South Africa. The Dutch’s arrival in South Africa, starting from Cape Town, did not encounter much organized resistance from the indigenous people, only a few Khoisan villages. They did not encounter dense Bantu populations as in other parts of Africa, and therefore they can rightly say they arrived in South Africa before the so-called “black” Bantu. Indeed, the latter, coming from Nigeria and Cameroon, stopped at the Fish River, 500 kilometers before Cape Town. Once the Dutch came into contact with the Bantu, armed with iron weapons, in 1702, there was violent fighting of uncertain outcome. The Dutch began advancing slowly, one or two kilometers a year, and it would take them nine wars and 175 years to conquer South Africa. The Bantu stopped before Cape Town because their crops required summer rain crops, while European crops, on the other hand, required winter rain crops.
