De eerste etnografische monografie: <i>De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika</i> (1810) van Lodewyk Alberti

Abstract

This paper examines the ethnographic discourse in the first ethnographic monograph which appeared in the Netherlands, De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika, Natuur- en Geschiedkundig beschreven (1810) by Lodewyk Alberti. Within a European context this book is unique for being the only successful implementation of the ethnographic questionnaire of Joseph-Marie Degérando, the Considérations sur les diverses méthodes a suivre dans l'observation des peuples sauvages (1800), and the anthropological ideas of the Société des Observateurs de l'homme. In Alberti's case, this resulted principally into a focus on the cultural aspects of ethnographical description. Furthermore, Alberti was the first to proof the usefulness of ethnographic knowledge in the management of colonial relationships. The personal aim of his book was to apply for the position of landdrost of Uitenhage, assuming that the Cape Colony could be restored to Dutch rule, which was in 1810 still a possibility.

Keywords: Batavian period, colonial Cape, early anthropology, early representation of Xhosa, Ludwig Alberti

Tydskrif vir Letterkunde • 43(1) • 2006: 68-82