Hendrik Jakob Wikar

Hendrik Jakob Wikar , also Jacob (born October 28, 1752 in Gamlakarleby , today Finland , † unknown) was a Swedish, according to another opinion, a Finnish explorer in southern Africa .

Life

Wikar spent his youth in Gothenburg as the son of a Swedish surveyor . As a young man he started working for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Amsterdam . The latter sent him to the Cape Colony as a soldier in 1773 . Wikar worked for two years as a clerk in a VOC nursing home in Cape Town . On April 4, 1775, he deserted because of gambling debts. With a rifle and two horses he fled inland, in the first stage eastwards to the Sundays River . Then he stayed four years beyond the populated region in the Kamiesberg area . He was aware that as a rule no refugee could escape the long arm of the VOC. That's why he risked a life in then unexplored areas.

Records of his individual routes have only been preserved since September 1778. Here he traveled between Springbok and Steinkopf in the Namaqualand . According to his early records, Wikar started out from Goodhouse (now in the local community of Nama Khoi ) following the Orange River upstream, accompanied by a group of Khoi and San . For part of the way he left the river and only came back to the Orange River at the Augrabies Falls . In this way, he was the first European to see the falls and describe them in his travel diary. From here Wikar turned to the areas of the Koranna . He kept records of the customs of his hosts and other indigenous groups he met on his travels. He also collected minerals and plants, especially those that the locals used to feed. However, these collections were lost in the course of the trip.

His stay in the river landscape of the Gariep (Oranje) also led to the adjoining southern area of ​​what was later to become Namibia . Wikar had contacts with groups of the Nama , especially the Bondelswart , Veldskoendraer and Swartbooi . His notes in this regard form the most comprehensive contemporary representation of this region and its inhabitants.

On April 1, 1779, Wikar sent a letter to the governor of the Cape Colony, to Joachim van Plettenberg , in which he asked for forgiveness as a deserter. In it he named his collections and the extensive travel diary of the ethnographic observations among the Khoi and three other groups. The latter included the Einicqua, who lived on islands in the Orange River.

Still hoping for an answer from the governor, Wikar began a second journey along the stream. He hiked upstream to Koegas , which lies between Groblershoop and Prieska . During this trip, extensive collections of plants, animal preparations, minerals and ethnographic objects were created by the Khoi. In June 1779 he stayed again on the lower reaches of the Orange.

His apology to the governor appeared to have been successful. Wikar met Colonel RJ Gordon on July 25, 1779 in the Kamiesberg area. In September 1779 he was back in the service of the VOC. The collection objects from his second trip have not been preserved. Governor van Plettenberg officially accepted his travel record. They were processed by Oloff G. de Wet, the Landdrost of Stellenbosch . The first modern reproduction of his travelogues can be found in a work by Godée Molsbergen from 1916.

Wikars travel journals contain valuable information about the landscapes, natural products and people with whom he came into contact. Most significant are his records of the initiation rites , ceremonies and customs of the Khoi under which he temporarily lived. Various findings were published again in 1935 at the instigation of the Van Riebeck Society in Cape Town.

further reading

• Pentti Virrankoski: Wikar, Henrik Jakob . In: Kansallisbiografia-Verkkojulkaisu. Studia Biographica 4. Helsinki, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1997– (from June 10, 2018) ISSN 1799-4349
• EE Mossop (Ed.): The Journal of Hendrik Jacob Wikar and the Journals of Jacobus Coetse (1760) and Willem van Reenen (1791) . In: Series, Vol. 15, pp. I – ix, 1–327, Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town 1935 ( excerpt from www.rhinoresourcecenter.com)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} C. Plug: Wikar, Mr Hendrik Jacob (geographical exploration, ethnology) . on www.s2a3.org.za (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} E. E. Mossop (ed.): The Journal of Hendrik Jacob Wikar and the Journals of Jacobus Coetse (1760) and Willem van Reenen (1791) . In: Series, Vol. 15, pp. I – ix, 1–327, Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town 1935 (Copac: bibliographical reference ) Text excerpt from www.rhinoresourcecenter.com
3. ^ André du Pisani : SWA / Namibia: The Politics of Continuity and Change . Johannesburg, 1986, p. 14
4. ↑ Everhardus Cornelis Godee Molsbergen: stimuli in South Africa in de Hollandse Tijd. Deel II , (Works uitg. Door de Linschoten-Vereeniging , 11) Nijhoff 1916, pp. 78-138