What emerges from the study is a society characterised by severe inequality, with a relatively (and increasingly) poor farming population combined with pockets of wealth. In this paper, we measure the income inequality at three different points over the first century of Dutch rule at the Cape. The arrival of European settlers at the Cape in 1652 marked the beginning of what would seemingly become an extremely unequal society, with ramifications into modern-day South Africa. However, this article argues that the key feature of performing white masculinist power was evident within these acts, reflecting notions of gender and race integral to this particular late nineteenth and early twentieth century settler colonial society. The acceptance of female tamers in the ring (which was unique in its timing compared to the global context) was a result of a local gendered context. The lack of black African tamers speaks to the need to maintain colonial order and racial hierarchy.
However, we reveal two crucial differences evident when comparing the acts of the metropole (and even other colonies) to South Africa’s performances, which was contoured by the idiosyncrasies of the socio-political order. Drawing on global literature on the symbols – both natural and cultural – integral to these acts, this article argues that the lion-taming performances by men were based on those of the metropole’s highly stylised acts of masculine domination over nature. While lion-taming proved popular in the international arena, especially Britain, by the 1830s already, it was performed in South Africa only from the end of the nineteenth century. This article analyses lion-taming performances in South Africa through the acts displayed in three circuses: Frank Fillis’s, William Pagel’s and the Boswell’s, between 18.