIG. 4G), although they
houses in Montagu. There were 12 houses with one room, 37 sometimes had flat roofs and parapets (FIG. 4F). 19 Either form
with two or three rooms, 37 with four or five rooms, II with six could be built with one, two, or three rooms in a row , or with
rooms, and 26 with more than six rooms. A similar picture of a fourth room, usually a kitchen, added to form an "1." These
stratification is given by property tax records (FIG. 3).1 7 Overall, buildings could have different dimensions: more substantial
no surviving house belonging to the small-farmer elite origi- houses had an internal width of about 5.5 meters, but others
nally had less than six rooms, and in 1865 no such house was were much narrower. A photograph ofMontagu West 20 taken
valued at less than 400 pounds, although many were valued at in about 1915 shows a group of such houses which were obvi-
more than 500 pounds. Even if the smaller droeerwe were ously older than the photograph (FIG. 5). A few of these still
excluded from consideration, this placed all houses belong ing remain. They had very modest interiors, their rooms were
to the small-farmer elite within the rop 27 percent (and most usually open to their thatched roofs, and their floors were
within the top 20 percent) of Montagu's buildings from the probably of mud or cow dung.
point of view of value, and the top 22 percent from the point
of view of size. There is now no trace of the twelve one-room houses which
were listed in the 1885 census. Some were probably occupied
All hig h-status houses in t he village and on the farms in the by those described in the census as "Hottentots." Compari-
surrounding district were one of three types, each adapted son can be made with nearby settlements, where one source
from themes current in Cape building for generations: either described the typical dwellings of "the colored people" as ".
they were gabled houses with thatched roofs (FIGS. 4A, B), .. pondoks, and rude huts covered in sods and soil, with
rectangular houses with thatched roofs (FIG. 4D), or double- merely the opening in the front which serves as the window
storied, parapeted houses with flat roofs (FIG. 4C). The houses and the door." 21 Evidence of the presence of houses like these
were usually associated with ourbuildings for agricultural use, in Montagu, as well, is provided by a single cryptic reference
mainly wine cellars, and their plans were often the same in a newspaper22
irrespective of type. For the most part these were representa-
tive of the double-pile configuration typical of similar build-
ings of the period throughou t the Breede River Valley. STATUS BOUNDARIES, 1850-1885
The interiors of the houses were simply finished. Floors were One way of seeing tradition is as a resource which peopie use
generally boarded, althoug h some had traditional peach-pip to make statements about themselves and their relationships
floors in the kitchen area. Some had reed ceilings, but most to others . From this perspective, tradition and culture, as the
had boarded ceilings on exposed beams . The interior walls anthropologist Robert Thornton has suggested, can be used to
were plastered and lime-washed white, although a few had one establish identity and to create the boundaries within which
special room that was wallpapered. people live. 23 Identity can be demarcated by several not entirely
coincident boundaries, such as wealth, ethnic background ,
There was an intermediary category of buildings in the occupation, language, and color. Robert Ross has suggested
settlement that may be discerned from the census, second that the most important of these in the mid-nineteenth-
houses on landholdings. Two examples of these survive, each century Cape was wealth, more important, for instance, than
originally built for a son of a major landholder (they were ethnic background or even, in som e respects, color. 24 Status
unusual because they were attached to a wine cellar) (FIG. 4£). 18 was, therefore, a function of economic standing and was a
But by and large most people in the village lived in modest crucial dimension of boundary-making and identity.
J A PHA : IDE N TIT Y T H R 0 UGH D ETA I L • 21
As indicated by the diagrammatic sketches ofMontagu houses houses, a small house can be built as though it were part of a
in FIG. 4, the boundaries of status and wealth within the larger house 25 The same building type can also be built in
village were reflected in an architectural landscape that was far different sizes: a small house can thus be a large house which
from egalitarian . There was a clear hierarchy of building, has been shrunk. A third option is for there to be altogether
established in parr by the obvious fact that some buildings different types of houses for people of different economic
were larger than others. But status hierarchy was also achieved levels. This apptoach would seem to be consistent with
by the existence of a more subtle range of conventions, the situations where social distance is great and is accepted by
adherence to which ensured the visual dominance of the high- both rich and poor.
status buildings.
