Doman: Leader of the Goringhaiqua Khoikhoi

Doman was a leader of the Goringhaiqua Khoi-Khoi, who in 1657 was also sent to Batavia to train as an interpreter. "Whilst there he learnt first-hand the capacity of the Dutch to reduce indigenous people to positions of servitude. This turned him into a freedom fighter. It is said that he deceived the Dutch by appearing to be loyal by converting to Christianity. However, as soon as he landed at the Cape he championed resistance against Van Riebeeck and the Dutch government’s colonial policies. He regarded Krotoa with suspicion and was critical of her perceived selling out of her own people to the Dutch. It is reported that whenever he saw her he would tell his countrymen: ‘See, there comes the advocate of the Dutch; she will tell her people some stories and lies and will finally betray them all.’ And whenever Krotoa tried to pass on information to the Dutch, Doman tried to stop her. When the Dutch planned trips into the hinterland, he tried to stop them. From his hut near the fort he tried to intercept all inland visitors. All these are indicative of his commitment and drive to resist the Dutch colonial settlers by any means necessary. He eventually led the first of the two Khoi wars of resistance against the Dutch. Doman made use of his knowledge of Dutch military science and tactics to the advantage of his Khoi countrymen. Thus, on a cold and drizzling 19 May 1659, he led a group of Khoikhoi in a raid on the cattle of the free burghers. Doman had waited for rainy weather, knowing that the Dutch matchlock muskets could not be fired in the rain with damp powder. Unfortunately for Doman, his earlier attempts to make Khoikhoi trade with the Dutch the exclusive preserve of the Peninsula groups left him dangerously short of allies. Thus, his attempts to persuade local chief Gogosoa to attack the Dutch were bluntly refused. Without the help of the inland Cochoqua, an attack on the fort was doomed to fail. Doman, however, was able to persuade some of the younger leaders to join him in what he regarded as a war of liberation. Commander Van Riebeeck responded with defensive tactics, withdrawing the free burghers to the fort, temporarily arming the slaves (an extraordinarily risky measure), and building a strong kraal to protect the colony’s remaining livestock. Lacking firearms and unwilling to storm the central fort, the Khoikhoi eventually signalled their willingness to parley. A peace was negotiated; the war had ended in stalemate. The Khoikhoi did not return any of the livestock seized in the war and paid no reparations. Yet they did accept the continued European occupation of the Cape peninsula, a threat to their perseverance as an independent people. The Dutch erected fortified posts and planted almond hedges (some of which still survive) to prevent cattle being driven off again. The Khoikhoi were obliged to use specified routes and paths, and to enter the settlement only at certain guarded gaps in the hedge. Horses which arrived from Batavia gave the colonists the mobility they had lacked in the war, and expeditions from the fort became longer and more frequent. As trading contacts were established with more Khoikhoi groups, the settlement gradually became independent of the Peninsular Khoikhoi, whose wealth and importance waned rapidly. The failure of the Khoikhoi to drive out the Dutch shattered Doman’s position as a leader, and he was tolerated only because his people needed him as an interpreter. When he died in December 1663, the Company diarist recorded: ‘For [his] death none of us will have cause to grieve, as he has been, in many respects, a mischievous and malicious man towards the Company'." (SAHistory, 2020).