Project Gutenberg Etext Native Life in South Africa, by Plaatje
Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!
Please take a look at the important information in this header.
We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
further information is included below. We need your donations.
Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since
the European War and the Boer Rebellion
By Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje
September, 1998 [Etext #1452]
Project Gutenberg Etext Native Life in South Africa, by Plaatje
*****This file should be named 1452.txt or 1452.zip******
This etext was prepared by Alan R. Light ([email protected], formerly
[email protected], etc.). To assure a high quality text,
the original was typed in (manually) twice and electronically compared.
We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
of the official release dates, for time for better editing.
Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till
midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A
preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an
up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has
a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
new copy has at least one byte more or less.
Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The
fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take
to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This
projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value
per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text
files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1997 for a total of 1000+
If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
total should reach 80 billion Etexts.
The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion]
This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001
should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it
will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001.
We need your donations more than ever!
All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie-
Mellon University).
For these and other matters, please mail to:
Project Gutenberg
P. O. Box 2782
Champaign, IL 61825
When all other email fails try our Executive Director:
Michael S. Hart
We would prefer to send you this information by email
(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail).
******
If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please
FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives:
[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type]
ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu
login: anonymous
password: your@login
cd etext/etext90 through /etext96
or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information]
dir [to see files]
get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
GET INDEX?00.GUT
for a list of books
and
GET NEW GUT for general information
and
MGET GUT* for newsletters.
**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
(Three Pages)
***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical
medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other
things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
distribute it in the United States without permission and
without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
time to the person you received it from. If you received it
on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
receive it electronically.
THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
may have other legal rights.
INDEMNITY
You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
or:
[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this
requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however,
if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
*EITHER*:
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
does *not* contain characters other than those
intended by the author of the work, although tilde
(~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
be used to convey punctuation intended by the
author, and additional characters may be used to
indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
form by the program that displays the etext (as is
the case, for instance, with most word processors);
OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
"Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
net profits you derive calculated using the method you
already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you
don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are
payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
University" within the 60 days following each
date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
This etext was prepared by Alan R. Light ([email protected], formerly
[email protected], etc.). To assure a high quality text,
the original was typed in (manually) twice and electronically compared.
Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since
the European War and the Boer Rebellion
By Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje
[South African (ethnic Tswana) Editor, Author, Statesman. 1876?-1932.]
First Secretary-General of the South African Native National Congress
(forerunner of the ANC), 1912-1917. Author of "Mhudi",
generally considered the first novel written by a black South African.
[The two portraits are not available for this ASCII text. They are titled
"The Author." and "Mrs. S. T. Plaatje. Without whose loyal co-operation
this book would never have been written."]
[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are CAPITALIZED.
Some obvious errors have been corrected (see Notes).]
Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since
the European War and the Boer Rebellion
By Sol. T. Plaatje
Editor of `Tsala ea Batho', Kimberley, S.A.
Author of `Sechuana Proverbs and their European Equivalents'
Fourth Edition
Foreword (Native Life in South Africa electronic text):
Sol Plaatje began work on `Native Life in South Africa' in 1914,
while on his way to Britain to plead with the Imperial Government
against the Natives' Land Act of 1913, as part of a deputation
of the South African Native National Congress. The book was intended
as a means of reaching the British public with the deputation's message.
The method seemed sound enough -- it was quite similar in form
to the successful deputation which had pleaded to keep Bechuanaland
(modern Botswana) under direct Imperial control in 1895.
But circumstances were different in 1914 -- South Africa
had been granted self-government, and the First World War began
shortly after the deputation's arrival in England and distracted all parties.
This latter event also influenced the final form of the book,
as Plaatje played to the patriotic sentiment so strong in Britain at the time.
For all his appeals, Plaatje did not succeed: the Act went on to become
one of the first steps toward the system of Apartheid. For all that,
there is sometimes in defeat the seeds of victory -- these troubles
united black South Africans like nothing before, and Plaatje's successors,
in the form of the ANC, finally succeeded in the early 1990's.
The Natives' Land Act of 1913, which forbade natives to buy or rent land,
except in a few small reserves consisting largely of wasteland,
was finally overturned in 1991.
Thanks should be given to Neil Parsons, for his advice on this subject,
and for being so kind as to research and write the introduction that follows.
Alan R. Light
July, 1998.
Monroe, North Carolina (USA).
Introduction, by Neil Parsons
"Native Life in South Africa" is one of the most remarkable books on Africa,
by one of the continent's most remarkable writers. It was written
as a work of impassioned political propaganda, exposing the plight
of black South Africans under the whites-only government of newly unified
South Africa. It focuses on the effects of the 1913 Natives' Land Act
which introduced a uniform system of land segregation between the races.
It resulted, as Plaatje shows, in the immediate expulsion of blacks,
as "squatters", from their ancestral lands in the Orange Free State
now declared "white". But Native Life succeeds in being
much more than a work of propaganda. It is a vital social document
which captures the spirit of an age and shows the effects of rural segregation
on the everyday life of people.
Solomon Tshekeisho Plaatje was born in 1878 in the lands of
the Tswana-speaking people, south of Mafeking. His origins
were ordinary enough. What was remarkable was the aptitude he showed
for education and learning after a few years schooling under the tuition
of a remarkable liberal German Lutheran missionary, the Rev. Ludorf.
At the age of sixteen Plaatje (using the Dutch nickname of his grandfather
as a surname) joined the Post Office as a mail-carrier in Kimberley,
the diamond city in the north of Cape Colony. He subsequently passed
the highest clerical examination in the colony, beating every white candidate
in both Dutch and typing.
From Kimberley the young Plaatje went on to Mafeking, where he was
one of the key players in the great siege of 1899-1900.
As magistrate's interpreter he was the vital link between
the British civil authorities and the African majority
beleaguered inside the town's military perimeter. Plaatje's diaries
from this period, published long after his death, are a remarkable record
both of the siege and of his early prose experimentation --
mixing languages and idioms, and full of bright humour.
After the war Plaatje became a journalist, editor first
of one Tswana language newspaper at Mafeking and then of another at Kimberley.
Like other educated Africans he came out of the war optimistic that
the British would enfranchise all educated and propertied males
in the defeated Boer colonies (Transvaal and Orange Free State)
without regard to race. But in this he, and the others,
were soon sorely disappointed. The British gave a whites-only franchise
to the defeated Boers and thus conceded power to a Boer or white Afrikaner
parliamentary majority in the 1910 Union of South Africa
which brought together the two Boer colonies with Cape Colony and Natal.
Clinging to the old but diminished "colour blind" franchise of the Cape,
Plaatje remained one of the few Africans in South Africa
with a parliamentary vote.
Plaatje's aggravation with the British government can be seen
in an unpublished manuscript of 1908-09 titled "Sekgoma -- the Black Dreyfus".
In this booklet he castigated the British for denying legal rights
(specifically habeas corpus) to their African subjects
outside the Cape Colony.
Plaatje became politically active in the "native congress" movement
which represented the interests of educated and propertied Africans
all over South Africa. He was the first secretary-general
of the "South African Native National Congress", founded in 1912
(which renamed itself as the African National Congress or ANC
ten years later).
The first piece of major legislation presented to the whites-only
parliament of South Africa was the Natives' Land Act, eventually passed
in 1913, which was designed to entrench white power and property rights
in the countryside -- as well as to solve the "native problem" of
African peasant farmers working for themselves and denying their labour power
to white employers.
The main battle ground for the implementation of the new legislation
was the Orange Free State. White farmers took the cue from the Land Act
to begin expelling black peasants from their land as "squatters",
while the police began to rigorously enforce the pass-laws
which registered the employment of Africans and prescribed
their residence and movement rights.
The Free State became the cockpit of resistance by the newly formed SANNC.
Its womens' league demonstrated against pass law enforcement
in Free State towns. Its national executive sent a delegation to England,
icluding Plaatje, who set sail in mid-1914. The British crown retained
ultimate rights of sovereignty over the parliament and government
of South Africa, with an as yet unexercised power of veto over
South African legislation in the area of "native affairs".
The delegation received short shrift from the government in London which was,
after all, more than preoccupied with the coming of the Great War --
in which it feared for the loyalty of the recently defeated Afrikaners
and wished in no way to offend them. But, rather than return empty-handed
like the rest of the SANNC delegation, Plaatje decided
to stay in England to carry on the fight. He was determined to recuit,
through writing and lecturing, the liberal and humanitarian establishment
to his side -- so that it in turn might pressure the British government.
Thus it was that Plaatje resumed work on a manuscript he had begun
on the ship to England. "Native Life in South Africa".
The book was published in 1916 by P. S. King in London.
It was dedicated to Harriette Colenso, doughty woman camnpaigner
who had inherited from her father, Bishop Colenso, the mantle of advocate
to the British establishment of the rights of the Zulu nation in South Africa.
While in England Plaatje pursued his interests in language and linguistics
by collaborating with Professor Daniel Jones of the University of London --
inventor of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and prototype for
Professor Higgins in Shaw's "Pygmalion" and thus the musical "My Fair Lady".
In the same year as Native Life was published, 1916, Plaatje published
two other shorter books which brought together the European languages
(English, Dutch and German) he loved with the Tswana language.
"Sechuana Proverbs" was a listing of Tswana proverbs with
their European equivalents. "A Sechuana Reader" was co-authored with Jones,
using the IPA for Tswana orthography.
Plaatje returned to South Africa but went once again to England
after the war's end, to lead a second SANNC delegation keen to make its mark
on the peace negotiations in 1919. This time Plaatje managed to get
as far as the prime minister, Lloyd George, "the Welsh wizard".
Lloyd George was duly impressed with Plaatje and undertook
to present his case to General Jan Smuts in the South African government,
a supposedly liberal fellow-traveller. But Smuts, whose notions of liberalism
were patronizingly segregationist, fobbed off Lloyd George
with an ingenuous reply.
Disillusioned with the flabby friendship of British liberals,
Plaatje was increasingly drawn to the pan-Africanism of W. E. B. Du Bois,
president of the NAACP in the United States. In 1921 Plaatje sailed
for the United States on a lecture tour that took him through
half the country. He paid his own way by publishing and selling
18,000 copies of a booklet titled "The Mote and the Beam: an Epic
on Sex-Relationship 'twixt Black and White in British South Africa"
at 25 cents each. In the following year, after Plaatje had left,
this new edition of "Native Life in South Africa" was published,
by the NAACP newspaper "The Crisis" edited by Du Bois.
Plaatje returned home to Kimberley to find the SANNC a spent force,
despite its name change to ANC, overtaken by more radical forces.
At a time when white power was pushing ahead with an ever more intense
segregationist programme, based on anti-black legislation,
Plaatje became a lone voice for old black liberalism. He turned from politics
and devoted the rest of his life to literature. His passion for Shakespeare
resulted in mellifluous Tswana translations of five plays
from "Comedy of Errors" to "Merchant of Venice" and "Julius Caesar".
His passion for the history of his people, and of his family in particular,
resulted in a historical novel, "Mhudi (An Epic of South African Native Life
a Hundred Years Ago)", dedicated to his daughter Olive who had died
in the influenza epidemic while Plaatje was overseas --
described in the dedication as "one of the many victims of a settled system".
"Mhudi" was published by the missionary press at Lovedale in 1930,
in a somewhat bowdlerized version. It has since been republished
in more pristine form and is today considered not just the first
but one of the very best novels published by a black South African writer
in English.
Plaatje lived an extraordinary life but died a largely disappointed man.
His feats of political journalism had been largely forgotten
and his creative talents had hardly yet been recognised
-- except in the confined world of Tswana language readership.
But today Plaatje is regarded as a South African literary pioneer,
as a not insignificant political actor in his time,
and as a cogent commentator on his times. He was an explorer
in a fascinating world of cultural and linguistic interaction,
who was in retrospect truly a "renaissance man".
Related Reading:
Sol T. Plaatje (ed. John Comaroff with Brian Willan & Andrew Reed),
"Mafeking Diary: a Black Man's View of a White Man's War",
Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press & Cambridge Meridor Press, 1990.
(1st edn. London: Macmillan, 1973, publ. as The Boer War Diary
of Sol T. Plaatje).
Sol. T. Plaatje (ed. Tim Couzens), "Mhudi", Cape Town: Francolin, 1996;
definitive edition.
Brian Willan, "Sol Plaatje: South African Nationalist, 1876-1932",
London: Heinemann, 1984.
Brian Willan (ed. & comp.), "Sol Plaatje: Selected Writings",
Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1996.
Neil Parsons is a Professor of History at the University of Botswana.
He is author of "King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen",
which details the journey of the Batswana delegation to England of 1895,
and other books relating to the history of the region.
To
Miss Harriette E. Colenso,
"Nkosazana Matotoba ka So-Bantu",
Daughter of the late Rt. Rev. J. W. Colenso
(In his life-time Bishop of Natal and "Father of the Zulus").
In recognition of her unswerving loyalty to
the policy of her late distinguished father
and unselfish interest in the welfare of
the South African Natives,
This Book is Dedicated.
Contents
(A) Who is the Author?
(B) Prologue
Chapter I A Retrospect
Chapter II The Grim Struggle between Right and Wrong,
and the Latter Carries the Day
Chapter III The Natives' Land Act
Chapter IV One Night with the Fugitives
Chapter V Another Night with the Sufferers
Chapter VI Our Indebtedness to White Women
Chapter VII Persecution of Coloured Women in the Orange Free State
Chapter VIII At Thaba Ncho: A Secretarial Fiasco
Chapter IX The Fateful 13
Chapter X Dr. Abdurahman, President of the A.P.O. /
Dr. A. Abdurahman, M.P.C.
Chapter XI The Natives' Land Act in Cape Colony
Chapter XII The Passing of Cape Ideals
Chapter XIII Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, the Pioneer Native Pressman
Chapter XIV The Native Congress and the Union Government
Chapter XV The Kimberley Congress / The Kimberley Conference
Chapter XVI The Appeal for Imperial Protection
Chapter XVII The London Press and the Natives' Land Act
Chapter XVIII The P.S.A. and Brotherhoods
Chapter XIX Armed Natives in the South African War
Chapter XX The South African Races and the European War
Chapter XXI Coloured People's Help Rejected / The Offer of Assistance
by the South African Coloured Races Rejected
Chapter XXII The South African Boers and the European War
Chapter XXIII The Boer Rebellion
Chapter XXIV Piet Grobler
Epilogue
Report of the Lands Commission
-----------------------------
Native Life in South Africa
-----------------------------
(A) Who is the Author?
After wondering for some time how best to answer this question,
we decided to reply to it by using one of several personal references
in our possession. The next puzzle was: "Which one?"
We carefully examined each, but could not strike a happy decision
until some one who entered the room happened to make use
of the familiar phrase: "The long and the short of it".
That phrase solved the difficulty for us, and we at once made up our mind
to use two of these references, namely, the shortest and the longest.
The first one is from His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught,
and the second takes the form of a leading article in the `Pretoria News'.
==
Central South African Railways,
High Commissioner's Train.
On February 1, 1906, Mr. Sol Plaatje acted as Interpreter
when I visited the Barolong Native Stadt at Mafeking, and performed his duty
to my entire satisfaction.
(Signed) Arthur.
Mafeking,
February 1, 1906.
==
==
We commence to-day an experiment which will prove a success
if only we can persuade the more rabid negrophobes to adopt
a moderate and sensible attitude. We publish the first of a series of letters
from a native correspondent of considerable education and ability,
his name is Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje. Mr. Plaatje was born
in the district of Boshof, his parents being Barolongs,
coming originally from Thaba Ncho, and trekking eventually to Mafeking.
He attended the Lutheran Mission School at the Pniel Mission Station,
near Barkly West, as a boy, under the Rev. G. E. Westphal;
and at thirteen years he passed the fourth standard, which was as far
as the school could take him. For the next three years he acted
as pupil-teacher, receiving private lessons from the Rev. and Mrs. Westphal.
At the age of sixteen he joined the Cape Government service as letter-carrier
in the Kimberley Post Office. There he studied languages in his spare time,
and passed the Cape Civil Service examination in typewriting,
Dutch and native languages, heading the list of successful candidates
in each subject. Shortly before the war he was transferred to Mafeking
as interpreter, and during the siege was appointed Dutch interpreter
to the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, presided over by Lord Edward Cecil.
The Magistrate's clerks having taken up arms, Mr. Plaatje became
confidential clerk to Mr. C. G. H. Bell, who administered Native affairs
during the siege. Mr. Plaatje drew up weekly reports on the Native situation,
which were greatly valued by the military authorities,
and in a letter written to a friend asserted with some sense of humour
that "this arrangement was so satisfactory that Mr. Bell was created a C.M.G.
at the end of the siege."
Had it not been for the colour bar, Mr. Plaatje, in all probability,
would have been holding an important position in the Department
of Native Affairs; as it was, he entered the ranks of journalism
as Editor, in the first place, of `Koranta ea Becoana', a weekly paper
in English and Sechuana, which was financed by the Chief Silas Molema
and existed for seven years very successfully. At the present moment
Mr. Plaatje is Editor of the `Tsala ea Batho' (The People's Friend)
at Kimberley, which is owned by a native syndicate, having its headquarters
in the Free State. Mr. Plaatje has acted as interpreter
for many distinguished visitors to South Africa, and holds autograph letters
from the Duke of Connaught, Mr. Chamberlain, and other notabilities.
He visited Mr. Abraham Fischer quite lately and obtained from him
a promise to introduce a Bill into Parliament ameliorating the position
of the Natives of the Orange River Colony, who are debarred by law
from receiving titles to landed property. Mr. Plaatje's articles
on native affairs have been marked by the robust common sense and moderation
so characteristic of Mr. Booker Washington. He realizes
the great debt which the Natives owe to the men who brought
civilization to South Africa. He is no agitator or firebrand,
no stirrer-up of bad feeling between black and white. He accepts
the position which the Natives occupy to-day in the body politic
as the natural result of their lack of education and civilization.
He is devoted to his own people, and notes with ever-increasing regret
the lack of understanding and knowledge of those people,
which is so palpable in the vast majority of the letters and leading articles
written on the native question. As an educated Native with liberal ideas
he rather resents the power and authority of the uneducated native chiefs
who govern by virtue of their birth alone, and he writes and speaks
for an entirely new school of native thought. The opinion of such a man
ought to carry weight when native affairs are being discussed.
We have fallen into the habit of discussing and legislating
for the Native without ever stopping for one moment to consider
what the Native himself thinks. No one but a fool will deny
the importance of knowing what the Native thinks before we legislate for him.
It is in the hope of enlightening an otherwise barren controversy
that we shall publish from time to time Mr. Plaatje's letters,
commending them always to the more thoughtful and practical of our readers.
-- `Pretoria News', September, 1910.
==
(The writer of this appreciation, the Editor of the Pretoria evening paper,
was Reuter's war correspondent in the siege of Mafeking.)
(B) Prologue
We have often read books, written by well-known scholars,
who disavow, on behalf of their works, any claim to literary perfection.
How much more necessary, then, that a South African native workingman,
who has never received any secondary training, should in attempting authorship
disclaim, on behalf of his work, any title to literary merit.
Mine is but a sincere narrative of a melancholy situation,
in which, with all its shortcomings, I have endeavoured to describe
the difficulties of the South African Natives under a very strange law,
so as most readily to be understood by the sympathetic reader.
The information contained in the following chapters is the result
of personal observations made by the author in certain districts of
the Transvaal, Orange "Free" State and the Province of the Cape of Good Hope.
In pursuance of this private inquiry, I reached Lady Brand
early in September, 1913, when, my financial resources being exhausted,
I decided to drop the inquiry and return home. But my friend,
Mr. W. Z. Fenyang, of the farm Rietfontein, in the "Free" State,
offered to convey me to the South of Moroka district,
where I saw much of the trouble, and further, he paid my railway fare
from Thaba Ncho back to Kimberley.
In the following November, it was felt that as Mr. Saul Msane,
the organizer for the South African Native National Congress,
was touring the eastern districts of the Transvaal,
and Mr. Dube, the President, was touring the northern districts and Natal,
and as the finances of the Congress did not permit an additional traveller,
no information would be forthcoming in regard to the operation
of the mischievous Act in the Cape Province. So Mr. J. M. Nyokong,
of the farm Maseru, offered to bear part of the expenses if I would undertake
a visit to the Cape. I must add that beyond spending six weeks
on the tour to the Cape, the visit did not cost me much,
for Mr. W. D. Soga, of King Williamstown, very generously
supplemented Mr. Nyokong's offer and accompanied me on a part of the journey.
Besides the information received and the hospitality enjoyed
from these and other friends, the author is indebted, for further information,
to Mr. Attorney Msimang, of Johannesburg. Mr. Msimang toured
some of the Districts, compiled a list of some of the sufferers
from the Natives' Land Act, and learnt the circumstances of their eviction.
His list, however, is not full, its compilation having been undertaken
in May, 1914, when the main exodus of the evicted tenants
to the cities and Protectorates had already taken place,
and when eyewitnesses of the evils of the Act had already fled the country.
But it is useful in showing that the persecution is still continuing,
for, according to this list, a good many families were evicted
a year after the Act was enforced, and many more were at that time
under notice to quit. Mr. Msimang, modestly states in an explanatory note,
that his pamphlet contains "comparatively few instances
of actual cases of hardship under the Natives' Land Act, 1913,
to vindicate the leaders of the South African Native National Congress
from the gross imputation, by the Native Affairs Department,
that they make general allegations of hardships without producing
any specific cases that can bear examination." Mr. Msimang,
who took a number of sworn statements from the sufferers,
adds that "in Natal, for example, all of these instances
have been reported to the Magistrates and the Chief Native Commissioner.
Every time they are told to find themselves other places,
or remain where they are under labour conditions. At Peters and Colworth,
seventy-nine and a hundred families respectively are being ejected
by the Government itself without providing land for them."
Some readers may perhaps think that I have taken the Colonial Parliament
rather severely to task. But to any reader who holds
with Bacon, that "the pencil hath laboured more in describing
the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon," I would say:
"Do, if we dare make the request, and place yourself in our shoes."
If, after a proper declaration of war, you found your kinsmen
driven from pillar to post in the manner that the South African Natives
have been harried and scurried by Act No. 27 of 1913, you would,
though aware that it is part of the fortunes of war, find it difficult
to suppress your hatred of the enemy. Similarly, if you see
your countrymen and countrywomen driven from home, their homes broken up,
with no hopes of redress, on the mandate of a Government
to which they had loyally paid taxation without representation --
driven from their homes, because they do not want to become servants;
and when you know that half of these homeless ones have perforce
submitted to the conditions and accepted service on terms
that are unprofitable to themselves; if you remember
that more would have submitted but for the fact that no master has any use
for a servant with forty head of cattle, or a hundred or more sheep;
and if you further bear in mind that many landowners are anxious
to live at peace with, and to keep your people as tenants,
but that they are debarred from doing so by your Government
which threatens them with a fine of 100 Pounds or six months' imprisonment,
you would, I think, likewise find it very difficult to maintain a level head
or wield a temperate pen.
For instance, let us say, the London County Council decrees
that no man shall rent a room, or hire a house, in the City of London
unless he be a servant in the employ of the landlord, adding that
there shall be a fine of one hundred pounds on any one who attempts
to sell a house to a non-householder; imagine such a thing and its effects,
then you have some approach to an accurate picture of the operation
of the South African Natives' Land Act of 1913. In conclusion,
let me ask the reader's support in our campaign for the repeal of such a law,
and in making this request I pray that none of my readers may live
to find themselves in a position so intolerable.
When the narrative of this book up to Chapter XVIII was completed,
it was felt that an account of life in South Africa,
without a reference to the war or the rebellion would be
but a story half told, and so Chapters XIX-XXV were added.
It will be observed that Chapters XX-XXIV, unlike the rest of the book,
are not the result of the writer's own observations.
The writer is indebted for much of the information in these five chapters
to the Native Press and some Dutch newspapers which his devoted wife
posted to him with every mail. These papers have been
a source of useful information. Of the Dutch newspapers
special thanks are due to `Het Westen' of Potchefstroom,
which has since March 1915 changed its name to `Het Volksblad'.
Most of the Dutch journals, especially in the northern Provinces, take up
the views of English-speaking Dutch townsmen (solicitors and Bank clerks),
and publish them as the opinion of the South African Dutch.
`Het Westen' (now `Het Volksblad'), on the other hand,
interprets the Dutch view, sound, bad or indifferent, exactly as we ourselves
have heard it expressed by Dutchmen at their own farms.
Translations of the Tipperary Chorus into some of the languages
which are spoken by the white and black inhabitants of South Africa
have been used here and there as mottoes; and as this book is a plea
in the main for help against the "South African war of extermination",
it is hoped that admirers of Tommy Atkins will sympathize with
the coloured sufferers, who also sing Tommy Atkins' war songs.
This appeal is not on behalf of the naked hordes of cannibals
who are represented in fantastic pictures displayed
in the shop-windows in Europe, most of them imaginary;
but it is on behalf of five million loyal British subjects who shoulder
"the black man's burden" every day, doing so without looking forward
to any decoration or thanks. "The black man's burden" includes
the faithful performance of all the unskilled and least paying labour
in South Africa, the payment of direct taxation to the various Municipalities,
at the rate of from 1s. to 5s. per mensum per capita (to develop and beautify
the white quarters of the towns while the black quarters remain unattended)
besides taxes to the Provincial and Central Government, varying from
12s. to 3 Pounds 12s. per annum, for the maintenance of Government Schools
from which native children are excluded. In addition to these
native duties and taxes, it is also part of "the black man's burden" to pay
all duties levied from the favoured race. With the increasing difficulty
of finding openings to earn the money for paying these multifarious taxes,
the dumb pack-ox, being inarticulate in the Councils of State,
has no means of making known to its "keeper" that the burden
is straining its back to breaking point.
When Sir John French appealed to the British people for more shells
during Easter week, the Governor-General of South Africa
addressing a fashionable crowd at the City Hall, Johannesburg,
most of whom had never seen the mouth of a mine, congratulated them
on the fact that "under the strain of war and rebellion
the gold industry had been maintained at full pitch,"
and he added that "every ounce of gold was worth many shells
to the Allies." But His Excellency had not a word of encouragement
for the 200,000 subterranean heroes who by day and by night,
for a mere pittance, lay down their limbs and their lives
to the familiar "fall of rock" and who, at deep levels ranging from
1,000 feet to 1,000 yards in the bowels of the earth, sacrifice their lungs
to the rock dust which develops miners' phthisis and pneumonia --
poor reward, but a sacrifice that enables the world's richest gold mines,
in the Johannesburg area alone, to maintain the credit of the Empire
with a weekly output of 750,000 Pounds worth of raw gold.
Surely the appeal of chattels who render service of such great value
deserves the attention of the British people.
Finally, I would say as Professor Du Bois says in his book
`The Souls of Black Folk', on the relations between
the sons of master and man, "I have not glossed over matters
for policy's sake, for I fear we have already gone too far
in that sort of thing. On the other hand I have sincerely sought
to let no unfair exaggerations creep in. I do not doubt
that in some communities conditions are better than those I have indicated;
while I am no less certain that in other communities they are far worse."
Chapter I A Retrospect
I am Black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar,
as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me:
my mother's children were angry with me; they made me
the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
The Song of Songs.
Awaking on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African Native
found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.
The 4,500,000 black South Africans are domiciled as follows:
One and three-quarter millions in Locations and Reserves,
over half a million within municipalities or in urban areas,
and nearly a million as squatters on farms owned by Europeans.
The remainder are employed either on the public roads or railway lines,
or as servants by European farmers, qualifying, that is,
by hard work and saving to start farming on their own account.
A squatter in South Africa is a native who owns some livestock and,
having no land of his own, hires a farm or grazing and ploughing rights
from a landowner, to raise grain for his own use and feed his stock.
Hence, these squatters are hit very hard by an Act which
passed both Houses of Parliament during the session of 1913,
received the signature of the Governor-General on June 16,
was gazetted on June 19, and forthwith came into operation.
It may be here mentioned that on that day Lord Gladstone signed no fewer
than sixteen new Acts of Parliament -- some of them being rather voluminous --
while three days earlier, His Excellency signed another batch of eight,
of which the bulk was beyond the capability of any mortal to read and digest
in four days.
But the great revolutionary change thus wrought by a single stroke of the pen,
in the condition of the Native, was not realized by him
until about the end of June. As a rule many farm tenancies expire
at the end of the half-year, so that in June, 1913, not knowing
that it was impracticable to make fresh contracts, some Natives
unwittingly went to search for new places of abode, which some farmers,
ignorant of the law, quite as unwittingly accorded them.
It was only when they went to register the new tenancies
that the law officers of the Crown laid bare the cruel fact
that to provide a landless Native with accommodation was forbidden
under a penalty of 100 Pounds, or six months' imprisonment.
Then only was the situation realized.
Other Natives who had taken up fresh places on European farms
under verbal contracts, which needed no registration, actually founded
new homes in spite of the law, neither the white farmer nor the native tenant
being aware of the serious penalties they were exposed to
by their verbal contracts.
In justice to the Government, it must be stated that no police officers
scoured the country in search of lawbreakers, to prosecute them
under this law. Had this been done, many 100 Pound cheques
would have passed into the Government coffers during that black July,
the first month after Lord Gladstone affixed his signature
to the Natives' Land Act, No. 27 of 1913.
The complication of this cruel law is made manifest by the fact
that it was found necessary for a high officer of the Government
to tour the Provinces soon after the Act came into force,
with the object of "teaching" Magistrates how to administer it.
A Congress of Magistrates -- a most unusual thing -- was also called
in Pretoria to find a way for carrying out the King's writ
in the face of the difficulties arising from this tangle of the Act.
We may add that nearly all white lawyers in South Africa,
to whom we spoke about this measure, had either not seen the Act at all,
or had not read it carefully, so that in both cases they could not tell
exactly for whose benefit it had been passed. The study of this law
required a much longer time than the lawyers, unless specially briefed,
could devote to it, so that they hardly knew what all the trouble was about.
It was the Native in the four Provinces who knew all about it,
for he had not read it in books but had himself been through its mill,
which like an automatic machine ground him relentlessly
since the end of the month of June. Not the least but one of
the cruellest and most ironical phases -- and nearly every clause of this Act
teems with irony -- is the Schedule or appendix giving the so-called
Scheduled Native Areas; and what are these "Scheduled Native Areas"?
They are the Native Locations which were reserved for the exclusive use
of certain native clans. They are inalienable and cannot be bought or sold,
yet the Act says that in these "Scheduled Native Areas" Natives only
may buy land. The areas being inalienable, not even members of the clans,
for whose benefit the locations are held in trust, can buy land therein.
The areas could only be sold if the whole clan rebelled; in that case
the location would be confiscated. But as long as the clans of the location
remain loyal to the Government, nobody can buy any land within these areas.
Under the respective charters of these areas, not even a member of the clan
can get a separate title as owner in an area -- let alone a native outsider
who had grown up among white people and done all his farming
on white man's land.
If we exclude the arid tracts of Bechuanaland, these Locations
appear to have been granted on such a small scale that each of them
got so overcrowded that much of the population had to go out and settle
on the farms of white farmers through lack of space in the Locations.
Yet a majority of the legislators, although well aware of all
these limitations, and without remedying any of them, legislate,
shall we say, "with its tongue in its cheek" that only Natives may buy land
in Native Locations.
Again, the Locations form but one-eighteenth of the total area of the Union.
Theoretically, then, the 4,500,000 Natives may "buy" land in only
one-eighteenth part of the Union, leaving the remaining seventeen parts
for the one million whites. It is moreover true that, numerically,
the Act was passed by the consent of a majority of both Houses of Parliament,
but it is equally true that it was steam-rolled into the statute book
against the bitterest opposition of the best brains of both Houses.
A most curious aspect of this singular law is that even the Minister,
since deceased, who introduced it, subsequently declared himself against it,
adding that he only forced it through in order to stave off something worse.
Indeed, it is correct to say that Mr. Sauer, who introduced the Bill,
spoke against it repeatedly in the House; he deleted the milder provisions,
inserted more drastic amendments, spoke repeatedly against
his own amendments, then in conclusion he would combat
his own arguments by calling the ministerial steam-roller
to support the Government and vote for the drastic amendments.
The only explanation of the puzzle constituted as such by these
"hot-and-cold" methods is that Mr. Sauer was legislating for an electorate,
at the expense of another section of the population which was without
direct representation in Parliament. None of the non-European races
in the Provinces of Natal, Transvaal and the "Free" State
can exercise the franchise. They have no say in the selection of members
for the Union Parliament. That right is only limited to white men,
so that a large number of the members of Parliament who voted for this measure
have no responsibility towards the black races.
Before reproducing this tyrannical enactment it would perhaps be well
to recapitulate briefly the influences that led up to it.
When the Union of the South African Colonies became
an accomplished fact, a dread was expressed by ex-Republicans
that the liberal native policy of the Cape would supersede
the repressive policy of the old Republics, and they lost no time
in taking definite steps to force down the throats of the Union Legislature,
as it were, laws which the Dutch Presidents of pre-war days,
with the British suzerainty over their heads, did not dare enforce
against the Native people then under them. With the formation of the Union,
the Imperial Government, for reasons which have never been
satisfactorily explained, unreservedly handed over the Natives
to the colonists, and these colonists, as a rule, are dominated
by the Dutch Republican spirit. Thus the suzerainty of Great Britain,
which under the reign of Her late Majesty Victoria, of blessed memory,
was the Natives' only bulwark, has now apparently been withdrawn or relaxed,
and the Republicans, like a lot of bloodhounds long held in the leash,
use the free hand given by the Imperial Government not only to guard against
a possible supersession of Cape ideals of toleration, but to effectively
extend throughout the Union the drastic native policy pursued by the Province
which is misnamed "Free" State, and enforce it with the utmost rigour.
During the first year of the Union, it would seem that General Botha
made an honest attempt to live up to his London promises,
that are mentioned by Mr. Merriman in his speech (reproduced elsewhere)
on the second reading of the Bill in Parliament. It would seem
that General Botha endeavoured to allay British apprehensions and concern
for the welfare of the Native population. In pursuance of this policy
General Botha won the approbation of all Natives by appointing Hon. H. Burton,
a Cape Minister, to the portfolio of Native Affairs. That the appointment
was a happy one, from the native point of view, became manifest
when Mr. Burton signalized the ushering in of Union, by releasing
Chief Dinizulu-ka-Cetywayo, who at that time was undergoing
a sentence of imprisonment imposed by the Natal Supreme Court,
and by the restoration to Dinizulu of his pension of 500 Pounds a year.
Also, in deference to the wishes of the Native Congress,
Mr. Burton abrogated two particularly obnoxious Natal measures,
one legalizing the "Sibalo" system of forced labour, the other prohibiting
public meetings by Natives without the consent of the Government.
These abrogations placed the Natives of Natal in almost the same position
as the Cape Natives though without giving them the franchise.
So, too, when a drastic Squatters' Bill was gazetted early in 1912,
and the recently formed Native National Congress sent a deputation
to interview Mr. Burton in Capetown; after hearing the deputation,
he graciously consented to withdraw the proposed measure,
pending the allotment of new Locations in which Natives evicted
by such a measure could find an asylum. In further deference
to the representations of the Native Congress, in which they were supported
by Senators the Hon. W. P. Schreiner, Colonel Stanford, and Mr. Krogh,
the Union Government gazetted another Bill in January, 1911,
to amend an anomaly which, at that time, was peculiar to the "Free" State:
an anomaly under which a Native can neither purchase nor lease land,
and native landowners in the "Free" State could only sell their land
to the white people.
The gazetted Bill proposed to legalize only in one district
of the Orange "Free" State the sale of landed property by a Native
to another Native as well as to a white man, but it did not propose
to enable Natives to buy land from white men. The object of the Bill
was to remove a hardship, mentioned elsewhere in this sketch,
by which a "Free" State Native was by law debarred from inheriting
landed property left to him under his uncle's will. But against
such small attempts at reform, proposed or carried out by the Union Government
in the interest of the Natives, granted in small instalments of a teaspoonful
at a time -- reforms dictated solely by feelings of justice and equity --
ex-Republicans were furious.
From platform, Press, and pulpit it was suggested that
General Botha's administration was too pro-English and needed overhauling.
The Dutch peasants along the countryside were inflamed by hearing
that their gallant leader desired to Anglicize the country.
Nothing was more repellent to the ideas of the backveld Dutch,
and so at small meetings in the country districts resolutions were passed
stating that the Botha administration had outlived its usefulness.
These resolutions reaching the Press from day to day
had the effect of stirring up the Dutch voters against the Ministry,
and particularly against the head. At this time General Botha's sound policy
began to weaken. He transferred Hon. H. Burton, first Minister of Natives,
to the portfolio of Railways and Harbours, and appointed General Hertzog,
of all people in the world, to the portfolio of Native Affairs.
The good-humoured indulgence of some Dutch and English farmers towards
their native squatters, and the affectionate loyalty of some of these
native squatters in return, will cause a keen observer, arriving at
a South African farm, to be lost in admiration for this mutual good feeling.
He will wonder as to the meaning of the fabled bugbear anent the alleged
struggle between white and black, which in reality appears to exist
only in the fertile brain of the politician. Thus let the new arrival go
to one of the farms in the Bethlehem or Harrismith Districts for example,
and see how willingly the Native toils in the fields; see him
gathering in his crops and handing over the white farmer's share of the crop
to the owner of the land; watch the farmer receiving his tribute
from the native tenants, and see him deliver the first prize
to the native tenant who raised the largest crop during that season;
let him also see both the Natives and the landowning white farmers
following to perfection the give-and-take policy of "live and let live",
and he will conclude that it would be gross sacrilege to attempt to disturb
such harmonious relations between these people of different races and colours.
But with a ruthless hand the Natives' Land Act has succeeded
in remorselessly destroying those happy relations.
First of all, General Hertzog, the new Minister of Native Affairs,
travelled up and down the country lecturing farmers on their folly
in letting ground to the Natives; the racial extremists of his party
hailed him as the right man for the post, for, as his conduct showed them,
he would soon "fix up" the Natives. At one or two places
he was actually welcomed as the future Prime Minister of the Union.
On the other hand, General Botha, who at that time seemed
to have become visibly timid, endeavoured to ingratiate himself
with his discontented supporters by joining his lieutenant
in travelling to and fro, denouncing the Dutch farmers for not
expelling the Natives from their farms and replacing them with poor whites.
This became a regular Ministerial campaign against the Natives,
so that it seemed clear that if any Native could still find a place
in the land, it was not due to the action of the Government.
In his campaign the Premier said other unhappy things which were
diametrically opposed to his London speeches of two years before;
and while the Dutch colonists railed at him for trying to Anglicize
the country, English speakers and writers justly accused him of speaking
with two voices; cartoonists, too, caricatured him as having two heads --
one, they said, for London, and the second one for South Africa.
The uncertain tenure by which Englishmen in the public service
held their posts became the subject of debates in the Union Parliament,
and the employment of Government servants of colour was decidedly precarious.
They were swept out of the Railway and Postal Service
with a strong racial broom, in order to make room for poor whites,
mainly of Dutch descent. Concession after concession
was wrung from the Government by fanatical Dutch postulants for office,
for Government doles and other favours, who, like the daughters of
the horse-leech in the Proverbs of Solomon, continually cried, "Give, give."
By these events we had clearly turned the corner and were pacing backwards
to pre-Union days, going back, back, and still further backward,
to the conditions which prevailed in the old Republics,
and (if a check is not applied) we shall steadily drift back
to the days of the old Dutch East Indian administration.
The Bill which proposed to ameliorate the "Free" State cruelty,
to which reference has been made above, was dropped like a hot potato.
Ministers made some wild and undignified speeches, of which
the following spicy extract, from a speech by the Rt. Hon. Abraham Fischer
to his constituents at Bethlehem, is a typical sample --
"What is it you want?" he asked. "We have passed all the coolie* laws
and we have passed all the Kafir laws. The `Free' State
has been safeguarded and all her colour laws have been adopted by Parliament.
What more can the Government do for you?" And so the Union ship
in this reactionary sea sailed on and on and on, until she struck an iceberg
-- the sudden dismissal of General Hertzog.
--
* A contemptuous South African term for British Indians.
--
To the bitter sorrow of his admirers, General Hertzog,
who is the fearless exponent of Dutch ideals, was relieved of
his portfolios of Justice and Native Affairs -- it was whispered
as a result of a suggestion from London; and then the Dutch extremists,
in consequence of their favourite's dismissal, gave vent to their anger
in the most disagreeable manner. One could infer from their platform speeches
that, from their point of view, scarcely any one else had any rights
in South Africa, and least of all the man with a black skin.
In the face of this, the Government's timidity was almost unendurable.
They played up to the desires of the racial extremists, with the result that
a deadlock overtook the administration. Violent laws like the Immigration Law
(against British Indians and alien Asiatics) and the Natives' Land
were indecently hurried through Parliament to allay
the susceptibilities of "Free" State Republicans. No Minister found time
to undertake such useful legislation as the Coloured People's Occupation Bill,
the Native Disputes Bill, the Marriage Bill, the University Bill, etc., etc.
An apology was demanded from the High Commissioner in London
for delivering himself of sentiments which were felt to be too British
for the palates of his Dutch employers in South Africa, and the Prime Minister
had almost to apologize for having at times so far forgotten himself
as to act more like a Crown Minister than a simple Africander.
"Free" State demands became so persistent that Ministers seemed
to have forgotten the assurances they gave His Majesty's Government in London
regarding the safety of His Majesty's coloured subjects within the Union.
They trampled under foot their own election pledges, made during
the first Union General Election, guaranteeing justice and fair treatment
to the law-abiding Natives.
The campaign, to compass the elimination of the blacks
from the farms, was not at all popular with landowners,
who made huge profits out of the renting of their farms to Natives.
Platform speakers and newspaper writers coined an opprobrious phrase
which designated this letting of farms to Natives as "Kafir-farming",
and attempted to prove that it was almost as immoral as "baby-farming".
But landowners pocketed the annual rents, and showed no inclination
to substitute the less industrious "poor whites" for the more
industrious Natives. Old Baas M----, a typical Dutch landowner
of the "Free" State, having collected his share of the crop of 1912,
addressing a few words of encouragement to his native tenants,
on the subject of expelling the blacks from the farms, said in the Taal:
"How dare any number of men, wearing tall hats and frock coats,
living in Capetown hotels at the expense of other men, order me
to evict my Natives? This is my ground; it cost my money, not Parliament's,
and I will see them banged (barst) before I do it."
It then became evident that the authority of Parliament
would have to be sought to compel the obstinate landowners to
get rid of their Natives. And the compliance of Parliament with this demand
was the greatest Ministerial surrender to the Republican malcontents,
resulting in the introduction and passage of the Natives' Land Act of 1913,
inasmuch as the Act decreed, in the name of His Majesty the King,
that pending the adoption of a report to be made by a commission,
somewhere in the dim and unknown future, it shall be unlawful
for Natives to buy or lease land, except in scheduled native areas.
And under severe pains and penalties they were to be deprived
of the bare human rights of living on the land, except as servants
in the employ of the whites -- rights which were never seriously challenged
under the Republican regime, no matter how politicians raved
against the Natives.
Chapter II The Grim Struggle between Right and Wrong,
and the Latter Carries the Day
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness
which they have prescribed;
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the fruit
from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey,
and that they may rob the fatherless.
Isaiah.
On February 18, 1913, General L. Lemmer, member for Marico, Transvaal,
asked the Minister of Lands: -- (a) How many farms or portions of farms
in the Transvaal Province have during the last three years been registered
in the names of Natives; (b) what is the extent of the land so registered;
and (c) how much was paid for it?
The Minister of Lands replied: (a) 78 farms; (b) 144,416 morgen;
and (c) 94,907 Pounds.
Some very disturbing elements suggest themselves in this question
and in its prompt answer. A question of the kind should have taken
some time to reach Pretoria from the seat of Parliament; more time
to search for and compile the necessary information, and further time
to get the answer to the Table of the House of Assembly in Capetown.
For instance, on March 11 Mr. T. L. Schreiner called for an explanation
in connexion with the same return. He had to ask again on April 1,
the answer in each instance being that the required "information
had been telegraphed for and would be laid on the table when it is available"
(vide Union Hansard, pp. 777 and 1,175). It was only on May 13
-- two months and two days after -- that an answer to Mr. Schreiner's
question of March 11 could be furnished.
Again, on May 20 Mr. Schreiner called for a similar return,
embracing the four Provinces of the Union.* If it were so easy
for General Lemmer to get a reply in regard to the Transvaal,
where most of the registration took place, it should have been
relatively more easy to add the information from the Cape and Natal,
since no registration could have taken place in the Orange "Free" State,
where Natives cannot buy land. But strange to say, all that Mr. Schreiner
could get out of the Minister was a promise to furnish a reply
when it is available, and it does not appear to be on record
that it was ever furnished during that session. Therefore, a Native
cannot be blamed for suspecting that when General Lemmer asked his question,
the return was "cut and dried" and available to be laid on the table
as soon as it was called for.
--
* It does not appear to have occurred to any one to call for a return
showing transfers of land from blacks to whites.
--
Another significant point is that the questioner did not want to know
the extent of land bought by Natives, but of the land
"registered in their names" during the period; and Mr. Schreiner
was able to show later in the session by an analysis of the return
that it mainly comprised land awarded to Native tribes
by the Republican Government, some of it when they conquered the country.
They include farms bought or awarded to Natives as long ago
as the early 60's and 70's, but the owners were not able to obtain titles
as the late Republican Government did not allow Natives to register land
in their own names. They had been held in trust for them
by European friends or missionaries, and it was only during
the last three years that the owners claimed direct titles,
which right was restored to them since the British occupation.
But the Lemmer Return did its fell work. It scared every white man
in the country. They got alarmed to hear that Natives had
during the past three (!) years "bought" land to the extent of 50,000 morgen
per annum.
Thanks to Mr. Schreiner's questions, however, the misleading features
of the statistical scarecrow were revealed -- but, unfortunately too late.
Origin of the Trouble
On February 28, 1913, Mr. J. G. Keyter (a "Free" State member) moved:
That the Government be requested to submit to the House
DURING THE PRESENT SESSION a general Pass and Squatters Bill
to prohibit coloured people (1) from WANDERING ABOUT WITHOUT A PROPER PASS;
(2) from SQUATTING ON FARMS; and (3) from SOWING ON THE SHARE SYSTEM.
Mr. T. P. Brain,* another "Free" Stater, seconded the motion.
--
* This gentleman died during 1913.
--
Mr. P. G. W. Grobler,* a Transvaaler, moved (as an amendment)
to add at the end of the motion: "and further TO TAKE EFFECTIVE MEASURES
TO RESTRICT THE PURCHASE AND LEASE OF LAND BY NATIVES."
--
* Mr. Grobler forfeited his seat when he was convicted of complicity
in the recent rebellion.
--
Mr. Schreiner strongly protested against both the motion and the amendment.
The Minister for Native Affairs* spoke somewhat against Mr. Keyter's motion
but promised to comply with Mr. Grobler's amendment, which promise he redeemed
by introducing a Natives' Land Bill.
--
* Hon. J. W. Sauer, Minister of Native Affairs, died a month after the Bill
became law.
--
Before the Bill was introduced, the Minister made the unprecedented
announcement that the Governor-General had given his assurance
that the Royal Assent would not be withheld from the Natives' Land Bill.
Section 65 of the South African Constitution provides that the King
may disallow an Act of Parliament within twelve months
after the Governor-General signed it. And the abrogation of the Constitution,
as far as this Bill is concerned, literally gave licence
to the political libertines of South Africa; as, being thus freed
from all legislative restraint, they wasted no further time
listening to such trifles as reason and argument.
The following are extracts from the debates on the Natives' Land Bill
as reported in the Union Hansard of 1913.
==
The adjourned debate on the motion for the second reading
of the Natives Land Bill was resumed by
MR. J. X. MERRIMAN (Victoria West). It was with very great reluctance
(the right hon. gentleman said) that he rose to speak on this measure.
It would have been more convenient to have given a silent vote,
but he felt, and he was afraid, that after many years of devoted attention
to this question of the native policy of South Africa, he would not
be doing his duty if he did not give this House -- for what it was worth --
the result of his experience through these years.
He should like to emphasize a brighter side of the question,
and that was to point out that the Natives, if they were well managed,
were an invaluable asset to the people of this country. (Hear, hear.)
Let them take our trade figures and compare them with
the trade figures of the other large British Dominions.
Our figures were surprising when measured by the white population,
but if they took the richest Dominion that there was under the British Crown
outside South Africa, and took the trade value of those figures
per head of the white population, and multiply those figures
by our European population, then they might very well apply
any balance they had to our native population, and then they would see,
strangely enough, that upon that basis it worked out that
the actual trade of three Natives was worth about that of one white man.
That, of course, was a very imperfect way of looking at
the value of these people, because the trade value of some of these Natives
was far greater than the trade value of some of our white people.
He had merely indicated these trade figures to show what an enormous asset
we had in the Natives in that respect. Let them think
what the industry of the Natives had done for us. Who had built our railways,
who had dug our mines, and developed this country as far as it was developed?
Who had been the actual manual worker who had done that? The Native:
the coloured races of this country. We must never forget
that we owed them a debt in that respect -- a debt not often acknowledged
by what we did for them. Proceeding, he said that they ought to think
what they owed to the docility of the Natives, and the wonderfully easy way
in which they had been governed when treated properly. He also paid a tribute
to the honesty of the Natives.
What must strike any one was the fact that though this Bill was really,
to a certain extent, a beginning, or was thought to be in certain quarters,
of a revolution in their dealing with the native races,
it was not even mentioned in the speech of the Governor-General.
It fell upon them like a bolt from the blue. He remembered the afternoon.
They had heard a very impassioned and very heated speech
from the hon. member for Ficksburg on the enormous danger of squatting
in the Free State, and that was the occasion for introducing
a general statement of the policy of the Government towards the Natives
and the introduction of this Bill. He did not think that that was the way
they liked to see a thing of this magnitude approached.
They often heard demands for what was called a general declaration of policy
with regard to native affairs -- a policy which should be applied
to the highest civilized Native, the owner of a farm, and the naked barbarian.
They could not do it. People who demanded a general declaration of that kind
had not had the experience which some of them had had.
The hon. member who spoke before him said that he was in favour
of the underlying principle of the Bill. What was the underlying principle?
The underlying principle was what one read into the Bill.
One hon. member read into it that it was the separation of the two races.
That might have been done when the two races first came in contact
at the Fish River, but it could not be done now. Since then
they had been developing the country with the labour of these people.
They had been advancing by our aid. They had mixed themselves up
with these people in an inextricable fashion and then some said
"Haul your native policy out of the drawer and begin with
a policy of separation." He was sure that the hon. member
who had brought in the Bill had no idea of that sort in his mind.
Another person had the idea that they were going to set up a sort of pale --
a sort of kraal in which they were going to drive these people.
Then another gentleman sneered at the policy hitherto adopted,
and he said that one side said that the policy towards the Natives
should be firm and just, while the other side said that it should be
just and firm.
It seemed to him that they had not got sufficient information.
Beyond the bald statistics which were given by the Minister
in the course of his interesting and moderate speech, they had nothing.
They were going into a thing that would stir South Africa from end to end,
and which affected hundreds of thousands of both races.
They had no information as to what were the ideas of the Natives.
It was unfortunate that, owing to this lack of information,
wrong ideas had got about with regard to this Bill. It was difficult
to find out what the Native thought about these things; he doubted
whether anybody could say that he had got at the mind of the Native.
The only way, and he must say that he did not take it as a real indication,
was what they wrote in their newspapers. He was alarmed, but not surprised,
at some of the articles in their newspapers, because they took their views
from the heated speeches and writings in party newspapers
all over the country, and they were very much alarmed. He thought
that before a Bill of this sort was passed, there should be some attempt made
to get their views. As far as one section was concerned,
the Bill was going to set up a sort of pale -- that there was going to be
a sort of kraal in which all the Natives were to be driven,
and they were to be left to develop on their own lines. To allow them
to go on their own lines was merely to drive them back into barbarism;
their own lines meant barbarous lines; their own lines were cruel lines.
All along they had been bringing them away from their own lines.
It reminded him of what an English writer said about a similar policy
in Ireland, because when the English went to Ireland
they regarded the Native Irish in the way some extreme people here
regarded the Natives of South Africa. They thought they would root them out.
They treated them as dogs, and thought that they were dogs.
They set up a pale. They set the Irish within that pale,
to develop upon their own lines, but there were always Englishmen
living in that pale, just as in the same way they found Europeans
living among Natives. Sir George Davis in describing this policy wrote
that it was the intention of the Government to set up a separation
between English and Irish, intending in time that the English should
root out the Irish. If they changed the Irish for Natives they would see
how the illustration would apply. A policy more foredoomed to failure
in South Africa could not be initiated. It was a policy that
would keep South Africa back, perhaps for ever. (Hear, hear.)
What would be the effect of driving these civilized Natives
back into reserves? At the present time, every civilized man
-- if they treated him properly -- every civilized man
was becoming an owner of land outside native reserve, and therefore
he was an asset of strength to the country. He was a loyalist.
He was not going to risk losing his property. He was on
the side of the European. If they drove these people back into reserve
they became our bitterest enemies. Therefore, he viewed anything
that tended that way with the gravest suspicion. Again, in this Bill
there was not sufficient distinction between those Natives
who tried to educate themselves and the ordinary raw barbarian.
They were all classed under the word "Native".
He came now to what was the main object of the Bill, and that was:
to do away with the squatting evil. Why was there a squatting evil?
Was it the fault of the Native? (An hon. member: No.)
Was it the fault of the law? (No.) They had got the most stringent
laws concerning Natives of all the laws in the whole country,
in the Province of which his hon. friend (Mr. Keyter) was a member.
He did not think anything was more surprising than when they came to look
at the increases in the native population in the Orange Free State.
They had a huge native population in the Cape, and the increase
during the census periods from 1904 to 1911 -- he wanted hon. members
to pay some attention to this, because it showed the value of legislation --
the increase in the Cape Province during that period was 8.33 per cent.
In Natal, which had a huge -- in fact, an overwhelming -- native population,
curiously enough, the increase was the same, even to the actual
decimal figure, viz., 8.33 per cent.: but some allowance must be made,
because a large number of Natives were out at work in the mines.
Now, in the Transvaal -- and in taking the Transvaal figures
these did not apply as regarded squatting, because the increase was mainly due
to the number of Natives employed in the mines. In the Transvaal
the Natives increased by 30.1 per cent. Now, when they came
to his friend's little State, where the most stringent laws were made
to keep out the Natives, how much did they suppose the Natives increased
in the Free State? By no less than 44 per cent. (Opposition cheers.)
Was that the fault of the Natives? No, it was because
-- having the most stringent laws -- the people found it best
to evade those laws. (Hear, hear.) He hoped his hon. friend
would be a little tolerant. Do let him pick the mote out of his own eye
before he tried to pick the beam out of other people's. (Hear, hear.)
In the Free State these laws were very severe; for instance,
punishments -- amazing punishments -- were given, and yet the result
was the increase in five years by 44 per cent. of their native population.
This was something that they should take a warning by. They were going
to do away with the squatter in appearance, but he would still survive
as a labour tenant. They might do away with the labour tenant,
and he would still be surviving as a labour servant. How was the Government
to distinguish between these? They had in the Cape a law which stated
how many labour tenants a man should have upon his farm.
What they wanted in this country was administration and not more legislation,
and if they were to put the laws which they had into force in the Free State
at the present time he had no doubt that there would be a rebellion.
(Hear, hear.) They would have platforms swarming with people
who would say that they could not grow one bag of mealies without the Natives.
But they had the laws to do it. Now they went and tried in this Bill
to make a uniform law. Turning towards the Minister, Mr. Merriman said:
"My poor friend! that after all the years we had laboured together
he of all people should be the author of a uniform law on native matters!
(Laughter.) I say this more in sorrow than in anger -- (laughter) --
because the conditions were totally different in the four Provinces."
In the Free State, proceeded Mr. Merriman, the people had most excellent laws
from their point of view for keeping out the Natives --
stringent, Draconian, and violent laws, but they were not carried out,
and the Natives had flooded the country. All they wanted to do
was to turn the Native from a tenant to a labour tenant, and then salvation
would be at hand. He could not see very much difference between the two,
except that one was a contented advancing man and the other a discontented man
approaching very closely to the Russian serf -- he was a soul.
Shortly we should hear of a farm being up for sale with so many souls.
In the Transvaal the problem had been complicated by
the decisions of the Court and the curious way in which some ground
had been given out in the Zoutpansberg district, where, he was told,
farms had been given out on which the Natives had been living for years,
and these farms -- with the Natives on them -- had come into
the possession of companies and individuals, and now it was proposed
to turn the Natives off. That would not be an agreeable thing,
but he would not offer an opinion now as to the justice of it.
He would like to revert to the state of things which had grown up
under the Draconian laws of the Free State. According to
a very interesting Blue-book containing reports of magistrates,
one magistrate had reported that "the pernicious system of squatting
was detrimental to the working farmer, the Native reaping
the whole of the benefit." The man who worked generally reaped
the whole benefit in the long run. In the Harrismith district
there were some 40,000 Natives against some 8,000 Europeans.
How did they get there? Having been a Free State burgher
he knew that the Natives had not forced their way in.
These Natives ploughed on the half-shares, and he would like to know
whether they were labour tenants or squatters. If they were squatters
it would require very little dexterous management to convert them
into labour tenants. The Magistrate of Hoopstad, went on Mr. Merriman,
had referred to the pernicious system of native squatters.
But why did not the Free State magistrates do something and put the law
in force? That was the principal reason why the House was forced
to pass that Bill without information, and without giving
any opportunity to people who had the deepest interest in this matter
to have their views heard, or to let them know what the House was going to do
because the magistrates in the Free State would not enforce the law.
He did think that was rather hard. In conclusion Mr. Merriman said:
I dare say I may have said a great many things which may be distasteful
to my hon. friends, but I do claim their attention because at a time
when they were not in such a dominant position as they are now,
I pleaded for right and justice for them. Therefore, they should not
take it amiss from me, because now they are in a dominant position,
I plead also for justice, toleration, moderation, and delay in this matter.
MR. H. MENTZ (Zoutpansberg) said the right hon. gentleman
had earned their gratitude for the high tone in which he had carried
the debate. The speech which he had delivered was a most instructive one,
and although the speaker was not in entire agreement with him on all points,
he was in agreement on the point that the matter was one to be handled
with prudence, but it was to be regretted that under the Bill
a Commission was to be appointed. The Minister should not listen
to the request for a postponement of the question, by referring it
to a Select Committee. If they were to refer the Bill to a Select Committee,
it would never be passed this year.
MR. G. L. STEYTLER (Rouxville) expressed his thanks to the Government
for bringing forward the Bill. He said he felt that it was not
a complete solution of the whole question, but it was certainly
a step in the right direction.
MR. A. FAWCUS (Umlazi) said that as the representative of 70,000 Natives
in Natal, not one of whom so far as he knew had a vote, he should like,
on their behalf, to thank the right hon. member for Victoria West
for the manner in which he had handled this question.
In the course of his speech the right hon. gentleman asked,
what did the Natives think about this Bill before the House?
His (Mr. Fawcus') opinion was that the Natives did not think anything at all
about it. He should not think there was one Native in a thousand
in South Africa who was aware that this matter, so vitally affecting
their future, was at present at issue. The hon. member for Middelburg
had referred to the Natives as "schepsels".* He believed
the day was rapidly passing away when we should refer to Natives
as "schepsels". They were an easy-going folk, and they thought little
about title deeds and land laws. So great was the Native's attachment
to the land on which he lived, in many instances, that they could not
rackrent him off it. These were the people that the Bill wished
to dispossess and drive off the land. The figures placed before them
showed that THE LAND HELD BY EUROPEANS PER HEAD WAS FIFTY TIMES THE AMOUNT
HELD PER HEAD BY THE NATIVES. Surely there was no need at the present time
for legislation which would prevent Natives getting a little more land
than they now had. He did not think it could be put down
to the fault of the Native if he was willing to buy and live on land
rather than pay rent. The figures given in this connexion
were very instructive. EIGHT ACRES PER HEAD WERE HELD BY THE NATIVES
IN THE CAPE, SIX ACRES IN NATAL, ABOUT 1 1/2 ACRES in the Transvaal,
and about one-third of an acre in the Free State. He thought this Bill
was perhaps coming on a little before there was any necessity for it.
--
* Creatures.
--
MR. C. G. FICHARDT (Ladybrand) said he felt very much
that the Bill that was before the House did not carry out
all that should be carried out, and that was equality of justice.
IF THEY WERE TO DEAL FAIRLY WITH THE NATIVES OF THIS COUNTRY,
THEN ACCORDING TO POPULATION THEY SHOULD GIVE THEM FOUR-FIFTHS OF THE COUNTRY,
OR AT LEAST A HALF. How were they going to do that? As he said
in the earlier part of his remarks, he was prepared to accept the Bill
as something to go on with, but he hoped that in the future
it would not constitute a stumbling-block. He would much rather have seen
that the matter had been gone into more fully, and that some scheme
had been laid before them so that they might have more readily been able
to judge how the Bill would work. It was because of all these difficulties
that he felt that they could only accept the Bill if it laid down
that there was no intention of taking the country from the white people
and handing it over to the blacks.
MR. J. G. KEYTER (Ficksburg) said he wished to openly denounce, and most
emphatically so, that the people or the Government of the Orange Free State
had treated the coloured people unreasonably or unjustly,
or in any way oppressively. On the contrary, the O.F.S. had always treated
the coloured people with the greatest consideration and the utmost justice.
The O.F.S. had made what Mr. Merriman called stringent laws.
He (Mr. Keyter) called them just laws. They TOLD THE COLOURED PEOPLE PLAINLY
THAT THE O.F.S. WAS A WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY, AND THAT THEY INTENDED
TO KEEP IT SO. (Hear, hear.) THEY TOLD THE COLOURED PEOPLE
THAT THEY WERE NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO BUY OR HIRE LAND,
and that they were not going to tolerate an equality of whites and blacks;
and he said that they were not going to tolerate that in the future,
and if an attempt were made to force that on them, they would resist it
at any cost to the last,* for if they did tolerate it,
they would very soon find that they would be a bastard nation.
His experience was that the Native should be treated firmly,
kept in his place and treated honestly. They should not give him
a gun one day and fight him for it the next day. They should tell him,
as the Free State told him, that IT WAS A WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY,
THAT HE WAS NOT GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO BUY LAND THERE OR TO HIRE LAND THERE,
AND THAT IF HE WANTED TO BE THERE HE MUST BE IN SERVICE.
--
* By passing the Bill, the Government conceded all the extravagant demands
of the "Free" Staters; yet, a year later they took up arms
against the Government.
--
MR. J. A. P. VAN DER MERWE (Vredefort) deprecated sending the Bill
to a Select Committee, arguing that the House itself should decide it.
He referred to the difficulties experienced by farmers in the Free State.
If a farmer refused to allow a Native to farm on the share system
he simply refused to work. There were thousands of Natives on the farms there
who hired ground and did little work. The farmers had to keep their children
at home to do the work. Some of the Natives hired ground, did some sowing,
then went to work in Johannesburg, and paid the owner of the farm
half what he reaped from the harvest. That was not satisfactory.
He was pleased to see the provisions the Minister proposed to make
in this regard, and expressed the hope that the Native
would only be tolerated among the whites as a labourer. The Bill would meet
what he considered a great want, and, as it was an urgent matter,
he hoped the proposal for a Select Committee would not be agreed to.
Third Reading Debate.
SIR LIONEL PHILLIPS (Yeoville): But why should a Bill of this sort
be brought before them now? The Government in the past had not been bashful
in the appointing of Commissions, and one question he would ask was why,
in this important matter, the Government had not appointed a Commission
to take all the evidence and then come to the House with a measure which
the House would have to approve of. Instead of that, they were cancelling
the rights the Natives had in South Africa, and creating a very awkward hiatus
between the time the Commission would be appointed and the time the Commission
could define the areas which would be regarded as white areas and the areas
which would be regarded as native areas. That was the one serious blot
upon this measure.
He could see no justification, except that the hon. Minister,
yielding to pressure from a certain section on that side of the House,
had hastily brought on this measure. He thought from the speeches
made in the House it was the consensus of opinion that Natives
should not have farms in areas that were essentially white,
just as it was desirable that white men should not be found in areas
essentially native. And especially when they told the native population
that they were taking away from them a right they had to-day,
and they were going to substitute that right by appointing a Commission,
they were giving them very little justification for being satisfied
with this measure. He did not think they were going to gain anything
by putting the cart before the horse. He did not know
if Mr. Schreiner was accurate, but he told them that, roughly,
in the Transvaal, where the matter was most acute, the Native population
had bought something like 12,000 or 15,000 morgen of land in twelve years.
That, he thought, showed there was no extreme urgency for the measure.
To that extent he agreed entirely with the hon. member, and he believed
the Minister would be well advised to send the Bill to a Select Committee,
so that many of the details, which were extremely complicated and difficult,
might be thrashed out in that atmosphere, rather than on
the floor of the House. (Opposition cheers.)
MR. E. N. GROBLER (Edenburg) said: The present was one of the best measures
that the Government had so far brought forward, and it appeared clear
that they had a Government which truly represented the wishes of the public.
It was impossible to delay the solution of the Native problem,
and legislation on the subject had for a long time past been asked for.*
At the same time, he did not entirely agree with the methods,
proposed to be applied, and he did not like the system of allocating reserves
for Natives. When once those reserves had been allocated, would it not result
in injury to agriculture and cattle breeding? The farmers would suffer
from lack of labour, and that deficiency would be a growing one.
Neither could he agree to the principle of expropriation of land
belonging to whites in order to increase the size of the native reserves.
He considered the Bill was a complicated one. The matter should be settled
by way of taxation, in the following way. All Natives who
were in the service of whites should be exempted from taxation,
and treated as well as possible, and other Natives should be encouraged
to take similar service. There were enormous reserves where the Natives
could go and live,** and if they refused to go there they should be required
to pay a stiff tax. Then they would go and work for white people.
The hon. member for Tembuland had offered many objections to the Bill.
They should make that hon. member king of Tembuland.
In a country of the blind a man with one eye would be king.
--
* By a "solution of the Native problem", "Free" State farmers generally mean
the re-establishment of slavery.
** It will be observed that these and similar mythological disquisitions
subsequently formed General Botha's assurances to Mr. Harcourt.
See Chapter XVI. But some light is thrown on the subject
of these visionary Native Reserves by Mr. Fawcus' speech
based on official statistics (page 36 [above -- last Fawcus quote]).
--
MR. P. DUNCAN (Fordsburg) said he hoped the Minister would not take
the view of the last speaker. Under the Bill it would be possible
for farmers to accumulate on their land as many Natives as they could get,
so long as they could use them as servants. (Labour cheers.)
So far as he could see, even if it were carried out to the extent
that it was proposed to go, it would not very much reduce the social contact
which at present existed between whites and natives.
SIR W. B. BERRY (Queenstown) said he would like to know why the Minister
had run away from the Bill that had passed the second reading,
and now tabled another Bill in the shape of many amendments.
One would naturally complain that, seeing that they had in that House
a Native Affairs Committee, a non-party committee, specially chosen
to consider all matters relating to native affairs, that Bill,
which was a most important matter and dealt with native affairs from A to Z,
should have been referred to that committee. The same thing
happened last session in reference to a Bill the Minister of Native Affairs
kept on the paper until nearly the end of the session, and the House
had to take the very unusual step almost on the last day of moving
that committee proceedings on that Bill be taken that day six months.
He (Sir W. B. Berry) proposed to move a similar amendment
to the motion now before the House. In the remarks he addressed
when the Bill came up for second reading he had ventured to say
that there was no call for a bill of that nature at all;
there was no need for a Bill revolutionizing the attitude of the Union
with respect to the natives generally. The only clue they could get
to the reason why the Bill was introduced was that a few die-hards
on the other side of the House had given the Minister to understand that
unless he brought in a Bill of that kind, or of a similarly drastic nature,
the position of the Government was in danger. He hoped
some of these die-hards would come forward that evening
and tell them plainly and bluntly why they wanted that Bill,
why they were going to thrust it on the country without any notice,
and why they were calling on the House to revolutionize
the whole tenour and the whole order of things in regard to land matters
as far as the Natives were concerned. Proceeding, the hon. member said
the only justification that had been offered for this Bill was that
a large amount of land had been transferred from Europeans to Natives.
An analysis of the return, however, showed that only sixteen farms
in the Transvaal had been so transferred during the last three years.
Surely that was not any justification why the European people of the Union
should get into a panic and why the administration of the day
were seeking to place on the Statute Book this most drastic legislation.
Another reason why he objected to this Bill was that it purported to appoint
a Commission to investigate to what extent and in what parts and in what time
land should be selected by the Commission for the purpose of being reserved
as additional native areas within the Union. They were not given
any guarantee that the Commission was going to be appointed
nor any guarantee that it would ever report, but at the same time
whilst these indefinite assurances were attempted to be given to the House
there was no getting over this fact, that there was no time limit in the Bill
by which the real enacting clause in the Bill was to have any cessation.
When he spoke on this Bill before he supported it only on the understanding
that a time limit was to be put in, or that it should be an annual Bill.
He said unhesitatingly that the whole tendency of the Bill,
as it stood at the second reading, and more especially as it stood
with the amendments by the Minister on the notice paper,
was to drive the Native peasant off the land. The only refuge
that that Native had was the town.
The country had not been prepared in any way for a Bill of this kind.
A cry had been heard throughout the land against the iniquities
proposed in the Bill. If it had been found absolutely necessary
that legislation of this kind should be introduced, the least
that could be expected was that ample time should be given to the Natives
to thoroughly acquire a knowledge of the contents of the measure.
That opportunity had not been given them, and in this respect
there was a very serious grievance. For the good order and peace of the Union
there was a very great danger ahead. He had understood from those
well versed in native affairs that one of the greatest dangers
that could threaten us was to give the Natives anything
in the shape of a common grievance. Divide and rule had been
a wise precaution in the government of the Natives. When a common grievance
was found by four or five million people one could understand how great
that grievance must be. One amendment the Minister had put on the paper
must give serious pause. The late Minister of Native Affairs
issued to members last session a Squatters Bill. The greatest objection
to that measure, and one which he thought led to its withdrawal,
was that it proposed to remove thousands upon thousands of natives
from land which they had been in the occupation of for scores of years.
It was in consequence of the disturbance which that Bill caused
throughout the Union that it was withdrawn. In one of the amendments
on the paper the present Minister of Native Affairs brought back
in a somewhat clandestine manner the most objectionable feature of the Bill
that was withdrawn.
Mr. Speaker: The amendment is not yet before the House.
SIR W. B. BERRY: What Bill is it then that is to go into Committee?
(Hear, hear.) Is it the Bill which was read a second time
or the Bill comprised in the Minister's amendments? He moved that the House
go into committee on the Bill this day six months.
MR. T. L. SCHREINER (Tembuland), in seconding the amendment,
said that sufficient notice had not been given of the provisions of the Bill,
although the Natives, thanks to the time which had elapsed
since the second reading, were better acquainted with the measure
than they were a little while ago.
Mr. Schreiner proceeded to quote opinions from native newspapers on the Bill.
The `Tsala ea Batho', of Kimberley, said: "We are standing on the brink
of the precipice. We appealed to certain members of Parliament against
the suspension clause in Mr. Sauer's Land Bill, and the result of our appeal
has been an agreement between Sir Thomas Smartt and the Minister
to the effect that the first part of the Bill only be proceeded with.
The effect of this agreement is infinitely worse than the whole Bill.
In its entirety, there were certain saving clauses, one of them
practically excluding the Cape Province from the operation of the Bill.
Under the present agreement, all these clauses are dropped,
and section 1 of the Bill, which prohibits the sale of land
between Europeans and Natives (pending the report of a future Commission)
is applicable to all parts of the Union, including the Cape Province.
Now, then, if this suspension clause becomes law, what is going to happen?
It is simply this: That the whole land policy of the Union of South Africa
is the land policy of the Orange Free State, and it will be as difficult
to abrogate that suspension as it is difficult to recall a bullet,
once fired through some one's head, and resuscitate the victim.
Our object then should be to prevent the pistol being fired off,
as prevention is infinitely better than cure." One paper
that he was quoting from was (Mr. Schreiner went on to say) pleased,
because it believed that this Bill was going to Select Committee.
There was another native paper, published in Natal, which acknowledged
the efforts which the missionaries had made on behalf of the Natives
in regard to this Bill. There was a native paper, published at Dundee,
which said that, if the Bill were in the interests of the Natives,
and the Government were actuated by a sincere regard for them,
they would not have hesitated to publish it broadcast, instead of being
in such haste to push the matter through the House.*
--
* All efforts to induce the South African Government to circulate
translations of the Natives' Land Act among the Natives of the Union
have proved fruitless. -- Author.
--
Mr. Schreiner (continuing) referred to the resolution passed
by the Natal Missionary Conference, and the views expressed
by the Chairman of the Transvaal Missionary Conference in opposition
to the Bill. He mentioned that it had been decided in Johannesburg
to call a meeting of missionary societies throughout the Union,
to determine what action could be taken in case clause 1 was proceeded with.
He had also received a telegram from the Witwatersrand Church Council,
stating that a telegram had been sent to the Minister strongly protesting
against section 1 being enacted before the proposed Commission
had thoroughly investigated the whole question of alternative areas.
