Tying a (Rain)bow at the end: Controversial representations of krotoa from text to film

Krotoa-Eva, servant-cum-translator-cum-diplomat, instrumental in the dealings between the Dutch and the Khoi at the Cape in the 1600s, is a woman whose story has been (re)constructed countless times. Through sparse historical documentation, she has been described as a drunk, traitor, bad mother, thief, ungrateful primitive, shrewd mediator and most recently a heroic foremother of Afrikaansspeaking South Africans. This article tracks these representations, paying particular attention to the 2017 South African-made film Krotoa, and situates this latter representation within theoretical discussions of nationalism and cinema, women in the national heritage narrative and the historic film as a vehicle to express, in its own way, the emotions, trauma and systems of the past still relevant today. We argue that the filmmakers’ attempt to tell the story of Krotoa, while masterfully crafted, artful and poignant, succumbs in the end to a weak nation-building epilogue that does little justice to the nuances of power, oppression and perseverance foundational to Krotoa’s life story.