Many people of
European heritage in
South Africa are descended from
Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the
Cape Colony, but were absorbed into the
Afrikaner and
Afrikaans-speaking population, because they had religious similarities to the Dutch colonists.
Early arrivals
Even before the large-scale arrival of the Huguenots at the
Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century, a small number of individual Huguenot refugees settled there. They included Francois Villion, later known as
Viljoen, and the du Toit brothers. In fact, the first Huguenot to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope was
Maria de la Quellerie, the wife of governor
Jan van Riebeeck, who started the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 on behalf of the
Dutch East India Company; however, she and her husband left for Batavia after ten years.
After a commissioner was sent out from the Cape Colony in 1685 to attract more settlers, a more dedicated group of immigrants began to arrive. A larger number of French refugees began to arrive in the Cape after leaving their country as a result of the
Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), which revoked the
Edict of Nantes (1598) that had granted
religious toleration to
Protestants.
Mass migration
On 31 December 1687 a group of Huguenots fled from France (as a result of the Edict of Fontainebleau). This was part of the first of the large scale emigration of Huguenots to the
Cape of Good Hope, which took place during 1688 and 1689. In total some 180 Huguenots from France, and 18
Walloons from present-day
Belgium, eventually settled at the Cape of Good Hope. A notable example of this is the emigration of Huguenots from
La Motte-d'Aigues in
Provence, France. After this large scale emigration, individual Huguenot immigrant families arrived at the Cape of Good Hope as late as the first quarter of the 18th century, and the state-subsidised emigration of Huguenots was stopped in 1706. Emigrations took place mainly because of religious persecution by the Catholic rulers.
This small body of immigrants had a marked influence on the character of the Dutch settlers. They were purposely spread out and given farms amongst the Dutch farmers. Owing to the policy instituted in 1701 of the
Dutch East India Company which dictated that schools should teach exclusively in
Dutch, that all official correspondence had to be done in Dutch, and strict laws of assembly, the Huguenots ceased by the middle of the 18th century to maintain a distinct identity, and the knowledge of French diminished and eventually disappeared as a home language.[1] This assimilation into the colonial population was also due to the fact that many Huguenot descendants married individuals from the Dutch population, spurred by the Huguenots and Dutch sharing a common Calvinist religion.
Franschhoek
Many of these settlers were allocated farms in an area later called
Franschhoek, Dutch for "French corner", in the present-day
Western Cape province of South Africa. The valley was originally known as Olifantshoek ("Elephant's Corner"), so named because of the vast herds of elephants that roamed the area. The name of the area soon changed to le Coin Français ("the French Corner"), and later to Franschhoek, with many of the settlers naming their new farms after the areas in France from which they came. La Motte, La Cotte, Cabriere, Provence, Chamonix, Dieu Donne and La Dauphine were among some of the first established farms—most of which still retain their original farm houses today.
A large
monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 17 April 1948 at
Franschhoek. A museum dedicated to the Huguenot history in South Africa is located adjacent to the monument.
A smaller monument commemorating the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Huguenots is located in the
Johannesburg Botanical Garden.
Voortrekkers
French Huguenot descendants were also included in the exodus of frontier farmers that was called the
Great Trek.[2]
Voortrekker surnames who were of French Huguenot ancestry include:[3]
(Original French spelling in brackets)
Aucamp (Auchamp)
Boshof (Bossau)
Bruwer (Bruere)
Buys (Du Buis)
Cilliers (Cellier)
Cronje (Cronier)
de Klerk (Le Clercq)
Delport (Delporte)
de Villiers
du Buisson
du Plessis
du Preez (des Prez, des Pres, du Pre)
du Randt (Durand)
du Toit
Duvenage (Duvinage)
Fouche (Foucher)
Fourie
Gous, Gouws (Gauch)
Hugo (Hugot, Hugod)
Jacobs (Jacob)
Jordaan (Jourdan)
Joubert (Jaubert)
Labuschagne (la Buscagne)
le Roux
Lombard
Malan (Mallan)
Marais
Maartens, Martins (Martin)
Malherbe
Minnaar (Meinard, Mesnard)
Meyer
Naudé
Nel (Neel, Niel)
Nortier, Nortje (Nourtier)
Pienaar (Pinard)
Retief (Retif)
Reyneke? (Reyne?)
