Draft:The Amaqua People

The Amaqua (or Amaquena or Amakwena or Portugies, meaning "others") were a Khoi-Khoi ethnic group and a royal sub tribe of the Cochoqua nation, descendants of one of the oldest unions between the Khoi-Khoi and the Portuguese. This is the earliest recorded union between Europeans and the Khoi-Khoi which is dated to the late 16th century upon the arrival of the first Europeans, five Portuguese sailors whom absconded from a Portuguese ship that had anchored at St Helena Bay. These five sailors were the first to intermarry into the Khoi-Khoi of the shores of the Cape of Good Hope and thus the Cleophas, Philander, Titus, Manuel and Domingo clans became the first family clans among the Khoi-Khoi to be identified by surnames. The Amaqua inhabited the immediate area surrounding Hopefield, with clans living spread out as close as Langebaan and as far as Saldanha Bay and St Helena Bay and their the main kraal being roughly 3 kilometers outside of Hopefield, on a farm known as Portugeesche Fountain Rix Farm.

According to J.A. Baard, a former municipal manager of the area, Portugeesche Fountain Rix Farm, was surveyed as a farm for the first time in the year 1818 and was given to James Barend Bester. Sometime between the arrival of the five sailors up to the establishment of the farm, the name of the Amaqua was changed to the Portugies; this was evidently done due to the influx of European civilisation from the arrival of the five sailors up to the arrival and establishment of Dutch East India Company under Jan Van Riebeeck. The Amaqua played a significant role in resisting European civilisation and fought in the First and Second Khoi-Dutch Wars and specifically their key role in the Battle of the Berg River, fought at the Little Berg River near the town of Tulbagh.

References

Dag Verhaal: Journal of Jan Van Riebeeck 1659 - 1662

Published Article: Associate Professor and Lecturer Francios Cleophas Cape Town Heritage Foundation Cape Historical Society