In early Montagu it was this last course which was followed.
In principle, there are several ways in which an architectural Neither building types nor systems of architectural detail
system can accommodate economic difference. As Glassie has crossed status boundaries. Although similar building tech-
shown in his discussion of half and two-thirds Georgian niques were used for houses on different status levels, p lan
22 T D 5 R 2.2
settlements many traditional features were retained, but the product of at least three particular "local" architectural fea-
confrontation with British ideas did change the old Cape tures. The first of these was the distinctive block forms that
architectural character considerably. Why this should have had developed during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth
happened at this time is a question we shall address shortly. centuries. During this period , pitched-roofed houses with
front and side gables, and double-storied houses with flat roofs
The characteristics of "Englishness" which were responsible and parapets, had become the typical dwellings of the colonial
for these changes can be illustrated by a late example of what elite on the wine and wheat farms and in Cape Town, respec-
is sometimes called "the Georgian model": the Zeederberg tively. In these places such houses had become well-estab-
house in Paarl, built about 1850 (FIG. 6). Although this lished symbols of power and prosperity. Both building types
building was constructed for a "Dutch" doctor, 31 it is an al- were influenced by European practice, bur neither had a direct
most ideal statement of contemporary British taste in small- parallel in Europe. A third type of residential sttucture, a
town architecture at the Cape. Apart from its symmetry, two simpler thatched-roofed house without gables, was also com-
stories, and double-pile plan (with the passage extending from mon; but in Montagu and the surrounding district several of
front to back), its important features are as follows: the precise the earliest farmhouses were gabled, and houses with front
materials in its low-pitched, hipped roof, the pilasters at its gables continued to be built until the late 1870S.
corners, its cornice, the molding around its front door, the
refined detailing and proportions of its doors and windows, its Double-storied houses with parapets only appeared in the
louvered shutters,32 and , particularly, the expression of mate- Montagu area around the late 1850S (FIG. 7). In the country
rials used in its walls. districts the traditional construction technique for a flat roof
was the so-called brakdak, a rural version of the Cape Town
method of using crushed brick on planking covered with a
THE OLD CAPE ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER layer of plaster waterproofed with sea-shell lime or whale oil.
In the rural version of this roofing method, round poles or sawn
By way of contrast with this "English" model of a high-status beams supported a layer of reeds on which a bed of puddled
residence, the old Cape architectural character had been the clay was laid. Roofs of this type were common in the Karoci,
24 T D 5 R 2.2
f"'E
for leaking, In the Montagu District it seems the advent of
flat-roofed houses may have been delayed until technical
?~-
problems associated with waterproofing could be solved by
1/ the introduction of corrugated iron sheeting shortly befote
,f
~
~
1860. By this ti me, ironically, double-storied houses in Cape
(-I "
Town were usually built with pitched roofs - flat roofs
r=c (.
AITERHUIS
• having passed out of fashion. But it seems flat roofs were
C revived in the country districts as a symbol of sophistication.
{~ . In the first two decades after 1850 flat-roofed houses were far
,,~( I, :\ ----- i _ more common in country villages than houses like the
... _- .. __ .... ,._------ - "'"==
Zeederberg house .
.;; ~
ROOM ~ VOORHUIS ROOl1
The second characteristic of the old Cape architectural style
1 :fV'I,. , --
I~
",I'v'\ ,
11 " Jr-
was a distinctive pattern of space arrangement. Before the
arrival of the British at the Cape, the interiors of most high-
-- ~~ ~
~
BI [§J
[][]
IiJ
a question of available skills, because plaster details were used note the Joubert houses in Long and Bath Streets, both of
that radically modified the architectural language of the wall which have English joinery bur more traditional treatments of
in spite of the fact that village plasterers, unlike village wall surfaces (FIG. 13).