Riekert? (Richard?)
Rossouw (Rousseau)
Roux
Senekal (Senecal, Senechal)
Taljaard (Taillard)
Terblanche (Terreblanque)
Theron (Therond)
Tredoux
Viljoen (Villion)
Legacy
There are many families, today mostly Afrikaans-speaking, whose surnames bear witness to their Huguenot ancestry. A comprehensive list of these surnames can be seen on the Huguenot Memorial in the
Johannesburg Botanical Garden. Examples of the more common names are Blignaut (Blignault), Cronje (Cronier), de Klerk (Le Clercq), Visagie (Visage),
de Villiers, du Preez, du Plessis, du Toit, du Randt,
Fourie, Fouche, Giliomee (Guilliaume), Gous / Gouws (Gauch), Hugo, Jacobs,
Joubert, Jordaan (Jourdan), Labuschagne (la Buscagne), Lange,
le Roux, Leonard, Lombard,
Malan,
Michel,
Malherbe, Marais,
Nel, Nortje (Nourtier),
Pienaar, Retief,
Rossouw, Roux,[4] Terreblanche, Taljard,
Theron and
Viljoen (Villion).[5][6][7]
Some of the descendants of these original Huguenot families became prominent figures in South African society, most notably
F.W. de Klerk, the last State President of
apartheid-era South Africa.[8][9]
List of prominent South Africans of Huguenot descent
Some of the original forms of the surnames have been put in brackets.
Adolph Malan (1910–1963), known as Sailor Malan, Royal Air Force fighter pilot in the Second World War
Daniel François Malan, who was a Prime Minister of South Africa elected on apartheid platform
Magnus Malan, former South African Minister of Defence (in the cabinet of President P. W. Botha), Chief of the South African Defence Force (SADF) and Chief of the South African Army.
Rian Malan, celebrated South African author, journalist and political activist.
Various French-language first names have also gained popularity amongst Afrikaners, examples being Francois, Jacques, Pierre, Charles, Jean-Pierre, Chantelle and Eugene.
The
wine industry in South Africa was greatly influenced by the Huguenots,[12] many of whose families had owned
vineyards in France.[13] Many of the farms in the Western Cape province in South Africa still bear French names, such as
Haute Cabrière, La Petite Provence, La Bourgogne, La Motte, La Bri, La Borie, La Chataigne and La Roche.
^Bryer, Lynne and Theron, Francois. The Huguenot Heritage, The Story of the Huguenots at the Cape. Chameleon Press. Diep River. First Edition. 1987. Page 47.
^Visagie, Jan C. Voortrekkerstamouers 1835 - 1845. Protea Boekhuis. Pretoria. 2011.
^"Genealogy". The Huguenot Memorial Museum. Archived from
the original on 2 May 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
^Watkinson, William Lonsdale; Davison, William Theophilus, eds. (1875).
"William Shaw and South Africa". The London Quarterly Review. Vol. 44. J.A. Sharp. p. 274.
^Fourie, Johan; Von Fintel, Dieter (2014). "Settler skills and colonial development:the Huguenot wine-makers in eighteenth-century Dutch South Africa". The Economic History Review. 67 (4): 934.
doi:
10.1111/1468-0289.12033.
S2CID152735090.
Further reading
Lugan, Bernard (1996). Ces Francais Qui Ont Fait L'Afrique Du Sud ("The French People Who Made South Africa"). Bartillat.
ISBN2-84100-086-9.
Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora, Bertrand Van Ruymbeke & Randy J. Sparks, Published 2003 Univ of South Carolina Press,
ISBN1-57003-484-2.
The Huguenots of South Africa 1688–1988, Pieter Coertzen & Charles Fensham, Published 1988 Tafelberg,
ISBN0-624-02623-X.
1Overseas parts of France proper Migration of minorities in
France (i.e.
Basques) can be considered as separate (ethnically) or French migration (by nationality).