Minister of Defence and Military Veterans unveils a Monument In Honour of Krotoa at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town
On the 19th of August 2016 South Africa will mark yet another milestone in the pursuit of national reconciliation, healing and nation-building, by commemorating and celebrating the life of Krotoa, a Khoi woman, who from the age of 10 worked as a servant in the household of Dutch settlers-leader in the Cape of Good Hope, Jan Van Riebeeck, and is credited with being instrumental in working out terms for ending the first Dutch-Khoi-Khoi War.
Krotoa demonstrated an aptness for languages, and later established herself as a reliable interpreter between the Dutch and the Khoi tribes.
Having foreseen the inevitability of change, following the arrival and settling of the Dutch in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, Krotoa acted as facilitator between the Dutch and the Khoi, resulting in her being ostracized by the Khoi people.
Also known as Eva, following her being baptized as a Christian, Krotoa was married off to a Danish surgeon called Pieter van Meerhof, in what was the first recorded official mixed race marriage in South Africa, and had several children with him.
When Van Meerhof was killed in a slave hunt in Madagascar, Krotoa’s status in the Dutch colony declined, she was later banished to Robben Island and her children sent to Mauritius, only to return to South Africa after their mother’s passing.
Long depicted as a controversial figure caught between two competing worlds of the Dutch and the Khoi, Krotoa is also credited with being among the chief architects of the Afrikaans language.
The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Hon. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula – MP, as custodian of the Castle of Good Hope, an entity of the Department of Defence, will lead a solemn occasion of the symbolic repatriation of the spirit of Krotoa from the burial grounds of Die Groote Kerk in Church Square, Cape Town, where her bones were interned in an unmarked grave after being removed from the grounds of the castle nearly a century after she was buried there.
Krotoa’s spirit will symbolically be returned to the grounds of the Castle of Good Hope, where Minister Mapisa-Nqakula will unveil a monument in her honour.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula will be joined by representatives of the Royal Household of the Khoi and various other traditional leaders as well as the Military High Command during the ceremony.
The ceremony to repatriate Krotoa’s spirit takes place at a time the Castle of Good Hope marks 350 years of existence, as well as during the Women’s Month of August.
The repatriation of Krotoa's spirit ceremony will take place as follows:
Programme:
8h00 - Arrival of the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and Guests at Die Groote Kerk
8h10 - Religious and Traditional Ceremonies: Repatriation of the Spirit of Krotoa
8h45 - Khoi Traditional Leaders Begin Journey Back to the Castle with the Spirit
9h00 - Spirit is Brought Back to the Castle
9h15 - Guests are seated
9h30 - Parade Briefing and Start of the Military Parade
10h00 - Address by Minister Mapisa-Nqakula
10h45 - Guests Move to the Marquee in the Rear Courtyard
11h00 - All Guests to be seated to Watch Theatre Production on the Castle of Good Hope
11h45 - Theatre Production Ends
11h50 - Cultural Performances and Messages of Support by Stakeholders
12h30 - Lunch is served
Enquiries:
Sonwabo Mbananga
Cell: 082 045 3963
E-mail: Sonwabo.mbananga@dod.mil.za/ mbanangass@gmail.com