carpenters, were not usually English. By the mid-1830S in the
larger centers, the taste for unornamented walls, which En- In light of this analysis, it is difficult to agree with Lewcock
glish-influenced buildings initially shared with the local that the old Cape character continued little changed in
tradition, had given way to a trend toward increased articula- villages and on farms. After 1850 traditional elements such as
tion of surfaces with tobust moldings and rustication 36 gables were retained, bur in buildings with new plan con-
figurations; traditional technology was still used, but as a
After mid-century this tendency spread to the smaller vil- supplement to other building methods; and traditional block
lages, and plaster details of this kind began to appear even on forms and technology were still evident, bur in combination
gabled buildings. Some examples in the Montagu district are with British patterns of space making and British-inspired
the Malherbe house, with its heavy pilasters extending across systems of detail.
the entire facade, and Klaasvoogdsrivier II, with deeply in-
cised rustication on its gable window surrounds and quoins The result was an ambiguous hybrid architecture that resists
(FIG. 12). The extent to which details such as these transformed clear stylistic categorization. This ambiguity was character-
the old Cape architectural character can be gauged if one istic of all standard house types, even gabled houses . Bur it was
compares them to details of Montagu buildings which re- particularly marked in the case of rectangular houses. If a
mained closer to the local tradition. Among these, one can thatched roof were combined with walls that were plain rather
J A PHA : IDE N TIT Y T H R 0 UGH D ETA I L • 27
and English commerce on which the village economy was the rural areas at the Cape . After about 1880 or 1885 more
based was enthusiastically supported by Montagu's small extensive commerce and industry began to develop as well;
farmers,38 who were very much in favor of the change and of and when this happened, it brought a new transformation of
"progress," which their own economic activities as small the cultural landscape.
farmers, shopkeepers, and hotel keepers reflected.
Once the process of acquiring urban institutions, urban
It is thus apparent that by appropriating English architectural services, and a genuinely urban landscape began, it gathered
forms, the villagers were not abandoning a firmly established momentum rapidly. By the turn of the century Montagu was
cultural identity. According to recent writing by social no longer an agricultural settlement, but merely a town in
historians, a specific Dutch! Afrikaner ethnic identity was not which agriculture was still practiced . Consideration in detail
constructed until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 39 of all aspects of this phase of Montagu's development is
Before then, distinctions between well-off "Dutch" and En- beyond the scope of this paper. However, for the purpose of
glish were less marked than between wealthy and poor contrast, we do propose to discuss the changes which occurred
"Dutch." This latter distinction was even marked by lan- to the system of building types and detail.
guage: better-off farmers spoke a relatively pure form of
Dutch, while many poor whites spoke one of a variety of Prior to 1885 the architectural system in the village had three
vernacular dialects assembled from Dutch, Khoikhoi, and the characteristic features. All of these were literally inverted in
various languages of ex-slaves.
the period 1885- 1915. It is first possible to speak about the
village architecture before 1885 as a regional vernacular in-
It was not until this discourse of progress became evident in
spired mainly by rural models: the buildings in the village
the farming sector that the local tradition of building in the
were of the same types as those on farms in the district, they
rural areas was much modified by the impact of British taste.
accommodated the same functions, and they were arranged on
Thus, "Englishness" in architectute also seems to have come
the land in similar ways . But after 1885 the impetus for new
to represent the urbanity and ptogress on which "Dutch"
building styles came from Cape Town and beyond, as na-
village residents believed their futute depended .
tional and even international design ideas and imported
components made their presence felt. In most cases these
However, there was a curious twist to the meanings that ar-
ideas and products no longer provided for agricultural
chitectural traditions seem to have had. Some English resi-
functions . Buildings came to be placed on their sites in one
dents in country settlements such as Montagu admired the
of two ways : high-status houses were placed freestanding , set
character of the local vernacular. What they admired was not
back within their lots in typical suburban fashion, while
"Dutch" planning, which they often explicitly condemned,
smaller buildings were more tightly spaced, and were arranged
but the aesthetic character of the "Dutch" village. They
hard-up on the street. Each of these arrangements produced
admired it because it represented a romantic alternative to the
a new type of streetscape.
industrialized England from which they had escaped . They
preferred the picturesqueness of white walls, gables, and
The second feature ofMontagu' s archi tecture that was changed
thatch to what they sometimes saw as the mechanistic preci-
after about 1885 concerned the apparent hierarchy of the
sion of contemporary architectural models in their own cul-
buildings. Before 1885 neither architectural types nor details
ture. 40 To "Dutch" village residents, however, such romanti-
crossed status boundaries , but after 1885 this situation became
cism must have been incomprehensible.