Mr. Schreiner urged that, if they proceeded with this Bill,
and passed clause 1 of the old Bill, and appointed a Commission,
these restrictions with regard to purchase and sale, which the Natives
had feared, and which the missionaries, on behalf of the Natives,
feared and protested against, would become a fact. For that reason,
he said they should rather put off the Bill.
Every one was feeling the pressure of their legislative duties. Was this
the time, therefore, for passing a measure of such a far-reaching character,
and where every clause demanded the most careful consideration and scrutiny?
Was it the right thing because he had a majority at his back
for the Minister to say that they must get this Bill through this session?
He held that this was not right. It was not fair to those who had
the solution of the question at heart. (Cheers.)
SIR E. H. WALTON (Port Elizabeth, Central) said he entirely supported
the amendment of the hon. member for Queen's Town. He had a telegram
from a mass meeting of Natives held in Port Elizabeth, in which they hoped
that the House would postpone decision on this question until the Commission
had sat and reported. That seemed to him an entirely reasonable request,
and it seemed all the more necessary that this should be done
on account of the very large alterations that it had been found necessary
to make in the Bill.
They had native protests from all parts of South Africa against this measure,
and when one saw what was proposed in this Act, they could not wonder
at these protests. (Hear, hear.) Therefore he put it that these protests
should receive fair consideration from members on all sides of the House.
Legislation of this kind was unfortunate from the point of view
of the Natives. The more intelligent of the Natives in this country
were asking for time. They said: "You are putting this thing upon us,
give us time to consider it. Allow this Commission to get to work,
allow this Commission to put before us the provisions you are going to make
for us, and when this is done we will submit to anything that is fair."
No man, and the Native was just a man like the rest of us,
liked the old arrangements to be disturbed, because it upset him,
and the Native might oppose it, because he was frightened.
They must admit that they had not given the native leaders and chiefs
an opportunity to come down to Cape Town and give their views.
It was unfortunate that this measure had been more or less rushed.
There was no mention of it in the Governor-General's speech, and therefore
the Natives were not prepared for the consideration of the question.
MR. M. ALEXANDER (Cape Town, Castle) said he was still of opinion
that a very dangerous principle was introduced in the Bill,
especially so far as the Cape was concerned. In the speech
delivered by the Governor-General at the opening of the session
there was not the slightest reference to the present measure,
which apparently had been brought in as an afterthought, and something
must have occurred after the Governor-General's speech was delivered,
otherwise one could not conceive of such an important Bill being omitted
from the speech. As it was the Bill would simply hang things up
until the Commission reported, and now the House would be legislating
in the dark. The vast majority of Natives had declared themselves
to be against the Bill. He had had no desire whatever that party capital
should be made out of the measure -- (hear, hear) -- but he desired
to see a measure which would bear the mark of statesmanship,
and not of panic and hurry. Their Commission could report
before next session, and then in the early stages of the session
a Bill could be introduced and be adopted on its merits.
In the interests of South Africa, in the interests of the Natives,
and in the interests of just legislation let the Government withdraw the Bill,
and appoint a Commission, and then justice and not injustice would be done.
(Hear, hear.)
DR. A. H. WATKINS (Barkly) said that there was a tacit understanding
that the Minister would refer this Bill, if he were not prepared
to accept a purely temporary measure, to a Select Committee.
During the three years of the Union Parliament every matter
practically dealing with Natives had been brought before
the Select Committee on Native Affairs and their opinion had been asked.
For some reason, which it was difficult for him to understand,
the Minister had not seen fit to carry out that course.
Sixteen days had elapsed since the second reading of this Bill was taken
on which the Select Committee could have sat morning after morning
and dealt with the Bill.
The necessity of passing only a temporary measure instead of appearing
to pass a measure which would permanently deal with this question,
was more evident to-night than when they took the second reading.
MR. H. M. MEYLER (Weenen) said that he would support
the motion of Sir Bisset Berry. He thought it would be
a great injustice to the Natives, and especially the Natives of Natal,
who really knew nothing of this measure, to force it through now.
Since the second reading, his attention had been drawn to certain provisions
in this Bill, which made it more dangerous still to hurry legislation,
because he found that, although there was an exemption in the Bill as regarded
agreements lawfully entered into, the vast majority of the agreements
at present in force amongst the Natives of Natal were not strictly lawful,
according to their Statute law. As they had no less than 380,000 Natives
squatting on private lands in Natal, according to the Minister's own figures,
it would be a fatal mistake to do anything to upset these people,
until they had something ready to provide for them instead.
The difficulty was that under the Natal law no oral contract was binding
for more than twelve months, and many of those squatters
had not got oral contracts, but were more or less on sufferance on the farms.
It would be a great danger to pass legislation which would lead to
the moving of a large portion of these people before they got an inch of land
provided for their use. He objected to legislation being brought forward
too hurriedly, and when they had got 4 1/2 millions of Natives, only an
infinitesimal portion of whom could possibly know the nature of the Bill,
and seeing that it affected them as well as the white population,
they had a perfect right to have it explained to them
by the Government officials and let their members of Parliament
for the divisions in which they lived give their opinions on the question.
That would take months, and it was impossible to get a proper
opinion of the Natives until hon. members had been away from the House
for some time. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister admitted
they should stand as the guardians of the Natives, and admitted
that they should go slowly, and he hoped the hon. Minister would be willing
to reconsider the Bill and allow it to be put off, and let them have
an interim report, at any rate, from the Commission, before they were asked
to pass legislation in that matter.
==
The Bill was contested at every stage and numerous divisions were challenged.
In each instance, the Speaker would put the Question, and the "steam-roller"
would go to work with the inevitable result. The division lists ranged
from 17 against 71 to 32 against 60, the majority in each case
being in favour of repression. It would be just as well
to give at least one of these division lists. The English names
in the majority are those of some Natal members (Ministerialists)
or representatives of purely Dutch constituencies: --
DIVISION
Dr. A. H. Watkins (Barkly) called for a division, which was taken
with the following result.
AYES -- 32.
Andrews, William Henry
Baxter, William Duncan
Berry, William Bisset
Blaine, George
Boydell, Thomas
Brown, Daniel Maclaren
Creswell, Frederic Hugh Page
Duncan, Patrick
Fawcus, Alfred
Fitzpatrick, James Percy
Henderson, James
Henwood, Charlie
Hunter, David
Jagger, John William
King, John Gavin
Long, Basil Kellett
Macaulay, Donald
Madeley, Walter Bayley
Meyler, Hugh Mowbray
Nathan, Emile
Oliver, Henry Alfred
Quinn, John William
Rockey, Willie
Runciman, William
Sampson, Henry William
Schreiner, Theophilus Lyndall
Searle, James
Smartt, Thomas William
Walton, Edgar Harris
Watkins, Arnold Hirst
Morris Alexander and J. Hewat tellers.
NOES -- 57.
Alberts, Johannes Joachim
Becker, Heinrich Christian
Bosman, Hendrik Johannes
Botha, Louis
Brain, Thomas Phillip
Burton, Henry
Clayton, Walter Frederick
Cronje, Frederik Reinhardt
Currey, Henry Latham
De Beer, Michiel Johannes
De Jager, Andries Lourens
De Waal, Hendrik
Du Toit, Gert Johan Wilhelm
Geldenhuys, Lourens
Graaff, David Pieter de Villiers
Griffin, William Henry
Grobler, Evert Nicolaas
Grobler, Pieter Gert Wessel
Joubert, Christiaan Johannes Jacobus
Joubert, Jozua Adriaan
Keyter, Jan Garhard
Kuhn, Pieter Gysbert
Lemmer, Lodewyk Arnoldus Slabbert
Maasdorp, Gysbert Henry
Malan, Francois Stephanus
Marais, Johannes Henoch
Marais, Pieter Gerhardus
Merriman, John Xavier
Meyer, Izaak Johannes
Myburgh, Marthinus Wilhelmus
Neethling, Andrew Murray
Neser, Johannes Adriaan
Nicholson, Richard Granville
Oothuisen, Ockert Almero
Orr, Thomas
Rademeyer, Jacobus Michael
Sauer, Jacobus Wilhelmus
Serfontein, Hendrik Philippus
Smuts, Jan Christiaan
Smuts, Tobias
Steyl, Johannes Petrus Gerhardus
Steytler, George Louis
Theron, Hendrik Schalk
Theron, Petrus Jacobus George
Van der Merwe, Johannes Adolph P.
Van der Walt, Jacobus
Van Eeden, Jacobus Willem
Van Heerden, Hercules Christian
Venter, Jan Abraham
Vermaas, Hendrik Cornelius Wilhelmus
Vintcent, Alwyn Ignatius
Vosloo, Johannes Arnoldus
Watt, Thomas
Wilcocks, Carl Theodorus Muller
Wiltshire, Henry
H. Mentz and G. A. Louw, tellers.
Chapter III The Natives' Land Act
I blush to think that His Majesty's representative signed a law like this,
and signed it in such circumstances.
Rev. Amos Burnet
(Chairman and General Superintendent of
the Transvaal and Swazieland District,
Wesleyan Methodist Church).
Up to now we have dealt with the history of the Land Act
from its commencement, and all the speeches and official documents
we have mentioned hitherto say nothing about restricting Europeans
in their ownership of land. And no matter what other principles
one might read into the Act, it would be found that the principles
underlying it were those of extending the "Free" State land laws
throughout the Union -- an extension by which Natives would be prohibited
from investing their earnings in land whereon they could end their days
in peace.
There seems to be good reason for believing that the Government were advised,
by the legal advisers of the Crown, that the Natives' Land Bill
would be class legislation of a kind that would never be allowed
by His Majesty's Government. The originators of the Bill, however,
were determined so to circumvent the constitutional quibble
raised by the legal advisers as to seal our doom; and by adroitly manipulating
its legal phrases, it seems that it was recasted in such a manner
as to give it a semblance of a paper restriction on European encroachment
on native rights. But class legislation the Act is, for whereas
in his travels about South Africa, since the passing of this Act,
the author has met many a native family with their stock,
turned out by the Act upon the roads, he never met one white man so hounded
by the same Act, and debarred from living where he pleased.
The squatters form a particular section of the community specifically affected
by the Land Act; and there is no such person in South Africa
as a white squatter. Although it is insistently affirmed that the law applies
both to Europeans and Natives, the conclusion cannot be avoided that
it is directed exclusively against the Native. This is the naked truth that
turns all other explanations of the fact into mere shuffling and juggling.
And the reader will find that in Section 11, at the end of the statute
which is here reproduced (whether the omission of Europeans
was a mistake of the Parliamentary draftsmen, or the printers, we know not),
it is expressly stated that "this Act may be cited for all purposes
as the NATIVES' Land Act, 1913." Who, then, will continue to argue
that it was intended for Europeans as well?
==
No. 27, 1913.]
ACT
TO
Make further provision as to the purchase and leasing of Land
by Natives and other Persons in the several parts of the Union and for
other purposes in connection with the ownership and occupation of Land
by Natives and other Persons.
Be it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa,
as follows: --
1. (1) From and after the commencement of this Act,
land outside the scheduled native areas shall, until Parliament,
acting upon the report of the commission appointed under this Act,
shall have made other provision, be subjected to the following provisions,
that is to say: --
Except with the approval of the Governor-General --
(a) a native shall not enter into any agreement or transaction
for the purchase, hire, or other acquisition from a person
other than a native, of any such land or of any right thereto,
interest therein, or servitude thereover; and
(b) a person other than a native shall not enter into
any agreement or transaction for the purchase, hire,
or other acquisition from a native of any such land
or of any right thereto, interest therein, or servitude thereover.
(2) From and after the commencement of this Act, no person other than
a native shall purchase, hire or in any other manner whatever acquire any land
in a scheduled native area or enter into any agreement or transaction for
the purchase, hire or other acquisition, direct or indirect, of any such land
or of any right thereto or interest therein or servitude thereover,
except with the approval of the Governor-General.
(3) A statement showing the number of approvals granted
by the Governor-General under sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section
and giving the names and addresses of the persons to whom
such approvals were granted, the reasons for granting the same,
and the situation of the lands in respect of which they were granted,
shall, within six weeks after the commencement of each ordinary session
of Parliament, be laid upon the Tables of both Houses of Parliament.
(4) Every agreement or any other transaction whatever entered into
in contravention of this section shall be null and void ab initio.
2. (1) As soon as may be after the commencement of this Act
the Governor-General shall appoint a commission whose functions shall be
to inquire and report --
(a) what areas should be set apart as areas within which natives
shall not be permitted to acquire or hire land or interests in land;
(b) what areas should be set apart as areas within which
persons other than natives shall not be permitted to acquire or hire
land or interests in land.
The commission shall submit with any such report --
(i) descriptions of the boundaries of any area which it proposes
should be so set apart; and
(ii) a map or maps showing every such area.
(2) The commission shall proceed with and complete its inquiry
and present its reports and recommendations to the Minister
within two years after the commencement of this Act, and may present
INTERIM reports and recommendations: Provided that Parliament
may by resolution extend (if necessary) the time for the completion
of the commission's inquiry. All such reports and recommendations
shall be laid by the Minister, as soon as possible after the receipt thereof,
upon the Tables of both Houses of Parliament.
3. (1) The commission shall consist of not less than five persons,
and if any member of the commission die or resign or, owing to
absence or any other reason, is unable to act, his place shall be filled
by the Governor-General.
(2) The commission may delegate to any of its members
the carrying out of any part of an inquiry which under this Act
it is appointed to hold and may appoint persons to assist it or to act
as assessors thereto or with any members thereof delegated as aforesaid,
and may regulate its own procedure.
(3) The reports and recommendations of the majority of the commission
shall be deemed to be the reports and recommendations of the commission:
Provided that any recommendations of any member who dissents
from the majority of the commission shall, if signed by him,
be included in any such report aforesaid.
(4) The commission or any member thereof or any person acting
as assistant, or assessor, or secretary thereto may enter upon any land
for the purposes of its inquiries and obtain thereon the information necessary
to prosecute the inquiries. The commission shall without fee or other charge
have access to the records and registers relating to land in any public office
or in the office of any divisional council or other local authority.
4. (1) For the purposes of establishing any such area as is described
in section TWO, the Governor-General may, out of moneys which Parliament
may vote for the purpose, acquire any land or interest in land.
(2) In default of agreement with the owners of the land
or the holders of interests therein the provisions of the law in force
in the Province in which such land or interest in land is situate
relating to the expropriation of land for public purposes
shall apply and, if in any Province there be no such law,
the provisions of Proclamation No. 5 of 1902 of the Transvaal
and any amendment thereof shall mutatis mutandis apply.
5. (1) Any person who is a party to any attempted purchase,
sale, hire or lease, or to any agreement or transaction which
is in contravention of this Act or any regulation made thereunder
shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine
not exceeding one hundred pounds or, in default of payment, to imprisonment
with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding six months,
and if the act constituting the offence be a continuing one,
the offender shall be liable to a further fine not exceeding five pounds
for every day which that act continues.
(2) In the event of such an offence being committed by a company,
corporation, or other body of persons (not being a firm or partnership),
every director, secretary, or manager of such company, corporation, or body
who is within the Union shall be liable to prosecution and punishment and,
in the event of any such offence being committed by a firm or partnership,
every member of the firm or partnership who is within the Union
shall be liable to prosecution and punishment.
6. In so far as the occupation by natives of land outside
the scheduled native areas may be affected by this Act, the provisions thereof
shall be construed as being in addition to and not in substitution for any law
in force at the commencement thereof relating to such occupation;
but in the event of a conflict between the provisions of this Act
and the provisions of any such law, the provisions of this Act shall,
save as is specially provided therein, prevail:
Provided that --
(a) nothing in any such law or in this Act shall be construed
as restricting the number of natives who, as farm labourers,
may reside on any farm in the Transvaal;
(b) in any proceedings for a contravention of this Act
the burden of proving that a native is a farm labourer
shall be upon the accused;
(c) until Parliament, acting upon the report of the said commission,
has made other provision, no native resident on any farm
in the Transvaal or Natal shall be liable to penalties
or to be removed from such farm under any law,
if at the commencement of this Act he or the head of his family
is registered for taxation or other purposes
in the department of Native Affairs as being resident on such farm,
nor shall the owner of any such farm be liable to the penalties
imposed by section FIVE in respect of the occupation of the land
by such native; but nothing herein contained shall affect any right
possessed by law by an owner or lessee of a farm to remove
any native therefrom.
7. (1) Chapter XXXIV of the Orange Free State Law Book and Law No. 4 of 1895
of the Orange Free State shall remain of full force and effect,
subject to the modifications and interpretations in this section provided,
and sub-section (1) (a) of the next succeeding section shall not apply
to the Orange Free State.
(2) Those heads of families, with their families, who are described
in article TWENTY of Law No. 4 of 1895 of the Orange Free State
shall in the circumstances described in that article be deemed to fall under
the provisions of Ordinance No. 7 of 1904 of that Province or of any other law
hereafter enacted amending or substituted for that Ordinance.
(3) Whenever in Chapter XXXIV of the Orange Free State Law Book
the expressions "lease" and "leasing" are used, those expressions
shall be construed as including or referring to an agreement or arrangement
whereby a person, in consideration of his being permitted to occupy land,
renders or promises to render to any person a share of the produce thereof,
or any valuable consideration of any kind whatever other than
his own labour or services or the labour or services of any of his family.
8. (1) Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed as, --
(a) preventing the continuation or renewal (until Parliament
acting upon the report of the said commission has made
other provision) of any agreement or arrangement lawfully
entered into and in existence at the commencement of this Act
which is a hiring or leasing of land as defined in this Act; or
(b) invalidating or affecting in any manner whatever
any agreement or any other transaction for the purchase of land
lawfully entered into prior to the commencement of this Act,
or as prohibiting any person from purchasing at any sale
held by order of a competent court any land which was hypothecated
by a mortgage bond passed before the commencement of this Act; or
(c) prohibiting the acquisition at any time of land or interests in land
by devolution or succession on death, whether under
a will or on intestacy; or
(d) preventing the due registration in the proper deeds office
(whenever registration is necessary) of documents giving effect
to any such agreement, transaction, devolution or succession
as is in this section mentioned; or
(e) prohibiting any person from claiming, acquiring,
or holding any such servitude as under Chapter VII,
of the Irrigation and Conservation of Waters Act, 1912,
he is specially entitled to claim, acquire, or hold; or
(f) in any way altering the law in force at the commencement of this Act
relating to the acquisition of rights to minerals,
precious or base metals or precious stones; or
(g) applying to land within the limits in which a municipal council,
town council, town board, village management board,
or health committee or other local authority
exercises jurisdiction; or
(h) applying to land held at the commencement of the Act by any society
carrying on, with the approval of the Governor-General,
educational or missionary work amongst natives; or
(i) prohibiting the acquisition by natives from any person whatever
of land or interests in land in any township lawfully established
prior to the commencement of this Act, provided it is
a condition of the acquisition that no land or interest in land
in such township has at any time been or shall in future be,
transferred except to a native or coloured person; or
(j) permitting the alienation of land or its diversion from
the purposes for which it was set apart if, under section
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN of the South African Act, 1909,
or any other law, such land could not be alienated or so diverted
except under the authority of an Act of Parliament; or
(k) in any way modifying the provisions of any law whereby
mortgages of or charges over land may be created
to secure advances out of public moneys for specific purposes
mentioned in such law and the interest of such advances,
or whereunder the mortgagee or person having the charge
may enter and take possession of the land so mortgaged or charged
except that in any sale of such land in accordance with such law
the provisions of this Act shall be observed.
(2) Nothing in this Act contained which imposes restrictions
upon the acquisition by any person of land or right thereto,
interests therein, or servitudes thereover, shall be in force
in the Province of the Cape of Good Hope, if and for so long
as such person would, by such restrictions, be prevented from
acquiring or holding a qualification whereunder he is or may become
entitled to be registered as a voter at parliamentary elections
in any electoral division in the said Province.
9. The Governor-General may make regulations for preventing
the overcrowding of huts and other dwellings in the stadts,
native villages and settlements and other places in which natives
are congregated in areas not under the jurisdiction of any local authority,
the sanitation of such places and for the maintenance of the health
of the inhabitants thereof.
10. In this Act, unless inconsistent with the context, --
"scheduled native area" shall mean any area described in the Schedule
to this Act;
"native" shall mean any person, male or female, who is a member of
an aboriginal race or tribe of Africa; and shall further include
any company or other body of persons, corporate or unincorporate,
if the persons who have a controlling interest therein are natives;
"interest in land" shall include, in addition to other interest in land,
the interest which a mortgagee of, or person having charge over, land acquires
under a mortgage bond or charge;
"Minister" shall mean the Minister of Native Affairs;
"farm labourer" shall mean a native who resides on a farm and is bona fide,
but not necessarily continuously employed by the owner or lessee thereof
in domestic service or in farming operations:
Provided that --
(a) if such native reside on one farm and is employed
on another farm of the same owner or lessee he shall be deemed
to have resided, and to have been employed, on one and the same farm;
(b) such native shall not be deemed to be bona fide employed
unless he renders ninety days' service at least
in one calendar year on the farm occupied by the owner or lessee
or on another farm of the owner or lessee and no rent is paid
or valuable consideration of any kind, other than service,
is given by him to the owner or lessee in respect of residence
on such farm or farms.
A person shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act
to hire land if, in consideration of his being permitted
to occupy that land or any portion thereof --
(a) he pays or promises to pay to any person a rent in money; or
(b) he renders or promises to render to any person a share of the produce
of that land, or any valuable consideration of any kind whatever
other than his own labour or services or the labour or services
of his family.
11. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Natives' Land Act, 1913.
==
The foregoing result of a legislative jumble is "the law",
and this law, like Alexander the coppersmith, "hath done us much harm".
Mr. Sauer carried his Bill less by reason than by sheer force of numbers,
and partly by promises which he afterwards broke. Among these broken promises
was the definite assurance he gave Parliament that the Bill
would be referred to the Select Committee on Native Affairs,
so that the Natives, who are not represented in Parliament,
their European friends and the Missionary bodies on behalf of the Natives,
could be able at the proper time to appear before this committee and state
any objection which they might have to the Bill. But when that time came,
the Minister flatly refused to refer it to the committee.
This change of front is easily explained, because the weight of evidence
which could have been given before any Parliamentary committee
would have imperilled the passage of the Bill.
As might have been expected, the debate on the Bill created the greatest alarm
amongst the native population, for they had followed its course
with the keenest interest. Nothing short of a declaration of war against them
could have created a similar excitement, although the hope was entertained
in some quarters, that a body of men like the Ministerialists in Parliament
(a majority of whom are never happier than when attesting
the Christian character of their race) would in course of days
attend the Holy Communion, remember the 11th Commandment,
and do unto others as they would that men should do unto them.
Our people, in fact a number of them, said amongst themselves
that even Dutchmen sing Psalms -- all the Psalms, including the 24th;
and, believing as they did that Dutchmen could have no other religion
besides the one recommended in the New Testament and preached by
the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church, were prepared
to commend their safety to the influence of that sweet and peaceable religion.
However, some other Natives, remembering what took place before
the South African war, took a different view of these religious incidents.
Those Natives, especially of the old Republics, knew that
the only dividing fence between the Transvaal Natives and complete slavery
was the London Convention; they, therefore, now that the London Convention
in fact had ceased to exist, had evil forebodings regarding
the average Republican's treatment of the Natives, which was seldom influenced
by religious scruples, and they did not hesitate to express their fears.
Personally we must say that if any one had told us at the beginning of 1913,
that a majority of members of the Union Parliament were capable of passing
a law like the Natives' Land Act, whose object is to prevent the Natives
from ever rising above the position of servants to the whites,
we would have regarded that person as a fit subject for the lunatic asylum.
But the passing of that Act and its operation have rudely
forced the fact upon us that the Union Parliament is capable of producing
any measure that is subversive of native interests; and that
the complete arrest of native progress is the object aimed at
in their efforts to include the Protectorates in their Union.
Thus we think that their sole reason for seeking to incorporate Basutoland,
Swaziland and Bechuanaland is that, when they have definitely eliminated
the Imperial factor from South Africa, as they are unmistakably trying to do,
they may have a million more slaves than if the Protectorates were excluded.
In this connexion, the realization of the prophecy of an old Basuto
became increasingly believable to us. It was to this effect, namely:
"That the Imperial Government, after conquering the Boers,
handed back to them their old Republics, and a nice little present
in the shape of the Cape Colony and Natal -- the two English Colonies.
That the Boers are now ousting the Englishmen from the public service,
and when they have finished with them, they will make a law
declaring it a crime for a Native to live in South Africa,
unless he is a servant in the employ of a Boer, and that from this
it will be just one step to complete slavery." This is being realized,
for to-day we have, extended throughout the Union of South Africa,
a "Free" State law which makes it illegal for Natives
to live on farms except as servants in the employ of Europeans.
There is another "Free" State law, under which no Native
may live in a municipal area or own property in urban localities.
He can only live in town as a servant in the employ of a European.
And if the followers of General Hertzog are permitted
to dragoon the Union Government into enforcing "Free" State ideals
against the Natives of the Union, as they have successfully done
under the Natives' Land Act, it will only be a matter of time
before we have a Natives' Urban Act enforced throughout South Africa.
Then we will have the banner of slavery fully unfurled (of course,
under another name) throughout the length and breadth of the land.
When the Natives' Land Bill was before Parliament, meetings were held
in many villages and locations in protest against the Ministerial surrender
to the Republicans, of which the Bill was the outcome.
At the end of March, 1913, the Native National Congress met in Johannesburg,
and there a deputation was appointed to go to Capetown
and point out to the Government some, at least, of the harm
that would follow legislation of the character mapped out in Parliament
on February 28 when the Land Act was first announced. They were to urge
that such a measure would be exploitation of the cruelest kind, that it
would not only interfere with the economic independence of the Natives,
but would reduce them for ever to a state of serfdom, and degrade them
as nothing has done since slavery was abolished at the Cape.
Missionaries also, and European friends of the Natives, did not sit still.
Resolution after resolution, telegraphic and other representations,
were made to Mr. Sauer, from meetings in various parts of the country,
counselling prudence. Even such societies as the Transvaal Landowners,
who had long been crying for a measure to separate whites from blacks,
and vice versa, urged that the Bill should not be passed during
the same session in which it was introduced, that the country should be given
an opportunity to digest it, in order, if necessary, to suggest amendments.
The Missionary bodies, too, represent a following of Natives
numbering hundreds of thousands of souls, on whose behalf
they pleaded for justice. These bodies urged that before passing a law,
prohibiting the sale and lease of land to Natives, and expelling squatters
from their homes, the Government should provide locations
to which the evicted Natives could go. But all these representations
made no impression upon the Government, who, instead, preferred to act
upon the recommendation of thirteen diminutive petitions
(signed in all by 304 Dutchmen in favour of the Bill)* than to be guided
by the overwhelming weight of public opinion that was against its passage.
Thus it became clear that the Native's position in his own country
was not an enviable one, for once a law was made prohibiting
the sale of landed property to Natives, it would be almost impossible
to get a South African Parliament to amend it.
--
* One of these thirteen petitions had only four signatures,
which was but one better than that of the Tooley Street tailors.
--
The Government, which at the beginning assured Parliament of their
humane intentions, proceeded to delete the mildest clauses of the measure
and to insert some very harsh ones; and almost each time
that the Bill came before the House, one or two fresh drastic clauses
were added. But it is comforting to note that even Parliament
was not entirely satisfied with this, its heroic piece of legislation.
Thus Mr. Meyler of Natal did, as only a lawyer could with a view
to recasting the Bill, some very useful work in pointing out
the possible harm with which the Bill was fraught. We wish that
his clever speeches and observations (much of which have come true),
might yet be sifted out of the big Parliamentary Reports,
and published in a concise little pamphlet.
Sir David Hunter, another member of Natal, expressed himself as follows: --
==
While every one seemed animated with a desire to do what was right and just
to the Natives, there was a feeling that certain of the details of the measure
required amendment. He was more than pleased when the Minister
closed the debate by a speech in which he seemed to be willing to meet
the wishes of those in the House who thought that amendment was required.
He could not have imagined that the Bill would develop into the shape
into which it had developed, and had he known that so great an alteration
would take place in the general effect of the measure
from what was foreshadowed by the hon. Minister when he had made
that interesting speech on the second reading he (the speaker)
could not have conscientiously voted for the second reading.
He would have been better pleased had a resolution been taken
not to bring in a Bill until the Commission had reported.
That was the position he had taken up all through and he would much rather now
that the matter should be dealt with in that way. If, however,
the Bill was to be pressed through there should be guarantees in it
which should allay all suspicion. Anything affecting the native people
required to be done gradually and should be placed before them
a long time before the change took place. He hoped there would yet be
some steps taken to give them a greater sense of security.
To give some idea of the feeling in the minds of the Natives
he read a letter from a gentleman in Natal, largely interested
in the Natives, which had expressed the opinion that the Natives
stood uncompromisingly against any change in their present status
until the Commission had reported. He hoped the hon. Minister
would even yet endeavour to do something to meet their views.
Mr. C. H. Haggar (Roodepoort) said that from the point of those
who had worked successfully in turning the uncivilized man
into the civilized man the Bill was bound to be a failure.
It was necessary not only to have legislation theoretically just,
but also practically right and good. But there were many who felt
that so far from the effect of that Bill being good it would be disastrous
to a very large extent. The great sin which they had been committing
was that they had always been legislating ahead of the people,
and there had not been sufficient preparation for the changes
which were proposed in that Bill; the Natives were not ready for it.
The hon. member for Victoria West had said that there was a disposition
in certain directions to repress the Natives. He (the speaker) believed
that there was a feeling that white men had some divine right
to the labour of the black, that the black people were to be
hewers of wood and drawers of water, and he wanted to say that while men
were obsessed with that feeling they would never be able to legislate fairly.
They had no more divine right to the labour of the black people
than they had to the labour of the white. To his mind the great point was,
should their policy be one of repression or a policy of inspiration?
They had inspired the Natives to a certain extent, but no sooner
had they created an appetite than they had told the Natives
they should go no further. Their policy was the policy of Tantalus.
That Bill would create a feeling of insecurity in the minds of the Natives.
There were those who said that if the Natives would not submit to dictation
they should be wiped out. But that should not be their policy.
They must cease the policy of repression and let it be
one of wide inspiration.
==
But alas! these and similar pleadings had about as much effect
upon the Ministerial steam-roller as the proverbial water on a duck's back.
With a rush the Natives' Land Bill was dispatched from the Lower House
to the Senate, adopted hurriedly by the Senate, returned to the Lower House,
and went at the same pace to Government House, and there receiving
the Governor-General's signature, it immediately became law.
As regards the Governor-General's signature, His Excellency,
if Ministers are to be believed, was ready to sign the Bill
(or rather signified his intention of doing so) long before it was introduced
into Parliament. This excited haste suggests grave misgivings
as to the character of the Bill. Why all the hurry and scurry,
and why the Governor-General's approval in advance? Other Bills
are passed and approved by the Governor, yet they do not come into operation
until some given day -- the beginning of the next calendar year,
or of the next financial year. But the Natives' Land Act
became law and was operating as soon as it could be promulgated.
After desperately protesting, with individual members of Parliament
and with Cabinet Ministers, and getting nothing for their pains,
the delegates from the Native Congress wrote Lord Gladstone,
from an office about two hundred yards distant from Government House,
requesting His Excellency to withhold his assent to the Natives' Land Bill
until the people mostly concerned (i.e. the Natives) had had a chance
of making known to His Majesty the King their objection to the measure.
His Excellency replied that such a course "was not within
his constitutional functions." Thereby the die was cast,
and the mandate went forth that the land laws of the Orange "Free" State,
which is commonly known as "the Only Slave State", shall be
the laws of the whole Union of South Africa. The worst feature in the case
is the fact that, even with the Governments of the late Republics,
the Presidents always had the power to exempt some Natives
from the operation of those laws, and that prerogative had been liberally used
by successive Presidents. Now, however, without a President,
and with the prerogative of the King (by the exercise of which
the evils of such a law could have been averted) disowned by
the King's own Ministers on the spot, God in the heavens alone
knows what will become of the hapless, because voteless, Natives,
who are without a President, "without a King", and with a Governor-General
without constitutional functions, under task-masters whose national traditions
are to enslave the dark races.
Chapter IV One Night with the Fugitives
Es ist unkoeniglich zu weinen -- ach,
Und hier nicht weinen ist unvaeterlich.
Schiller.
"Pray that your flight be not in winter," said Jesus Christ;
but it was only during the winter of 1913 that the full significance
of this New Testament passage was revealed to us. We left Kimberley
by the early morning train during the first week in July,
on a tour of observation regarding the operation of the Natives' Land Act;
and we arrived at Bloemhof, in Transvaal, at about noon.
On the River Diggings there were no actual cases representing
the effects of the Act, but traces of these effects were everywhere manifest.
Some fugitives of the Natives' Land Act had crossed the river in full flight.
The fact that they reached the diggings a fortnight before our visit
would seem to show that while the debates were proceeding in Parliament
some farmers already viewed with eager eyes the impending opportunity
for at once making slaves of their tenants and appropriating their stock;
for, acting on the powers conferred on them by an Act signed
by Lord Gladstone, so lately as June 16, they had during that very week
(probably a couple of days after, and in some cases, it would seem,
a couple of days before the actual signing of the Bill)
approached their tenants with stories about a new Act which makes it criminal
for any one to have black tenants and lawful to have black servants.
Few of these Natives, of course, would object to be servants,
especially if the white man is worth working for, but this is where
the shoe pinches: one of the conditions is that the black man's
(that is the servant's) cattle shall henceforth work for the landlord
free of charge. Then the Natives would decide to leave the farm
rather than make the landlord a present of all their life's savings,
and some of them had passed through the diggings in search of a place
in the Transvaal. But the higher up they went the more gloomy
was their prospect as the news about the new law was now penetrating
every part of the country.
One farmer met a wandering native family in the town of Bloemhof
a week before our visit. He was willing to employ the Native
and many more homeless families as follows: A monthly wage
of 2 Pounds 10s. for each such family, the husband working in the fields,
the wife in the house, with an additional 10s. a month for each son,
and 5s. for each daughter, but on condition that the Native's cattle
were also handed over to work for him. It must be clearly understood,
we are told that the Dutchman added, that occasionally the Native
would have to leave his family at work on the farm, and go out
with his wagon and his oxen to earn money whenever and wherever
he was told to go, in order that the master may be enabled to pay
the stipulated wage. The Natives were at first inclined to laugh at the idea
of working for a master with their families and goods and chattels,
and then to have the additional pleasure of paying their own small wages,
besides bringing money to pay the "Baas" for employing them.
But the Dutchman's serious demeanour told them that his suggestion
was "no joke". He himself had for some time been in need
of a native cattle owner, to assist him as transport rider
between Bloemhof, Mooifontein, London, and other diggings,
in return for the occupation and cultivation of some of his waste lands
in the district, but that was now illegal. He could only "employ" them;
but, as he had no money to pay wages, their cattle would have
to go out and earn it for him. Had they not heard of the law before?
he inquired. Of course they had; in fact that is why they left
the other place, but as they thought that it was but a "Free" State law,
they took the anomalous situation for one of the multifarious aspects
of the freedom of the "Free" State whence they came; they had scarcely thought
that the Transvaal was similarly afflicted.
Needless to say the Natives did not see their way to agree
with such a one-sided bargain. They moved up country, but only to find
the next farmer offering the same terms, however, with a good many more
disturbing details -- and the next farmer and the next --
so that after this native farmer had wandered from farm to farm,
occasionally getting into trouble for travelling with unknown stock,
"across my ground without my permission", and at times
escaping arrest for he knew not what, and further, being abused
for the crimes of having a black skin and no master, he sold some of his stock
along the way, beside losing many which died of cold and starvation;
and after thus having lost much of his substance, he eventually worked his way
back to Bloemhof with the remainder, sold them for anything they could fetch,
and went to work for a digger.
The experience of another native sufferer was similar to the above,
except that instead of working for a digger he sold his stock
for a mere bagatelle, and left with his family by the Johannesburg night train
for an unknown destination. More native families crossed the river
and went inland during the previous week, and as nothing had since
been heard of them, it would seem that they were still wandering somewhere,
and incidentally becoming well versed in the law that was responsible
for their compulsory unsettlement.
Well, we knew that this law was as harsh as its instigators were callous,
and we knew that it would, if passed, render many poor people homeless,
but it must be confessed that we were scarcely prepared
for such a rapid and widespread crash as it caused in the lives of the Natives
in this neighbourhood. We left our luggage the next morning
with the local Mission School teacher, and crossed the river
to find out some more about this wonderful law of extermination.
It was about 10 a.m. when we landed on the south bank of the Vaal River --
the picturesque Vaal River, upon whose banks a hundred miles farther west
we spent the best and happiest days of our boyhood. It was interesting
to walk on one portion of the banks of that beautiful river --
a portion which we had never traversed except as an infant in mother's arms
more than thirty years before. How the subsequent happy days at Barkly West,
so long past, came crowding upon our memory! -- days when
there were no railways, no bridges, and no system of irrigation.
In rainy seasons, which at that time were far more regular and certain,
the river used to overflow its high banks and flood the surrounding valleys
to such an extent, that no punt could carry the wagons across.
Thereby the transport service used to be hung up, and numbers of wagons
would congregate for weeks on both sides of the river
until the floods subsided. At such times the price of fresh milk
used to mount up to 1s. per pint. There being next to no competition,
we boys had a monopoly over the milk trade. We recalled
the number of haversacks full of bottles of milk we youngsters often carried
to those wagons, how we returned with empty bottles and with just
that number of shillings. Mother and our elder brothers
had leather bags full of gold and did not care for the "boy's money";
and unlike the boys of the neighbouring village, having no sisters of our own,
we gave away some of our money to fair cousins, and jingled the rest
in our pockets. We had been told from boyhood that sweets were injurious
to the teeth, and so spurning these delights we had hardly any use for money,
for all we wanted to eat, drink and wear was at hand in plenty.
We could then get six or eight shillings every morning
from the pastime of washing that number of bottles,
filling them with fresh milk and carrying them down to the wagons;
there was always such an abundance of the liquid that
our shepherd's hunting dog could not possibly miss what we took,
for while the flocks were feeding on the luscious buds of the haak-doorns
and the orange-coloured blossoms of the rich mimosa and other wild vegetation
that abounded on the banks of the Vaal River, the cows, similarly engaged,
were gathering more and more milk.
The gods are cruel, and one of their cruellest acts of omission
was that of giving us no hint that in very much less
than a quarter of a century all those hundreds of heads of cattle,
and sheep and horses belonging to the family would vanish
like a morning mist, and that we ourselves would live
to pay 30s. per month for a daily supply of this same precious fluid,
and in very limited quantities. They might have warned us
that Englishmen would agree with Dutchmen to make it unlawful
for black men to keep milch cows of their own on the banks of that river,
and gradually have prepared us for the shock.
Crossing the river from the Transvaal side brings one
into the Province of the Orange "Free" State, in which,
in the adjoining division of Boshof, we were born thirty-six years back.
We remember the name of the farm, but not having been
in this neighbourhood since infancy, we could not tell its whereabouts,
nor could we say whether the present owner was a Dutchman,
his lawyer, or a Hebrew merchant; one thing we do know, however:
it is that even if we had the money and the owner was willing to sell the spot
upon which we first saw the light of day and breathed the pure air of heaven,
the sale would be followed with a fine of one hundred pounds.
The law of the country forbids the sale of land to a Native.
Russia is one of the most abused countries in the world,
but it is extremely doubtful if the statute book of that Empire contains a law
debarring the peasant from purchasing the land whereon he was born,
or from building a home wherein he might end his days.
At this time we felt something rising from our heels along our back,
gripping us in a spasm, as we were cycling along; a needlelike pang, too,
pierced our heart with a sharp thrill. What was it? We remembered
feeling something nearly like it when our father died eighteen years ago;
but at that time our physical organs were fresh and grief was easily
thrown off in tears, but then we lived in a happy South Africa
that was full of pleasant anticipations, and now -- what changes for the worse
have we undergone! For to crown all our calamities, South Africa has by law
ceased to be the home of any of her native children whose skins are dyed
with a pigment that does not conform with the regulation hue.
We are told to forgive our enemies and not to let the sun go down
upon our wrath, so we breathe the prayer that peace may be to the white races,
and that they, including our present persecutors of the Union Parliament,
may never live to find themselves deprived of all occupation and
property rights in their native country as is now the case with the Native.
History does not tell us of any other continent where the Bantu lived
besides Africa, and if this systematic ill-treatment of the Natives
by the colonists is to be the guiding principle of Europe's scramble
for Africa, slavery is our only alternative; for now it is only as serfs
that the Natives are legally entitled to live here. Is it to be thought
that God is using the South African Parliament to hound us
out of our ancestral homes in order to quicken our pace heavenward?
But go from where to heaven? In the beginning, we are told,
God created heaven and earth, and peopled the earth,
for people do not shoot up to heaven from nowhere. They must have had
an earthly home. Enoch, Melchizedek, Elijah, and other saints,
came to heaven from earth. God did not say to the Israelites
in their bondage: "Cheer up, boys; bear it all in good part
for I have bright mansions on high awaiting you all." But he said:
"I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt,
and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters;
for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to bring them
out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land
unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."
And He used Moses to carry out the promise He made to their ancestor Abraham
in Canaan, that "unto thy seed will I give this land." It is to be hoped
that in the Boer churches, entrance to which is barred against coloured people
during divine service, they also read the Pentateuch.
It is doubtful if we ever thought so much on a single bicycle ride
as we did on this journey; however, the sight of a policeman ahead of us
disturbed these meditations and gave place to thoughts of quite another kind,
for -- we had no pass. Dutchmen, Englishmen, Jews, Germans,
and other foreigners may roam the "Free" State without permission --
but not Natives. To us it would mean a fine and imprisonment
to be without a pass. The "pass" law was first instituted
to check the movement of livestock over sparsely populated areas.
In a sense it was a wise provision, in that it served to identify
the livestock which one happened to be driving along the high road,
to prove the bona fides of the driver and his title to the stock.
Although white men still steal large droves of horses in Basutoland
and sell them in Natal or in East Griqualand, they, of course,
are not required to carry any passes. These white horse-thieves,
to escape the clutches of the police, employ Natives
to go and sell the stolen stock and write the passes for these Natives,
forging the names of Magistrates and Justices of the Peace.
Such native thieves in some instances ceasing to be hirelings
in the criminal business, trade on their own, but it is not clear
what purpose it is intended to serve by subjecting native pedestrians
to the degrading requirement of carrying passes when they are not
in charge of any stock.
In a few moments the policeman was before us and we alighted
in presence of the representative of the law, with our feet
on the accursed soil of the district in which we were born.
The policeman stopped. By his looks and his familiar "Dag jong"
we noticed that the policeman was Dutch, and the embodiment of affability.
He spoke and we were glad to notice that he had no intention
of dragging an innocent man to prison. We were many miles
from the nearest police station, and in such a case
one is generally able to gather the real views of the man on patrol,
as distinct from the written code of his office, but our friend
was becoming very companionable. Naturally we asked him about
the operation of the plague law. He was a Transvaaler, he said,
and he knew that Kafirs were inferior beings, but they had rights,
and were always left in undisturbed possession of their property
when Paul Kruger was alive. "The poor devils must be sorry now," he said,
"that they ever sang `God save the Queen' when the British troops
came into the Transvaal, for I have seen, in the course of my duties,
that a Kafir's life nowadays was not worth a ----, and I believe that no man
regretted the change of flags now more than the Kafirs of Transvaal."
This information was superfluous, for personal contact
with the Natives of Transvaal had convinced us of the fact.
They say it is only the criminal who has any reason to rejoice over
the presence of the Union Jack, because in his case the cat-o'-nine-tails,
except for very serious crimes, has been abolished.
"Some of the poor creatures," continued the policeman,
"I knew to be fairly comfortable, if not rich, and they enjoyed
the possession of their stock, living in many instances just like Dutchmen.
Many of these are now being forced to leave their homes.
Cycling along this road you will meet several of them in search of new homes,
and if ever there was a fool's errand, it is that of a Kafir
trying to find a new home for his stock and family just now."
"And what do you think, Baas Officer, must eventually be the lot of a people
under such unfortunate circumstances?" we asked.
"I think," said the policeman, "that it must serve them right.
They had no business to hanker after British rule, to cheat and plot
with the enemies of their Republic for the overthrow of their Government.
Why did they not assist the forces of their Republic during the war
instead of supplying the English with scouts and intelligence?
Oom Paul would not have died of a broken heart and he would still be there
to protect them. Serve them right, I say."
So saying he spurred his horse, which showed a clean pair of hoofs.
He left us rather abruptly, for we were about to ask
why we, too, of Natal and the Cape were suffering, for we,
being originally British subjects, never "cheated and plotted with
the enemies of our Colonies", but he was gone and left us still cogitating
by the roadside.
Proceeding on our journey we next came upon a native trek
and heard the same old story of prosperity on a Dutch farm:
they had raised an average 800 bags of grain each season,
which, with the increase of stock and sale of wool, gave a steady income
of about 150 Pounds per year after the farmer had taken his share.
There were gossipy rumours about somebody having met some one
who said that some one else had overheard a conversation
between the Baas and somebody else, to the effect that the Kafirs
were getting too rich on his property. This much involved tale
incidentally conveys the idea that the Baas was himself getting too rich
on his farm. For the Native provides his own seed, his own cattle,
his own labour for the ploughing, the weeding and the reaping,
and after bagging his grain he calls in the landlord to receive his share,
which is fifty per cent of the entire crop.
All had gone well till the previous week when the Baas came
to the native tenants with the story that a new law had been passed
under which "all my oxen and cows must belong to him, and my family to work
for 2 Pounds a month, failing which he gave me four days to leave the farm."
We passed several farm-houses along the road, where all
appeared pretty tranquil as we went along, until the evening
which we spent in the open country, somewhere near the boundaries
of the Hoopstad and Boshof districts; here a regular circus had gathered.
By a "circus" we mean the meeting of groups of families,
moving to every point of the compass, and all bivouacked at this point
in the open country where we were passing. It was heartrending
to listen to the tales of their cruel experiences derived from
the rigour of the Natives' Land Act. Some of their cattle had perished
on the journey, from poverty and lack of fodder, and the native owners
ran a serious risk of imprisonment for travelling with dying stock.
The experience of one of these evicted tenants is typical of the rest,
and illustrates the cases of several we met in other parts of the country.
Kgobadi, for instance, had received a message describing
the eviction of his father-in-law in the Transvaal Province, without notice,
because he had refused to place his stock, his family, and his person
at the disposal of his former landlord, who now refuses
to let him remain on his farm except on these conditions.
The father-in-law asked that Kgobadi should try and secure a place for him
in the much dreaded "Free" State as the Transvaal had suddenly
become uninhabitable to Natives who cannot become servants;
but "greedy folk hae lang airms", and Kgobadi himself
was proceeding with his family and his belongings in a wagon,
to inform his people-in-law of his own eviction, without notice,
in the "Free" State, for a similar reason to that which sent
his father-in-law adrift. The Baas had exacted from him
the services of himself, his wife and his oxen, for wages of 30s. a month,
whereas Kgobadi had been making over 100 Pounds a year, besides retaining
the services of his wife and of his cattle for himself.
When he refused the extortionate terms the Baas retaliated with a Dutch note,
dated the 30th day of June, 1913, which ordered him to "betake himself
from the farm of the undersigned, by sunset of the same day,
failing which his stock would be seized and impounded,
and himself handed over to the authorities for trespassing on the farm."
A drowning man catches at every straw, and so we were again and again
appealed to for advice by these sorely afflicted people.
To those who were not yet evicted we counselled patience and submission
to the absurd terms, pending an appeal to a higher authority
than the South African Parliament and finally to His Majesty the King who,
we believed, would certainly disapprove of all that we saw on that day
had it been brought to his notice. As for those who were already evicted,
as a Bechuana we could not help thanking God that Bechuanaland
(on the western boundary of this quasi-British Republic) was still
entirely British. In the early days it was the base of David Livingstone's
activities and peaceful mission against the Portuguese and Arab slave trade.
We suggested that they might negotiate the numerous restrictions
against the transfer of cattle from the Western Transvaal and seek an asylum
in Bechuanaland. We wondered what consolation we could give
to these roving wanderers if the whole of Bechuanaland were under
the jurisdiction of the relentless Union Parliament.
It was cold that afternoon as we cycled into the "Free" State from Transvaal,
and towards evening the southern winds rose. A cutting blizzard
raged during the night, and native mothers evicted from their homes
shivered with their babies by their sides. When we saw on that night
the teeth of the little children clattering through the cold,
we thought of our own little ones in their Kimberley home of an evening
after gambolling in their winter frocks with their schoolmates,
and we wondered what these little mites had done that a home should suddenly
become to them a thing of the past.
Kgobadi's goats had been to kid when he trekked from his farm;
but the kids, which in halcyon times represented the interest on his capital,
were now one by one dying as fast as they were born and left by the roadside
for the jackals and vultures to feast upon.
This visitation was not confined to Kgobadi's stock,
Mrs. Kgobadi carried a sick baby when the eviction took place,
and she had to transfer her darling from the cottage to the jolting ox-wagon
in which they left the farm. Two days out the little one began to sink
as the result of privation and exposure on the road, and the night
before we met them its little soul was released from its earthly bonds.
The death of the child added a fresh perplexity to the stricken parents.
They had no right or title to the farm lands through which they trekked:
they must keep to the public roads -- the only places in the country
open to the outcasts if they are possessed of a travelling permit.
The deceased child had to be buried, but where, when, and how?
This young wandering family decided to dig a grave under cover of the darkness
of that night, when no one was looking, and in that crude manner
the dead child was interred -- and interred amid fear and trembling,
as well as the throbs of a torturing anguish, in a stolen grave,
lest the proprietor of the spot, or any of his servants, should surprise them
in the act. Even criminals dropping straight from the gallows
have an undisputed claim to six feet of ground on which to rest
their criminal remains, but under the cruel operation of the Natives' Land Act
little children, whose only crime is that God did not make them white,
are sometimes denied that right in their ancestral home.
Numerous details narrated by these victims of an Act of Parliament
kept us awake all that night, and by next morning we were glad enough
to hear no more of the sickening procedure of extermination
voluntarily instituted by the South African Parliament.
We had spent a hideous night under a bitterly cold sky,
conditions to which hundreds of our unfortunate countrymen and countrywomen
in various parts of the country are condemned by the provisions
of this Parliamentary land plague. At five o'clock in the morning
the cold seemed to redouble its energies; and never before
did we so fully appreciate the Master's saying: "But pray ye that your flight
be not in the winter."
Chapter V Another Night with the Sufferers
Heureux ceux qui sont morts dans le calme des soirs,
Avant ces jours affreux de carnage et de haine!
Ils se sont endormis, le coeur rempli d'espoirs,
Dans un reve d'amour et de concorde humaine!
Ils n'ont pas entendu la sinistre remeur
Qui monte des hameaux consumes par la flamme,
Ni les cris des enfants et des vierges en pleurs,
Ni le gemissement des vieillards et des femmes!
Heureux les morts!
Maurice Kufferath.
We parted sadly from these unfortunate nomads of an ungrateful
and inhospitable country, after advising them to trek from the Union
into the arid deserts of Bechuanaland. In our advice we laid special stress
upon the costliness of such an expedition as theirs and upon
the many and varying regulations to be complied with, on such a trek,
through the Western Transvaal. But, cost whatever it may,
they, like ourselves, understood that as the law stood
they would be better off and safer beyond the boundaries of the Union.
From here we worked our way into the Hoopstad district. There we saw
some Natives who were, as it were, on pins and needles, their landlords
having given them a few days in which to consider the advisability
of either accepting the new conditions or leaving their houses.
Our advice to these tenants was to accept, for the time being,
any terms offered by their landlords, pending an appeal to His Majesty
the King; we also passed through a few farms where the white farmers were
visibly sympathetic towards the harried Natives. Some of the white farmers
were accepting Natives as tenants on their farms in defiance of the law.
We naturally thanked these for their humanity and went our way,
promising never to disclose their magnanimity to the Government officials.
"What has suddenly happened?" one of these landlords asked.
"We were living so nicely with your people, and why should the law
unsettle them in this manner?"
We may here mention that a fortnight later we were in General Botha's
constituency in the Transvaal. A few days before we arrived there
a meeting of white farmers was held at one of the Dutch farm-houses
at which it was resolved to take the fullest advantage of the new law,
which had placed the entire native population in the hands of the farmers.
It was further resolved that a Kafir who refused to become a servant
should at once be consigned to the road.
A similar resolution was passed at another meeting of landlords
at another place. Part of the proceedings of this meeting
was reported in some, though not all, of the Dutch newspapers.
Without breaking our promise not to disclose any names of landlords
who felt it a duty to resist injustice, even though it bears the garb of law,
we will mention Mr. X., a Boer farmer, of the farm ----, near Thingamejig,
between the town of ---- and the river ----. He protested at the meeting,
stating that the Transvaalers were not compelled to turn the Natives out,
and that they were only debarred from taking any new native tenants;
that it was wicked to expel a Kafir from the farm for no reason whatever,
and so make him homeless, since he could not, if evicted, go either
to another farm or back to his old place. For expressing his views so frankly
Mr. X. was threatened by his compatriots with physical violence!
His opponents also said that, if he continued to harbour Kafirs on his farm
as tenants, they would hold him responsible for any stock
that they might lose. The incidents of the meeting were related
to the Natives by Mr. X. himself. He told the Natives, further,
that he would go to the expense of fencing his farm with the Natives inside,
so that they may be out of the reach of his infuriated neighbours.
We spent the next night in some native huts on a farm
in the district of Hoopstad. On that occasion we met a man
who had had a month's notice to leave his farm, and was going
from farm to farm in search of a new place. He had heard
alarming stories about evictions wherever he went. During that evening
we were treated to some more pitiful stories concerning
the atrocities of the wretched land Act. Many native wanderers
had actually passed that farm during the preceding few days,
trudging aimlessly from place to place in search of some farmer
who might give them a shelter. At first they thought
the stories about a new law were inventions or exaggerations,
but their own desperate straits and the prevailing native dislocation
soon taught them otherwise.
The similarity in the experiences of the sufferers would make
monotonous reading if given individually, but there are instances
here and there which give variety to the painful record,
and these should yield the utmost satisfaction to the promoters of the Act,
in proving to them the fell measure of their achievement.
One example of these experiences was that of a white farmer
who had induced a thrifty Native in another district to come and farm
on his estate. The contract was duly executed about the end of May, 1913.
It was agreed that the Native should move over to the new place
after gathering his crops and sharing them with his old landlord,
which he did in the third week in June. On his arrival, however,
the new landlord's attitude towards him aroused his suspicions;
his suspicions were confirmed when, after some hesitation,
the landlord told him that their contract was illegal. Having already
left his old place the legal embargo was also against his return there,
and so his only course was to leave that place and wander about
with his stock and family. They went in the direction of Kroonstad,
and they have not been heard of since.
The next example is that of the oldest man in the "Free" State.
He had been evicted (so we were told during that evening on the farm)
along with his aged wife, his grey-headed children,
the children's children and grandchildren. We may here add that we read
a confirmation of this case in the English weekly newspaper of Harrismith.
The paper's reference to this case will also illustrate the easy manner
in which these outrageous evictions are reported in white newspapers.
There is no reference to the sinister undercurrent and hardships
attending these evictions. The paper in question, the `Harrismith Chronicle',
simply says: --
==
AN ANCIENT COUPLE
A venerable Native whose age is no less than 119 years,
accompanied by his wife, aged 98, and a son who is approaching 80,
left Harrismith on Tuesday by train for Volksrust. The old man
acquired some property in the Transvaal, and is leaving this district
to start a new home with as much interest in the venture
as if he were a stripling of twenty. The old lady had to be carried
to the train, but the old man walked fairly firmly. The aged couple
were the centre of much kindly attraction, and were made
as comfortable as possible for their journey by the railway officials.
It is difficult to realize in these days of rapid change
that in the departure from the "Free" State of this venerable party
we are losing from our midst a man who was born in 1794,
and has lived in no less than three centuries of time.
Good luck to them both; may they still live long and prosper!
==
Now, as a matter of fact, this "ancient couple" had not left the "Free" State
of their own free will. Their stock had been expelled from
their grazing areas, and they were told that they could only continue to graze
if the centenarian tenant agreed to supply a certain number of labourers
to work on the landowner's farm and with his sons ceased to do any ploughing
as tenants. This system of sharing the crops has been followed
ever since the Boers planted themselves in the "Free" State, and the family
had had no other means of support. Happily the aid of Providence
in the case of this "ancient couple" was speedy, as the old people
quickly found an asylum on the farm of Mr. P. ka I. Seme, a native solicitor
in the Transvaal.
At the same place on the same evening we were told of a conversation
between a well-known Dutchman and a Native. "The object of this law,"
said the Burgher, "is to goad the Natives into rebellion,
so that the Government may legally confiscate what little ground
was left to them, and hand over the dispossessed Kafirs and their families
to work for the farmers, just for their food." The policy of
goading the Natives into rebellion is not wholly foreign to Colonial policy;
but the horrible cruelty to which live stock is exposed under the new Act
is altogether a new departure. King Solomon says, "The righteous man
regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked
are cruel"; but there is a Government of professed Bible readers who,
in defiance of all Scriptural precepts, pass a law which penalizes
a section of the community along with their oxen, sheep, goats,
horses and donkeys on account of the colour of their owners.
The penalty clause (Section 5) imposes a fine of 100 Pounds on a landowner
who accommodates a Native on his farm; and if after the fine is paid
the Native leaves his stock on the farm to go and look for a fresh place,
there will be an additional fine of 5 Pounds for every day
that the Native's cattle remain on that farm. They must
take the road immediately and be kept moving day and night
until they die of starvation, or until the owner (who is debarred,
by Section 1, from purchasing a pasturage for his cattle) disposes of them
to a white man.
Such cruelty to dumb animals is as unwarranted as it is unprecedented.
It reads cruel enough on paper, but we wish that the reader had accompanied us
on one journey, say, during the cold snap in the first week in August,
when we travelled from Potchefstroom to Vereeniging,
and seen the flocks of those evicted Natives that we met.
We frequently met those roving pariahs, with their hungry cattle,
and wondered if the animals were not more deserving of pity than their owners.
It may be the cattle's misfortune that they have a black owner,
but it is certainly not their fault, for sheep have no choice
in the selection of a colour for their owners, and no cows or goats
are ever asked to decide if the black boy who milks them shall be their owner,
or but a herd in the employ of a white man; so why should they be starved
on account of the colour of their owners? We knew of a law to prevent cruelty
to animals, but had never thought that we should live to meet in one day
so many dumb creatures making silent appeals to Heaven for protection
against the law. "What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to see",
and oh! if those gifted Parliamentarians could have been mustered here
to witness the wretched results of one of their fine days' work
for a fine day's pay! But "they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne",
then draw their Parliamentary emoluments and retire to the quiet
of their comfortable homes, to enjoy more rest than is due to toilers
who have served both God and humanity.
During this same night in Hoopstad district we were also told of the visit
of a Dutch farmer in the middle of June, 1913, to his native tenants.
One of the Natives -- named Kgabale -- was rather old. His two sons are
delving in the gold mines of Johannesburg, and return home each spring time
to help the old man and their two young sisters to do the ploughing.
The daughters tend the fields and Kgabale looks after the stock.
By this means they have been enabled to lead a respectable life
and to pay the landowner fifty per cent. of the produce every year,
besides the taxes levied by the Government on Natives.
Three weeks before our visit, the farmer came to cancel
Kgabale's verbal contract with him and to turn the family
into unpaid servants, in return for the privilege of squatting on his farm.
As Kgabale himself was too old to work, the farmer demanded of him
that his two sons should return immediately from Johannesburg
to render manual service on his farm, failing which, the old man
should forthwith betake himself from the place. He gave Kgabale seven days
to deliver his two sons.
Naturally this decision came upon Kgabale and his daughters
like a bolt from the blue. The poor old man wandered from place to place,
trying to find some one -- and it took him two days to do so --
who could write, so as to dictate a letter to his sons in Johannesburg,
informing them of what had happened. The week expired before he could get
a reply from Johannesburg. The landlord, in a very abusive mood,
again demanded the instant arrival of his two sons from Johannesburg,
to commence work at the farm-house the very next morning.
Kgabale spent the whole night praying that at least one of his sons
might come. By daybreak next morning no answer had arrived,
and the Dutchman came and set fire to the old man's houses,
and ordered him then and there to quit the farm. It was a sad sight
to see the feeble old man, his aged wife and his daughters
driven in this way from a place which they had regarded as their home.
In the ordinary course, such a calamity could have been made more tolerable
by moving to the next farm and there await the arrival and advice of his sons;
but now, under the Natives' Land Act, no sympathetic landowner
would be permitted to shelter them for a single day. So Kgabale was said
to have gone in the direction of Klerksdorp.
One of the sons arrived a week after the catastrophe. He found
his old home in ruins, and that his aged parents and their children
had become victims of the turpitude of an Act of Parliament.
The son went in search of his relatives across the Vaal,
but it was not known if they succeeded in finding the refuge
which the law had made unlawful.
Among the squatters on the same farm as Kgabale was a widow named Maria.
Her husband in his lifetime had lived as a tenant on the farm,
ploughing in shares until his death. After his death
Maria kept on the contract and made a fair living. Her son and daughter,
aged fourteen and sixteen respectively, took turns at herding her cattle
and assisting the mother in other ways. During the ploughing season,
they hired assistance to till the fields, but they themselves
tended and reaped the harvest and delivered 50 per cent of the produce
to the landowner. Such were the conditions on which she was allowed
to live on the farm. Maria, being a widow, and her son being but a youth,
it was hoped that the landlord would propose reasonable terms for her;
but instead, his proposal was that she should dispose of her stock
and indenture her children to him. This sinister proposal makes it evident
that farmers not only expect Natives to render them free labour,
but they actually wish the Natives to breed slaves for them.
Maria found it difficult to comply with her landlord's demand,
and as she had no husband, from whom labour could be exacted,
the Dutchman ordered her to "clear out, and," he added with an oath,
"you must get another man before you reach your next place of abode,
as the law will not permit you to stay there till you have a man
to work for the Baas." Having given this counsel the landlord is said
to have set fire to Maria's thatched cottage, and as the chilly south-easter
blew the smoke of her burning home towards the north-west, Maria,
with her bedclothes on her head, and on the heads of her son and daughter,
and carrying her three-year-old boy tied to her back,
walked off from the farm, driving her cows before her.
In parting from the endeared associations of their late home,
for one blank and unknown, the children were weeping bitterly.
Nor has any news of the fate of this family been received
since they were forced out on this perilous adventure.
Chapter VI Our Indebtedness to White Women
O woman! in our hours of ease
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.
Scott.
Some farmers (unfortunately too few) who had at first intended
to change the status of their native tenants, had been obliged
to abandon the idea owing to the determined opposition of their wives.
One such case was particularly interesting. Thus, at Dashfontein,
the wife of a Dutch farmer, a Mr. V., on whose property some native families
were squatting, got up, one morning, and found the kitchen-maid
very disagreeable. The morning coffee had been made right enough,
but the maid's "Morre, Nooi" (Good morning, ma'am) was rather sullen
and almost bordering on insolence. She did her scullery work as usual,
but did not seem to care, that morning, about wasting time inquiring
how baby slept, and if Nonnie had got rid of her neuralgia, and so on.
She spoke only when spoken to and answered mainly in monosyllables.
Mrs. V. was perplexed.
"What is the matter, Anna?" she asked.
"Nothing, Nooi," replied Anna curtly.
Mrs. V. tried some of her witty jokes, but they seemed to be wasted on Anna.
After jesting with the servant had failed, scolding was next tried,
but nothing seemed to bring back the girl's usual cheerfulness.
"Oh, Anna," said the mistress at length, "you make me think of the olden days,
when such disagreeable whims on the part of frowning maids
used to be cured by ----"
Anna was evidently not listening, and, if she had heard the mistress,
she did not care two straws (or one straw for that matter) what cures
Mrs. V.'s great-grandmother had prescribed for sullen servant girls.
In fact, Anna had become a wild Kafir, for though she went about her work
in silence, her face bore an expression which seemed to speak louder
than her mouth could have done. She was clearly engaged
in serious thought. The mistress tried to dismiss from her mind
the inexplicable attitude of her servant, but the frowning look on Anna's face
made the attempts unsuccessful. The fact that when Anna went home,
the previous night, she was happiness personified, did not decrease
Mrs. V.'s perplexity.
"There must be something wrong," Mrs. V. concluded, after vainly trying
ruse after ruse to get a smile out of her servant girl. "Something is amiss.
I wonder if one of those well-dressed Kafirs from Potchefstroom
had been prowling about the farm and instilling in Anna's simple mind
all kinds of silly notions, about town flirts and black dandies,
silk dresses in Potchefstroom and similar vuilgoed (rubbish).
And if a town Kafir is going to marry Anna, where on earth am I going to get
a reliable servant to whom I could securely entrust my home when I have
occasion to go to town or to the seaside on a shorter or longer vacation?
Who could cook and attend to my husband's and children's peculiar wants,
if Anna is going to leave us? It seems certain that Anna's heart
is not on the farm," she said to herself. "It was there right enough
when she went home last night, but it is clear that some one has stolen it
during the night. Anna is helplessly lovesick. I must find out who it is.
The swain must be found and induced to come and join, or supervise,
our squatters. We cannot let him take her away, for what will the homestead
be without Anna? I was looking forward to her marrying on the farm
and giving her a superior cottage so that other Kafir girls may see
how profitable it is to be good. Anna leaving the farm, O, nee wat! (Oh, no).
We must find out who it is; but wait, there is old Gert (her father) coming,
with old Jan (her uncle). I must find out from them who had been intruding
into the company of their daughters last night. I should warn them
to be on the alert lest Anna elopes to Potchefstroom with somebody,
probably to take the train and go farther -- to Johannesburg or Kimberley,
as did Klein Mietje, whom I had hoped to train as our housemaid ----"
"Good morning, Auta Gert, how is Mietje and the kleintjes (little ones)?"
Auta Gert's demeanour was a greater puzzle to Mrs. V. than his daughter's
when he replied, "So, so."
Mrs. V. (between horns of the same dilemma): "And you, Auta Jan?"
"Ja, Missus," replied Jan.
Mrs. V.'s perplexity was intense, for it became evident that the two Natives
were there as a deputation, charged with some grave mission.
Before she uttered another word the two Natives asked for an interview.
"Not to waste much time, Missus," began old Gert, "a thunderbolt has burst
on the native settlement on the farm, and Dashfontein is no longer
a home to us ----"
"No longer a home!" exclaimed Mrs. V. "I hope you idiotic Kafirs
are not going to be so foolhardy as to leave me, leave the Baas,
and leave the farm upon which your fathers and mothers lie buried.
Do not you know that during this very week numbers of Natives have been
calling on the Baas, asking him for places of abode, complaining that
they have been turned adrift, with their little ones and their hungry animals,
for refusing to become servants to farmers on whose property
they had been ploughing on shares? White men have suddenly
become brutes and have expelled Natives with whom they have lived
from childhood -- Natives whose labour made the white man wealthy
are turned away by people who should treat them with gratitude.
And are you going to leave your old home just when the Devil
appears to have possessed himself of the hearts of most farmers?
In your own interest, apart from my own and the Baas's, Auta Gert,
you should have left us long ago when you could find a place elsewhere.
Are you so deaf and blind as not to hear and see the change
which has come over the country of late? White men formerly punished a Kafir
who had done some wrong, now they worry him from sheer cussedness.
You must be mad, Auta Gert, to try and leave us. What is going
to become of your family and your beautiful cattle. No wonder that Anna
is so upset. I have been thinking that some rondlooper (vagabond)
from the towns had been trying to take her away."
As Mrs. V. spoke she was agreeably surprised to find the sobering effect
which her rebuke seemed to have upon her husband's native tenants.
She knew her influence over them, especially over the old native families,
but in all her dealings and close association with them she could not remember
an impromptu speech of hers that produced such immediate results.
The faces of the two Natives brightened up, and they kept
looking at one another as she spoke. At length she turned round
towards the stoep and there was Anna, for the first time that morning,
interested in and delighted by what she said. Usually it would have been
a serious breach of the rules of the house for Anna to listen
when the Missus was speaking about something that did not immediately concern
her scullery duties; but Mrs. V.'s satisfaction was unbounded
on seeing the bright look on her servant's face, which she had hitherto
vainly sought.
"Now, you see," said Anna to her father, "I told you it would never happen
if the Missus can help it."
At this, the men could scarcely suppress a laugh. The Missus
looked round again, and said:
"Anna, have you Kafirs plotted to fool me this morning? Because I take
such a deep interest in your welfare, you have so far forgotten yourselves
that you connived with your parents to come over to my house and fool me
on my own farm? What is the meaning of all this?"
Auta Gert unfolded his story. The Baas was at the native settlement
the previous day. He called a meeting of the native peasants and told them
of the new law, under which no Kafir can buy a farm or hire a farm.
He added that, according to this law, their former relations
of landlord and tenants have been made a criminal offence,
for which they could be fined a hundred pounds, and he gave them ten days
to decide whether they would become his servants or leave the farm.
"Go away, Auta Gert; you were dreaming, my husband would never talk
such nonsense. You have been with him from childhood,
long before I ever knew him, and yet you do not know that my husband
is incapable of uttering anything half so wicked?"
"He said it was the law, the new law."
"Of course you need some stringent measures against the useless,
sneaking and prowling loafers, but there is no fear that such laws
could apply to Natives like you and Mietje and your children."
"But, Nooi, the Baas told us to leave the farm as the law
did not permit him to ----"
"Get you gone, Auta Gert, he was joking. You must know that the law
did not buy this farm. The old Baas purchased it from Baas Philander.
I personally helped to add up the number of morgen and to calculate the money,
and there was not a penny piece from any Government. Go home, Auta Gert,
and leave everything to me, and do not let me hear you saying
Dashfontein is no longer your home."
"Well, Nooi," assented the Natives with some relief, "if you say
it is all right, then it must be so, and we will go back and reap our mealies
in peace, and if a policeman comes round demanding a hundred pounds
we will tell him to arrest us and take us to the Nooi of the farm.
Good-bye, Nooi."
"Good-bye, Auta Gert; good-bye, Auta Jan ---- Poor Anna, my dear little maid,
why did you not tell Nooi this morning that you were worried over this matter.
Really, Anna, I was thinking that you were lovesick. How did poor old Mietje
take it? Sadly, did she. Well, I will speak to the Baas about it.
He had no business to attempt to bring bad luck over us
by disturbing our peaceful Natives with such godless tidings.
Tell your mother that Nooi says it will be all right."
A few days later, Hendrik Prins, the farm manager in the employ of Mr. V.,
was due at the native settlement to see the steam sheller at work
and also to receive the landowner's share of the produce. Instead of Prins,
Mr. V. attended in person. Each Native regarded this unusual occurrence
as the signal for their impending eviction and thought that day would see
their last transaction with their old master and landlord.
Mr. V. counted the separate bags filled with mealies and Kafir corn
placed in groups around the sheller. He counted no fewer than 12,300 bags,
and knew that his share would total 6,150, representing about
3,000 Pounds gross. Could he ever succeed in getting so much,
with so little trouble, if poor whites tilled his lands
instead of these Natives? he thought. After all, his dear Johanna was right.
This law is blind and must be resisted. It gives more consideration
to the so-called poor whites (a respectable term for lazy whites),
than to the owners of the ground. He, there and then, resolved to resist it
and take the consequences.
The grain was all threshed; a number of native girls were busy
sewing up the bags, and the engine-driver ordered his men
to yoke his oxen and pull the machine away. Mr. V. ordered Auta Gert
to call all the `volk' together as he had something to tell them.
Auta Gert, knowing the determination of his mistress,
did so in confidence that they were about to receive some glad tidings.
But the other folks came forward with a grievous sense of wrong.
The fact that some Natives on the adjoining property
had been turned away three days before and sent homeless about the country,
their places being taken by others, who, tired of roaming about and losing
nearly everything, had come in as serfs did not allay their fears.
Auta Hans was already conjuring up visions of a Johannesburg speculator
literally "taking" his Cape shorthorns for a mere bagatelle,
as they did to William Ranco, another evicted squatter from Hoopstad.
Mr. V., the farmer, mounted a handy wagon hard by and commenced to address
the crowd of blacks who gathered around the wagon at the call of Gert.
"Attention! Listen," he said. "You will remember that I was here last month
and explained to you the new law. Well, I understand that that explanation
created the greatest amount of unrest amongst the Natives in the huts
on my farm. Personally, I am very sorry that it ever came to that,
but let me tell you that your Nooi, my wife, says it is not right
that the terms under which we have lived in the past should be disturbed.
I agree with her that it is unjust, and that the good Lord,
who has always blessed us, will turn His face from us
if people are unsettled and sent away from the farm in a discontented mood."
(Loud and continued applause, during which Mr. V. took out
his pouch of Magaliesburg tobacco and lit his pipe.) "The Nooi," he continued
after a few puffs, "says we must not obey this law: she even says,
if it comes to physical ejectment, or if they take me to prison,
she is prepared to go to Pretoria in person and interview General Botha."
