Jan van Riebeeck

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (April 21, 1619, Culemborg, Gelderland – January 18, 1677^[1]) was a Dutch colonialadministrator and founder of Cape Town.

[edit]Biography

Van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands as the son of a surgeon. He grew up in Schiedam, where he married 19-year old Maria de la Quellerie on 28 March 1649. (She died in Malacca, now part of Malaysia, on 2 November 1664, at the age of 35). The couple had eight or nine children, most of whom did not survive infancy. Their son Abraham van Riebeeck, born at the Cape, later became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.

Joining the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) Dutch East India Company in 1639, he served in a number of posts, including that of an assistant surgeon in the Batavia in the East Indies. He subsequently visited Japan. His most important position was that of head of the VOC trading post in Tonkin, Vietnam. However, he was called back from this post as it was discovered that he was conducting trade for his own account.

In 1651 he volunteered to undertake the command of the initial Dutch settlement in the future South Africa. He landed three ships (Dromedaris; Reijger and Goede Hoop) at the future Cape Town on 6 April 1652 and fortified the site as a way-station for the VOC trade route between the Netherlands and the East Indies. The primary purpose of this way-station was to provide fresh provisions for the VOC fleets sailing between the Dutch Republic and Batavia, as deaths en route were very high. TheWalvisch and the Oliphant arrived later in 1652, having had 130 burials at sea.

Van Riebeeck was Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662; he was charged with building a fort, with improving the natural anchorage at Table Bay, planting cereals,fruit and vegetables and obtaining livestock from the indigenous Khoi people. In the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town there is a Wild Almond hedge still surviving, that was planted on his orders as a protective barrier around the Dutch settlement. The initial fort, named Fort de Goede Hoop ('Fort of Good Hope') was made of mud, clay and timber, and had four corners or bastions. This first fort should not be confused with Redoubt Duijnhoop or the Cape Town Castle. The Castle, built between 1664 and 1679, several years after Van Riebeeck's departure, has five bastions and is made of brick, stone and cement. (Zacharias Wagenaer laid the cornerstone of this castle.)

Van Riebeeck reported the first comet discovered from South Africa, C/1652 Y1, which was spotted on December 17, 1652.

In his time at the Cape, Van Riebeeck oversaw a sustained, systematic effort to establish an impressive range of useful plants in the novel conditions on the Cape Peninsula – in the process changing the natural environment forever. Some of these, including grapes, cereals, ground nuts, potatoes, apples and citrus, had an important and lasting influence on the societies and economies of the region. The daily diary entries kept throughout his time at the Cape (VOC policy) provided the basis for future exploration of the natural environment and its natural resources. Careful reading of the diaries shows that an amount of this knowledge was learned from the indigenous peoples inhabiting the region.^[2]

He died in Batavia (now renamed Jakarta) on the island of Java in 1677.

[edit]Legacy in South Africa

Jan van Riebeeck is of cultural and historical significance in South Africa among many of the Afrikanerpopulation, who view him as the founding father of their nation. This regard was also prevalent in that his image appeared ubiquitously on stamps and the South African currency from the 1940s up until 1993 when theSouth African Reserve Bank changed the currency to an apolitical design of the fauna and flora of the region. The image used on the currency notes was, however, not that of Van Riebeeck, but of Bartholomeus Vermuyden.^[3][4]

6 April used to be known as Van Riebeeck's Day, and later as Founders' Day but the holiday was abolished by the ANC government after the democratic elections of 1994. His image no longer features on any official currency or stamps, but statues of him and his wife remain standing in Adderley Street, Cape Town.

The coat of arms of the city of Cape Town is based on the Van Riebeeck family coat of arms.

Many towns and villages these days still have streets named after him. Riebeek-Kasteel is one of the oldest towns in South Africa, situated at 75 km from Cape Town in The Riebeek Valley together with its sister town Riebeek West.

Ho?rskool Jan van Riebeeck (English: Jan van Riebeeck High School) is an Afrikaans high school in Cape Town.

[edit]References

1. ^ Trotter, Alys Fane Keatinge (1903). Old cape Colony : a chronicle of her men and houses from 1652 to 1806. London : Selwyn & Blount. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
2. ^ S. Pooley, 'Jan van Riebeeck as Pioneering Explorer and Conservator of Natural Resources at the Cape of Good Hope (1652–62)', Environment and History 15 (2009): 3–33. doi: 10.3197/096734009X404644
3. ^ Giliomee, H and Mbenga, B.K. (2007). New History of South Africa. Tafelberg, Cape Town. ISBN 9780624043591
4. ^ "Paintings of the Rijksmuseum: Portret van een man, vermoedelijk Bartholomeus Vermuyden (1616/17-1650)".

• Riebeeck, Jan van, and Robert Kirby. The secret letters of Jan van Riebeeck. London, England, UK: Penguin Books 1992. ISBN 9780140177657
• Collins, Robert O. Central and South African history. Topics in world history. New York, NY, USA: M. Wiener Pub. 1990. ISBN 9781558760172.
• Hunt, John, and Heather-Ann Campbell. Dutch South Africa: early settlers at the Cape, 1652–1708. Leicester, UK: Matador 2005. ISBN 9781904744955.

• 1619 births
• 1677 deaths
• People from Culemborg
• Dutch colonial governors and administrators
• People associated with the Dutch East India Company
• Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies
• History of Cape Town
• History of South Africa
• Comet discoverers
• Maritime history of South Africa