`Secretly I will Love You More' is a piece of digital art by the South African artist Andrew Putter. In this Andrew Putter portrays Maria de la Quellerie, wife of Commander Jan van Riebeeck, singing a lullaby in Nama, the language closest to that spoken by the Khoi San people encountered in the 17th century. The work is deceptive and requires the viewer to question their familiarity with Dutch art of the period, and the encounters that allowed the Dutch nation to prosper at this time. The title comes from the lullaby within the piece which envisions a world in which love triumphs over differentce.<BR> <BR> When the Dutch established the first permanent European outpost in 1652, the Cape of Good Hope was already inhabited by Khoisan Goringhaicona people whom the Dutch referred to as ‘Strandlopers’. Due to contact with passing European ships two Goringhaicona people: Autshumao (‘Harrie’) and his niece Krotoa (‘Eva’) could already speak fragmentary Dutch and Portuguese. Krotoa, then a girl of 12 years, was taken into the household of the Dutch commander Jan van Riebeeck and his wife Maria de la Quellerie to serve as a housemaid and translator.<BR> <BR> Thanks in large part to the voluntary assistance of the local peoples, and especially Krotoa, the Dutch outpost was able to survive and thrive. Unknown to anybody at the time was that this outpost would eventually grow into a substantial colony and doom the local Khoisan peoples to often violent subjugation and death by disease. Krotoa herself is a symbol of this: she led a troubled life, was separated from her own children, became an outcast in her own community, and was later banished to Robben Island – becoming one of the first prisoners at the infamous Dutch and later South African penal colony which later housed such political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. She died young at the age of 30 years.<BR>