South African Sketches. Plate III. Breakfast Party of Kaffir Marauders detected RMG PY6030

South African Sketches. Plate III. Breakfast Party of Kaffir Marauders detected
Print of a Breakfast Party of Kaffir Marauders by Charles Davidson Bell.
Bell sketched a number of ethnographic studies of the different non-European South Africans while on an expedition into the Interior with Dr Andrew Smith in 1834. The sketches were laden with the colonialists views and opinions on each ethnic group. 'Malays' were seen as elegant and graceful; 'Hottentots' (Khoikhoi) as uncouth; 'Kaffirs' (Xhosa) as warriors.
Bell was based at the Cape at the same time as the Herschels and in the small colonial community they became friends. Both were interested, academically if not personally with the plight of the non-European South Africans. Both were also interested and frequently complimentary about the work of the missionaries. Though Bell never made a living from his work as an artist he had copies made to give or to sell to interested friends.
Andrew Smith's expedition of 1834-6 to explore the territories to the north of the colony was largely funded by Cape merchants and other interested parties. Bell was sent along as second draughtman with express instructions to record details about the people they came into contact with, to contribute to 'an exact portrait of their life as respects their condition, arts, and policy, their language, their appearance, population, origin, and relation to other tribes, or in general whatever tends to elucidate their disposition or resources as sharers or agents in commerce, or their preparation to receive Christianity.'
Bell's intention was to publish his sketches from this expedition as an album (he even produced an illustrated title page) called 'Scraps from my South African Sketch Books' or in a slightly different arrangement as 'Scraps from the Sketch Books of a Wanderer in Southern Africa'. This print forms part of that proposed publication.
Copies of some, though not all are to be found in the Bell Heritage Trust Collection at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

South African Sketches. Plate III. Breakfast Party of Kaffir Marauders detected