much less obvious, and the distinctions between types became
more subtle. The new building types reflected the common
TRANSFORMATIONS, 1885-1915 Victorian distinction between house and cottage, between the
"well planned and commodious homes for the more prosper-
The buildings of the Montagu District illustrate how rural ous, ... [and] the cottage of all shapes for the generality."41
and small-town architecture was transformed between 1850 Tacit prohibitions that had maintained the visual distinction
and 1885 by the interaction between local and British building between earlier buildings of different status levels seem to
types, ways of organizing space, technologies, and details. have disappeared .
However, the architectural system which developed from this
interaction accommodated and represented what was to be a A few houses continued to take the double-storied, parapeted
transitional and short-lived village economy and social or- form - with some new features such as cast-iron verandahs
ganization . The development of intensive agriculture in and off-the-shelf joinery, but with the two-room-deep plans
Montagu was just one reflection of the spread of capitalism to more characteristic of the period 1850- 1870 (FIGS. 15A, 16).
J A PHA : IDE N TIT Y T H R 0 UGH 0 ETA I L • 29
However, the vast majority of new high-status houses 42 took (FIG. 18) . The result of this sharing of detail was that vis ual
a form which Cape Victorians described as the "villa" (FIGS. distinctions betwee n houses became blurred.
15B, 17).43 These were suburban houses which usuall y had
asymmetrical plans, asymmetrical gables, and verandahs - The third characteristic change in the architecture of the
houses similar to those found throughout the British colonial village after 1885 was the increased range of choice in the
world. They retained nothing of traditional forms , technol- design of modest houses and the concurrent restriction of
ogy, space arrangements, or detai1. 44 options in the design of hig h-status houses . Almost every
high-status house after 1885 was a so-called villa, built for
Some smaller and more modest houses were built with the professionals or merchants - in some cases the children of the
same external forms as villas but different plan configurations original small farmers of the area, who considered the houses
(FIG. 150. From the late 18805 and early 18905, off-the-shelf they had grown up in inappropriate for their new urban
components such as windows, doors , timber fretwork, and lifestyle in which agriculture played no part. 4 5
cast iron became available. These provided relatively cheap
ways to reflect aspirations other than the reality of social and Inversely, village residents at the lower end of the economic
economic position, and their availability led to the possibility spectrum were now presented with a much greater range of
that simple cottages could share similar des ig n features with choice in dwelling type. Traditional form s remained a part of
large buildings . For example, an elaborate verandah could the urban landscape: the cottage with a thatched, double-
give even a simple rectangular house considerable presence pitched roof, typical of modest buildings before 1885, did
30 T D S R 2.2
continue to be built ; and single-storied, flat-roofed houses asymmetrical, and it usually had four rooms: a kitchen, a
with parapets became even more common , continuing to be living room, and two bedrooms . Such a plan could be used to
built until about 1930. But the most usual form that the small achieve a variety of three-dimensional forms, including those
house now rook was the typical colonial cottage with a cortu- with either flat or pitched roofs. With the minor modification
gated iron roof either with hips or clipped side gables and a of a front room (FIG. 19B), an asymmetrical exterior could al-
verandah (FIG. 15F). Such houses were thought of as "modern ."46 ternatively be achieved. While this form departed from mid-
nineteenth-century models, a number of house plans did still
The plans of these houses illustrate two distinct patterns of perpetuate the distinctive symmetrical pattern of space ar-
space making, one which followed mid-nineteenth-century rangement that had emerged in hig h-status houses four
organization and another that departed from it. A plan often decades earlier (FIG. 19A).
taken to be typical of turn-of-the-century cottage design is
illustrated in FIG . 19C . Like the p lans of most villas, it was Just as had once been the case with high-status houses, a
J A PHA : IDE N TIT Y T H R 0 UGH D ETA I L • 31
-
demarcate boundaries of social status and create a range of
connorations, from the "progressive" associations of "English-
ness" to the "conservatism" of unmodified local tradition. 4m
When this context changed after about 1885, the system of
representation changed with it.
