The Hessequa were a Khoekhoe people of the southern Cape [IC]. Historians place their main grazing lands east of the Breede River, beyond the Chainoqua [IC]. The Hessequa Municipality around Riversdale, which stretches from the Breede River to the Gourits River, is named after them [IC]. Greyton’s histories say the Hessequa grazed the valley of the Gobos River, where Greyton now stands, and the Moravian Church in South Africa says Magdalena was Hessequa [MS]. How far west Hessequa families lived is one of the open questions of the valley’s early history.
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from the records or statements of one side only. For the peoples of the early Cape, almost every written record was made by outsiders: Dutch East India Company officials, travellers, and missionaries. None of it was written by the people it describes.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
A living heritage
Descendants of the Khoekhoe and San live in the valley today, and many hold their own knowledge of this history. This page is written from outside sources, and it will be corrected and added to as descendants give their own accounts. See Have your say below.
At a glance
| Also called | Hassequa, Hassequas, Hessekwa [IC] |
| Land | East of the Breede River, towards the Gourits River [IC] |
| Name | Said to mean “people of the trees” [TBV] |
| In the valley | Linked by Greyton’s histories to the Gobos River and Boschmanskloof, and by the Moravian Church to Magdalena [MS] |
The Hessequa and the Dutch
The Hessequa were among the richest cattle-keeping peoples the Dutch met in the Cape [TBV]. From 1662 to 1713, the Hessequa and the Chainoqua were the largest suppliers of cattle and sheep to the colony [IC]. From 1679 to 1693 the Chainoqua leader Dorha was the company’s go-between with both peoples [IC].
As colonists moved east, the company set up a magistracy at Swellendam in 1745, in the area where Hessequa and Chainoqua land met [TBV]. Smallpox killed many Khoekhoe in 1713 and 1755 [IC]. By the end of the 1700s most Hessequa had lost their land and herds [TBV].
In the valley
Greyton’s histories say the Hessequa (or Hassequas) kept thousands of cattle and sheep in kraals along the Gobos River, and named the river after an ancestral chief [MS]. They name Stoffel Koekson as a Hessequa leader who settled at Boschmanskloof in the late 1600s [MS]. One history also names the Attaqua, a people further east, among the area’s first inhabitants [TBV].
The Moravian Church in South Africa says that Vehettge Tikkuie, baptised Magdalena in 1742, was Hessequa, and that she married a Chainoqua man, Janneke Tikkuie [MS].
These accounts do not sit easily with the historians’ map, which puts this valley in Chainoqua land [IC]. The Hessequa may have grazed further west than the historians’ map shows, individual Hessequa families may have lived among the Chainoqua, or later sources may have used the name loosely [TBV].
Today
The name lives on in the Hessequa Municipality [IC]. People of Hessequa descent have begun work to restore and revive Hessequa culture [MS].
The documentary series The Khoekhoe Saga (2023) gives its second episode to the Hessequa [MS]. It films at the Hessequas River and the Hessequaskloof near Swellendam, and meets people of Hessequa descent [MS]. The presenter calls the Hessequa “the people of the trees”, and says they lived in the area west of Swellendam [MS].
What is still open
- What “Hessequa” means, and how the name was said.
- Whether Hessequa families lived in the Sonderend valley, and when.
- Whether Koekson and Magdalena were Hessequa.
- Where the Hessequas River and the Hessequaskloof shown in The Khoekhoe Saga lie, and what they add to the question of how far west the Hessequa lived.
Have your say
If you are of Hessequa descent, or hold knowledge of this history, contact the moderators via How to Submit.
Related
References
- Wikipedia. Hessequa Local Municipality. The name’s meaning and the municipality’s extent.
- The Digging Stick, volume 6, number 3 (November 1989). Archaeological Society of South Africa. The Breede River boundary and the cattle trade of 1662 to 1713.
- Greyton Tourism. Greyton’s History. The Hassequas, the Gobos River, and Stoffel Koekson.
- Xplorio Greyton. History of Greyton and Genadendal. The Hassequas and the Attaqua.
- Moravian Church in South Africa. Women’s Month and Pilgrimage of Grace. Magdalena as Hessequa.
- Wikipedia. Dutch Cape Colony. The Swellendam magistracy of 1745.
- Restoration and Rejuvenation of the Hessequa Culture. A revival project document. Not yet read.
- YouTube. The Khoekhoe Saga. The series trailer. The promotion for episode 2, on the Hessequa, is also on YouTube.