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On 3 April, the Griqua people will celebrate the release from the Breakwater Prison in Cape Town, 100 years ago of their paramount chief and prophet, Andrew Le Fleur.

The celebration, which forms part of the Griqua Centennial Festival from 3 till 5 April, is partly sponsored by the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.

When Le Fleur became paramount chief of the Griqua people in 1894, he devoted himself to reclaiming Griqua land in Griqualand East. However, his actions had led to his being branded an agitator and he was arrested for inciting rebellion. He was found guilty of high treason on 29 April 1898 and sentenced to 14 years hard labour at the Breakwater Prison. He served nearly six years when he was pardoned after the Anglo Boer war.

The four-day Griqua Centennial Festival starts at the Breakwater Prison where Patrick McKenzie, Western Cape Minister of Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation will be the guest speaker. It will be followed by a gathering at the Parade where Le Fleur preached and, as his followers believe, also prophesied. Bus tours will also take visitors to places of significance to the Griqua people in the Peninsula.

There are some 20 000 Griquas living all over the country. However scattered, they regard themselves as a nation. They have their own church with 24 congregations and a culture, which is indissolubly connected with their religion. They hold an annual national gathering or saamtrek of office-bearers. And they still have a paramount chief presiding over a council of chiefs and an executive.

The Griquas have a history dating back to the 1700s. It is a sad story of a quest of the elusive land of their own and independence, which was constantly frustrated by advancing colonisation. Place names survive like Griqualand West and East Griqualand, Griekwastad and Kokstad (after the Kok Griqua chieftains) but they were deprived of the land.

The Griqua people vaguely became aware of a group identity around 1800 when a group of migrant farmers of mostly Khoi, but also European and slave descent, searching for land of their own, settled at Klaarwater north of the Gariep River. On their long trek from the south-western Cape they had passing contact with the Girgriqua or Chariguriqua Khoi clan but they called themselves bastards. However, the Rev John Campbell, a missionary who worked among them, thought the name was offensive to an English ear and persuaded them to adopt the name Griqua and rename their settlement Griquatown.

But land they could call their own and independence have always slipped through their fingers. During the days of race classification they were classified as a sub-group of the coloured people. Their Griqua representatives sat in the Coloured Persons' Representative Council since the 1980's and their present paramount chief was a member of the previous government's President's Council. Not even that brought them any nearer to their own land and an acknowledgement of a group identity.

In 1995 the Griquas turned to the UN's Working Group for Indigenous people. Through this body they put pressure on the government, which lead to the founding of the Khosian National Council in 1999. But there is still a long way to go. Their indigenous identity and the right to an own culture and that land that they were deprived of so many years ago must still be written in the constitution, they say.

More particulars on the Griqua Centennial Festival are available from Mr Cecil Le Fleur in Vredendal at 027 213 3392, Mr David Barron in Cape Town at (021) 691 7578, Mr A Kiewiets in the Eastern Cape at (042) 280 3749 and the Plettenberg Bay office at (044) 533 9338.

Contact: Jan van der Poll on (021) 483 2767 or 082 511 9194

Issued by Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Western Cape

24 March 2003