(More cheers, during which the Natives dispersed to cart away their mealies
amidst general satisfaction.)
* * * * *
The writer visited Dashfontein in July, 1913, when the above narrative
was given him word for word by old Gert.
As old Gert narrated the story, Aunt Mietje, his wife,
who had had timely notice of the impending visit of the morulaganyi (editor)
from her husband (who slaughtered a sheep in honour of the occasion),
superintended with interesting expectations over frizzling items
in the frying-pan on her fireplace. Her bright eyes, beaming from
under her headkerchief, suggested how she must have been
the undisputed belle of her day. The rough wooden table was covered
with the best linen in the native settlement, and on it were laid
some clean plates, and the old yet shining cutlery reserved for
special occasions, besides other signs of an approaching evening meal.
Having learnt the art from an experienced housewife on whose farm
her people were squatting, and improved upon her teaching,
she was famous in the neighbourhood for the excellence of her cooking.
Her only worry in that department was her seeming lack of success
in training her daughters up to her elevation. She is usually sent for
when important visitors come to Dashfontein, and would then don
her best costume of coloured German print, and carry down with her
the spotless apron which Mrs. V. gave her the preceding New Year;
and in spite of her advancing years, she would cause Anna,
and every other upstart at the homestead, instinctively to play
second fiddle to her. And when we suggested that our wife
could measure swords (or, shall we say, forks) with her as a cook,
she giggled and remembered some white man's proverb about
the proof of the pudding being in the eating.
After the harrowing experience of the previous week, during which
we were forced to see our fellow-beings hounded out of their homes,
and the homes broken up; their lifelong earnings frittered away
by a law of the land, their only crime being the atrocious one of having
the same colour of skin as our own, and finding ourselves suddenly landed
on an oasis, the farm of a kind Dutchman and his noble wife,
on whose property, and by whose leave, little black piccaninnies
still played about in spite of the law, it can be readily understood
with what comfort we sat down and did justice to the good things
provided by Aunt Mietje. In the course of her preparation
every step of hers suggested that she entertained no sort of misprised opinion
about her superiority over her compeers; and nothing pleased her better
than when she dazzled her husband and family connexions
with deeds which proved her superiority over her contemporaries,
in everything that tends to make the virtuous and industrious house-wife.
She gave a dramatic ending to her husband's narrative when she said --
"Who would have thought that Hannetje, naughty little Hannetje,
who was so troublesome when my sister used to nurse her --
who would have thought that she would ever prove to be
the salvation of our people? Who ever anticipated that all the strong Boers,
on whom we had relied, would desert us when the fate of our whole tribe
hung in the balance? Natives have been moving from north to south,
and from south to north, all searching at the same time
for homes and grazing for their cattle. During the last few weeks
the roads were hidden in clouds of dust, sent up by
hundreds of hoofs of hundreds of cattle, their owners with them,
vainly seeking places of refuge; but in the case of Dashfontein,
we reclined on a veritable Mount Ararat, by grace of naughty little Hannetje,
whom God in His mysterious foresight had raised up to be Mrs. van V.,
proprietress of Dashfontein. If my prayers are of any value,
God will appoint in heaven a special place for her when she gets there,
though, for the sake of our people, I hope that time is very far distant.
However, I hope to be somewhere near: in truth, I should like
to accompany her, when Elijah's chariot comes for her soul,
so as to render her what little aid I can on board, when she soars
through unknown tracts of space to the spirit world on high,
so that if there be any uncomfortable questions about her maiden vagaries,
I may be there to attest that she has since atoned a hundred fold for each,
and thus accelerate her promotion. No no, Hannetje is not a Boer vrouw,
she is an angel."
Chapter VII Persecution of Coloured Women in the Orange Free State
Ripe persecution, like the plant
Whose nascence Mocha boasted,
Some bitter fruit produced, whose worth
Was never known till roasted.
When the Free State ex-Republicans made use of the South African Constitution
-- a Constitution which Lord Gladstone says is one after the Boer sentiment --
to ruin the coloured population, they should at least
have confined their persecution to the male portion of the blacks
(as is done in a milder manner in the other three Provinces), and have left
the women and children alone. According to this class legislation,
no native woman in the Province of the Orange "Free" State can reside
within a municipality (whether with or without her parents, or her husband)
unless she can produce a permit showing that she is a servant
in the employ of a white person, this permit being signed
by the Town Clerk. All repressive measures under the old Republic
(which, in matters of this kind, always showed a regard
for the suzerainty of Great Britain) were mildly applied.
Now, under the Union, the Republicans are told by the Imperial authorities
that since they are self-governing they have the utmost freedom of action,
including freedom to do wrong, without any fear of Imperial interference.
Of this licence the white inhabitants of the Union are making the fullest use.
Like a mastiff long held in the leash they are urging the application
of all the former stringent measures enacted against the blacks,
and the authorities, in obedience to their electoral supporters,
are enforcing these measures with the utmost rigour against the blacks
because they have no votes.
Hence, whereas the pass regulations were formerly never enforced by the Boers
against clergymen's wives or against the families of respectable
native inhabitants, now a minister's wife has not only to produce a pass
on demand, but, like every woman of colour, she has to pay a shilling
for a fresh pass at the end of the month, so that a family consisting of,
say, a mother and five daughters pay the municipality 6s. every month,
whether as a penalty for the colour of their skins or a penalty for their sex
it is not clear which.
There is some unexplained anomaly in this woman's pass business.
If the writer were to go and live in the "Free" State, he could
apply for and obtain letters of exemption from the ordinary pass laws;
but if his wife, who has had a better schooling and enjoyed
an older civilization than he, were to go and reside in the "Free" State
with her daughters, all of them would be forced to carry passes
on their persons, and be called upon to ransack their skirt pockets
at any time in the public streets at the behest of male policemen
in quest of their passes. Several white men are at present undergoing
long terms of imprisonment inflicted by the Orange "Free" State Circuit Courts
for criminally outraging coloured women whom the pass laws had placed
in the hollow of the hands of these ruffians. Still many more mothers
are smothering evidence of similar outrages upon innocent daughters --
cases that could never have happened under ordinary circumstances.
The Natives of the "Free" State have made all possible constitutional appeals
against these outrages. In reply to their petitions the Provincial Government
blames the municipalities. The latter blame the law and the Union Parliament,
and there the matter ends. We have read the "Free" State law
which empowers the municipalities to frame regulations
for the control of Natives, etc., but it must be confessed
that our limited intelligence could discern nothing in it
which could be construed as imposing any dire penalties
on municipalities which emancipate their coloured women
from the burden of the insidious pass law and tax. Hon. Mr. H. Burton,
as already stated, was Minister for Native Affairs before the Union Government
surrendered to the "Free" State reactionaries. A deputation
consisting of Mrs. A. S. Gabashane, Mrs. Kotsi and Mrs. Louw,
women from Bloemfontein -- the first-named being a clergyman's wife --
waited on him in Capetown on the subject of these grievances,
and he assured them that in response to representations made
by the Native Congress, he had already written to Dr. Ramsbottom,
the Provincial Administrator, asking him to persuade
the "Free" State municipalities to relieve the native women from this burden.
And if to relieve native women in the "Free" State from a burden
which obtains nowhere else in the Union were unlawful,
as the municipalities aver, Mr. Burton -- a K.C. -- would have been
the last person to ask them to break the law.
Subsequently the women petitioned Lady Gladstone for her intercession.
But we wonder if the petition was ever handed to Lady Gladstone
by the responsible authority who, in this instance, would have been
the Department of Native Affairs. Notwithstanding all these efforts,
native women in the "Free" State are still forced to buy passes
every month or go to prison, and they are still exposed
to the indecent provision of the law authorizing male constables
to insult them by day and by night, without distinction.
After exhausting all these constitutional means on behalf of their women,
and witnessing the spread of the trouble to the women and children
of the country districts under the Natives' Land Act, the male Natives
of the municipalities of the Province of the Orange "Free" State
saw their women folk throwing off their shawls and taking the "law"
into their own hands. A crowd of 600 women, in July, 1913,
marched to the Municipal Offices at Bloemfontein and asked
to see the Mayor. He was not in, so they called for the Town Clerk.
The Deputy-Mayor came out, and they deposited before him a bag
containing their passes of the previous month and politely signified
their intention not to buy any more passes. Then there occurred
what `John Bull' would call, "----l with the lid off".
At Jagersfontein there was a similar demonstration, led by
a jet-black Mozambique lady. She and a number of others
were arrested and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
The sentences ranged from about three weeks to three months,
and the fines from 10s. to 3 Pounds. They all refused to pay the fines,
and said their little ones could be entrusted to the care of Providence
till their mothers and sisters have broken the shackles of oppression
by means of passive resistance. As the prison authorities
were scarcely prepared for such a sudden influx of prisoners
there was not sufficient accommodation for fifty-two women,
who were conveyed on donkey carts to the adjoining village of Fauresmith.
When this happened, Winburg, the old capital of the "Free" State,
also had a similar trouble. Eight hundred women marched
from the native location to the Town Hall, singing hymns,
and addressed the authorities. They were tired of making friendly appeals
which bore no fruit from year's end to year's end, so they had resolved,
they said, to carry no more passes, much less to pay a shilling each
per month, PER CAPITA, for passes. A procession of so many women
would attract attention even in Piccadilly, but in a "Free" State dorp
it was a stupendous event, and it made a striking impression.
The result was that many of the women were arrested and sent to prison,
but they all resolutely refused to pay their fines, and there was a rumour
that the Central Government had been appealed to for funds and for material
to fit out a new jail to cope with the difficulty.
This movement served to exasperate the authorities, who rigorously
enforced the law and sent them to jail. The first batch of prisoners
from Bloemfontein were conveyed south to Edenburg; and as further batches
came down from Bloemfontein they had to be retransferred north to Kroonstad.
In the course of our tour in connexion with the Natives' Land Act
in August, 1913, we spent a week-end with the Rev. A. P. Pitso,
of the last-named town. Thirty-four of the women passive resisters were still
incarcerated there, doing hard labour. Mrs. Pitso and Mrs. Michael Petrus
went with us on the Sunday morning to visit the prisoners at the jail.
A severe shock burst upon us, inside the prison walls,
when the matron withdrew the barriers and the emaciated figures
of ladies and young girls of our acquaintance filed out and greeted us.
It was an exceptionally cold week, and our hearts bled to see
young women of Bloemfontein, who had spent all their lives
in the capital and never knew what it was to walk without socks,
walking the chilly cemented floors and the cold and sharp pebbles
without boots. Their own boots and shoes had been taken off,
they told us, and they were, throughout the winter,
forced to perform hard labour barefooted.
Was ever inhumanity more cold-blooded?
Do these "Free" Staters consider their brutality less brutal
because it happens to be sanctioned by law?
Is Heaven so entirely unmindful of our case that it looks on with indifference
when indignity upon indignity is heaped, not only upon our innocent men,
but even upon our inoffensive women?
Tears rolled down our cheeks as we saw the cracks on their bare feet,
the swellings and chronic chilblains, which made them look like sheep
suffering from foot-and-mouth disease. It was torture to us to learn
the kind of punishment to which they were subjected and the nature of the work
they were called upon to perform; these facts were stated to us
in the presence of the prison officials, and they were communicated by us
to the Native Affairs Department merely as a matter of course.
But what must be the effect of this brutal punishment upon girls
who knew only city life? To our surprise, however, they vowed
never to buy passes, even if they had to come back.
A month later, when we visited Bloemfontein, a majority of those
who were at the Kroonstad jail had already returned to their homes,
and the family doctors were doing a roaring trade. Their practice, too,
was most likely to continue to boom as the sufferers were still determined
to buy no more women's passes.
This determination caused a white man to suggest that "instead of being
sent to prison with hard labour, these madcaps should be flogged" --
and this because the women refuse to be outraged by law.
Our visit to Kroonstad took place just after the Circuit Court
had convicted the white superintendent of the Kroonstad Native Location
for an outrage upon a coloured woman. He arrested her in the location
ostensibly because she could not produce her residential pass,
and in the field between the location and the town through which
he had to escort her to prison he perpetrated the atrocity.
In sentencing him to four years' hard labour, the Chief Justice said
for a similar crime upon a white woman a black man would be liable
to the death penalty.
When General Botha assumed the portfolio of Native Affairs
at the time of this trouble, the writer, as General Secretary of the Congress,
telegraphed to him the greetings of the South African Native Congress,
and pointed out to him that over two hundred coloured women were at that time
languishing in jail for resenting a crime committed upon them,
a crime which would have been considered serious in any other place
outside the "Free" State. The chivalrous General replied in a Dutch telegram
containing this very courteous reply: "It shall be my endeavour, as hitherto,
to safeguard the just interests of the inhabitants of this land
irrespective of colour."
General Botha's assurances are so sweet, especially when they are made
to persons who are not in a position to influence his electoral support.
The Natives, who know the "sweets" of these assurances cannot be blamed if
they analyse the Premier's assurances in the light of their past experience,
especially the phrase "as hitherto". To them it conveys but one idea, namely,
"If the future policy of the South African Government found it convenient
to send coloured women to prison in order to please the ruling whites,
they will, AS HITHERTO, not hesitate to do so."
While on the subject of native women, it is deeply to be regretted that during
this year, while the Empire is waging a terrible war for the cause of liberty,
His Excellency the Governor-General in South Africa should have seen his way
to issue a Basutoland Proclamation -- No. 3 of 1915. This law decrees
that under certain penalties, no native woman will be permitted
to leave Basutoland "without the permission of her husband or guardian".
The Proclamation on the face of it may look comparatively harmless,
but its operation will have wide and painful ramifications
amounting to no less than an entrenchment of the evils embraced
in polygamy; and in carrying out this decree civilization
will have to join hands with barbarism to perpetuate the bondage,
and accentuate the degradation, of Basuto women.
It is a fact that no respectable Mosuto woman wants to leave
her husband or guardian; but the economic conditions of to-day
press very heavily on polygamous wives. Their lord and master
finding himself no longer able to provide for half a dozen houses at a time,
bestows on them the burden and anxieties of wifehood without its joys,
namely, a husband's undivided care and the comforts due to wives
in monogamous marriages.
Some of these polygamous wives have from time to time
sought relief in emigrating to European centres where they could
earn their own living and send food and raiment to their little ones.
A woman cannot always be blamed for having entered into
a polygamous marriage. More often than not, she did so in obedience
to the wishes of her aged parents. The old people, in many instances,
have judged present day economics from the standard of their own happy days
when there was plenty of land and rainfalls were more regular;
when the several wives and children of a rich cattle-owner
could always have enough grain, eat meat, drink milk and live happily.
But times are altered and even a monogamist finds the requirements of one wife
quite a stupendous handful. The country is so congested
that the little arable land left them yields hardly any produce.
I have seen it suggested in official documents that sheep-breeding
should be limited in Basutoland as there is not enough grazing for the flocks.
And under this economic stress these surplus wives are sometimes driven
to accept the overtures of unscrupulous men who gradually induce them
to wallow in sin; hence too, they give birth to an inferior type of Basuto.
That such a law should be adopted during the reign of Chief Griffith,
their first Christian Chief and the first monogamist
who ever ruled the Basuto, is disappointing. And while
we resent the policy of the British authorities in the Union,
who promote the interests of the whites by repressing the blacks,
we shall likewise object to an attempt on the part of the same authorities
in the native territories to protect the comfort of black men by degrading
black women. God knows that the lot of the black woman in South Africa
is bad as it is. One has but to read the report of the Commission recently
appointed by the Union Government to inquire into cases of assault on women
to find that their condition is getting worse. Presumably the evidence
was too bad for publication, but the report would seem to show
that in South Africa, a country where prostitution was formerly unknown,
coloured women are gradually perverted and demoralized into a cesspool
for the impurities of the family lives of all the nationalities
in the sub-continent.
In her primitive state, the native girl was protected against
seduction and moral ruin by drastic penalties against the seducer,
which safeguards have since the introduction of civilized rule
been done away with. With tribes just groping their way
from barbarism towards civilization natural hygienic and moral laws
have been trampled upon, and for this state of affairs
the white man's rule is not wholly free from blame. It should be a crime
to defile a potential mother and a woman should continue to be regarded
as the cradle of the race and her person remain sacred and inviolate
under the law, as was the case in former times.
The only charge that could be brought up against primitive native socialism
was that by tolerating polygamy it had incidentally legalized concubinage;
but taking all circumstances into consideration, it is doubtful
if the systematic prostitution of to-day is a happy substitution
for the polygamy of the past.
There were no mothers of unwanted babies; no orphanages, because there were
no stray children; the absence of extreme wealth and dire poverty
prevented destitution, and the Natives had little or no insanity;
they had no cancer or syphilis, and no venereal diseases
because they had no prostitutes.
Have we not a right to expect a better state of affairs
under civilized European rule?
It is apparently in revolt of similar horrible conditions
that when the war broke out, British and Continental women
were fighting for the vote with a view to liberating their sex and race
from kindred impurities, for the soul rises up in "divine discontent"
against a state of affairs which no nation should tolerate -- evils to which
the coloured women of South Africa are now a prey.
To this kind of degeneracy may also be traced the undoing
of the finer elements of the native social system, the undermining
of their health and of the erstwhile splendid physique of the African race
and the increasing loss of the stamina of our proverbially magnificent
men and women. The effect of these evils and of the abuses
inherent to the liquor traffic is manifest in several of the tribes
who are to-day but shadows of their former selves.
The safeguarding of our maidens and women folk from the evils of drink,
greed and outrages resulting from indefensible pass laws
and the elimination of bad habits among men by a rightful policy
will restore that efficiency, loyalty, and contentment which aforetime
were the boast of pioneer administrators in British South Africa,
and which if fostered will render them a magnificent asset to the Empire
for all time.
But as often as the coloured woman has been attacked she has humbly presented
"the other cheek". Evidence of her characteristic humility
is to be found in the action of the coloured women of the "Free" State,
whose persecution by the South African Government, at the instance of certain
"Free" State Municipalities, prompted the writing of this chapter.
After the war broke out (the Bloemfontein `Friend' tells us)
the native women of that city forgot their own difficulties,
joined sewing classes, and helped to send clothing to the afflicted Belgians
in Europe. Surely such useful members of the community deserve
the sympathy of every right-minded person who has a voice
in the conduct of British Colonial administration; so let us hope
that this humble appeal on their behalf will not be in vain.
Chapter VIII At Thaba Ncho: A Secretarial Fiasco
Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.
Burns.
The beginning of September, 1913, found us in the Lady Brand district.
Besides numerous other sufferers of the land plague,
the writer was here informed of one case that was particularly distressing,
of a native couple evicted from a farm in the adjoining district.
After making a fruitless search for a new place of abode,
they took out a travelling pass to go to Basutoland with their stock.
But they never, so the story went, reached their destination.
We were told that they were ambushed by some Dutchmen,
who shot them down and appropriated their stock. To a stranger
the news would have been incredible, but, being a Free Stater born,
it sounded to us uncommonly like the occurrences that our parents said
they used to witness in the early days of that precious dependency.
We were further told that one of the Dutch murderers
had been arrested and was awaiting his trial at the next criminal sessions.
As both the native man and woman were shot, it seemed difficult to conceive
how the prosecution could find the necessary evidence to sustain
a charge of murder.
The trial duly came off at Bloemfontein a month or two later,
and the evidence in court seemed more direct and less circumstantial
than we had expected. For, not only were the stolen cattle found
in the possession of the prisoner, but the bullet picked up
near the bodies of the dead refugees (according to the evidence
given in court) fitted the prisoner's pistol. General Hertzog
personally attended the court at Bloemfontein and conducted the defence;
and, presumably more by his eloquence than anything else,
he convinced a white jury of the guiltlessness of the accused,
who was acquitted and acclaimed outside the court by his friends
as a hero. In justice to the police it must be added
that they re-arrested this man and charged him with the theft,
or with being in possession of the deceased Natives' cattle.
On this charge the prisoner was convicted before the Circuit Court
a few months later, and in sentencing him to three years, with hard labour,
the presiding judge is said to have made some references
to the previous trial and the manner in which the prisoner had escaped
the capital sentence.
From Lady Brand we travelled south towards Wepener, not far
from the Basuto frontier. Evictions around here were numerous,
but beyond the inevitable hardships of families suddenly driven
from home, they had not suffered any great amount of damage.
Being near to the Basuto border, a Native in these parts, when ejected,
can quickly take his stock across the boundary, and leaving them
in friendly pastures, under sympathetic laws, go away to look for a new place.
But it became abundantly clear that the influx of outsiders into Basutoland
could not continue at the rate it was then proceeding
without seriously complicating the land question in Basutoland,
where chieftains are constantly quarrelling over small patches of arable land.
A pitiable spectacle, however, was the sight of those who had been evicted
from the centre of the Orange "Free" State. It was heartrending
to hear them relate the circumstances of their expulsions,
and how they had spent the winter months roaming from farm to farm
with their famishing stock, applying in vain for a resting place.
Some farmers were apparently sympathetic, but debarred from entertaining
such applications by the sword of Damocles -- the 100 Pound fine
in Section 5 of the Natives' Land Act -- they had perforce to refuse
the applicants. The farms hereabout are owned by Boers and English settlers,
but many are owned by Germans, Jews, Russians, and other Continentals.
Some of the proprietors do not reside on the farms at all;
they are either Hebrew merchants or lawyers, living in the towns and villages
away from the farms. Many have no wish to part with the Natives,
who seem invariably to have treated their landlords well,
but they are forced to do so by the law.
It seems a curious commentary on the irony of things that South Africa,
which so tyrannically chases her own Natives from the country,
receives at this very time with open arms Polish, Finnish,
Russian and German Jews, who themselves are said to have fled
from the tyranny of their own Governments in Europe. With a vengeance,
it looks like "robbing Peter to pay Paul".
Standing by the side of a kopje, very early on that September morning,
it was a relief to see the majestic tops of the mountains of Basutoland,
silhouetted against the rising sun, beyond the Caledon River,
which separates the "Free" State from Basutoland.
A number of fugitives were at that time driving little lots of stock
across the broad and level flats which extend in the direction
of the Basutoland Protectorate. How comforting to know
that once they crossed the river, these exiles could
rest their tired limbs and water their animals without breaking any law.
Really until we saw those emaciated animals, it had never so forcibly
occurred to us that it is as bad to be a black man's animal
as it is to be a black man in South Africa.
To think that this "Free" State land from which these people are now expelled
was at one time, and should still be, part and parcel of Basutoland;
and to remember that the fathers of these Natives, who are now fleeing
from the "Free" State laws, were allies of the Boers, whom they assisted
to drive the Basutos from this habitable and arable part of their land;
that with their own rations, their own horses, their own rifles,
and often their own ammunition, they helped the Boers to force the Basutos
back into their present mountain recesses, and compelled them
to build fresh homes in all but uninhabitable mountain fastnesses,
in many instances inaccessible to vehicles of any kind,
in order (as was said at the time) to give themselves "more elbow-room";
to see them to-day fleeing from the laws of their perfidious Dutch allies,
expelled from the country for which they bled and for which
their fathers died; and to find that, at the risk of intensifying
their own domestic problems in their now diminutive and overcrowded
Mountain State, the Basutos are nobly offering an asylum to those
who had helped to deprive them of their country; and to remember
that this mean breach of faith, on the part of ex-Republicans towards
their native allies, is facilitated by the protection of the Union Jack,
sheds, in regard to the Basutos, a glorious ray of light
upon black human nature.
Look at these exiles swarming towards the Basuto border, some of them
with their belongings on their heads, driving their emaciated flocks
attenuated by starvation and the cold. The faces of some of the children,
too, are livid from the cold. It looks as if these people
were so many fugitives escaping from a war, with the enemy pressing hard
at their heels.
It was a distressing sight. We had never seen the likes of it
since the outbreak of the Boer War, near the Transvaal border,
immediately before the siege of Mafeking. Even that flight of 1899
had a buoyancy of its own, for the Boer War, unlike the present
stealthy war of extermination (the law which caused this flight),
was preceded by an ultimatum. But the sight of a people
who had loyally paid taxation put to flight in these halcyon times,
by a Parliament the huge salaries of whose members these very exiles,
although unrepresented in its body, have meekly helped to pay,
turned one's weeping eyes to Heaven, for, as Jean Paul says, "There above
is everything he can wish for here below." But if the Native of other days
has been sold by the perfidy of his Dutch allies of the day,
the British soldiers and British taxpayer of the present day
have been deceived by "we don't know who". They fought and died and paid
to unfurl the banner of freedom in this part of the globe,
and the spectacle before us is the result. This must be
what A. H. Keene referred to when he said, "The British public were also dumb,
and with that infinite capacity for being gulled which is so remarkable
in a people proud of their common sense, acquiesced in everything."
Visiting the farms, we found some native tenants under notice to leave.
We informed them that Mr. Edward Dower, the Secretary for Native Affairs,
would be in Thaba Ncho the following week, and advised them
to proceed to the town and lay their difficulties before
this high representative of the Union Government, with a request
for the use of his good offices to procure for them
the Governor-General's permission to live on farms,
a course provided in Section 1 of the Natives' Land Act.
We made no promises, as previous requests for such permission
had been invariably ignored. But we hoped that the Government Secretary's
meeting with the sufferers and speaking with them face to face
would soften the implacable red-tape and official circumlocution,
and perhaps even open the way towards a modification of the administration
of this legislative atrocity; but we were mistaken.
The meeting duly took place on Friday, September 12, 1913.
A thousand Natives gathered at the racecourse on the wide level country
between the railway station and Thaba Ncho town. A few historical facts
relative to Thaba Ncho might not be out of place.
Thaba Ncho (Mount Black) takes its name from the hill below which
the town is situated. Formerly this part of Africa was peopled by Bushmen
and subsequently by Basutos. The Barolong, a section of the Bechuana,
came here from Motlhanapitse, a place in the Western "Free" State,
to which place they had been driven by Mzilikasi's hordes from over the Vaal
in the early 'twenties. The Barolongs settled in Thaba Ncho
during the early 'thirties under an agreement with Chief Mosheshe.
The Seleka branch of the Barolong nation, under Chief Moroka,
after settling here, befriended the immigrant Boers who were on their way
to the north country from the south and from Natal during the 'thirties.
A party of immigrant Boers had an encounter with Mzilikasi's
forces of Matabele. Up in Bechuanaland the powerful Matabele
had scattered the other Barolong tribes and forced them
to move south and join their brethren under Moroka. Thus during the 'thirties
circumstances had formed a bond of sympathy between the Boers and Barolongs
in their mutual regard of the terrible Matabele as a common foe.
But the story of the relations between the Boers and the Barolong
needs no comment: it is consistent with the general policy of the Boers,
which, as far as Natives are concerned, draws no distinction
between friend and foe. It was thus that Hendrik Potgieter's Voortrekkers
forsook the more equitable laws of Cape Colony, particularly that relating
to the emancipation of the slaves, and journeyed north to establish
a social condition in the interior under which they might enslave the Natives
without British interference. The fact that Great Britain
gave monetary compensation for the liberated slaves did not apparently assuage
their strong feelings on the subject of slavery; hence they were anxious
to get beyond the hateful reach of British sway. They were sweeping
through the country with their wagons, their families, their cattle,
and their other belongings, when in the course of their march,
Potgieter met the Matabele far away in the Northern Free State
near a place called Vecht-kop. The trekkers made use of their firearms,
but this did not prevent them from being severely punished by the Matabeles,
who marched off with their horses and live stock and left the Boers
in a hopeless condition, with their families still exposed to further attacks.
Potgieter sent back word to Chief Moroka asking for assistance,
and it was immediately granted.
Chief Moroka made a general collection of draught oxen
from amongst his tribe, and these with a party of Barolong warriors
were sent to the relief of the defeated Boers, and to bring them back
to a place of safety behind Thaba Ncho Hill, a regular refugee camp,
which the Boers named "Moroka's Hoek". But the wayfarers
were now threatened with starvation; and as they were guests of honour
amongst his people, the Chief Moroka made a second collection of cattle,
and the Barolong responded with unheard-of liberality.
Enough milch cows, and sheep, and goats were thus obtained
for a liberal distribution among the Boer families, who, compared with
the large numbers of their hospitable hosts, were relatively few.
Hides and skins were also collected from the tribesmen,
and their tanners were set to work to assist in making veldschoens (shoes),
velbroeks (skin trousers), and karosses (sheepskin rugs)
for the tattered and footsore Boers and their children.
The oxen which they received at Vechtkop they were allowed to keep,
and these came in very handy for ploughing and transport purposes.
No doubt the Rev. Mr. Archbell, the Wesleyan Methodist missionary and apostle
to the Barolong, played an active part on the Barolong Relief Committee,
and, at that time, there were no more grateful people on earth
than Hendrik Potgieter and his party of stricken voortrekkers.
After a rest of many moons and communicating with friends
at Cape Colony and Natal, the Dutch leader held a council of war
with the Barolong chiefs. He asked them to reinforce
his punitive expedition against the Matabele. Of course they were to use
their own materials and munitions and, as a reward, they were to retain
whatever stock they might capture from the Matabele; but the Barolongs
did not quite like the terms. Tauana especially told Potgieter
that he himself was a refugee in the land of his brother Moroka.
His country was Bechuanaland, and he could only accompany the expedition
on condition that the Matabele stronghold at Coenyane (now Western Transvaal)
be smashed up, Mzilikasi driven from the neighbourhood
and the Barolong returned to their homes in the land of the Bechuana,
the Boers themselves retaining the country to the east and the south
(now the "Free" State and the Transvaal). That this could be done
Tauana had no doubt, for since they came to Thaba Ncho, the Barolong had
acquired the use of firearms -- long-range weapons -- which were still unknown
to the Matabele, who only used hand spears. This was agreed to,
and a vow was made accordingly. To make assurance doubly sure,
Tauana sent his son Motshegare to enlist the co-operation of a Griqua
by the name of Pieter Dout, who also had a bone to pick with the Matabele.
Pieter Dout consented, and joined the expedition with a number of mounted men,
and for the time being the Boer-Barolong-Griqua combination
proved a happy one. The expedition was successful beyond
the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. The Matabele were routed,
and King Mzilikasi was driven north, where he founded
the kingdom of Matabeleland -- now Southern Rhodesia -- having left the allies
to share his old haunts in the south.
This successful expedition was the immediate outcome of the friendly alliance
between the Boers in the "Free" State and Moroka's Barolong at Thaba Ncho.
But Boers make bad neighbours in Africa, and, on that account,
the Government of the "Free" State thereafter proved a continual menace
to the Basuto, their neighbours to the east. Pretexts were readily found
and hostile inroads constantly engineered against the Basuto
for purposes of aggression, and the friendliness of the Barolong
was frequently exploited by the Boers in their raids,
undertaken to drive the Basuto further back into the mountains.
This, however, must be said to the honour of the mid-nineteenth century
"Free" Staters, in contrast to the "Free" Staters of later date:
that the earlier "Free" Staters rewarded the loyalty of their Barolong allies
by recognizing and respecting Thaba Ncho as a friendly native State;
but it must also be stated that the bargain was all in the favour of one side;
thereby all the land captured from the Basuto was annexed to the "Free" State,
while the dusky warriors of Moroka, who bore the brunt of the battles,
got nothing for their pains. So much was this the case that Thaba Ncho,
which formerly lay between the "Free" State and Basutoland,
was subsequently entirely surrounded by "Free" State territory.
Eventually Chief Moroka died, and a dispute ensued between his sons
concerning the chieftainship. Some Boers took sides in this dispute
and accentuated the differences. In 1884, Chief Tsipinare,
Moroka's successor, was murdered after a night attack
by followers of his brother Samuel, assisted by a party of "Free" State Boers.
It is definitely stated that the unfortunate chief valiantly defended himself.
He kept his assailants at bay for the best part of the day
by shooting at them through the windows of his house,
which they had surrounded; and it was only by setting fire to the house
that they managed to get the chief out, and shoot him. As a matter of fact
the house was set on fire by the advice of one of the Boers,
and it is said that it was a bullet from the rifle of one of these Boers
that killed Chief Tsipinare.
President Brand, the faithful ally of the dead chieftain,
called out the burghers who reached Thaba Ncho after the strife was over.
He annexed Thaba Ncho to the "Free" State, and banished the rival chief
from "Free" State territory, with all his followers.
The Dutch members of the party which assassinated the chief
were put upon a kind of trial, and discharged by a white jury at Bloemfontein.
Of course, Boers could not be expected to participate in any adventure
which did not immediately lead to land grabbing. But, fortunately for
some Barolongs, the dead chief had in his lifetime surveyed some farms
and granted freehold title to some of the tribesmen. In fact,
his death took place while he was engaged in that democratic undertaking.
The Boer Government, which annexed the territory, confiscated all the land
not yet surveyed, and passed a law to the effect that those Barolongs
who held individual title to land could only sell their farms to white people.
It must, however, be added that successive Boer Presidents
have always granted written exemptions from this drastic measure.
So that any Native who wanted to buy a farm could always do so
by applying for the President's permission, while, of course,
no permission was necessary to sell to a white man; several Natives,
to the author's knowledge, have thus bought farms from Natives,
and also from white men, by permission of the State President,
and the severity of the prohibition was never felt. But after
the British occupation in 1900, the Natives keenly felt this measure,
as the Governor, when appealed to by a Native for permission to buy a farm,
always replied that he had no power to break the law.
Thus, under the Union Jack, sales have gone on from black to white,
but none from white to black, or even from black to black.
In the crowd which met Mr. Dower that morning were two Barolong young men
who had lately inherited a farm each under the will of their deceased uncle,
and the law will not permit the Registrar of Deeds to give them title
to their inheritance; their numerous representations to the Union authorities
have only met with promises, while lawyers have taken advantage of the hitch
to mulct them in more money than the land is worth. The best legal advice
they have received is that they should sell their inheritances to white men.
Now the Natives' Land Act, as applied to the whole Union of South Africa,
is modelled on these highly unsatisfactory conditions relating to land
in the "Free" State. The six months' imprisonment, the 100 Pounds fine,
and other penalties for infringement of the Land Act, are borrowed from
Chapter XXXIV of the "Free" State laws, to which reference is made
in Section 7 of the Natives' Land Act. Section 8 of the Natives' Land Act
is a re-enactment of some of the reprehensible "Free" State land laws
which had been repealed by the Crown Colony Government
after the British occupation in 1900. When the Natives' Land Bill
was before Parliament the Opposition moved that the remaining native farms
be scheduled as a native area, where Natives might purchase farms,
of course from other Natives. The passage of such an amendment
was more than could be expected as the real object of the Natives' Land Bill
was to block every possible means whereby a Native may acquire land
from a Native, or from any one else; but when the motion was rejected
the Natives of Thaba Ncho were exceedingly alarmed. They telegraphed
their fears to Mr. Sauer, who promised to visit them when Parliament rose,
but his purpose was frustrated by his death, immediately after
the passage of the Act.
To return to Mr. Dower's meeting, the Native Affairs Secretary
received a warm welcome from the Natives, who hoped that his coming
would show them a way out of their dilemma. As already stated,
a thousand Natives came from the surrounding farms, some on horseback,
others on bicycles, and other conveyances such as carts, wagons, etc.;
they included evicted wanderers and native tenants under notice
to leave their farms, with letters of eviction and other evidence
in their pockets; they included some refugees, who had likewise been evicted
from other districts -- refugees who, as one of them put it,
were "constantly on the move, and hurried hither to plead for shelter
for our homeless families, now living in wagons."
The morning was showery. Thaba Ncho Hill in the background,
always visible for scores of miles in every direction, towered high above
the surrounding landscape. Its stony slopes covered with a light mist
from peak to base, it stood like a silent witness to the outraged treaty
between the Barolong and the Boers.
Mr. Dower, who was accompanied by his secretary (Mr. Apthorpe) and
the Thaba Ncho Magistrate (Major Robertson) and the Location Superintendent,
addressed the Natives for half an hour. The speeches were
correctly interpreted by Mr. Jeremiah Makgothi, a native farmer,
and formerly a local school teacher, who collaborated
with Canon Crisp in the translation of the Scriptures into Serolong
for the world-renowned S.P.C.K. The Rev. P. K. Motiyane,
the local Wesleyan minister, also assisted in the task of interpretation.
Mr. Dower made some pathetic references to the life and work
of the late Hon. J. W. Sauer, the great Cape politician
who had just passed away; then he proceeded to refer at length
to sundry inconsequential topics of minor local significance;
and, having repeated his great pleasure at seeing them,
without making a single reference to the momentous measure
that was ravaging the Natives of the country, the Government Secretary
resumed his seat amidst looks of astonishment and consternation
from the assembled Natives.
The Rev. J. D. Goronyane, a gentleman who, as secretary to the late chiefs,
played a leading part in the Boer-Barolong relations
of the nineteenth century, was the next speaker. He thanked the Secretary
for coming. No people, he said, regretted Mr. Sauer's death
more than the Barolong; they had looked forward to meeting him
in connexion with the new cloud now looming over the country
in the shape of the Land Act, and they were sorry that his coming
had been frustrated by a Higher Power. Turning to Mr. Dower, he said:
"All the people you see before you are frightened by the new law.
They have come here for nothing else but to hear how they are expected
to live under it."
Other speakers followed, but when the actual sufferers began
to narrate their experiences there were so many who wished to come forward
that the leaders decided that, their cases being more or less similar,
they should wait and hear how the representative of the Government
would deal with the cases of those who had already spoken.
==
MR. DOWER'S REPLY
He regretted that, as one speaker had said, some people read the Act
through the spectacles coloured by their desires. Others seemed
to be glad at the uncertainty and endeavoured to keep on turning
the wheel of discontent. It was true that some people were imposing
on the Natives, but, on the whole, there was a reasonable desire
to comply with the Act, although it was not always properly understood.
Few individuals had been evicted, though many had received notice.
Some of the notices given under a misapprehension, and with a desire
not to contravene the Act, had, since the Magistrates' explanations,
actually been withdrawn. "So your best course is to explain the facts
to your Magistrates, if possible, in the presence of the master."
(A Voice: "Who'll bring him there?") After explaining
that the principle of the Act was a first step towards
territorial segregation, Mr. Dower said it gave protection
to some parts of the country which formerly were not so protected.
He mentioned as an instance that more than one-half of the farms
formerly owned by Natives in that district were no longer in their possession.
In other Provinces THE ACT WAS RESTRICTIVE, while IN THE FREE STATE
IT WAS PROHIBITIVE. The old practice of "sowing on the halves"
might continue so long as the lawfully executed contracts lasted;
but at the expiration of those contracts the practice should cease,
as Parliament had decided on its abolition. It amounted to a partnership
between a white man and a black man. With a civilized Native
the system might have been good, but a raw Native always got
the worst of the partnership. He would advise them to make
the best temporary arrangements within the four corners of the law.
It might be by adopting one of three alternatives: (1) Become servants
(in which case it would be legal for a master to give them pieces of land
to plough and graze a number of stock); or (2) move into the reserve --
(voices: "Where is the reserve?"); or (3) dispose of the stock for cash.
(Sensation.) The arrangement would only be temporary until Parliament
took further steps in terms of the Commission's report. It would be better
than trekking from pillar to post, till all the cattle had died out,
and eventually returning penniless. Farmers always had the right
to evict their native tenants. (A voice: "But we could go elsewhere.")
Because some old laws which had been repealed had now been re-enacted,
let them not think that there was a desire to oppress.
"They may have been unjust, as you say, but understand that this law
is not the last thing said by Parliament. A final settlement must depend
on the recommendations of the Commission, and such action will be taken
as will be to the lasting interests of white and black.
The Lands Commission has already held its first sitting,
and you will be serving your best interests by bringing all your information
to the Magistrate, so that it be laid before the Commission.
Show by your wise action that you are inspired by the justice of your case.
The course of agitation will not help you. Remove suspicions and mistrust
from your minds, and bring cases of real hardships to the Magistrate,
who will see that this Act is administered as smoothly as possible.
But THE ACT DOES NOT PROVIDE FOR ANY SPECIAL CASES IN THE FREE STATE
being submitted to the Governor-General under the first section of the Act."
==
The concluding statement settled the minds of those who
had expected from the Government any protection against the law,
and the disappointment under which the meeting broke up was indescribable.
This law is full of rude shocks, and this day this spokesman of the Government
told the Natives that in the other three Provinces the Governor-General
will only exercise his right in exceptional cases, while in the "Free" State
the law did not permit him to exercise it even in such cases,
so that the Government alone knows why that provision was inserted.
Chapter IX The Fateful 13
He hath disgraced me and laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains,
scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends,
heated mine enemies; and what is his reason? I am a Kafir.
Hath not a Kafir eyes? hath not a Kafir hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food,
hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter
as a white Afrikander?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us,
shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest,
we will resemble you in that.
Merchant of Venice.
The Natives of South Africa, generally speaking, are intensely superstitious.
The fact that they are more impressionable than tractable causes them,
it seems, to take naturally to religion, and seems a flat contradiction
of Junius's assertion that "there are proselytes from atheism,
but none from superstition." With some South African tribes
it is unlucky to include goats amongst the animals paid
by a young man's parents as the dowry for his bride; it was equally bad
to pay dowry in odd numbers of cattle. The payment must be made
in an even number of oxen, sheep, or other animals or articles,
such as two, four, six, eight, ten, and so on. The man who could not afford
more than one sheep to seal the marriage contract would have
to exchange his goat for a sheep to make up a presentable pair.
If he were too poor to do that, a needle or any other article
was admissible to make up the dowry to an even number,
and so avoid giving one or three, or more odd numbers of articles.
Conscious as they were of the existence of some Supreme Being,
but worshipping no God, true or false, the white man's religion
which makes such a worship obligatory through a mediator found easy access
among so susceptible a people; and with equal ease they likewise adopted
the civilization of the white man. But the Natives received
not only the white man's civilization and his religion,
but have even gullibly imbibed his superstitions. Thus is
their dread of the figure 13 accounted for. The Native witch-doctors
in the early days took advantage of their credulity, whilst civilized people
traded on their susceptibilities, and the semi-civilized Natives also traded
upon the fears of their more impressionable brethren.
To give a concrete case or two, we might say that when
the main reservoir of the Kimberley waterworks was built,
one of the labourers one week-end lost the whole of his weekly pay.
He inquired, and searched everywhere he could think of,
but nobody had seen his missing purse. But on Monday morning
he conceived a plan for the recovery of his lost purse.
In pursuance of this plan, on the Monday he asked for and obtained a day off;
then he declared to the gang of labourers that he was going
to the nearest location to consult a bone-thrower. Instead of going
to the location, however, he went to the open country, gathered some plants,
returned to the dormitories while the others were at work, boiled the herbs
in a pot of water and put it aside to cool. When the workmen returned
for their midday meal he announced an imaginary consultation he had had
with the bone-thrower, and that that functionary had divined
the whereabouts of the purse; it was to the effect that the purse
had been stolen and was in the possession of a fellow-worker.
"The doctor," he said, "gave me some herbs. I have cooked them,
and by his direction each of you is invited to immerse his hands
in the decoction which is now cool. If you are not the thief,
nothing would happen to you, but to the one who has stolen my money,"
he added with emphasis, "the doctor said that the medicine
will snap the thief's fingers clean off and leave him only with the palm."
One by one the men dipped their hands in the "medicine",
and as they took turns at the pot, one young fellow at length
became visibly disturbed, and believing that the concoction was true,
he confessed to the theft and undertook to refund the money,
rather than lose his fingers.
Another case was this. "A Transkeian missionary once heard
of the serious indisposition of a Native. It was not a natural sickness,
it was believed, but was the effect of sorcery, and news in that sense
was noised abroad. Such cases primitive Natives believe
to be beyond the skill of a medical man. White doctors,
they would say, know next to nothing at all about such things.
They do not believe in witchcraft and how could they be expected
to be able to smell it out of a patient. Only a witch-doctor
-- if he is more skilful -- can smell out and subdue the charm
directed by another witch-doctor into the body of the bewitched.
Having heard this piece of native philosophy on witchcraft,
the missionary startled the Natives by telling them in their own tongue
that he could cure the disease. And he did cure it.
He captured a baby lizard from the rocks which abound
in the craggy undulations of most parts of the Transkei.
He hid it in the inside pocket of his coat and proceeded to the sick-bed
with some real medicines in his hand. "When a man who is not sick
imagines himself sick," says Dr. Kellogg, "he must be sick indeed,"
and truly, in accordance with this saying, the Native was dangerously ill.
A bone-thrower, who had in the presence and hearing of the sick man
divined his malady, pronounced that he was not only bewitched by a snake,
but also that the reptile was within him and was eating him to death.
In these circumstances the missionary administered an emetic
to the reluctant patient, in the presence of some incredulous spectators,
who had never known a white man to extract a reptile
from the person of a bewitched Native. Further, by some agility of the hand,
the missionary produced from his pocket unobserved, just as
the emetic was acting, the baby lizard he had taken from the rocks.
So smartly was this done that everybody, including the patient,
believed the reptile to have been extracted from his body
by the power of the medicine administered by the missionary.
The sick man at once stood up and walked, and the missionary was known,
by all who witnessed the marvel, as the greatest witch-doctor
of the neighbourhood.
In like manner, when some civilized Christians made remarks
on New Year's Day about the figure 13, there was much gossiping
among the more superstitious Natives as to the form of trouble
which the year 1913 had in store for the Natives, although none knew
that a revolutionary law of Draconian severity would be launched
in their midst during this eventful year.
The powerful African potentate, Menelik of Abyssinia
(whose death had been falsely circulated no fewer than seven times
during the past dozen years), really died in 1913.
Letsie II, paramount chief of the semi-independent Basuto nation,
departed this life during this same year.
Dinizulu (son of the great Cetewayo, whose impis slew the Prince Imperial
in 1879), who was born to inherit the throne of his fathers, and who lived
to be one of the most disappointed men of his day, spent many years
in prison and in exile, and was known in his lifetime as the Black Napoleon;
was released from prison by the Union Government, and given back
his pension of 500 Pounds per annum. Sharing the hopes of his people
that in accordance with the Government's erstwhile good intentions
now tottering before a growing Republicanism, Zululand would be restored
to the Zulus, and he established as their ruler under the Crown. He, too,
died in the year 1913.
An unusually large number of good and noble men of greater or lesser renown
were gathered to their fathers during this year.
It is perhaps not generally known that few British statesmen
did so much for the South African Natives, in so short a term of service
at the Colonial Office, as the Hon. A. Lyttleton. And he, too, left us
rather suddenly during this troublous year of 1913. In this year, too,
South Africa was visited by a drought which for severity was pronounced to be
unprecedented in the knowledge of all the old inhabitants.
Remarks -- some pithy, some ugly -- were made upon the drought by Dutchmen.
They all remembered how the God of their fathers used to send them
nice soaking rains regularly each spring-time, and that it usually continued
to nourish the plants and other of the country's vegetation
throughout the summer, and they concluded that there must be some reason
why He does not do it now. The majority of Dutchmen whom the writer
thus overheard attributed the visitation to the sins of the foreigners,
who are fast buying up the country, and cursing it by settling godless people
upon it. One or two saw in it the vengeance of the Supreme Being
for the unnecessary persecution of His black creatures, but they were afraid
to say this aloud. "See," said one, "is the drought not worse
in the `Free' State where Kafirs seem to be very hard hit by this new law?"
This was true. Dutchmen's cattle were dying of poverty in the "Free" State,
and the land was so parched in some parts that it seemed difficult
to believe that grass could ever grow in these places again,
supposing the long-looked-for rain came at last.
On our birthday, October 9, 1913, they hanged four murderers
who had been condemned to death at the preceding criminal sessions.
The selection of the morning of our birthday for the execution
of four prisoners at our home was curious as executions in Kimberley
take place only about once or twice in ten years. The event, of course,
was purely accidental; but middle-aged Natives seemed
to have an aptitude for remembering catastrophes which,
in the lives of their fathers and their fathers' fathers,
followed such coincidences. Whilst the executions were taking place,
on the morning of our birthday, an ugly ocean tragedy
was taking place away out on the Atlantic. The `Vulturno' was ablaze
with a number of passengers on board. Innocent white men and women
were being roasted alive, because the sea was too rough
to permit their transfer from the burning ship to the rescuing liners;
and so they perished, literally, "between the devil and the deep sea" --
within full view of relief.
Dutchmen as a rule are like Natives in that they live as long as they can,
and die only when they must; but in the Transvaal a Dutch farmer
all but exterminated his family on this day with a revolver,
which he had previously secured for the purpose. On this day also
the mind of an English miner at Randfontein having suddenly become unhinged,
he shot his wife, his baby, and his aunt, then coolly pocketing the pistol,
he cycled down to the school, called out his two children,
shot them down in cold blood, and retired to a quiet place
where he put an end to his own life. During that fateful week
in which disaster followed disaster in rapid succession,
there occurred the following, namely, the colliery disaster at Cardiff,
which left a thousand dependents without breadwinners, to say nothing
of the damage to property, which is estimated at over 100,000 Pounds.
There were also railway accidents and aviation disasters,
causing damage to life and property. There were commercial troubles
due to the Johannesburg strike in July, and this effect of the strike
indicates the influence exercised by the "golden city"
over South African commerce. In that sad upheaval in the labour world
many innocent people lost their lives and property, and unfortunately,
as is always the case, besides adding largely to the taxpayers' burdens,
seriously affected people who had nothing to do with the strike.
Yet when some of our friends expressed thankfulness that the year did not have
thirteen months, we were obstinate enough to refuse to waste valuable time
in considering the subject.
Individuals, like communities, suffered heavily from one cause or another
in the year 1913. Thus the writer's little family also had
its baptism of sorrow. On New Year's Day of that year 1913,
his little boy, a robust child of three months, was prattling in the house.
He first saw the light in the last quarter of 1912, on the very day
we opened and christened our printing office, so we named him after
the great inventor of printing type: he was christened Johann Gutenberg.
Somehow or other he could never keep well after the New Year,
for though he tried to look pleasant, it was visibly
under serious difficulties. It had been our fortune,
during a married life of fifteen years, to keep our children
in remarkably good health; but the health of this little fellow
showed unmistakable evidence that this immunity was reaching its end.
Vehement attacks of whooping cough now overtook the little ones.
The others got rid of it during the winter months, but with Gutenberg
the disease developed into inflammation of this organ, and of that;
and taking the whole year from January to December, it would not be too much
to say that the little boy scarcely enjoyed three full months of good health.
And by the end of the year it was clear that he was going the way
of half a dozen cousins who were gathered into eternity
all during one month -- December, 1913. Before the New Year was a week old,
the doctor, who had then become a regular member of the family,
gave us the final warning.
For a month past loving aunts had tenderly relieved the child's
inexperienced parents of the daily ministrations and of the more exacting
night watches. After the doctor's warning there came "the calm
before the storm". It only lasted for one day; the deceptive strength
which had temporarily buoyed the little patient up was now passing away
and the inevitable reaction was setting in. Oh, if he were only a year older
so that he could have communicated to us by speech his feelings and his wants!
His little body, which stood the long sickness with such fortitude, got frail.
His bright eyes, high forehead and round cheeks remained, however, to defy
the waste of the disease. The parson came and uttered words of encouragement.
"Symptoms of death," he said, pointing to the sick-bed
(and he was no novice in such matters) "were very far from there,"
but the surroundings of the sick-bed seemed to us to ring out the command
with a force as strong as six peals of thunder, saying "Suffer little children
to come unto Me," and such Divine orders, comprehensible only to those
to whom they are issued, took precedence of any words of encouragement
that may be uttered by a mortal minister of religion.
That these good men of God know the ways of their Master is patent
in that they always couple the encouragement to the sick,
or to the friends of the sick, with the advice to surrender
to the Divine injunction. The grandmother of the child was composed.
"When the Lord's will is to be done," she said, "no mortal can stay it,"
but his aunts were restless. "Go, call the doctor at once,"
they demanded. He came, gave a solemn look and stood silent.
After feeling the pulse he said: "The child has collapsed.
I have done all I could and can do no more." Next came the anxious looks
of the other attendants, the footfalls of inquiring neighbours,
messages to nearer and further relatives about the pronounced "collapse".
This was at noon, and each one expected that he could hold out for two hours
at the most; but he breathed throughout the afternoon with a gallantry
that was wonderful in its way. His large round eyes turned upward
as though they had become blind to their immediate surroundings.
It seemed that those eyes could no longer see the objects in the room
and its anxious inmates; truly they could no longer see
the sun or the moon and stars that night. Kimberley was no longer a home
to the little chap whose short lease of life was clearly drawing to an end.
A new outlook seemed to have dawned over his now brightening face.
His eyes were riveted on the New Jerusalem, the City of God,
and he seemed to be in full communion with the dear little cousins
who preceded him thither during the previous month. Evidently they
were beckoning him to leave this wicked South Africa and everything in it,
and come to eternal glory. In this condition we left him
early in the afternoon to answer the call of our daily and nightly drudgery
-- it would be gross extravagance to call it "duty" -- an occupation
which has no reverence for mournful occasions. At 9.15 p.m.,
just about the time of his birth sixteen months before, the little soul
was relieved of its earthly bonds.
There he lay robed in a simple white gown, his motionless form
being an eloquent testimony of the indelible gap left in our domestic circle
as a visitation of 1913. But the celestial expression of his face,
his deep-brown colour, and his closed eyelids, seemed to say to us:
"Be at ease, I have conquered."
Still, it must be confessed that to us this wrench was
a most painful experience, and that the doctrine of "Thy will be done"
was found to be a great deal more than a mere profession of faith.
The sympathies of relatives, friends, and other mourners,
their deeds and words of condolence, followed by a solemn religious service,
took the sting out of the affliction, although it must again be confessed
that so deep was our sorrow for the dead child's mother that for some time
we could not bear to look her in the face.
Painful and unusual solemnities and formulae were gone through
during the next day, and these again were lightened by
the kind and sympathetic assistance of genuine friends,
like Messrs. Joseph Twayi, H. S. Poho, and others, some of them delegates
to a Temperance Conference then sitting in Kimberley.
In the absence of the pastors of St. Paul's Mission, who were both
attending the annual synod at Pniel, two Wesleyan ministers --
Rev. Jonathan Motshumi of Kimberley, and Rev. Shadrach Ramailane of Fauresmith
-- took charge of the funeral service, and a row of carriages
followed the hearse to the West End Cemetery.
As the procession turned round Cooper's corner into Green Street, Kimberley,
something caused us to look out of the carriage window;
we then caught sight of one of the carriages that formed the procession
in which some little girl friends and relatives of the deceased were driving,
their plain white dresses relieved only by a scrap of black ribbon
here and there. Their silent sympathy, expressed with
girlish shyness, was evident, though their snow-white dresses
were in striking contrast to the colour of their carriage and of the horses,
and the sombre black of the rest of the funeral party.
As we saw the solemn procession and heard the clank of the horses' hoofs,
we were suddenly reminded of that journey in July, 1913,
when we met that poor wandering young family of fugitives
from the Natives' Land Act. A sharp pang went through us,
and caused our heart to bleed as we recalled the scene of their night funeral,
forced on them by the necessity of having to steal a grave
on the moonless night, when detection would be less easy.
Every man in this country, we thought, be he a Russian,
Jew, Peruvian, or of any other nationality, has a claim
to at least six feet of South African soil as a resting place after death,
but those native outcasts, who in the country of their birth,
as a penalty for the colour of their skin, are made by the Union Parliament
to lead lives like that awarded to Cain for his crime of fratricide,
they might, as in the case of that wandering family, be even denied
a sepulchre for their little ones.
The solemnity of the funeral procession, of which we formed the mainmast,
almost entirely disappeared from our mind, to be succeeded
by the spirit of revolt against this impious persecution
as these things came before us. What have our people done
to these colonists, we asked, that is so utterly unforgivable,
that this law should be passed as an unavoidable reprisal?
Have we not delved in their mines, and are not a quarter of a million of us
still labouring for them in the depths of the earth in such circumstances
for the most niggardly pittance? Are not thousands of us
still offering up our lives and our limbs in order that South Africa
should satisfy the white man's greed, delivering 50,000,000 Pounds
worth of minerals every year? Have we not quarried the stones,
mixed, moulded and carried the mortar which built the cities of South Africa?
Have we not likewise prepared the material for building the railways?
Have we not obsequiously and regularly paid taxation every year,
and have we not supplied the Treasury with money to provide free education
for Dutch children in the "Free" State and Transvaal, while we had to find
additional money to pay the school fees of our own children?
Are not many of us toiling in the grain fields and fruit farms,
with their wives and their children, for the white man's benefit?
Did not our people take care of the white women -- all the white women,
including Boer fraus -- whose husbands, brothers and fathers were away
at the front -- in many cases actively engaged in shattering our own liberty?
But see their appreciation and gratitude! Oh, for something to --
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack Nature's moulds, all germins spill at once!
That make ungrateful man!
When one is distressed in mind there is no greater comforter
than an appropriate Scriptural quotation. Our bleeding heart
was nowhere in the present procession, which apparently
could take care of itself, for we had returned in thought
to the July funeral of the veld and its horrid characteristics;
and a pleasant reaction set in when we recalled a verse of Matthew which says:
"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." How very Christlike
was that funeral of the veld. It resembled the Messiah's
in that it had no carriages, no horses, no ordained ministers,
nor a trained choir singing the remains into their final resting place.
The veld funeral party, like the funeral party of the Son of Man,
was in mortal fear of the representatives of the law; it, like that party,
had not the light of the sun, nor the light of a candle,
which charitable friends in our day would usually provide
for the poorest of the poor under ordinary circumstances.
Still, it was not cold at Golgotha, or should not be to-day
as it was on the first Good Friday; but even the Madonna and the disciples
must have had some house in which to gather to discuss the situation.
One of the most astounding things in connexion with
the unjust treatment of the Natives by the Whites of South Africa
is the profound silence of the Dutch Reformed Church,
which practically is now the State Church of South Africa.
This Christian body does not only exclude coloured worshippers
from participating in its services, but would arraign them before the law,
or otherwise violently assault them should they visit its places of worship
at other times.
When it is remembered that the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church
in the old Republics dare not pronounce the benediction
on a coloured congregation, we think it will not be considered
unfair to say that the calculatingly outrageous treatment
of the coloured races of South Africa by the Boer section of that community
is mainly due from the sanction it receives from the Dutch Reformed Church.
If the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church would
but tell their congregations that it was gross libel on the Christian faith,
which they profess, to treat human beings as they treat those
with loathsome disease -- except when it is desired to exploit the benefits,
such as their taxes and their labour which these outraged human beings
confer upon the Dutch: we say that if the predikants
would but instruct their congregations so, then this stain,
which so greatly disfigures the Christian character of the Boers
would be removed.
The Dutch almost worship their religious teachers; and they will continue
these cruelties upon the Natives as long as they believe that they have
the approval of the Church. Let the predikants then tell their people
that tyranny is tyrannical even though the victims are of a different race,
and the South African Dutch will speedily abandon that course.
Just two instances by way of illustration. Ten years ago we attended
an election meeting at Burghersdorp, a typical Dutch constituency at the Cape.
The present Minister of Railways and Harbours was wooing the constituency,
and he appeared to be the favourite candidate among three others.
Dutchmen from the surrounding farms flocked to attend the meeting.
The speeches were all in the Taal. No hall in the town was large enough
to hold the number that came, so the four candidates addressed the gathering
in the Market Square. This was how Mr. Burton asked the Dutch electors
for their votes: "Whenever you speak of making South Africa comfortable
to Afrikanders, do not forget that the blacks are the original Afrikanders.
We found them in this country, and no policy can possibly succeed which aims
at the promotion of the interests of one section of the Afrikander race
to the neglect of another section."
There were a few native listeners in the throng, and we blacks
at once thought that the speaker had held out the red-rag to the bull,
and that every word of this candid statement would cost him
at least fifty Dutch votes. But we were agreeably surprised,
for the open air rang with the loud cheers and "Hoor, hoors"*
from hundreds of leather-lunged Boers. One old farmer turned round to Tommy
-- the blackest Native in the crowd -- held him by the shoulders,
and shouted as brusquely as his tongue could bend to the vernacular:
"Utloa, utloa, utloa!"**
--
* "Hear, hear", in Dutch.
** "Hear, hear", in Sesuto.
--
Mr. Burton was returned at the head of the poll.
A more recent instance: In 1913, the South African Asiatic laws
operated so harshly against British Indians that Westminster and Bombay
demanded instant reform. In deference to this outside intervention
the Union Government appointed the Solomon Commission
to inquire into the matter. While the investigations were in progress,
emphatic protests were constantly uttered against this "outside interference".
Some of the South Africans went as far as to assert that "if Imperialism
meant a `coolie'* domination in South Africa, then it was about time
that South Africa severed her Imperial bonds." The clamourers
who designated the inquiry as a concession to outsiders
seemed almost to dictate to the Commission not to recommend anything
that "savours of a surrender to the coolies".*
--
* A contemptuous South African term for British Indians.
--
But when General Smuts, in terms of the Commission's report
and as a concession to Anglo-Indian feeling, tabled a Bill in 1914,
to amend the hardships before they had been a year in operation, the clamour
at once died down; and we have not heard that any one in South Africa
was a penny the poorer as a result of this "outside interference",
and its consequent "surrender to the coolies".
Dutchmen only follow their leaders. Hence, let the leaders
direct them into cruel ways as they are seemingly doing
at the present time, then if Mr. Burton's assertions be right
(and we think no one will deny that he is right when he says
the one-sided policy can never succeed), these leaders,
instead of producing a South Africa which is rich and contented,
will only succeed in producing a South Africa which is poor and discontented.
Those, too, who wish well for South Africa and are at the same time
sympathizers of the present Government, let them also strive to induce
the Ministry to cease its policy of dilly-dallying and of equivocation
at the expense of the coloured tax-payers. So that the Dutch
throughout South Africa, as did the Dutch of Cape Colony,
under the able leadership of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, may pursue a fresh course --
the course of political righteousness. When the Labour Party discover
that white votes alone will not give it the reins of Government, its leaders
will most probably advocate a native franchise in the Northern Colonies
similar to the native franchise of the Cape. And we can assure them
that the first man who would successfully tackle such a problem
will not only secure for his party the votes thus created,
but that sheer gratitude will in future place at his disposal
the coloured vote of the Cape as well.
It is also our belief, in regard to the Dutch, that if a trusted leader
from among them were to propose a native franchise for the Northern Provinces,
the proposal would ultimately be accepted.
The predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church, who largely influence
the leadership of the South African Dutch, ought to know
that the English colonist can be just as devilish as the Boers
on questions of colour; and that some of them, with their
superior means and education have almost out-Boered the Boer in this matter;
but that even they have been held in check by the restraint
imposed upon them by the English Churches in the country.
Thus, knowing the Dutchman's obedience to the commands of his pastor,
we are afraid that if ever there come a day of reckoning
for the multifarious accumulation of wrongs done to the Natives,
the Dutch Reformed Church, owing to its silent consent to all these wrongs,
will have a lot to answer for.
Chapter X Dr. Abdurahman, President of the A.P.O. /
Dr. A. Abdurahman, M.P.C.
(Native of the Cape, and M.B.C. of Edinburgh)
President of the African Political Organization
on the South African Colour Trouble
The following presidential address was delivered by Dr. Abdurahman
at Kimberley on September 29, 1913, at the opening of the tenth annual
Conference of the A.P.O. His Worship Councillor E. Oppenheimer,
Mayor of Kimberley, presided: --
==
Nearly two years have elapsed since we last met in Conference --
two years crowded with events that have an important bearing
on the future of South Africa, and especially on the Coloured races.
Thanks, however, to the A.P.O. newspaper, every intelligent Coloured man is
acquainted with those events, and there is no need for me to dwell in detail
on any one of them. Nevertheless, a cursory enumeration will be desirable
in order to answer certain questions I propose to submit to you: it will be
further necessary to make a retrospect of the conditions that prevailed
at the time when White South Africa, amid exuberant exultations,
and a chorus of hosannahs, wildly welcomed the Act of Union
as a beacon light, that would blaze down through ages of history,
indicating the commencement of peace and prosperity for the land,
and the birth of a new nation -- the foundation of a new nationalism.
Ushered in by its authors with the blare of trumpets,
and with an incense of self-adulation for their vaunted achievement,
it surely cannot have belied their sanguine hopes, and proved to have been
nothing more than a dream of Alnaschar. Whether Europeans
are wholly satisfied with the results of Union is their business;
but I think we are warranted in looking for some indication
of the fruits of that Act from our point of view. But, before doing so,
let us take a cursory glance at the condition of the Coloured races
in pre-Union days, and then, after a rapid review of the legislation
since that memorable date, we will ask ourselves: How have those events
impressed the minds of the Coloured races, and what is our duty
to ourselves and to our country?
Such are the questions that I propose to put myself to-night,
and I shall endeavour to answer them in the most candid and straightforward
manner possible. Justice and equity are our demands --
are inherent rights of every man, especially a free-born British subject,
even in South Africa. Heedless, therefore, as to whether some of our views
please or displease the privileged section of this country's population,
we are in duty bound to speak out our honest convictions
boldly and fearlessly. I shall endeavour to state my opinions, therefore,
without any heat, but with a cold, passionless calmness that is possible
only to those who, despite bitter experiences, base their remarks
on stern facts and undeniable realities.
Of late, it has become the fashion in the Press of the Union
to dub any one who has to utter unpleasant truths an emotionalist.
That is, of course, not argument. The silent suffering of years
that must have been undergone by the Coloured man in South Africa
is not likely to have left much of the emotional side of humanity
in his composition. However, unpalatable as the facts may be
that I have to present for your consideration to-night,
I trust that my critics will be honest enough on this occasion
to face them boldly. They may question their accuracy, if they will,
or dispute the validity of my deductions from these facts.
That is the honest course for them to adopt. Furthermore, I trust that
White South Africa, especially those who boast loudest of British traditions,
will remember that it is an inalienable right of a British subject,
no matter in what part of the Empire he may be, to address his fellow-subjects
on the momentous question of Government. "If," declared an English lawyer,
"no man could have awakened the public mind to the errors and the abuses
in our English Government, how could it have passed on from stage to stage,
through reformation and revolution, so as to have arrived from barbarism
to such a pitch of happiness and perfection?" Such an inquiry
as I now propose will not be without its lessons. If South Africa
is worthily fulfilling her mission; if she has been faithful to her trust;
if she is promoting the cause of civilization, and if her actions
are based upon humanitarianism, then she may strenuously and conscientiously
proceed on the course she has been following. But if it can be shown
that there is no ethical basis to her policy of dealing with Coloured races,
that humanitarianism as a dominating factor is invariably wanting, and that
underlying her present policy is the principle of class aggrandizement,
then we may urge her to halt ere it is too late, and pursue another course.
Cape Colony
Now although there never was a time when the white and the black races
stood on a footing of practical equality -- civilly and politically --
it is a fact that, under the old Cape constitution, theoretical equality
was ensured to all, irrespective of race or creed. The Coloured races were,
in this Colony, treated with much consideration, if not with
absolute equality. The advancement made by them under that regime was always
held up to the world's admiration. It was regarded as convincing proof
that a policy based upon justice was the right one to be followed
in governing subject races. The peaceful habits of the Coloured races
since the granting of the old Cape Constitution is a complete vindication
of the broad liberalism entertained by English statesmen sixty years ago.
"It is the earnest desire of Her Majesty's Government that all her subjects
at the Cape, without distinction of class or colour, should be united
by one bond of loyalty, and we believe that the exercise of political rights
enjoyed by all alike will prove one of the best methods of attaining
this object." Thus reads the dispatch of the Duke of Newcastle to
Governor Cathcart, when transmitting "to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope
Ordinances which confer one of the most liberal constitutions enjoyed
by any of the British possessions."
But even in the Cape, prior to Union, signs were not wanting that
some slight reactions had set in. By degrees the doctrine of equal rights,
which formed the basis of the Cape Constitution, despite its resuscitation
by the famous declaration of the great Rhodes, was losing its force.
However, in the face of minor infractions of the principle of equal rights,
and some invasions of the necessary corollary to that principle, the right
to equal opportunity -- in the industrial as well as in the political world --
we were not wholly dissatisfied with the White man's rule in the Cape.
The Northern Colonies
Now let us consider the position in the Northern Colonies, especially in
the misnamed Free State. There a very different picture is presented.
From the days that the voortrekkers endeavoured to escape English rule,
from the day that they sought the hospitality of Chief Moroka,
the history of the treatment of the blacks north of the Orange River
is one long and uninterrupted record of rapine and greed,
without a solitary virtue to redeem the horrors which were committed
in the name of civilization. Such is the opinion any impartial student
must arrive at from a study even of the meagre records available.
If all were told, it would indeed be a blood-curdling tale,
and it is probably well that the world was not acquainted
with all that happened. However, the treatment of the Coloured races,
even in the Northern Colonies, is just what one might expect
from their history. The restraints of civilization
were flung aside, and the essentials of Christian precepts ignored.
The northward march of the voortrekkers was a gigantic plundering raid.
They swept like a desolating pestilence through the land,
blasting everything in their path, and pitilessly laughing at the ravages
from which the native races have not yet recovered. Their governments
were founded on the principle that is subversive of all Christian ethics,
that the Coloured man was entitled to no recognition
either in Church or State. Cruelty and oppression amounting to serfdom were,
and still are, the outstanding features of the Free State.
And he would be a bold man who would assert that the native races
have progressed at all as a result of contact with the white man
in the Free State. Progress could not be looked for under such circumstances,
for nowhere are there any signs that the Free State was ever inspired
by altruistic motives.
Such was the condition of things at the time of Union. Injustice, repression,
and inhumanity characterized the treatment of the Coloured races in the north:
justice, benevolence, and equality of opportunity in the south.
Now, it is said that "where slavery is prohibited, there civil liberty
must exist; where civil liberty is denied, there slavery follows."
These maxims, every student of history will admit, have been
abundantly verified in the history of South Africa. Take, for instance,
a comparison of the condition of the Coloured people of this town
and that of Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State.
Your member of Parliament has stated that in Kimberley our people are a credit
to the district, and the most advanced and progressive Coloured people
in South Africa. This is no doubt due to the excellent educational facilities
with which you have been provided for some considerable time,
to the liberty and freedom you enjoy, and to the kindly treatment
you have received at the hands of the Europeans. In Bloemfontein,
on the other hand, there are practically no educational facilities
for children, who, as soon as they reach the age of fifteen,
must enter the service of a white man, or be cast into prison.
There is no freedom, no liberty, and the result is that
the Coloured people of the capital of that British Slave State
are uneducated, poor, and degraded.
Here, then, one can easily see the results produced by
the two different systems of governing Coloured races --
the benevolent and the despotic. In the north the denial of civil rights
produced a state of virtual slavery, and the recent denial
of the complete enfranchisement of the Coloured people in the Union
has similarly resulted in the passing of an Act -- the Natives' Land Act,
which means nothing less than the partial enslavement of the races
throughout the Union. With two such divergent policies in force
in South Africa, it is not surprising that the Coloured races
viewed with the gravest apprehension the Union of the Colonies upon a basis
which would give the Northern Colonies sufficient power and influence
to shape the legislation of the Union. And I have no hesitation
in declaring that when Union was accomplished, and the Coloured people
were partially disfranchised, the death-knell of political equality
for the Coloured races was sounded, and the triumph of the north
over the south was heralded.
Sincere regrets were expressed by our friends at the abridgement of our rights
and the curtailment of our privileges that were effected
by the South Africa Act. Fervent hopes were entertained
by Cape politicians that not only would we not suffer any injustice,
but the position of the Coloured races in the north would be improved,
and their rights eventually be admitted. They fondly believed
that the leavening influence of the Cape ideas would mitigate
the barbarity of those of the northerner. We had no reason to doubt
the sincerity of our friends' beliefs, but we had no faith
in the northerners -- men whose public professions and practice
were void of a vestige of justice or honour in their dealings
with the Coloured races.
In November, 1904, when the question of Union was under discussion,
I expressed myself thus: "In a central Parliament there would be
the danger of the policies of the north slowly creeping into our Colony,
and undermining our Constitution. The men of the north have already told us
what they would do if they got into power; and European friends,
numerous and influential as they might be, would not be able
to safeguard the interests of the Coloured people." How far
that prediction has been verified is well known to every Coloured man.
The position of the Coloured man at the time of the Union
was such as I have described.
Since Union
Scarcely had the blessing of the Almighty been invoked on the proceedings
of the Union Parliament at the opening of its first session when,
to its eternal shame and infamy, it placed upon its statute book a law
that would debar Christ Himself from membership of the Dutch Reformed Church.
A Parliament capable of such blasphemy is capable of any iniquity.
Then followed the Marriage Bill and the Squatters' Bill,
both abortive measures, but, nevertheless, showing clearly
the attitude of mind of the white rulers towards the Coloured races.
In order to find employment for poor whites, Coloured railway employees
who had served the country faithfully and well were dismissed.
A white South Africa has been declared in the Union Parliament
and from every platform. The white race must preserve its dominance.
To this end a rigorous policy of repression was adopted;
and the enthusiastic hopes of an extension of franchise rights
to our northern fellow-men, that was entertained by Cape politicians
and the Imperial Parliament, is now as far distant as the Greek Kalends.
I shall not recount the long catalogue of other persecutions and injustices.
We have all felt some of them in one phase of life or other.
