Proposed new name for Cradock Peak not out of tune

Sydney Opperman, Pacaltsdorp:

With reference to the letter of Hugo Leggatt, 'Why introduce part Indian name for Cradock Peak?' (George Herald,

23 January).

I must apologise to the readers and my friend Hugo Leggatt for putting the blame on John Cradock for the "Hottentot

Code" of 1809 which was the first of a series of laws which sought to restrict the rights of the indigenous people of the

Cape Colony. Cradock, as the successor of Caledon, was just responsible for the endorsing of the "Hottentot Code" and for The Apprenticeship of the Servants Proclamation of 1812 (in support of the Hottentot Code). Under Cradock's watch, apart from his support for the "Caledon Code", white settlers could then, with the 1812 Proclamation, apprentice and employ children of the indigenous people from the age of 8 to 18 without paying them. This resulted in the binding of entire households to settler farmers.

Hugo also has a problem with the language mix of a people group whose true identity (Otentottu) means "Mixed People". The use of the word khoi, which means “person or human being”, as the "identity of the indigenous people" is an 1881 thumb-suck invention by the German Theophilus Hahn.

Goa (ancient name for India) is used in Algoa Bay and in Delagoa Bay. We swim at our Durban beaches in the Indian Ocean. The name "Ab" is used for river in the Quena language as in Gari-ab, corrupted to Gari-ep and wrongly pronounced as Ga-riep. The "ab" in Gari-ab has the same spelling and meaning as the "ab" in Punjab, where punj means five (5). The Keinab and Ugab names in Namibia are examples where "ab" is used as one of the Otentottu words for river.

Research will prove that the "Gari" of "Gari-ab" refers to an Indian deity (Deity of the Rising Morning Sun). The same applies to Gauri as in Gauritz (river near Mossel Bay); Guri is the Hindu deity in Guriqua; debhu the deity as in kamdebhu (deboo) etc. The mix is fixed.

The cattle of the indigenous people were of the Bos taurus indicus type, normally known as Brahman. Brahman is also the name of a Hindu deity.

Even surnames of people from the Quena descent, like Siva | Shiva (Kenhardt) and Swatti (from the deity Saraswatti?) found in Oudtshoorn are unmistakably connected to Goa | India.

The mix, Hugo, is fortunately or unfortunately irreversible. So the proposed new name for Cradock Peak is not out of tune.