REFERENCE NOTES The University of Cape Town rejects racism and and Architecture of Montagu, 1850-1915"
racial segregation and strives to maintain a (Occasional Publication Series, VCT School of
strong tradition of non-discrimination in regard Architecture and Planning, forthcoming).
to race, religion and gender in the constitution 7. Montagu was laid out in two general plans,
of its student body, in the selection and the first in 1850 and the second in 1854, by
promotion of its staff, and in its administration. surveyors Atmore and Kannemeyer, respectively.
SG Ml and M13 .
8. Tuishuise were town houses owned by
This study was completed with the assistance of farmers from rhe sutrounding district.
a grant from the P.G. Foundarion. It is based on They were used when attending church services
fieldwork carried out between 1984 and 1988. and communion.
9 . Race classification in nineteenth-century
I. The largest, Stellenbosch, contained a mere South Africa was no less arbi trary a
70 houses; the smallest, Graaf-Reinet, was just a bureaucratic exercise than today. It is far from
single srreer of mud hovels. clear that all the people described in the
2. Cape Parliamentary Papers, "Census of the census as "Hottentots" would have seen
Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1865," themselves as such.
G-20 1866. 10. The total population was 1,176. See "Census
3. For an example, see D. Radford, "The of the Colony, 1875," p. 15.
Architecture of the Western Cape, 1838-1901" II. Bundy, fot instance, has suggested that from
(Ph.D. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, the middle of the century landlessness and
1979), Vol. I, p. 168. poverty were already prevalent among both
4- See A. Mabin, The Making of Colonial white and black people on farms and in the
Capitalism: Intensification and Expansion in the villages. C. Bundy, "Vagabond Hollanders and
Economic Geography ofthe Cape Colony, S.A., Runaway Englishmen," in Beinart, et aI,
I854-I899 (Ph .D. thesis, Simon Fraser Plough to Ground, p. 104- This suggestion is
University, 1984), p. 63. See also R. Ross, "The supported by the range of house sizes recorded
Origins of Capitalist Agriculture at the Cape," in the census return for 1875 for Montagu,
in W. Beinart, et aI, eds., Putting a Plough to the reflecting a considerable degree of social
Ground 00hannesburg: Ravan Press, 1986), pp. stratification in the village. See "Census of the
64-65. The argument Ross makes about the Colony, 1875," p. 14- 15.
number of people in commercial occupations in 12. Their presence in the village is well recorded
the villages is misleading. Using data from the in death notices, wills, and rates records. For
1865 census, he claims that more than three- example, David Rattray and Henry Hammond
quarters of the 4,000 people employed in were bookkeepers, as shown in Cape Archives
commerce were living outside Cape Town, with (hereafter CA) MOOC 6/9/320 1867, and CA
the great majority scattered throughout the MOOC 6/9h27 5153 . Diederik Pallas was a clerk
towns and villages. However, Appendix table IX (CA MOOC 610/568 1022). Robert Anderson and
of G-20 1866 gives the total number of people William Ashford were carpenters (CA MOOC
employed in commerce as 3>927. Of these, 1,514 6/9/,,62856, and CA MOOC 7111288144). The
were in Cape Town, 729 were in suburbs which 1865 rates book shows that many people held
are today part of Cape Town, and 386 were in watererven of one acre or smaller (CA 4RBN 7\ 6\r.) .
Paarl and Stellenbosch. Thus, only 33 percent 13. P.G. j .M., "Het Onstaan van Monragu",
(not 75 percent) could be described as scattered. Kerkbode Kersmommer, 1922, p. 9I. It is
Moreover, many of these 33 percent did not live important to note that economic independence
in towns or villages. Even in 1875, 24 percent of of each married couple was an important aspect
shopkeepers and 56 percent of traders lived of the "Dutch" c~ncept of the family.
outside towns and villages. "Census of the '4- P.]. Joubert, the brother in law of D.S. van
Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1875" der Merwe, held this office in Montagu .