So serious had matters become in 1911 that in my warning to the Coloured races
against the dangers that such a policy must entail, I was bold enough
to declare at our Johannesburg Conference that when Europeans were ready
they would enter upon a war of extermination. I was severely taken to task
for imputing such inhuman motives to Europeans. I was denounced
in even worse language than has been used towards the labour leaders
in the recent strike. No vituperative epithet was strong enough
to fling at my head. My statement met with almost universal condemnation
at the hands of the editors of the white Press; but it was condemned
not on account of any falsity in it, but simply because
it was unwise and inexpedient to make such remarks. Barely eighteen months
have elapsed from the time when I made that prediction
ere we find the Union Parliament pass the Natives' Land Act,
which creates conditions, if not amounting to extermination, yet designed
to enslave the Natives of this country. That tyrannical mandate is scattering
multitudes of Natives from their homes. Mother earth is to them now
only a step-dame. They may enter either into perpetual bondage on the farm,
or spend "a sunless life in the unwholesome mine".
To-day there is also a revival of persecution in the Free State.
The old laws of the dark days are being enforced with relentless rigour.
The sanctity of homes is violated. Wives are compelled to carry passes.
Mothers driven to abandon their offspring of tender years and seek employment.
Daughters are wrenched from parental care and control,
and forced into the service of some white scoundrel. Husbands are not allowed
to work at their trades for themselves without paying 5s. per month
for the privilege. Such is the condition of things in the slave State.
And all this is done behind the power of the British flag
which floats over that Province, and yet these acts were impossible
while the Free State lacked the power to face British public opinion.
Moreover, in the Cape Colony the Free State laws are gradually
being introduced. The Curfew Laws are enforced. A distinct colour line
is being drawn in every phase of life, more distinctly since General Smuts
declared that colour and colour only is to be the dividing line.
Such a long list of tyrannical acts of persecutions as I could make out
-- persecutions of the Coloured people as a class as well as individually --
can point to but one conclusion, and that is that the whites are determined
at all hazards to repress all aspirations of the Coloured people
for a higher life, to deny all opportunities of betterment,
to keep them politically, civilly and industrially as slaves,
and even to force those who have risen back into a state worse than slavery.
South Africa is fast becoming
A land of tyrants, and a den of slaves,
Where wretches seek dishonourable graves.
Duty of Europeans
What is the duty of Europeans towards the Coloured races of the country?
Take the oft-repeated assertions of Europeans themselves.
Their leaders are fond of talking of their responsibilities to us. They have
everlastingly had, or used to have until quite recently, on their lips
these nice-sounding phrases about "our duties and our responsibilities
to our Coloured brothers". But are such phrases not hollow and meaningless?
If Europeans have duties towards the Coloured people, what else is implied
than the need for humane dealings, and endeavours to ameliorate their lot,
and uplift them in the scale of civilization. If that is what
their duties mean, let us ask how far they have fulfilled them.
Instead of kindly, humane treatment, we find barbarous cruelty and inhumanity.
Instead of ameliorating our lot they endeavour to accentuate its bitterness.
Instead of aiming at our upliftment they seek to degrade us.
Instead of lending a helping hand to those struggling to improve themselves
they thrust them back remorselessly and rigorously.
Instead of making it possible for them to enjoy the blessings
of an enlightened Christianity and a noble civilization,
they refuse them the right to live, unless they are content
to slave for farmers or descend into the bowels of the earth
to delve the gold which enslaves the world, and before whose charms
all freedom flies. In short, the object of the white man's rule to-day
is not to develop the faculties of the Coloured races so that they may live
a full life, but to keep them for ever in a servile position.
The spirit that underlies this view of governing Coloured races
spread into this Colony with the Union, and is now universal
throughout South Africa.
The Coloured people resent this, and one cannot be astonished
at the feeling of violent hostility that has sprung up.
It is a natural result. And, in the words of Carlyle, it may be said
that "to whatever other griefs the Coloured people labour under,
this bitterest grief -- injustice -- super-adds itself:
the unendurable conviction that they are unfairly dealt with,
that their lot in this world is not founded on right,
nor even on necessity and might, is neither what it should be,
nor what it shall be." The Coloured peoples are sentient beings.
Their souls smart under the stigma of injustice. They are nursing
a sullen revengeful humour of revolt against the white rule.
They have lost respect for the white man, and are refusing to give their best
to the country.
The duty of Europeans is plain. Show the Coloured people that the Government
is for the good of all, not for the privileged class. Prove that
the first aim is not to keep us as hewers of wood and drawers of water
to men who have the power. Engage the Coloured races by their affection.
Grant them equal opportunities. If you do so, then the happy harmonization
of the whole community will be achieved, and you may be sure of receiving
the grateful return of the affection and respect of the Coloured races.
The treatment we might reasonably expect from the dominant race
is just what they themselves would expect were they in our position.
We have as much right to the land of South Africa as they.
We have as much right as they to be governed on the same basis of humanity.
In the language of one of England's greatest statesmen, Europeans themselves
would have been shut out from all the blessings they enjoy,
of peace, of happiness, and of liberty if there had been any truth
in these principles which some gentlemen have not hesitated to lay down
as applicable to the case of Africa. "Had those principles been true,
we ourselves," said William Pitt, "had languished to this hour
in that miserable state of ignorance, brutality, and degradation,
in which history proves our ancestors to have been immersed.
Had other nations adopted those principles in their conduct towards us;
had other nations applied to Great Britain the reasoning
which some of the Senators of this very Island now apply to Africa,
ages might have passed without our emerging from barbarism;
and we, who are enjoying the blessings of British civilization,
of British laws, and British liberty, might at this hour have been
little superior either in morals, in knowledge, or refinement,
to the rude inhabitants of the coast of Guinea."
Such were the words of Pitt in a speech he delivered in 1792
in the course of a debate on the Slave Trade. His opinions
were vastly different from those of our South African Premier,
who only refrains from using the sjambok, so he has told us,
on no other ground than that it might also hurt himself,
and who is determined to allow no native representative
in the Union Parliament as long as the Almighty spares him to be overlord.
He does not look forward as Pitt did to the day when "We (British)
might behold the beams of science and philosophy breaking in upon Africa,
which, at some happy period, may blaze with full lustre."
But this policy of repression cannot last much longer.
If a handful of Indians in a matter of conscience can so firmly resist
what they consider injustice, what could the Coloured races not do
if they were to adopt this practice of passive resistance?
We must all admire what these British Indians have shown, and are showing,
in their determination to maintain what they deem to be their rights.
The inhumanity of the Free State has driven our women to resist the law.
Numbers of them went to jail rather than carry passes. The Coloured races
applaud the noble actions of those brave daughters of Africa.
I am convinced that if our people as a whole were prepared to suffer likewise
we could gain redress of our most serious grievances
while General Botha is still alive. Are we to be driven to that course?
Europeans should ask themselves that question, and ask it promptly.
For example, if the 200,000 Natives on the mines were,
in the language of the white Labour Party, to "down" tools,
and prefer to bask in the sun than to go down the mines;
if the farm labourer at harvesting time refused to work
for one shilling and sixpence a day, the economic foundation of South Africa
would suddenly shake and tremble with such violence that
the beautiful white South Africa superstructure which has been built on it
would come down with a crash, entailing financial ruin
such as the world has never witnessed before. If Europeans
wish to prevent such a calamity in this country, they must
pursue the right course and encourage the Coloured people of South Africa
to improve their position and become more useful citizens
than they have ever been. They will themselves participate
in the blessings that spring from our improvement and prosperity,
and they will receive "ample recompense for their tardy kindness
(if kindness it can be called) in no longer hindering" our progress.
We also should urge Europeans to go back to the path of justice, to retrace
their steps along the route they appear to have been travelling of late.
They can influence the Legislature. Whatever Parliament does
is done in the name of the white people, and whites should,
if they wish to see South Africa a happy, prosperous and peaceful country,
check the Parliament in its mad career. It is worse than insensate folly
to pursue that path any further. Many people have revolted at less oppression
than we have had to suffer. At present we have no other course
than to endure in silence the persecution of our tyrants,
and conform to the servitude imposed on us. We may well exclaim
that this is a country where
The wanton whites new penal statutes draw
Whites grind the blacks, and white men rule the law.
Nevertheless, it is not too late to mend. The estrangement
between the two races is not irreconcilable. Europeans could,
with advantage to the country, if they would only be men,
show the Coloured people that the white man's rule is for the good of all,
not for the privileged class only. If they grant the Coloured races
equal opportunities, and do not penalize them on account of race or colour,
they may see a happy realization of the dreams of the wisest statesmen
that all classes should be contented, and should work together
for the good of all.
==
Dr. Abdurahman's address provided material for leading articles
in the South African papers during that and the following week,
the criticisms, with very few exceptions, being more or less hostile.
Not one of them, however, accused him of telling untruths;
but they vehemently resented the tone of his speech, which they characterized
as inflammatory. One daily paper showed some inconsistency in the matter.
It upbraided the doctor for his attack upon oppressive legislation,
and two days later, presumably after second thoughts,
came out with a leading article urging Europeans to check
their oppression of the blacks, and in their own interests
deal justly by the native and coloured sections of the population.
By the Natives it was said that under the present circumstances
the speech could have been better for a little moderation;
but they nevertheless pronounced it the clearest and most accurate
representation of their condition under the Union Administration
that was ever uttered on a South African platform.
It should be remembered that Dr. Abdurahman delivered his address
at a time when the operation of the Land Act was raging like a plague
in the Northern Provinces, and its victims included an old man of 119 years,
respected by his white neighbours, with his nonogenarian wife,
and his sons aged seventy and eighty.
From the point of view of the Native, it is satisfactory to note
that such sincere white students of the native question
as Dr. J. E. Mackenzie of Kimberley, and Rev. Chas. Phillips of Johannesburg,
when asked to dissociate themselves from Dr. Abdurahman's charges
of "cruelty, inhumanity," etc., refused to do so until it could be pointed out
that he had spoken untruths; that, however, could more easily be done
by a shrug of the shoulders than by adducing substantial facts.
Again, it is doubtful if any South African journalist possesses
the experience of Mr. Vere Stent, the editor of the `Pretoria News'.
Mr. Stent as a Kimberley youth spent many years in the de Beers
mining compounds, working with Natives of nearly all African tribes.
He was war correspondent in Ashanti and other parts of Africa, and also with
the Republican troops under General Joubert in the Northern Transvaal
in the 'eighties, and saw the Boers (whose primitive artillery
could not dislodge a native tribe that was impregnably entrenched
inside a cave) closing up the mouth of the cave and sealing up the masonry,
then leaving the Natives, men, women and children, to smother to death
with their belongings inside the cave. Further, Mr. Stent
accompanied Cecil Rhodes to the Mattopo hills, where the late Colossus
went unarmed to hold with the Matabele chiefs the pourparler
which brought about the peace of Southern Rhodesia. In the siege of Mafeking,
Mr. Stent was Reuter's war correspondent, and all things considered,
it must be conceded that he is better qualified to write
on a subject of this kind than all the critics of Dr. Abdurahman.
Commenting on Dr. Abdurahman's address, in the course of a leading article
Mr. Stent said:
==
Here is no paid agitator, but a professional man and a scholar,
who is addressing the Coloured workers of South Africa
from the lowest Aborigine to the Bantu, from the Bantu
to the Coloured tradesman, from the Coloured tradesman
to the professional man, of whom there are a few like himself,
a great mass of unenfranchised human beings that suffer
under disabilities and actual and obvious injustice.
This vast proletariat is slowly cohering. Tribal feuds
are being forgotten. The anti-colour laws of South Africa,
and particularly of the north -- which makes no difference
between the savage Zulu fresh from his kraal and the stately Malay,
between the Mashaangan and a man like Dr. Abdurahman himself --
are welding together this vast human mass, in the flux of a single grievance,
and that grievance, the disability put upon colour qua colour by the law.
What if some day, and sooner than we think, that great mass becomes mobile,
learns to co-operate, and moves irresistibly together?
What, again, which is more likely, if its molecules
realize the power of their inertia, if they simply decide
quite constitutionally and without violence to do nothing,
pending a remedy of their grievances?
It will, of course, be said that Dr. Abdurahman is a picturesque extremist;
that his position is an abnormal one; that he does not speak for
the Coloured people and the Natives as a whole. Do not let us be too certain
on the last point.
As to the first, there runs through the speech, holding it together
and making it difficult to attack, a single plain statement in it --
a steel strong thread of truth.
He throws quite a new light upon the Voortrekkers when he says: --
"The northward march of the Voortrekkers was a gigantic plundering raid.
They swept like a desolating pestilence through the land,
blasting everything in their path, and pitilessly laughing
at the ravages from which the native races have not yet recovered."
But from the point of view of the native races, the description is a true one.
To say of the Natives' Land Act, "That tyrannical mandate is scattering
multitudes of Natives from their homes" is extravagant. Only a few so far
have been disturbed, but many must be disturbed for the Natives' Land Act
is tyrannical. In fact, though couched in the flowing language of an orator,
the speech on the whole is not an unfair summing up of the grievances
of the coloured people, and there is a very solemn warning in it.
The European labour agitators may well envy Dr. Abdurahman:
his logic, his doctrine and his power of invective. He has so much
to complain of, he asks for so very little. Just equality of opportunity.
He does not propose to set up any Trades' Hall government within a government;
he does not talk about or attempt to incite to riot or revolution;
he does not speak for a few skilled artisans who are living in comfort,
and sometimes luxury, upon the sweat of the black man's brow;
he speaks for the dark, submerged 5,000,000 South Africans upon whom light
is very slowly breaking.
==
It should also be recorded that long before Dr. Abdurahman
became President of the Coloured Organization, white men
have been delivering speeches, some of them rather indignant,
on the treatment of His Majesty's coloured and native subjects
in South Africa. We will refer to just a few for example:
==
"I will leave out of account altogether," said His Excellency,
"the unwise and hard things said by reckless and unthinking white men
about Natives; I will only ask white men to consider whether they have
ever calculated the cumulative effect on the Natives of what I may call
the policy of pin-pricks? In some places a Native, however personally clean,
or however hard he may have striven to civilize himself,
is not allowed to walk on the pavement of the public streets;
in others he is not allowed to go into a public park or to pay
for the privilege of watching a game of cricket; in others he is not allowed
to ride on the top of a tram-car, even in specified seats set apart for him;
in others he is not allowed to ride in a railway carriage except in
a sort of dog-kennel; in others he is unfeelingly and ungraciously treated
by white officials; in others he may not stir without a pass,
and if, for instance, he comes, as thousands of Natives do,
from the farm on which he resides to work in a labour district
-- (an act which is highly beneficial to the State and commendable
in the eyes of all white men) -- he does not meet with facilities,
but with elaborate impediments. In the course of his absence from home
he may have to take out at least eight different passes, for several of which
he has the additional pleasure of paying, though he would be much happier
without them; and it is possible that, in an extreme case,
he may have to conform to no fewer than twenty different pass regulations.
Now, let a white man put himself in the position of a black man,
and see how he would like it, and let him ask whether
such regulations and laws really make his task easier?" -- Lord Selborne,
before the Congregation of the University of the Cape of Good Hope,
February 27, 1909.
==
The Hon. Dewdney W. Drew, M.A., who was member of the Legislative Council
under the Crown Colony Government in the Orange River Colony, now misnamed
the Orange "Free" State, is one of the leading South African journalists.
In his pamphlet on the Native Question, about four years ago,
Mr. Drew made the following remarks:
==
Most Europeans adopt towards the Natives the privilege of the aristocrat --
not always with the manners of an aristocrat. Many whites expect
as a matter of course obeisance and service from all Natives,
and think it perfectly natural to cuff and correct them when
they make mistakes. Any resentment is apt to draw down severe punishment.
In the law courts the Natives do not get the same justice as the whites.
A Native convicted of an offence gets, in the first place, the punishment
which a white man would get and something extra for the colour of his skin --
often lashes. The bias of white juries in trying Natives
charged with offences against whites is such as to have brought
the jury system into disrepute, and become a chief argument among lawyers
for its entire abolition. The Natives suffer various restrictions
on their liberty; they may not use the side-walks, nor visit a friend's house
after a certain hour at night, nor move abroad, or even exist
anywhere in this "white man's country" without a pass.
All the police, if not all Europeans, have the right
to arrest and search them, and the exercise of this right is made sometimes
a means of shamefully molesting their women. In one Colony
the Natives are not allowed to own land, and in another they can only do so
under virtually prohibitive conditions. If the tenant families
residing upon a farm grow beyond a certain limited number -- three or five --
the surplus are liable to be driven off by the police. As a rule
only the worse-paid forms of work are permitted to the Natives,
and even these are grudged them. A legislator rises in one Colony to move
that all native messengers and other native servants in the Government offices
be immediately discharged and replaced by poor whites. In another Colony,
the papers and the public chorus with joy to hear that the C.S.A.R.
has been able to reduce its native staff, and hopes ultimately
to get rid of them all. There are municipalities in which Natives,
if they drive a cab, have to pay a higher licence than a white man,
and in which they are not permitted to make bricks unless they do so
for a white employer. In these municipalities they are not allowed
to educate their children above the age of sixteen, nor may they keep
their daughters at home under their own protection after that age,
except the girls find positions in service, in which case they may sleep
under the roof of their parents if the distance is not too great.
And, of course, the Natives pay relatively a higher taxation than the whites.
Articles which they use, but which are little bought by the whites,
are marked for special customs duties. For instance,
the white farmers' machinery is duty free, but in several Colonies
the native hoes pay an ad valorem tax of 25 per cent.
So of shawls; the Customs officer is content to take 12 1/2 per cent
on the kind used by Europeans, but when he comes to the native shawl,
the duty is again 25 per cent. In addition to these stiff indirect taxes,
the Native pays direct taxes amounting to one-sixth part of their average
annual wage. Not only they, but even the most respectable coloured people,
are in some places not allowed to ride in trams or walk in the parks,
or attend public sports, or evening concerts, or even follow a deceased white,
though he should be their own father, to his last resting place
in the European cemetery. As to the laws, they realize,
in all the Colonies but one, Wellington's great ideal for the people,
by having nothing to do with them except obey them. In addition
to this treatment, varying from mere pin-pricks to oppression,
they are mostly referred to in the Press, in public speeches,
and private conversation, with words of opprobrium and contempt
as "niggers" and "black brutes". The occasional outbreaks of a few,
usually maddened with drink which Europeans have sold to them,
are put to the discredit of the whole race. Those who,
when they hear of a case of rape, talk about the black peril,
forget apparently that it is largely the result of a bad environment.
In their own country the Natives are by no means lacking in respect
to white womanhood. A European lady travelling in Basutoland without escort
would probably be safer there than in England under the like condition.
The Hon. H. Burton, Attorney-General of the Cape Colony,
reports, after visiting the Transkei, that in that great reserve,
where ten thousand Europeans are surrounded by a million Natives,
the molestation of white women is a thing unheard of. . . .
Obviously the treatment which the Natives get is not on the whole
such as he can be expected to like, and the drift of things
appears to be towards greater harshness, especially towards
severer pass laws and the stricter denial of property rights.
In one of our Parliaments a Commission has just reported
in favour of breaking up the reserves and bringing the Natives
under a system resembling slavery.
==
Chapter XI The Natives' Land Act in Cape Colony
It must not be lost sight of that all land held by Europeans
in Africa has been acquired by conquest or diplomacy,
and that the aboriginal Natives have been ousted by the white man:
that being so, I cannot see any reason why the Native
should not be allowed to buy back what he has lost; in my opinion
he should be encouraged to do so. . . .
He is a better citizen than the thriftless European who lives
from hand to mouth and makes no effort to better his circumstances. . . .
Legislation should be carefully watched lest endeavours be made
to deprive deserving Natives of the privilege of acquiring title to land.
In the Transvaal strong efforts are being made to restrict
the acquisition of land by Natives; but I can see
neither justice nor reason in such a measure. If the Native
by his education, honesty, thrift and industry has got the means
to buy land, even in the Transvaal, why should he not be allowed
to do so? . . .
The Natives are already pretty tightly "squeezed" in the matter of land
in South Africa, and it is time this "squeezing" process came to an end.
They must have somewhere to live. What would we do in this country
without them?
Mr. J. Hemming, a Cape Magistrate.
During the month of October, 1913, the fell work of the iniquitous
provisions of the Natives' Land Act was done so remorselessly
that the British blood of certain editors of Natal dailies
rose superior to their Colonial prejudices and they lashed out against
such wicked and wholesale injustice on the part of the legislation
against the peaceful native population. It has already been pointed out
that when the Secretary for Native Affairs started to tour the districts,
to teach Magistrates how to enforce the new Plague Act,
some people thought that the tour was part of a scheme to alleviate
the distress that followed the enforcement of the Natives' Land Act,
but the Natives and those of their sympathizers who followed
Mr. Dower's itinerary very soon discovered that the authorities
were waging a war of extermination against the blacks;
and that they were bent upon reducing the independent black peasantry
to a state of thraldom. Commenting on Mr. Dower's visit to the "Free" State,
the `Natal Advertiser' of October 4, 1913, said: --
==
The explanation of the Natives' Land Act, given to the Barolongs of Thaba Nchu
by Mr. Dower, is so illuminative of the wretched unsatisfactoriness of the Act
that the occasion certainly merits notice. It would be difficult
to conceive a more thoroughgoing and drastic condemnation of the Act
than this attempt at faint praise of it, delivered by
the Secretary of the Native Affairs Department. All he can say
to these unfortunate Natives is, that it would be better
to engage as labourers or sell up than to trek from pillar to post,
till all their cattle had died. As to saying that farmers
always had power to evict, the interrupting Native hit the nail on the head
by his ejaculation: "But we could go elsewhere."
==
On October 5, the daily papers published the following telegram
from Johannesburg:
==
As the result of the passing of the Natives' Land Act, groups of Natives
are to be seen in the different Provinces seeking for new land.
They have crossed over from the Free State into Natal, from Natal
into the Transvaal, and from the Transvaal into British Bechuanaland. . . .
Yesterday a native arrived in Johannesburg from the Umvoti district, Natal,
and reported that a chief, together with his tribe, had been evicted
from a farm in the Greytown district, Natal, and that feeling in the matter
had become acute.
In the Western Transvaal hundreds of natives are crossing over
into the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and in the Eastern Transvaal
they are concentrating on three farms in the Wakkerstroom district
that have been bought by a native land company.
At present the attention of those working for the repeal of the law
is being concentrated on the collection of funds for the purpose of sending
a deputation to England. They hope to arouse public opinion there
by lectures and other means.
==
The `Natal Mercury' said:
==
We pointed out at the time that the Act was passed that it was being
rushed through the House without any proper inquiry and without much regard
for native opinion or native feeling in a matter that affected
their most vital interests. It was replied that the administration of the Act
would be carried out on sympathetic lines, and that Mr. Sauer
would make himself personally responsible for the administration
being carried out in a manner which would inflict the least possible hardships
on the Natives affected. The industrial crisis was followed
by the untimely end of Mr. Sauer which made his tour impossible,
and the Act now seems to be put in force on the most approved red-tape lines,
with the result that the Natives are in a state of great alarm and agitation.
At the recent Missionary Conference at Maritzburg on July 8,
the question was the subject of considerable discussion,
and a series of resolutions were passed.
What is happening is that in many places the Natives are being driven off land
where they have been from time immemorial, so to speak. They consider the Act
as an attempt to drive them into slavery, and numbers of them are being placed
in the position of having no place to which to go.
==
It must not be supposed, however, that all English colonial journalists
regretted the operation of this atrocious law. The `Cape Times',
for instance, vied with the Hertzog press in congratulating the minister
on having successfully passed it, and in belittling the hardships
of the victims of the Act. One English farmer wrote to the `Farmer's Weekly'
that the evictions were effective, but at the same time he regretted that
"as long as the Native kept to the public road he still had a resting place
for the hollow of his foot." The Native had been successfully legislated
off the land, and apparently this farmer wanted him to be legislated
off the roads as well. Another English journalist wrote to the `Sunday Post'
that the hardships are exaggerated, as he had himself seen
only twelve families evicted in one day and on one farm.
The question which this statement suggests is: How many families
must be ejected from one farm in one day to constitute a hardship;
and whether this journalist would view with the same coolness
a law which forcibly turned twelve white families off a farm,
against the wishes of themselves and the landowner?
Again, it cannot be said that South African politicians as a whole
were indifferent to the suffering of the luckless victims of the Land Act,
but they eased their consciences with the palliative thought
that the sufferers were not so many. However this blissful
though erroneous self-satisfaction was nailed to the counter
by the Rev. A. Burnet of Transvaal, when he said: "I have yet to learn
that a harsh law becomes less harsh, and an act of injustice less unjust,
because only a few people are affected by it."
The section of the law debarring Natives from hiring land
is particularly harsh. It has been explained that its major portion
is intended to reduce the Natives to serfs; but it should also
be noted that the portion of the Act that is against Natives
acquiring any interest whatsoever in land aims directly
at dispossessing the Natives of their live stock. Section 5
provides for a fine of 100 Pounds, or six months' imprisonment,
to a farmer convicted of accommodating a Native on his farm.
And if after the fine is paid, the Native leaves the stock on the farm,
for a number of days, while he goes to search for another place,
there will be a fine of 5 Pounds per diem for each day the cattle remain
on the farm. The cattle should be consigned to the road
immediately the order is given for the ejection, and they should remain
without food till their owner sells them, or finds employment under a farmer
as a wage-earner. Thus it would seem that the aim of Section 5
is not only to prohibit native occupation of land, but, in addition to it,
makes it impossible for him to be a cattle owner.
When this harsh provision of the law was brought to the notice
of Cape politicians, they shrugged their shoulders and remarked
that they were happy that things in the Cape were not so bad.
But this is no excuse at all, for in accordance with the wording of the Act,
as substantiated by its results upon the Cape Natives,
the condition of these Natives is worse in many instances
than it is among the Natives of Natal, or of the Transvaal.
In these two Provinces a European who has no intention of evicting his Natives
may retain their services under certain restrictions (see Sub-sect. 6 (c));
but in the Cape and the Orange "Free" State, the Native,
according to Section 1, may retain no interest whatever in land,
including the "ploughing on shares".
Well-to-do Natives, from Grahamstown to the Transkeian boundaries,
mainly derived their wealth from this form of occupation. It enabled them
to lead respectable lives and to educate their children. The new prohibitions
tended to drive these Natives back into overcrowded locations,
with the logical result that sundry acute domestic problems,
such as disordered sanitation caused by the smallness of the location,
loss of numerous heads of cattle owing to the too limited pasturage
in the locations, are likely to arise. These herds of cattle
have been the Natives' only capital, or the Natives' "bank",
as they truthfully call them, so that, deprived of this occupation,
the down-grade of a people, under an unsympathetic quasi-Republican Government
like the present Union Administration, must be very rapid.
The fact that the traditional liberal policy of Cape Colony
has broken down through this law can no longer be disputed:
indeed, the only comfort that had been held out to the Natives
was that Mr. Sauer would make the Natives' Land Act a dead letter.
This statesman having since died, we were anxious to see how the Cape Natives
were faring under the Act, so we left Kimberley on November 1, 1913,
on a tour of observation in the eastern districts of the Cape Province.
Our programme included visits to two alleged defenders of the Act,
in the persons of Rev. James Henderson of Lovedale, and Mr. Tengo Jabavu
of King Williamstown, editor of the Xosa Ministerial newspaper.
Our object in visiting these gentlemen was to acquaint ourselves
with their point of view, and if possible to arrive at an agreement with them.
We reached Alice in the forenoon and walked through the town
to the famous Native Institution. We made our first acquaintance
with Lovedale, and we hardly remember having seen so many native boys
housed in any one place before. But it pained us to think what must be
the future lot of this great gathering of young fellows, who are now
debarred by law from rights of ownership of the soil of South Africa,
their own homeland.
During our three hours' stay at Lovedale we had an interview
with Mr. Henderson, the Principal, about things in general,
and the Native College Scheme in particular, and lastly, but not least,
about the Native Land Act. Unfortunately we could learn nothing
from the eminent educator, for we found that his conclusions
were based on second-hand information. He had never met
any member of the Government, or their representatives,
in fact it was news to the Principal that in going to Lovedale, that morning,
we had met men on their way from the Magistrate's office in Alice,
not far away, who had been definitely warned by the Magistrate
against re-ploughing their old lands on the farms. Of course Mr. Henderson
was moved with sympathy for a people so ruthlessly treated by a Government
they had loyally served. And it would seem that the Principal of Lovedale
had since made independent inquiries, for we have read in the Lovedale paper
other evidence of the operation of this drastic law that had not come under
our own observation. Thus in supporting the case of the Native Deputation
in the Imperial Parliament on July 28, 1914, Sir Albert Spicer
effectively read passages from the `Christian Express', the organ of Lovedale.
One of the instructors at Lovedale very kindly lent us a horse,
and Mr. Moikangoa accompanied us to an all-night meeting at Sheshegu,
a famous political "rendezvous" which has acquired this distinction
because it is the centre of numerous little locations,
within easy reach of four surrounding Magistracies. At the all-night meeting
at Sheshegu there were chiefs, headmen, and other Natives from the Peddie,
Fort Beaufort and Alice districts. There were a number of school teachers
also from these districts, and two or three native storekeepers.
The disclosures made by the several speakers concerning
the operation of the Land Act among the Natives made one's heart bleed.
The chieftain Kapok Mgijima, who entertained many of the visitors
to the meeting, had his own peculiar experience under the Act.
Not only had he been debarred from re-ploughing his own lands,
but he had also been ordered to move his oxen from a farm owned by a European,
where for fourteen years he had grazed his oxen. Another Native,
who had been ploughing in the direction of King Williamstown,
was warned by the authorities not to resume his ploughing in 1913.
He could only do so as a servant in the employ of a white landowner.
He was further warned that if he connived with the white man to cheat the law,
by representing themselves as master and servant, they would, when found out
to be still carrying on their old relation of landlord and tenant,
be dealt with very severely.
The landlord was furious. "Why," he asked, "did you tell them
of your intention? You should have done your business quietly;
now that you have apprised them they will watch us, you fool."
"But," said the Native, "owing to the existence of East Coast fever
in Transkei, no animals can be taken from one plantation to another
without a magisterial permit disclosing the object of the removal.
I had to tell what I wanted to come here for. I was asked
at the Magistrate's office if I did not know the law.
I said that I was aware of such a new law, which had created
a lot of disturbance in the Northern Provinces, but I had never heard
that it was applicable to the Cape. To this the Magistrate's clerk replied
that it was not a Provincial law, it was a law of the Union,
of which the Cape formed part. There were certain exemptions,
the clerk added, but they did not exempt the Cape Natives from
the prohibition of ploughing on white men's farms and grazing their cattle
on those farms."
Other speakers narrated their experiences under the Act, and these experiences
showed that the Plague Act was raging with particular fury
in the old Cape Districts of Fort Beaufort, Grahamstown, King Williamstown,
and East London. At this meeting it was resolved to support a movement
to send an appeal to His Majesty the King, against this law.
Our visit to these places took place just after the glorious showers
of the early summer. On the wider tracts of land owned by Europeans
the grass looked invitingly green. The maiden soil,
looking beautiful and soft after the soaking rains, cried silently
for cultivation. The people who had hitherto depended on such cultivation
for their subsistence were now prohibited by reason of their colour
from earning their usual livelihood, as directed by Almighty God,
"In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread."
This prohibition seems particularly contemptible when it is remembered
that the majority of the Natives of these locations are Fingoes,
and that their fathers in the early days joined the British
in fighting most of the Kafir wars, side by side with British troops.
They shared in all the massacres and devastating raids
committed upon the British settlers by unfriendly native tribes.
As a mark of recognition of their loyalty to the Government,
and of their co-operation with the British forces in the field of battle,
this country was given, in the name of Her late Majesty Victoria,
to their chiefs by a British Governor. But in spite of this treaty,
the people have been gradually dispossessed of the land during the past
three-quarters of a century. Hence the occupation, now crystallized
into ownership, passed bit by bit into white hands. Hitherto the right
to live on, and to cultivate, lands which thus formerly belonged to them
was never challenged, but all that is now changed. Naturally the ingratitude
meted out to these people by the authorities in return for services
consistently rendered by three successive generations of them will be a blow,
not only to the economic independence of a loyal and patriotic people,
but to the belief in British sense of justice.
Chapter XII The Passing of Cape Ideals
Naboth was right to hold on to his home. There were garnered memories
that all the wealth of Ahab could not buy.
Ward Beecher.
From the great meeting place -- Sheshegu -- we went through
the Alice district. In this district we met several men
who would get no crops -- their annual income -- the next year,
as the law had placed an embargo on their ordinary avocation.
King Williamstown was also visited, and there at a meeting
held in the Baptist Church, which was kindly lent for the purpose
by the Rev. Mr. Pierce, it was unanimously resolved to appeal
to His Majesty the King against the Natives' Land Act.
Mr. W. Sebe presided over this meeting of representative Natives,
and Mr. Bassie translated the Act.
At Queenstown a similar resolution was passed by practically
the whole meeting. Beyond answering questions at each of these meetings,
the writer said little else besides reading the Act, which told its own tale.
Many Natives who had never seen a copy of the Act before,
but who had heard its praises sung by interested parties and had believed
the false teachers, attended the meetings to oppose any undue interference
with "the law". But these men were appalled when the law was read to them,
sentence by sentence, and translated by their own teachers
in their own tongue. Then a discussion would follow, invariably ending
with the query: "Can a Parliament capable of passing such a law
still be trusted by the community concerned?"
The Queenstown meeting, which was held in the Native Baptist School
kindly lent by Messrs. Damane and Koti, was more interesting than the others
because it is the only one of the many native meetings we attended
where there was any dissent. There were four dissentients
at Queenstown, and we take this opportunity of congratulating
all genuine enemies of native welfare on the fact that they had
four staunch protagonists of colour, who showed more manliness
than Mr. Tengo-Jabavu because they attended the meeting.
Still, if the courage of these opponents was admirable,
we confess we did not like the gross callousness, and what seemed to us
an indecent disregard of native suffering that was manifest in their conduct:
when the story of the hardships of unfortunate victims of the Land Act
was narrated they laughed, and repeated the newspaper excuse
that the evictions were not directly due to the Act.
We agree with them that evictions have always taken place,
since the first human couple was sent out of the Garden of Eden, yet they
must admit that until the Union Parliament passed the Natives' Land Act
there never was a law saying to the native population of South Africa,
"You must not settle anywhere, under a penalty of 100 Pounds,
unless you are a servant." These unsympathetic Natives made no effort
to defend the Act itself, but attempted to bluff the meeting
with the supposed danger of "reprisals by spiteful Boers, who, they said,
will be more vindictive if Natives dared to appeal to the King,
over the heads of the Boer Government." But the meeting would not be bluffed.
One speaker especially remarked that the Act embodied
the very worst form of vindictiveness, and the sooner the whole world
understood the Union Parliament's attitude towards the blacks
the better it would be. The meeting agreed that no slavery could be worse
than to be outlawed in your own homes, and the motion was carried
against the said four dissentients.
We interviewed a number of the Natives passing through Queenstown,
and the result showed that many and varied were the vicissitudes
of the Natives in the eastern districts of the Cape Province.
From Queenstown we touched some of the north-eastern districts
of the Cape Province. In one of these districts a fairly prosperous Native
was farming as a tenant on a farm. By sheer industry
he had earned and enjoyed the respect of all who knew him.
His landlord, a white man, was particularly proud of him.
This Native went into town one morning and as he passed the Magistrate's Court
on his way to the stores, a messenger hailed him inside.
Having entered the office, the Assistant Magistrate served him with a notice
to leave his hired farm, on which he had been a tenant since his youth,
and which was as much a home to him as to the proprietor.
The landlord, on hearing of this, naturally resented this usurpation
on the part of the authorities, who, he said, had unduly interfered
with his private affairs. Next day the Baas drove into the town to interview
the Magistrate, and to remonstrate with him on what he thought to be
the unauthorized interference of the Assistant Magistrate.
He and the Magistrate read and re-read the Natives' Land Act,
and both came to the conclusion that it was a law that was as complicated
as it was unnecessary; but the Magistrate, being a representative of the law,
decided that, rightly or wrongly, it must be obeyed.
This visit of the Baas to the Magistrate had made our native friend hopeful
that it would result in averting the calamity that threatened
him and his family, but, to his utter dismay, the landlord on returning soon
undeceived him and gave his own opinion of "the most peculiar and wicked law"
that he had ever heard of. Although Dutchmen had known and had heard of
some strange laws, yet this Dutchman was so full of indignation
at the strangeness of this law that his description of it
was made up of largely untranslatable Dutch adjectives. These adjectives,
however, could not relieve the suffering of his native tenant
from the wound inflicted by the law in his sudden expulsion from his home.
It seems clear that no South African Native, on leaving a Dutch farm,
had ever received a more respectable send-off than our friend did
on leaving his farm in compliance with the Natives' Land Act.
The white landlord accompanied him right up to the boundary of the farm
which for seventeen years had been his home, and which he was so cruelly
forced to leave. For the first time in his life, as the Dutchman said,
he shook hands with a Kafir. And, as he did so, he called down
the direst curses upon the persons responsible for the impasse --
curses, by the way, which seem to be liberally answered.
It would, perhaps, be interesting to add what has happened since.
Our native friend took his family to the town, because the Act
is not enforceable in municipal areas. Leaving his family there,
he started roaming about the districts, looking for a place
where he could graze his cattle. In the course of the wandering
his stock thinned down, owing to death from starvation and other causes.
At home his old master found he could not get on without him,
so learning of the whereabouts of the Native and also of his sad plight,
the master sent out to him and advised him to return home,
graze his stock there, and "hang the legal consequences."
May they never be found out.
It has now amounted to this that white men who wish to deal humanely
with their native friends must resort to clandestine methods, to enable
a Native and his stock to drink the fresh water and breathe the pure air
in the wide tracts of South Africa, for by law Natives have now less rights
than the snakes and scorpions abounding in that country.
Can a law be justified which forces the people to live
only by means of chicanery; and which, in order to progress, compels one
to cheat the law officers of the Crown? This case is but one of many
that came under our own observation, and there may be many more
of which we know nothing.
The `Cape Times', the leading Bothaite daily newspaper of the Cape,
has defended every action of the Union, including the dismissal
of English Civil servants. It justifies this last act
by alleging that the dismissed officials did not know Dutch.
Consequently it could not be expected that this journal
could have any qualms about a law enacted specifically to repress black men.
It supported every harsh clause of the Natives' Land Bill,
including Clause 1. However, when the native deputation to England
gave proofs of the ravages of the "plague law" in Cape Colony,
the `Cape Times', instead of defending its pet law, said:
"The complaint to which they give precedence is particularly instructive,"
and so, quoting from the deputation's appeal which says: "In the Cape Colony,
where we are repeatedly told that the Act is not in force,
the Magistrates of East London, King Williamstown and Alice
prohibited native tenants from reploughing their old hired lands last October,
and also ordered them to remove their stock from grazing farms,"
this ministerial daily adds: "It is unnecessary to consider
the justice or otherwise of this complaint for it is perfectly clear
that if a Magistrate oversteps the bounds of the law, it is a matter
to be dealt with by the Union Government."
It will be observed that this is an insinuation that the Magistrates
who administer the Land Act at the Cape are exceeding their authority
and should be "dealt with by the Union Government". Now, what are the facts?
It is well known that all Magistrates, including those at the Cape, are paid
to administer every legislative instrument, whether sensible or absurd,
passed by the partly literate Parliament of the Union of South Africa.
Hence, these Magistrates, in ordering Natives off their farms,
and turning native cattle off the grazing areas, are only carrying out
Section 1 of the Natives' Land Act. One Cape Magistrate who ruled
that to plough on a farm was no breach of the law, WAS "dealt with
by the Union Government", for a peremptory order came from Pretoria
declaring such a decision to be illegal.
Therefore, so far from the Cape Magistrate "overstepping
the bounds of the law" in expelling Natives from the farms and native cattle
from their pastures, these Magistrates could legally have done worse,
inasmuch as they could, under Section 5, have sent these Natives to prison
for contravening Section 1. In justification, then,
of its own and of its party's share in this legislative achievement,
the `Cape Times' should have sought a more worthy excuse than thus attempting
to make scapegoats of a band of fair-minded men who presumably,
prior to the Union, never thought it would be part of their duty
to administer from the Cape bench an Act which inflicted such gross cruelty.
Who, in the days of the Murrays, Mr. F. Y. St. Leger, and subsequently
of Mr. F. E. Garrett, could have thought that the `Cape Times'
would in this manner have destroyed its great traditions,
built up during the nineteenth century, by sanctioning a law
under which Cape Magistrates would be forced to render homeless
the Natives of the Cape in their own Cape of Good Hope? The one Colony
whose administration, under its wise statesmen of the Victorian era,
created for it that tremendous prestige that was felt
throughout the dark continent, and that rested largely
upon the fact that among its citizens, before its incorporation
with the northern states, it knew no distinction of colour,
for all were free to qualify for the exercise of electoral rights.
The old Cape Colony of our boyhood days, whose administration,
despite occasional lapses, managed during a hundred years
to steer clear of the familiar massacres and bloodshed of punitive expeditions
against primitive tribes, massacres and bloodshed so common
in other parts of the same continent; the old Cape Colony whose
peaceful methods of civilization acted as an incentive to the Bechuana tribes
to draw the sword and resist every attempt at annexation by Europeans
other than the British: a resistance so determined that it thwarted
the efforts to link German South West Africa with the Transvaal Republic,
and so kept open the trade route to Rhodesia for the British.
All this done without any effort on the part of the British themselves,
and done by the Natives out of regard for Cape Colony ideals.
But alas! these Natives are now debarred from tilling the soil of the Cape,
except as Republican serfs. What would Sir George Grey, or Bishop Gray,
or Saul Solomon, say of this? What would these Empire builders say if they
came back here and found that the hills and valleys of their old Cape Colony
have ceased to be a home to many of their million brawny blacks,
whose muscles helped the conqueror to secure his present hold of the country?
What would these champions of justice say if they saw how,
with her entrance into the Union, Cape Colony had bartered
her shining ideals for the sombre history of the northern states,
a history defiled with innocent blood, and a territory
soaked with native tears and scandalized by burying Natives alive;
and that with one stroke of the pen the so-called federation
has demolished the Rhodes's formula of "equal rights for all civilized men,
irrespective of colour"? How are the mighty fallen!
But while we sing the funeral dirge of Cape ideals, the Republicans
sing songs of gladness. Thus, when Mr. Sauer, a noted disciple
of the late Mr. Saul Solomon, died, the `Bloemfontein Friend',
the leading Ministerial daily of the "Free" State, said:
==
He stood uncompromisingly for Rhodes's ideal of complete equality,
and it was an open secret that Mr. Sauer, who piloted the Natives' Land Act
through Parliament last session, would, had circumstances been different,
have been its strongest opponent. It was the irony of fate that made him
Minister of Native Affairs when a law had to be passed which appeared to be
in entire conflict with his cherished lifelong convictions.
The Act he passed embodied the hated northern principles which
he had consistently opposed during the whole of his political career, and,
as in the case of the Act of Union, it was only Mr. Sauer's influence that
allayed the feelings of the intransigent section of the native population.
Mr. Sauer was a convinced disciple of the teachings of Saul Solomon,
who founded and preached the gospel of the Cape native policy.
In our view that was a mistaken policy. Its principal modern exponent has now
been taken away, and if God, and not man, shapes the destinies of nations,
we may be pardoned the belief that Mr. Sauer's death at this juncture
means something more than the mere passing from the finite into the infinite
of one human being.
==
If this is a brutal utterance, it is at any rate more frank,
and therefore more manly, than the vacillating policy of the `Cape Times',
the Ministerial organ of the Cape Colony. It is said that "politics
make strange bed-fellows", but not even the shrewdest of our political seers
could have predicted that in 1913 the `Cape Times' would be found
in the same camp as its Republican contemporaries which sing glees
over the demolished structure of Cape traditions, and over
the passing away of Victorian statesmen and the principles they stood for --
Victorian principles, which the `Cape Times' of other days helped to build up
in another political camp! How are the mighty fallen!
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o'er thy green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene!
How often have I paused on every charm:
The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm,
The never failing brook, the busy mill,
The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill,
The hawthorn bush with seats beneath the shade
For talking age and whisp'ring lovers made!
How often have I blest the coming day,
When toil remitting lent its turn to play!
And all the village train, from labour free,
Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree;
With bashful virgins' sidelong looks of love,
The matron's glance that would these looks reprove.
These were thy charms, sweet Province, sports like these,
With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please;
These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,
These were thy charms -- but all these charms are fled.
Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen
And desolation saddens all thy green:
And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand,
Far, far away, thy children leave the land.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
The Cape Native can thoroughly endorse these sentiments of Oliver Goldsmith,
which, however, compared with his own present lot, are mild in the extreme;
for it could not have been amid scenes of this description,
and with an outlook half as bad as ours, that the same author further sings:
A time there was e'er England's grief began,
When every rood of ground maintain'd its man;
But times are alter'd: Trade's unfeeling train
Usurp the land and dispossess the swain.
Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,
Those calm desires that ask'd but little room,
Those graceful sports that grac'd the peaceful scene,
Liv'd in each look and brighten'd all the green,
These far departing seek a kinder shore,
And rural mirth and manners are no more.
In all my wand'rings round this world of care,
In all my griefs -- and God has giv'n my share --
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down.
Chapter XIII Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, the Pioneer Native Pressman
Egotists cannot converse; they talk to themselves only.
Alcott.
There is issued in King Williamstown (Cape) `Imvo', the second oldest
newspaper published in any one of the South African native languages.
This paper formerly had a kind of monopoly in the field of native journalism,
and it deserved a wide reputation. In later years the `Izwi',
another native journal, appeared on the scene; and then
the King Williamstown pioneer could hardly hold its ground
against the new rival. The `Izwi', though somewhat too pronounced
against the traditional policy of the Dutch, appealed to a large section
mainly by reason of its Imperial sentiment. The result was that
Mr. Tengo-Jabavu's paper began to sink into difficulties and had to cast about
for a financial rescuer. Prominent supporters of the present Ministry
came to the rescue; three out of the ten members of the first Union Cabinet
became shareholders in the sinking `Imvo', so that the editor,
in a sense, cannot very well be blamed because his paper is native
only in language. However, we do not think that he does full justice
to his ministerial employers.
God forbid that we should ever find that our mind had become
the property of some one other than ourselves; but should
such a misfortune ever overtake us, we should at least strive
to serve our new proprietor diligently, and whenever our people
are unanimously opposed to a policy, we should consider it a part of our duty
to tell him so; but that is not Mr. Jabavu's way of serving a master.
Throughout the course of a general election, we have known him
to feed his masters (the S.A. party), upon flapdoodle,
fabricating the mess out of imaginary native votes of confidence
for his masters' delectation, and leaving them to discover
the real ingredients of the dish, at the bottom of the poll,
when the result has been declared.
He did the same thing in the case of the Natives' Land Bill.
Thus when he found that the trouble was organizing the Natives
on an unprecedented scale, and that the Native Press and the Native Congress
were unanimous in denouncing the Grobler-Sauer Bill,
a Reuter's telegram appeared in the newspapers purporting to give
the proceedings of a meeting of the Natives of King Williamstown,
who, it was alleged, approved of the Bill. When the author reached
King Williamstown, during this visit, he found the King Williamstown Natives
disgusted with what they said was Reuter's speculation upon their feelings.
But Reuter's agent on the spot, whose office we also visited,
knew nothing about the meeting. The only meeting ever held in the place,
we were told, was one of nineteen persons presided over by Mr. Tengo-Jabavu,
and when Mr. Jabavu asked the other eighteen Natives present in the meeting
besides him to signify their approval of the legislation,
Mr. W. D. Soga (a well-known native politician) asked the chairman
to place a motion before the meeting, as he was ready to move an amendment.
The temper of the meeting having already shown itself unfavourably
to the chairman's suggestion, the latter, instead of challenging
a positive defeat, suggested an adjournment. This was agreed to
for the simple reason that nineteen persons were too few
to express the wishes of the 100,000 Natives of King Williamstown.
But, the next morning, the message "from Reuter's agent at King Williamstown"
appeared in all the daily papers, except that of King Williamstown,
conveying the Natives' approval of the Bill, and Mr. Sauer, in Parliament,
made capital out of the "mess"-age. But Mr. Tengo-Jabavu lived
to rue his action in this matter before very long. His authority,
or rather his leadership, of the Natives, was put to the test in March, 1914,
when he contested the Tembuland seat against Dr. W. B. Rubusana.
Dr. Rubusana had always been supposed to occupy the second place,
and Mr. Jabavu the first place, in the estimation of the Natives
of the Cape Province: yet, to the surprise of everybody,
Mr. Jabavu, although assisted by the Dutch vote, polled only 294 votes,
while Dr. Rubusana, who relied entirely on the coloured vote, polled 852.
We mentioned, in a previous chapter, the names of Principal Henderson
and Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, as those whom we especially desired to interview
during our trip. Having stated the fulfilment of this desire
in regard to Mr. Henderson, we now proceed to state it
in regard to Mr. Jabavu.
There was to be a meeting of the Natives of King Williamstown,
in the Baptist Chapel, on November 3, 1913, to discuss the Natives' Land Act.
To this meeting we had been invited by telegram; and in going
to King Williamstown we made up our mind to invite Mr. Jabavu
to this meeting of Natives of his town, and in fact, to treat him
with the same respect as we had shown the Principal of Lovedale
with such happy results; but, to our horror, we found that Mr. Jabavu
was not only preaching the Backvelders' dangerous politics, that were ruinous
to native interests, but that, besides their dangerous politics,
he had imbibed their baser quality of ingratitude. For this man
had not only enjoyed our free hospitality on three occasions,
when he visited up-country, and the hospitality of our relatives
at various times in other parts, but when he was about to leave for Europe,
on a holiday jaunt, and wanted some one to take charge of his work,
we left our own affairs and went to King Williamstown, at our own expense,
to fill that post, and we filled it without a fee; but, see his retaliation.
We reached King Williamstown on Saturday evening and called
at Mr. Jabavu's house on Sunday afternoon. Mrs. Jabavu said her husband
had gone to Stutterheim, and would be back by a late train. On Monday morning
we called at Mr. Jabavu's office, and his son whom we saw said his father
would be there in the afternoon. We called in the afternoon and was told
that he was inside and would see us later. We waited from 2.30
till nearly 4 p.m., chatting with his son, while Mr. Jabavu was closeted
in the next room, evidently unwilling to see us. As his son had to leave,
we also went away, but returned to his office at 6 p.m., just an hour before
the opening of the public meeting to which we wished to invite him.
Mr. Jabavu sent a verbal message, with the young lady who had taken in
our card to him, to the effect that he was not prepared to see us.
That in brief was our reception by the man who edits "a native paper".
We went to the meeting at the Baptist Chapel, which was a huge success.
Mr. W. Sebe presided. The editor of the King Williamstown daily paper,
an Englishman, attended the meeting in person and took notes for his paper,
while no reporter represented the soi-disant native paper
of King Williamstown.
When the proceedings of the meeting appeared in the King Williamstown
English paper, Mr. Jabavu attempted to discount the report by writing
in his own paper that "the `Cape Mercury' evidently does not know that there
are Natives and Natives, as well as King Williamstown and King Williamstown,
there being town and country," etc. This being a veiled insinuation
that the rural native view was opposed to the urban native view
at King Williamstown, we could not leave the matter unchallenged,
so we posted the following challenge to Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, which he evidently
found it impossible to accept: --
==
Dear Sir, --
`Imvo' comments disparagingly on Monday's meeting, and adds that
the Natives who composed the meeting were a handful drawn by curiosity.
Now, I challenge `Imvo', or Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, to call a series
of three public meetings, anywhere in the district of King Williamstown.
Let us both address these meetings immediately after the Natives' Land Act
has been read and interpreted to each. We could address the meetings from
the same platform, or separately, but on the same day and at the same place.
For every vote carried at each of these meetings in favour of his views
on the Act I undertake to hand over 15 Pounds to the Grey Hospital
(King Williamstown), and 15 Pounds to the Victoria Hospital (Lovedale),
on condition that for every vote I carry at any of the meetings,
he hand over 15 Pounds to the Victoria Hospital (Mafeking),
and 15 Pounds to the Carnarvon Hospital (Kimberley).
That is 30 Pounds for charity, if he will accept.
I will not place difficulties in his way by inviting him to meetings up here,
but leave him to call meetings among his own people (if he has any)
in his own district, and I will attend at my own expense.
Yours, etc.
(Sgd.) Sol. T. Plaatje,
Editor of `Tsala ea Batho', and Secretary S.A. Native National Congress.
14, Shannon Street, Kimberley.
==
==
"IMVO'S" REPLY
Dear Sir, -- I am instructed by the Editor of "Imvo" to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter, and to inform you that as he has not been
reading and following your writings, etc., he cannot understand
what you mean by it. In short, to let you know that he takes no interest
in the matter.
I am, Sir,
Yours truly,
(Sgd.) A. M. Jabavu.
"Imvo" Office, King Williamstown,
November 24, 1913.
==
Poor fellow! He had not met a single member of the Government
since the plague law was so rudely sprung upon an unsuspecting country,
and since it sent unprotected widows and innocent children adrift,
to wander about with their belongings on their heads.
Mr. Jabavu had not met any member of Parliament and discussed the measure
with him or with a responsible Government official; so he found it awkward
to accept a challenge to substantiate his arguments, in the presence of one
who had not only discussed the measure with members of Parliament,
with Cabinet Ministers and their representatives, but who had also witnessed
the ravages of the Act amongst the Natives in the country.
The general complaint of the Natives of King Williamstown,
his fellow-townsmen, is that he refuses to attend their meetings and relies
on the white daily papers for information about the Natives at large.
But Mr. Jabavu is nothing if he is not selfish. We are informed,
and have every reason to believe, that, three months after the Act was passed,
he wanted to raise a loan of 200 Pounds on landed security,
but was debarred by the Natives' Land Act. The next issue of his paper
praised the Act for the sixtieth time and noted the following exception:
"There is only one flaw in this otherwise useful Act,
which is occasioning a manifest hardship through harsh administration,
and that is the provision relating to lending money."
Now, from our point of view, this seems to be the only defensible provision,
as it would tend to discourage usury, a common evil in money transactions
between Europeans and Natives; but because it interfered
with Mr. Jabavu's personal aims, that is the only flaw.
The cold-blooded evictions and the Draconian principle
against living anywhere, except as serfs, are inconsequential
because they have not yet touched Mr. Jabavu's person.
Chapter XIV The Native Congress and the Union Government
Pity and need make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood
which runneth of one hue; nor caste in tears, which trickle salt with all.
Sir Edwin Arnold.
A native meeting was called to meet at Johannesburg on July 25, 1913,
under the auspices of the South African Native Congress.
The Congress was attended by Natives from as far south
as East London and King Williamstown, and from as far north
as the Zoutpansbergen in Northern Transvaal, and also from Natal, Zululand,
and from Bechuanaland; in fact from nearer and distant centres
in all parts of the country they had gathered to discuss
the situation arising from the serious conditions created
by the Natives' Land Act. Thus the proceedings of the meeting
were conducted under a grave sense of responsibility.
There was little of the customary loquaciousness which characterizes
native gatherings; and there was much less free translation of the speeches
for the benefit of the European visitors. Translations, as a rule,
take up a great deal of valuable time, and it was their curtailment
on this occasion, apparently, which caused the `Transvaal Leader'
-- a morning paper of the Rand -- to complain that Natives
had become unusually secretive and had ceased to be as communicative
as at previous meetings. The `Rand Daily Mail', on the other hand,
referred to the closing session in a very few lines. It said:
"Last evening, a number of Native women attended the Native Congress,
attired as befitting the solemnity and importance of the occasion.
The orderly behaviour of the 200 or more delegates was attributable
to the presence on the platform of Mr. Dube, an able chairman,
supported by two native solicitors who passed their B.A. in London."
Mr. R. W. Msimang is a solicitor who was articled to
a firm of solicitors in England; but the reference to
the second "native solicitor" and "London B.A." is about
the most undeserved compliment ever paid to the author,
who, until 1914 (a year after the Congress reported by the `Mail'),
had never been on board a ship, nor inside a London college.
At the annual Congress, March, 1913, a deputation had been appointed
to proceed to Capetown and to present to the Government the native objections
against the proposed embargo on the purchase and lease of land.
The deputation consisted of Mr. J. L. Dube, Dr. W. B. Rubusana,
Mr. Advocate Mangena, Rev. L. Dlepu, Messrs. W. Z. Fenyang, S. Msane,
L. T. Mvabaza, D. Le Tanka, and S. T. Plaatje; the writer, however,
was not able to proceed to Capetown at the time. The July Congress
was specially called to receive the report of the delegates to Capetown,
and further to consider what other steps it might be necessary to take.
Dr. Rubusana gave a report on the deputation to Capetown. They had
four interviews with the Minister of Native Affairs, and several interviews
with members of Parliament, urging the setting aside of some Government farms,
to which evicted native tenants might go, as the effect of the Bill,
then under discussion, would inevitably be to make numbers of them homeless.
The Minister, he said, never denied the possible hardship
that would follow the enforcement of such a law, but he seemed to be driven
by a mysterious force in the face of which the native interest did not count.
What that force was, he said, could only be surmised. General Hertzog,
who had always advocated some such measure (though he had never been able
to carry it out), had just been excluded from the Botha Cabinet;
to placate his supporters, who were very angry over his dismissal,
the Government carried out this alleged policy of his,
so that while General Hertzog in office was not able to bring about
the enslavement of the blacks, General Hertzog out of office succeeded
in getting the Government to sacrifice their principles of right and justice
and to force the Act through Parliament, in order to retain
the support of the "Free" State malcontents.
When every effort with the Ministry failed, the delegates asked
for a postponement of the Bill pending the report of the Commission.
This also was refused by the Government. Finally he wrote a letter
to Lord Gladstone, asking him to withhold his assent to the Bill
until he had heard the native view. To this His Excellency replied
that such a course was "not within his constitutional functions".
All this took place in May, 1913.
In July, Mr. Dube, the president of the Congress, wrote to Lord Gladstone
asking for an interview to lay before him the nature of the damage
that the Act was causing among the native population. Again His Excellency
replied that it was "not within his constitutional functions".
The Natives' Land Act, which was then law, was read to the assembled Natives,
most of whom narrated their experiences and the result of their observations
of the effect of the Act during the six weeks that it had been in force.
Congress considered these, and as a result of their deliberations
it was resolved to appeal to His Majesty's Government; and also to take steps
to apprise the British public of the mode of government carried on
in British South Africa under the Union Jack, and to invoke their assistance
to abrogate the obnoxious law that had brought the Congress together.
The Congress considered at length how His Majesty the King
and the British public could best help the Natives in these matters;
and it was concluded that if South Africa were really British,
then any suffering taking place in that country must be of concern
to His Majesty the King and the British public. The next point
for inquiry by the Congress was the journey of a deputation to be chosen
to proceed on this mission, a journey consisting of six thousand miles by sea
and a thousand miles by rail. When the Europeans of South Africa
went to England to ask the Imperial Government for a Constitution,
their delegates were easily sent, because the native taxpayers,
although with hardly any hope of benefiting by the gift
-- which amounted to a curtailment of their rights -- were compelled
to contribute to the travelling and other expenses of these envoys;
but in the Natives' own case no such funds are at his disposal,
even though he goes to the Imperial Government to point out
that his taxes had been used by a Parliament in which he is unrepresented
as a rod for his back. In order to meet this necessary demand for
ways and means, Mr. Msane was deputed to tour the country and ask for funds
from the Natives. A Johannesburg committee was appointed
to superintend this effort and take charge of the funds which he might raise.
The members of the said committee were: Messrs. W. F. Jemsana (chairman),
Elka M. Cele (treasurer), D. S. Letanka, R. W. Msimang, H. D. Mkize,
B. G. Phooko, D. D. Tywakadi, D. Moeletsi, M. D. Ndabezita,
H. Selby Msimang (hon. sec.), S. Msane (organizer). Finally a deputation
was appointed to proceed to Pretoria to lay before the Union Government
three resolutions that the Congress passed. The first,
condoling with the Government on the death of Hon. J. W. Sauer,
late Minister of Justice and Native Affairs, who died just as the Congress
was about to meet; the second resolution, that the Natives
dissociated themselves entirely from the industrial struggles
on the Witwatersrand and elsewhere, and preferred to seek redress
for their grievances through constitutional rather than by violent means.
The third resolution, that humble representations to the authorities against
the eviction of Natives from farms, having proved unavailing, the Natives
had now decided to raise funds for the purpose and convey their appeal
to His Majesty the King and to the British public. That Mr. Msane
had been appointed organizer of the appeal fund and that a safe conduct
was requested for him to tour the native villages. The following deputation
was appointed to present these resolutions to the Union Government
at Pretoria: Chief Karl Kekana and Mr. S. M. Makgatho of the Transvaal,
Mr. E. Mamba of the Transkei (Cape), Mr. Saul Msane and Rev. R. Twala (Natal),
Mr. S. T. Plaatje (Kimberley), and Mr. J. M. Nyokong
of the Orange "Free" State.
Mr. S. F. Malan, the Minister for Native Affairs pro tem.
received the deputation in the Government Buildings,
which were the Transvaal Houses of Parliament before Union.
With the Minister of Native Affairs were Messrs. E. Barrett,
Assistant Secretary for Native Affairs, Mr. Pritchard,
the Johannesburg Commissioner, and Mr. Cross, a Rand Magistrate.
The Minister readily received the resolutions and confessed to
a feeling of relief at the moderation of their tone. Further,
he listened to the story of hardships already suffered by the Natives,
as a result of the enforcement of the Land Act, specific instances of which
were given, some being of Natives not far from Pretoria,
who, after being evicted from their old homes and having found new homes,
were told by the Commissioner that they could not settle therein.
The delegates submitted to the Minister that their complaint
was not a sentimental grievance, but real physical suffering.
The Minister having listened to these statements, pointed out
that this Act was the law of the land, which must be obeyed.
He was not so sure, he said, that the Natives could achieve anything
by means of a deputation to England as the law had already been signed
by His Majesty's representative on the spot without hesitation.
He could not see why the Natives should be interfered with
when holding meetings and organizing a deputation to go to the King,
as long as they kept within the four corners of the law. But it seemed to him
that they should have waited until a commission had been appointed
under Sections 2 and 3 of the Act. An appeal to the Sovereign, he added,
was the inherent right of every British subject; but he expressed the desire
that the appeal to England should be dropped until the commission
had first made its report. The delegates explained that as the law
had in six weeks done so much harm, it was alarming to think
what it might do in six months, while there was nothing definite to hope for
from the report of a commission not yet appointed, and whose report
might conceivably take six years.
The deputation made it clear that the appeal to the King
would be dropped if the Government undertook to amend the law
pending the report of the commission.
THE NATIVES' LAND ACT IN NATAL
In the following months both the Minister in charge of Native Affairs
and the Chief Native Commissioner of Natal asked Rev. John L. Dube,
President of the S.A. Native National Congress, to furnish them
with information and particulars of Natives in misery
as a result of the Natives' Land Act. Mr. Dube had been collecting
some concrete cases of hardship, including Chief Sandanazwe of Evansdale,
Waschbank, who stated that he and fifty members of his tribe
"are given notice to remove, and that he has made representations
to the authorities in Maritzburg asking for land without success."
Mr. Dube sent the following letter to the Secretary for Native Affairs,
with a list of evicted farm tenants, on September 12, 1913.
==
Sir, --
The Chief Native Commissioner for Natal approached me
shortly after the publication in the Press of my open letter*
with a request similar to that made by you, viz., that I should furnish him
with particulars and information. From time to time
I did so furnish those names to the Chief Commissioner,
and I send you herewith a list of those names and also additional names
which have come to my knowledge since my correspondence
with the Chief Native Commissioner.
--
* Mr. Dube was here referring to an open letter which he sent
to the `Natal Press', explaining the hard lot of the Native victims
of the Act, and appealing to the colonists to intercede
with the South African Government on behalf of the sufferers.
--
In regard to the concluding paragraph of your letter to the effect
that the only result of the Chief Native Commissioner's request
was the submission of the case of a Native in the Weenen County
who received notice from his landlord over a year ago,
you must be misinformed. As you will see from the list,
scores of names were furnished to the Native Commissioner, and furthermore,
some of the individuals themselves who were suffering hardship
were sent by me to the Chief Commissioner and were interviewed by him.
The trouble has been that the Chief Commissioner, instead of dealing
with these individual cases himself, has, I am informed, in many instances,
sent the individuals on to the Magistrates, and my letters also
have been forwarded to the Magistrates, with the request that Magistrates
would go into the matter. However anxious the Magistrates may be
to help in this matter they are but human, and in many cases,
I am informed, they are overweighed with other work and have been unable
to give the attention to these matters that they required.
Moreover the Magistrate acts purely as an official, and the Native
who is wandering about the country helpless does not get
the immediate sympathy and attention which his case deserves and demands.
In many cases the individuals I sent on are under the impression,
rightly or wrongly, that nothing is being done for their relief.
If I might make a suggestion, it would be that some independent gentleman
should be appointed to investigate these cases -- some gentleman
who would have sufficient time to devote to the investigation
of the various instances of hardship that would come before him,
and who would be empowered to do what was necessary to relieve the deserving.
I may say further that since the introduction of the Squatters Bill
during the 1912 session of Parliament eviction by farmers has been
much increased, possibly in view of the impression that prevailed generally
among the farming community that the Squatters Bill or some similar measure
was to be re-introduced by the Government, the result being that those Natives
who had been evicted by farmers now the Natives' Land Bill has become law,
are prevented from entering into agreements with land owners
as rent-paying tenants, and only under servile conditions, with the result
that in many cases they become wandering and helpless vagrants.
Another form of hardship which prevails very generally
as the result of the Natives' Land Act is this: The younger Natives
do not receive the wage from farmers as can be easily earned,
say, on the Rand mines, with the result that the younger men
leave their homes and their fathers and proceed to the mines;
the father is unable to supply the labour demanded by the landlord
owing to the absence of his sons, and as a result he is evicted --
many cases of this sort can be cited.
I may here cite two cases within my personal knowledge:
(1) Bhulose was living on Mr. R. Miller's farm, "Dalmeny",
near Phoenix. He was evicted with his wife and family in June last.
He is seeking a place now to reside on, but cannot obtain one.
(2) A native woman Vatplank, a widow with a family, was evicted
from the property of a farmer, Mr. Adendorff, near Newcastle; this woman
with all her household goods and her family had to camp out on the veld.
She was barred by the Act from going to neighbouring farmers for a residence.
I have done my utmost to give you concrete examples and names of persons
suffering hardship. If I can supplement the information
contained in this letter and in the accompanying list I shall only be
too happy to do so.
Might I suggest further that you should ask the Chief Native Commissioner
to forward to you all my correspondence with him on this matter?
This will show you and the Government that the statements contained
in my open letter are not mere fabrications, but are based upon solid facts.
John L. Dube.
==
Mr. Dube's list includes evictions from the districts of Greytown,
New Hanover, Ekukanyeni, Homeless (a very appropriate name
in the circumstances), Howick, Estcourt, and Mid-Illovu.
Here is a specimen of notice: --
==
I hereby give you Mandwasi notice to leave my farm Blinkwater
by the end of July, 1913.
(Sgd.)
July 20, 1913. Freestone Ridge.
==
"The wheels of administration moved slowly" (to borrow an official phrase)
between the Native Affairs Department and the other departments of State.
Thus, while the authorities were temporizing with this
and similar representations, the Natives' Land Act was scattering the Natives
about the country, creating alarm and panic in different places.
The high officials of State, instead of relieving the distress thus caused,
were interviewing Natives and urging them not to send a deputation to Europe.
The Natives received this advice hopefully. They believed
it was an indication that the Government was about to amend the law,
in which case, of course, the deputation would be unnecessary;
but, besides this advice, the officials in each instance promised no relief.
The Natal Native Commissioner held a similar meeting with a number of Zulus.
The meeting asked for some relief for the evicted tenants
who were roaming about the country, but the official significantly
evaded the point. The disappointment of the meeting, created by
his evasive replies, having overcome the proverbial native timidity
when in the presence of authority, resulted in one petty chief
saying to the Commissioner: "Local authorities levy a tax every year
on each of our dogs. We don't know what they do with the money.
You have never complained against that waste, so why should you complain
if our money is spent in sending a deputation to the King?" The answer,
if there was one, is not reported.
General Botha, until then, never met native tax-payers
to discuss their grievances with them. But in the latter part of 1913,
he actually met some Natives in the Eastern Transvaal, who desired
to inform him of the ravages of the Act. But instead of holding out any hope
that an asylum would be found for the wanderers, he proceeded
to advise them against sending a deputation to England. The Natives
having given specific instances of the plight of certain evicted tenants
in the neighbourhood, asked for an abode for them, but on that point
the Premier would not be drawn. The Government's indifference
to native sufferings being thus revealed, the Natives of Vryheid
became more eager to help to organize the proposed deputation.
General Botha's efforts against the deputation, without offering any homes
to the evicted Natives, was probably the best stimulus
towards the deputation fund. The Premier visited a northern tribe
some time after and was said to have warned the chief and his people
against the pretensions of the Native Congress. When Mr. Dube called there
a few days later, they handed him 200 Pounds towards the deputation fund,
which they had collected since General Botha's visit. Mr. Saul Msane
similarly raised 360 Pounds for the fund in the Eastern Transvaal
where the Premier first warned the Natives against the deputation
without offering them any relief.
Those Natives who were not immediately affected by the Act
were rather lukewarm regarding the proposed deputation.
But when the officials warned them against wasting their money on a deputation
and told them in the next breath that it was a breach of the law
to find an abode for the evicted wanderers, these Natives,
perceiving the hollowness of the Government's advice,
determined that as a last resort a deputation should be sent to England.
Chapter XV The Kimberley Congress / The Kimberley Conference
Sorrow like this draws parted lives in one, and knits anew the rents
which time has made.
Lewis Morris.
When everything was ready another special Congress was called
to meet at Johannesburg in February, to carry out the deputation's scheme
and appoint the delegates to proceed to England. In view of
the dissatisfaction of the Government after the July Congress,
the author considered it his duty to inform the Government
that a meeting was about to take place. This information
called forth a peremptory intimation from the Government
that because of the recent strike of white men (from which the Natives
had publicly disassociated themselves) the Native Congress could not be held.
But at the time that this telegraphic prohibition reached us
General Smuts, Minister of Defence, was announcing in Parliament that
the embargo on public meetings, in areas where, owing to the recent strike
(of January, 1914), martial law was proclaimed, had been removed.
Logically then General Botha's decision made the previous day
in regard to the Congress meeting fell to the ground; and so we telegraphed
to Senator Schreiner and Dr. Watkins, members of Parliament,
to ascertain if this was so. Both these gentlemen answered
that in spite of the removal of the prohibition of public meetings of whites,
the Prime Minister directs that the one in regard to the "Native Congress"
must stand. Thereupon the writer, after consulting a few native residents
in Kimberley, intimated to the executive of the Congress that:
==
Kimberley, my home, is not yet a Republic in its sentiments.
There we have not reached the stage where some one's permission
must be asked before a meeting can be held. So we invite the Congress
to hospitable and British Kimberley, where public meetings close
with singing the British National Anthem and not with singing
the "Volkslied" or the "Red Flag", as is the case in meetings
at some other South African centres.
==
After the notices were out the Government sent an intimation to the effect
that the Congress was not actually prohibited. That it was only deemed
undesirable to allow it to be held at Johannesburg, where a strike
had taken place; and that even there the Government no longer objected,
provided it be held indoors. But this belated reconsideration was unnecessary
as the Kimberley preparations were far advanced and some of the delegates
were already on their way to Kimberley.
The Congress was opened in St. John's Hall at 10 a.m. on
Friday morning, February 27, 1914, by the Rt. Rev. W. Gore-Browne,
Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman. His lordship was accompanied
by Archdeacon de Rougemont and Rev. I. I. Hlangwana of St. Paul's Mission,
who gave out the native hymns. In the absence of the president,
who reached Kimberley in the afternoon of that day, the Bishop
was received by Mr. Makgatho, vice-president of the Congress.
After the religious exercise had ended, the Bishop counselled the Congress
not to ask for a repeal of the whole Act, but only for relief
from the oppressive clauses, and then to wait for the Commission's report
in regard to the remainder of the Act. "There may be something good in it,"
added the Bishop, "as the glittering diamonds of Kimberley are found
in blue clay."
Mr. Makgatho, in thanking the Bishop for opening the Congress, thanked him
for the allegory, but added, however, that he had never heard of a father
who said to his child, "You are hungry, my son, and I am going
to prepare some dinner for you, but meanwhile you had better wait outside
in the rain." After the Bishop gave the Congress his benediction,
Prince Malunge-Ka-Mban-deni of Swaziland was introduced to him,
as were the Chiefs Molotlegi and Mamogale of Transvaal,
Moiloa of the Bahurutshe, and Messrs. Elka M. Cele of Natal,
Meshach Pelem from the Cape, J. M. Nyokong, S. Litheko of the O.F.S.,
and other native leaders.
In the evening a large public reception was held in the City Hall
in honour of the delegates. Kimberley joined wholeheartedly in the function.
De Beers Company, which had hitherto shown the greatest hospitality
only to European assemblies and not to native conferences and organizations,
acted otherwise in the case of this Congress and its requirements.
