21 June 2009
All off a sudden I hate Cape Town! One of the most beautiful places on Earth, but it is winter. Extremely wet, extremely cold and I am extremely sick – constantly!
I know that I must get the hell out of here. But the business that Dawie and I started is precariously perched on the point between success and failure and it requires my 100% attention. I know I will have to be here at least until the end of August.
As I get interested in leaving, all of a sudden I find myself drawn to my origins. I am glad, in a sense – at least it is something that I can do while I lie in bed.
On my father’s side the family originated from a small town called Tonderen in the South of Denmark. Some of the people from Tonderen migrated to Holland. In 1650 a boy was born in Holland to one of these families. They called him Andries Cornelisz van Tonder. Andries became a miller, moved to the Cape of Good Hope and on 31 August 1700 he became a Cape citizen.
I know what life must have been like for Andries. Life in Cape Town is much like life in Europe, wet and cold. Every time it starts to rain I get unbelievable sinus headaches; my lungs fill up with shit and I don’t stop coughing until the weather clears.
The headaches persist night and day!
By this time, I want to chop off my head!! But then I feel the distant throbbing pain of a wound that has still not healed completely in my right armpit.
Three weeks ago a surgeon cut at least three inches wide and deep into me to drain an abscess – and I decide to leave my head where it is. I stay in bed. I remember some religious reason for the people from Tonder to spread across Europe.
As I recall, they came to South Africa due to the persecution from the Catholic Church (they were protestants). I have always regretted the fact that my family comes from very strict protestant background.
I admire the Catholics for their spirit and ability to really enjoy life without an over sensitive sense of morality. But I am not in the mood for considering my religious heritage today. I don’t feel well and I don’t have wine! And before one considers faith, you must make sure you feel well and have LOTS of alcohol handy!!!!
A much more interesting family comes from my mother’s side. Her surname is Kok. It comes from Middle German/ Dutch meaning “chef”. It was high fashion at some point in Germany to call yourself “Chef” or, “Kok”, “de Kock”, “Kogh” or anything like that if you were a chef and the surname stuck.
In 1745 JOHANN HEINRICH CHRISTOPH KOCH arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on a ship from Holland, the Weltevreden, employed by the Dutch United East Indian Company (VOC), as a mercenary.
JHC Kok turns out to be one of my great-great-great-great grandfathers and he grew up in an area in Germany called Waldeck. As soon as I read about him I felt that I could like this guy.
I can easily imagine him as a regular guy. Much like the rest of my cousins and brothers. He would have fit right in.
The kids all got together on the Northern Free State Farm during the school holidays. We wrestled constantly; rode horses; swam in the farm dams; shot birds; set the veld on fire; hypnotized the chickens; fished in the streams and rivers; built forts in old gold-trenches. Jip, he would have been “one of us”.
But How did he end up in South Africa as a mercenary? For the answer we must return to Waldeck in Germany.
Waldeck was a semi-independent region and part of the Holy Roman Empire during this time. Much cross-pollination happened between the different aristocratic families in Europe (and I mean this in the most pornographic sense of the word – and I am sure this was the case with the local prince – mr. KAF – he knew people – especially the DUTCH!!!).
Karl August Friedrich (September 24, 1704 – August 29, 1763) was the ruling prince in the Waldeck and Pyrmont-area when JHC was living. The Waldeck’s had a proud history of military service in the Dutch Army and in 1740 Karl August Friedrch created the 1st and 2nd Battalion of mercenaries in Waldeck – only 5 years before JHC Kok arrived in Cape Town as a mercenary.
Karl’s mercenaries would serve at almost all the flash points that the Dutch had to deal with as the VOC (United East Indian Company) was trying desperately to try and keep control over their vast assets during the spice wars of this time.
Later, he would contribute large forces to American and South African campaigns.
Karl August Friedrich was so influential in Holland that he commanded the Dutch army during some key campaigns and in 1746 he became Field Marshal of the Holy Empire.
So, the 1700’s that saw JHC coming to the Cape of Good Hope was a time of change and he was probably on board the Weltevreden, as an employee of the VOC, hired from the good friend of the Dutch, Karl August Friedrich.
The VOC was the largest company of its day and probably the first truly multi-national. They fought wars, issued currencies and had vast territories under their control
The company was created in 1602 in response to an outdated trading monopoly held by the Portuguese. The company’s sole goal was to manage the vast resources of spices from the Far East.
This time was probably one of the most successful times for the VOC that was finally liquidated in 1800. The General Motors of its day ceased to exist in the same way that Microsoft and Apple will probably one day cease to exist as the technologies that predicated their founding become obsolete.
It is interesting to me as I think about JHC’s coming to Cape Town and how so much of the cross currents that form our lives are mega-movements that have little to do with our personal aspirations, goals or acts of God.
I think of my brothers and cousins. We are all descendants of people whose lives were directly shaped by the times they lived in. We are the result of them doing the best they could in the time they lived.
As I think of my brothers and cousins, I realize that each one of us has been directly and profoundly affected by the environment we live in. Generations to come will be able to look back at our lives and link the choices we make today and the places we end up at, directly to the large scale movement of politics and economics of our time. And our greatest success, as a family and even wider, as the human race, is probably the fact that we manage to go on. No matter the challenge.