Maria Groothenning, b2 SM

NOTE BY PT MELLET:

The name "Groothenning" is the nickname of Maria van Bengale who in terms of the Mtdna M49c1 would locate her as of the Dai or Shan ethnic group from the Golden Triangle area of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Southern China around the Mekong River area.

This excerpt from a short piece of (fact based) fiction explains the meaning and likely origin of "Groothenning". Her toponym or surname was van Bengale as she was a first generation enslaved woman at the Cape.

As far as "inconsistencies" are concerned these are only inconsistent when the overlay of formal marriages is used to try and make sense of children having different names. Most enslaved women were concubines and had multiple partners where some of the children were given their father's names. Often ultimately the enslaved woman might marry and attain her freedom through manumission and then formally take on the name of the spouse. Most relationships of enslaved women are complex. Their origins were also more complex than the given toponyms suggest. The toponym "van Bengale" could refer to West Bengal in India, to Bangladesh; to anywhere along the long Bay of Bengal Coast, or from Arakan slave market in the Myanmar State of Rakhine, or more likely from deep within Myanmar where in those days borders frequently shifted between China, Myanmar, Siam, Laos and Vietnam.

My suggestion to those who believe there are inconsistencies or simply wish to get a better understanding is to consult the excellent research and documented births, deaths, concubinage, marriages, baptisms under the SURNAMES INDEX on First Fifty Years Project http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g7/p7457.htm'''

HERE is the bit of informed fiction that helps to explain who Anna "Groothenning" van Bengale was before being enslaved:

"The Germans and Swiss jokingly started calling me ‘Groothenning’ and somehow it stuck. It even entered some of my records. My master, and sometimes lover Hans, short for Johannes, was also known by the slang-name for those called "Johannes" in Germany - Hen, the cock. Of course, there is a sexual connotation too - "big cock”.

The problem for my Hans – my dear Hen - was that his surname Geringer, in German means small, so unfortunately for him, Hen Geringer meant ‘small cock’. The feminine for Hen was Henne, namely mother-hen and when the ‘ing’ is added in the form of Henning it refers to being deduced from “Hen”. Henning can also mean “you beauty”. Groothenning was not a surname as is sometimes thought…. It simply was a nickname.
Effectively by prefixing it with Groot (big) my nickname was “mother-hen” or the “big cock” in the small-cock’s (Hen Geringer) household. Some less courteous could also simply be implying that I was pretty good in bed. That is how I was known as Anna “Groothenning” van Bengal..

Was I from Bengal? Actually no, I was not! Some of those like me who were enslaved, were just given the regional name from “Bay of Bengal” a region that ran from southern India to Melaka. Others actually were from Bengal. But those like me who were sold from the coast of Arakan by the Myanmar often were war captives or victims of pirates, all the way from China, Laos, and Siam – indigenous hill and water people from the golden triangle where southwestern China, Myanmar, Siam, and Laos all sit around the mighty Mekong River and the Ruak River. I was a war captive from this region.

I had grown up hearing the stories about the series of wars for over 100 years between the Myanmar and Siamese that ended in the year of my birth 1676. The impact on my homeland was great. Our area was also centre of conflict involving Yunnan, Lang Xang, and the Dai Viet armies. My homeland straddled China and the Lan Na Thai Kingdom, the kingdom of a million rice fields, which was subject of constant conflict with the Tuangoo Myanmar, the Ayutthaya Siam Kingdom, the Lan Xang Kingdom (Laos) and the Dai Viet Kingdom (Vietnam). My homeland was along the mighty Mekong River, which the Chinese called Lán Cāng, the same name as Lan Xang, the kingdom of the Laos people. Our area was the crossroads for military movements and Chinese trade. Our area was on the main routes for southwestern Yunan China’s main cities. Mae Nam Khong or Mae Khong or Mae Nam has a resonance with our own dear Camissa River in Table Valley – it means "Mother of all Waters”.

I am from the Dai people, an ethnic group who are a Yunnan Chinese minority, also known as Tai, Lao Theung, Mon-Khmer, Lao Sung, Lao Loum, and in Myanmar where we have the largest communities of 6 million people we are known as Shan. In Siam we are called Shan or Tai, one of the root ethnicities of the Thai people of Siam. Regionally we are considered to be an Indo-Chinese minority group of southwestern China.
War captives and displaced communities who would become enslaved peoples scattered far and wide were called Kha – the local name for prisoners. I became a Dai Kha which became the start of a journey that would result in me spending the latter half of my life at the Cape of Good Hope. War lords who established city-states would constantly uproot and move whole communities of one city or entity to another to ensure a tax base to be exploited for war. Many became subjects of debt-bondage or captives of pirates and would never get out of enslavement.

I was Maenaam and my childhood was pure bliss. I was happy and carefree. My young brother and I were cared for by my parents who looked after our every need. My mother was a local beauty and dad was a fine handsome man. They were small farmers and dad was a good fisherman with his own boat. My brother and I enjoyed going on the river with dad to catch fish and my mother was a great cook. We were part of a village community where everyone looked out for each other. We had a deep culture. The highlight of my year was the annual water festival – Songkran and from a child I also learnt the graceful peacock dance, which even now in this strange land I perform when I am alone, just for myself.

We had gone through the first real break in war during my childhood, but when King Souligna Vongsa of the Lan Xang died when I was 19 years old and our region began to feel the first stages of conflict and destabilization again. Warlords in the broader region became restless and war suddenly became part of my teenage world.

