Henrik Jakob Wikar or ''Hendrik Jakob Wikar'' (born 28 October 1752

Kokkola Kokkola (; sv, Karleby, ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. The town is located in the Central Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of ...

, Finland (at that time Sweden)) was a Finnish explorer who travelled in Southern Africa and wrote his journal describing the life of the

Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...

people. Wikar's father was Jakob Johan Wikar, a land surveyor and a deputy of the

Riksdag of the Estates Riksdag of the Estates ( sv, Riksens ständer; informally sv, Ståndsriksdagen) was the name used for the Estates of Sweden when they were assembled. Until its dissolution in 1866, the institution was the highest authority in Sweden next to t ...

,Namibialainen keittokirja
accessed 13.9.2011 and his mother was Margareta Carlborg, his father's second wife. Wikar came from Ostrobothnia and studied in

The Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

in 1769. In 1773 he was employed in Holland by

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

. He worked as a clerk in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in the company's hospital. He had to leave in 1775 as he could not pay his gambling debts and was publicly insulted on the streets of Cape Town and left to explore the north of the Colony where he stayed for four years. From 1778 to July 1779 he wrote his journal there. He was convicted in 1779 as a runagate but his journal saved him: he was pardoned autumn 1779, probably because the journal included some important notes for the Company. He described the rituals and customs of the Khoisan people, and numerous scientists have used his records.Anu Liikanen, Sanit ja khoikhoit varhaisten tutkimusmatkailijoiden kuvauksissa
('The Sans and the Khoikhois in the accounts by early explorers'), pro gradu, accessed 13.9.2011

The Journal

* Wikar, Hendrik Jacob. 1779. Berigt aan den weleedelen gestrengen Heer Mr Joachim van Plattenbergh van’t geene my ondergeteekende ontmoetis wat ik gehoord ende gezien hebbe zeedert dat ik langs de Groote rivier op ende needer gesworven hebbe. Den Haag: Plettenberg-Sammlung, Hollandsche Reichsarchiv. Published for the first time in 1916 in Reizen in Zuid-Afrika in de hollandse tijd, v. 2, ed. E.C. Godée-Molsbergen (publ. by Martinus Nijhoff); new ed. 1935, Van Riebeek Society, Cape Town. Peripherals: L.F. Maingard, "Hendrik Jacob Wikar: his editors, translators and commentators", Bantu studies, v. 10 (1936) p. 31-40. *English translation: ''The journal of Hendrik Jacob Wikar'' (1779) : with an English translation by A. W. van der Horst and the journals of Jacobus Coetsé Jansz: (1760) and Willem van Reenen (1791) with an English translation by Dr. E. E. Mossop. / Edited, with an introduction and footnotes, by Dr. E. E. Mossop. Cape Town, : The Van Riebeeck Society, 1935.

References

External links

*Harri Sivonen, "Hendrik Jacob Wikar" in Historiallinen aikakauskirja 1/1982
Online collection of Finnish biographies
1752 births Year of death unknown 18th-century explorers Finnish explorers 18th-century diarists Dutch Cape Colony people Dutch East India Company people Dutch-language writers Explorers of Africa Finnish expatriates in South Africa People from Kokkola {{Finland-bio-stub