Trekboer

Origins and identity

Trekboers also traded with indigenous people, especially between 1699 and 1725, when the VOC temporarily lifted its ban on livestock trading. This materialised largely as stripping Khoikhoi pastoralists of their herds. The access to animals from indigenous breeds meant their herds were of hardy local stock. Trekboers formed a vital link between the pool of animals in the interior and the providers of shipping provisions at the Cape. While some had a loan farm as a base, which was sometimes shared by several families, the poorer Trekboers were nomadic, living in their wagons and rarely remaining in one location for an extended period of time. A number of Trekboers settled in the eastern Cape, where their descendants became known as Grensboere (Border Farmers).