Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-century Travellers in South Africa Siegfried Huigen, Stellenbosch University
Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-century
Travellers in South Africa
Siegfried Huigen, Stellenbosch University
July 2009
ISBN 978 90 04 17743 7
Hardback (320 pp., 48 colour ill.)
List price EUR 99.- / US$ 147.-
Atlantic World Series, 18
The establishment of a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the seventeenth century
and an expansion of the sphere of colonial influence in the eighteenth century made South
Africa the only part of sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans could travel with relative ease
deep into the interior. As a result individuals with scientific interests in Africa came to
the Cape. This book examines writings and drawings of scientifically educated travellers,
particularly in the field of ethnography, against the background of commercial and
administrative discourses on the Cape. It is argued that the scientific travellers benefited
more from their relationship with the colonial order than the other way around.
Readership: All those interested in early modern anthropology, travel writing, the
relationship between science and colonialism, and the representation of South Africa in the
eighteenth century.
Siegfried Huigen is Associate Professor of Dutch Literature and Cultural History at
the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa. He publishes regularly on early modern
representations of the extra-European world and South African politics of memory.
Travellers in South Africa
Siegfried Huigen, Stellenbosch University
July 2009
ISBN 978 90 04 17743 7
Hardback (320 pp., 48 colour ill.)
List price EUR 99.- / US$ 147.-
Atlantic World Series, 18
The establishment of a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the seventeenth century
and an expansion of the sphere of colonial influence in the eighteenth century made South
Africa the only part of sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans could travel with relative ease
deep into the interior. As a result individuals with scientific interests in Africa came to
the Cape. This book examines writings and drawings of scientifically educated travellers,
particularly in the field of ethnography, against the background of commercial and
administrative discourses on the Cape. It is argued that the scientific travellers benefited
more from their relationship with the colonial order than the other way around.
Readership: All those interested in early modern anthropology, travel writing, the
relationship between science and colonialism, and the representation of South Africa in the
eighteenth century.
Siegfried Huigen is Associate Professor of Dutch Literature and Cultural History at
the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa. He publishes regularly on early modern
representations of the extra-European world and South African politics of memory.