I was already promised in marriage to a man who had worked hard to win my hand. We were in love and I was looking forward to being married. So many dreams, we had. I was actually already with child, but in a twinkling of an eye when my life changed, I miscarried.

It happened that one night our village was attacked. Homes were set on fire and all around me men, and women were killed or wounded. The noise of metal banging against metal and screaming and shouting broke the night air. Smoke made my eyes sting and tears were streaming down my cheeks. I was separated from my mother and brother, and I saw my father cut down by a horseman. Horses were galloping all around and making noises. In the middle of this chaos, I was fixated on my father’s lifeless form. I awoke from that paralyzing fright as a galloping horse knocked me off my feet. I picked myself up and ran for the bush, and just kept running. Over the years since then I continued to have nightmares reliving those awful experiences.
As we fled to seek refuge, we ran into a gang of pirate kidnappers who captured us and trussed us while they found as many of those fleeing as they could muster. We were then forced marched over a long distance to the Arakan port on the Bay of Bengal controlled by the Arabs where there was a huge slavery market. We were four months on that overland journey on foot and beaten into submission. More terrible memories that contributed to my nightmares. I lost the first child that I had conceived as a result of that march.

In Arakan I was kept for many months in conditions like one would keep livestock. Then sold to a Dutch ship which took me to Jayakarta which the Dutch called Batavia. The Dutch called me Anna van Bengalen. I arrived in Batavia after more than a year had gone by since my capture in 1694. I had seen many cruel things on the overland march, and much abuse and deaths at the market and on the ship journey. I was raped, fell pregnant and miscarried. The first of a number of such experiences before I would arrive at the Cape of Good Hope. In all, I miscarried three times over what was three years of journeys and transitions. I spent yet another 7 months in Batavia, sold and resold, before leaving on the first leg of my long voyage from Java to Mauritius on board a ship called Spiegel (mirror) with Captain Cornelis Keeleman.

Three of the enslaved on-board passed on and were tossed overboard. Two more died on the next leg of the trip on that horrible voyage. On arriving at the Cape from Mauritius, Cornelis Keeleman, - my master, sold me to a man by the name of Gerrit Meyer in 1698, a tavern keeper at the Cape of Good Hope for the price of 54 Rixdollars."

Maria Groothenning

See First Fifty Years Project http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g7/p7457.htm

and see Margaret Cairns, 'GERINGER AND BOK - A GENEALOGICAL JIG-SAW', attached.

Inventaris van alle soodanige goederen als 'er zijn naargelaten en met 'er dood ontruijmt door den burger Hans Casper Gerringer door de ondergetekende gecommitt:e Weesm:ren Valentijn Kleijnveld en Fredrik Russouw, in bijwesen van Michiel Bok als naaste bloed verwand op den 18:e, 19, 21, 22, 24 Februarij en den 1:ste en 4 Maart 1719 gedaan namentlijk

d' Erfgenamen tot desen boedel behorende sijn de navolgende als

Michiel Bok oud 17 jaren

Maria Bok oud 16 jaren

Catarina Bok oud 14 jaren

Johanna Bok oud 11 jaren

Christiaan Bok oud 5 jaren

Clara Bok oud 3 jaren

Jacobus Marik oud 1 jaar

...

   Aldus geinventariseert aan Cabo de Goede Hoop den 18, 19, 21, 22, 24 Februarij en den 1:ste en 4 Maart 1719.

Gecommitt:e Weesm:ren: V: Kleinveld, H:k Russouw
Michiel Bock
Mij present: Jer:mo H:k Snitquer, Secret:s
[Inventories of the Orphan Chamber Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa Reference no.: MOOC8/3.95 on http://databases.tanap.net/mooc/ ]

Verhouding met Nicolaas Bruijn

   Cabo de Goede Hoop

1717. 25. do. [Aprilis] Nicolaas. Ouders. Nicolaas Bruijn, en Maria Groothenning. Getuigen. Hendrik Claasz, en Anna Groothenning.

- NGK Kaapstad Doopboek, 1713 - 1741 op https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11116-194482-19?cc=147...

Huwelik met Thomas Eijsman SV/PROG

   NGK Stellenbosch

1720. 11e Feb, Thomas Eijsma, en Maria Bok van Cabo jonge dogter - Stellenbosch Trouw Boek, 1700 - 1787 op https://familysearch.org

Thomas Eijsman dies c. 4 April 1727

   Cabo de Goede Hoop

Inventaris van het gene nagelaten door den overledene Thomas Eijsman van Koningsberge als volgt
2 snaphanen, een degen, een patroontas

   1 katel, bulsak, puel en 3 kussens

   1 kist met klederen

   een vrou met vier soons

De welke wij ondergetekene verklaren des noods sijn met een eed wille bekragtigen den 4 April 1727
Steven Gos
J: Bock
[Inventories of the Orphan Chamber Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa Reference no.: MOOC8/4.98 on http://databases.tanap.net/mooc/]

Huwelik met Frans Verkouter SV/PROG

   NGK Drakenstein

Den 15 Februarij 1728. Frans Verkouter van Zeeland, Borger aan de Kaap de Goede hoop weduwe.- met Marija Bok van Cabo de Goede hoop wedwe van Thomas Ijsman.- Drakenstein Heemkring, compilers, Drakenstein I Marriages., CD-ROM (Paarl) Drakenstein Heemkring, 2006 , Marriage Register op http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g7/p7457.htm