KOK FAMILY

The Koks were a leading Griqua family, of mixed European and Khoisan descent, who flourished, especially near the confluence of the Orange and Vaal Rivers, from the late 18th to the later 19th centuries. During this period, the Koks played a significant role in the unfolding of developments in the Griqualand region. The most prominent members of the family, whose careers are outlined below, were Adam Kok I, Cornelius Kok I, Cornelius Kok II, Adam Kok Il and Adam Kok III.

PHOTO CAPTION: Adam Kok I. SOURCE: EA Library.

Adam Kok I (circa 1710-95), founder of the Kok clan, was born into slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, the son of an unknown white father and of a Khoisan mother. He became a cook to a Dutch family at the Cape, a circumstance which may have been at the origin of the family name, Kok. Closely associated with the Dutch, he remained friendly to whites throughout his life.

In about 1750, having gained his freedom, he moved north, settling near Piquetberg, a small town in southwest Cape Province, where he obtained grazing rights from the Dutch on a farm named Stinkfontein. Here he became the leader of a group composed of Griquas, Namaquas, and Basters (Bastards), and is believed to have married the daughter of a chief. By barter, he acquired large herds of cattle and sheep.

He became a patriarch with numerous progeny. Most of his followers were of Khoi Khoi descent. The Dutch government at the Cape recognised him as a chief and gave him a staff of office.

He subsequently moved to Kamiesberg, in Little Namaqualand, (a district in what is now the northwest part of Cape Province), but occasionally penetrated further north over the Orange River. By the time of his death in 1795, he was living near the Orange River, having transferred the chieftaincy to his son Cornelius Kok I, who had remained in Kamiesberg.

Cornelius Kok I
Cornelius Kok I was born at Piquetberg in 1746. A literate man, he was held in high regard by his followers. After remaining for some time at Kamiesberg, he joined his father near the Orange River, and then spent most of the rest of his life in Little Namaqualand. With the help of the San and of the Kora (or Koranas), a Khoi group settled on the north bank of the Orange River, he and his people flourished. He also maintained good relations with European missionaries who came to the area.

In about 1804, two of these missionaries, from the London Missionary Society (L.M.S.), persuaded Cornelius Kok I, as well as Barend Barends, to settle with their followers near a row of springs north of the Orange River. They made their headquarters at a strong spring there named Klaarwater. In 1813, however, a visiting L.M.S. missionary, the Rev. John Campbell, persuaded the two leaders to change the name of their group from Basters (or Bastards) to Griqua. They agreed, and at the same time changed the name “Klaarwater” to Griquatown.

Confusion prevailed, however, when other groups of Basters, Koranas, Damaras, and San came into the area and refused to recognise the two leaders as chiefs. Disorder ensued, and the missionaries were themselves obliged to maintain what order they could.

While Barends, for his part, became a cattle raider, Cornelius Kok I, instead, handed his authority over to his son, Adam Kok II, and returned to Kamiesberg. In 1816 he came back to Griquatown again to try to reassert his authority, but was unsuccessful. He and another son, Cornelius Kok II, then moved to the nearby town of Campbell, where he established himself as an independent chief until 1820, the year of his death, when he handed over the chieftainship to Cornelius Kok II.

Adam Kok II

Adam Kok II, the eldest son of Cornelius Kok I, was born in Little Namaqualand in 1760. From his Griquatown base, he had become recognised as the general leader of all the groups in the region and, after 1816, when his father left the area, having the support of the missionaries, had also become recognised as such by the colonial authorities at the Cape. After this, however, his relations with the missionaries progressively deteriorated.

Preferring hunting expeditions to the practise of religion, he became the leader of a much-feared group known as the Bergenaars (“mountain people”). By 1819 the missionaries had succeeded in having Andries Waterboer appointed chief in his place. Adam Kok II and his Bergenaars then left Griquatown for Campbell, from where they moved across the Orange River to launch raiding and looting expeditions in the area between the Vaal and Riet rivers.

In 1825 another L.M.S. missionary, Dr. John Campbell, held a meeting of all parties at Griquatown. Waterboer was to rule in Griquatown; Cornelius Kok II was to retain authority at Campbell: and Adam Kok II, Barend Barens, and the Bergenaars were to settle in the region known as Transorangia, comprising the region between the Orange and Modder rivers, with headquarters at the mission station of Philippolis on the Orange River.

Three Griqua states thus came into being a condition that was, however, exacted from Adam Kok II and his followers. They were to give protection to the mission station at Philippolis, and to the San living in the area. Adam Kok II, and his successor Adam Kok III, were, however, to break part of the undertaking. They and their people systematically exterminated or expelled all San peoples living in the region.

Apart from this, the main result of Dr. Philip’s initiative was to establish Kok and his Griqua in the southern part of what was to become the Orange Free State, the Griquas in question being a mixture of Griquas (including the Bergenaars), Tswanas, Koranas, and Sotho.

