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Summaries · Grade 7 History › The northern frontier: Kora, Griqua, Tswana and land
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The northern frontier: Kora, Griqua, Tswana and land

The northern frontier: the Kora, Griqua and Tswana, trade, missionaries, guns and horses, and land loss. Read one part at a time and tap “I know this”. Then test yourself in the quiz.

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The northern frontier

  • The north was shaped more by trade and missions than the eastern frontier. A frontier here is a zone where groups met and competed.
  • Those with guns and horses could hunt and defend better. Ivory hunting declined because too many elephants were killed.
  • Some former slaves joined the Griqua to live more freely beyond colonial control. Trekboers pushed north and east for grazing and fewer controls.
  • Dithakong was a large Tswana town. Missionaries ran schools and acted as go-betweens.
Horses and ox wagons on the northern frontier.
Horses and ox wagons on the northern frontier.
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Cooperation and conflict

CooperationConflict
Trading goods and sharing knowledgeRaids for cattle and fights over grazing

The Cape government found the huge, distant frontier hard to control with few officials; some Griqua leaders signed treaties to protect their land. Tswana oral histories best show how Tswana people saw the arrival of missionaries.

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Remember this: your summary
  • The Griqua: people of mixed Khoikhoi, slave and settler descent; Adam Kok’s name lives on in Kokstad and Griqualand East.
  • The Kora (Korana): Khoikhoi groups along the Orange (Gariep) River.
  • Griquatown (Klaarwater) grew around a mission station; Robert Moffat (Kuruman)’s Setswana Bible was the first complete Bible printed in Africa.
  • The Tswana traded ivory, hides and furs for beads, cloth, iron goods and guns.
  • Land dispossession: people forced off their land; Khoikhoi and San lost land and worked on farms.

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Memory trick

North = mostly Trade (trade and missions, with some raids); East = mostly War (over land, with some trade too).

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Important words

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