Name Hendrik Wikar | ||
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Henrik Jakob Wikar or Hendrik Jakob Wikar (b. 28 October 1752 Kokkola, Finland (at that time Sweden)) was a Finnish explorer who travelled in Southern Africa and wrote his journal describing the life of the khoisan people.
Wikar's father was Jakob Johan Wikar, a land surveyor and a deputy of the Riksdag of the Estates, and his mother was Margareta Carlborg, his father's second wife.
Wikar came from Ostrobothnia and studied in The Royal Academy of Turku in 1769. In 1773 he was employed in Holland by Dutch East India Company. He worked as a clerk in Cape Town in the company's hospital. He did not manage well and he left in 1775 to the north of the Colony where he stayed in four years. From 1778 to July 1779 he wrote his journal there. He was sentence in 1779 as a runagate but the journal saved him and he was pardoned autumn 1779, probably for the reason the journal included some important notes for the Company. He described the rituals and customs of the khoisan people, and numerous scientists used his records.