Kheis

Kheis belongs to the dry interior around the lower Orange River and the northern Karoo. In this wider country, water determined the possibilities for settlement and travel, while grazing and wild resources supported pastoral and hunter gatherer communities. Seasonal routes linked places that could provide food, shelter and dependable supplies, and social relationships helped people gain access to necessary ground.

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, expansion from the Cape increasingly affected the interior. Livestock farmers sought new pastures, traders carried imported goods along frontier routes, and armed parties altered local balances of power. Khoikhoi, San and other communities responded through alliances, migration, exchange and resistance. The Orange River was an important corridor where different societies met beyond the strongest centres of colonial control. Access to water and grazing became increasingly contested.