Presumably Mr. Pickering, the secretary of De Beers, had had information
that even the mining labourers in the enclosed mining compounds were
heart and soul with their countrymen outside; and so the Company's hospitality
was extended to the native delegates.
Bioscope films were projected by Mr. I. Joshua, the chairman of the A.P.O.,
Messrs. Lakey and September, other A.P.O. committee men, acting as
masters of ceremonies. The coloured people attended in their hundreds,
and cheered the musicians of their native brethren who entertained the people
who thronged the City Hall till many were refused admission.
The Coloured People's Organization sent a speaker, Mr. H. Van Rooyen,
to welcome the delegates on behalf of the African Political Organization.
The president of their Ladies' Guild, Mrs. Van der Riet,
a school teacher and musician of long standing, attended and played
the accompaniment for the Greenport Choir on the pianoforte;
Miss M. Ntsiko, who had borne the brunt of the evening's accompaniment,
was thus relieved.
Mr. Joseph Kokozela, on behalf of the Kimberley and Beaconsfield
branches of the Congress, welcomed the Congress to Kimberley,
and presented Mr. Dube, the president, with an address,
which was beautifully illuminated by the Sisters of St. Joseph Convent,
of Mafeking. Mr. H. Van Rooyen associated his people with the Natives
in their present struggle for existence, and Dr. J. E. Mackenzie,
who spoke on behalf of the Europeans, made a fine speech.
He said that nobility was not confined to any particular race or colour;
that men with black skins have been known to be just as noble
as men with white skins. Amongst other questions he asked,
"What could be more noble than the Bedford boy leader who subsequently became
the St. Augustine of Central Africa, or what could be more noble
than the action of the two servants of Dr. Livingstone, who carried his body,
for hundreds of miles, through difficult forests, to the coast,
and thus ensured his burial in Westminster Abbey?"
Dr. Mackenzie's speech was afterwards referred to by several native delegates
to the Congress. They said that before they came to Kimberley
they felt certain that English ideas were utterly obliterated
in the Union of South Africa, and that English sentiments
were things of the past; but that Dr. Mackenzie's speech had given them
fresh hope, as it was like cold water to a traveller in the desert.
It was, they said further, like a dream to hear a white man talk like that
in a mixed audience.
The Congress received sympathetic telegrams from such
old residents of Kimberley as Sir David Harris and Dr. Watkins.
Both these gentlemen telegraphed their felicitations from Parliament.
Mr. H. A. Oliver, member for Kimberley, a great Wesleyan
and Sunday School leader, who was at Capetown for the Parliamentary session,
instructed his manager at Kimberley to book seats on his account
for the senior classes of the Newton Wesleyan Sunday School
to attend the Congress entertainment.
The Resident Magistrate of Kimberley telephoned to us on this same day
that he had received the following telegram from the Secretary
for Native Affairs: --
"LEAVING TO-NIGHT FOR KIMBERLEY TO ATTEND THE NATIVE CONGRESS.
INFORM PLAATJE."
It had never previously happened that a representative of the Government
attended a coloured political assembly, and it was felt
that wiser councils had prevailed with the Government,
and that as a result it had decided to meet the Natives, at least half-way.
If gambling was one of the indulgences of the Natives,
some at least of the delegates would have wagered that Mr. Dower
was conveying a concession to the Native Congress, by which
it would be unnecessary for the latter to send a deputation to England.
So thoroughly was the idea of a concession associated
in the mind of the Congress with the approaching visit of Mr. Dower
that it postponed the election of delegates for the mission to England.
This anticipation was a reasonable one as the Union's recent legislation
was in the melting-pot.
The law against British Indians, passed at the same time
as the Natives' Land Act, was just then recommended for modification,
under pressure brought to bear upon the Imperial Government
by the Government of India and other agencies. Again, the Labour members
were creating difficulties both at Capetown and Westminster
over General Smuts's Deportation Bill, which compelled the Government
to amend its conditional banishment clause -- a hardship that was not
as vital or as absolute as the banishment clauses against black tenants
in the Natives' Land Act. Consequently, the native delegates to Congress,
representing as they did an overwhelming majority of the inhabitants
of South Africa -- a section that had received nothing but violent legislation
from the South African Parliament since the inauguration of Union --
had every reason to expect that, for the first time,
a Government emissary was carrying an olive branch to the Natives;
but, alas! unlike the industrial strikers, the Natives had no votes
to create a constitutional difficulty; unlike the British Indians, they have
no Indian Government at their back; therefore, their vital interests,
being negligible, could comfortably be relegated to the regions of oblivion,
and this hope, like all its predecessors, was falsified.
Mr. Dower attended the Congress on Saturday, February 28,
and again on Monday, March 2, and made speeches.
He was profuse in expressions of the gratitude of the Government
to the Natives, their leaders and their chiefs, for the loyal co-operation
they have always rendered the authorities, and he came to ask them,
he said, to perpetuate that loyal co-operation and to refrain
from appealing to Great Britain on the Natives' Land Act.
To appeal would be to put back the clock of the Native Affairs Department
for many years. Of course, it did not matter about
the putting back of the Natives' own clock, since its only use
is that of an index for the registration of Government taxes,
municipal pass fees at one shilling or more per month per Native,
and similar phases of the black man's burden. Thus, in answer to questions
put by the members of the Congress, Mr. Dower was not able to say
that one iota of the provisions of that Draconian law would be modified
before the Commission made its report, nor could he give a pledge
in the name of the Government that if the Commission reported
favourably to the Natives, Parliament would carry into effect
the Commission's report, even though the pledge sought
took no account of the possibility of the Commission's report being hostile
to the interests of the Natives. This then was the character of the visit
which the Government Secretary paid to the Native Congress.
It was entirely barren of results, and as such it left the Congress
as it found it, in bewilderment and gloom.
Fresh fears took hold of the Congress. When the commissioners' names
were gazetted, they were not received with any great amount of enthusiasm
by the native population, for the best that could be thought
of the Natives' Land Commissioners was that they were not associated
with any political party. With such a view, it can be understood
what were the feelings of the Congress when it thereafter learnt
that four of the five commissioners were present, as delegates,
at the conference of the Ministerial party held at Capetown two months before
(the conference at which Generals Hertzog and De Wet definitely severed
their connexion with General Botha), nor was there anything to show
that the fifth commissioner was not there also. Therefore, the situation
amounted to this, that this Land Commission, which should be
composed of impartial members, or, if made up of party politicians,
it should at any rate represent the three political parties
as well as the Natives, was in reality but a branch of the Ministerial party
which foisted this very Land Act upon the country.
It was finally resolved to appoint a deputation of five
to accompany the president, Mr. Dube, to England if further efforts failed.
The Congress nominated nine names, and the election of five delegates
from these was entrusted to a committee of fourteen members of the Congress,
who balloted for five and reported the result to the full Congress
as follows: --
S. T. Plaatje 13
S. M. Makgatho 9
Saul Msane 6
W. Z. Fenyang 3
T. M. Mapikela 3
Dr. W. B. Rubusana 2
A. K. Soga 2
M. Pellem 2
Chief Mamogale 1
The first-named five were therefore declared elected. Mr. Fenyang
subsequently stood down in favour of Dr. Rubusana; Mr. Makgatho was not able
to reach Capetown in time for the steamer's departure, so the deputation
that eventually accompanied the president to England were: --
1. Dr. Rubusana.
2. S. T. Plaatje.
3. Saul Msane.
4. T. M. Mapikela.
Their instructions were first to approach the Prime Minister and ask him
to undertake on behalf of his parliamentary majority to repeal
the Natives' Land Act, failing that, to endeavour at least
to get the clause rescinded which prevents evicted native tenants
from finding settlements anywhere except as servants, and that
if the Prime Minister should refuse to grant this request, they were forthwith
to appeal to the Imperial Parliament and the British public.
It may be added that the Congress, before it rose, received telegraphic
advices from Mr. Gibson of the Cape Church Council, and also from
the Hon. W. P. Schreiner, not to appeal to England. These communications
encouraged the delegates to believe that intermediate relief was being
arranged for, to ameliorate the condition of the wandering evicted Natives,
in which case there would, of course, be no occasion to appeal to England.
But it subsequently transpired that the Natives were advised against
making an appeal to England without the offer of any relief.
Before Congress rose votes of thanks were passed in favour of
the Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, the De Beers Company,
the `Diamond Fields Advertiser' for its liberal reports of the proceedings,
Mr. Dower for entertaining the delegates to a dinner on Monday,
and also to the residents of Kimberley.
The special thanks of the Congress were voiced by Mr. Makgatho
to the various committees, whose strenuous efforts for
the comfort of the delegates left nothing to be desired. These were: --
COMMITTEES OF LOCAL BRANCHES
KIMBERLEY. -- Messrs. Thos. Leeuw (chairman), S. Marogo (treasurer),
Bill Tshabalala, H. Ndlovu, Z. Jumane, A. R. Mashoko, T. Diniso (secretary).
BEACONSFIELD. -- Messrs. J. Smith (chairman), W. January,
S. Pehla (treasurer), Jas. Ngcezula, Ntshenge, B. Mradu,
J. S. Kokozela (secretary).
LOCAL ACCOMMODATION AND REFRESHMENTS COMMITTEE: Mesdames J. Smith,
S. Sidziya, M. Mahuma, S. Kawa, Mildred Kokozela and L. Skota;
Messrs. J. Chologi, J. Matsebe, S. Pehla, Soga, J. Ngcezula and A. Ntshoko.
CITY HALL RECEPTION COMMITTEE: Mesdames J. J. van der Riet and M. Ntsiko;
Messrs. Isaac P. Joshua, Sidney Motlhabi, P. W. Mama, T. Diniso,
Tony Msengana and J. G. Motlhabi.
An honorarium of 10 Pounds was voted in favour of the honorary secretary,
Mr. S. T. Plaatje.
After the deputation reached Capetown on May 13, 1914, we wrote Lord Gladstone
informing him that we were bearers of a petition from the native population
to His Majesty the King, which we would ask His Excellency
to graciously convey. Of course we expected a short note from His Excellency
to the effect that "it was not within his constitutional functions"
to meet us, but to our surprise this time His Excellency wrote
appointing a meeting with us at noon on May 15 at Government House.
But, in the interview, the reason why that particular appointment
came within the pale of His Excellency's constitutional functions
became apparent: for the Governor-General only made it the opportunity
to urge the deputation not to go to England.
The deputation replied that, even in native politics there was always
an appeal from the action of an induna to the native chief
and from the latter to the ruler; that it was straining the loyalty
of the black millions of South Africa to tell them that there was no appeal
to His Majesty the King against the oppressive laws of a Parliament
in which they had no representatives.
It must be added that although the Governor-General did not say so,
yet the barbarous cruelties of this relentless law appeared to have produced
a sympathy that was visible in his facial expression. Astonishment and pity
were amongst the sensations which seemed to be depicted
on Lord Gladstone's face. Still, he held out no hope that his good offices
would be used to secure an amelioration of the conditions complained of.
All His Excellency advised us to do was to abandon the appeal to England.
"But, your excellency, what about these cruelties that are now in progress?"
we asked.
"Oh, well," said Lord Gladstone, "the Natives are not the only sufferers,
even in England people have suffered hardships from time to time,
till they were compelled to emigrate to America and other places."
"That is true, your lordship, but it is to avert such a contingency,
if possible, that the Natives appointed a deputation to lay their case
before His Majesty the King, as they have no means to emigrate to America,
or any other country."
"Oh, no," he answered, "don't misunderstand me; I only use that
as an instance, not that Natives must emigrate."
The Governor-General then repeated the advice not to appeal to the Crown,
but he held out no hope of an amendment in the Act, and so the deputation
sailed for England.
Previous to this interview, no less a personage than General Botha himself
-- Premier and Minister for Native Affairs -- condescended to meet
the deputation. Prior to this meeting, the deputation entertained
strong hopes that the Premier would come to it with an offer of, say, at least
allowing the hiring of land by Natives, pending the report of the Commission,
even though the prohibition to buy land remained in force.
But instead of such a minimum, the only hope that General Botha held out
was that he had not evicted the Natives on his own farm,
and that he had further told some farmers not to evict their Natives.
These personal acts of the Premier on his own farm, and with regard to
some other farmers, had not helped the entire native population of the Union
since the Act was promulgated. Nor would they assist those native wanderers
who are now without a home on earth, as General Botha himself
could not allow any of them to settle on his farm without breaking the law.
Again, it did not seem quite clear how General Botha's efforts
in this direction could make any impression on private landowners when
his own officials were carrying out wholesale evictions of native tenants,
on the Government farms at Standerton and elsewhere, and sending them adrift
about the country. The only remedy, and that a partial one,
would be to legalize the settlement of tenants who have been evicted.
But to this General Botha said, "If I went to Parliament now
with a Bill to amend this law they will think I'm mad."
That statement confirmed the decision of the deputation to proceed to England,
and accordingly they at once made arrangements for sailing.
One painful fact which these interviews revealed was
the ignorance of the Government in matters relating to the Natives.
The 5,000,000 blacks of the Union are taxed to maintain
what is called the most expensive Civil Service in the world.
The officials of the Native Affairs Department, in return for
their huge salaries, paid out of the proceeds of taxes levied from
relatively the most poorly paid manual labourers in the world,
namely, the Native taxpayers, are called "the guardians of the Natives";
but General Botha, the Minister of Native Affairs, "Father of the Natives"
and supreme head of the Civil Service, seemed (or pretended)
to know absolutely nothing of the manner in which his official underlings
play battledore and shuttlecock with the interests of the Native population.
To mention but one instance: at one stage of the interview we attempted
to enlist his sympathy on behalf of the "Free" State Natives in particular,
who, in spite of prohibitive laws in the Boer statute books,
had not to our knowledge been debarred by the Boer Government
from buying or leasing land. General Botha not only denied that his was
the first Boer administration which definitely enforced these prohibitions
but he also asserted, with all the dignity of his office,
that no living Native had ever bought a farm in the "Free" State
from a white man -- in short he accused us of telling lies.
Fortunately Mr. E. Dower, who remembered that some Native landowners
in both the Hoopstad and Thaba Ncho districts of the "Free" State
had acquired their properties from white people under the Republican regime,
was present at the interview and he then bore out our statement:
thus on May 15, 1914, the Prime Minister and Minister of Native Affairs
heard for the first time in his life that there were some Natives
actually living in the "Free" State who pay him quit-rent on farms
which they had bought from white people under Republican rule.
The assertion that "Free" State Natives lost nothing by the enforcement
of the Natives' Land Act is but one phase of the maze of ignorance
through which the Union Government is groping in a hopeless attempt
to discharge their trust to the native taxpayers.
The co-operation of intelligent and responsible native taxpayers,
which could sweep away these administrative cobwebs of ignorance,
is always at the disposal of the Government if they deigned
to avail themselves of it; but they prefer, at enormous cost
to the taxpayers (including native taxpayers), to purchase
from the non-native section of the community arm-chair views
based largely on hearsay evidence, which is often tainted by colour prejudice.
Hence the shroud of ignorance which surrounds the native policy
of the Union of South Africa.
Chapter XVI The Appeal for Imperial Protection
Of all the characters of cruelty, I consider that as the most odious
which assumes the garb of mercy.
Fox.
On arrival in London the native delegates were received
by several friends, including Dr. Chas. Garnett, M.A.,
of the Brotherhood League; Rev. Amos Burnet, of Transvaal,
introduced them to the Wesleyan Missionary Committee in session
at Bishopsgate; the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society
communicated with the Colonial Office regarding an interview.
The Colonial Secretary agreed to see the deputation on condition
that they were accompanied by no one from the Society.
When the native deputation reached England there were
a number of South African missionaries on furlough in England
who had taken part in Church meetings in Africa, of protest against the Act.
Some of these gentlemen had witnessed the cruel operations of the Act;
but the decision to receive the native delegates by themselves
meant that no such eyewitnesses as these could testify
to what they had seen of the working of the Act.
In accordance with the time fixed for the interview, the deputation
duly waited upon the Secretary of State, whose reply was more fully given
in Parliament. At the interview he took notes on nothing, and asked
no questions. On every point he had "the assurance of General Botha"
to the contrary.
No headway having been made with the Government, it was resolved upon
that the delegates should appeal to the British Parliament
and thence to the British public in terms of the native mandate.
Later on Messrs. T. Buxton and J. H. Harris, the secretaries
of the A.S. and A.P.S., arranged a meeting for the delegates
to meet certain members of Parliament. The meeting took place
in No. 11 Committee Room of the House of Commons. The British peerage
was represented by Lords Emmott and H. Cavendish Bentinck.
After hearing the delegates and asking them questions,
the members of Parliament intimated that their decision would be
arrived at later in the absence of visitors. It must be mentioned here
that besides the above secretaries of the A.S. and A.P.S. there were also
present at this meeting a few sympathizers who were not members of Parliament.
They included Miss S. Colenso of Amersham, and the Rev. Dr. Howie of Stirling,
and Mrs. Howie, etc.
By the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Buxton, Mr. and Mrs. Cobden Unwin
(in conjunction with Mrs. Saul Solomon), Lady Scott of Westminster,
Mrs. S. J. Colenso of Amersham, and Mr. H. E. Wood, J.P., of Camberwell
(the latter being a prelude to a successful meeting of the delegates with
the Baptist Council of England), Sir Albert Spicer, M.P., and Lady Spicer,
and Mr. and Mrs. Harris of Dulwich, receptions -- some of them attended
by English and Colonial guests -- held at the residences of the friends named,
were given in honour of the delegates.
==
IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. P. ALDEN: I wish to bring to the notice of the right hon. Gentleman
the question of the native lands in South Africa. I happen to have been
responsible for a Resolution passed unanimously in this House
previous to the passing of the Act of Union, and in the discussion
which took place on that occasion the Under-Secretary of State to the Colonies
laid it down as one of the duties of the Imperial Parliament
to protect in every possible way the interests of the Natives in their land,
and protect their rights and liberties in that respect.
If we take away the land from the Native we take away his liberty.
In reference to the Natives Land Act of 1913, I want to put
two or three points before the right hon. Gentleman.
In the Union of South Africa, blacks own about 4,500,000 morgen of land,
and the whites own fourteen times as much land as the blacks,
though, of course, they are very much smaller in number. The inequality
is very noticeable in the Transvaal, where there are 300,000 whites
holding 31,000,000 morgen of land, and the 1,000,000 Natives
only have 500,000 morgen of land which they can call their own.
It has been said over and over again in South Africa that this law
applies equally to Europeans and whites as well as to the Natives.
There is, they say, no injustice. The European is estopped
from this purchase of land, just as the Native is estopped.
All I can say in answer to that is that the fallacy is shown
the moment you begin to ask what land the Natives have to sell.
The native areas are already overcrowded, and they positively have no land
which they could sell. When once a Native leaves his farm or is evicted,
or has to quit for any reason whatever, the Act does not allow him
to purchase, hire or to lease anywhere else for farming purposes
except from Natives, who have not the land to lease or to sell.
He therefore must become a servant on the farm. There is absolutely
nothing else for him to do but to become a servant. This Act has already
produced very great hardships. It has produced hardships to the people
who were under notice to quit at the time the Act was passed,
to the people who have actually since then been evicted from their farms,
to the Natives who were in search of land and who are wandering about
with their families and stock and have nowhere to settle,
and to the Natives who have had to leave their crops unreaped.
There are many hundreds of such cases of hardship which have been inflicted
under the Act which is being enforced on all sides. I do not wish to go
into this question at very great length, because the right hon. Gentleman
knows more about it than anybody in the House in all probability,
and he knows the difficulties of the situation.
I want to put before him just one point with regard to what can be done.
WE CALL OURSELVES THE PROTECTORS OF THE RIGHTS OF THE NATIVES,
and we claim that we have always, in season and out of season,
insisted that those rights should not be infringed, and that no action
should be taken against their liberties. The Imperial Government cannot,
of course, intervene in the sense of asking the Government of South Africa
either to rescind an Act of Parliament or to amend an Act of Parliament,
unless it is their own wish, but I must point out that
Clauses 1, 4, and 5 do operate most harshly against the Native,
and it might be possible, on the representation of the right hon. Gentleman,
for the Prime Minister of South Africa to mitigate the hardships.
Mr. CAVE: The subject to which the hon. Member has referred
is no doubt of importance, and no one can quarrel with the tone of the speech
in which he has introduced it.
Sir ALBERT SPICER: I quite realize that in South Africa
we have a self-governing country, and, therefore, one would be
desirous to be very careful in what he said with regard to
its administration and legislation. But this, at any rate,
is the right place to express the views that are held
by very large numbers of people in this country, who have devoted
a good deal of time and money in doing what they can to educate and uplift
the native races of South Africa. Those of us who know South Africa,
are perfectly well aware that whilst it is now a country
owned by the white races, it can only be properly and fully developed
with the help of the native races, and the better educated they are,
the better work they will be able to do for South Africa.
This Native Lands Act was passed very hurriedly. Of course,
we cannot blame South Africa for passing legislation hastily,
seeing that we are accustomed sometimes to do the same thing
in the Mother of Parliaments. Again, the appointment of the Commission,
which is now inquiring into the subject and is taking evidence,
is helping, I think, to produce injustice in some cases,
so far as the Natives are concerned, because the introduction of the Lands Act
has led farmers to take action to enforce their rights. They have terminated
the rent-paying agreements of former tenants, and, knowing that these
are precluded from making new agreements for the hire of land, they have
either ejected them or have demanded from them three months' unpaid service
per annum, which has had the indirect effect of reducing a free people
to a condition of service. I could give instances of that
from well authenticated sources. I will refer to one only.
It is the case of a chief and his people living on land
which they and their fathers have dwelt upon for eight generations.
The farm was recently purchased by a farmer resident in another province.
He decided to terminate the rent-paying conditions previously in existence
between the former owner and the Natives, and to substitute labour conditions,
under which even the chief, an old man, has been required to give service.
The people were called upon to quit their houses, square buildings,
timbered and thatched, and in connexion with this the owner gave
less than one month's notice in the following terms: --
"This is to notify I can let you have the school building
no longer. I bought the farm and wish to receive the same
at the end of your school quarter."
We desire to speak with all due respect of the self-governing Dominions
of South Africa, but I think we may fairly ask the Colonial Secretary
to help the Union Government to realize that there is a strong feeling
in this country in favour of everything possible being done
to secure just and reasonable treatment for the Natives.
One may fairly ask the right hon. Gentleman to use all reasonable influence
with the Union Government to secure for the Natives a fair quid pro quo
for the loss of their former rights of land purchase, which would mean
in some cases an extension of the native area, and if it were possible
to suspend to some extent the operation of the Act until the Land Commission
has reported. Having been connected with South Africa for a good many years,
having travelled through it, and given a good deal of time to it,
I desire to do what I can for the uplifting of the people of that country,
and that is my reason for intervening in this Debate.
==
Other sympathizers, including the Member for Woolwich,
rose in different parts of the House to support the foregoing appeal,
but the Colonial Secretary stopped them by delivering his reply.
==
The RT. HON. L. HARCOURT: The hon. member for Tottenham (Mr. Alden)
and the hon. Baronet the Member for Hackney (Sir A. Spicer)
have drawn attention to the South Africa Land Act. It is not
a sudden inspiration of the Botha Government. It is the outcome and result
of a Commission appointed by Lord Milner some years ago,
presided over by Sir Godfrey Lagden. The Commission was appointed
"In view of the possible federation of the South African Colonies
to gather accurate information as to native affairs so as to arrive
at a common understanding on questions of native policy."
That Commission sat for two years. It had upon it representatives
of every colony and territory. It arrived at what I believe
was a unanimous (sic) report,* and this Act is practically doing no more
than carrying out its recommendations. The Act has already been
in operation for twelve months. The Commission of Inquiry,
which was to be instituted under the Act, is now sitting.
It is bound by the terms of its appointment to report within two years,
and will probably report by Christmas next.** The whole of this Act
is a temporary measure until that Commission reports. A native deputation
has come over and seen me, and I believe many other members.
That deputation left Africa against the advice of General Botha,
and against almost the entreaties of Lord Gladstone. They knew that the Act
would not be disallowed, because it had been announced months before
in South Africa. The day the deputation saw me the period of twelve months
during which that Act could be disallowed on my recommendation
had already expired, and it is now an act which can only be suspended
by the Government and Parliament of the Union of South Africa.
--
* Col. Stanford (the Cape Colony representative on the Lagden Commission)
and Messrs. Campbell and Samuelson (the Natal representatives)
sent in two strongly-worded minority reports against such restrictions.
Vide S.A. Native Affairs Commission, 1903-5, Vol. I. -- Author.
** After Christmas the Commissioners' "terms of appointment" were altered
from two years to three years.
--
Sir W. BYLES: Does it forbid the holding of land by Natives?
Mr. HARCOURT: Perhaps the hon. member will allow me to complete my statement
as the time is short.* The suspension of the Act would be worse than useless
at the present stage. It would suspend the Inquiry which is taking place
at this moment in the interests of the Natives themselves. I cannot believe
that any further Commission is necessary, as the existing one seems to me
both efficient and sufficient.
--
* Mr. Harcourt would have shortened the time considerably,
had he said "Yes" or "No", instead of replying in sixteen words.
--
==
It is not clear why Mr. Harcourt made this statement as the Natives,
in their petition to the King, never asked for a suspension of the whole Act.
All that they wished was that the harshest clauses of the measure
might be suspended, leaving the others in operation until the Commission
rendered its report.
When Mr. Harcourt's reference to the Commission was made known in South Africa
the Commissioners, then sitting in Pretoria, were informed of the plight
of evicted Natives. The Commissioners replied that any grievance
arising out of the operation of an Act of Parliament was beyond
the scope of their enquiry, and that they could not consider such grievances.
This was exactly what they had previously told the Natives
at King Williamstown and elsewhere. At Harrismith the Commission heard
the complaint of a son of Chief Wietzie, who, during the Basuto wars,
had always remained loyal to the "Free" State Boers. The son had been
evicted from the ground on which he and his fellow-tribesmen
had resided for generations and he was forced to live on an urban location
where it is impossible to do any farming. The President
(Sir William Beaumont) said he was sorry to hear that a son of Wietzie
found himself homeless, but he regretted that the Commission
could not help him. Mr. Harcourt, therefore, must have been
incorrectly informed regarding the functions of the Commission.
Yet another puzzle. After the appointment of this Commission
in September 1913, there was a newspaper report to the effect
that the Commission found the native difficulty most acute
in the "Free" State, and that it had decided on setting aside without delay
a strip of territory in the Western "Free" State as a native settlement.
Immediately after the appearance of this report in the Press,
angry meetings of the whites were held in Boshof and Hoopstad
to protest against the proposals attributed to the Commission.
In reply to these protests, Mr. Theron, the Minister of Lands,
evidently speaking on behalf of the South African Government,
not only repudiated the report but he also added significantly
that "the Government had no intention of creating a native area
in Hoopstad or anywhere else." So, where do we stand? Can it be wondered
that the Natives are beginning to conclude that their position under the Union
is hopeless?
But, to return to Mr. Harcourt, the Colonial Secretary also gave
the Imperial Parliament a fresh explanation of the Natives' Land Act.
It is a pity that we cannot reproduce his explanation side by side
with the four explanatory circulars issued by the Union Government in 1913.
Such a reproduction would show the discrepancy between the five explanations.
We wrote to South Africa but could only secure one of these circulars,
which purports to be an explanation of a previous explanatory circular --
an explanation of an explanation. However, the definition of the Act,
as given by the other three circulars, leaves, as far as we can remember,
the root principle of the Act unexplained. Moreover, the statements set forth
in these circulars are not in harmony; they have only one point of agreement,
namely: that when Natives are driven out of their homes by the law,
and are debarred by the same law from establishing other homes
(the only provision made for them being that they should live
as servants of the whites) the circumstances give them
no ground for complaint.
Take for instance only two sentences in Mr. Harcourt's explanation.
In the first of these, he appears to approve of the system of forced labour
established by the Act; in the second, he denies the evictions that took place
in July when he spoke, and those that took place subsequently. He seems
to flatly deny not only what is admitted by Lord Gladstone and General Botha,
but he likewise contradicts the terms of the Act itself.
Indeed, if we had not been there and heard him we should have felt, on reading
this part of his speech, that he had been misreported in Hansard. Thus --
==
If the Natives are farm labourers there is no limit to the number
who may reside on white property. If not, they are not dispossessed
until Parliament acts upon the report of the Commissioners, and then only
when suitable land is provided by addition to a native reserve.*
--
* At Downing Street Mr. Harcourt informed the Deputation
that he had the "assurance of General Botha" that the Natives
have too much land already.
--
==
The Imperial explanation being as obscure as the Colonial explanations
which preceded it, the reader's remedy is to fall back
on the plain English of the Act (Chapter III), which alone has
the force of law. Again Mr. Harcourt: --
==
If General Botha breaks his word I have no power to enforce it.
I cannot bind his successors. If the Government of South Africa
is not to be trusted in this matter they are to be trusted in nothing;
and we know perfectly well that they can be trusted in these matters.
NOTE WHAT HAS BEEN DONE WITH RESPECT TO THE INDIAN IMMIGRATION ACT.
THIS WAS PASSED NOT FROM LOCAL DESIRE, BUT FROM IMPERIAL CONSIDERATIONS.
THE PROVISIONS OF THAT ACT HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE COLONISTS
AND BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE INDIANS, WHO CONSIDER IT
THE MAGNA CHARTA OF THE INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA. I think that that should be
a sufficient guarantee as to the way in which General Botha proposes to act.
General Botha, too, used THESE WORDS in Parliament: --
"He had told the deputation that he had given standing instructions
to the magistrates throughout the country that if they found
any one in their districts ejecting Natives from the farms
they had to go and make inquiries and report to him. He had
in all those cases which had been brought to his notice
used the influence of his Department."
==
All we can say in regard to "these words" is that the Magistrates
apparently ignored the "standing instructions" alluded to,
for they allowed the officials of the Department of Lands
to scatter the native tenants from Government farms at Standerton,
Colworth and elsewhere and sent them adrift over the country,
well knowing that they could find no other shelter.
On the 31st of January, 1914, the Magistrate of Ladysmith,
presumably acting under instructions from one of General Botha's Departments,
issued the following notice to 79 native families in his district: --
==
"To Vellem Sibisi, Kraal Head residing on one of the following farms,
viz. Remainder of Brakfontein, Remainder of Weltevrede, etc.,
"Take notice in terms of Section 4 of Law 41 of 1884 that you are required
to remove with your Kraal and inmates from whichever of the said farms
you may be residing on, six months from this date, the aforementioned farms
having all been purchased by Government for closer settlement purposes."
==
The Magistrate who so ruthlessly ejected these and other native families
acted under the orders of the Government, who settled white people
on the farms at the expense of a Treasury maintained also by native taxpayers.
And it seems difficult to conceive how a Government which proved
so indifferent regarding the fate of its own native tenants or of tenants
on farms freshly acquired at the public expense, could be solicitous about
the welfare of Natives evicted by private landowners. The statement,
on the face of it, is incongruous.
In his heroic efforts to defend South Africa's giant wrong,
Mr. Harcourt gave away his case when he referred approvingly
to what he calls "the Magna Charta of the Indians in South Africa".
Now, what is this "Magna Charta"? In 1913, when the South African Parliament
was at the noontide of its "mad career", it passed this iniquitous land law
to repress the native race; and also a law imposing the most
humiliating limitations on British Indians. Yet it must be added
that the Indian law was the milder of the two, as it did not prohibit
Indian residents in South Africa from living on the land.
The Rt. Hon. A. Fischer, Union Minister of the Interior,
who died two years ago, called these two laws of 1913,
"the Kafir law and the Coolie law".
As already stated, the London Committee of the Wesleyan Methodist Church
asked to see Mr. Harcourt and inform him how drastically the "Kafir law"
was operating against their converts and other Natives in South Africa,
but Mr. Harcourt discreetly refused to see the Committee.
As for the Indians, no one in South Africa paid any heed to their complaints
against the "Coolie law"; but their cry reached India and Lord Hardinge
demanded the redress of their grievances. His Lordship insisted so forcibly
that (unlike the Wesleyan missionaries) he could not be ignored.
The result was that the South African Parliament, "not from local desire,
but from Imperial consideration", was obliged in the next session (1914)
to amend the "Coolie law" with a "Magna Charta of the Indians
in South Africa", and Mr. Harcourt's reference to this episode
conveys the suggestion that what is sauce for the Indian goose,
with Lord Hardinge at its back, can be by no means sauce for the native gander
without the backing of a Viceroy.
We cannot believe that to boast in one and the same speech
about a "Magna Charta of the Indians" and dismiss the native appeal
against a vital wrong is true Imperialism. For if Imperialism stands
for the protection of a few thousand Indians in South Africa because they are
supported by a Viceroy, and the neglect of the groans of five million Natives
because (unlike a Viceroy) the missionaries who plead for them
cannot enforce their claim with a political or diplomatic blow,
then there would appear to be the suggestion of more fear than justice
in Imperialism.
Mr. Harcourt further credits the Milner Commission, presided over by
Sir Godfrey Lagden, with the origin of the Natives' Land Act. We do not wish
to defend the policy of these two former South African Statesmen, as we
feel certain that they can take care of themselves. But we must say at once
that we read the recommendations of the Lagden Commission ten years ago,
as carefully as we have since read the controversy of the Natives' Land Act;
and with the knowledge thus gained, we can safely tell the reader
that that Commission never recommended that: --
1. "Except with the permission of the Governor-General", Europeans must
be debarred from buying land from Natives (who have no land to sell),
and Natives must be debarred from buying land or leasing land from Europeans,
who alone deal in land. -- (Sect. 1 of the Nat. Land Act).
2. When evicted Natives apply for the said "permission of
the Governor-General" they should be told that that permission
"will only be granted to a few exceptional applicants"
and that it could under no circumstances be granted to Natives
in the colony in which the applicants resided (The Government's reply
to the "Free" State wanderers).
3. The Government should always take from three to six months
to deliver this refusal, during which period applicants may have
already become serfs or fled the country. (This has been
the experience of all applicants within the writer's knowledge.)
4. There should be a fine of 100 Pounds or six months' hard labour
on any farmer who provides the Native with a shelter while he is waiting
for this disappointing reply to his application (Sect. 5 Nat. Land Act).
5. Native tenants to be hounded out of the Government farms
long before the segregation takes place and that white people,
who are not debarred from buying or leasing land for themselves,
be settled thereon at Government expense. (See magisterial notice above.)
If Mr. Harcourt has been told by any one that the Lagden Commission
recommended any of these pitiless iniquities, then we are afraid
that his informer is a romancer of the superlative degree.
The Lagden report was never discussed in any South African legislature,
much less adopted by any Parliament in South Africa; indeed, it is detested
because it recommended a Native Franchise for South Africa
like the Maori Franchise of New Zealand.
One member of Parliament (Mr. Joynson-Hicks) said South Africa
was a Home Rule country and he wondered what would happen if after Home Rule
had been granted to Ireland some one asked the Imperial Parliament
to interfere with Irish legislation.
We wonder who could have told this hon. Member that there was Home Rule
in South Africa! There used to be Home Rule in the Cape Colony alone,
but this has been swamped by the Act of Union, which has since
established an oligarchic Government throughout the country.
And if by Home Rule to Ireland it is intended to give the franchise
to a selfish, greedy and tyrannical few; and give carte blanche
to this few, telling them thereby to do what they wish
with the rest of the population of Ireland, and telling them further
that they will be accountable to nobody for any good legislation
that they might enact on the one hand, or any maladministration
that they might perform on the other hand as is the case in South Africa --
if that be what is meant by Home Rule for Ireland, then God have mercy
on the Irish.
When the reply of Mr. Harcourt was published in South Africa,
supporters of this cruel law bubbled over with joy concerning it.
One Dutch writer, after saying in a Dutch journal some very fine things
about Mr. Harcourt, wound up a high-sounding eulogy
by congratulating South Africa on having such a good Colonial Secretary
at Downing Street. "Had Mr. Harcourt's predecessors been like him,"
said this writer to his readers, "South Africa would have been saved
many tears." We doubt if Mr. Harcourt, the object of this appreciation,
would feel flattered by it if he knew that all the black victims
of this cruel law, and all their European sympathizers,
stood firmly by the Imperial Government and by the Colonial Government
in the present struggle, while the gentleman at whose instance
it was introduced in Parliament, as well as the Dutch editor of the journal
alluded to, are at present (May 1915) committed for trial
on charges of high treason; and the proprietor of another Dutch journal,
in which we read similar vaunting adulations of Mr. Harcourt, was fined
60 Pounds (so his paper says) for alleged complicity in the recent rebellion.
These facts should impel the Rt. Hon. the Colonial Secretary to stop,
look round and inquire "who's who" among his South African admirers.
Two members of the South African Parliament -- Senator T. L. Schreiner
and Mr. Wilcocks, M.L.A. -- the former an opponent and the latter
a supporter of the Natives' Land Act, recently discussed the Act
from separate points of view; and both came to the conclusion that the measure
was designed to keep the blacks in subjection. This conclusion is in harmony
with the bitter experiences of the native races since this Act was enforced.
Yet in the face of this unanimous testimony of different observers,
Mr. Harcourt equivocates behind the irrelevant "assurances of General Botha"
about a possible segregation, which question is not now before the country.
Assurances on segregation only serve to confound the issue.
If the Beaumont commission, or its successor, should ever report
then the question of segregation may come before Parliament
some time in 1926. The point before the country now is not segregation,
but the Natives' Land Act of 1913, which is now scattering the Natives
about the country. That is the measure against which the Native appeals
for Imperial protection. Not the future segregation.
The only serious objection with which Mr. Harcourt apparently was able
to charge the native deputation, and one which the Natives do not deny,
is that they came to England against the "entreaties of Lord Gladstone"
(who previously had twice refused to see them), and against
the "advice of General Botha", by whose Cabinet the measure
was enacted and enforced.
It is a pity that Mr. Harcourt did not at the same time
tell the House of an authentic case where an aggrieved party
ever sued for redress with the consent and advice of his oppressor.
In this connexion, the scope of our reading being limited,
our ignorance is possibly abysmal; but it must be confessed that we have
never heard of such an interesting appellant and we are inclined to believe
that there never has been one.
If General Botha wished to tell the whole truth, instead of making
vague assurances to Mr. Harcourt, he would say: "I foresaw all
the difficulties under which the Natives are suffering; and when Mr. Grobler
proposed the summary stoppage of the sale and lease of land to Natives
before the areas are segregated, I warned the House against this trouble,
but the Hertzogites being too much for me I had to give in."
Gen. Botha could go further and say to Mr. Harcourt: "If you will turn up
page 579 of the South African Hansard (first column) reading from
the top of the page, you will find my warning in these words: --
==
Unless they went slowly and carefully, there was a danger that they might
take steps which would be unreasonable, unjust, and unfair on one section.
For that reason, he regretted the amendment proposed by General Hertzog,
because the amendment would have bad results if it were accepted.
It would lead to an over-hasty measure of a most impracticable kind.
This House would have to demarcate exactly and immediately
those parts where the Natives would have to live, and he asked them:
was this House able to do so? (Cries of "No".) It was all very nice
to talk and take a map and draw lines on it. On the map they might be able
to beacon off parts, and say, "This is for the Natives,"
but then, when they put their scheme into effect, they might find
that the ground of many individuals had been taken away
without any inquiries or any investigations having been made.
(Laughter, and "Hear hear".) This House would expropriate
the rights of many white people, and they would meet with
the greatest opposition. Where were they going to put these people then?
In the Transvaal, farmers certainly would not consent to this; he did not know
the people of the Free State so well, but he doubted whether they would agree.
(A Free State Member: "No, they certainly will not.") Instead of taking
any steps like this, they should be practical, and not land themselves
into greater difficulties than they could help. Governments before them
had done their best. He agreed that the squatting of Natives should be
put an end to as soon as possible, but they should not lose sight of the fact
that many Governments before them had done their best to put an end
to this squatting evil. He knew well how the Transvaal Government had,
year after year, taken up this matter. But what did they find? Simply that
when they had passed a Squatters Law they could only put it into operation
in one small part of the country. (Hear, hear.) To introduce
another Bill like that would simply mean deceiving the country
-- (hear, hear) -- and the Natives. If they accepted
the proposal of the Minister of Native Affairs to appoint a Commission
to investigate the various conditions prevailing throughout the country,
he thought they would be taking a step in the right direction. (Hear, hear.)
However, care was essential, because they must prevent causing
a sort of revolution through the country. What they wanted
was a measure which would be acceptable to the white man
as well as to the Native. (Hear, hear.)
==
These were General Botha's views when the Land Act was first mooted,
but in defiance of his solemn warning, the Bill, when gazetted, provided that
the eviction of native tenants should precede the Commission's inquiry;
harsher and still harsher clauses were inserted in the Bill until the Act
finally embodied all the proposals brought forward by General Hertzog.
The promise to refer the Bill to a Select Committee was also broken,
presumably as a result of pressure from the caucus. The Government
could not face a Select Committee after this complete change of front
as they must have known that reason was absolutely against them.
It might be asked: How could a Minister turn round afterwards
and give "assurances" concerning the benefits of a measure
which he had opposed before? To such a question we would hazard
the following explanation: Our Prime Minister, on the one hand,
is a British Privy Councillor and a General in the British Army;
and, on the other hand, he is a simple Afrikander Boer,
who only speaks Dutch in Parliament and addresses English audiences
through an interpreter. And so in the eyes of General Botha,
the British Crown Minister, if the Natives be treated justly,
as British subjects should be treated, it is right; and, again,
in the eyes of General Botha, the Afrikander Boer, if the Natives be treated
harshly and barbarously, that too is right.
It is not unusual to find these two natures contending against each other
in one and the same person, whenever the Prime Minister
deals with native questions; then more often than not the Boer view,
being that of his own nature, dominates the British sentiment,
which is a fresh acquisition.
Having given above a striking extract from a speech on native policy,
by the Rt. Hon. Louis Botha, Premier of British South Africa,
we will now proceed to give an extract from another declaration
by General Louis Botha, the Transvaal Boer. The Union Premier
was giving evidence before the Labour Commission in Johannesburg
and this is what he then said: --
==
11,302. Sir GEORGE FARRAR: You said that you would recommend
the breaking up of Locations like Swaziland, Zululand and Basutoland
and the putting of white settlers there? General BOTHA: I would suggest
that these countries be given up to the white people to live in. . . .
11,337. The general tenor of your remarks is that there is sufficient labour,
and it only wants a little patience to wait for it, that is all?
I have distinctly stated that there is a greater amount of labour
than has at present been obtained. But there are farmers who have farms,
and have no Natives living on these farms. For these people it is difficult
to obtain Natives because the Natives who are not living on the farms
are in locations. If the locations were broken up the Natives would be made
to live on farms.
11,338. You suggest that we should break up such land as Basutoland,
Swaziland and Zululand? Yes, I say that such places are a source of evil.
It is building up a Kaffir kingdom in the midst of us which is not only
bad for the Kaffirs themselves but is a danger in the future.*
--
* One of the Chiefs in these locations gave General Botha 200 bullocks
to feed his troops engaged in crushing a rebellion of white men.
--
11,339. But take Zululand, for instance; there is a quarter of a million
people there. What would you do with them if you break up their territory?
They would all live on the farms as the white people are doing now.
11,340. Oh, you want to cut up the land into farms,
give it to the white people and retain the Kaffirs on the farms? Yes.
11,343. But what will the white people do with the Kaffirs,
pay them wages or charge them rent for the ground or what?
My opinion is that Kaffirs who now live in locations should work
for the white people, and the land should be exploited. The white people
would pay them for the work they did and this would civilize them.
11,344. A nation like the Basutos you would deal with
in the same way? -- Yes.
11,345. They at present occupy the land, we have had it in evidence before us
to the effect that every inch of land in Basutoland is occupied and worked
by the Kaffirs themselves as their own property? -- That is just
my argument . . . because there is opening for the Kaffirs there
they go and live there without doing anything.
11,347. But they do something. They work the whole country,
they have a lot of grain? -- Yes, for themselves.
11,352. . . . I have shown you that Basutoland is fully occupied by Kaffirs,
and they work it. Do you want to apply your scheme to Basutoland? --
I do not know very much about Basutoland, I have never been there personally;
but I am well acquainted with Zululand and also Swaziland,
and I want to state this, that in my opinion it is not only a wrong policy,
but also dangerous policy to have large tracts of country inhabited
by uncivilized races, and to keep them there on the present terms.
11,353. But these Natives lived there from time immemorial.
It was theirs before we came here. How can we drive them off the land now,
and take it for ourselves? I think we are feeling very happy
that we drove them from Johannesburg in the olden days.
They lived in this country too just the same and the Kaffirs
who became civilized under us have improved.*
--
* `Transvaal Labour Commission', pp. 717-726.
--
==
In the foregoing extract the reader has the root principle
of the Natives' Land Act in a nut-shell. Not from hearsay "assurances"
but from what fell from the Premier's own lips.
Mr. Jacob de Villiers Roos, head of the Union Law Department (who knows more
about South African law than outsiders who have to rely on "assurances",)
says in his evidence given before the Select Committee on Public Accounts,
February 25, 1914, incidentally or accidentally: --
==
"A circular was issued by our Department, at the instigation
of the Native Affairs Department, asking that prosecutors
under the Natives' Land Act, before commencing prosecutions,
should refer to the Native Affairs Department as otherwise
IT WAS FEARED THAT AN UPHEAVAL MIGHT RESULT. The Transvaal Attorney-General
drew our attention to this circular and said that it was
an infringement of his powers. . . . When Mr. Beyers went away on leave
Mr. Greenlees was appointed Acting Attorney-General,
and he first drew the attention of the Minister to it.
The Minister took no action until Mr. Beyers returned
when the matter was again raised and then this circular was withdrawn."*
--
* S.C. 1-'14, pp. 136-137.
--
==
Now, what, in the name of common sense, does a supposedly civilized Government
want with a law that it knows will cause "an upheaval"?
This Act should be abolished in the interest of the morality of the State
and for the sake of the reputation of the Union Jack,
because of the harm it does to the Natives and because its promoters
have rebelled against the Crown. The Act has benefited no one;
it has driven the Natives from the country to the cities,
and has also disappointed the White Labour Party, who supported it
in the belief that by its clause forcing Natives to work for white farmers
it would keep the Natives away from the industrial centres.
It should be abolished in the interests of the Boers,
for it has aroused the bitterest enmity of the blacks
against the Dutch section of his Majesty's subjects.
Further, the Act should be abolished because it has lowered the prestige
of the Union Jack in the eyes of the coloured subjects of the King,
who have suffered and are still suffering untold misery under it.
Perhaps nothing illustrates more clearly this changed feeling of the Natives
than the present state of things in South Africa. Thus, if German
South-West Africa had been annexed to the Cape before the Union, every Native,
south of the Zambesi, would have approved of the step, whereas to-day,
as a result of the Natives' Land Act, there is a different feeling extant.
For now the Natives know that annexation to the Union will mean
the elimination of the Imperial factor, and that as Capetown, like Pretoria,
has ceased to represent British ideas of fair play and justice,
such a change would in the annexed territory establish "Free" State ideals
under the aegis of the Union Jack. The Natives of the Union
shudder at the possibility of the Damaras, who are now under
the harsh rule of the Germans, being placed under a self-governing Dominion
in which the German rule will be accentuated by the truculent
"Free" State ideas of ruling Natives. And they think that
in the existing state of circumstances, Portuguese or French rule would be
infinitely better for the Damaras than a Government which, although protected
by the Union Jack, yet is inspired from Pretoria and Bloemfontein.
And it is to be feared that the pernicious principles
which Tommy Atkins is now fighting on the Continent to suppress,
are going to be rigorously applied in a South-West Africa
under Burgher rule. The prosperity of no State can afford to alienate
the sympathy of any considerable portion of its tax-payers. And so,
as 5,000,000 blacks have been alienated in their sympathies to the Union
by this oppressive law, and as the Union Government is unable or unwilling
to amend it, in the interest of the Union Government, no less than
the 5,000,000 blacks, outside intervention becomes a necessity.
During three separate white men's upheavals in the last two years
-- two bloody strikes and a civil war -- white revolters made frantic efforts
to embroil the Union in a native rising, but the Natives very sensibly
sided with the Government. The native leaders, in order to counteract
this mischief-making, had to incur the expense of journeys by rail
besides financing their own mission to reach the scene of the would-be
native disturbance.
The time will come when these leaders will tire of spending their own money
in paying fares to the Government Railways, to render free services
to a Government which taxes them to pay other people lavishly
for similar work, while it does not even tender them so much
as a word of thanks.
Instead of the smallest recognition for our voluntary services,
the Union Government repays our loyalty by persecuting
our widows and fatherless children with the cold-blooded provisions
of the Natives' Land Act. These cruelties are euphemistically described
as the first step towards the segregation of white and black,
but they might more truthfully be styled the first steps
towards the extermination of the blacks.
When the war broke out, the Government promptly suspended
the inquiries of the Commission, whose report is naively alleged
to be pregnant with the fruits of the millennium, but the cruel evictions
under the same law of the rebel Grobler are pursuing their course
while the war lasts and the Union Government remains unconcerned.
It was only when a whole tribe was evicted during the war
that the Government interceded on behalf of the victims,
but then, the only extent of the intervention has been to secure
exemption for the chief of the tribe alone, on the condition that
HE FORCED THE REST OF HIS TRIBE TO RENDER EVERY YEAR THREE MONTHS' LABOUR
TO THE LANDOWNER. Yet these people could live happily on some other farm
did not the Government prohibit their happiness at the behest of a rebel who,
at or about the time of this enthralling compromise, was conducting
treasonable operations against the Government.
The sublime ingratitude of the Union Government is wellnigh unbearable!
Chapter XVII The London Press and the Natives' Land Act
Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
Cowper.
The native deputation (thanks to Mr. H. Cornish, secretary of
the Institute of Journalists) can truthfully assure their people,
at the present critical state of their position, of the sympathy
of the London Press. It is hardly necessary to mention
that religious papers, to which the object of the deputation was made known,
published some very encouraging articles on the same,
and bespoke the deputation a cordial reception and a sympathetic hearing
throughout the United Kingdom; but the mission might have been
somewhat monotonous had we friends only and no enemies in the London Press.
And a weekly paper with a yellow cover, called `South Africa',
did its best to fill the role of an enemy.
It abused the Brotherhood Movement and the Aborigines Protection Society for
taking up the cause of the deputation. The General Press Cutting Association,
however, through whom we learnt of the attacks of `South Africa',
did not tell us whether this journal also abused our other friends
represented by the London Press. Such has been our good fortune
in this respect that friends frequently congratulated us
on the unanimity of the Press in our favour. In this we think
they were right, as a cause with only one enemy could very well be depended on
to take care of itself.
On one occasion some of our friends heard that the author
was going to interview the fine-fingered editor of the `Westminster Gazette'
by appointment, and they strongly advised us against doing so.
"Why not?" we asked. "Oh," said our friends, "he edits the leading
Government organ, and he is going to pump you of all information
in order to use it against your cause and in favour of the Government."
But we went -- firstly, because we refused to believe
that the editor of that great organ of British thought
was capable of taking such a mean advantage of us; and secondly,
because we were confident of being able to take care of ourselves
against any kind of pump; and we can now say with satisfaction that,
on the part of the British public, there was such a demand
for back numbers of the two editions of the `Westminster Gazette'
which contained a report of our interview and a photograph of the deputation
that in a fortnight both issues were sold out of print. Further,
it is safe to say that from the wide area from which inquirers wrote to us
mentioning the `Daily News', it would seem that either that journal
has a very big circulation or its readers are mainly interested
in South African Affairs. And what, may be asked, are the qualifications
of the newspaper `South Africa' which attempted to run counter
to this overwhelming opinion in our favour?
Unlike some of its contemporaries, `South Africa' has not
a single native contributor to its columns. Some London newspapers
are in regular receipt of exchange copies from native newspapers
published in South Africa, London papers which never claimed
a monopoly over South African thought; yet here is a paper,
South African in title and in pretensions, which cannot even boast
of a South African native paper on its exchange list! What information, then,
can the editors of such an exclusive London paper possess
about an Act specifically enacted to operate against Natives?
Logically, they would know absolutely less than next to nothing
about such a law or its fell work. That alone should dispose of
the qualifications of this enemy of the deputation, and his authority to speak
on the subject of its mission.
The `African World' is an Anglo-African weekly which has
native newspaper exchanges and several African correspondents
both white and black. Its editor-in-chief was born in South Africa
and was a journalist there before he came to reside in England;
and it must be admitted that a paper with such connexions
is in a better position to discuss the subject from both points of view.
And so the `African World' says:
==
THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVE DEPUTATION
It must be admitted that the South African Native Deputation
now in this country have gone about their business with decorum.
They have not pressed themselves forward unduly, and, so far,
the publicity given to them has been moderate in its tone, and the expressions
by the members of the deputation have been equally moderate.
Of course, their best friends discountenanced this visit, as we have noted
from the South African Press, but it seems to be the general opinion
that even though no appeal lies under the Union Constitution
to the British Crown as regards native rights, an extraordinary anomaly
seems to exist in this: That the Natives of South Africa within the Union
appear to have fewer rights than those outside the Union, especially so far
as an appeal to London on various matters affecting their interests
is concerned. We are aware that Mr. Harcourt treated the deputation
with the utmost discretion when he received them. We also know
that Mr. Harcourt and General Botha are on very friendly personal relations,
and under these circumstances, without wishing to dictate
any action in the matter to the powers that be on both sides of the water,
we would like to join our contemporary `The Globe'.
==
And what did `The Globe' say?
==
THE NATIVE APPEAL
The complaint of the South African Natives who have laid their grievances
before certain members of Parliament amounts in effect to a complaint
that Parliament is not Imperial. Their grievances are real and pressing,
as anybody can discover who troubles to look up the recent proceedings
of the Union Parliament, but they have no constitutional means
of ventilating them. No native franchise exists in South Africa,
and although certain members of the Union Senate are presumed
to keep an eye on native questions their influence has proved ineffective.
No appeal exists under the Union Constitution to the Crown
as regards Native rights, for although this omission was pointed out
at the time the Act of Union was debated in the Imperial Parliament
and was adversely commented on, no steps were taken by the Colonial Office
to rectify the constitution in this respect. We are, therefore,
brought up against the extraordinary anomaly that Natives of South Africa
within the Union have fewer rights than those outside -- for the Basutos,
who remain under direct Imperial control, have successfully appealed to London
on various matters affecting their interests -- or even than
the Natives of Crown Colonies elsewhere, as the appeal of native landowners
on the Gold Coast against recent legislation in that territory attests.
In the latter case the appeal to the Colonial Office
was successful in modifying the offending enactments;
in the far more serious grievances of the South African Natives
the Colonial Office has no constitutional title whatever.
Nevertheless the relations between Mr. Harcourt and General Botha
in other respects are notoriously so close and confidential that we may hope
the Colonial Secretary will take the present occasion by the hand
and urge upon the head of the South African Government
the wisdom of dealing with native discontents in his own proper sphere
before he prosecutes his claim for the inclusion of the Basutos and Rhodesia
in the Union -- a claim which both the black Natives and the white colonists
have repudiated with all the emphasis at their command.
General Botha could scarcely fail to give heed to private advice
from the Colonial Office. In the case of the Natal Indians, whose grievances
he recently redressed, he proved himself a man capable of taking
a broad and generous view of a difficult question. There is no reason
to anticipate until the contrary is proved, that he will fall below
his own level in the present not less difficult or dangerous case.
==
==
VIEWS OF THE `DAILY NEWS'
"The South African National Congress, after resorting to
every constitutional means of pressing their case against the Land Act
on the Union Government, have sent five of their number to London
in the firm conviction that the King of England, to whom they look
as their natural defender and vindicator, will turn no deaf ear
to their pleas. Two of the five -- the Rev. J. L. Dube and Mr. Saul Msane --
are Zulus; Dr. Rubusana is a Xosa; Mr. Mapikela, a Fingo;
and Mr. Plaatje, the secretary of the National Congress, a Bechuana.
All of them are men of obvious culture and with a striking command
of the English language."
"Having failed to make any impression on the Union Government
(`If we had votes,' Dr. Rubusana observed, `we could fight our own battles')
the deputation has come to England in the hope of influencing
the Imperial Government through the Colonial Secretary.
"What they ask for is:
"First, a suspension of the operation of the Act pending the report
of the Delimitation Commission:
"Second, an inquiry into native grievances under the Act; and,
"Thirdly, an assurance that the Home Government will express its concurrence
with certain promises made recently on behalf of General Botha,
but obviously depending for their value on the continuance of
his personal political supremacy.
Four Blacks to One White
"In carving out estates for themselves in Africa the white races have shown
little regard for the claims of the black man," says the `Daily News'.
"They have appropriated his land, and in appropriating his land
have taken away his economic freedom, and have left him in a worse case
than they found him. How the Native has been dispossessed may be illustrated
by the facts in regard to the Union of South Africa. Here the blacks,
as compared with the whites, are in the proportion of four to one;
but they are in legal occupation of only one-fifteenth of the soil.
"Under the Natives' Land Act, which has brought the matter to a crisis,
even the poor fragment of rights in the soil that remains seems doomed.
For under the Act the Native is denied the right -- except with
the quite illusory `approval of the Governor-General' to purchase, hire,
or acquire any rights in land from a person other than a Native.
Under this provision, the Native whose tenancy expires, or who is evicted
from a farm, is legally denied any career except that of a labourer.
He cannot own, he cannot hire, he cannot live a free man.
A Legal Serf
"In the language of Mr. Dower, the Secretary for Native Affairs,
he must `sell his stock and go into service.' He must accept any conditions
the white farmer chooses or the mine-owner gives, and an ingenious clause
encourages the white farmer to exact unpaid service from the native tenants.
In a word, the Native is a legal serf in his own land.
"As British subjects, the deputation of Natives now in England
have appealed to the Imperial Government for protection.
They asked for its help to secure the suspension of the Act
until the Land Commission report is before Parliament,
and for machinery to inquire into and redress their grievances.
They have got no satisfaction on these points.
"It is time that Parliament gave some attention to its obligations
in regard to the South African Native. He has no vote and no friends --
only his labour, which the white man wants on the cheapest terms.
And the white man has got this by taking his land and imposing on him
taxes that he cannot pay. In fact, the black man is `rounded up'
on every side, and if, as the deputation suggest may be the case,
he is forced to acts of violence, it will not be possible to say
that he has not had abundant provocation.
Rights to the Soil
"There is only one principle that can be applied for his protection.
It is the principle that he has rights in his native soil.
Perhaps segregation is the only remedy now, but if so
the reservations allocated to him in the Union area ought to have
some relation to his needs. We cannot do much for him there,
but we should do what we can."
==
Mr. Advocate F. A. Silva wrote to the `Daily News': --
==
AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE
Sir, -- Will you please allow me space, while appreciating
your editorial of this date, to bring to the kind notice of your readers
the distinction between "British justice as supposed to be"
and "British justice as it is" with regard to the subject races,
especially the black men?
If even the "hair" of a "white" British subject were to be touched in China
or Japan or Turkey or Russia, the whole of the political parties of England,
with their usual patriotism, will rise to the occasion, and with one accord
demand the use of physical force against that country.
But here in South Africa, on the day the "Act" came into law, all agreements
with regard to land were terminated, and thousands of the Natives
found themselves ruined and homeless. From tenants they have become serfs.
If the Imperial Parliament looks with complacency on these
tyrannical proceedings of a local Parliament, then the British public
should not be surprised if the intelligent and thoughtful
among the subject races of "Britain" consider "British justice"
and "Russian tyranny" to be synonymous terms.
==
Let us draw attention to one more letter, by an Anglo-African
to the `Daily News', which was typical of the rest: --
==
THE BLACK MAN'S BURDEN
Sir, -- Those of your readers who, like myself, have some
first-hand knowledge of the Natives of South Africa, know that this grievance
voiced by the native deputation is a very real one. That such a deputation
should have to come to England to urge such a plea is humiliating enough
to them and to us. That their plea should be urged in vain
would be disastrous to the last degree.
If the Natives' Land Act is the best thing the Union Government can do
in the discharge of its responsibilities to the native tribes
placed under its care by the King, then many of us would have to revise
our faith in self-government as a fit instrument of national evolution;
and would, moreover, strenuously resist the ultimate incorporation
of the northern territories within the Union as being infinitely worse
for the black man than even government under Chartered Company control.
One hopes that it is not yet too late for both Boer and Briton in South Africa
to see that this debasement of the whole idea of self-government
is to affront and discourage all in Great Britain who saw
in the grant of its own political freedom to that great country
a healing for its many woes. In the meantime Liberalism
must back the native deputation at all costs, and it is well
that `The Daily News and Leader' should lead the way.
==
==
ONE OBJECT OF THE S.A. WAR: THE LIBERATION OF THE NATIVE
One object of the South African War was to liberate the Native
in the Transvaal. One result of it is that we have practically
less opportunity to interfere in his behalf than we had
under the Convention with the South African Republic. Interference in
the internal affairs of a self-governing colony -- in this case a colony
in which a small number of white men govern a large number of black --
has ceased to be within the realm of practical politics.
But if this political interference is impossible, moral remonstrance
is all the more in point. There is in all parts of the world
a better and more enlightened as well as a duller and more callous
public opinion, and the better opinion of a colony is powerfully reinforced
by judicious expression of feeling in the mother country.
There are occasions when that opinion should even be formally expressed
by the Colonial Office or by a resolution of the House of Commons.
Now, there is at present a deputation of South African Natives in this country
appealing against the ratification of the Natives' Land Act of 1913.
Mr. Harcourt has told them that he cannot interfere, nor can he
any more than if he were an ornamental registering clerk.
But he can if he chooses speak winged words to the South African Government,
which, having alienated the entire white working population,
is now exciting the same hostility among the blacks.
The Act itself probably has a deeper motive. It prevents
the sale of white men's land to the Natives or native land to the white men.
This would have the effect of securing to the Native
that very small portion of his own country which he has still managed
to retain. This probably commended the measure to those
who because they care for elementary justice are called negrophile,
the colour of justice in a white man's eyes being apparently black.
The other effect would be to prevent those Kafirs who are
becoming educated and rising in the social scale from acquiring land.
As in proportion to population the white man has by far the greater
amount of land, it is clear that he does not come badly out of the bargain.
However, it is not the Act itself of which the most serious complaint is made.
What makes matters worse is the interim arrangement that
pending the delimitation of native land by a Commission
no Native whose lease of land has expired shall be able to renew it
for a money rent or for any consideration whatever except labour service.
It is contended that farmers are taking advantage of this prohibition to exact
unpaid labour services from Natives, and are thus in effect reducing them
to serfdom. It is clear that the position in which the Native is placed
renders this only too possible, and it is an extraordinary thing
that any such violent alteration of status should be made
before instead of after the report of a Commission. For our part
we cannot believe that men like Generals Botha and Smuts deliberately desire
to reduce the Native to the condition of a semi-servile, landless labourer,
and we would venture on behalf of the many Liberals who fought steadily
for the right of South Africa to govern herself to appeal to them
to extend a similar consideration to the people of whose destinies
they have become responsible, and to suspend the operation of the Act
until the administrative preparations for carrying it out with equity
have been completed. -- `Manchester Guardian'.
==
==
VIEWS OF THE "STAR"
We have always realized that one of the gravest problems of self-government
in South Africa is the native question. On the one hand,
South African Colonial opinion -- by which is meant "white" opinion --
will bitterly resent any shadow of dictation from Downing Street;
on the other hand, the conscience of the British people cannot remain
indifferent to any flagrant oppression of or injustice to the native races
under the British flag. A very difficult question of this kind
is raised by the deputation of South African Natives,
which is now in this country, seeking to move the Colonial Office
on the subject of the Natives' Land Act recently passed by General Botha.
The ultimate object of General Botha's plan is the greatest exodus
since the days of Moses; it is apparently to get rid of black landholders
in areas in which the majority of the landowners are white,
and to buy up tracts of land elsewhere from white landowners, in order
to settle Natives upon them. In this way the black and the white races,
so far as landholding is concerned, will be segregated into separate areas,
with a reduction of possible cause of friction, and in some respects
this is an excellent policy. But the trouble is that General Botha
has passed the first part of his policy and has left the second part
to the future. The Land Act provides that hereafter,
"except with the approval of the Governor-General" -- which proviso
is mere leather and prunella -- a Native shall not buy or hire any land
from a person other than a Native. The effect of this is that
at the termination of any existing tenancy a Native will have
to relinquish his farm, and will not be able to hire or buy another
from any white owner. If the Government had provided farms
in the proposed native reserves for these men, their policy would be complete,
but nothing has been done, and the fulfilment of that promise depends upon
General Botha's continuance in office, and does not bind his successors.
It is not surprising the South African Natives regard this Act
as a means of driving them into the labour market either at the mines,
or for white farmers. Mr. Dower, the Secretary for Native Affairs,
addressing a meeting of Natives at Thaba Nchu, in the Free State,
gave a strong hint of this when he said: "My best advice to you
is to sell your stock and go into service." Here at home we hear a great deal
about the "magic of property" and the importance of giving the worker
an interest in the soil he tills; but in South Africa they apparently agree
with the southerner in the `Biglow Papers' that
Libbaty's a kind o' thing
Thet don't agree with niggers.
It is clear that it is the duty of the Colonial Office to guarantee,
in conjunction with the South African Government, the carrying out
of the full policy as outlined by General Botha, and we hope
occasion will be taken to urge action on these lines. -- `Star'.
==
==
CAN BRITAIN PREVENT SLAVERY
A question of great importance and a question which may easily strain
the links that bind the various parts of the Empire and the Mother Country,
has arisen in South Africa owing to the operation of the Natives' Land Act
passed last year by the Union Parliament. The Native question is by far
the greatest problem South Africa has to solve, and its difficulties
are so great that nobody has been able to advance any feasible scheme
for its settlement, though there have been many suggestions
as to the broad lines on which the matter may be settled.
The Land Act is an attempt to establish modified segregation --
i.e., confining the white man and the black to separate areas of the country.
It is by no means a well-thought-out nor a very practicable enactment,
and unfortunately has had the effect of greatly irritating the Natives
throughout the Union. The Natives do not think they are being treated fairly,
and have used every legitimate means to obtain a hearing.
These means, however, are exceedingly meagre, practically non-existent,
since they have no one to represent them, and as they have no vote
they can bring no pressure on Parliament. Having failed in South Africa,
they have sent a deputation to Great Britain, since, as they are
British subjects, they consider that Great Britain should look after them.
Arriving here, they find the Home Government cannot interfere
in the internal policy of a self-governing colony, and so are left
with no means of obtaining redress. It is surely impossible to admit
that Great Britain can do nothing for the mass of the native population,
although at the moment it appears to them that though
they are subjects of the King he cannot even hear their appeal,
and will do nothing for them, and has abandoned them, a state of affairs
which is quite incomprehensible to them and leads them to depend
solely on themselves to obtain redress -- and that way rebellion lies.
Britain is in an awkward position as she still has obligations
to secure justice to the Natives. If South Africa were to enact slavery,
would Britain still be able to do nothing to prevent it?
Ousting the Native
Surely Mr. Harcourt can suggest to the South African Government
the necessity of appointing a Commission to inquire into
the working of the Act, a Commission which would include Natives
as well as whites. That the Natives have a material grievance is certain.
The Act says that there shall be certain areas in which no Native
can own or lease land, and similarly areas in which no white
can own or lease land. That within a certain period the Natives owning land
in the white area must sell out, and when their leases run out
they shall not be renewed, similarly for the whites in the black area.
Now at present no black area has been delimited, and the Commission
performing this task will not report for a year or more;
meanwhile the blacks are being turned off the land and have nowhere to go.
The only course left to them is to hire themselves out as servants
to the white; and, in fact, that is the real object of the Act.
The farmers found that the Natives were acquiring land rapidly,
and working for themselves rather than for the white man.
There was a shortage of labour, and farmers wished to force the Natives
to work for them rather than for themselves. This ejection
with no other alternative is obviously most unfair, especially as
there are indications that the native areas will not be delimited
for a considerable time. The South Africans have always feared
a combined action of all the native tribes, but surely by this Act
they have chosen the simplest way of irritating every Native in South Africa.
This condition of affairs is exceedingly grave, and, though the results
are suppressed at present, there is no knowing what may happen
if the British Government, whom the Natives regard as their final
court of appeal, shows itself powerless. We know that the native question
in South Africa is terribly difficult, but it is an obvious course
to be pursued in order to maintain good relations between the two races
that grievances should be fairly heard and dealt with justly.
-- `Review of Reviews'.
==
Chapter XVIII The P.S.A. and Brotherhoods
The Brotherhood must help not only the spiritual part of life,
but also in social matters. They should always help the down-trodden,
showing the brotherly feeling which was portrayed throughout
the life of Christ.
Rt. Hon. A. Henderson, M.P.,
President of the Brotherhood Movement, at Weston-super-Mare.
In a previous chapter we mentioned a yellow-covered newspaper which
abused our English friends for supporting the appeal of the native deputation.
It characterized the advocacy of the aims of the deputation by the Brotherhood
as "Rubbish -- a commodity which can always be picked up,
and quite a lot of people spend much of their time in collecting it."
"Why," exclaims this paper with indignation, "we had imagined
that the `Brotherhood' movement was of a religious nature."
Our answer to this taunt is, that just because the Brotherhood movement
opposes the Natives' Land Act it must be religious,
for Anglican Bishops in South Africa have denounced this law
in their episcopal charges (vide `Church Chronicle', 1913, October issues),
and Anglican Bishops in South Africa are nothing if they are not religious.
Nonconformist Ministers have condemned this law in their annual
synods and conferences. Ex-Premier W. P. Schreiner, K.C., C.M.G.,
at present the London representative of the Union of South Africa,
is the son of an old South African missionary. He was member of
the Union Parliament when this law was passed and was one of the few senators
who had the pluck to vote against it after condemning it;
and it is monstrous to suggest that these pious and learned men
could conspire to denounce a law just for the pleasure of denouncing it.
And to our untutored mind it seems that if it be true that all these good men
are working for the spread of Christ's Kingdom in South Africa,
then we must be pardoned the inference that in the same country
protagonists of this Act are working for the establishment of another kingdom.
This inference grows into a belief when it is recalled that the men
who are responsible for the recent commotion are the very men
who forced this law upon the Government.
In the various reports of the South African Church Synods of 1915,
the character of this "Church closing" law stands out in bold relief,
and it is there revealed as an opponent of Christ and His work. Let us refer
to only one of them. "The native work of the (Transvaal) District
has been seriously hampered by the operation of the Natives' Land Act.
As the result of evictions under the Act, some of the Churches on farms
have ceased to exist." -- Cape `Methodist Churchman', Jan. 22, 1915.
The numerous South African opponents of this law had no share
in the recent upheaval, and the Brotherhoods by lending their platforms
to a campaign in opposition to a law that emanates from such a quarter
show that their cause, in addition to religion, is on the side of law,
order, and constitutional liberty. We know, of course,
that no doctrine of liberty would be acceptable in South Africa
that did not also imply "liberty to ill-treat the blacks".
Hence the Brotherhood propaganda, being colour-blind,
explains the fury of the London mouthpiece of "lily-white" South Africa.
Early in July the deputation called at the Brotherhood headquarters
in Norfolk Street, Strand, to explain to the National Brotherhood Council
the object of their mission. Mr. William Ward, the national secretary,
received the deputation in person; Mr. John McIntosh, secretary to
the London Federation, Mr. W. Mann and other officers being also present.
They invited the deputation to the Quarterly Meeting of the London Federation
at Bishopsgate on July 14, 1914, after which the deputation received
invitations to address meetings in various parts. Some of these engagements
still remain unfulfilled. A list of the centres visited is given
at the end of this chapter.
At the Bishopsgate gathering Mr. Will Crooks, M.P., was the "star turn".
He welcomed the deputation and regretted the cold reception accorded to it
by the Colonial Secretary. He added, however, that if they proceeded
along the same moderate lines followed by Dr. Rubusana and Mr. Msane
(the two members of the deputation who spoke that evening)
he felt certain that they would do more good for their cause in the country
than they did at the Colonial Office.
The `Brotherhood Journal', the newspaper organ of the movement said: --
==
Bear ye one another's Burdens
For Brotherhood men and women there can be only one response to their appeal.
For Brotherhood is not only between man and man, but between
nation and nation, and race and race.
In our movement, at any rate, there can be no colour bar to love and justice.
If our Brotherhoods did not rise to a cause like this, we might well question
the reality of their fraternal pretensions.
We are told that the problem has its difficulties. No doubt.
But they can be overcome, if only our statesmen will act
in a spirit of courage and faith. Surely empire means not only
privilege and power and glory, but also responsibility and obligations.
If it means only commercial profit, and injustice is to be done with impunity
under the Imperial flag,
Of what worth is such an Empire?
This is a matter in which every one of our members should exert
the force of opinion on the side of right. Let us open
to our coloured brothers' cause our platforms and our hearts.
The five members of the deputation will be in this country for some months,
and are prepared to address Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods,
and to send information as to their case to any who wish it.
We doubt not that they will find in our midst not only
a most sympathetic hearing, but active help in educating public opinion
in this country, in order that a great wrong may be righted.
==
How unlike so many poor attempts at brotherhood, organized in
the name of Christianity, especially in our part of the globe,
where "they have made the welkin ring with the sorrowful tale
of the unfortunate condition of the weak, but, like the rich man
in the parable, they liked their Lazarus afar off," and considered their
fraternal pretensions satisfied if they sent their dogs to lick his wounds.