(Appendix I, Vol. II: Votes and Proceedings of '5. Many of them consolidated large properties
Parliament, 1877), p. 204. by buying several of the approximately half-
5. Other setdements with similar landscape morgen (one acre) erven on offer at the first sale.
characteristics include Prince Albert, In 1865 F.D. Du Toit, for instance, owned 36
Oudtshoorn, parts of Graaff-Reinet, and acres within the village boundaries; P.G.
Murraysburg. Joubert, Sr., and son P.G. Joubert, Jr., owned
6. A review in detail of the evidence for this about 20 acres; Gideon Malherbe owned 8 acres ;
assertion is beyond the scope of this paper, but it ].H. van der Merwe owned 7 acres; F. Crots
is set out in D. and V. Japha, "The Landscape owned 6 acres; and Jacobus Rossouw owned 5
JAPHA: IDENTITY THROUGH DETAIL 33
acres (information compiled from Montagu late as 1854 as still having p tedominanrly 39. See H. Giliomee, "The Beginnings of
Rates Book, see CA 4RBN Vol. 7/6;1). Contem- thatched buildings. Double-storied buildings Afrikaner Ethnic Consciousness, 1850- 1915," in
porary reports refer to profits of between 50 and were even then regarded as an innovation. See L. Vail, ed., The Creation of Tribalism in South
150 pounds per acre per annum from village Anon., "Some Account of a Slow Village" Africa (Los Angeles: University of California
eroen under vines. An arti san in the building GraaffReinet H erald (May 1854), as di scussed in Press, 1988), p. 21ff.
trades - even in the unlikely event he worked C. Henning, GraaffReinet: A Cultural History 40. See Anon ., "Roofing Tiles and Bricks,"
250 days a year - could only expect an annual (Cape Town: T.V . Bulpin, 1979), p. 36. Overberg Courant (Oct. 16, 1861).
income of about 65 pounds. Even small village 30. Agriculture wirhin rown boundaries was an 41. Anon., "The Coolness of our Dwellings,"
erven were, therefore, competitive income important contributor to income even in such an Cape Mo nthly Magazine N o. 107 Vol. XVII
producers. Those with larger landholdi ngs were importam com mercial town as Graaff-Rei ner. (March 1879) , p. 152.
even more well-off. 31. Dr. Zeederberg, who acquired the p roperty 42. In the rates evaluations fot 1915 these villas
16. M. Steinetz, "Rethinking Geographical in 1848 and must have built the house soon were typically among the hig hest rated of
Approaches to the Common House," in T. afterwards , was one of the first local doctors to properties wirh valuations berween 600 and
Carter and B. Herman, Perspectives in Vernacular study in Edinburgh. Information given by 950 pounds, which was ofren as much as 100-
Architecture III (Missouti: University of Missouri Antoinette Rode. 200 percem hig her rhan rhe rares values for
Ptess, 1989), p . 16ff. 32. Louvered shutters predated the arrival of the smaller houses on similar adjacem sires
17. The figures in the table were compiled from English but had litrle effect on architect ural (CA 3MTU 7\ 6\2).
data in the Montagu Rates Book. Of the 48 style in the coumryside until 1850. 43. Proper coumty rerrears wete built near Cape
droeerwe included in the table, 41 were valued at 33. See H. Fransen, "The developmem of rhe Town rhroughour rhe ninereemh cemury, but
less than 50 pounds. Square Plan in Boland Domestic Architecture" rhe retm was also used ro refe r to fteesranding
18. The buildings were built by the brothers-in- (Occasional Paper No. I , Vernacular Architec- subutban houses such as rhose in Momag u.
law F. du Toi t and P. Jouberr. ture Society of South Africa, n.d.). 44. Perhaps rhe besr illusrrarion of the changes
19. The sing le-storied, parapeted house had its 34. For instance, Lady Anne Barnatd, writing in in ways of life rhar rhey accommodared is in rhe
otigins in eighteenth-century Cape T own and November 1797 about a visit to Stellenbosch , design of rheit kirchens. The kirchen in an
became very common in Karoo towns like com memed with approval on the house of the elabotare villa may have been, as Mrs. Beeton
Graaff-Reinet in the mid- and late-nineteenth Landdrosr. Unlike "evety Dutch house in t he put ir, "rhe great laborarory of rhe household, "
century. In Montagu the form was probably not Colony," she wrote, it had "a sort of second row on which irs social accomplishmems and
used much until perhaps 1890 when rapid of rooms behind the first ," a fact which in her domes ric satisfacrions were rhoughr to depend.
