Controlling Life and Death at the Frontier: A Biopolitical Examination of Dutch Colonial Rule in the Cape Colony (1649- 1679)

Abstract

This thesis aims to supplement the historical understanding of the VOC’s colonisation of the Cape with a biopolitical analysis of the treatment of Indigenous peoples in this process. Four biopolitical strategies of domination are used for the analysis: elimination, exploitation, exclusion and assimilation. These strategies are observed for three time frames between 1649 and 1679, using archival sources. Archival sources are valuable for interpreting Dutch discourse around the treatment of Indigenous peoples. The findings show that settler colonialism in the Cape Colony was a conflicting but deliberate process in which kindness and elimination, and exclusion and selective inclusion coalesced in an attempt to control the Indigenous population in a way that aids the core purpose of the colonial regime: economic interests. Ultimately, this study contributes to the theoretical debates on settler colonialism, the understanding of colonisation at the Cape of Good Hope, and provides avenues for addressing continuing colonial practices.