No, the Brotherhood movement is no such parody. It is practical Christianity
which knows no distinction of colour or boundaries between nations.
Our nine months' association with Brother Martin and Brother Timberlake,
of the Shernhall Brotherhood, confirms this view; and our acquaintanceship
with other members of this wonderful movement (which counts
judges and members of Parliament as well as factory hands
among its office-bearers) satisfied the writer that they are always ready
to practise what they preach.
A noteworthy occasion in connexion with the campaign was our visit
to the Southall Brotherhood on Sunday, March 14. We can hardly
forget the day; it was on Crocus Sunday when thousands of Londoners
went to Hampton Court in crowds to see the crocus bulbs in bloom.
It was a glorious day and we remember it as the second day in 1915 on which
the European sun shone through a cloudless sky from sunrise to sunset.
Thousands of people attended at Hyde Park to witness the church parade,
and still more thousands took advantage of the glorious spring day
after a strenuous winter to flock to Epping Forest and other popular resorts.
In the afternoon we took part in an Imperial indoor demonstration
organized by the "Southall Men's Own" at the Central Hall.
Mr. William Cross of Hanwell represented England; Mr. T. Owens, F.C.I.S.,
represented Wales; Mr. S. S. A. Cambridge, a black barrister,
represented his homeland, British Guiana; Miss Ruth Bucknall, the celebrated
lyric soprano, who artistically contributed the solos, represented Australia;
while Scotland and the Emerald Isle were also represented
in the orchestra and elsewhere in the hall; Mr. and Mrs. Lionel Boote,
of Auckland, New Zealand, represented "the most English of the Colonies"
(unfortunately the Indian representative could not reach Southall in time),
and the writer represented South Africa, the baby member
of the British family.
Among such intellectual giants, one was inclined at the outset
to feel somewhat out of place, but thanks to the encouraging Brotherhood cheer
which always accompany their reception of a speaker, the stripling
soon finds himself at home, as is always the case on any Brotherhood platform,
and that was how we felt that day.
Mr. W. Cross said, in part, that one of the most striking proofs
of the unity of the Empire was shown in the splendid way
that men had come forward to assist the Mother Country
on the battlefields of Europe from all parts of our Dominions.
The coloured men from India had come as free men and fellow-subjects
to do their share. The Empire was composed of territories and people --
once separated by race and creed, now united under one flag.
There was a great resemblance between Brotherhood and Empire.
In it all kinds of religion were represented, yet all were united
in one great principle. It had been said the soul of Russia was pity,
of France reason, and of Britain justice. No Empire could be built to stand
unless based on justice and freedom. The principle of freedom underlay Empire
as it underlay Brotherhood also. There was no limit to the Empire
that was founded upon unity, toleration, justice, and liberty;
it surely had no end. Similarly there was no frontier
to the kingdom of Brotherhood, and they looked for a kingdom out-spanning
far beyond the roll of British drums -- the kingdom of Brotherhood --
the kingdom of Christ.
Referring to the limitations of colour in South Africa, Mr. Cambridge said:
"Have you no cattle and sheep in South Africa? Are there no birds?
Have you not observed that they are of different colours and yet are not
restricted in their flight on that account; and are you going to run counter
to the work of nature in regard to human beings? The British Empire
has a population of over 430,000,000, of which less than 100,000,000
are white, and there was a big problem to solve: `How to rule
with justice and equity this great multitude of various races and creeds
and consolidate them as fellow-subjects of one great and mighty Empire.'
The future of the British Empire could be secured by following
the high ideals of `Brotherhood' which were foreshadowed by Christ
in the Bible, and by great writers such as Shakespeare and Addison.
The fall of Rome was due to her failure to recognize the duty
of welding her subjects together as brothers one and all
under the Fatherhood of God. . . ."
It is a pity that the argument used by Mr. Cambridge would not go down
with the majority of the rulers in South Africa. If it did
one would remind them that even South African ladies pay
higher prices for black silks than they do for white silks;
that the value of domestic animals does not as a whole appear
to be influenced by their colour: thus, whereas the fleece of white sheep
commands a higher price in the South African wool market
than the fleece of black sheep, their mutton has about the same flavour.
Again of horned cattle, which give the same quality of beef,
irrespective of colour; farmers will tell you of them
that coloured cattle are among the best for farming and other purposes,
while white bullocks are subject to sore eyes, and white cows
continually suffer from erythema of the nipples (`Garget-mammitis');
yet we have not heard that this peculiarity had any influence
on the quality of their beef or the quality of the milk they give.
The springbuck, whence the best South African venison is obtained,
has the colours of black, white and brown; and this blend has not prevented it
from having the reputation of being the prettiest and most graceful antelope
in the world. But argument in this respect is simply wasted
on the ruling caste in South Africa: there, Mr. Cross's views
about "freedom, liberty," etc., will simply be laughed out of court,
unless he limits them to white men; so that one sometimes wonders
whether Christ's metaphor about "casting pearls before swine" does not find
an application here. Look at the weighty arguments delivered
inside and outside Parliament against the Natives' Land Act.
Surely no legislature with a sense of responsibility could have
passed that law after hearing arguments of such force and weight against it;
but the South African legislature passed that Act and seems to glory
in the wretched result of its operation.
Mr. Boote expressed his pride in finding how shining was the native policy
of New Zealand when contrasted with the native policy of South Africa.
"Why," said Mrs. Boote to us, with evident satisfaction,
"we have got Maori members of Parliament and our country
is all the better for it." She had every justification to look pleased
at the comparison which reveals the justice of her country's rule,
for we remember how the women of New Zealand got the vote.
The white members of Parliament in New Zealand were equally divided
on the Women's Enfranchisement Bill; but for the native members,
there would have been a tie, as was the case in South Africa three years ago,
when the white members of the South African Parliament,
as seemed likely there, wheedled the Women's Suffrage Bill out of the House.
Happily for Women's Franchise in the Antipodes the Maori members
voted solidly for the Bill and secured the passage of a reform which,
judging by the satisfactory results in Australia and elsewhere,
gave the lead to the rest of the Empire.
It was at Hammersmith, where the chairman after hearing
our story of the operation of the Natives' Land Act,
in moving a resolution, in a sympathetic speech, asked: "Why did we
spend 240,000,000 Pounds and kill 10,000 men in the South African War
if this is the result?" He asked the permission of the audience to change
the last hymn on the programme and sing the Brotherhood Song of Liberty.
As the newspaper `South Africa' seems to insinuate that
the Brotherhood movement by allying itself with our cause
had deviated from its aims and objects, we would explain that the chairman
did not run out of the meeting to borrow a book from somewhere
containing that song. The song is No. 26 of the `Fellowship Hymnal' --
the hymn-book of the P.S.A. and Brotherhoods.
At subsequent meetings it had often been our pleasure,
after delivering the message from the South African Natives,
to sit down and hear the chairman give out that hymn,
and the orchestra lead off with the tune of Costa's March of the Israelites.
A pleasant variety was lent to it at the Victoria Brotherhood
in Monmouthshire, which we visited on the first Sunday in 1915.
There the chairman gave out the now familiar hymn, and the grand organ chimed
the more familiar tune of "Jesu, lover of my soul" (Hollingside's),
and the variety lent extra freshness to the singing of
the Brotherhood Song of Liberty, which is reproduced: --
Men whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain
When it works a brother's pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed --
Slaves unworthy to be freed?
Is true freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And with leathern hearts forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And with heart and hand to be
Earnest to make others free.
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think:
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
J. R. Lowell.
------------------------------------------------------------
P.S.A. and Brotherhood Societies Addressed by the Deputation
and the Order in Which They Were Visited
------------------------------------------------------------
[Modified from original table format]
[a] Society. [b] Name of President or Secretary.
[c] Where Meetings are Held. [d] By Whom Addressed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[a] 1. London Federation of Brotherhoods [b] Mr. John McIntosh
[c] 230, Bishopsgate, E.C. [d] Mr. Saul Msane, Dr. W. B. Rubusana
[a] 2. Tooting Brotherhood [b] Rev. E. Aldom French
[c] Wesleyan Central Hall, Tooting, S.W. [d] Mr. Saul Msane,
Dr. W. B. Rubusana
[a] 3. Willesden Green Men's Own Brotherhood [b] Mr. H. J. Weaver
[c] Baptist Church, High Road, Willesden Green [d] Mr. Sol T. Plaatje,
Mr. T. M. Mapikela
[a] 4. Westbourne Park Brotherhood [b] Dr. J. Clifford, MA.DD.
[c] Baptist Church, Bayswater, W. [d] Dr. W. B. Rubusana
[a] 5. Willesden P.S.A. [b] Mr. W. Springbett
[c] Primitive Methodist Church, Willesden Green [d] Dr. W. B. Rubusana,
Mr. T. M. Mapikela
[a] 6. East Ham Brotherhood [b] Rev. W. H. Armstrong [c] Central Hall,
Barking Road, East Ham [d] Dr. W. B. Rubusana, Mr. T. M. Mapikela
[a] 7. Tooting Graveny Brotherhood [b] Mr. A. Riding [c] Central Hall,
Tooting, Broadway [d] Mr. Saul Msane
[a] 8. Men's Brotherhood [b] Rev. A. Clifford Hall
[c] Congregational Church, Greenwich Rd., S.E. [d] Mr. Saul Msane
[a] 9. Hammersmith Brotherhood [b] Mr. J. W. Butters
[c] Albion Congregational Church, Hammersmith [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 10. Shern Hall Brotherhood [b] Mr. W. H. Jennings
[c] United Methodist Church, Whipps Cross [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 11. Swanscombe Brotherhood [b] Mr. E. Pallant [c] Wesleyan Church,
Swanscombe, near Northfleet [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 12. Clifton Brotherhood [b] Rev. F. Hastings
[c] Congregational Church, Peckham Rye [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 13. Abertillery P.S.A. [b] Mr. Wm. Davies [c] The Pavilion,
Abertillery, South Wales [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 14. Abertillery P.S.A. [b] Mr. E. Jefferies [c] Wesleyan Church,
Abertillery, South Wales [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 15. Barking Brotherhood [b] Mr. W. Barnard [c] Wesleyan Church,
Barking, Essex [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 16. Willesden Green Men's Own [b] Mr. C. E. Pink [c] Baptist Church,
High Rd., Willesden Green [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 17. Victoria Brotherhood [b] Mr. J. W. Hall [c] Wesleyan Church,
Newport, Monmouthshire [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 18. Marsh Street Men's Own Brotherhood (Men's Meeting)
[b] Mr. E. K. Fuller [c] Queen's Cinema Electric Theatre, Walthamstow
[d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 19. Greenhithe Brotherhood [b] Mr. S. W. Lineham
[c] Wesleyan Church, London Rd., Greenhithe [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 20. Marsh Street Men's Own (Evening Meeting: Mixed)
[b] Mr. W. F. Toynbee [c] Queen's Cinema Electric Theatre, Walthamstow
[d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 21. Dartford P.S.A. [b] Mr. H. Keyte [c] Primitive Methodist Church,
Dartford, Kent [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 22. Southall Men's Own Brotherhood [b] T. Owen, Esq., F.C.I.S.
[c] Central Hall, Southall, W. [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 23. Lloyd's Park P.S.A. [b] Rev. R. P. Campbell
[c] United Methodist Church, Lloyd's Park [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 24. Men and Women's Meeting [b] Mr. F. Mercer
[c] Independent Church, Edmonton, North [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 25. Chiswick Brotherhood [b] Mr. D. J. Hawkins [c] Brotherhood Hall,
Turnham Green Terrace [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 26. Abney Brotherhood [b] Mr. W. A. Procktor [c] Abney Church,
Stoke Newington [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 27. Uxbridge P.S.A. [b] Mr. W. Ashton, J.P.
[c] Old Meeting House (Congl.), Uxbridge [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 28. West Ealing P.S.A. [b] Mr. S. Garrard
[c] Primitive Methodist Church, West Ealing [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 29. New England P.S.A. [b] Sir Richard Winfrey, M.P.
[c] P.S.A. Hall, Peterborough, Northampton [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 30. Shern Hall Brotherhood [b] Rev. James Ellis
[c] United Methodist Church, Walthamstow [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 31. Leighton Men's Meeting [b] Mr. G. F. Drew [c] Corn Exchange,
Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 32. Pembury Grove P.S.A. [b] Mr. Ernest Prior
[c] United Methodist Church, Clapton [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 33. Shepherd's Bush Brotherhood [b] Mr. F. C. Simpson
[c] Shepherd's Bush Tabernacle (Baptist) [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 34. East Ham Brotherhood [b] Mr. G. Sorrell [c] Central Hall,
Barking Road, East Ham [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 35. Botwell Brotherhood [b] Mr. J. Matson [c] The Cinema,
Hayes, Middlesex [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 36. Kingsland P.S.A. [b] Mr. J. Harding [c] Congregational Church,
High Street, Kingsland [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 37. Heathfield Brotherhood [b] Mr. Hy. H. Castle
[c] Recreation Hall, Heathfield, Sussex [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 38. Men's Own Brotherhood [b] Rev. A. Hallack, M.A.
[c] Angel Street Church, Worcester [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 39. Greenwich P.S.A. [b] Rev. W. T. Penny [c] Central Hall,
London Street, Greenwich [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 40. Hither Green P.S.A. [b] Mr. P. Duff [c] Congregational Church,
Torridon Road [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 41. Whitefield's Men's Meeting [b] Rev. W. Charter Piggott
[c] Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 42. North End Brotherhood [b] Mr. Elwin Wrench [c] North End Hall,
Croydon, Surrey [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 43. Trinity Men's Own [b] Mr. A. J. Walker [c] Congl. Church,
Victoria Park, Sth. Hackney [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 44. Acton Brotherhood [b] Mr. James McIntosh [c] Congl. Church,
Churchfield Rd., Acton, W. [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 45. P.S.A. Brotherhood [b] Mr. W. G. Brown [c] Wesleyan Church,
High Rd., Tottenham [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 46. Northampton Men's Own [b] Rev. R. Morton Stanley, M.A., B.D.
[c] Doddridge Church, Northampton [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 47. Cheshunt and Waltham Cross P.S.A. [b] Mr. A. W. Ashmead
[c] Drill Hall, Waltham Cross [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 48. Staines P.S.A. [b] Mr. R. C. Edwards [c] Town Hall,
Staines, Middlesex [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 49. Snell's Park P.S.A. [b] R. Green, Esq., C.C.
[c] Congregational Church, Upper Edmonton [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 50. Camberwell P.S.A. [b] Mr. H. A. Spong [c] Masonic Hall,
Camberwell, Surrey [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 51. Norbury Brotherhood [b] Mr. J. L. Moody [c] Wesleyan Church,
London Rd., Norbury [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 52. Hastings Brotherhood [b] Mr. A. G. Strickland
[c] Congregational Church, Hastings, Sussex [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 53. Evesham Men's Own Brotherhood [b] Mr. G. H. White
[c] Cowl St. Church, Evesham, Worcestershire [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 54. South Bank Brotherhood [b] Mr. T. Bosher
[c] South Bank-on-Tees, Yorkshire [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 55. Tees-side Brotherhood [b] Mr. T. Summers
[c] Wes. Church South Bank, Yorkshire [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 56. Shepherd's Bush, P.S.A. [b] Rev. W. G. Davis
[c] Wesleyan Church, Shepherd's Bush [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 57. Stockton United [b] Mr. W. Weighell [c] Baptist Tabernacle,
Stockton-on-Tees [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 58. Wembley Brotherhood [b] Mr. H. W. Hagger [c] Union Hall, Wembley
[d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 59. Watford Men's Own [b] Mr. A. G. Baker [c] Beechen Grove,
Ch. Watford, Hertfordshire [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
[a] 60. Clerkenwell Men's Own [b] Mr. R. G. Pursaill [c] Peel Institute,
Clerkenwell Green [d] Mr. S. T. Plaatje
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to the Brotherhoods and P.S.A.'s, we are indebted to
the Sisterhoods, Adult Schools and several Church bodies who gave us
many occasions to speak, the response to our message being most gratifying.
Chapter XIX Armed Natives in the South African War
Oh, where is he, the simple fool,
Who says that wars are over?
What bloody portent flashes there,
Across the Straits of Dover?
Nine hundred thousand slaves in arms
May seek to bring us under
But England lives and still will live,
For we'll crush the despot yonder.
Are we ready, Britons all,
To answer foes with thunder?
Arm, arm, arm!
The Gallant Bakhatla Tribe
When Bechuanaland was invaded by the Republican forces
at the outbreak of the Boer War, the British Police Force
in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, finding themselves hopelessly isolated
in that far-away region, decided to evacuate Gaberones and effect a junction
with Colonel Plumer's force which was then coming south from Rhodesia.
The British Commissioner, before leaving Gaberones,
advised the Native Chiefs of the Southern Protectorate
to make the best terms possible with the invaders until the Transvaal Republic
was conquered by the advancing British Army.
Chief Lentsue of the Bakhatla, acting entirely on his own responsibility,
sent his brother Segale with a message to the Dutch Commandant, reminding him
that the war was a white man's war, and asking him at the same time
not to traverse his territory with armed Boers; he also added
that any invasion of his territory would be resisted with all the means
at his disposal. Naturally, this message was treated with the contempt
that a Boer would habitually treat any frankness on the part of a "Kafir",
and the Boers, in utter disregard of this warning, invaded Bakhatla territory.
Chief Lentsue was not in a position to attack the Boers
at the beginning of the invasion. He had the men but hardly enough ammunition
to last for a whole day, so he had to bide his time, scheming the while
to secure an arsenal. The Dutch contempt for Lentsue's threats
advanced by 100 per cent when they overran his outer villages on two occasions
and he failed to offer any resistance, but they had not calculated
that his Intelligence Department and War Office were hard at work
in order that his threat to the Boers might not come to naught.
Accordingly on a certain day a convoy of huge buck-wagons,
each drawn by sixteen African bullocks, carrying ammunition
to the Dutch troops in Bechuanaland, meandered its way slowly
in the direction of the Marico River, escorted by a squadron
of mounted Burghers. All of a sudden they were surprised and disconcerted
by a fusillade of musketry, and the situation grew in gravity
from the fact that whichever way the members of the convoy scampered,
they appeared to be running from the frying-pan into the fire.
The ruse was swift and successful, indeed so successful
that the train of ammunition and provision wagons proceeded on its way
to Lentsue's town, Mochudi, but under a different escort.
What had happened was this: The sub-chief Segale, who has since
been known as Lentsue's fighting general, had closely watched
the movements of the Dutch and studied their plans, till he was able
to anticipate the coming of this convoy and to waylay it.
He captured enough ammunition in this and succeeding attacks
to enable the Chief Lentsue to arm his men. Thus they repulsed
two invasions of the Boers, followed the enemy into his territory,
and came home with numbers of head of cattle, and Lentsue's territory
was never again invaded by the Boers.
This isolated action of the Bakhatla Chief and people
in a remote corner of the Empire, on the boundaries of the late Boer Republic,
had its moral and material value. The Boers, who virtually owned
the whole of Bechuanaland to the south, except Mafeking town,
found that it would pay them better to adopt a friendlier attitude
towards the other Bechuana tribes. Thereby a Dutch Field Cornet
pronounced all the Bechuana Chiefs as the original Afrikanders --
with the exception of Lentsue of the Bakhatla, and Montsioa of the Barolong
in Mafeking. These two chiefs, the Field Cornet said,
were traitors to their country as they had joined the foreign Rooineks
against their black and white fellow Afrikander. But the armed Burghers
ceased to help themselves to native property, and the Government's
huge compensation bill at the end of the War became less formidable
in consequence. Furthermore, the task of that unacknowledged hero
-- the native dispatch runner -- became so appreciably easier that
an almost regular bi-weekly communication was maintained between headquarters
at the Cape and the siege garrison at Mafeking, for the native runners
after crawling through the lines of the investing Boers,
under cover of the night, could move through the peasant villages
with much less danger of detection by Boer patrols.
But it must be confessed that Chief Lentsue's defensive activities
were wholly illegal, inasmuch as the Boers, although they had declared war
against Lentsue's sovereign Lady, Queen Victoria, were not at war with him.
It was defined, by an uncanny white man's mode of reasoning,
that the war was a white man's business in which the blacks
should take no part beyond merely suffering its effects. The Natives' retort
to this declaration was in the words of a Sechuana proverb,
viz., "You cannot sever the jawbones from the head and expect to keep
those parts alive separately." It was this principle, we presume, that guided
Lentsue's action. Still from the standpoint of white South Africa,
the Chief's operations were a purely filibustering adventure;
and while it seemed difficult to indict Lentsue on any definite charge,
some of his men were arrested for having taken part
in a cattle-raiding expedition in Transvaal in the course of which
they shot and killed a German subject of the Transvaal Republic.
These men were tried at Pretoria after peace was declared,
and three of them were sentenced to death. All through the trial
the Chief stood by his men, who pleaded justification. He accompanied them
in the first instance to Pretoria, and afterwards paid for their defence
at the trial, and it was evident that he took the verdict and sentence
very much to heart.
If the verdict strained the loyalty of the Bakhatla,
it had the effect of satisfying the Boers across the Bechuana border,
in the Western Transvaal, who had to live down the sad memory of a victory
gained by a black chief over their white army and of their purposes thereby.
From a Dutch point of view nothing could be more humiliating
than that black men should have gained such a signal success over them,
and they are constantly crying out for the repression of Lentsue
and his "proud" Kafirs. The Boers' demand that the Union authorities
should make the thraldom of the Natives more effective,
forgetting that the armed forces of the Boers when left to themselves
during the temporary British evacuation of Bechuanaland were unable to do it.
Notwithstanding this fact, the newspapers, especially the Rand Sunday Press,
seem always to have open spaces for rancorous appeals to colour prejudice,
perhaps because such appeals, despite their inherent danger,
suit the colonial taste. Preceding the introduction of the Natives' Land Act,
the clamour of a section of the colonists and most of the Transvaal Boers
for more restrictive measures towards the blacks was accompanied
at one of its stages by alarming reports of "Native disaffection",
"Bakhatla insolence", and similar inflammatory headlines. One Sunday morning
it was actually announced in the Sunday Press of Johannesburg
that the Bakhatla had actually opened fire on the Union Police
and were the first to draw blood. Our own inquiries proved
that the British Protectorate, in and around Lentsue's territory,
where the Bakhatla dwell, was abnormally quiet. All that had happened
was that two Dutch policemen had unlawfully crossed into Bechuanaland
with firearms; that the Natives had disarmed them and taken them
to their chief, who in turn handed them over to the British authorities
at Gaberones, where they were tried and sentenced.
It is not suggested that Sunday papers in giving publicity
to disturbing reports lend their space to what they know to be untrue;
but the fact remains that, right or wrong, their editorials seem ever ready
to fan the glowing embers of colour prejudice into a blaze;
and after arousing in this manner a most acute race feeling,
the editors, upon discovering their mistake, if such it was,
did not even trouble to tell their readers that they had unwittingly published
exaggerated accounts -- since after a fair trial before the British tribunal
at Gaberones, the offending Union Police were fined 50 Pounds.
The fact is that while under the quasi-Republican laws of the Transvaal
a native policeman dare not lay his "black hands" on a "lily-white" criminal,
even if he caught him in the very act of breaking the law:
in British Bechuanaland, "there shall be no difference in the eye of the law
between a man with a white skin and a man with a black skin,
and the one shall be as much entitled to the protection of the law
as the other," and so in spite of scaremongers' ravings to the contrary,
Chief Lentsue proved himself once more on the side of the law of his Empire.
Go mokong-kong ko Tipereri,
Go mokong-kong gole;
Go mokong-kong ko Tipereri,
Go mosetsana montle.
Dumela, Pikadili,
Sala, Lester-skuer,
Tsela ea Kgalagadi, Tipereri,
Pelo ea me e koo.
"Tipperary" in Rolong.
The Barolong and the War
The Barolong and other native tribes near Mafeking were keenly interested
in the negotiations that preceded the Boer War. The chiefs continually
received information regarding the mobilization of the Boer forces
across the border. This was conveyed to the Magistrate of Mafeking
with requests for arms for purpose of defence. The Magistrate
replied each time with confident assurances that the Boers
would never cross the boundary into British territory.
The Transvaal boundary is only ten or twelve miles from the magistracy.
The assurances of the Magistrate made the Natives rather restive;
the result was that a deputation of Barolong chiefs had a dramatic interview
with the Magistrate, at which the writer acted as interpreter.
The chiefs told the Magistrate that they feared he knew very little about war
if he thought that belligerents would respect one another's boundaries.
He replied in true South African style, that it was a white man's war,
and that if the enemy came, Her Majesty's white troops
would do all the fighting and protect the territories of the chiefs.
We remember how the chief Montsioa and his counsellor Joshua Molema
went round the Magistrate's chair and crouching behind him said:
"Let us say, for the sake of argument, that your assurances are genuine,
and that when the trouble begins we hide behind your back like this,
and, rifle in hand, you do all the fighting because you are white;
let us say, further, that some Dutchmen appear on the scene
and they outnumber and shoot you: what would be our course of action then?
Are we to run home, put on skirts and hoist the white flag?"
Chief Motshegare pulled off his coat, undid his shirt front
and baring his shoulder and showing an old bullet scar, received in
the Boer-Barolong war prior to the British occupation of Bechuanaland,
he said: "Until you can satisfy me that Her Majesty's white troops
are impervious to bullets, I am going to defend my own wife and children.
I have got my rifle at home and all I want is ammunition."
The Magistrate duly communicated the proceedings to Capetown,
but the reply from headquarters was so mild and reassuring that one
could almost think that it referred to an impending Parliamentary election
rather than to a bloody war. But the subsequent rapid developments of events
showed that the Natives of Mafeking were in advance and that those
at headquarters were far behind the times. In a short time
after the interview of the chiefs with the Magistrate,
the Boers, following the terms of their ultimatum, crossed the border
between the Cape and Transvaal, cut the lines of communication
north and south of Mafeking and, before any arms could reach this quarter,
Mafeking (a little village on the banks of the Molopo) was surrounded,
with Montsioastad, a town of 5,000 native inhabitants.
The population of these places was largely increased by refugees,
both white and black, from outside the town, and also from the Transvaal.
At this time of the investment General Cronje sent verbal messages
to the chief advising him not to mix himself and his people
in a white man's quarrel. This view of General Cronje's was,
at the beginning of the siege, in accord with local white sentiment.
The European inhabitants of the besieged town had a repugnance
to the idea of armed Natives shooting at a white enemy;
but the businesslike method of General Cronje in effecting the investment
had a sobering effect upon the whole of the beleaguered garrison;
the Dutch 100-pounder Cruesot especially thundered some sense into them
and completely altered their views.
The Barolong youth had his baptism of fire on October 25, 1899,
when General Cronje tried to storm the garrison by effecting an entry
through the native village. He poured a deafening hail of nickel
into the native village. The Natives who were concealed behind
the outer walls of Montsioastad waited with their rifles in the loopholes,
according to Captain Marsh's instructions, till the Boers
were quite near to them, then returned the fire with satisfactory results.
After this encounter the whites, for the first time, regretted that
there were not any arms in the place with which to arm all the Natives.
As this attack was unmistakably severe and a Red Cross wagon
moved around the Boer lines in the afternoon, it was feared
that the native casualties were heavy, and medical aid was offered
by the white section of the garrison. But all were agreeably surprised
to find that beyond slight damages to the housetops there were no casualties
among the Barolongs. The following was the only injury:
A shell burst in front of Chief Lekoko as he was engaged
in repelling the Boer attack, but no fragments of it touched him.
One piece of shell, however, struck a rock and a splinter of the rock
grazed his temple. At best only a few rounds of ammunition
could be handed out to those of the Barolongs who used their own rifles,
and it is doubtful if so little ammunition was ever more economically used,
and used to greater advantage.
The investment of Mafeking was so effective that only
certain Natives could crawl through the Boer lines at night.
Throughout the seven months of the siege only one white man managed,
under the guidance of two Natives, to pass into the village.
All the dispatches which came into and out of Mafeking
were carried by Barolong runners. Before the Boers moved their stock
into the far interior of the Transvaal, the Barolongs continually
went out and raided Boer cattle and brought them into the besieged garrison.
Often the raiders had to fight their way back, but sometimes as they returned
with the cattle in the night the Dutch sentries preferred to leave them alone.
The result was that General Snyman, who commanded the besiegers
after General Cronje went south, issued a general order
authorizing the shooting dead of "any one coming in or out of Mafeking",
armed or unarmed.
At his village called Modimola, ten miles outside the beleaguered garrison,
there lived Chief Saane, uncle of the Mafeking chief.
Being apparently harmless he was not for some months molested by the Boers.
Later, however, they rightly suspected him of supplying the garrison
with information. They then took him and his followers to Rietfontein,
where they placed him under surveillance, but Chief Saane proved
even more useful in captivity than in liberty. He used the seemingly
inoffensive young men of Rietfontein, to glean all first-hand information
from the Boers, who still had command of the lines of communication.
Then he sent the news in verbal messages to his nephew, the paramount chief
in the siege, who in turn communicated it to Her Majesty's officers
in command. By means of this self-constituted intelligence bureau
the garrison learnt of the surrender of Cronje -- a happy consummation
of the battle of Paardeberg -- shortly after the good news
reached their besiegers; and when official confirmation came from the Cape,
more than a week later, Chief Saane's messengers were there again
with fresh news of the surrender of Bloemfontein. This news,
as might be well supposed, was glad tidings to the besieged people.
They were in fact the truths that King Solomon thus sets forth:
"As cold water is to the weary soul, so is good news from a far country,"
for, in those days, before the invention of aeroplanes and Marconigrams,
no country in this wide world was further than a besieged garrison.
Among the first civilian bodies raised in Mafeking for
purposes of garrison defence was the "Cape Boy Contingent",
a company of mixed classes in varying degrees of complexions.
Sergt.-Major Taylor, a coloured bricklayer, who led the contingent
and directed the crack snipers of that company, was killed
during the fourth month of the siege, by a fragment of a huge shell
in the outer trenches.
His funeral was attended by General Baden-Powell and other staff officers,
and was probably the only funeral of a coloured person
in the South African war that was accorded such distinguished
military attendance.
The language of the Cape coloured or mixed people is the same
as that of the Boers, viz., the Cape Dutch. At times during the siege
our advance lines and those of the Boers used to be less than 100 yards apart,
and when the wily snipers of both sides saw nothing to snipe at,
they used to exchange pleasantries at the expense of one another,
from the safety of their entrenchments. Sometimes these wordy compliments
made the opponents decidedly "chummy", to borrow a trench phrase.
In that mood, they would now and again wax derisive or become amusing,
bespeaking the fates of one another or the eventual outcome of the war.
Whoever got the worst of the argument used to cut off communication
with an unpleasant remark; but when it was mutually amusing,
both sides enjoyed an advantage and each joined heartily
in the resulting merriment. On more than one occasion a convivial Dutchman
momentarily forgot the martial aspect of the mutual hilarity and complied with
an equally convivial coloured man's exclamation to "kyk hier, jong"
(look here, old fellow), and directly he "kyked" the snipers did to him
that which from the enemy's point of view would amount to "devil's work".
The reader of these reminiscences will perhaps permit us to pay a tribute
to the Dutch Burghers who, under General Snyman, besieged Mafeking.
Whatever we may say against them, in other ways, this much must be said
in their favour, namely, that they left us entirely alone on Sundays.
Such an opportunity gave the Mafeking people a chance to get about,
to have a thorough wash-up, and to keep the Sabbath holy.
Snipers put down their rifles on Sunday mornings, declared a day's peace
among the contending forces between the opposing trenches,
and pointed out to one another landmarks beyond which the opposing sentries
might not cross, since to wander past these beacons would mean
a sudden resumption of hostilities. But as the landmarks
were religiously respected there seldom was any occasion
to desecrate the Sabbath by the clash of arms. We had thus
a whole day's recreation, when the trenchmen used to visit
their families in the women's camp and make all-round preparations
for another week's bombardment.
The "Cape Boys" fought with distinction and maintained their reputation
right up to the end of the siege. Visitors to Mafeking may now see
near the obelisk in front of the pretty town hall of the famous siege town,
a five-pounder gun "captured by the Cape Police during the siege".
This gun was seized by the coloured Sergeant Bell and two other
subalterns of the "Cape Boys" contingent; their contingent was then
under the command of Lieutenant Currey of the Cape Police.
Besides the brave coloured men who fell during the defence of Mafeking,
one painful effect of the siege, in connexion with this contingent,
was that of Mr. Swartz, who was blinded by an exploding Boer shell
and has never been able to regain his eyesight.
Ukude, ukude Tipperary,
'Kude mpela ku hamba,
Ukude, ukude Tipperary,
Nentombi 'nhle ng' asiyo.
Hlala kahle, Piccadilly
Nawe Leicester Square
Ikude lendlhela yase Tipperary
Kona 'po nhliziyo yami.
"Tipperary" in Zulu.
Two other small companies who filled their posts without reproach
were the Fingo contingent and the Black Watch, so-called, presumably,
from the jet-black colour of the members. The "Black Watch" included
Mozambique and Zambesi boys, Shangaans and others from among
the blackest races of South Africa. The greatest disaster
sustained by this company was when a party of thirty-three of them
dashed into the Boer lines on an ill-starred attempt to loot cattle
from the enemy's herds. After their night's dash out of the garrison
they got to a hiding place for the day, but they were followed there
and were surrounded by a Boer commando, which peppered them
with a maxim and a big gun. They fought up to the last cartridge,
but were helplessly outnumbered and outranged by the Boers,
who killed them to a man.
Cattle-raiding was a dangerous business in which the crafty Barolong,
who belonged to the country, alone were well versed. A subtle warrior
among the Barolong, named Mathakgong, was a regular expert in this business.
He led the occasional Barolong dashes into the Boer lines in search of beef
and he invariably managed to rush his loot into Mafeking.
He did this throughout the seven months' siege with the loss of only two men.
The only misadventure of this intrepid looter was when he attempted
to rush in an unusually large drove of cattle which Colonel Plumer had been
buying and collecting at his Sefikile camp about forty miles north of Mafeking
for the besieged garrison. Dutchmen tell us that for days they had learnt
that Colonel Plumer was arranging to send cattle into Mafeking.
They even knew the exact number -- 100 head -- and so they sent scouts
to the north every day to watch the roads and warn the besiegers of the event.
Hence, although they had left Mafeking unobserved, when Mathakgong's party
approached Mafeking on the return trip with the cattle, a strong Dutch force
was waylaying him and waiting to give him and Colonel Plumer's cattle
a hot reception. They opened a rattling fusillade upon the cattle drivers,
which could be heard from Mafeking. Over half of the cattle
were killed in the ensuing fight, and the remainder,
like the fat carcases of the dead bullocks, fell into the hands of the Boers.
The drivers escaped with only two wounded out of the party of twelve.
They said that they owed their escape almost entirely
to the carcases of dead cattle, which they used as ramparts.
When Mathakgong heard subsequently how the Boers had planned
to annihilate him and his small party, he became very indignant
at what he called "the clumsy European method of always revealing
their intentions to the enemy."
Away out in Basutoland, "the Switzerland of South Africa",
the Paramount Chief Lerothodi offered to send an army on Bloemfontein
while the "Free" Staters were engaged in the British Colonies
of Natal and the Cape, which they had invaded. Lord Milner strongly
forbade him from taking that step, and it was all that Sir Godfrey Lagden,
the British Resident in Basutoland, could do to restrain the Basuto warriors
from swooping down upon the Orange "Free" State.
On one occasion, however, the Basuto mountaineers were quickly mobilized.
Word reached Maseru that General De Wet, whose guerrilla career
was then at the height of its fame, was seriously harassed by Imperial troops
in the "Free" State, and that it was feared he would escape
through Basuto territory. In such a case it was ruled that the Basuto
would be justified in opening fire upon the trespassing commandoes,
but not until the Boers actually set foot upon Basuto territory.
Therefore the Basutos, in anticipation of this violation of their territory,
under the leadership of Councillor Philip Modise, made a record turn-out
in one night, in a mountainous country, without telegraphic communication,
and where all the orders were conveyed by word of mouth
by men mounted on the sure-footed Basuto ponies; so that at daybreak
as the Boers at the frontier near Wepener awoke, they found the Basuto border
to be one mass of black humanity. The Basutos made strong appeals to Maseru
for permission to cross the border and rush the Boers, and again
they were forbidden. At length General De Wet, amid a rain of British shells,
withdrew his commando and carried his operations elsewhere.
General De Wet, in his book on the South African War, admits that
he was once hopelessly cornered and that then his only safe way of escape
lay through the territory of the Basuto. He next proceeds to give his reason
for not violating Basuto territory: it is that the Basutos
showed no hostility towards the Boers, and that he had no wish
to provoke them. No mention is made that armed Basutos barred his way,
but if General De Wet's restraint were voluntary it would be
the first instance in history that a Boer general had shown any regard
concerning the rights or feelings of the Natives.
General Botha has on several occasions mentioned the loyal assistance
rendered to the Transvaal Burghers by the Natives of the Transvaal.
We may also mention the case of Chief Mokgothu, of the Western Transvaal,
who with his headmen was detained at Mafeking after the siege.
In fact that chief died in the Mafeking prison where he was interned
with the Republican political prisoners for participating in the war
on the side of the Republic.
On another occasion General Botha (obviously referring to Natives
other than those around Mafeking) unwittingly paid a tribute
to the valour of British Natives during the South African war.
Speaking in the Nieuwe Kerk, at Middelburg, Holland, the General said: --
==
The Kaffirs turned against us and we not only had to fight
against the English but against the Natives as well
. . . when the attacks of the Kaffirs increased, our cause became
dark and black. . . . All these facts taken collectively
compelled us to discuss terms of peace.*
--
* "De Boerengeneraals in Zeeland", p. 29.
--
==
The southern defences of Montsioastad were maintained by the Barolong,
under their own chief Lekoko, in their own way and with their own
rations and rifles. These were only supplemented by supplies of ammunition,
of which there was not too much in the garrison. And the only instructions
which Major Godley and Captain Marsh gave the defenders
was to "sit tight and don't shoot until the enemy is quite close."
The rest of the native population in the besieged town
was under the fatherly care of Mr. C. G. H. Bell, the civil magistrate.
And the harmonious relation between white and black as a prevailing
characteristic of the population of the garrison throughout the siege
was largely due to the tactful management of Major Lord Edward Cecil, D.S.O.,
Colonel Baden-Powell's chief of Staff. At the end of the siege,
Lord Roberts sent General Sir Chas. Parsons to thank the Barolong
for the creditable manner in which they defended their homes
throughout the siege. The veteran soldier evidently thought
that he had not done enough in the matter, so later on he sent
Major the Hon. Hanbury Tracey from Pretoria with a framed address
to the Barolong chiefs, written in gilt letters.
Colonel C. B. Vyvyan, who was escorted to Montsioastad
by a squadron of the 4th Bedfordshire Regiment, headed by
their band playing patriotic airs, presented the address
in the presence of a large gathering of Barolongs and European visitors.
The ceremony was described by the `Mafeking Mail' as follows: --
==
Within the square, seated on chairs and stools, were the Barolong men,
whilst the women, attired in their brightest dresses,
took up positions wherever they could get a view of the proceedings.
On the arrival of the Base Commandant (Lieut.-Colonel Vyvyan)
and the Resident Magistrate (Mr. C. G. H. Bell), a Union Jack was hoisted
to the accompaniment of a general cheer. A large number of civilians
and several military officers witnessed the ceremony, among them being
the Mayor (Mr. A. H. Friend), Mr. W. H. Surmon (Acting Commissioner),
Lieut.-Colonel Newbury (Field Paymaster), Major the Hon. Hanbury Tracey
(the officer who brought the address from Pretoria), and Major Panzera.
Mr. Bell, addressing the assembled Natives, said: To-day is an historical one
in the history of the Barolongs as represented by Montsioa's people.
I am sure it must be most satisfactory to you all who have so bravely assisted
in the defence of Mafeking to have this honour conferred upon you,
which is unprecedented in the annals of the history of the native tribes
in this country. The Field-Marshal commanding Her Majesty's troops
in South Africa has expressed in the address which is about to be
presented to you his thanks for the services you rendered during the siege --
an honour which I am sure you will appreciate at its full value, and which
I can assure you is fully recognized by the Europeans who took part with you
in the defence of the town. On many occasions bravery was displayed
by both Europeans and Natives. We have fought and risked our lives together;
we have undergone privations; we have eaten horses and various other animals
of a like character; we have seen our friends fall, shattered by shells;
and we have endured hardships and trials which very few men endure
more than once in a lifetime. We have fought together for one common object.
We have attained that object, and it is now impossible for us to do otherwise
than experience a feeling of fellowship which is accentuated
by the proceedings of to-day. You Barolongs at the commencement of the siege
declared your determination to be loyal to the Queen,
and when we had a meeting here shortly before war broke out
you were assured by General Baden-Powell that if you did remain loyal
your services would not be forgotten, and the Field-Marshal
has endeavoured to-day to convince you of the truth of that statement.
There are certain names mentioned on the address; but I cannot help,
while talking to you now, mentioning the names of other persons
who were of great assistance to us during the siege. It was
altogether impossible to include the names of everybody on the address,
and some of you may think that your names are not there
because you have been overlooked, but that is not so. I will just mention
the names of a few which, had there been room, might have appeared.
First, there is Saane, who remained outside and assisted our dispatch runners,
and who when he heard news sent it to us. It is only those
who suffered from news hunger at the time can understand the pleasure
we experienced at the assistance continually rendered to us by Saane.
Then there is Badirile, who so bravely commanded his young men
on the western outposts, and who on many occasions went through
determined encounters with the enemy. Then again there is Joshua Molema,
Motshegare and Mathakgong, all of whom did good service.
Then there was Dinku, who on the day Eloff came in and when the enemy
was behind him, stuck to his little fort, and who during the attack
was wounded by a shell, which has since caused his death.
His memory will not fade away amongst you Barolongs, as he was well known
as a brave man.
Colonel Vyvyan then stepped forward and said: Chief Wessels and men
of the Barolong nation, -- Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of
the British Army in South Africa, has sent a special officer from Pretoria
to bring you his greeting and to deliver to you a mark of his approval
and the approval which he expresses on behalf of the Queen.
Gathered here to-day are subjects of the Queen from various parts
of her wide dominions -- men who have come overseas from England,
from Australia, from Canada, and from India -- and they are here
this afternoon to meet her native subjects of the Barolong tribe;
whilst we, the officers and soldiers of the Queen who fought in Mafeking,
wish to show what we think of our friends and neighbours
down here in the stadt. You have done your duty well. You will remember
that some time ago an officer was sent by Lieut.-General Baden-Powell
to thank you for your services, and now the greatest General of all
has sent you a special mark of his esteem in the form of this letter,
which I shall read to you:
V [ Crest of Queen Victoria ] R.
"The Chief Wessels, Lekoko, and the Barolong of Mafeking.
"I, Frederick Sleigh Baron Roberts, K.P., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C.,
of Kandahar and Waterford, hereby testify my approbation of the loyalty
to H.M. Queen Victoria, and the good behaviour of the Barolongs
under the leadership of Wessels, Lekoko, and the headmen
Silas Molema and Paul Montsioa, throughout the long and trying
investment of Mafeking by the Boers, from October 13, 1899, to May 17, 1900,
and I desire to congratulate these leaders and their people on
the successful issue of their courageous defence of their homes and property
against the invasion of the enemy.
"(Signed) Roberts,
Field-Marshal.
"Pretoria, July 1, 1900."
Addressing Chief Wessels, and at the same time handing him
the letter, the Colonel concluded: I give you this
on behalf of Lord Roberts and the Queen. You are to accept it
on behalf of your nation. You are to keep it and show it to your children
and tell them why it was given to you and that they are to be proud of it.
The Colonel held out his hand, which Wessels gripped very cordially.
The band played the National Anthem, and the Barolongs joined
in one of their native cheers.
Wessels then rose, and taking off his white helmet,
replied on behalf of his tribe.
==
Replying to the address and speeches Chief Wessels Montsioa asked the officers
to convey to Lord Roberts the gratitude of the Barolong
for the relief of Mafeking, adding: "I have gone to extremes
into which my forefathers scarcely ever went in defending their homes.
I have eaten horseflesh, donkey and mule flesh, and had the relief column
not come when it did, I was going to eat dog flesh, if by that means
I would have been enabled to hold up a gun and keep the enemy out of doors,
until Lord Roberts sent relief."
Mr. Chamberlain, who visited Mafeking two years later,
inspected the old siege position and addressed the largest meetings
we had ever seen in Mafeking. He said to the thousands
of assembled Barolongs: "You ask in your addresses that the conditions
secured to you, when you were transferred from the Imperial Government
to the Colonial Government should remain as they are. I do not think
that Sir Gordon Sprigg or any one who may succeed him will alter them
in any respect, and should any one attempt to alter these conditions,
you will have your appeal to His Majesty's Government."
This was said in the presence of Sir Gordon Sprigg,
the Cape Premier of the day, Mr. Thomas L. Graham,
the Cape Attorney-General (now Judge of the Supreme Court at Grahamstown),
and Sir Walter F. Hely-Hutchinson, Governor of the Cape Colony.
But what must be the feelings of these people, and what must be
the effect of these assurances upon them now that it is decreed
that their sons and daughters can no longer settle in the Union
except as serfs; that they no longer have any claim to the country
for which they bled, and that when they appeal to the Imperial authorities
for redress of these grievances, they are told that there is no appeal?
A promise of a farm was made to the Fingo and Kafir contingent,
but that promise still remains unfulfilled.
When His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught visited Mafeking in 1906,
he was touched by the grateful references which Chief Lekoko made
to the benign rule of His Royal Highness's late illustrious mother.
And he assured the assembled Natives, in the name of His late Majesty
King Edward VII, that the death of their beloved Queen
would "not alter their status in any manner whatsoever as His Majesty took
the same deep interest in the welfare of the native population
as the late Queen did." In view of this statement by His Royal Highness,
Chief Lekoko congratulated his people on having had the honour of receiving
"assurances of Imperial protection, not from an Imperial official,
but from the lips of His Majesty's own brother, and in the King's English,"
the Barolong felt that they were reclining on a veritable rock of ages.
Since the inauguration and meeting of the first Union Parliament,
laws have been enacted which threaten to annul all this.
As far as the Barolongs are concerned, the Colonial Government
is not the only aggressor.
In the early 'nineties a British Boundary Commission awarded
the territory of Mokgomana to a northern tribe. The award caused
great dissatisfaction amongst the Barolong; accordingly they sent a deputation
to the High Commissioner about the award. It was only after they announced
their unalterable intention to assert their claim to that territory
by means of the sword, that the Imperial authorities,
in the name of the Queen, re-considered the former decision,
and that Sir Hamilton Goold Adams restored that land to the Barolong,
under date March 11, 1896. But the Colonial Office, completely ignoring
Sir Hamilton Goold Adams's signature on behalf of the Queen,
and without referring the matter to the native inhabitants in any way,
lately confiscated that territory and declared it the property of the Crown.
In consequence of this high-handed proceeding there is much bad blood
among the Barolong.
It might be said in support of this act of the Colonial Office
that strangers will not be settled in the territory,
but Sir Garnet Wolseley once declared that "as long as the sun
shines in the heavens, Zululand shall remain the property of the Zulus."
The sun is still shining in the heavens, and right up to the time
of the outbreak of the European War in 1914, the Union Government
were very busy cutting up Zululand and parcelling it out to white settlers
under the Land Settlement Act of the Union (for white men only),
parcels of land to survey which black taxpayers are forced to pay,
but which under the Natives' Land Act no black man can buy;
and what is true in regard to Zululand, British Kaffraria,
East Griqualand and other native territories, is equally so
in regard to Bechuanaland.
Chapter XX The South African Races and the European War
Oh! the Battle-bow is strung,
The Banner is outflung:
From lowlands and from valley,
From mountain-tops, they rally!
L. J. Coppin.
Africa is a land of prophets and prophetesses. In the course of
our tour of observation on the ravages of the Land Act,
we reached Vereeniging in August, 1913, and found the little village astir
because the local pastor, Rev. S. H. Senamela, was returning from
a certain funeral service. To many of the people of the place
the event seemed to be a momentous one, affecting as it appeared more people
than would be ordinarily the case. The person whose death and funeral
caused all this stir was a black seeress of Vereeniging, of whom it was said
that in her lifetime she prophesied the Anglo-Boer War and some such situation
as that created by the Natives' Land Act. Before breathing her last,
this interesting lady (whose sayings carried great weight
among the surrounding native peasants and the Dutch neighbours
on the farms of that neighbourhood) had, it was said,
uttered her last prophecy. It was to the effect that a great war
would take place in the near future, amongst the white peoples of the country,
that there would be much bloodshed, but that the survivors
would live very peacefully with the native population. We are sorry now
that we did not care to listen to the whole story when it was related,
and we very much wish that we had remained to interrogate the narrator
as to whether the black population that would thus remain to share life
with the white survivors in South Africa would be a contented one, or whether
they would be living in chains, of which the thraldom of coming events
appears to be casting its shadow before. But at the time
it sounded parlous to think that anything could interrupt
the calm of the tolerant British colonists and egg them against
their Dutch rulers, who call them foreign adventurers.
Nor could we conceive of any reason why the Boers, who have now more freedom
than they ever dreamt of possessing under their own flag, including the right
to partially enslave the blacks, should suddenly rise up against the English,
whose money and brains are ever at the beck and call of the Dutch!
Here, however, is the war, predicted by the late native seeress,
and evidently we have to make the best of it.
The writer was in London at the end of July, 1914, when there were
many disquieting reports about the activities of suffragettes,
and when there were still more serious reports about
the unlawful mobilization of volunteer armies in Ireland.
It was in this exciting period that attention was at once transferred
from Ireland to the Continent of Europe. There it seemed
that every moment was ticking to drive us towards the greatest war
that the world ever saw. And though matters grew hourly more serious,
it did not then occur to the writer, a stranger then of only
six weeks in London, that after seeing the capital of the Empire
under conditions of peace, he was soon to see it under a war cloud
filled with all the horrors of the approaching war storm and all the signs
of patriotic enthusiasm. We were about to see Mafeking over again,
but through the biggest magnifying glass.
To walk along Oxford Street of an afternoon and see
the multitudes of well-dressed women pouring into the streets
from the underground stations (the "Tube" and the "Met", as they are called
in the vernacular), round Charing Cross and Piccadilly, and see them
walking up and down the thoroughfares and looking at the wares displayed
in the dazzling shop windows; or to come down Bishopsgate of a morning
and see the stupendous swarms of white men rushing to and fro
along the pavements of Threadneedle Street, crowding the motor-buses
round the Mansion House, St. Paul's and Ludgate Circus --
yet all this throng so well regulated by the City Police that nobody seems
to be in the other's way -- the disproportion of men and women
in the East and West respectively forming a partial segregation
between the sexes: to see these myriads of humanity gave one the impression
that if the Garden of Eden (whose whereabouts has not yet been defined)
was not actually in London, then some very fertile human germ
imported from the Garden must have been planted somewhere
in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square, or the Elephant and Castle.
These great masses of people when the war broke out were swept over,
as already indicated, by a wave of patriotism, and sections of them reinforced
by a regular inflow from the provinces, and foreign tourists
-- Americans, Scandinavians, Orientals and Colonials -- rushing back
from the danger zone on the Continent, stranded in London
with their pockets bulging with useless credit notes, all these joined
the buzzing groups in Fleet Street in scanning the latest telegrams
posted at the windows of the newspaper offices, or, going to Hyde Park,
they listened to the open-air speeches delivered there.
In this gamut of personalities and nationalities there were, at first,
faint murmurs by some of the English against their country joining the strife
and in favour of her remaining neutral and leaving the Continentals
to "stew in their own juice". But when German seamen laid mines
in the English Channel, and capped their deeds by sinking
the `Amphion' and the `Pathfinder', with hundreds of officers and men,
the "protestants" found that their efforts were out of date
and that their arguments could have held water in the good old days,
before the declaration of war, but not after. For the silent determination
of the London crowds, of both sexes and all colours, was so emphatic
that one could almost read it in their thoughts, and see it,
as it were, percolating through every fibre of their systems.
If the weaker races of the world -- (and which race is weaker
than the coloured?) -- are ever to enjoy rest, then the great Powers
must avenge the violation of the neutrality of Belgium.
Early in August, we left London to visit the Scottish capital,
and as far as the swiftness of the North British Railway
would allow a glimpse, the country towns and villages of the north
appeared to be swarming with Territorials in khaki. A painful sight
at some of the stations was the number of restive horses
forced into the railway trucks by troopers -- beautiful, well-fed animals
whose sleek appearance showed that they were unaccustomed to the rough life
to which the Tommies were leading them. Further, it was sad to think
that these noble creatures by their size were to be rendered easy targets
for the marksmen of the enemy's forces, and that they would in addition
be subjected to the severity of inclement weather conditions,
to which they likewise were unaccustomed.
At Edinburgh, the Cameron Highlanders marched along some of the streets
in their battalions, flinging the Highland kilt like the plaited reeds
of so many thousands of Bojale* girls. Handsome young Scotchmen, all of them,
and it was shocking to think that these fine young fellows
in the flower of their youth were going to be fired at with a set purpose
to kill them as if they were a flock of springbuck on a South African veld.
Surely it is time that civilization evolved a less brutal and less savage
form of warfare! On Sunday evening we attended divine service
at St. Giles's Cathedral, and the critical political situation
permeated the entire service. This feeling was not lessened
by the announcement that one of the gallant boys who sank with the `Amphion'
was a son of one of the sidesmen of St. Giles's. It was war as unmistakable
as it was grim.
--
* Bechuana circumcision rites.
--
After the declaration of war between Great Britain and Germany,
the Irish tension at once died away. The self-constituted
opposing armies of Dublin and Belfast, or rather Ireland and Ulster,
came forward and offered themselves and their arms to
the Imperial authorities. They were anxious to proceed at once
to the Continent and assert British prestige on the battlefield;
the suffragettes likewise at the outbreak of the war
declared a truce and offered their humble services to the Empire.
"More power to their hatpins!" But how about South Africa,
the baby-member of the British family? Where does she come in?
Within a week after the outbreak, Mr. Harcourt sent the following dispatch
to the Governors-General of Canada, Australia and New Zealand: --
==
Please communicate to your Ministers the following message from His Majesty
and publish: "I desire to express to my people of the overseas Dominions
with what appreciation and pride I have received the messages
from their respective Governments during the past few days.
The spontaneous assurance of their fullest support recalls to me
the generous self-sacrificing help given by them in the past
to the Mother Country. I shall be strengthened in the discharge
of the great responsibilities which rest upon me by the confident belief
that in this time of trial my Empire will stand united, calm, resolute,
trusting in God. -- George R.I."
==
More offers of men and money came from the Dominions;
and when such well-deserved Royal encomiums are showered
on the already laurelled heads of other dominions, a self-respecting
South African like ourselves walked the streets with a drooping head.
And when our kinsmen in West Africa under the leadership of British officers,
annexed German Togoland rather early in the campaign, we found these questions
reverting in our thoughts: What is our Government doing? When is it going
to move? Surely our Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Native Affairs,
should now postpone the constant pampering of the back-velders,
hang colour prejudice for a more peaceful time, call out the loyal legions
-- British, Boer, and Black -- and annex German South Africa without delay!
As a British General and Minister of Native Affairs, he should himself
lead the black contingents and leave the whites to be led
by their regular officers.
At the beginning of August, a special meeting of the South African
Native Congress was called at Bloemfontein, first to express
its disappointment at the cold reception given to the native deputation
by the Imperial Government; and secondly, to express its thanks
to the British public for the kind reception given to the deputation;
and thirdly, to devise ways and means for the deputation
to tour the United Kingdom on a mission, revealing to the British people
the manner in which the Colonial Government discharges its trust
to the coloured people.
Many of the delegates to the Congress had travelled long distances
by rail and road, but on their arrival at Bloemfontein it was only to learn
that war had broken out between Great Britain and Germany.
Hence the Native Congress, in view of the situation, resolving itself at once
into a patriotic demonstration, decided to hang up native grievances against
the South African Parliament till a better time and to tender the authorities
every assistance.
Mr. Dube, the president of the Congress, who had just returned from England
in time for the conference, proceeded direct to Pretoria with the Executive,
to lay at the feet of the Government this offer of service
made by the Native Congress. Offers of service poured into
the administrative capital from native chiefs and people
in all parts of the country. Magistrates who held meetings in their districts
on the instructions of the Government to explain the situation to the Natives
received similar offers. And besides all these, offers of service also came
from the Zulu chiefs and headmen, from Chief Dalindyebo of the Tembus,
Marelana of the Pondos, and from Griffiths of Basutoland.
In Bechuanaland, the veteran Chief Khama and other Bechuana chiefs
offered the services of native warriors as scouts in German South West Africa,
and the Swazi princes offered a Swazi impi, besides undertaking to help
in any other manner, as they did in the campaign against Sekukuni
in the 'seventies. The members of the native deputation in England
were longing to catch the first steamer back to South Africa
to join their countrymen and proceed to the front. But while
all these offers were gratefully acknowledged, none were
definitely accepted. Surely there must be something wrong.
Is it that the wretched South African colour prejudice is exerting itself
even in these critical times?
At Pretoria, Captain W. Allan King, the popular Native Commissioner
of the Pretoria District, held a meeting of Transvaal Natives,
which amongst others was attended by His Worship the Mayor
of the Union capital; and there again native offers of service were tendered.
Mr. Makgatho, the chairman, in his denial of the report
that appeared in the newspapers to the effect that "South Africa
could not take the field as she had a native menace to watch",
voiced the prevailing feeling of the Natives. Captain King, however,
assured the Natives that no such slanders were uttered by the Government.
He further reminded them that the Imperial Government
was face to face with the biggest struggle that ever took place
since the foundation of the world; and that there would be fighting
on land, in the air, on the water and under the water.
He urged the Natives to go to work as usual and see to it that there was
no slackening of industries. He also made a plea for the abiding respect
of the Natives to the German missionaries of the Transvaal,
having regard to what those good men had done in bygone years
for the evangelization of the Natives of that Province.
How little did any one dream at the time that he was thus pleading for others,
that Captain King would be among the victims of the war;
and that he would fall, not from a German bullet, but from one fired
by one of the Dutch traitors, in a brisk fight to quell
the recent Boer rebellion.
Ku mugama e Tipperary,
E malandalahla;
Ku mugama e Tipperary,
Kwe sona standwa sam.
Bhota, Piccadilly,
Sala, Leicester Square,
Kude le-le-le, e Tipperary
'Ntliziyo yam ikona.
"Tipperary" in Xosa.
White men wrote to the newspapers that as France, our great Ally,
was using Native African troops, there could be no objection
against England doing the same -- as if England had rejected
the assistance of her coloured subjects pending a decision by France.
A well-known Natal campaigner wrote to the authorities
offering to raise a crack Zulu regiment composed of men
who had formerly fought for the old flag against their own people.
He said he felt certain that those Zulus could give as good
an account of themselves against any regiment in the field as any force
yet mobilized; but there was no definite acceptance of these offers
by the Government. The native uncertainty that arose from
this attitude of the South African Government went on until October,
when our colleagues of the native deputation returned home from England
and threw themselves into the vortex of the martial enthusiasm
that was then sweeping through the country, and as no offers were accepted
by the Government, Dr. Rubusana made to it the following further offer: --
==
The Right Hon. the Minister of Native Affairs, Pretoria, Transvaal.
Sir, -- Coming as I do so near from the scene of operations in Europe,
I feel that something more practical than mere lip-loyalty is required
from those who boast of the fact that they are British subjects, and are loyal
to the British Crown, more especially during this present crisis.
That being so, I am prepared to raise, if you deem it necessary,
a native levy of 5,000 able-bodied men to proceed to German South-West Africa,
provided the Government is prepared to fully equip this force for the front.
I should, of course, be prepared to accompany them.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
W. B. Rubusana.
==
==
Reply.
Union of South Africa,
Department of Defence,
Pretoria.
November 2, 1914.
Sir, -- With reference to your letter of the 20th ultimo, I am directed
to state that the Union Government greatly appreciates the loyal sentiments
which are being expressed by the native citizens of the Union.
I am, however, to refer you to the provisions of Section 7
of the South Africa Defence Act, 1912, and to state that the Government
does not desire to avail itself of the services, in a combatant capacity,
of citizens not of European descent in the present hostilities.
Apart from other considerations the present war is one which has its origin
among the white people of Europe and the Government are anxious to avoid
the employment of its native citizens in a warfare against whites.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
H. B. M. Bourne,
Secretary for Defence.
Dr. W. B. Rubusana,
East London, C.P.
==
General Botha was once confronted with a definite request
to reconcile two conflicting declarations of policies
enunciated by two members of his Cabinet, and in reply to that request
he gave the following highly diplomatic explanation: "The one Minister
has said things which should not have been said, and the other Minister
had said things which should have been said in a different way."
If there is one document which contains things that should not
have been penned, or that should have been differently worded, surely it
is the document we have just quoted. Fancy refusing native assistance
in the present world's war on the ground of colour! For weeks before
Dr. Rubusana sailed from Europe the Turcos and Algerian and Moroccan troops
had been doing wondrous deeds on the Continent for the cause of the Allies.
These coloured troops also included a regiment of wealthy Natives
from North Africa who had come to fight for France entirely
at their own expense -- a striking evidence of what the Empire is losing
through the South African policy of restricting native wages
to one shilling a day, in a country where the cost of living
is about the highest in the world. The Union Government
rejected the native offer a week after Lord Roberts laid down his life,
having delivered the appreciation of a grateful Empire
to the gallant Indian regiments who with distinction were participating
in the same war; and a month after the first German General Freise
was captured in the course of a daring charge by North African Natives
from the French Colonies; ten days after the Germans at Tsiengtau
had surrendered to the British and Japanese forces; and nearly three weeks
after the Germans had successfully involved Turkey in the strife;
and while the Canadian troops on Salisbury Plain included Red Indians.
Where, then, is the wisdom of telling Dr. Rubusana, who knows all these facts,
that the Government's rejection of the native offer is due to the fact
that the present struggle is an all-white one? The truth of the matter
is that the South African Government worships an idol, which was
best described by Sir Gordon Sprigg as "the demon of ignorance and prejudice",
and the claims of this fetish in South Africa precedes those of the Empire.
Under the old Republics we had a law which since the Union has become
the unwritten law of South Africa. In this law it is laid down
that a coloured policeman shall not lay his black hands on a white man
even if he found him red-handed in the commitment of a crime.
The duty of a coloured policeman in such circumstances would be
to look around for a white constable and report the misdemeanour to him.
Rather than suffer the humiliation of a black official
taking a white criminal into custody white South Africa
would prefer to have the country overrun with white criminals,
ergo, if the safety of the Crown is at stake and it could be saved
only by employing black men, we would much rather let the Crown go
than suffer the humiliation of seeing black warriors resisting a white enemy.
If there is one point upon which white South Africa is agreed, it is that
the claims of South Africa come first and those of the Empire afterwards.
The "bitter-enders" go further: they say that "the Empire comes handy
only in so far as it is useful to us, but when we have sucked it dry,
like an orange, it must be thrown away."* It may be that the blacks have
their reasons for objecting to these creeds: they would prefer Imperial lines
all the time, for Imperial lines are benevolent while South African lines
are cruel; consisting largely of repression and slavery.
--
* General Botha's reply to General Hertzog on the Ministerial crisis of 1912.
--
There is a talk in South Africa, which unhappily is not confined
to Dutch-speaking South Africans. It advocates the elimination
of the Imperial factor, because that factor is said to interfere
with colonial liberties, among which is the right to "correct" a Native
in a manner that a colonial deems fit. Thus, under the inconvenience
of the "pestilential Imperial factor", a colonial Magistrate
was forced to fine General De Wet the sum of 5s. on his pleading guilty
to having horse-whipped a Native. Under German rule, which threatened
the Union, the liberty of chastising the Native according to colonial ideas
would be extended, for the German method is that of the old "Free" State,
where a Native used to be tied to a wagon-wheel and whipped.
If he dies in consequence of the beating, his death was but a nominal offence.
This state of things explains the determination of the native races
to fight for the retention of the Imperial factor, or for what vestige of it
still remains in the country.
A native clergyman sends us the following letter. We are not quite certain
if the reverend gentleman desired to enlist as a private or as a chaplain;
anyway, this is what he says:
==
Can it be really true that we, too, belong to the British Empire?
This war is growing in such dimensions that it is even affecting
the King's household. The Prince of Wales has gone to the front,
and His Majesty the King has also gone, yet we are told that we are not worthy
on account of our colour to fight for our King and Empire.
White men only must defend the King's Dominions while we remain behind
with the women and children. Surely it cannot be the wish of the loyal Boers
that we must not defend our Empire; it is only the wish of the rebels,
and it seems that our Government will continue to study their feelings
even while they are engaged in shooting down loyal people.
==
It would seem that the South African Government is so deeply
in love with the Natives that they are scrupulously careful
lest the Natives should singe so much as a hair in the present struggle,
and that white men alone may shoot and kill one another.
But, in point of fact, black men ARE required by the Union Government
to proceed to the front as Government wagon drivers,
driving provisions and ammunition wagons, and acting as orderlies
to the white burghers. In these capacities they are exposed
to all the risks and horrors of the war, yet even if they are shot,
they must not, under any circumstances, be mentioned in the casualty lists,
nor must they carry arms, lest their behaviour should merit recognition;
their heroic deeds and acts of valour must, on account of their colour,
not be recorded. These native drivers are classed with the transport mules,
with this difference, that while the owner of a mule receives
monetary compensation for each animal that falls on the battlefield,
or is captured by the enemy, the Government's interest in the black driver
ceases when he is killed.
Suppose the services of these muleteers were recognized
in a combatant capacity, some one might get it into his head to ask:
"Why should loyal fighting taxpayers be debarred from
the rights of the franchise that are liberally bestowed
on white rebels and their relations, some of whom are said
to contribute nothing towards the upkeep of the State?"
So then to refuse these Natives the right to carry arms
in defence of the Empire, and to send them to the front without arms,
is to deprive such inquirers of this and similar arguments.
On St. Patrick's Day, the `Westminster Gazette' appeared
with a leading article, from which we make the following extract: --
==
It will be impossible, when we have had the assistance of the Indian Army
in Europe, to restrict the promotion of its officers in the manner
laid down hitherto. It will also be impossible to restrict Natives of India
WHO HAVE PROVED THEIR ABILITY AND EXPERIENCE BY LONG SERVICE
in their own country TO POSITIONS IN WHICH THEY ARE SUBORDINATE TO THE RAWEST
NEW ARRIVAL FROM THE COVENANTED SERVICE. All these discriminations
which rest simply on race and are justified by no natural disability
will have to be swept away, and new and more generous conditions laid down
for the whole Indian public service.
==
Surely what is true in regard to the Indian public service
is equally so in regard to that infallible South African taxing machine,
the adjunct of the Union Civil Service, which is officially called
the Native Affairs Department. There, raw recruits serve their apprenticeship
while lording it over Natives who have proved their ability and experience
by a quarter of a century's service in their own country.
It is to prevent the application to South Africa of broad-minded views
like those expressed by the `Westminster Gazette' that native Africans
must not serve against the Germans. Therefore it seems
to have occurred to the authorities that the best course
is to engage the Natives in a capacity in which their participation
will demand no recognition. These statements are not mere empty phrases,
for the writer recently caused inquiries to be made through
the Department of Native Affairs in South Africa as to whether there were
any Coloured People who had been killed or wounded while on active service
at the front. And the result was a long list of killed, wounded, and captured
up to the end of October, 1914, among Natives and Coloured People
who had not been mentioned in the casualty lists.*
--
* When the enemy airmen attacked the British camp at Garub (G.S.W.A.),
on March 27, 1915, and dropped bombs on General Botha's guns,
Reuter says, "only one Native was slightly wounded."
--
This deference to South African prejudice would at least seem reasonable
if the King's enemies also had colour scruples. But so far from that
being the case, Natives living far away from defended centres
are always the first to suffer when a white man's war breaks out.
In fact they are always subjected to indignities from which
they would be immune if they had arms. One of the first steps taken
by the "Free" State rebels under General De Wet during the recent rebellion
was to dash for the nearest native owner of horses and annex their mounts.
The unarmed proprietor's recourse in that case was to take to his heels
and leave the rebels to plunder his stock. Any hesitation to run away
has involved some unfortunate Native in the danger of being horsewhipped
into the service of the King's enemies, and if he took the first opportunity
to escape from the rebel commando, a detection of his act
would positively have meant a bullet behind his neck.
The late Dean Green of Natal, writing years ago, said: --
==
"Every chief should have his own militia and police. Our common human nature
tells us that it is the duty of every one capable of bearing arms
to fit himself to be able to defend his country and Government.
Were the Government to refuse permission to the chief to enrol his young men,
it would inflict a wrong on them, against which their manliness would revolt.
Our Government, however, is not established to alienate from us
the native races, but to attach them to us by giving them full freedom
to exercise under restraints of Christianity all those instincts and desires
which are proper to their manhood.
"The Houssas and Soudanese on the north, the negro tribes on the west,
form part of the Imperial forces, and have shown themselves
true, brave, and useful troops. On no possible ground of justice
can the loyal Bantu tribes be placed under a ban, and refused
to serve in the ranks for the defence of the Empire. A youth debarred
from the legitimate opportunities of exercising his manly energies will become
riotous and unruly, and addict himself, for the sake of excitement,
to sheep-stealing, etc."
==
The `Christian Express', which has always acted as the mediator
between the overbearing section of Colonial opinion
on the one hand and the subject races on the other, tried to allay
the disappointment of our people with the excuse that the Government
refused the native offer on the ground that it desired to use men
from the more advanced races who are capable of being more easily trained.*
In the face of historical records, however, this argument
will not hold a drop of water. British archives are overloaded with instances
of the valour and tractability of the aboriginal races of South Africa
no less than those of their nephews, the Cape Coloured People.
Not having enough space to enumerate them at length we may only refer
to two instances of recent date.
--
* The `Express' is now advocating the raising of an army of 100,000 Natives.
--
During the South African war, the writer was asked by the military authorities
to recruit twelve young Natives to act as scouts in the Western Transvaal.
The young fellows were handed to Sergt. Clemens of the Cape Police
for training. Three days after they were enrolled we met the Sergeant,
who was highly pleased with his "raw recruits". He told us
with evident satisfaction that, after he had given them oral instructions
in the handling and use of firearms, he took them to the range
to try them at shooting; and all but two of them hit the bull's eye
with the first attempt. This is but one isolated instance
which is typical of the rest.
It is doubtful if any white man is a greater authority
on the character of the Zulus than Mr. R. C. Samuelson of Natal.
Writing on the outbreak of the European war and the advisability of raising
native levies, he said: --
==
During the late rebellion I was captain and adjutant of 350 men
composed of men, half of whom were Christians and the other half
heathens of the Amangwane, a section of the Amabomyu tribe,
who at the beginning of the rebellion were raw recruits,
but who, after three months' drill and manoeuvring, were as expert
in their drill and use of the rifle and riding as any corps in the field.
In all my dealings with all these men and many more, I found them
most attentive, most orderly, most careful about their arms,
most alert on duty, perfectly reliable, and in and out loyal
to the Government and those they were under. Having been a volunteer
for many years, and a cadet at college in the Cape, I can safely say
that I never found our people as a body so easy to manage and train
in the military art, and so orderly and attentive as these natives were.
I had the honour to be called upon to summon 50 of the Zulu war and Boer war
heroes to be reviewed by the Duke of Connaught; many of these
had the Zulu war medal on, which the Duke took special notice of,
but the Boer war medal was not there. These people were highly complimented
by the Duke, and afterwards gave a free concert to the Royal party
in the Maritzburg Town Hall, which was attended by immense crowds,
the chief song of the evening being a Zulu song specially prepared
by these men, and set to music by them, in honour of the Royal party,
which was also embossed and presented to the Royal party.
The Royal party expressed their appreciation by sending forward to me
one of the officers in waiting on them to thank the singers.
"Izwe Lakiti" Aug. 12, 1914.
==
The writer has received several letters expressing the native resentment
of the idea that they should fold their arms and cogitate
while other British subjects, irrespective of colour,
are sacrificing their lives for the defence of the Empire in this,
the darkest period of His Majesty's reign. Our reply to each of these letters
was that the natives should subscribe, according to their small means,
to the several war funds; and our latest information
is that they are subscribing to the Prince of Wales' Fund,
the Governor-General's and the Belgian Relief Fund.
When we last heard from home the Basutos had given 2,700 Pounds
to the National Relief Fund, the list being headed by Chief Griffiths
with a donation of 100 Pounds. Chief Khama of Bechuanaland gave 800 Pounds,
Chief Lewanika of Barotseland 200 Pounds, Chief Lekoko and two other Chiefs,
each 30 Pounds, while the Zulus, Tembus and Pondos were still collecting.
At Kimberley the Natives gave concerts for the benefit of
the Mayor's Relief Fund. At their Beaconsfield concert the Kimberley Band
under Herr Carl Rybnikar, known as the best volunteer band in South Africa,
attended and gave selections; and Chief Molala of the Batlhaping
gave General Botha 200 bullocks to feed the Union troops.
