Oude Ram Afrikaner (* early 18th century in the ''Tulbagh'' farmlands in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

; † around 1760 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 ...

) was the leader of a clan that later became known as the ''Orlam Afrikaners'', a sub-group of the

Orlam The Oorlam or Orlam people (also known as Orlaam, Oorlammers, Oerlams, or Orlamse Hottentots) are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Dam ...

. The clan consisted of

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

descendants from

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 ...

and slaves from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Members of this mixed race are today sometimes called ''African Creole people'' or ''Creole Africans'', as well as

Coloureds Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

. The group around Oude Ram was the first to refer to themselves not as being from a specific

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

but to use the continental description, ''African''. This is how Oude Ram and his descendants got the surname ''Afrikaner'', and their language the name

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. Only much later in the second half of the 19th century did the

Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, apolitical se ...

adopt this attribution, too. The Khoi and mixed-race peoples became known, collectively, as ''

'', a term which was introduced by the British administration. There is not much known about the biography of Oude Ram and the Orlams' pre-1760 history. It is documented that his clan came in conflict with the

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 ...

. Subsequently, he and his son ''Afrikaner Afrikaner'' were banned from the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

and sentenced to life in prison. While Oude Ram probably died soon after the conviction, his son Afrikaner became one of the first prisoners of

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

in 1761. He died there on 25 June 1777. His other son,

Klaas Klaas is a Dutch male given and surname. It is the Dutch short form of Nicholas, a Greek name ultimately meaning ''victory of the people''. A traditionally common name in the Netherlands, its popularity declined some 20-fold since 1950.

, was exonerated and led the clan from the Cape Colony to

South-West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

in the 1770s. Oude Ram Afrikaner was the first in the genealogy of the Orlam Afrikaners. After Oude Ram had died and his son

trekked with the clan to South-West Africa, the group dominated the area that today is central

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

for almost 100 years. This rule and domination started some time after Klaas Afrikaner and his sons moved to

in the 1770s and founded the fortress

ǁKhauxaǃnas ǁKhauxaǃnas (Khoekhoegowab: ''passively defend people from an enemy'', Afrikaans / Dutch name Schans Vlakte: ''fortified valley'') is an uninhabited village with a ruined fortress in south-eastern Namibia, east of the Great Karas Mountains. It ...

at the end of the 18th century, and it ended with the death of

Christian Afrikaner Christian Afrikaner (before 1820 – 15 June 1863) was the oldest son of Jonker Afrikaner and Beetje Boois. He became the fifth Captain of the mixed-race Orlam Afrikaners in South-West Africa, after the death of his father in 1861. Christian was ...

, Oude Ram's great grandson, in 1863.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afrikaner, Oude Ram People from the Western Cape Coloured South African people 1700s births 1760s deaths