02-10-2025
This PhD project, carried out by Imelda Hoebes, examines the religious lives of enslaved people in the Dutch Cape Colony (17th–19th centuries) and explores how their spiritual practices are remembered or silenced in contemporary South Africa. Enslaved communities were subjected to Christian conversion under Dutch rule, yet they preserved and transformed their own spiritual practices, drawing on African, Asian, and Islamic influences.
Religion thus became both a tool of colonial control and a means of resilience, healing, and community-building.
The project investigates how these histories persist in oral traditions, family lineages, and present-day religious practices, particularly within the descendant communities. At the same time, it asks why certain narratives of enslaved spirituality remain marginalized or erased in official histories and religious institutions.