In April 1915 the Minister of Native Affairs gave the following
testimony of native loyalty and co-operation. Speaking from
his place in Parliament Mr. Malan said -- "he thought it his duty
to say that the attitude of the large number of the Natives
entrusted to their care, all through the troubles, had been
most exemplary and most patriotic. There was one exception to which
he would refer,* but from the commencement, from all parts of the Union,
resolutions came to the Government of expressions of loyalty
on the part of the Natives, and of their support in the measures
Government was taking in connexion with the war. They (the Natives)
gave oxen and supported liberally, according to their means,
the different patriotic funds which had been established,
and generally gave the Government every assistance. The Government
had been able to enrol between 23,000 and 24,000 Natives for service
in German S.W. Africa, in building railways and in transport work.
The chief of the Tembus had volunteered to send his own son
to German S.W. Africa for the purpose of superintending
the members of his tribe, a large number of whom had volunteered
for the front. All that spoke well for the Natives, and he would be
neglecting his duty if he did not testify to that."
--
* The "one exception" referred to by Mr. Malan was the Hlubis
of Matatiele district, who forcibly resisted the cattle dipping regulations
because, they said, the frequent dipping killed their cattle.
--
In opening the Rhodesian Legislative Council, on April 28,
Mr. Administrator Chaplin concluded by saying that the behaviour and attitude
of the native population since the outbreak of the war left nothing
to be desired. All information available showed that any attempts
by emissaries of the enemy to stir up trouble would fail to meet with support.
"Numerous expressions of loyalty to His Majesty have come from leading Chiefs,
taxes are readily paid, and perfect order has been maintained."
What a happy land in which to live South Africa would be if,
instead of the present god of colour prejudice, we had some such confidence
as is reposed in the blacks by the British authorities
in East Africa and elsewhere. The naughty white piccaninnies
who always insult inoffensive black passers-by would be taught
that the Native is a useful neighbour whose strong right arm
may be depended upon in times of trouble, instead of being taught,
as they are taught in Transvaal, that every man Jack of them
is a black peril monster who must not only be discriminated against,
but who must be indiscriminately insulted and repressed.
The following dispatch, published in the `Daily Chronicle',
illustrates the confidence of the British authorities in East Africa
towards the blacks: --
==
East African Battle won by Native "Non-Com".
About the end of September the Germans advanced 600 strong,
with six machine guns, from the Vanga side. They were held
at Margerini on September 25 by Captain Wavel's Arab Company,
and some King's African Rifles under Captain Stoner arrived from Jubaland
on the 27th, none too soon to reinforce Captain Wavel,
the enemy in the meanwhile having become very aggressive.
The German plan of attack was to destroy the Salisbury bridge,
which connects Mombasa island with the mainland, thus securing
one of the most important strategical positions in East Africa.
The "Koenigsberg" did not arrive, perhaps because of the nearness
of British warships, and the little British force of 300 men
dislocated the land operations of the enemy. "C" Company held off the Germans
until October 2, when they were reinforced by Indian troops.
The Jind Infantry behaved particularly well at Gazi, where they had to face
a very heavy fire from the six machine guns of the enemy.
The King's African Rifles deserve special mention. Major Hawthorn,
who was in command, and all the European officers, were wounded
early in the engagement, thus leaving the little force leaderless.
Colour-Sergeant Sumani quietly took charge, and led on his men as if nothing
had happened. He gave the order to charge, and the enemy broke and fled.
This incident has not yet appeared in the bald official announcements,
but it is hoped the splendid conduct of the native colour sergeant
will receive recognition.*
--
* Sergeant Sumani has since been decorated with the D.S.O.
--
==
Chapter XXI Coloured People's Help Rejected / The Offer of Assistance
by the South African Coloured Races Rejected
The Africans and their descendants in America have proven to the world
that they do not lack courage and military ardour. This the French
have recognized by enlisting them in their present struggle.
We hope for the sake of the Africans that they will give
a good account of themselves, but the coloured race is like the Irish
who are invincible in fighting for other nations, but not for themselves.
An American on the Great War.
The African Political Organization was early in the field.
Dr. Abdurahman, its president, during the first week of the war,
had a force of 3,000 coloured men at Capetown ready to take the field
against the Germans. These men included those who had fought
for the British flag, side by side with the British troops
in the Matabele wars and other South African campaigns in various capacities.
In a few days the number of this force rose to 5,000 able-bodied men
ready to go to the front. A definite offer of the service of this force
was communicated to the Union Government, who replied that the offer
was under consideration.
Mr. William Hosken, the famous Johannesburg politician,
member of the Transvaal Parliament before the unification of South Africa
-- a gentleman whose legislative talents are now unfortunately in abeyance,
because his liberal views on colour are too advanced
for the palates of the lily-white voters of his State --
offered to pay the cost of recruiting such a coloured force.
Application forms were scattered throughout the country, asking volunteers
to send in their names and addresses to the A.P.O. headquarters
signifying their intention to serve as units of the Hosken Division.
Our old friend Mr. N. R. Veldsman, a coloured political organizer
of considerable ability, who had been in retirement for the past year or two,
came forward, took his place among the coloured leaders,
and addressed patriotic meetings at Saron and other Cape districts
on behalf of the recruiting movement.
==
PATRIOTIC DEMONSTRATION
The City Hall, Capetown, was packed on Monday night, August 31, 1914,
with coloured citizens of Capetown, who had assembled to express
their loyalty to King George and their determination to support the Government
during the present crisis.
Sir Frederick Smith, who presided, thought the coloured people
had taken a wise course in calling that meeting to tender
their assistance to the Government while Britain was engaged in war.
He was confident that that demonstration would receive
the grateful appreciation of the Prime Minister, his Cabinet,
and also of H.M. King George.
Dr. Abdurahman said that the coloured people had met in public meeting
on many occasions, but never in the history of South Africa
had they been called together on a more solemn occasion,
nor at a more critical juncture, and never when the issues were fraught
with greater consequences.
The coloured people had many grievances, but all that must be forgotten
while danger was threatening the very existence of the Empire.
If the Empire fell, South Africa would fall, Capetown would fall,
and Capetown might even be laid in ruins.
Although England was engaged in a life and death struggle,
South Africans felt secure and could sleep in peace. That security was due
to the supremacy of the British Navy. They had met that night to decide
how they could assist the Empire. He moved the following resolution:
"That the coloured citizens of Capetown, in mass meeting assembled,
under the auspices of the A.P.O., hereby express their loyalty
to H.M. King George V, and take this opportunity of placing on record
their recognition of the fact that the security that they at present enjoy
is due primarily to the supremacy of the British Navy; and further,
they pray that Britain's efforts during the war will be crowned with success.
That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to H.E. the Governor-General
for transmission to H.M. the King." (Applause.)
Mr. J. C. Carelse, in seconding the resolution, remarked that that
was not the time to consider their own troubles, but to show the enemy
that they stood together as a united Empire against any foe who dared
to lower the Union Jack. The resolution was adopted with enthusiasm.
Mr. N. R. Veldsman appealed to the coloured people to assist those
who as a result of the war might suffer. The coloured people
should spend less on bioscopes and trivialities, and contribute to a fund
which it was proposed to raise. He moved the following resolution:
"That, in order to alleviate the suffering which inevitably accompanied war,
an appeal is hereby made to the coloured citizens of the Union
to contribute to a fund to be administered by the following committee:
The Rt. Rev. Bishop J. A. Johnson, Mrs. Wooding, Mrs. Abdurahman, Mrs. Gow,
Dr. Gool, Dr. Abdurahman, the Rev. F. Gow, Messrs. C. J. Carelse, S. Reagon,
N. R. Veldsman, S. F. Geyer, P. Grever, H. Hartog, B. Baron, H. Cressy,
A. Arendze, H. J. Gordon, R. Hoedemaker, W. A. Roberts, M. J. Fredericks,
Fred Hendricks, H. A. Gamildien, Pfieffer, and George Fife."
The Rev. Mr. Gow seconded the resolution, and said that
although the spirit of war was in the air, there was also
a spirit of helpfulness in the air. They should at this period
forget race and creed and contribute to the fund.
Mrs. Wooding, who spoke in support of the resolution,
remarked that the coloured women would be found ready to do their duty
whenever the call went forth. The best way to show loyalty to the Empire
was by rendering some service. The resolution was unanimously adopted.
Dr. Gool said that another way of giving practical assistance to the Empire
was by raising volunteer corps for active service. He moved:
"That the offer made through the A.P.O. to raise volunteers
for active service at home or abroad be approved, and that this meeting
tenders to the Union Government its loyal support during the present crisis."
Mr. S. Reagon, who seconded, said that they were excluded
from the Defence Force. But as the Empire was endangered
he hoped an opportunity would be given the coloured people
to take a part in the fighting line.
The resolution was agreed to. The sum of 37 Pounds was raised
during the evening.
Mr. H. Seymour rendered some patriotic selections on the organ.
The meeting concluded with the singing of the National Anthem.
==
At Johannesburg, Mr. Koopman presided over a crowded meeting
of the Rand branches of the Coloured Organization, which unanimously
endorsed the proposal to raise the corps. Similar meetings,
under the respective chairmanship of Mr. Keiler, Mr. Samuels,
and Mr. I. Joshua, were held by the Pretoria town and country branches
and at Kimberley. At Pretoria, Revs. G. Weavind and Mr. Hanford,
both missionaries, also spoke offering to associate themselves
with the coloured people in any benevolent efforts undertaken
to alleviate the distress that might follow the outbreak of the war.
Port Elizabeth and other district branches also moved
in the same direction. Capetown, the headquarters of the Organization,
was the centre of these activities, and a number of coloured women
wrote to the A.P.O. secretary offering their services as nurses
to accompany the coloured volunteer force to German South-West Africa,
so that the coloured people, as the A.P.O. newspaper puts it,
"have closed their book with its ugly record against the Botha Government,
and offered the Prime Minister their loyal support during the war."
But while these things were in progress, the Union Defence Force,
which had mobilized near the German frontier under Colonel Maritz,
rebelled against the Crown, and with their arms and ammunition
they joined the Germans. This act of rebellion occasioned the greatest alarm
among the coloured population near the boundaries of German South-West Africa.
And they appealed to the Government for arms to protect
their homes and properties. They remembered what happened
during the Boer War, when the Dutch inhabitants of those districts
joined their kinsmen from across the Vaal, and how that Natives who were armed
always remained free from molestation. That their present fear
was not groundless the following declaration shows: --
==
I herewith declare that my brother and I were on a visit
to the farm Groen Doorn, Cape Province, on the morning of September 16, 1914.
When we got opposite the police camp, we were surprised to see the camp
invaded by Germans. The Germans then beckoned us to come up,
and told us that we were prisoners, and that we must go with them
to the station of Ukamas. My brother on hearing that
turned his horse and galloped back. The Germans called on him
to halt at once, but he did not stop. Then they fired at him,
and shot him dead.
My brother was left lying where he fell. After he was shot
I asked if I could go to him, but the Germans would not allow me.
Afterwards I was taken to the German camp, where I found
all the coloured people of Groen Doorn that were captured by the Germans.
Two old women who were too weak to walk all the way were left half-way
without either food or water; one of the two was a cripple,
and the other an old woman between sixty and seventy years of age.
I stayed at the German camp at Nakob till the first German patrol
went back to Groen Doorn to guard. Then that same evening I ran away
from the German camp, and fortunately got safe home to my house at Nudab.
I again declare that this story is an exact reproduction of what I have seen
with my own eyes.
(X his mark)
Jacobus Bezuidenhout.
Witness: T. Kotzee.
Signed at Keimoes this 6th day of October, 1914.
==
This statement was conveyed to the Union Government by Mr. M. J. Fredericks,
secretary of the African Political Organization. With it there was a request
by a meeting of coloured people at Calvinia and adjacent districts
near the German frontier asking for arms. General Smuts replied,
regretting the situation in which the coloured residents of
the districts of Calvinia, Kenhardt, Keimoes, and Upington found themselves;
and said that he hoped the Union forces would ere long remove the cause
of their anxiety. He added that the question of arming coloured citizens
had been carefully considered by the Government, but that, for reasons
already published, their request for arms could not be complied with.
Finally General Smuts expressed regret at the shooting of the brother
of Jacobus Bezuidenhout. "Apparently the deceased had been shot
because he attempted to escape, and in the circumstances," added the General,
"the Germans were clearly justified in shooting him."
If General Smuts is right in his concluding remarks, then the Germans are
quite justified in pillaging Belgium, as the reason they ravaged that country
was because the Belgians refused to comply with a plain request
to allow German troops to proceed through Belgium to France. But whatever
the view of the South African Government might be on these subjects,
we would like to point out that it is against a coloured man's grain
to obey the orders of a man, no matter who, if he is at war
with the coloured man's chief. It would be nothing unusual for a German
to order a coloured man about in times of peace, but once war was declared,
it became an outrage upon the traditions of the blacks to obey Germans
who were now the enemies of their country.
General Smuts will no doubt remember his own operations in 1901,
before he became a British subject. How he then invaded Cape Colony,
and got a number of recruits from among the Dutch inhabitants
of certain Cape districts. How eventually, when he came
to the district of Calvinia, his burghers, reinforced by rebels,
found a coloured blacksmith there, by the name of Abraham Ezau.
How the burghers demanded certain information from this man,
and he refused to supply enemies and rebels of the Crown with any information.
That the man was severely ill-treated and tortured, but that
he would not disclose anything. And how that a gang of Boers
dragged this coloured man out of the town and shot him down;
that they also looted Abraham Ezau's shop and took away
the murdered man's tools, which his widow never recovered, and for which
the writer has been informed she never received any compensation.
The Cape Government, prior to the Union, erected a tombstone
over the grave of this man, who sacrificed his life for it rather than betray
his country. And the sight of that memorial stone was no doubt
a grim reminder to the inhabitants of Calvinia of what would happen
if the rebels invaded Calvinia once more.
Burra dur hai Tipperary
Bahoot lumbah koouch wo
Burra dur hai Tipperary
Sakki pas pownchenay ko
Ram ram Piccadilly
Salaam Leicester Square
Burra, burra dur hai Tipperary
Lakin dil hoaye phus-gayah.
"Tipperary" in Hindustani.
The Natives and the Cape coloured Afrikanders were not alone in tendering
loyal offers of service to the Government. The Indians of Natal
and other coloured residents likewise offered their services
to the Government, besides subscribing liberally according to their means
to the various war funds. The St. Helenians of Capetown passed
the following resolutions, which Mr. S. Reagon, the secretary,
forwarded to the Government: --
(1) That this meeting of St. Helenians expresses its unswerving and devoted
loyalty to His Majesty King George and His Governments.
(2) That it expresses its full confidence in the Union Government
in the present crisis through which the Empire and Union are passing,
and congratulates General Botha, and expresses its deep appreciation
of his practical patriotism in having taken command of the Union Forces
in the field.
(3) That the services of the Association and its members be hereby offered
to the Union Government in whatever manner they may be of assistance
to ensure the triumph of the Empire and for the maintenance
of law and order.
Shortly after the outbreak of the present war, Dr. Abdurahman
offered the Government the services of the 5,000 coloured warriors
recruited through the A.P.O., and General Smuts replied that the offer
was under consideration. Meanwhile the A.P.O. recruiting agency
had been continuing its work, and no fewer than 13,000 coloured men
had sent in their names and addresses and signified their intention to take
the field. So Mr. Fredericks, the secretary of the A.P.O., wrote once more
to General Smuts, on October 23, offering the services of these men
in the name of the Coloured People's Organization. This offer brought forth
the following definite reply, which is couched in identical terms
to the one sent on the same date to Dr. Rubusana, who wrote offering
the services of 5,000 Natives: --
==
Department of Defence,
Pretoria,
November 6, 1914.
Sir, -- With reference to your letter of the 23rd ult.,
I beg to inform you that the Union Government greatly appreciates
the offer of service of the Cape coloured people.
I am, however, to refer you to the provisions of Section 7
of the South African Defence Act, 1912, and to state that the Government
does not desire to avail itself of the services in a combatant capacity
of citizens not of European descent in the present hostilities.
Apart from other considerations, the present war is one which has its origin
among the white peoples of Europe, and the Government is anxious to avoid
the employment of coloured citizens in a warfare against whites.
==
No doubt the Government of British South Africa was actuated
by the loftiest motives in rejecting voluntary offers of service
from citizens of non-European descent; but it is clear that such a reply
at such a time ought not to please many people in Great Britain who had
to offer the cream of British manhood to defend their portion of the Empire,
and then to offer in addition more men to lay down their lives
for the safety of the Colonies, including South Africa,
a land with thousands of able-bodied and experienced warriors
who are willing to defend their own country. For the same reason
this decision ought not to please our French Allies, who,
besides sacrificing men and money on the battlefields of Continental Europe,
must provide more men and money to guard their colonial possessions
in different parts of the globe. This decision ought not also to cheer
any one in Belgium, where fathers and mothers and their children
are separated and starving, a nation living practically in exile,
or in bondage, its brave monarch sojourning in foreign territory.
On the other hand, if there is any one place where this decision
of the Government of British South Africa would be hailed
with the liveliest satisfaction, it is certainly Berlin,
and that particularly after the bitter experiences of German troops
in encounters with native African troops, both in Continental Europe
and in East and West Africa.
Similarly this decision of the South African Government ought not to please
the Boers themselves, inasmuch as, finding the request for volunteers
amongst the whites failed to secure sufficient men, the Union Government
had perforce to resort to coercion, in that some 300 Boers who refused
to enlist for service in the expedition to German South West Africa
were fined or imprisoned. This course, which is practically conscription,
would have been unnecessary had the Union Government accepted
the offered service of the 18,000 and more volunteers whom it curtly rejected.
The coloured people, judging by the letters that many of them have sent
to the Press, felt humiliated to find that during the Empire's darkest hour
a Government to which they pay taxation is publishing decisions
that ought to wound the feelings of the Allies' sympathizers
and give satisfaction to the enemy.
It is just possible that the Government refused the offer
of the coloured people in deference to the wishes of a section
of the white people of the Union; but judging from the African Press,
that section, although somewhat noisy, was an infinitesimal one.
This section, as is shown from the extract below, also discussed
the voyage of the Indian troops to Europe. The `East Rand Express', a paper
published in one of the most important suburbs of Johannesburg, said: --
==
COLOURED TROOPS AND THE WAR
The news that Great Britain intends to employ Indian native troops
against the Germans has come as a shock to many South Africans.
We can but hope the news is incorrect. In our opinion it would be
a fatal mistake to use coloured troops against the whites, more especially
as plenty of whites are available. From the English standpoint
there is probably nothing offensive in the suggestion. Most Home people
do not seem to see anything repugnant in black boxers fighting whites,
but they have not had to live in the midst of a black population.
If the Indians are used against the Germans it means that
they will return to India disabused of the respect they should bear
for the white race. The Empire must uphold the principle that a coloured man
must not raise his hand against a white man if there is to be any law or order
in either India, Africa, or any part of the Empire where
the white man rules over a large concourse of coloured people.
In South Africa it will mean that the Natives will secure pictures of whites
being chased by coloured men, and who knows what harm such pictures may do?
That France is employing coloured troops is no excuse.
Two blacks in any sense do not make a white. The employment of native troops
against Germany will be a hard blow on the prestige of the white man.
==
These emotionalists urge the Imperialists against the use of black warriors
for the simple reason that it would give them (the emotionalists) "a shock".
So that the agony of British troops and the anxiety of British
wives and mothers is not to be lessened, nor the perils of non-combatants
greatly minimized, or the war hastened by a decisive concentration
of the Empire's forces on the battlefield, because of the "shock"
it would give the emotionalists for black to fight against white.
The common-sense view would show the advantage in permitting all subjects,
including the coloured races of South Africa, to take part in the struggle
and thus enable the authorities to place more men on the Continent,
instead of sending drafts of Imperial troops to take the places of men
at the outposts of the Empire, who are disqualified solely by their colour.
Last New Year the author received a letter from a well-known British mother
conveying her well-wishes besides the following moving particulars: --
==
We are almost beside ourselves with grief over this awful war.
My young nephew has been home on a nine days' holiday at Christmas
and he has now returned to the front. He has been awarded the D.S.O. for
blowing up a bridge and so delaying the Germans in the march upon Paris.
My cousin, Mrs. ----, has lost her two only sons -- both killed
on the same day -- December 21. Besides other English friends and relatives
fighting on the British side, I have also a young German cousin
fighting on the other side. He has been so badly wounded in his throat
that the vocal chords have received such an injury as to lead
to the loss of his voice, and his career as a barrister is probably at an end.
His poor mother is a widow and has only one other son, who is very delicate.
==
The writer has during the past six months come across
instances of the loss of an only son, but all these agonies count as nothing
to your colourphobic emotionalists, who must, at any price,
be spared their "shock" regardless of the sufferings of others.
Now ask these men what they would offer the Empire as a substitute
for the coloured troops whose employment against the enemy
gives them "the shock", and you will find that they have nothing to offer
but their colour prejudice.
What, for instance, could the leader-writer of the `East Rand Express'
offer to the Empire in place of the generous help rendered to it
by the Maharajah of Mysore, a lad of only eighteen years of age,
who besides the services of his men gave the "trifle" of 330,000 Pounds,
or in place of the present of the Nizam of Hyderabad,
who contributed 396,000 Pounds towards the cost of the Hyderabad contingent;
or the Maharajah Scindia of Gwalior, who handed to King George,
as a Christmas present for the troops, a "tiny fleet"
of forty-one motor-ambulances, four motor-cars for officers,
five motor-lorries and repair wagons, and ten motor-cycles;
or to come nearer home, and to deal with a more modest gift,
the two hundred bullocks which Chief Molala Mankuroane, near Kimberley,
gave General Botha to feed the Union troops?
And when these liberal sacrifices are made by black men
for the safety of the Empire, INCLUDING BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA,
one is constrained to ask: Where are those loud-mouthed pen-men who,
possessed of more pretension than foresight, wrote bombastic articles
in the Transvaal Press before the war, threatening that "South Africa
will cut the painter", and "paddle her own canoe", if men and women in Europe
made themselves a nuisance by advocating ideas of justice
in favour of the blacks? General Botha confessed last September
that the South African Government tried to, but could not,
borrow more than 2,000,000 Pounds; that the Imperial Government
had come to the rescue and "helped the Union out of its embarrassment
with a loan of 7,000,000 Pounds" of British money. When from his seat
in the Union House of Assembly the Prime Minister announced this failure,
why did not these secessionists come forward and display
their "paddling" capacity? What has suddenly become of them?
Is it not about time that the Empire recognized the unprofitableness,
and even the ruinous policy, of these gentlemen, and that it ceased
paying so much attention to those whose views are distorted
by colour prejudice, whose object is to inflict unnecessary harm
on the minds, bodies and spirits of loyal subjects of the Crown?
One cannot help saying that if their career in this respect is not checked,
their evil policy will land the Empire in a tangle of difficulties
from which its rescue will require the highest statesmanship,
much expenditure of treasure, if not also the shedding of blood.
We have already stated that coloured men ARE serving the Empire at the front,
but mainly in capacities that do not involve their recognition.
We have recently read of the trial of two coloured men at Willowmore,
in the Cape Province. They were said to have expressed the view
that if coloured persons are not fit to fight for the Empire "in a war
originating entirely among Europeans", they could not be considered fit
to drive military wagons in the same war. Recruiting of military drivers
was in progress at the time, so they were charged under martial law,
and sentenced to nine months, with hard labour, for obstructing
the recruiting work. In this case our difficulty is that, not being a lawyer,
we are not able to draw the fine distinctions between legal phrases.
But to our untutored lay mind it seems that if to give expression
to such logic (whereby ten drivers may think twice before enlisting)
is a crime under martial law, then it should be over ten times more criminal,
under the same law, for a Government to refuse the offer of service,
in the same war, of 18,000 warriors and thereby barring
the enlistment of a possible 80,000.
One of the best replies to colour sentimentalists which we have ever read
on this subject is quoted from the `New York World' by the `Crisis'
(Professor Du Bois's paper) of the same city. Says the `New York World': --
==
The German Ambassador has announced to the United States
that he is "unconditionally opposed" to the use of coloured troops.
This is a curious prejudice on the part of the diplomatic representative
of a Government that is seeking to bring Turkey into the conflict
and trying to persuade the Turk to instigate a "holy war" in Egypt and India
against all non-Mohammedans.
When Germany went to war with the British Empire she must have expected
to fight the British Empire, and not merely a selected part of the population,
the colour of whose skin happened to meet the approval of Berlin.
It is natural enough that Great Britain should bring up her Indian troops,
who, by the way, are as completely identified with the Aryan race
as the Prussians. But no matter what their race may be, they are
part of the Empire and part of Great Britain's regular military power.
If Germany were at war with the United States her troops would have to meet
our Negro Cavalry, than whom there are no better soldiers in uniform.
German denunciation of the Indian troops is as futile as German denunciation
of the Japanese as "yellow-bellies". It is too late to draw
the colour line in war. That line was erased more than fifty years ago
by Abraham Lincoln in that noble letter to the Springfield Convention:
"And there will be some black men who can remember that,
with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and well-poised bayonet,
they have helped mankind on to this great consummation."
==
One South African writer to the Press had humanitarian reasons
against the employment on the Continent of coloured troops from India.
He said that 70,000 of them will be like a morning meal
to the trained soldiers of Germany. This sympathetic view
does not appear to be shared by German writers to the `Berliner Tageblatt',
who have a high regard for the ferocity of "these Eastern devils".
Apparently this is the only German view which is in harmony with
the dispatches of Generals French and Joffre. His Majesty the King has since
been to the front, where, in the presence of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales,
Sir Pertabh Singh and other high Imperial officers, His Majesty personally
decorated Havildar Darwan Sing Negi (an Indian) of the 39th Garhwal Rifles,
with the Victoria Cross, and we need hardly add that V.C.'s are not awarded
for fun.
On the first Saturday in March, 1915, King George went to Aldershot and acted
as starter in the big military race in which over 500 soldiers competed.
Her Majesty the Queen was also present and graciously distributed the prizes.
The race was won by Private Stewart, a black trooper from Jamaica.
Even the Coldstream Guards have their coloured private in training
for the front; but South Africans inform you that the heavens will fall
if coloured troops are sent against the white Germans,
who, from the beginning, never scrupled to send black warriors
against the British.
In regard to the award of the V.C. to Indians, many writers sent letters
to the Press claiming that it was unprecedented for coloured warriors
to wear the V.C. Whitaker and similar publications might have told them
that a Native African sergeant of the West Indian Regiment wears
the V.C. won on the Gambia River as long ago as 1892.
Chapter XXII The South African Boers and the European War
I slept and had a vision; and what was it about? For lo and behold,
the sky was covered with a dark cloud on which was impressed
the number 15, and blood issued from this cloud. Thereupon I beheld
General Jacobus De la Rey returning to his Lichtenburg home
without a hat on his head, and he was closely followed by a carriage
full of flowers.
Niklaas Rensburg (the Boer Prophet).
When the war broke out, there was no question, as far as
one section of the whites were concerned, as to the duty of South Africans,
but the majority of the unofficial Dutch and German sections
were for remaining neutral and taking no part whatever in the struggle,
either for or against the Crown. Among the Backvelders there appeared
to have been some misunderstanding as to whether the South Africans
were subjects or merely friends of the British Government.
This bewilderment became more confusing during the interval
between the outbreak of the war and the meeting of the Union Parliament.
All kinds of ideas were expressed in the Press. The progressive section,
mainly English, urged not only that South Africa had no alternative
but to join the struggle, but they actually raised volunteer corps,
which they proceeded to equip for service in Europe.
The regular volunteer forces of the country went forward
at an early period of the campaign, and took the German ports.
In connexion with the mobilization of these forces a regrettable catastrophe
must be recorded here. The long train in which the Kaffrarian Rifles,
mostly English, were going from King Williamstown, via Capetown, to the front,
was derailed near the Hex River, and the gallant Riflemen
had eight killed and about a hundred wounded. They are sons
of the old English settlers of the Eastern Province, and some are members
of European families who are very popular with the Natives of the Cape,
so that white and black alike felt deeply the result of the catastrophe.
General Lukin, who was in charge of the advance forces, quickly went up
the South-Western Coast, and forced the enemy to evacuate his ports
and retreat inland towards Windhuk, the capital of the German Colony.
General Beyers and the rest of the Defence Forces which were entrusted
with the land operations also mobilized. The mobilization of this force
took an extraordinarily long time, but it was satisfactorily explained that
the marshalling of the citizen forces had to await the sanction of Parliament,
which did not meet until September 10, 1914.
A special session of the Union Parliament took place on this day,
at which General Botha, the Union Premier, made a great speech.
==
In the course of his speech General Botha said that the Imperial Government
had informed the Government that certain war operations
in German South-West Africa were considered to be of strategic importance.
The Imperial Government added that if the Union Government
could undertake these operations they would be regarded as of great service
to the Empire. The Empire to which South Africa belonged was involved
in one of the greatest and cruelest wars which had ever befallen humanity.
General Botha continued:
The Government, after careful consideration, had decided to comply
with the request in the interests of South Africa as well as of the Empire.
(Cheers.) There could only be one reply to the Imperial Government's request.
There were many in South Africa who did not recognize
the tremendous seriousness and great possibilities of this war,
and some thought that the storm did not threaten South Africa.
This was a most narrow-minded conception. The Empire was at war;
consequently South Africa was at war with the common enemy. (Cheers.)
Only two paths were open -- the path of faithfulness to duty and honour
-- (cheers) -- and the path of disloyalty and dishonour.
A characteristic of the South African people was their high sense of honour,
and they would maintain their reputation for honourable dealing untarnished.
(Cheers.) To forget their loyalty to the Empire in this hour of trial
would be scandalous and shameful, and would blacken South Africa
in the eyes of the whole world. Of this South Africans were incapable. . . .
With regard to the operations in South-West Africa, General Botha declared
that there could be only one response to the Imperial Government's wishes
unless they wished to contemplate a situation much more serious
than that which now confronted them. The mode of operations
could not be discussed in the House; it must be left
to the commander of the Union forces.* The Government had summoned Parliament
so that the representatives of the people should know exactly
what had happened.
--
* General Beyers.
--
He wished them to understand the seriousness of the position,
and to accept the responsibility which they would be called upon to accept.
He placed himself with confidence in the hands of the House.
General Botha detailed the German entry into Union territory at Nakob.
This force was entrenched in kopjes in Union territory at the present time.
He also described an affair at Schuitdrift in August. In addition to this,
armed German forces were on the Union frontier in large numbers
before there was any question of Union mobilization. The Premier said
he quoted the foregoing to show the hostile attitude adopted by Germans
in the neighbouring territory.
He next referred to the White Paper on the diplomatic proceedings
on the eve of war. These documents, he declared, showed that
if ever Great Britain entered upon a war with clean hands it was this war.
It was abundantly clear that Great Britain did not want war,
and did her utmost to maintain peace; but war was forced upon them.
Only when it became impossible, without loss of prestige and honour,
to remain out of war did the Imperial Government take that supreme step.
(Cheers.) By the Imperial Government's decision the whole Empire
was involved in the war. (Cheers.) He emphasized that the war
was not a war of aggrandisement or for the acquisition of land,
but that it was undertaken out of a sense of duty and in discharge of
solemn treaty obligations to defend other nations who were
being trampled upon, and whose territory was being violated.
He wished the House to realize that South Africa's future was being decided
on the battlefields of Europe. . . .
He appealed to South Africans to be tolerant with each other
at the present time. No one could blame the Dutch South African
who did not feel exactly as the British South African felt.
It did not follow that Dutch South Africans were disloyal.
There was no question of disloyalty. Although there might be many
who in the past had been hostile towards the British flag,
he could vouch for it that they would ten times rather be
under the British flag than under the German flag.
Great confidence had been reposed in the people of South Africa.
They had received a constitution under which they could create
a great nationality. Great Britain had given them this constitution,
and ever since had regarded them as a free people and as a sister State.
As an example of how the Imperial Government treated them,
General Botha said that last July the Union Government wanted to raise
a loan of 4,000,000 Pounds. They had raised only two millions.
As things were it would be fatal to go into the money market just now,
so the Imperial Government had now come to the assistance
of the Union Government and had lent the Union 7,000,000 Pounds.
(Loud cheers.) That was the spirit of co-operation and brotherhood
which invariably animated the Imperial towards the Union Government.
Notwithstanding its own difficulties, the Imperial Government had come forward
and helped the Union Government out of its embarrassment. (Cheers.)
In conclusion, the Premier said he felt it was the duty of South Africa
to assist in relieving the sufferings and privations inflicted by the war.
The Government therefore proposed to offer South African products
like mealies and tobacco for the soldiers, and brandy for medical purposes.
The farmers had already come forward with offers of products,
and the Government would undertake their dispatch. General Botha indicated
that the matter would be dealt with more fully later, and closed his speech
with an eloquent expression of his belief that South Africa
would acquit herself honourably in the eyes of the world.
Opposition Views
Sir Thomas Smartt, Leader of the Opposition, said the message
which the Prime Minister by his speech had given to the Home Country
would send a thrill of pride through the Empire -- a thrill of pride
at knowing that in the day of danger South Africa had
been true to her trust and had remembered her obligations
as well as her privileges of free citizenship. (Cheers.)
Mr. Cresswell, the Labour Leader, urged that an expedition should be sent
to fight side by side with the Allies on the Continent.
General Hertzog said that General Botha's motion had come as a great surprise,
and moved the adjournment. Other members supported General Hertzog,
but the motion for the adjournment was rejected by 85 votes to 12.
==
After this short session of Parliament, enthusiastic meetings were held
throughout the country. Those in the cities were mainly attended
by citizens of English descent. Strong resolutions of confidence
in the Union Government, and of approval in the proposed expedition
to German South-West Africa, were passed at these meetings.
At country meetings, however, the enthusiasm was in the opposite direction.
There, the resolutions condemned the Government's military policy,
and General Botha was roundly accused of not taking the country
into his confidence. When the loyalists urged that the Parliamentary
representatives of the critics, who, by the way, enjoy manhood suffrage,
had authorized the Government policy, the growlers replied that their members
did not consult their wishes.
General Botha made it as plain as the Dutch language could put it
that the Germans had been in camp near Nakob in their own territory.
That they left their Nakob base on the German side of the Border and came over
to the Union territory for water, and proceeded to entrench themselves
amongst the ridges and kopjes which commanded the water-holes,
and that in addition to the duty of the Union as part of the Empire,
this military trespass on the part of the German forces further strengthened
the case for an expedition into German South-West Africa.
At these Backveld meetings the story about the Germans crossing the border
was characterized as a bit of ministerial concoction.
Clever geographical students, who mounted the platforms
with maps in their hands, were reported to have demonstrated
to the satisfaction of their auditors that the new map
showing the German position was falsified by the railway surveyors
and that Nakob Sued was clearly depicted in the old maps
as laying in German territory. The Dutch reporters, however,
do not state that the ridges and kopjes referred to by General Botha
were also stated to be on the German side of the line
according to the old maps. So that the position was like this:
at first the Boers would not sanction an expedition against the Germans
until the latter invaded Union territory, and when the Government proved
by means of police reports that the Germans had actually crossed
into Union territory the critics accused the Ministry of telling untruths.
This, then, must have been the cause of so much delay in mobilization,
and which Ministers had to contend against. It must be added, however,
that most of the meetings mentioned took place in Transvaal.
At the Cape the discontent was almost insignificant, whilst as much of it
as had existed promptly ranged itself on the side of the Government
when the "Free" State and Transvaal hoisted the standard of rebellion.
Matters went ahead somewhat after the meeting of Parliament.
But a rude awakening awaited the people of the Union, if not
the peoples of the Empire, when they got up one September morning and read
the following correspondence relating to the resignation of General Beyers,
the head of the Union forces: --
==
GENERAL BEYER'S EXTRAORDINARY ATTITUDE
Ex-General Beyers to General Smuts
Pretoria,
September 15, 1914.
Honourable Sir, -- You are aware that during the month of August last
I told you and General Botha by word of mouth that I discovered
the sending of commandos to German South-West Africa for the purpose
of conquering that territory. I was on the point then of resigning,
but hearing that Parliament would be called together I decided to wait,
hoping a way out of the difficulty would be found. To my utmost surprise,
however, Parliament confirmed the resolution adopted by the Government --
namely, to conquer German South-West Africa, without any provocation
to the Union from the Germans. The Government must be aware
that by far the great majority of the Dutch-speaking people of the Union
decidedly disapproved of our crossing the frontier,
and that two conferences of commandants recently held at Pretoria
bore eloquent testimony to this. I challenge the Government
by an appeal to the people, without making use of compulsion,
to obtain another result.
It is said that Great Britain has taken part in the war
for the sake of right and justice, in order to protect
the independence of smaller nations, and to comply with treaties,
but the fact that three Ministers of the British Cabinet have resigned
shows that even in England there is a strong minority
who cannot be convinced of the righteousness of a war with Germany.
History teaches us, after all, that whenever it suits her interests,
Great Britain is always ready to protect smaller nations,
but unhappily history also relates instances in which the sacred rights
of independence of smaller nations have been violated and treaties disregarded
by that same Empire. In proof of this I have only to indicate
how the independence of the South African Republic and Orange Free State
was violated, and of what weight the Sand River Convention was.
It is said that war is being waged against the barbarity of the Germans.
I have forgiven, but not forgotten, all the barbarities
perpetrated in this our own country during the South African war.
With very few exceptions, all farms, not to mention many towns,
were so many Louvains, of which we now hear so much.
At this critical moment it is made known in Parliament that our Government
was granted a loan of 7,000,000 Pounds by the British Government.
This is very significant. Any one can have his own thoughts about this.
In the absence of legitimate grounds for the annexation policy
of the Government you endeavour to intimidate the public by declaring
that the Government are in possession of information showing that Germany
has decided, should the opportunity arise, to annex South Africa.
My humble opinion is that this will be hastened if from our side
we invade German territory without having been provoked thereto
by the Germans, and as to the alleged German annexation scheme,
this is nothing more than the result of the usual native suspicion
attending such matters. The allegations made in Parliament
-- namely, that the Germans have already violated our frontier --
are ungrounded. See the report of the Information Bureau, corroborated by
Colonel Maritz* and his officers, who are on and near the frontier.
Apparently the Government longed for some transgression by
the Germans of German South-West Africa, and have been disappointed in this,
for so far not a single German soldier has crossed our frontier,
as you know very well. The report is perfectly correct regarding
an involuntary transgression of the frontier some time ago
and the tendering of an apology for so doing.
--
* Maritz was at this time on active service, nominally as a Colonel
at the head of a British regiment, but in reality as a General
in the German Army, using British arms, stores, railways, and telegrams
in the service of the Kaiser.
--
Whatever may happen in South Africa, the war will be decided in Europe
in any case, so if Germany triumphs and should decide to attack us,
then even Great Britain would be unable to help us. We shall at least
have a sacred and clean cause in defending our country to the utmost
provided we stay inside our borders. Meanwhile, in case we are attacked,
our people will arise as one man in defence for its rights.
Besides, I am convinced that a commando of about 8,000 Germans,
as at present stationed in German territory, will not be so foolish
as to attempt an attack on our country. I have always said,
and represented at Booysens recently, that if the Union is attacked
Boer and Briton will defend this country side by side,
and in such case I will deem it a great honour and privilege
to take up my place at the head of our forces in defence of my fatherland.
I accepted the post of Commander-General under our Defence Act,
the first section of which provides that our forces can only be employed
in defence of the Union. My humble opinion is that this section cannot
thus be changed by informal resolution of Parliament, such being contrary
to Parliamentary procedure. So the Defence Act does not allow us
to go and fight the enemy over the frontier, and to light the fire
in this way. But should the enemy penetrate into our country
it will be our duty to drive him back and pursue him in his own territory.
In his speech General Botha speaks about the help we had
from the Belgians and French after the South African War.
That assistance is still appreciated by us and by all our people,
but we must not forget that the Germans also were not behindhand,
and have always been well-disposed towards us. So why should we
deliberately make enemies of them? As circumstances are,
and seeing no way of taking the offensive, and as I sincerely love
my country and people, I must strongly protest against
the sending of Union citizen forces over the frontier. Who can foretell
when the fire the Government has decided to light shall end?
For the reasons enumerated above I feel constrained to resign
my post as Commandant-General, as also my commissioned rank.
For me this is the only way of faith, duty, and honour towards our people,
of which mention was made by General Botha. I have always tried to do my duty
to my best convictions, and it sorely grieves me that it must end in this way.
I remain, etc.,
(Signed) C. L. Beyers.
==
==
General Smuts to Ex-General Beyers
Pretoria,
September 19, 1914.
Sir, -- It was with regret that I received your letter of the 15th inst.
tendering your resignation as Commandant-General of the Union Defence Forces
and as officer of the Union. The circumstances under which
the resignation took place and the terms in which you endeavour
to justify your action tend to leave a very painful impression.
It is true that it was known to me that you entered objections
against war operations in German South-West Africa, but I never received
the impression that you would resign. On the contrary,
all information in the possession of the Government was communicated to you,
all plans were discussed with you, and your advice was followed
to a large extent. The principal officers were appointed
on your recommendation and with your concurrence, and the plan of operations
which is now being followed is largely the one recommended by yourself
at a conference of officers. My last instructions to you
before I left for Capetown to attend the special session of Parliament were
that in my absence you should visit certain regiments on the German border,
and it was well understood between us that immediately the war operations
were somewhat further advanced and co-operation among the various divisions
would be practicable you should yourself undertake the chief command
in German South West Africa. The attitude of the Government after this
remained unchanged, and was approved by Parliament after full discussion.
One would have expected that that approval would make the matter
easier for you, but now I find that you anticipated that Parliament
would disapprove the policy of the Government, and that
your disappointment in this became the reason for your unexpected action.
In order to make your motives clearer the reasons for your resignation
were explained in a long political argument which was immediately
communicated to the Press and came into the hands of the Government
long after publication. I need not tell you that all these circumstances
in connexion with your resignation have made a most unpleasant impression
on my colleagues and myself.
But this unpleasant impression has even been aggravated by the allegations
contained in your letter. Your bitter attack on Great Britain
is not only baseless, but is the more unjustifiable coming as it does,
in the midst of a great war, from the Commandant-General
of one of the British Dominions. Your reference to barbarous acts
during the South African War cannot justify the criminal
devastation of Belgium, and can only be calculated to sow hatred and division
among the people of South Africa. You forget to mention
that since the South African War the British people gave South Africa
her entire freedom, under a Constitution which makes it possible for us
to realize our national ideals along our own lines, and which, for instance,
allows you to write with impunity a letter for which you would,
without doubt, be liable in the German Empire to the extreme penalty.
As regards your other statements, they have been answered and disposed of
in Parliament. From these discussions it will be apparent that neither
the British Empire nor South Africa was the aggressor in this struggle.
War was, in the first instance, declared by Austria-Hungary,
and thereafter by Germany, under circumstances in which the British Government
employed its utmost powers to maintain the peace of Europe and to safeguard
the neutrality of Belgium. So far as we ourselves are concerned,
our coast is threatened, our mail-boats are arrested, and our borders
are invaded by the enemy. This latter does not occur, as you say,
in an involuntary manner and with an apology, which latter, at any rate,
was never tendered to our Government. Under these circumstances
it is absurd to speak about aggressive action on the part of the Union,
seeing that together with the British Empire we have been drawn,
against our wish and will and entirely in self-defence, into this war.
As regards your insinuation concerning the loan of seven million pounds
which the British Government was kind enough to grant us,
and for which the public of the Union, as evidenced recently
in Parliament, are most grateful it is of such a despicable nature
that there is no necessity to make any comment thereon.
It only shows to what extent your mind has been obscured by political bias.
You speak about duty and honour. My conviction is that
the people of South Africa will in these dark days, when the Government,
as well as the people of South Africa, are put to the supreme test,
have a clearer conception of duty and honour than is to be deduced
from your letter and action. For the Dutch-speaking section in particular
I cannot conceive anything more fatal and humiliating
than a policy of lip-loyalty in fair weather and of a policy
of neutrality and pro-German sentiment in days of storm and stress.
It may be that our peculiar internal circumstances and our backward condition
after the great war will place a limit on what we can do,
but nevertheless I am convinced the people will support the Government
in carrying out the mandate of Parliament, and in this manner, which is
the only legitimate one, fulfil their duty to South Africa and to the Empire
and maintain their dearly won honour unblemished for the future.
Your resignation is hereby accepted.
(Signed) J. C. Smuts.
==
When the war broke out, the Natives of South Africa, who, in many instances,
are much better in touch with the backvelders than the Dutch editors
who reside in towns, fully expected a general revolt among
the unofficial section of the Boers. But when Holland declared her neutrality
the Natives began to breathe more freely, as that declaration
led them to believe that the Boers would not now rise.
When General Beyers's resignation was published, however,
the Natives again felt that the outbreak was only a matter of days.
In the country, especially the Orange "Free" State, our people
are helplessly mixed up with the Boers, and it can readily be understood
that they felt somewhat insecure, notwithstanding the Government's assurances.
One native farmer sent the following letter to the author in England: --
==
I am glad to find that your newspaper, the `Tsala ea Batho', is as up to date
in your absence as when you are at home. It was the first to publish
General Botha's statement to the Natives (about the war), and again the first
to comment on the treacherous resignation of General Beyers.
The resignation was handed to the Government on the 15th,
and the `Tsala' commented on it on September 19, before the daily papers.
I think that the daily papers were still trying to reconcile
their previous articles about the loyalty of ALL WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS with
the resignation. The fact that General De la Rey was shot while travelling
in the same car with General Beyers on the same day that Beyers resigned
is cited as a further proof of the unswerving loyalty of all the Boers.
One cannot understand how these white folks reason;
but the attitude of the Imperial Government and of the Union Government
is incomprehensible. Fancy telling the loyal Rhodesians to come and fight
under a man like that! General Botha ought himself to go to the front,
if a civil war is to be averted, leaving General Smuts
to watch the next Dutch move and nip it in the bud.
==
One of the tragedies of the first few weeks of the war
was the death of Senator General De la Rey of Lichtenburg,
who was accidentally shot by a "Rand" policeman on the night of September 15,
while travelling with General Beyers in a motor-car.
His funeral took place on September 20, at Lichtenburg, and was attended
by a large number of Boers, including the Prime Minister, General Smuts,
General De Wet, and other Dutch generals. Mourners and their friends
came to Lichtenburg by the ordinary train and by the special train
which conveyed the body from the Rand. They came in all manner of vehicles
from the surrounding farms, and, for the first time,
the Dutch Reformed Church at Lichtenburg opened its doors to the blacks,
who came to pay their last respects to, and view the body of, a popular Boer,
known among the Bechuana as Koos La Rey. A commando of 400 Burghers
came from Wolmaranstad on horseback. English merchants
from Johannesburg were also present, including Senator Tucker,
representing the Unionist party. The body was draped WITH TWO FLAGS --
the flag of the old Transvaal Republic and of the old "Free" State Republic.
Besides the officiating clergy, three Dutch statesmen also spoke
at the funeral service, viz., Generals Botha, Beyers, and De Wet.
The loyalists returned from the funeral service to their path of duty,
while the sullen section of the Dutch remained at Lichtenburg
to fan the embers of rebellion -- though it must be added
that the operations at Lichtenburg were more or less in camera.
At 8 o'clock on Monday morning, September 21, the day after
General De la Rey's funeral, General Kemp, standing on
General Beyer's motor-car, presided over a gathering of
from 800 to 1,000 Boers. The Rev. Mr. Broeckhuizen opened the meeting
with a short prayer. A verbatim report of this prayer appeared
in the Dutch papers as follows: "Lord, we thank Thee
that Thou rulest our nation through these dark days and stormy circumstances.
We have buried our hero and have gathered to speak in his spirit.
We thank Thee for such a man as General Beyers, beside whom
his friend was shot. We thank Thee also for General De Wet and General Kemp,
and that Thou hast given us such men to lead us. We stand for our people.
Help us, O Lord, towards the salvation of our people and the salvation
of our fatherland. Amen."
The three personalities mentioned in this prayer became active participants
in the rebellion, and so did the reverend gentleman who prayed.
In fact the latter sent a letter to his congregation three months later
from the Johannesburg prison, resigning his pastorate at Pretoria.
In opening the meeting the chairman disclaimed all ideas about a revolution.
They had come to consider calmly a decision by the Union Parliament
to invade German South West Africa; but while he was speaking,
some one produced a flag of the old Free State Republic,
and General Kemp rebuked the person for this puerile action.
Whether the rebuke was due to the fact that the Boers
had not yet then made up their minds to rebel, or because Maritz's plans
with the Germans on the south-western frontier had not yet matured,
we do not know. Anyway, General Beyers, in supporting the chairman,
added that his cause was a clean one and there was no necessity
for nonsensical flag-waving. They were there, he said,
to pass a calm resolution and forward it to the Government.
One Mr. van der Hoff inquired why General Beyers resigned.
The chairman replied that the reasons were clearly set forth
in the letter of resignation. At the request of the gathering
the Rev. Mr. Broeckhuizen read the letter aloud, the reading throughout
being punctuated with cheers. It does not appear, however,
that General Smuts's reply was also read, presumably because
there was no call for it.
General Liebenberg wanted to know what the situation was that morning;
then he proceeded to say: "The enemy is already inside our borders.
Some one had disturbed a beehive and the result is what
might have been expected. We have three generals before us"
-- (apparently in addition to the speaker) -- "yesterday we buried
the dearest of them all. I want a reply from Generals De Wet and Beyers.
We are British subjects, and it is not improbable that the Government
might instruct their officers to call us out to-morrow."
General De Wet, the man of the hour, then stepped on to the motor-car
to speak, prefacing his speech with the remark that he could not help
remembering his brother buried the previous day. Then, in beginning
his speech, he said: "Burghers and Brethren, -- If there be any one present
who is not a brother, let him walk away. Since nobody is leaving
I conclude that we are brothers all. If there be any stepbrothers here,
they are all welcome, but a traitor always reminds me of Judas."
Proceeding, he said that "the Germans had been made enemies by the Government.
The fire was already burning, so let us adopt a calm resolution,
expressing the will of the people. Not that I wish to praise my people,
but we are not going to soil our hands, no not even to show our loyalty.
Let us be cool, remembering that we have many sympathizers
in South Africa and elsewhere. If any one wished to gnash his teeth
and hath no teeth his best course is to consult the dentist for a set.
Better an hour too late than a minute too early. We do not all reside
near a telephone or a telegraph office and cannot be conversant with
what goes on at the frontier. Even when Generals Beyers and Kemp are asleep,
keep a watch and remain cool. I believe there are numerous Christians
among us. When it is time the whole of the people will rise up like to-day."
Some one wished to know if it was possible to recall the forces
already at the border. That, said the chairman, would be decided later.
The Rev. Mr. de Klerk said General Beyers's letter translated
the real feeling of the people. Even though Generals Beyers, Kemp, and De Wet
had resigned, they still remained Generals. They honoured other officers
who had the pluck to resign with General Beyers (whose names the Government
had not published but had suppressed), including Lieutenant Kol Bezuidenhout.
One Field Cornet to the speaker's knowledge had resigned,
but his name had not been announced." The reverend gentleman
then betrayed his flagrant ignorance of South African history when he said:
"Our people were never known to have robbed any one of land.
All (?) their land had been acquired by means of purchase or barter.
The history of South Africa was a spotless one." After stating
that the Afrikander must express his disdain with respect to
the Jameson raid and the unrighteous annexation of the Republics,
he concluded: "Blood is flowing in Belgium, but is it
in the interest of South Africa to draw the sword on that account?
It may be in the interests of the Empire; but the hem of my coat
is nearer to my body than the coat itself. The sending of troops
to Damaraland is nothing but an attack upon a people that had done us no harm.
I believe it to be our duty to sit still."
Rev. Mr. Van der Merwe, who said he spoke on behalf of the young people,
said all their officers should resign like General Beyers and others.
He hoped that any officers present would resign before noon that day.
General De Wet pointed out that the appointment of any Jack, Tom, and Harry
might follow such wholesale resignations, for although he lived in
the "Free" State he held a share in the affairs of that (Transvaal) Province.
General Beyers: "I consider my own resignation a sufficient protest.
The other representatives of our people should remain at their posts."
(Cries of "No, no, no.")
Rev. Mr. Broeckhuizen implored the people to stand by
their Commander-in-Chief, General Beyers, as he himself was going to do,
no matter how barking lap-dogs raved. Despite any letters
that some fellows might write to the papers to the contrary,
the world must know that the people stood behind General Beyers.
Although he was still going to suffer -- (as he truly did) --
they should support him till everything was in order.
As a parting shot General Liebenberg said: When peace was declared in 1902
he had such implicit faith in the late General De la Rey
that he (General Liebenberg) remained quietly on his farm and was always
obedient to him. He expected these troubles since 1912.
And now it had become impossible to keep quiet much longer.
According to the latest accounts the Germans were 150 miles
across the boundary. (A voice: "We will beat them back.")
The speaker: "The same thing was said when they were in Belgium,
but they are now marching on Paris."
A revised resolution was then put: it declared the reported
action of the Government to be "in conflict with --
"1. The wishes of the overwhelming majority of the population of the Union."
(An extravagant assertion considering that there are six million
people in the Union and that the meeting only represented
a section of the half a million Boers.)
A reply was demanded from the Government before September 30, so as to get it
in time for consideration at a subsequent people's gathering.
When this was carried, General De Wet said in parting: "If there be still
a few lap-dogs here, friends, don't take any notice of them.
They have now no teeth. We are now more united than when
the difference between the Government and `the People' first began."
(Obviously General De Wet was here alluding to the rupture
between the Government and General Hertzog in 1912, when,
to the disgust of himself and his followers, the latter was forced
to leave the Ministry. One reason why the Natives' Land Act was passed
was in order to "dish the Whigs" and placate the Hertzogites.)
* * * * *
On September 24, General De Wet held another meeting at Kopjes,
Orange "Free" State. The Resident Magistrate of Parys
attended the meeting and read a telegram from the Government
announcing that no Burghers would be forced to proceed to the front;
that only volunteers would be asked to serve. This wire, however,
did not satisfy the Burghers. They contended that the expedition
to German South-West Africa was a policy of setting the prairie on fire,
and it did not matter who the originator of the fire was,
for when it was raging the Burghers would be called upon to quench it.
After the meeting had passed votes of condolences to Mrs. De la Rey,
General De Wet said he was opposed to a war against a nation
that had done him no harm. Whether or not the Government used volunteers,
"who," he asked, "would be responsible for the harm that is likely to follow
a provocation of the Germans? This expedition is to coax them
into our country. You may go if you like," added General De Wet emphatically,
"but I won't."
Now, the Boers in certain respects are not unlike the Natives; thus when
a grey-haired Native, or a Boer, addresses a crowd of his compatriots
and says to them, "You may do such and such a thing if you like,
but I will not," it is understood by them to be a roundabout way of saying,
"Take my advice and don't." And so when such a declaration is made
by a man as influential amongst his people as General De Wet,
it is not surprising that the crowd shouted in response, "We won't go.
Let the authorities adjust the result of their own bungling.
Ninety-two men in Parliament voted for the expedition
without consulting their constituents, and we are not satisfied."
Thereupon some one shouted, "Where is Mr. Van der Merwe?"
Others said, "Call him; perhaps he is in the crowd."
So the stentorian voice of a Boer equipped with a powerful pair of lungs
called out, "Van der Merwe! Van der Merwe!! Van der Merwe!!!"
and then announced "He is not here."
Mr. Van der Merwe is the Parliamentary representative of the district
where the meeting was held.
In conclusion, General De Wet said: "Here is the Magistrate
and there is the prison. If I have said anything that I cannot substantiate
I will willingly surrender myself into their hands."
The motion against the expedition was then put, 512 Boers voting for it
and only two against it.
* * * * *
Es ist sehr weit nach Tipperary,
Es ist sehr weit zu gehn;
Es ist sehr weit nach Tipperary,
Meinen liebsten Schatz zu sehn.
Leb' wohl, Piccadilly,
Adieu, Leicester Square,
Es ist sehr sehr weit nach Tipperary
Doch dahin sehnt mich sehr.
"Tipperary" in German.
On September 29, General Botha addressed his constituents
at a Transvaal station called Bank, on the Kimberley-Johannesburg line.
A thousand Burghers met the Premier as he left his special travelling saloon
for the place of the meeting and gave him a rousing reception.
Before General Botha spoke, he permitted his opponents
(to the evident displeasure of the majority of the audience)
to unbosom their alleged grievance. Appreciative addresses were read
expressing confidence in the Government and approval of the expedition
to German South West Africa. Addresses opposing the expedition
were also read; they included one that was said to be a petition
from Boer women, strongly objecting to the expedition.
The reading of these addresses took up much time and must have tried
the patience of the Premier's admirers who were anxious to hear
the speech of the day. They called on the readers to "Shut up!"
but the Prime Minister urged them to give both sides a chance.
After these lengthy preliminaries, the Prime Minister amid cheers delivered
a speech justifying the projected invasion of German South West Africa,
in obedience to the desire of the Imperial Government. He reminded the Boers
that the expedition had been voted for by a Parliament elected by them.
He added that he personally would always lead his people
along the white man's path of honour and Christianity,
and that he would never choose the coward's way of disloyalty and treason.
The whole of the speech might be summed up in a few lines
taken out of General Smuts's reply to General Beyers: "I cannot conceive
anything more fatal and humiliating than a policy of lip-loyalty
in fair weather and a policy of neutrality and pro-German sentiment
in days of storm and stress."
The Prime Minister further asked what reliance could be placed
on Germany who ravaged Belgium. He pointed out that when
the late President Kruger arrived in Europe -- a fugitive from his country --
the French and the Belgians welcomed him, while the Kaiser
would not even see the old man.
General Botha made some remarks at this meeting which displeased
the coloured loyalists. Without wishing to defend the Premier, the remark,
in our opinion, was justifiable. It was more of a recruiting speech
than a declaration of policy, and naturally he had to appeal
to the sentiments of his hearers. Nothing goes down so easily
with the northern Boers as colour prejudice, and in the circumstances
General Botha was justified in denouncing the neutrality party, who advocated
a policy of "sitting with folded arms until German South West Africa
fell into their lap like a ripe apple. The Imperial Government,"
he went on to say, "could send a force of 50,000 coolies*
to capture the German Colony, and tell them that, after the war,
they could make a coolie settlement there. Would this have been
in the interest of the country? (Cries of No, no.) But instead,
the Imperial Government had asked the Union to do the work,
and I am proud to have been asked."
--
* A contemptuous term for British Indians.
--
Nor could Englishmen, having regard to the circumstances,
very well take umbrage at another remark of General Botha's
in the same speech. It was, we believe, a clever appeal
to the feelings of Backvelders when he said: "Can you rely
on the Kaiser's promises? In the South African war, WHEN I GAVE THE ENGLISH
A SOUND THRASHING at Colenso, what did the Kaiser do?
He sent a telegram to Lord Roberts advising him how to stab me in the back,
by marching across the `Free' State."
The danger that would follow a German victory in South Africa
was so lucidly put by the Premier that many waverers were at once imbued
with the patriotic spirit. Carping criticism, it is true, continued,
but many wobbling defence officers resolved to follow General Botha
to the uttermost. The opposition, on the other hand, told the Boers
that the official element among them who supported the Government did so,
not through patriotic motives, but for the sake of their jobs.
The most credulous section among the Boers seemed to believe that the Germans
would never invade British South Africa. This section at first was baffled
by the contention of the neutrality party that the Government was maligning
the Germans; but they were soon disillusioned.
On September 26, Colonel Grant took possession of some water-holes
on the line of advance. This step was essential to
the success of the proposed expedition. The enemy retired,
but only to mount their artillery on some ridges overlooking
the camp of the advancing British forces. From those positions
the enemy shelled our troops till their ammunition was exhausted.
The British casualties amounted to sixteen killed, forty-three wounded,
eight missing, and thirty-five captured. These figures
would be insignificant on the battlefields of Europe,
but to lose so many men in only one attack in South Africa
was almost appalling. This reverse having brought home to the waverers
the danger of procrastination, a fresh spirit set in
among the passive loyalists. But the opposition was busy.
* * * * *
On the same day that General Botha carried the day at Banks,
Commandant Vermaas addressed over 100 Burghers at a Transvaal farm
called Korannafontein. There were present such notable Dutchmen
as Mr. Sarel Du Plessis and Mr. Cornelius Grobbelaar.
They were so provocative that Commandant Vermaas asked the meeting
with some warmth: "Who do you believe about the occurrences
at the German frontier, the Government who receive all the police reports,
or General Beyers? All I can say is that you will weep
when General Botha gets shot, for I know what he did for this country.
And if you disbelieve the Government, what will be the use of telling you
that the Germans were the aggressors?"
Sensible speeches were delivered by Mr. D. Louw and others.
This speaker deeply regretted the resignation of General Beyers, and said:
"He had charge of all the Defence secrets and it cost us much money
to let him travel about this country and abroad; and at a critical moment,
when we are face to face with trouble he tenders his resignation."
The meeting, however, insisted that the Union Government were the delinquents.
The Germans, they said, had crossed the border accidentally,
for which little relapse they had tendered a suitable apology. Some speakers
said that the Ministry's ambitious annexation policy was actuated
by a desire for posthumous fame regardless of the blood of Afrikanders,
which was more precious than the deserts of German South West Africa.
The issue would be decided on the battlefields of Europe,
so why the premature invasion, and why the forgery of the railway map
in respect to the position of Nakob where the German forces are?
"Supposing the Germans win in Europe," asked one of the speakers,
"what would be our position after the raid? We prefer to follow
General Beyers."
While Commandant Vermaas, the Government emissary, was still speaking,
some one shouted: "Three cheers for General Hertzog!"
These were vociferously accorded.
At this stage one of the young bloods came out with a brand-new defence
of Germany's desertion of the Boer cause during the South African war.
Germany, he said, had a ten years' treaty with England and could not go to war
against the British, who were there again too smart for us.
When Queen Wilhelmina was in Germany the Kaiser said to her:
"Tell the Transvaal not to declare war against England just yet ----."
Commandt. Vermaas: "And you call it friendship. Why promise us help
when they had a treaty with England?"
After some dialogues, in which the Bible was quoted on both sides,
for and against the expedition, a resolution was adopted, by eighty-nine votes
to twenty-three, against the invasion of German South-West Africa.
An aged Dutch gentleman remarked that the late Republican Government
made a mistake in first sending an ultimatum to the English,
and in attacking German South-West Africa the Union Government was repeating
the same mistake.
* * * * *
Oom: Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
Speak, nephew, were you by when it began?
Neef: Here were the servants of your adversary
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
I drew to part them; in the instant came
The fiery Tielman, who swung about his head
And breathed defiance in my ears . . .
While we were interchanging, thrusts and blows
Came more and more, and fought on part and part
Till the Judge came, who parted either part.
According to `Het Westen' of Potchefstroom, over a thousand Burghers
packed the Lyric Hall on Friday, October 2, 1914, to hear General De Wet
speak against the invasion of German South West Africa.
Apparently this was an attempt by the Backvelders to challenge
the enthusiasm of the townspeople in the various centres who had been passing
loyal resolutions in favour of the expedition and of confidence in
the Union Government. Not all the supporters of the Backvelders' cause
could gain admission to the hall, which was packed almost to suffocation
before the hour of meeting. Several prominent "Free" Staters
were on the platform with General De Wet. A rabble of roughs
had been brought from the outskirts of the town by opponents of the cause,
so the paper says, to interrupt the proceedings and to create disturbance.
They waited outside and were "responsible for a state of things
which is wholly unknown in the history of South Africa."
Admission was by ticket, and everything was in order up to eight o'clock,
when Commandant Erasmus took the chair. General De Wet
was carried shoulder high into the meeting amid thunderous applause.
The local police force had had timely notification that the meeting
was arranged for, but the paper complains that only seven of them
were to be seen about the building, and these seven apparently were seized
with a blindness of a mysterious kind, for they saw nothing of the disturbance
that occurred during the meeting, except when it was thought necessary
to arrest an Afrikander.
The chairman having opened the meeting, Professor Duvenage welcomed
the visitors from near and far, including the ladies in the gallery.
The professor, alluding to the English meeting which took place
in the town hall a few evenings before, observed it was not interrupted
by any one. This meeting, he said further, had been called
to discuss the South African aspect of the war. It had nothing to say
about the operations in Europe; all that they wished to protest against
was the invasion of German South West Africa. Hereupon dead cats, brickbats,
stale eggs and other things were hurled into the hall through the windows,
occasioning an indescribable commotion. Angry Afrikanders
jumped out of the windows and seized some of the offenders and administered
such a sound thrashing to one of them that he only escaped serious bodily harm
by lying down.
The dead cats, bricks, etc., were picked up and thrown out of the window;
but, as the interrupted meeting was about to proceed,
some one disconnected the electric cable and plunged the building in darkness.
The confusion became confounding. Matches were struck
in several parts of the hall, and it was with considerable difficulty
Generals De Wet and Kemp were heard suggesting an adjournment of the meeting
to the Dutch Reformed Church Square. The crowd passed out of the Lyric Hall
and marched in the direction of the Dutch Reformed Church Square,
closely followed by the hooting band of interrupters.
A handy carriage procured from somewhere served as a platform and,
under the light of Africa's silvery moon, 1,500 Burghers
crowded round the improvised platform while the turbulent interrupters
screeched some English national airs. General Kemp, who warned the crowd
against the danger of being struck by missiles, asked them to squat
on the ground, so as to be better able to hear General De Wet.
The guerrilla General, having stepped upon the carriage-platform,
said to the audience: "Yes, sit down flat so that those disturbance-makers
may hurl their missiles at me on top of the carriage. (Laughter.)
Some of those who came to interrupt peaceful Afrikanders
may yet become children of death before the evening is far gone.
(Boos from the opponents.)
"That may be European or Downing Street civilization, but it is unknown
in South Africa; but let us hope that folks with such upbringing will yet live
to change their manners. Those who are standing against the wire fence
are asked to come nearer and not be afraid, if not, then let them go
to their homes, wherever those may be, and leave us alone.
I promise you that within a year this disrespectful crowd
will have been taught to respect the rights of Afrikanders.
That I promise you, and the Afrikander will do it with his own hands.
(Loud cheers.) If I am wrong in this, there is your jail,
your police and the Magistrate, and let them punish me if I am guilty."
(Voices: "They dare not touch you!").
Proceeding the General went on to refer to an article of the `Volkstem',
the Ministerial organ of Pretoria. The `Volkstem', he said
"had for long been crowing King, King, but the sun will rise
when the cock will cease to crow. (Laughter.) The Government
has now issued regulations under which we may not speak, but, friends,
bear in mind, and the `Volkstem' must know, that we have not yet a Popedom,
and we are not yet in Russia, for you will search in vain for the truth
in a newspaper." -- (We would very much like to know the opinion hereanent
of the Backveld newspaper organ in which we read of this meeting. -- Author.)
-- "Friends, a newspaper can do a lot of harm, and much of the condition
in which our country finds itself may be attributed to the `Volkstem' --
that Government adulator (`de regeering se vetsmeer' document).
"Whereas our people could freely express their views,
the Government now wants to prevent an expression of their bitter feelings
over the land-robbery now engaged in at German South West."
(At this stage, an egg thrown from the back of the crowd
fell uncomfortably near the speaker and aroused some angry remarks
in the crowd, but the speaker continuing said: "Never mind, friends,
I have another coat. The Government talk of calling out volunteers only;
but many children were surreptitiously torn away from their mothers,
and many were taken against the will of the parents. I am ready
to bow under the law, but not when it is broken by the Government.
Our law authorizes us to defend our borders, not to wage war outside."
After some more quarrels, interruptions, blows and fights
in several parts of the crowd, the police arrested a Burgher.
But some men who surrounded the police rescued the prisoner and, it was said,
assaulted a policeman.)
Proceeding with his speech after the interruption, General De Wet said:
"We can never thank the English sufficiently for their gift of self-government
under a free constitution approved by His Majesty the King;
but it was not implied thereby that we should go and commit a theft."
More interruptions, during which it became impossible for the speaker
to continue. In the turmoil cheers were given for General De Wet,
who, resuming at length, remarked: "You fellows, along the wire fence,
the Lord have mercy on you when I turn my back. You will be responsible
if blood flows in this meeting to-night. As I have had a better up-bringing
I am keeping the people back from tackling you. I have not been brought up
in what they call Waaihoek at Bloemfontein. It was not General Botha's place
to get this country to snatch chestnuts out of the fire for England.
They bluff us with the statement that the coolies* might be asked
to come and take German South West Africa for themselves. Well, let it be so.
They will be in their proper surroundings there amongst the Hottentots.
And if it amounts to that, Kafirs armed with assegais can be sent
against them, for as it now happens the Kafir has got to work for the coolie
in Natal."
--
* Contemptuous South African term for British Indians.
--
After more disturbances, the General said he was not so certain
that the police were doing their duty, and he would have to report them
to the Government. These men were paid out of his pocket and the pockets
of other Burghers, but the people got no protection from them.
And when in self-defence an Afrikander remonstrates with the hooligans,
he is arrested. He thought there was a Magistrate present,
and can they not get protection?
Assistant Magistrate Cronin then ascended the carriage and said:
"I expect you all to give the Burghers a fair opportunity to speak."
Concluding General De Wet said: "It was not a question of Hertzog v. Botha.
The burning point was German South West Africa. The reason
why the people were unarmed was because the Government did not trust them.
Things being so, they should not be surprised that the people
had no confidence in the authorities. Many had guns but no cartridges;
how then could the country be expected to defend itself?"
Mr. Paul Schutte moved the resolution which was put to the meeting,
protesting against the expedition to German South West Africa.
"At this time," says the Dutch paper that reported these proceedings,
"the throats of the interrupters, not being made of steel,
had become so hoarse and weak that their interruption was ineffective,
except, perhaps, when they dealt out blows."
Mr. Paul Schutte said, in moving the resolution, that the hand of God
was pressing heavily on the land: poverty, misery, and the drought
finishing the people. Was it not dangerous for the Government
to embark on such an undertaking without the backing of the unanimous will
of the people?
Mr. Serfontein (presumably one of the two members of Parliament of that name)
said he was going to speak the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
He said he would give documentary proof that a map has been forged;
he did not know by whom. It is said that Nakob is in Union territory,
yet according to the original Government map, that place was
on German territory. "There is the map," he said, apparently flaunting it,
"satisfy yourselves."
Proceeding he said: "General Tobias Smuts had declared that he knew
the Government decision was against the wishes of his constituents,
yet he wanted to support the Government in favour of the war.
General Beyers, who knew all the circumstances, denies that Nakob
is in Union territory. In these circumstances, how can we, as Christians,
ask God to guide us in the undertaking?"
Professor Postma and the Rev. Mr. De Klerk, the two next speakers,
quoted the Bible to show that to proceed against German South West Africa
was forbidden by Providence. Mr. Furstenburg, who followed,
called on the Burghers to maintain the high character of their people.
After a few words of thanks from General Kemp to the audience
for their attendance, the 1,000 Burghers, amid interruptions,
signified their objection to the expedition by standing on one side.
This act closed a most exciting meeting.
One of the opponents, the paper says, smacked a Dutch lady on her mouth
and caused it to bleed. She coolly turned round and gave him
such a heavy blow with her fist that he collapsed, saying in
the purest English accent as she did so: "It takes but one woman
to fight a Britisher." Another of the interrupters had to be taken
to the hospital.
Commandant Els and Mr. Rocco de Villiers, the "Free" State lawyer,
on their way to the meeting, had a mishap with their motor-car,
fifteen miles distant, so that they reached Potchefstroom on foot,
after the meeting.
"Three cheers for our brown people," shouted one of the disturbers.
"You have forgotten the coolies," retorted a Dutch lady.
After the meeting, the opposition formed itself into a procession
and marched through the town. They also delivered short speeches
confirming what had been done at a previous meeting of townspeople,
which supported the expedition. They booed General De Wet and his followers,
and dispersed after giving cheers for Generals Botha and Smuts
and singing the National Anthem.
One item on the programme of the meeting was an address which
should have been presented to General Beyers, the ex-Commander-in-Chief,
but as for some reason or other he was not present, the address
was sent to him instead. It congratulated him on his resignation,
a step which the signatories were sure he would never regret, as it was
in accord with the peace-loving and the most pious part of his people,
who resent the "capture" of German South West Africa.
Further, they thanked him for coming to address them and hoped he would
deliver a speech that would shut the mouths of mischief-makers
who accused him of being a German agent.
A similar drama was enacted at Johannesburg during the following week,
when General De Wet carried his campaign of protest into
the stronghold of the sections in favour of the Government expedition.
His meeting at the Lewis Cinema was only in progress a few minutes
when bricks, etc., came through the fanlights, and the lights went out.
The meeting was adjourned to Church Square, where supporters of the Government
gained the upper hand and overpowered the "neutral" party so completely
that General De Wet, Mr. Serfontein and Rev. Mr. Postma could not be heard.
Cheers were continually given for the King, for Generals Botha and Smuts,
and the speeches were drowned by the patriotic airs sung by the throng,
and the meeting proved a complete fiasco.
Chapter XXIII The Boer Rebellion
Arm, arm, Burghers; we never had more cause!
The Goths have gathered head; and with a power
of high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,
They hither march amain, under conduct
Of Manie, son to old Gerit Maritz,
Who threats in course of his revenge, to do
As much as ever Black Bambata did.
