abstract:Cape Dutch are people of the Western Cape of South Africa who descended primarily from Dutch and Flemish as well as smaller numbers of French, German and other European immigrants along with a percentage of their Asian and African slaves, who, from the 17th century into the 19th century, remained more or less loyal subjects of European (first Dutch, later British) powers. Meanwhile, their pastoral trekking kinsmen, the Trekboers, were migrating away from the Western Cape carving out a distinct culture and dialect with a strong desire for independence.
The region makes for prime cycling country thanks to paved bike paths and numerous secondary roads free of city traffic, while the mountain surroundings and unique Cape-Dutch homesteads (marked by the prominent central dormer gable of the buildings) provide spectacular scenery.
Once an assembly has been chosen, it will ask the country's government to give them a separate homeland for the volk, descendants of the mainly Dutch pioneers who trekked north from the British-run Cape Colony in the early 19th century.