The Camissa River

The Camissa River, 'place of sweet waters', is also known as //ammi i ssa.The oldest marker of spirituality, rootedness and belonging for Indigenous people (Khoena) is the freshwater river system and the Camissa River which still flows underneath the city of Cape Town from the Hoerikwaggo Mountain (Table Mountain) to the Sea. The River mouth connecting to the sea would have been somewhere in front of the Castle in the vicinity of lower Strand Street around the entrance to Cape Town Station where the Grand Parade adjoins the Golden Acre Centre. The Camissa River Mouth was the place of the founding of Cape Town by the maroon Khoena clan known as the Goringhaikona, led at the time of Dutch settlement by Chief Autshumato. The Camissa Settlement was established some time during the 200 year period prior to the establishment of the Dutch Settlement as a trading/service point by local Khoena (Khoi) to service passing ships. It was also the place of hospitality offered to Jan van Riebeeck’s party during the 7 months that it took for the Dutch to build the first Fort. The Camissa waters were diverted into the moat around the Castle de Goede Hoop. In the Golden Acre Centre one can also see an aqueduct which was uncovered during construction. The Camissa River and the Camissa Settlement is of utmost importance to the Camissa descendants today as it was a site of pride which then became a site of struggle as it was the first place taken over by the Dutch settlers. Van Riebeeck’s diary notes that the Goringhaikona did not voluntarily forsake their Camissa settlement, and for some time continued to remain alongside the Camissa River and on the embankments of the Fort. They are recorded as telling Van Riebeeck that they would not have been able to simply take over the land of the Dutch in their country so why should the Dutch feel that they could take over the Khoena land. The Camissa River mouth was also where the earliest shipments of slaves were landed at the Cape. In 1658 two shiploads of over 400 slaves from West Africa arrived in the Cape. Most were very young children.