Conflict 

This was the product of the European idea of private land ownership clashing with the traditional communal land use of the Khoikhoi.  The farms that were granted to the free burghers and Huguenots, used to be grazing for the livestock of the Khoi.  Access to water also became limited and the wild animals that used to be hunted by die Khoisan quickly became scarce.  European diseases, such as small pox, further decimated the indigenous peoples.  Many of the Khoisan were forced to move into the interior of became labourers, working for the colonists. 

From "the song of the broken string", a 19th century /Xam San man: 

"Because of a people,
because of others,
other people
who came
breaking
the string for me,
the earth
is not earth,
this place is
a place now
Changed for me ...

 ... Because
of this string,
because of a people
breaking the string,
this earth, my place
is the place
of something -
a thing broken -
that does not
stop sounding,
breaking within me".

Stephen Watson:  Return of the Moon:  Versions from the /Xam. 

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