urbanization began to occur. eyes made it "more airy and spacious" than other But in principle the kirchen became a space
20 . Montag u West was otiginally known as the houses. A. Barnard, South Africa a Century Ago: populated by servams who now had to perform
Veldschoendorp, a name that cannot be Letters Written From the Cape of Good Hope rheir funcrions our of rhe eye of rhe household,
ttanslated literally but which implies that parr I797-I80I, (London: Smiths, Elder and Co., wirh as lirrle noise and smell as possible. In rhe
of the rown where people could only afford 1901), p. III. Moodie, in discussing his brother's earlier houses the ki rchen was a space like orher
homemade shoes). It was first settled in eighteemh-cemury "Dutch" style house near spaces, fini shed in the same marerials and
1854 by the agricultural laborers who worked Swellendam, complained about the lack of rhoroughly imeg rared imo rhe plan. Ie was a
in the vineyards. privacy in Cape farmers' houses. Because t he space where rhe small farmer's wife and
21. Anon., "The Dwellings of the Poor," house "did not suir [his) brothers habits," he had daughrers could, for instance, apply rhe
Overberg Courant (Feb. 6, 1861). How many of erected a partition to separate [he living quarters ingenui ry for which rhe y were renowned to rhe
these structures chere were in Montagu is from the domain of the servants and the noise making of preserves and pickles. Ir was also a
impossible to determine. and smell of the kitchen. J . Moodie, Ten Years space where rhe family somer imes would sir.
22. Anon., Cape Monitor (Sepr. 1, 1858). in South Africa Vol. I (London: Richard In rhe larges r villas, on rhe orher hand , the
23. R. Thornton, "Culture: A Contemporary Bentley, 1835), p. 103· kirchen was a space apart from rhe resr of the
Definition, " in E. Boonzai er and J. Sharp, eds., 35. Two Eng lish immigram carpemets in house, finished in sparran marerials, designed to
South African Keywords (Cape Town and Montagu were William Ashford and Robert be supervised tarher rhan inhabited by the
J ohannesburg: David Philip , 1989), pp.26-27. Anderson, both of whom died in the owner's family.
24. Ross, "Capi ralist Ag ri culture at the mid-1860s (CA MOOC 7111288 144, and CA 45. Some examples are the houses of rhe
Cape," p. 66. MOOC 6/9;116 2865). mercham Joubert and rhe lawyer Van Zyl.
25. H . Glassie, "Eighteenth-Century Cultural 36. Lewcock, Architecture in South Africa, pp. 46. For example, " ... we have rhe corrage .
Process in Delaware Valley Folk Building," 302-3 0 3. bearing rhe impress of being rhoroug hly
Winterthur Portfolio 7 (1972), p. 37 ff. 37. Thornton , "Culture: A Comemporary modern by irs iron roof and verandah ." W.
26. A jonkershuis was the second house on a Definition," pp. 24-25 . Ll ewellyn, as quored in anon., "Coolness of our
farm, usually occupied by a manager or a 38. For instance, when the governor, Sir Philip Dwellings," p. 152.
married son of rhe farmer. Wodehouse, visited the village in 1862, they 47. See H. Glassie, "Delaware Valley Folk
27. R. Lewcock, Early Nineteenth Century erected a series of arches across the road with the Building"; also Folk Housing in Middle Virginia:
Architecture in South Africa (Cape Town: A.A. mottos "Trade and Commerce through the A Structural Analysis ofH istoric Artifocts
Balkema, 1963), p. 297. Cogmanskloof' (the pass lead ing to Montag u), (Knoxville: Universiry of Tennessee Press, 1975).
28. Ibid. , p. 297. "Com mercial Prosperity," and "Agricultute and
29. Graaff-Reneit, for instance, was described as Commerce ," Overberg Courant (Nov. 26, 1862).