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by Tom Van Der Ness (Author)
The repetition of many of the names is because these people factually all existed and the narrative about them is historically accurate. Of interest, is that the colonisation of the small peninsula at the tip of Africa took place almost two centuries before the European scramble for colonial rule across the rest of the continent. At twenty, Maria van Riebeeck marries a rehabilitated criminal, the infamous Jan van Riebeeck, to become the wife of the first commander of the European settlement of future Cape Town in sixteen-fifty-two from an edict by The Dutch East India Company -Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie - VOC. After annexing the land and building a fort, with assistance from the indigenes, the population grows from the incoming steady trickle of both Europeans and slaves alike. After the van Riebeecks leave, major transformations under Governor Simon van der Stel take place to properly establish a colony. After his death, The Groot Constantia wine estate, which was the jewel of the Cape at the time, changes hands and is factually owned by an emancipated slave captured as a child in Bengal - Anna de Koningh.
