This beautiful park in the middle of Cape Town was the garden where the VOC had fruits, vegetables and herbs grown. The plot used to be larger and extended all the way to today’s Shortmarket Street. The place is reminiscent of the idea of a refreshment station. The fruits and vegetables from the gardens were grown by enslaved people and consumed by both ship crews and Cape settlers. Thorn bushes fenced and marked the spot, preventing free access. There is a replica of a slave clock in the park and part of the park is reserved for a vegetable garden, a miniature version of the old garden. This fertile land was stolen from the indigenous inhabitants and seeds of native plants were brought to the botanical gardens in the Netherlands. The VOC dammed the Camissa River, which came from Table Mountain. This water was available through a well in the Company Garden but not outside of it, making fresh water inaccessible to the neighboring indigenous people.

Sources

• Jeewa, Kawthar & Frikech, Sara. (2022). Decolonising Nature: Sowing Seeds to Unearth the Routes of Water and People. Rotterdam: Het Nieuwe Instituut. [online] https://cmsfiles.nieuweinstituut.nl/NI_See_Studio_Kawthar_Jeewa_Sara_Frikech_dd3f6e34bd.pdf.
• City of Cape Town. (N.d.) Company’s Garden and Precinct Walk. [online] https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Procedures%2C%20guidelines%20and%20regulations/Company%27s%20Garden%20Self%20Guided%20Walk.pdf.