The unbowed chief
Who was David Stuurman? South Africans are curious to know more about the Khoi chief after the airport at Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) was named after him this week.
From the time they arrived in the Cape the colonial powers systematically forced the Khoi and San people off their land. Stuurman was one of many pressed into what amounted to slavery on colonial farms.
Once, he was tied to a wagon wheel, whipped with sjamboks, salted and left in the sun for hours after a disagreement with his “baas”. He deserted as soon as he could.
He eventually took up the chieftainship of his people and was imprisoned on Robben Island for refusing to give up two Khoi people who had deserted Boer farms.
Among his “crimes” was “suspicious conduct, living in a kraal near the boundaries of the colony”.
In December 1809, Stuurman and others escaped from the island, probably using whaling boats.
A Graaff-Reinet landdrost described him as “an enemy more dangerous than the k **** rs”.
He was recaptured in 1819 and forced into hard labour on Robben Island. He escaped for a second time in 1820 but was caught after his boat capsized in the surf off Blouberg.
He was sent back to Robben Island, but this time the prison warders were taking no chances: Stuurman was chained to a wall until he was transported to New South Wales in Australia.
On February 22 1830, Stuurman died in a hospital in Sydney. The cemetery where he was buried was later redeveloped for a railway station. His remains have never been found.
He is the only prisoner to have twice escaped from Robben Island.