It seems to me that the Cape of Good Hope has been at war long before the first European settler arrived to establish a trading post for his profit-driven company.
The first inhabitants of the Cape, the Khoi, naturally inclined to a pastoral existence, waged their first battle of the races with the San, the ancient and original inhabitants of Southern Africa. Some call this place Eden.
The San were naturally inclined to pursue a nomadic life, travelling far and wide as hunter-gatherers to maintain their frugal existence.
The Khoi enjoyed the security of their possessions, herds of wild cattle and thick-tailed sheep, mostly.
The San admired and revered their natural surroundings, believing in a higher being. They encountered the hills and mountain ranges, remnants of earlier times of shifting, vast plains. They followed the beasts and collected the land's plants.
They were the first writers and artists, recording their history on rocks and inside caves with a rich, red ochre paste derived from the blood of the animals they captured.
Weary of conflict, the Khoi and San made the first attempts at integration, as treaties were sealed and families joined hands.
The Khoi, settled in their ways and accustomed to their place in the Cape sun, chose to stay just where they had always been, for generations.
The San, a restless and unsettled tribe, were keen to keep on trekking, hunting, gathering and exploring. They continued their trek west and east from whence they had originally come, and to the unexplored regions of the north, venturing further and deeper into the dark, yet pristine continent of Africa.
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