The conventional history of the Cape Colony has created the impression that the emergence of what Stanley Trapido evocatively called ‘Hottentot Nationalism’,2 and the institutionalisation of Islam, were two separate and distinct processes. In military terms, however, the imam and the missionary, the mosque and the chapel, were adjacent. The recruitment of men of colour into military service implicated both Islam and Christianity. Colonial categories such as ‘Mardijckers’, ‘Bastaards’, ‘Pandoers’ and ‘Hottentot-Bastaards’ conceal a history of religious compromise and accommodation.3 The argument offered here concerns the role played by religion and faith in the Dutch and British military policies towards black and brown men. Since the extant literature contains ample historiographical references and accounts of warfare, I will not attempt to replay every colonial conflict. Instead, I concentrate on the biographies of the men of colour who were recruited into military service.