In 1827, after hostilities had broken out between Waterboer and his followers based in Griquatown, and Cornelius Kok II, and his group based in Campbell, Adam Kok II acted as peace-maker. He succeeded in establishing an agreed-upon boundary between the two Griqua groups.

Adam Kok II, who was essentially disinterested in acting as a chief, attempted to relinquish his authority to his son, Cornelius Kok III, and his son-in-law, Hendrik Hendricks. On the sudden death of his son in 1828, however. Adam Kok II was obliged to resume the chieftainship. His last years were spent trying to find ways to stem the incoming tide of Boer cattle farmers moving northward from the Cape to settle in the area between the Orange and Modder rivers. In 1835, pursuing this end, he travelled to Capetown in the vain hope of meeting with the governor, Sir Benjamin D’Urban. He died on the Berg River, on the return journey.

Adam Kok III

Adam Kok III, son of Adam Kok II, who had been born near Griquatown, on December 11, 1811, was the next to assume the mantle of leadership. He was only able to do so, however, after a two-year struggle for leadership with his elder brother, Abraham. Abraham was at first the one appointed to the succession in 1836. He was, however, illiterate, and preoccupied with raiding other groups, especially the Ndebele, for cattle.

When a raid against the Ndebele proved a failure, he was ousted in 1937. Adam Kok III, who had missionary support, then succeeded in having him expelled from Philippolis. When, shortly after this, Abraham died, Adam Kok III not only succeeded to the chieftainship but also married Abraham’s widow, who came from the influential Pienaar family. This consolidated his position, and he was to rule his Griquas unchallenged for the remaining 38 years of his life.

The main challenge, however, came not from within but, as in his father’s time, from Boer cattle farmers immigrating across the Orange River into what was to become the Orange Free State. This influx threatened Griqua’s independence, and Adam Kok III sought to counteract the threat by improving relations with the British at the Cape.

It was thanks to him, therefore, that British troops were sent into the south of Transorangia to contest growing Boer control. Adam Kok III’s understanding with the British included returning Boer fugitives to the Cape, and when in 1844 he handed a Boer, wanted for murdering an English man, over to the British, tensions rose. In 1845 Adam Kok’s arrest of another Boer for kidnapping resulted in minor hostilities.

Faced with this situation, the eccentric but self-centered British governor, Sir Harry Smith, attempted to stabilise the situation in 1848 by annexing the territory between the Vaal and Orange Rivers. A new government subject to British control, the Orange River Sovereignty, was set up. According to Smith’s dispensation, the British were to ally themselves with the Boers, and all British agreements with the Griqua were abrogated.

While Adam Kok III’s sovereignty was to be recognised by the British, the Griquas were to become British subjects, subject to a degree of protection, and if Adam Kok III resisted this arrangement, he would be hanged. The terms of the Griqua settlement apart, these arrangements had an unsatisfactory outcome for the British. Expensive wars with the Sotho people resulted in a British defeat. After six unsatisfactory years, the British withdrew from the situation by abandoning the Orange River Sovereignty and encouraging instead the establishment by the Boers of the Orange Free State.

Displeased with this overriding of their interests, Adam Kok and his Griquas in 1861 accepted a British offer to settle them in the eastern part of Cape Colony. Before the journey could be made, safe passage across Basutoland (now Lesotho), had to be granted to the Griqua by Moshoeshoe, which Adam Kok obtained for them. Many Griqua farms were then sold to the Boers, and the long trek began. The two-year journey was of extreme difficulty; on occasion, gunpowder was used to blast a route through the Drakensberg Mountains.

In 1862 they finally arrived in a well-watered area in the northern Transkei, then called No Man’s Land, but now known as Griqualand East. The arduousness of the trek had taken its toll, however. The Griqua had lost nine-tenths of their stock during the journey and felt demoralised. Adam Kok himself was also depressed, having lost most of his wealth through the bankruptcy of his agent in Philippolis.

During this period, Adam Kok often left the government of the Griqua to his cousin, Adam “Eta” Kok. At first, feeling insecure, the new arrivals lived in a fortified settlement on a mountain slope that they came to call the “Old Laager.” It took them ten years before they founded their town, Kokstad, built under Adam Kok’s direction.

Adam Kok was also responsible for establishing relations with the surrounding African peoples, including the Mpondo, the Sotho, and others. In 1874 the Griqua joined the British in a campaign against the Hubi in nearby Natal. This support, however, did not prevent the British from ending Griqua’s independence the same year, when, to the dismay of the Griqua, they announced the annexation of East Griqualand to Cape Colony.

Adam Kok III, no longer a chief, was given a vague authority, as president of a council, and was awarded a pension of $1,000 a year. In December 1875, however, he was killed in a cart accident. The Griqua had lost their leader. Firm, astute, and popular, he had in his person symbolised Griqua’s independence.

KEITH IRVINE