The following telegram was published by the South African Government: --
==
October 13, 1914.
Ever since the resignation of General C. F. Beyers as Commandant-General
of the Citizen Force, there have been indications that something was wrong
with the forces in the north-west of the Cape Province, which were placed
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel S. G. Maritz.
The Government at once arranged to send Colonel Conraad Brits
to take over the command from Lieutenant-Colonel Maritz.
On the 8th instant Colonel Brits sent a message to Maritz
to come in and report to him. To this message Maritz replied
in a most insolent manner that he was not going to report to anybody.
All he wanted was his discharge, and Colonel Brits must come himself
and take over his command.
Colonel Brits then sent Major Ben Bouwer to take over the command.
An Ultimatum
On arrival at Maritz's camp, Major Bouwer was taken prisoner
with his companions, but personally was subsequently released and sent back
with an ultimatum from Maritz to the Union Government to the effect that:
Unless the Government guaranteed to him before ten o'clock on Sunday morning,
October 11, that they should allow Generals Hertzog, De Wet, Beyers,
Kemp, and Muller to meet him where he was, in order that he might receive
instructions from them, he would forthwith make an attack
on General Brits's forces and proceed further to invade the Union.
Major Ben Bouwer reported that Maritz was in possession of some guns
belonging to the Germans, and that he held the rank of General
commanding the German troops.
He had a force of Germans under him in addition to his own rebel commando.
He had arrested all those of his officers and men who were unwilling
to join the Germans, and had then sent them forward as prisoners
to German South West Africa.
Major Bouwer saw an agreement between Maritz and the Governor
of German South West Africa guaranteeing the independence of the Union
as a republic, ceding Walfish Bay and certain other portions of the Union
to the Germans, and undertaking that the Germans would only invade the Union
on the invitation of Maritz.
Major Bouwer was shown numerous telegrams and helio messages
dating back to the beginning of September. Maritz boasted
that he had ample guns, rifles, ammunition, and money from the Germans,
and that he would overrun the whole of South Africa.
In view of this state of affairs the Government is taking
the most vigorous steps to stamp out the rebellion and inflict
condign punishment on all rebels and traitors. A proclamation
declaring martial law throughout the Union will appear
in a Gazette Extraordinary to-day.*
--
* "U. G. No. 10-'15", pp. 22-24.
--
==
This treachery was more fully described by a Cape Attorney
-- a subaltern in the Citizen Force under Maritz -- in the following letter
to the `Transvaal Leader':
==
"We arrived at Kakamas," he writes, "after a long and wearisome trek
through Bushmanland, a company of about eighty, consisting mostly
of raw farmer youths.
"We remained in camp for about six weeks, and, in the first week of October,
orders came from Maritz for 200 troops, comprising the Calvinia, Clanwilliam,
and Kenhardt men, to strike camp and trek toward the German border.
"Two days later the remaining men in camp, consisting of
the Kakamas members of the Defence Force, some Kakamas Volunteers,
and our own troop, altogether about 300 men, likewise trekked
in that direction. After two days' riding, we came to a farm
called Blokzijnputs, where we met the first 200 men.
"The village of Keimoes was crowded with German troops; our men and officers
were walking and talking among them on the friendliest possible terms,
and the German and the old Transvaal Republican flags were flying
side by side.
"In a very short time we were made fully aware of the position.
The act of treachery which led up to it was being freely discussed
by everybody, and then I realized that `we' -- I say `we',
for I never for one second doubted that most of our men would refuse
to turn rebels -- had been caught like rats in a trap.
"But a further shock awaited me. About half an hour after our arrival
we were summoned to fall in before Maritz, who then addressed the crowd.
"He first spoke about the Government wishing to force him over the border
with a lot of untrained and unarmed youngsters, and went on to say
that he refused to sacrifice their lives.
"After a bitter attack on the characters of Generals Smuts and Botha,
he denounced the British Empire as a whole, and wound up by declaring himself
an out and out rebel.
"He stated that he was going to fight against the Union
and Imperial Governments for the independence of South Africa,
and called upon all who were unwilling to follow him,
or `had the English feeling in them', to stand on one side.
"Ten Loyal out of Six Hundred"
"This speech was followed by a short speech in German
by the representative of the Governor-General of German South-West Africa.
"Then followed a scene which can never be forgotten by those who witnessed it.
All our men started to shout, cheer, and throw up their hats -- all except
ten of us, who stood there looking, I suppose, more dead than alive.
Just imagine, out of 600 men actually trekking towards the border
to invade German territory only ten refused to turn rebels.
"However, after recovering somewhat, we approached our captain (Beukes)
and told him we were not going to join Maritz, and asked him to see
that we were not sent to Windhuk. This Maritz had given us to understand
was the only alternative to joining him."
The writer proceeds to state that after being kept prisoners for some time
they were set free forty miles from a Union troop frontier post.
-- `Central News'.*
--
* See also Appendix to the "Report of the Select Committee on Rebellion",
S.C. 1-'15.
--
==
In the "Free" State
General De Wet organized large commandos and took possession
of the town of Heilbron, held up a train and captured
Government stores and ammunition, some prominent Burghers
being among his active supporters; so much so that, a week later,
when President Steyn was endeavouring to get him to Bloemfontein,
in order to persuade him to discuss terms of peace with General Botha,
he had no fewer than 3,000 men under him.
General De Wet publicly unfurled the rebel banner in October,
when he entered the town of Reitz at the head of an armed commando.
Some of his men assaulted the postmaster, who was in the act
of telegraphing the news to the capital, and destroyed his instruments.
The guerrilla General addressed an open-air meeting, which he ordered
the Magistrate to attend. When that official "refused to attend
a rebel meeting" General De Wet sent six men to compel him,
and to use violence if necessary.
Having thus forcibly secured the attendance of the Magistrate,
he proceeded to unbosom himself as follows: "Ladies, gentlemen, and burghers,
I have asked you to come together here to explain to you my position."
Then turning to the Magistrate, he said: "Magistrate, I want you to get
a shorthand writer to take down every word that I am going to say,
because whatever I may do in future I can never commit
a greater act of rebellion than I have already committed.
I am going through to Maritz, where we will receive arms and ammunition,
and from there we are going to Pretoria to pull down the British flag
and proclaim a free South African republic. All those who side with me
must follow me, and those who side with the Government must go to it.
I signed the Vereeniging Treaty and swore to be faithful to the British flag,
but we have been so downtrodden by the miserable and pestilential English
that we can endure it no longer. His Majesty King Edward VII
promised to protect us, but he has failed to do so, and allowed a Magistrate
to be placed over us who is an absolute tyrant, and has made it impossible
for us to tolerate it any longer. I was charged before him for beating
a native boy. I only did it with a small shepherd's whip, and for that
I was fined 5s.* (Here the Magistrate interrupted him and asked him
whether he did not plead guilty. He admitted that he had pleaded guilty,
and ordered the Magistrate to keep quiet, and he would allow him
to say as much as he liked when he had finished speaking,
and if he would not hold his tongue he would make him hold it.)
--
* General Smuts, after this, christened the rising as
"the Five Shilling Rebellion".
--
"But," continued General De Wet, "after the Magistrate had delivered judgment,
instead of reprimanding the boy and ordering him in future
to be obedient and do his duty, he looked at the Native as if he would like
to give him a kiss. The Magistrate is a brother-in-law of a man
for whom I have the greatest respect and who is very dear to me
(President Steyn), and for that reason I will give him another chance,
otherwise I would have taken him prisoner and handed him over to the Germans.
The Magistrate's father was one of the staunchest pillars of the church,
and if he were alive to-day he would be heart and soul with me
in this movement, and condemn the dastardly act of robbery
which the Government are going to commit.
"The ungodly policy of Botha has gone on long enough; the South African Dutch
are going to stand as one man to crush this unholy scandal.
Some of my friends have advised me to wait a little longer
until England has received a bigger knock, but it is beneath me and my people
to kick a dead dog. England has got her hands full enough.
I hate the lies which are continually being spread to the effect
that thousands of Australians, Canadians and Indians can be sent to fight us.
Where will England get them from? She has enough to fight her own battles.
"I am going through the town to take the following six articles,
viz., horses, saddles, bridles, halters, arms and ammunition,
and if anybody should refuse to hand to my men these articles,
if they should be found in their possession, I will give him a thrashing
with a sjambok. I now order the storekeepers to go and open their shops
and I will select men to go round and take whatever I require
apart from the above articles, and they will give receipts for what they take;
and if they do not open their shops willingly I will open them in another way.
My advice to you English is to remain quiet in your houses and not interfere
with my men, and if you don't, beware when I come back!
I have got my eight sons and sons-in-law here with me,
and the only people left on my farm are my wife and daughter.
Anybody can go and see if they like, and I request the Magistrate
to give them any help they may require, if he will do so."
Mr. Wessel Wessels, a famous "Free" State politician,
having taken possession of Harrismith in the name of General De Wet,
was alleged to have had the audacity to send letters to Chief Ntsane Mopedi,
of the Harrismith district, and to the Paramount Chief of Basutoland,
informing them that, with the assistance of the Germans, the Boers were going
to drive away the English and re-proclaim a Dutch Republic
in South Africa; and requesting those chiefs to remain neutral
while the annihilation of the English was in progress.
Only in case the English should arm the Indians, were they to mobilize
their warriors (the Basutos) on the side of the Boer-German combination.
Dit is ver weg na Tippererie,
Dit is ver om te gaan;
Dit is ver weg na Tippererie,
Om my hart se punt te zien.
Goen dag, Pikadillie
Vaarwel, Lester-squeer;
Dit is ver, ver weg na Tippererie
Maar my hart le net daar.
"Tipperary" in Cape Dutch.
The Dutch, like other people, also had a prophet. Many stories
were told since the outbreak of the war by the seer, Van Rensburg,
and among other visions credited to him he was said to
have dreamt of the impending "removal of the British yoke
from the necks of Afrikanders", and the forthcoming expulsion
from South Africa of the English people and their flag,
with the aid of Germany.
Whatever might be said about what the prophet Van Rensburg
had foretold in other respects, the prophecies attributed to him
in regard to the European War resemble other war prophecies
(credited to French, Russian, and German women), in that the wish, it seems,
is often father to the thought.
The lower middle-class Boers attach great weight to the guesses
of native bonethrowers. It is strange sometimes when a Malay charmer
is prosecuted for imposing on the public to find Dutch witnesses
giving evidence of the healing powers possessed by the accused and emphasizing
the absurdity of prosecuting a man who benefited them and their relatives
more than many a certificated medical man.
Moreover, the forecasts credited to Van Rensburg seemed to have found
ample corroboration in the cabled newspaper accounts of the rapid advance
of the armies of General Von Kluck through Belgium towards Paris,
and in the minds of such gullible patriots as the South African Boers
this telegraphic war news acted like manure on a fertile field.
==
The Seer Van Rensburg*
--
* "U.G. No. 10-'15".
--
The seer was Nicolas van Rensburg, of Lichtenburg, a simple
and illiterate farmer. He was a prophet not without honour
in his own country. On many occasions he had given proof positive
of the possession of extraordinary powers of prevision,
so men said and believed. It would be out of place here
to give examples of the many telepathic forecasts (or happy guesses)
with which he was credited. It is certain that he had a great hold
on the imagination of thousands of his people. During the Anglo-Boer War
some commandos, when Van Rensburg was in their lager,
neglected all precautions. If "Oom Niklaas" declared that the English
were not in the neighbourhood, it was a waste of energy
to post sentries and keep a look out.
His reputation had, strangely enough, not diminished since the war.
This was perhaps due to several causes. He had never attempted
to exploit his "gift" and impressed most of those who came
in contact with him with his apparent sincerity. If he duped others,
it seemed he also duped himself. Moreover, and this was perhaps
the secret of his continued success, his "visions" were invariably
symbolic and mysterious; they possessed an adaptability of character
that was truly Delphic. Indeed, his hearers were compelled
to put their own interpretation upon his visions. The seer seldom pretended
to understand or explain them himself.
General De la Rey took a great interest in the seer, who had belonged
to his commandos during the Anglo-Boer War. Van Rensburg again
had the greatest admiration for General De la Rey, and had frequently
hinted to his circle that great things were in store for the General.
One of his visions had been well known to General De la Rey and his friends
for some years. The seer had beheld the number 15 on a dark cloud,
from which blood issued, and then General De la Rey returning home
without his hat. Immediately afterwards came a carriage covered
with flowers.* What these things portended, Van Rensburg could not say.
He believed that they signified some high honour for the General. . . .
--
* General De la Rey was accidentally shot on the night of September 15.
The last house he stayed in was No. 15, and the funeral train
that brought his body to Lichtenburg had a carriage full of floral tributes.
--
When the war at last broke out, the effect in Lichtenburg was instantaneous.
The prophecies of Van Rensburg were eagerly recalled, and it was remembered
that he had foretold a day on which the independence of the Transvaal
would be restored. One officer actually called up his men
to be in readiness on Sunday, August 9, as that would be the day on which
the prophecy would be fulfilled. After this, too, certain individuals
could be seen daily cleaning their rifles and cartridges in order to be ready
for THE DAY. Several men in this district claimed to be
in regular communication with German South-West Africa before August, 1914.
Within a week of the declaration of war between England and Germany
the district was further profoundly stirred by the news
(now become generally known) that a great meeting of local burghers
was to be held at Treurfontein on August 15, and that certain local officers
were commandeering their burghers to come to this meeting
armed and fully equipped for active service. . . .
The meeting was to be addressed by General De la Rey,
and it was generally believed that the assembled burghers
would march on Potchefstroom immediately after the meeting.
The prophecies of Van Rensburg had a great deal to do with the excitement
which had been produced locally. The strange vision of the number 15,
which had long been common knowledge, was now discussed with intense interest.
The 15, it was said, signified August 15, the day of the meeting.
That would be THE DAY, which had been so long expected --
the day of liberation. Van Rensburg was now the oracle.
His prophecies with regard to the great war had been signally fulfilled.
Germany was at grips with England, and her triumph was looked upon
as inevitable.
The day had arrived to strike a blow for their lost independence.
Van Rensburg assured his following that the Union Government was "finished".
Not a shot would be fired. The revolution would be complete and bloodless.
Between the 10th and the 15th the plotters in Lichtenburg
were actively preparing for the day. There is evidence
that German secret agents were working in concert with them.
The 15th would mark the beginning of a new era. When doubters asked
how they could be so certain that the 15 signified a day of the month
-- and of the month of August in particular -- they were scornfully
if illogically told that "in God's time a month sooner or later
made no difference."
The Government had been informed by its local supporters
of these alarming preparations. It was quite clear that an attempt
was to be made on the 15th to start a rebellion. Everything would depend
on the meeting which was to be addressed by General De la Rey.
General De la Rey's position in the Western Transvaal was unique.
He possessed an unrivalled influence and was looked up to
as the uncrowned King of the West. His attitude at the meeting
would sway the mass of his adherents and decide the question of peace or war.
General Botha summoned General De la Rey to Pretoria some days
before the meeting, and was able to persuade him to use his best endeavours
to calm the excited feelings which had been aroused and to use his influence
to see that no untoward incidents should occur.
On Saturday, the 15th, the great meeting was held. About 800 burghers
were present. General De la Rey addressed them and explained
the situation in Europe. He exhorted his audience to remain cool and calm
and to await events. After the address "a strange and unusual silence"
was observed. A resolution was passed unanimously expressing complete
confidence in the Government to act in the best interests of South Africa
in the present world-crisis. The address seemed to have had
a very good effect. The burghers appeared to have taken their leader's advice
to heart, as they dispersed quietly to their homes.
==
All danger of a rebellious movement had apparently been averted,
but only for a time.
The Potchefstroom `Herald' tells a story of what it describes
as "the inner history of a damnable plot", and of how near
Potchefstroom* was to falling into the hands of the rebels through
the treachery of Beyers and his accomplices on the night of September 15,
which was the date on which the late General De la Rey was killed.
--
* The old capital of Transvaal where General De Wet and General Kemp
held the dramatic meeting on October 2, 1914.
--
==
It is unquestionable (says the `Herald') that Beyers, who was forced to admit
that he was on his way to Potchefstroom when the accident happened,
was to have started an attempt to overthrow the Government
with the aid of the men, over 2,000 in number, who had just finished
their period of three weeks' training in the Active Citizen Camp
at Potchefstroom. Both he and Kemp had resigned their positions,
and, knowing the treacherous mission upon which he was setting out that night
as the emissary of the German enemy, little wonder was it that at Langlaagte
Beyers cowered with fear, and lost his nerve entirely, because he thought
his own arrest was at hand.
Continuing the account, the paper says: On the morning parade
on Tuesday morning the rebel Colonels Bezuidenhout and Kock
had each addressed their men in an attempt to imbue them
with a spirit of revolt against their own Government.
All the Dutch-speaking Afrikanders were advised not to volunteer
for German South-West; that was the job of the Englishman.
The officers plainly said that they had no intention of doing their duty:
they had other fish to fry. And they permitted the few volunteers
who stood out in spite of them to be jeered at by the "neutrals".
The disgrace of that early morning parade scene must for ever be upon
the traitors concerned. It was certain that dastardly influences
were at work, but thanks to the sterling loyalty of certain men
from among the Dutch population, the plans of the conspirators
were more or less known, and arrangements were made to checkmate them.
All honour to these true patriots who took a big risk
for the safety of the country.
That evening a meeting of Britishers took place in Potchefstroom
to discuss the situation (says the `Herald'), and it was agreed
that its seriousness was such as to necessitate direct communication
with General Smuts, which was duly carried out. For one thing,
practically all Britishers were unarmed. How critical was the position,
or how near Potchefstroom was to complete disaster, was not then
fully realized. On that night, too, there was another and more sinister
meeting in the town. It was at a certain house in Berg Street,
where a number of residents, male and female, who can be named,
expected the arrival of the chief conspirator. Then, too,
at the Defence Force headquarters Kemp had stored a quantity of ammunition
that was altogether out of proportion to the requirements of his district,
and during the week there had been frequent communications with
the Lichtenburg "prophet". Beyers had arranged to reach the Defence Force
at 3 a.m., where motor-cars waited.
Later he was to have marched upon the town with all the armed men
he could bring under his influence, knowing full well,
by previous arrangement, that he could rely on the aid of rebels
within Potchefstroom itself. So intense was the feeling of danger
in camp that night that loyal officers slept with loaded revolvers at hand
and all the spare ammunition under the beds. The Union Jack
was to be supplanted and the new Republic was to be declared
with the Vierkleur flying -- or would it have been the German flag?
That was the morning of September 16, and as showing
the concerted character of the traitorous plans, it should be noted that
the proclamation signed by the Governor-General of German South-West Africa,
the "scrap of paper" used as a sop for the Boers, was dated for
the self-same day.
Plot Providentially Thwarted
But the motor-car tragedy in the dark at Langlaagte was the second blow
to this criminal plot (continues the paper), and when Beyers,
trembling and unnerved, spoke through the telephone at midnight
on September 15, telling of the fatal shot, and that his journey
had been cut short, those who had waited in the camp and in the town
knew that, for the time being at any rate, the little game was up.
Kemp, of course, at once tried to withdraw his resignation, but luckily
General Smuts gave the snub direct. Already the names of local men
to be terrorized, and even shot, were in the mouths of the irreconcilables
-- skulking cowards for the most part -- of whom more must yet be written
in the interests of public morality.
That night Potchefstroom might easily have fallen into the hands
of the rebel crew, sharing the fate of the Free State towns or worse,
and loyalists, both English and Dutch, must thank an ever-watchful Providence
for being saved from a position of ignominy and humiliation.
==
If all this be true,* and the Government had been informed of it,
one cannot understand why General Beyers, with his fingers steeped in treason,
was let loose upon the community to poison the loyalty of the Dutch
along the country-side and to complicate the task of the Government.
It seems that he should have been detained that evening,
and thereby, having been turned from the path of suicide, other lives
would also have been saved. When one considers the amount of harm
that he was able to do subsequently, it is staggering to think
what the task of the loyalists would have been had his plans been reinforced
by the success of this night plot. It would have given
a link of tremendous power to the rebel movement throughout the country
if they had captured the stores, munitions, and a ready army that awaited
General Beyers's arrival at Potchefstroom. The fact that some Burghers
were found organizing rebel commandos in the "Free" State and Transvaal
even after the capture of General De Wet and the drowning of General Beyers
ought to show the prevailing Backveld spirit up to the early months of 1915.
--
* The `Herald's' story has since been confirmed by the Government Blue Book
on the Rebellion.
--
When the rebels were tried in Pretoria and elsewhere in January and February,
Burghers crowded the law courts and rose to their feet,
as if in token of their fellow-feeling with the prisoners,
each time a rebel was placed in the dock. At Pretoria,
this vaunting demonstration seems only to have been ended
by the announcement of the Magistrate that if they did it again
he would have to clear the court. It is not stated, however,
whether the prisoners duly acknowledged the sympathy thus shown
with a bow from the dock. One member of Parliament (not a rebel)
is said to have swaggered into the Bloemfontein court and, after shaking hands
with the prisoners, conversed with them in an audible tone.
Nothing better illustrates the unsatisfactory nature of the South African
military appointments than the Press report that the English artillerymen
who served under Maritz were in constant danger of their lives, and that,
realizing this fact, they were compelled sometimes to keep their machine guns
trained on their comrades. The poor men must have had an awful time,
literally "sleeping with one eye wide open".
When Colonel Maritz at length threw off the mask and openly proclaimed
his treachery, he put these artillerymen under arrest and handed them over
to the Germans as prisoners of war.
Of course, if the Government of the Union was as well administered
as was the Cape Government before it, such things would have been impossible,
because only tried men with military experience would have been appointed
to the command of the Union Forces -- men whose loyalty was beyond reproach --
that is to say, if high official appointments went by merit and not by favour.
A professional lawyer like General Beyers would have been the last person
to get a position which should have been given to a trained soldier,
of whom there are many in the country. But as his appointment took place
at a time when some English officials were politely removed
from high positions to make room for influential Dutchmen,
and in certain cases useless posts, such as "Inspector of white labour",
and inspector of goodness-knows-what (all of them carrying high emoluments),
were created for political favourites, General Beyers's appointment
caused no surprise, as the "pitchfork" had already become
part of our Government machinery. But how such a man as Manie Maritz
became a Colonel in the Colonial Defence Force is one of those things which,
as Lord Dundreary would say, "no fellah can understand".
The man is not only said to have rebelled during the South African war,
but he is also said to have escaped to German South Africa
to evade the consequence, and that he only returned to British South Africa
when the Boers got their constitution. And when British officers
like Colonel Mackenzie and Colonel Lukin apparently acquiesce
in an appointment that places them on a level with a man like that,
the voteless black taxpayer who has no control over these appointments
cannot be blamed for feeling perplexed at the turn events are taking.
Here is an expression of this perplexity: The old chief Tshabadira
asked the Government Secretary in 1913, at Thaba Nchu,
"How many kings have we? Is there an English King and a Dutch King,
each trying to rule in his own way? And since we cannot very well
follow both, which one are we to obey?" Dutch and English colonists
have ruled the Cape for forty years and no such questions were ever asked.
If General De Wet were to be tried by a court of native chiefs,
who followed "the wheels of administration" during the past five years,
they would in all probability decide that the British Government,
to which he pledged his allegiance, and the semi-Republican Government
against which he rebelled are two entirely different bodies.
They would possibly reason that he pledged his allegiance
to a Greater Britain -- or to localize it, to a Greater Cape Colony,
not to a Greater Transvaal.
The Cape Colony is often reproached because native taxpayers
within its boundaries have votes and help their white neighbours
to elect members of Parliament. But strange to say,
when a revolutionary mob seized the South African railways in 1914, it was
the railway men of the much-abused Cape who, in spite of the native vote,
dragged the Government out of a serious situation. Similarly when
these high officers of the Defence Force in Transvaal and Orange "Free" State
rebelled and joined the Germans with their commandos, the Dutchmen of the Cape
(presumably because "they vote side by side with the Kafirs")
denounced the treachery in unmistakable terms. The South African party
at the Cape beat up its followers to the support of the Government,
and the voice of the Cape section of the Dutch Reformed Church
rang from pulpit and platform in denunciation of disloyalty and treason.
But in the Northern Provinces, where white men are pampered and guarded
by the Government against the so-called humiliation of allowing
native taxpayers to vote, there the rebellion, having been regarded
with seeming approval, gained a marvellous impetus.
And the strangest of all these things is how men with bank balances
like the Dutchmen of Transvaal and the Orange "Free" State
could fail to appreciate the debt they owe to the British Navy,
by which the commercial routes from South Africa to the outer world
are kept open to them, when practically the whole world is ablaze.
The banner of revolt having been unfurled, the "Free" State towns of Reitz,
Heilbron, and Harrismith being in the hands of "Free" State rebels,
martial law was proclaimed, and General Botha, as forecasted
in the native letter quoted in a previous chapter, assumed command
of the Union Forces and squelched the upheaval. Altogether the rebellion
cost South Africa some of the finest of its young men.
Dutch, English, coloured and native families suffered the loss of their sons
in the flower of their youth, including among many others,
prominent South Africans, such as Mr. W. Pickering, the general secretary
of the Kimberley mines, and Mr. Justice Hopley of Rhodesia,
who each lost a son.
One loss which the Natives, judging by articles in their newspapers,
will not easily forget is that of Captain William Allan King,
the late Sub-Commissioner of Pretoria. He was shot by a rebel,
on November 23, near Hamaanskraal, whilst helping a wounded trooper.
In his lifetime his duties brought him in touch with employers of labour
in the Pretoria Labour District and with Natives from all over South Africa.
A non-believer in the South African policy of least resistance, he was
without doubt the ablest native administrator in the Transvaal Civil Service,
and as such the vacancy caused by his death will be very hard to fill.
He was an expert on Native matters, and no commission ever sat
without his being summoned to give evidence before it.
The Natives called him "Khoshi-ke-Nna", which means "I am the Chief".
A firm but just Englishman, with a striking military gait,
he would have been an ideal leader of the native contingents
had the offer of native help been accepted by the Union Government.
The casualty list on both sides exceeded one thousand.
Over ten thousand rebels were imprisoned, of whom 293 leaders will be tried,
the rest being detained up till the end of the trouble.
After various encounters with the Union forces under General Botha,
General De Wet suffered a series of heavy defeats. Many of
his followers surrendered, and his son was killed on the battlefield.
He tried to escape to German South West Africa, but was overtaken and captured
in Bechuanaland, with fifty followers, including his secretary, Mr. Oost,
formerly editor of a Pretoria weekly paper.
Considering his initial bounce and bluster, General De Wet's surrender
was a particularly tame affair. Said the captive to the captor:
"I seem to know you -- are you not Jordaan?" "Yes, General,"
replied the captor. "I saw you at Vereeniging where we made peace."
"Very well," rejoined the captive, "I must congratulate you
on your achievement. It was very smart. Anyway, I am glad
that I am taken by you and not by an Englishman."*
--
* Gen. De Wet was tried and sentenced by the Special court
to six years' imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 Pounds.
--
General Kemp succeeded in eluding his pursuers by means of forced marches
across the Kalahari desert, and effected a junction with Maritz
in German South West Africa; but after only a few weeks' taste of German rule
he returned to the Union and surrendered with his commando and all arms,
evidently satisfied with British rule. Some of his men were wearing
German uniforms. The prophet Rensburg, carrying a big umbrella,
also surrendered with him.
General Beyers was the first to succumb. Cornered by the loyal forces,
he was driven up against the Vaal River in flood. With his pursuers
on the one side and the raging torrent on the other, he was drowned
in an ill-starred attempt to escape across that treacherous river.
Parties were sent out to drag the river and search for the body,
and a reward of 50 Pounds was offered to the finder.
Mrs. Beyers left Pretoria in a special train with a coffin on board,
to join the search party. She was accompanied by a few relatives and friends,
including one doctor of medicine and one minister of religion. They travelled
along the Johannesburg-Kimberley line as far as Maquasi, near the river,
where they received tidings of the recovery of General Beyers's body.
It was found by a Dutch farmer, who promptly claimed the 50 Pound reward.
A telegram to Pretoria brought back a reply from General Smuts
stating that it was inadvisable to convey the body to the capital
at the time, so he was buried by the parson on the veld
to the accompaniment of lightning flashes which blind the eye,
and salutes of loud peals of African thunder, which shake the earth
in a manner that is known only to persons who have spent a summer
in the interior of South Africa.
It is said that the late General insured his life so heavily before
the outbreak that representatives of the several insurance companies concerned
had to meet after his death and consider the matter of their liability.
The remainder of the story of the "Five Shilling Rebellion" is soon told.
After the proclamation of martial law the Premier assumed
the supreme command of the Union forces and called out all the citizens --
the whites to arms and the blacks as drivers and manual labourers
at the front. Some Boers who could not give a satisfactory excuse
disobeyed the call, and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment
with hard labour under the Defence Act. Thus backed by the overwhelming
support of the various peoples of the Union of all creeds and colours,
the Prime Minister made a clean sweep of the rising,
and in less than two months the Rt. Hon. Louis Botha was once again
master of the situation from the shores of the Indian Ocean in the east
to the Atlantic coast in the west. And when the rebel leaders
were cogitating over the situation in durance vile, the Prime Minister
was sending a message from German South West Africa, on February 26,
asking Parliament to deal leniently with the rebels.
Keise qusa Tipereri,
Kgam'se gaqu ha;
Keise qusa Tipereri
Artie ti gxawo si mu.
Hamnci gqo Pikadili.
Hamnci Gqo Lester Skuer
Keise qusa, qusa Tipereri
Mar, ti xawo nxeba ha.
"Tipperary" in Qoranna.*
--
* This language is also spoken by the Namaquas and some of the tribes
in German South West Africa.
--
Chapter XXIV Piet Grobler
Lecture delivered by Mr. Sol T. Plaatje before the "Marsh Street Men's Own"
Literary Society in the Lecture Room of their Institute,
Hoe Street, Walthamstow, on February 26, 1915.
Keep me in chains? I defy you.
That is a pow'r I deny you!
I will sing! I will rise!
Up! To the lurid skies --
With the smoke of my soul,
With my last breath,
Tar-feathered, I shall cry:
Ethiopia shall not die!
And hand in hand with Death,
Pass on.
I shall not curse you. But singing --
My singing fatefully ringing
Till startled and dumb
You falter, the sum
Of your crime shall reveal --
This do I prophesy . . .
O Heart wrung dry,
Awake!
Startle the world with thy cry:
Ethiopia shall not die!
Otto L. Bohanan.*
--
* In the Kalahari language, BOHANAN means: `Be combined'.
--
The gentleman whose name forms the title of my lecture
is a lawyer, a grand-nephew of the late President Kruger and,
till lately, a member of the Union Parliament. He represented
the Dutch constituency of Rustenburg, a district whose Burghers
were responsible for a kind of administrative native land arrangement
in the Transvaal Republic. This arrangement, the result of a petition
from Rustenburg, made it compulsory for native landowners in the Republic
to register their farms in the names of white people.
In accordance with it, Natives who bought land had to register it
in the name of the Minister of Native Affairs. But as such Ministers
did not always command the trust of the Natives they resorted to the expedient
of registering their farms in the names of some European friends,
missionaries or otherwise. Some European gentlemen thus became
the registered owners of land belonging to Natives, giving the Natives
receipts for the money and documents explaining the nature of the transaction.
Other Europeans, including missionaries, were not so scrupulous.
They gave the Natives no receipt, so that after their death
the properties of these Natives passed into the estates of the deceased.
The following case is an example.
The native peasants on a Transvaal farm found themselves in such a dilemma
after the death of General Joubert, late Superintendent of Natives
of the Transvaal Republic. The black "owners" had no document showing
that they were the real owners of the farm and that General Joubert's name
was only registered to meet the requirements of the Volksraad.
In such circumstances they received notice from his executors
to leave the General's farm. They appealed to the law-courts and adduced
verbal evidence in support of their purchase and ownership of the farm;
the sale had been a public one. Besides, according to their ideas,
it needed no documentary evidence, since they were legally in possession.
The Court, after listening to the evidence concerning the sums paid
by individual Natives of the tribe, of the total sum paid for the farm,
and of the legal reason why the title bore a white man's name,
held that however unfortunate was the position of those Natives if their story
was true, it could only give judgment in terms of the title deeds.
Thus Natives who were originally dispossessed of their land
by conquest, and who swore to having purchased in hard cash
land in their own country from the conquerors, were now for the second time,
so they stated, dispossessed and turned off that land
all owing to the complicated registration under this "Besluit"
from Rustenburg.
After the British occupation in 1900, the Courts held
that the "Besluit" and its practices did not have the force of law,
and Natives took advantage of the ruling to transfer their properties
to their own names; but in 1913, Mr. Piet Grobler, M.L.A.,
moved and succeeded in getting the Natives' Land Act carried
in the Union Parliament, which has placed the Natives of the whole country
in a more terrible plight than were the Natives of the Transvaal Republic
before the war.
Since he took his seat in the Union Parliament, Mr. Piet Grobler,
like Mr. Keyter of Ficksburg, has given the Natives no rest. He first made
his power felt in 1911, when General Smuts introduced a Bill to consolidate
the marriage laws of the four Provinces. Mr. Grobler then moved
a fatal colour clause which had the effect of killing the Bill,
for the Ministry, on finding that the Bill could only be carried
with the assistance of the Unionists, preferred to drop it
rather than divide the Boer majority; and hence, thanks to Mr. Grobler,
the chaotic confusion still obtains in the South African marriage laws.
This gentleman, in 1913, led the attack in Parliament on Sir Richard Solomon,
the Union's representative in London, for not keeping his mouth shut
when he is among British foreigners, and for daring to suggest
British emigration to South Africa. As stated above, Mr. Grobler demanded,
among other things, that the Government should introduce
"during this session" (1913) a law to stop the purchase and lease of land
by Natives, and the Natives' Land Act of 1913 was the result of the demand --
a measure whose destructive severity forced the Natives
to sue for Imperial protection against the South African Parliament.
When the present European War broke out, Mr. Grobler was among
the Parliamentary clique of representatives whose Christian principles
forbade them to vote for an armed expedition against
their friendly neighbours, the Germans. They said that,
in Deuteronomy 19:14, God specifically warned the Boers
against moving the landmarks of their neighbours. But strange to say,
the religious scruples of these pious objectors never revolted against
removing the landmarks of their native neighbours and of appropriating,
not only their land and their labour, but even the persons
of these neighbours. The Natives, according to Mr. Luedorf,
a German evangelist among the Bechuana, witnessed the Boer trekkers
maltreating conquered Natives and taking their children as slaves.
Children who were unable to walk to their serfdom being
gathered in a heap and burnt alive. This, says Mr. Luedorf,
caused the Natives to exclaim: "Mzilikasi, the Matabele King,
was cruel to his enemies, but kind to those he conquered; whilst the Boers
are cruel to their enemies and ill-treat and enslave their friends."*
--
* "The Boer States" (Keane), pp. 137-138.
--
Now, Mzilikasi had no Bible, but the Boer has the Bible and professes
to honour it. But his Bible, being of a flexible sort,
it did not prevent a certain clique of Boers from taking up arms
against the Government of which Mr. Lloyd George (a gentleman
who staked his reputation and risked his life in his fearless protests
against the annexation of the Boer Republics) was a prominent member;
and against the Liberal Government, which, as compensation
for the mere change of flags, made them a nice little present
in the shape of the two old English Colonies of South Africa
and the undisturbed permission to rule all that is therein. Mr. Piet Grobler,
the author of most of our miseries, reached the climax of his career when,
after voting against the Union expedition to German South West Africa,
he not only persuaded British subjects not to volunteer for service
in the expedition, but himself joined a force, as alleged
by the South African papers to hand by the latest mail, to shoot down
the King's loyal subjects. He was taken prisoner by General Botha's forces
at the head of a rebel commando, presumably whilst on the way
to join the Kaiser's forces in the German Colony. He is thus
one of the members of the Union Parliament who forfeited their seats
by breaking the Parliamentary oath and participating in the recent rebellion.
Mr. Solicitor Grobler's ideas about the sacredness of an oath
are curious and original. Every member of the Union Parliament,
before taking his seat, has to subscribe to the following oath of allegiance
"before the Governor-General, or some person authorized by him",
usually a Judge of the Supreme Court:
==
I, M. . . . M. . . . do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance
to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors according to law.
So help me God.
==
Mr. Grobler, it is said, was caught red-handed in the treasonable act
of leading a force of fifty armed rebels against the Government,
and for his breach of the oath he was taken prisoner. Last week,
whilst his trial was still pending, he applied for bail,
and in support of his application, he pleaded that he was anxious
TO ATTEND TO HIS PARLIAMENTARY DUTIES. Here is a bit of Boer candour
for you!
The honourable and learned member is further stated to have pleaded
that his district provided the largest proportion of rebels and he was anxious
to be in Capetown when Parliament opens this afternoon,* in order to be able
to represent their case when the Legislature discusses the rebellion.
That is South African logic in a nutshell. The Judge, however,
took a rational view of things and dismissed the application.
--
* The S. A. Parliament opened on the afternoon of the same day as the Lecture.
--
There may be motives other than those stated by the incarcerated
member of Parliament actuating his desire to get to Capetown.
Every member of Parliament who absents himself without leave
forfeits 2 Pounds a day out of his Parliamentary emoluments,
so that Mr. Grobler's continued confinement in prison would entail
a serious financial deficit. This was not the only instance in which
anxiety of this kind was betrayed by recipients of Government bounties
in South Africa. There are a large number of well-to-do Boers
who draw annually hundreds of pounds from the Union Treasury, salaries which
a paternal Government taxes the poorly paid labourers of South Africa
to provide. This is particularly the case in the Transvaal.
There, princely salaries are paid for filling such superfluous posts
as that of "Inspector of White Labour", "Field Cornet", and kindred offices.
The Field Cornet of each sub-district of the Transvaal
is a very important gentleman, as is evinced by the intense labour
attached to his office. The duties of this "hard-worked" functionary
consist of the checking of the Parliamentary voters list of his ward,
once every two years, and of acting as chief canvasser and election agent
for the Ministerial candidate, who, however, is usually returned unopposed;
and for these onerous duties he is rewarded by an ungrateful Government
with the "beggarly" salary of 260 Pounds a year.
Besides these, there are sundry little sinecures, equally remunerative,
to which well-to-do Dutch farmers, who are the more
generally preferred, aspire; and each fills his role
with acceptable dignity and a serious sense of responsibility.
Consequently, there is more gnashing of teeth on the farm
over the loss of one of these appointments than over
the failure of a whole year's crop.
Several of these nominal "members" of the Union Civil Service
were said to have taken up arms and joined the rebellion.
According to the South African papers, the wife of one of them
applied to the defence office for the salary of her husband.
When it was pointed out to her that her husband was at that time engaged
in fighting against the forces of the Defence Department,
she coolly told the official that that had nothing to do
with his private affairs, i.e., the income from the Government.
In regard to the faithfulness of the class of officials just mentioned,
I cannot refrain from drawing the attention of my audience
to the fact that, as the electoral supporters of the Cabinet, they guided
the policy of the Union Government during the past five years, and they are
the type of legislators in whose tender care the Imperial Government
would fain entrust the liberties of the voteless Natives
without even the safeguard of a right of appeal.
Personally I am not revengeful, and would wish Mr. Grobler every success
in his defence; the Transvaal native taxpayer, on the other hand,
earns an average wage of 20 Pounds per annum: out of this he pays taxation
on the same scale as the white labourer who earns 25 Pounds a month;
in addition, he pays a native tax of 3 Pounds 4s. per year, presumably as
a tax on the colour of his skin, for no white man pays that. This extra tax,
apparently, is in order that Transvaal Field Cornets and members of Parliament
should more easily draw their pay. In return for all these payments,
and as a result of Mr. Grobler's legislative efforts,
the Transvaal native taxpayer got the Natives' Land Act of 1913;
and I am afraid that HE will not be very sorry to know that some one else
enjoys the 400 Pounds per annum hitherto received by Mr. Grobler,
together with his free first-class travelling ticket
over the South African railways.
British pioneer officials, in Africa and elsewhere, have for generations
been left in charge of mixed communities of white Colonials and black Natives
and other immigrants. In spite of occasional human lapses,
they have ruled these communities successfully throughout the past century,
and maintained the high administrative reputation of the English
in Africa, Asia and other parts of the globe. The dominant race
in South Africa, on the other hand, may be fit to govern themselves,
but their dealings with us show them to be wholly unfit to rule
the native races. There is no more glaring illustration of this weakness
than the conduct of the rebel Boers and the loyal Boers
during the present war. According to my latest information
from different centres of South Africa, native peasants were horsewhipped
into the enemy's service as soon as the standard of rebellion was unfurled.
There can be no reason to doubt the veracity of my information
when the Press reports have clearly shown that even a white skin
has ceased to be a protection against illtreatment. At least
one loyal Magistrate and a postmaster were violently assaulted by
General De Wet's Burghers, so the official dispatches say. Those shopkeepers
who hesitated to open their stores to the rebels were sjambokked
as were the ordinary Natives, and the Mayor of a "Free" State town
was also flogged.
After the proclamation of martial law General Botha marshalled
the loyal Boers throughout the country. These loyal Burghers,
taking advantage of the presence of martial law, committed all kinds
of excesses against loyal coloured civilians. These atrocities
not only took place away in the Backveld, but sometimes
in Capetown and Kimberley, the centres of African civilization;
there black men were frequently tied to the wagon-wheels and lashed
by the loyal Boers, and some of these coloured victims, I am told,
have been cruelly done to death.
Of course, if the particular Burgher who dealt the death-blow
can be identified he will be prosecuted, but that will not resuscitate
the victims. It will only add misery to the innocent family of the offender.
But the fact remains that during the South African War,
South Africa was a huge military camp, yet the unarmed Natives,
many of whom were then in the enemy's service, suffered nothing but kindness
at the hands of Imperial troops, and there never was any conflict
between the military and native civilians. And it but reveals
the unfitness for self-government of the dominant race out there
that the Natives, who sympathize with the Government,
should be exposed to violence immediately the loyal Burghers are armed.
That is the condition of life under true South African ideals.
Having had the ear of the Union Government since the federation of the
South African States, Mr. Piet Grobler and other men of his way of thinking
have been largely responsible for the repressive native laws
that have found their way into the statute book of the Union.
If the Natives of the other three Provinces had votes
like those of the Cape Province, they would help to return
sober-minded members to Parliament who are not inimical to the public welfare,
instead of which they have been represented in the South African Parliament
by budding subalterns of the German Army in South-West Africa.
But since the Imperial Government in its wisdom when granting
a Constitution to South Africa saw fit to withhold from the blacks
their only weapon of protection against hostile legislation,
viz., the power of the ballot, they surely, in common fairness
to the Natives and from respect for their own honour,
cannot reasonably stand aside as mere onlookers while
self-condemned enemies of the Crown ram their violent laws
down the throats of the Natives. The Imperial Government
by the obligations of its overlordship and its plighted word
to the Natives, at the time of the federation, is in duty bound
to free the unrepresented Natives from the shackles of these laws,
or otherwise, declare its guardianship of the interests of the Natives
to have ceased, and counsel these weaker races to apply elsewhere for relief.
* * * * *
Epilogue
Oh, hear us for our native land,
The land we love the most:
Our fathers' sepulchres are here,
And here our kindred dwell;
Our children, too; how should we love
Another land so well?
Wreford.
After partaking of hot cross buns at the family table
of a dear old English family the day before yesterday (Good Friday),
I went to Walthamstow, and there heard a moving discourse
delivered by the Rev. James Ellis on the sufferings and death of Christ
for the redemption of mankind.
At my abode this morning, after receiving such tokens of friendship
as Easter eggs and artistic picture cards, I attended an Easter service
at the London University Hall and heard the little choir of four voices
rendering mellifluous anthems to the glory of God. At the invitation
of the Rev. R. P. Campbell this afternoon I went to Lloyds Park
to tell the P.S.A. there about a South African Easter and to deliver
at the same time the native message to the British public.
In the evening I went to the City Temple, where I listened to
an intellectual Easter sermon, by the Rev. R. J. Campbell,
on the triumph of Christianity, and heard the uniformed choir
artistically sing doxologies to the risen Christ.
As I recall these services, I am transported in thought
to St. Martin's Church in the heart of the "Free" State,
6,000 miles away, where thirty-seven years ago, as an unconscious babe
in my godmother's arms, I went through my first religious sacrament,
performed by an aged missionary who made the sign of the cross
on my forehead and on my breast. I think also of another church
on the banks of the Vaal River where, over twenty years ago,
another missionary laid his white hands on my curly head and received my vow
to forsake the Devil and all his works. I know that in these two places,
as well as in all other native churches and chapels throughout
South Africa, native congregations have this day been singing
in their respective houses of worship and in a variety of tongues
about the risen Christ. But thinking also of the lofty spires
of the Dutch Reformed churches in the South African towns and dorps,
I am forced to remember that coloured worshippers are excluded from them.
Still, in these churches as well, Dutch men and Dutch women have this day
been singing of the triumphs of the risen Christ. Yet to-morrow
some of these white worshippers, in the workshops and in the parks,
will be expressing an opposite sentiment to that conveyed
in their songs of praise, namely, "Down with the verdoemde schepsels"
(damned black creatures) -- the Natives -- for whom also,
these white worshippers say, Christ died.
The Infant Christ, when King Herod sought to murder Him,
found an asylum in Africa.
The Messiah, having been scourged, mocked, and forced to bear His cross
up to Golgotha, and sinking under its weight, an African,
by name Simon of Cyrene, relieved Him of the load.
To-day British troops are suffering untold agony in the trenches
in a giant struggle for freedom. In this stupendous task
they are assisted by sable Africans from the British, French,
and Belgian colonies of the Dark Continent, thus fulfilling
the Biblical prophecy, "From Africa (Egypt) I have called my son."
But other Africans, again, are debarred by the South African Constitution
on account of their colour from doing their share in this war of redemption.
This prohibition surely carries the conviction that the native complaint
against the South African Constitution is something more
than a mere sentimental grievance.
The newspapers are telling us of "a growing spirit of justice
in South Africa"; but in the face of what is happening to-day,
the Natives are wondering if the word `justice', in this newspaper allegation,
is not a misprint for `hatred', for up till as late as 1914
whole congregations have been arrested on leaving some of their farm chapels
on "Free" State and Transvaal farms. They had their passes in their pockets,
but the police contended that they had no special permits,
signed by the landowners on whose farms the chapels are situated,
to attend divine service at the particular places of worship
on that particular day, and the courts upheld this contention.
Up to five years ago no such sacrilegious proceedings interfered
with the Sunday attendances of native worshippers in the same country,
so that there is no mistake as to the kind of spirit that is
"growing in South Africa".
* * * * *
When a man comes to you with stories about a "growing spirit of justice
in South Africa", ask him if he knows that in 1884 there was a great debate
in the Cape Parliament as to whether Natives should be permitted
to exercise the franchise, and that the ayes had it. Ask him, further,
if he thinks that such a proposal could ever be entertained to-day
by any South African Parliament. If he is honest, he will be bound
to say "no". Then ask him, "Where is your growing spirit of justice?"
* * * * *
In 1909, a South African Governor made a great speech in which
he declaimed against the South African policy of pinpricking the blacks.
In 1911, another South African Governor authorized the publication
of regulations in which, by prohibiting the employment of coloured artisans
on the South African mines, the pinpricks were accentuated.
In 1913, a South African Governor signed the Natives' Land Act
which made the Natives homeless in South Africa. Whereas the Government
have announced their intention not to disfranchise the South African rebels,
judging from the present legislative tendency we fear that,
unless the Imperial Government can be induced to interfere,
it is not improbable that should the rebels return to power
after the general election
In 1916, there will be horrible enactments in store for the blacks.
* * * * *
In 1906, His Majesty's Government gave the Transvaal Colony
self-government under a constitution which included a clause placing
the voteless native taxpayers under the special protection of the Crown.
In 1907, His Majesty's Government likewise gave the Orange River Colony
(now Orange "Free" State) self-government under a constitution
which contained a similar provision. At this time the Governor of Natal,
as representing the King, was Supreme Chief of the Zulus in that Colony.
The Natives lived happily under these protecting reservations,
and the white people had no complaint against the just restraint
of the Imperial suzerainty.
In 1909, His Majesty's Government passed the Union Constitution, sweeping away
all these safeguards. In that Act they practically told South Africa to do
what she liked with the Natives in these three Colonies and South Africa
is doing it. Where, then, is this "growing spirit"?
* * * * *
During the South African War in 1901, the Imperial Government
informed the Federal (Dutch) Government that no peace terms
could be considered which did not extend to the native races
the same privileges -- the rights of the franchise -- which are enjoyed
by the Natives of the Cape Colony.
In 1902, the British Imperial and Dutch representatives signed the Peace terms
at Vereeniging. In these, the rights of the coloured citizens
were postponed till after the old Republics had responsible Government.
Responsible Government has since been granted, and has in turn
been succeeded by the Union. But when the Imperial Parliament,
In 1909, considered the Act of Union, English and Dutch South Africans
came over and represented to the Imperial authorities that there would be
a striking demonstration (or words to that effect) against the federation,
and even against South Africa's relation to the Mother Country
if native rights were as much as mentioned in the Constitution;
and the South African Native Franchise has now receded as far off
as the Greek calends. So where is that "growing spirit of justice"?
* * * * *
When you speak of converting Mohammedans, let the question be asked:
"What must Mohammedans think of those whose religion having said
`In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,' they nevertheless
uphold the policy of rulers who pass regulations debarring
one section of the community from following an honest occupation
in their native land? And what impression must be created
in the minds of black converts who are subjected to discriminations,
including prohibitions that were not in existence five years ago?"
And if in spite of beautiful voices that I have heard this Easter Sunday
singing anthems concerning the triumph of the kingdom of love the British flag
continues to defend the policy of repression and colour hatred
in South Africa, then I fear that the black victims of this policy,
many of them converted to Christianity through your efforts,
might very well class your Easter anthems and their great teaching
with the newspaper canard relative to a "growing spirit of justice
in South Africa"; for our bitter experience proves that spirit to be at best
but a dwindling one.
Two years ago I was alarmed by the impious utterances of a coloured man
whose friendship I valued. He being influential among our people,
I gently remonstrated with him lest through his action many of our people
become unsettled in their faith. This was his explanation:
He was going along an East Rand suburb at eleven o'clock one Sunday morning
when the bells were ringing. He saw a number of people entering
a Dutch church, and as he was far from home he mingled with them,
intending to spend the hour at worship instead of continuing his walk.
But no sooner was he inside than the usher jostled him out of the church,
hailed a policeman and handed him in charge, so that he spent the next hour
in the charge office instead of at chapel. On the Monday morning
he was convicted by the East Rand Magistrate and fined 1 Pound
for trespassing on a private place, to wit, a church.
And that was a Dutch Reformed church, the State Church of South Africa.
Others had reproached him before me for such utterances, he said,
but he will have "no more of our religious mockery with its theoretical
`Come unto Me' and its practical `1 Pound or a month with hard labour'."
John Ruskin, writing on `State Intervention', says:
==
"When a peasant mother sees one of her careless children fall into a ditch,
her first proceeding is to pull him out; her second, to box his ears;
her third, ordinarily, to lead him carefully a little way by the hand,
or send him home for the rest of the day. The child usually cries,
and very often would clearly prefer remaining in the ditch;
and if he understood any of the terms of politics, would certainly
express resentment at the interference with his individual liberty:
but the mother has done her duty."
==
Ruskin goes further and depicts the calamities of a mother nation which,
like a foxhunter, complies with the request of its daughter nations
"to be left in muddy independence."*
--
* `Political Economy of Art': Addenda (J. E., Section 127).
--
Let us appeal to you, in conclusion, to remember that the victorious Christ
"has gathered your people into a great nation, and sent them
to sow beside all waters and multiply sure dwellings on the earth. . . .
"Let not the crown of your pride be as a fading flower.
But be equal to your high trust: reverent in the use of freedom,
just in the exercise of power, and generous in the protection of the weak."
* * * * *
This has been the most strenuous winter that the writer has ever experienced:
a dark, dreary winter of almost continuous rains, snowflakes, cold,
mud and slush. Reading of the severity of English winters at a distance,
I never could have realized that the life I have lived in England
during the past four months was possible. An existence from which
the sun's rays are almost always obliterated by the inclement weather,
by snow and by fog. I cannot describe the sensations caused
by the dismal gloom of the sunless days -- a most depressing life --
especially in December, when it would suddenly turn dark,
compelling one to work by gaslight when the clocks indicated
that it was high noon. Not till then did I realize why some people are said
to worship the sun. I find that I have unlearned my acquaintance with
the larger planets and heavenly bodies (a knowledge acquired since boyhood)
because the winter fog and clouds have continually hidden the moon and stars
from view.
* * * * *
But now that the country is throwing off its winter cloak and dressing itself
in its green, gorgeous array; now that King Day shines in all his glory
through the mist by day, and the moon and stars appear in their brilliancy
in the evenings; now that, as if in harmony with the artistic rendering
of Easter anthems by your choirs, the thrush and the blackbird twitter forth
the disappearance of the foggy winter with its snow, sleet and wet;
now that the flocks of fleecy sheep, which for the past four months
have been in hiding and conspicuous by their absence,
come forward again and spread triumphantly over the green
as if in celebration of the dawn of the new spring;
now that the violet and the daffodil, the marguerite and the hyacinth,
the snowdrop and the bluebell, glorious in appearance, also announce,
each in its own way, the advent of sunny spring, we are encouraged
to hope that, "when peace again reigns over Europe", when white men
cease warring against white men, when the warriors put away
the torpedoes and the bayonets and take up less dangerous implements, you will
in the interest of your flag, for the safety of your coloured subjects,
the glory of your Empire, and the purity of your religion, grapple with
this dark blot on the Imperial emblem, the South African anomaly
that compromises the justice of British rule and seems almost to belie
the beauty, the sublimity and the sincerity of Christianity.
Shall we appeal to you in vain? I HOPE NOT.
[ Map was inserted here. ]
Report of the Lands Commission
An Analysis
To attempt to place the different people of the country
in water-tight compartments is very attractive in a general way,
but it is bound to fail.
You have got a comparatively small European population
-- a million and a quarter -- and something like
half a million mixed race, and then you have got between
four and five million of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country.
Any policy that aims at setting off a very small proportion
of the land of the country for the use and occupation
of the very vast majority of the inhabitants, and reserving
for the use and occupation of a very small minority of the inhabitants
the great majority of the land of the country, is a policy
that economically must break somewhere. You can start and move
in that direction to a certain extent, but you will be driven back
by the exigencies of a law that operates outside the laws of Parliament --
the law of supply and demand.
This theory of segregation is to some minds attractive,
but the forgotten point is that you need the Native.
You cannot segregate him because you need him. If you drive him
out of his existing life and occupation, you run a great risk
that you will lose many of your Natives.
Hon. W. P. Schreiner, K.C., C.M.G.,
(High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa,
Ex-Premier of Cape Colony,) before the Lands Commission.
If we are to deal fairly with the Natives of this country,
then according to population we should give them
four-fifths of the country, or at least half.
Hon. C. G. Fichardt, M.L.A.
The best way to segregate the races would be by means of a boundary fence
along the main line of Railway from Port Elizabeth,
straight through to Bloemfontein and Pretoria, to Pietersburg,
putting the blacks on one side and the whites on the other side
of the Railway line.*
M. J. M. Nyokong, before the Native Affairs Commission.
--
* This would give about one-third of the Union to the four and a half
million blacks, the one and a quarter million whites retaining two-thirds.
--
During the past two years while the Empire was involved in
one of the mightiest struggles that ever shook the foundations of the earth,
South Africa was wasting time and money in a useless and unprecedented attempt
at territorial segregation betwixt white and black. Judging by
the recently published Report of the Lands Commission, however,
she has failed ignominiously in the task.
Whenever, on behalf of the Natives, the hardships disclosed in this book
were mentioned, the South African authorities invariably replied
that these hardships would cease as soon as the Commission submits its Report.
This has now been done. General Botha laid the Report
on the table of the house on May 3, 1916, and intimated as he did so
that "the Government propose to take no immediate action
upon the recommendations, but will give the country twelve months to consider
the Report and the evidence." Meanwhile the eviction of Natives from farms
continues in all parts of the country, and the Act debars them
from settling anywhere, not even in Natal, although Natal witnesses
(like the Chairman of the Commission) have definitely claimed
the exemption of their Colony from this form of Union tyranny.
It is a Report of many parts. A good deal of it is instructive and much of it
is absurd. Most of the Commissioners and many of the witnesses have
expressed themselves with a candid disregard for the rights of other people.
Government publications, at least, should be beyond question;
thus, old Government archives give correct histories of native tribes
for 500 years back, because their compilers invariably sought and obtained
reliable evidence from Natives about themselves. But this Commission's Report
(to mention but one instance among several inaccuracies) tells us,
on page 27 of U.G. 25-'16, of "the original inhabitants of Moroka ward
who had lived in Bechuanaland under the Paramount Chief Montsioa (sic).
Their original chief was Sebuclare" (!)
No Barolong tribe ever had a chief by this name. The fact is,
that Governments of to-day frequently publish unreliable native records,
for they are mainly based on information obtained from self-styled experts,
who, in South Africa, should always be white.
Again, it is not explained why the Commission publishes,
in a permanent record, particulars of encumbrances on native farms
such as we find on page 29 of the same volume. Is it to damage
the credit of the native farmers? Supposing some of the hypothecations given
in the "list of mortgaged native-owned farms in the Thaba Ncho District"
were wiped off before the Report was issued, will it be fair
to the native owners to read, say in 1999, that their farms are mortgaged
for those amounts?
In the published evidence given before other Commissions
questions put to the witnesses are usually printed along with the answers.
This has not been done in the present instance, and consequently
some of these replies are so clumsily put that the reader cannot even guess
what the witness was answering. If the questions had also been printed,
the whole Report might have been illuminating. It is interesting,
for instance, to read what was apparently a lively dispute
between the Commissioners and one witness -- Mr. J. G. Keyter, M.L.A.,
the arch-enemy of the blacks and one of the promoters of the whole trouble --
as to what is, or is not, the meaning of the Natives' Land Act.
Indeed the various definitions and explanations of the Act,
given by the Commissioners and some of the witnesses, contradict those
previously given by the Union Government and Mr. Harcourt.
And while the ruling whites, on the one hand, content themselves
with giving contradictory definitions of their cruelty the native sufferers,
on the other hand, give no definitions of legislative phrases
nor explanations of definitions. All that they give expression to
is their bitter suffering under the operation of what their experience
has proved to be the most ruthless law that ever disgraced
the white man's rule in British South Africa.
The Report and the evidence at any rate bear out the statement
set forth in this book, namely, that the main object in view
is not segregation, but the reduction of all the black subjects of the King
from their former state of semi-independence to one of complete serfdom.
The Commission's Awards
The population of South Africa is very commonly overestimated.
As a matter of fact there are in South Africa about
one and a quarter million whites and four and a half million blacks.
According to the Census of 1911, the exact figure is a million less
than the population of London, -- viz., 5,973,394 -- scattered over
an area of 143,000,000 morgen -- nearly ten times the size of England.
A morgen is about 2 1/9 English acres.
But if we are to understand what is proposed, we would have to consider
the position in the sub-continent under different heads: --
I. English or Urban Areas, inhabited by 660,000 whites and 800,000 blacks:
1 3/4 quarter million morgen; and
II. The remaining 141 1/4 million morgen, which the Commission
would divide as follows: --
(a) NATIVE AREAS, for the Bantu and such other coloured races as are
classed along with them numbering just about 4,000,000 SOULS:
18 1/4 MILLION MORGEN.
(b) EUROPEAN AREAS, or nearly the whole of Rural South Africa,
for the occupation of 660,000 RURAL WHITES (mainly Boers):
123,000,000 MORGEN.
The English Areas (I) are not affected by the troubles which form
the subject of this book. None but the four million blacks will be allowed
to buy land in the Native Area (II(a)); while all the blacks
who hitherto lived on the Boer Areas (II(b)) must clear out.
They would only be allowed to come back to Union territory
as servants to the white farming population.
That, in a nutshell, is the Report of the Segregation Commission.
The Chairman Dissents
On the whole these drastic findings are against the weight of evidence.
The Report, moreover, shows that the decisions were not carried through
without some difference of opinion. It would seem that Sir William Beaumont,
the Chairman of the Commission, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court
(whose legal training and experience were assuredly entitled to more respect
than they received) gave a saner interpretation of the Natives' Land Act.
He evidently wished to treat the amount of land awarded to Natives
as an instalment to which additions might be made in the future.
This, he said, was quite within the power of the Commission to recommend.
But his colleagues presumably preferred, not the legal,
but their own interpretation, namely, that this sane interpretation was
"contrary to the intention of the legislature". The Chairman's well-weighed
judicial verdict appears on page 42 of volume one of the Report: --
==
In my opinion, neither the Natives' Land Act, nor the terms of its reference,
require the Commission to delimit the whole extent of the Union
into European and Native Areas respectively . . . and I think
it is quite competent for this Commission, where this cannot
be conveniently done, to leave undefined areas which would be open alike
to white and black for the acquisition of land. But this opinion
is not shared by my fellow-commissioners, who regard it as contrary
to the intentions of the legislature and the terms of the Act.
==
Sir William Beaumont's rejected opinion is supported by
the evidence of Senator T. L. Schreiner, who said: --
==
When the Bill was before the House, I brought to its notice the fact
that there were areas in the country which it was impossible to declare
native areas or non-native areas. The late Minister said
it was not the intention to divide the whole country of the Union;
therefore I thought that the difficulty was covered (p. 224 vol. ii).
==
But as in Parliament so also in the Commission it would appear
that the steam-roller was set in motion; and it operated in each instance
in favour of repressing the black races.
These four Commissioners presumably thinking that Imperial attention
would be too much engrossed with the war to notice such insignificant affairs
as the throttling of the South African Blacks, seem to have decided
that now or never was the opportune moment for degrading the aborigines
into helots; therefore, the Chairman, finding that he could not persuade
his colleagues to adopt his view of things, indited the following
minority report respecting his own Province of Natal and Zululand
(vol. i. p. 41): --
==
The conditions in Natal are, and have been, totally different
to those in the other Provinces. There has been no demand in Natal
for the enforcement of a Squatters Act or for any further
segregation of the natives. Indeed, the opinion of Natal, as expressed
in the evidence given before the Commission by those best qualified to know,
is against the application of the Natives' Land Act to Natal.
In Natal, since it became a British possession, the Natives have always had,
and largely exercised, the right to purchase land outside
their defined locations, and they regard any infringement of this right
as a breach of the terms of the Proclamation issued by Her late Majesty
Queen Victoria at the time the country was annexed by Great Britain.
(See the petitions presented to the Commission.) The Natives in Natal
now privately own about 359,000 acres, on which are residing
some 37,000 Natives. These lands are, in certain areas,
so intermixed with lands owned by Europeans that any line of demarcation
can only be arbitrarily made, and may result in serious hardship or injustice
to both European and Native owners.
The area set aside for native occupation (including mission reserves)
and preserved for their use by Royal Letters Patent and by
the South Africa Act, amount to nearly two and a half million acres,
or about 15 per cent. of the whole of Natal. These areas are,
according to the native mode of occupation, almost all fully occupied,
and do not afford more than a very limited opportunity
for the introduction of Natives from outside.
A further point which has to be considered, and it is one
on which the Natives lay great stress, is that it seems unjust
to debar the native from purchasing land in areas where the Indian,
who is alien to the country, is free to do so.
Zululand
As regards Zululand, it is sufficient here to point out
that Zululand was delimited into native reserves and Crown lands
by the Zululand Delimitation Commission of 1902-1904,
the Crown lands being made available for disposal by the Natal Government,
to which the country was annexed. It was not, however, intended,
nor did the Zulus understand, that they were to be deprived of their right
to acquire any portion of the reserved Crown lands by purchase.
The delimitation was made after a very thorough inquiry
by persons well acquainted with the Zulus and their country;
but, even so, we find that whole tribes or large portions of tribes
who had long been in occupation of their lands -- some of which
were not acquired by conquest but by voluntary surrender --
were not provided for, and were left on the reserved Crown lands.
There are to-day some 24,328 Zulus and Amatonga occupying these lands,
and they are asking to-day for their lands to be restored to them.
The delimitation was acquiesced in by the Zulus only because
they had no alternative, and the inevitable had to be accepted.
Since the delimitation they have remained loyal and peaceful
and the bitterness of the losses suffered is past.
The Delimitation Commission in its report expressed the hope
that the delimitation would be: "as final a settlement
as it is possible to effect, and that no further changes
will be initiated in the near future . . ."; but if the question
is now re-opened and European and native areas are defined anew,
I think endless trouble is likely to ensue. If any alterations may be found
necessary in the future, either in the interests of black or white,
the machinery exists whereby such alteration can be effected
with little or no disturbance of the natives.
==
Colonel Stanford Reverses His Views
One redeeming feature in a Report which otherwise is melancholy reading
is to be found in the consistency of the statesmen of Natal,
which is admirable in comparison with the fast degenerating land policy
of Cape Statesmen. Ten years ago the Native Affairs Commission
reported on the question of Land Tenure in South Africa.
Messrs. Marshall Campbell and S. O. Samuelson, Natal representatives
on that Commission -- ably supported by Colonel Stanford,
the Cape representative -- expressed themselves unambiguously against
this limitation of native progress. History was about to repeat itself
in favour of justice in the latest Commission but for the manner
in which Colonel Stanford completely reversed his former attitude.
He is the only member of this Commission who had a seat
on the first Commission, and in 1905 he was reported thus: --
==
Col. Stanford dissented from the view of the majority
on the question of restricting to certain areas only
the right of the individual Native to purchase land. He holds that
the acquisition by the more advanced Natives of vested individual interests
in the land is a powerful incentive to loyalty. In his opinion
sufficient cause has not been shown for the curtailment of privileges
enjoyed for many years in the British Colonies. . . .
The contention that the safety of European races must be guarded
by such restrictions as have been under discussion he does not hold
to be sound. The Church, professions, commerce, trade and labour
are open to the ambition and energy of the Natives, and with so many avenues
open to their advance the danger of their swamping Europeans, if a real one,
is not avoided by denying them the right individually to buy land.
He can see no decadence of the vigour, the enterprise and the courage which,
since the occupation of the Cape Peninsula by the early Dutch settlers,
have resulted in the extension of European control and occupation
to the limits now reached. Moreover, artificial restrictions
of the occupation of land in the late Dutch Republics
resulted in the evasion of the law by various forms of contract
whereby native occupation of farms was effected, while at the same time
advantage was taken of the opportunities thus afforded of fraudulent practices
on the part of Europeans employed as agents or so-called trustees. . . .
If the design be to allow purchase by Natives in localities
regarded as unsuitable for Europeans, sight is lost of the fact
that usually the Native who desires to become a landed proprietor
belongs to the civilized class, and such localities offer to him
no attraction.
Europeans are more and more entering into occupation of land regarded
as set aside for Natives. Missionaries, traders and others are permitted
to establish themselves and carry on the duties of their respective callings.
Townships spring up at the various seats of magistracy and Census Returns
clearly show that such influx is steadily increasing in volume.
It is thus demonstrated that the idea of separate occupation of land
by Natives, even in their own Reserves, is not maintained at the present time,
nor can it be in the future.*
--
* `Colonies and British Possessions -- Africa (Session 1905)',
vol. lv. pp. 102-103.
--
==
But now we must conclude that the gallant Colonel has fallen a victim
to the new reactionary spirit, for he has deserted Sir W. Beaumont,
the Natal Commissioner, and taken up with the Northerners,
a position diametrically opposed to the noble sentiments he then laid down.
The Cape Land Policy
The pronounced inconsistency of the Cape representative on these Commissions
is in harmony with the reaction which has set in as regards
the Land Policy of the Cape. It is true that the Cape, so far,
has been more liberal in the matter of the Franchise. And the very fact
that some of the Cape voters' lists included some native names
has had a restraining influence on the utterances of certain
Cape members of Parliament who would otherwise have given expression
to reactionary sentiments. But it is no less true that in later years
the same native Franchise has been hypocritically used as a cloak
to cover a multitude of political sins, such, for instance, as free trade
in liquor among the Natives and the systematic robbery of native lands.
To my own personal knowledge, the Cape Government have on several occasions,
arbitrarily, on the slightest pretext, or none whatever, confiscated lands
that were awarded to native tribes by Imperial representatives,
in the name of Queen Victoria, and parcelled them out to Europeans.
A striking instance of such rapacity on the part of successive
Cape administrations appears on page 30 of the Minute by Sir William Beaumont,
Chairman of the Lands Commission. Sir William shows how
loyal black taxpayers in Griqualand West had been systematically
robbed of Queen Victoria's gifts and driven from pillar to post.
Commission after Commission had been sent out to them
at intervals of ten years, systematic spoliation and pillage following
the visit of each commission. It has been my sorrow to be among those
who witnessed the coming and going of some of these decennial commissions
and the truculent attitude of the Cape Government, who,
trading on the people's ignorance, treated Queen Victoria's awards
like so many scraps of paper, drove these tax-payers from their homes,
and invited white men to occupy their territories.
This is what Sir William writes about the Commission of the last decade: --
==
The case of these Natives calls for special consideration. They were promised
that they would never be removed so long as they remained loyal,
and in the end they were burnt out. There is a very strong feeling
amongst them that there has been a want of faith towards them.
The subject was specially reported on by Mr. P. Dreyer,
Civil Commissioner of Kimberley, on August 27, 1909.
He made specific recommendations, which appear to be quite sound,
but do not appear to have been adopted.
==
Now, this is only with reference to Griqualand West. But similar
acts of violence have marked the land-grabbing propensity of the Cape
in Bechuanaland, in Peddie and the Transkei, even during my lifetime.
The So-Called Native Areas
Turning to the evidence, we find that if we omit the depositions
of Natal whites, of Missionaries and of Natives, the remaining witnesses
-- a minority of the whole -- emphatically declared that the aborigines
were not entitled to a square yard of their ancestral lands and that
they should be tolerated only as servants. Those, at any rate, who thought
that we were entitled to some breathing space, were willing to concede
certain little "reserves" in the centre of groups of white men's farms,
into which black men and women could be herded like so many heads of cattle,
rearing their offspring as best they could and preparing them
for a life of serfdom on the surrounding farm properties.
They held it to be the duty of the parent serfs to hand over their children,
as soon as they were fit, to the farmers who would work them out;
and when age and infirmity had rendered them unfit for further service,
they could be hustled back to the reserved pens, there to spend
the evening of their lives in raising more young serfs
for the rising white generation. The Commission's findings
seem to have been influenced largely by the latter type of white witness,
for all that they award us, in our ancestral South Africa,
might be called human incubators considering the amount of space.
A contemplation of the circumstances attending these selfish recommendations
leads one to wonder whether the Commissioners suffered from
the lack of a sense of humour or an undue excess of it.
In North and South America, for instance, we read that the slave-pens
were erected and maintained by the farmers at their own cost.
That "the interest of the master demanded that he should direct
the general social and moral life of the slave, and should provide
especially for his physical well-being;" but the pens proposed
by the South African Land Commission, on the other hand, are to be maintained
entirely by the slaves, at their own cost, the farmer's only trouble being
to come to the gate and whistle for labourers.
It is lawful in certain parts of South Africa for Natives
to dispose of or "sell" their daughters to men, the purchase price
being sometimes fixed by the Government. It is thus that white magistrates
have at times condemned unfortunate black girls to cohabit with men
they hated, provided the latter have paid the price; and having regard
to the object for which the proposed native pens are to be set aside,
the reader can picture to himself the coming commercial traffic in black girls
within the enclosures of the said "native areas".
Several of the witnesses have made the statement that Natives are not making
economic use of the land. As far as we have read, not one of such witnesses
supported his point with figures. But most of those who expressed
the contrary view -- that native lands are shockingly overcrowded --
have backed their statements with figures. Prominent among them,
there was Mr. Adamson, the Natal Magistrate. In answer to further questions
by Commissioner Wessels -- questions which this Report does not disclose --
the same witness also said: "I say the Location is crowded because
there are too many Natives for the ground, which is very poor and precipitous.
It is only down towards the valley where they can do a little cultivation.
The population is 12,368."
Other magistrates and farmers gave similar evidence regarding their districts.
They included Mr. J. S. Smit, the Klerksdorp Magistrate,
who incidentally exploded the stale old falsehood about Natives living
on the labour of their wives. The Rev. J. L. Dube said inter alia:
"It is a fact that none can deny that the white man has got the best land.
In the Free State you can go for miles without seeing anything;
but if it had been native land there would have been an outcry,
`Look at this beautiful land, and the Kaffirs not cultivating it.'
Going to Johannesburg by the mail from here any day one can see waste land
belonging to white people."
Mr. E. T. Stubbs, Commissioner of Louis Trichardt, said: "The density
of the native population on reserves is 106 to 177 per square mile;
on white farms only 28, and on Crown land 3 to the square mile."
Yet in the face of these and similar official figures,
the Commission reiterates the unsupported allegation of prejudiced witnesses
that "Natives are not making economic use of their land."
But on turning to the Census figures one sees at once how unfounded
is the repeated charge. Take only one of the Provinces -- Cape Colony --
in which it is said the Natives hold (and therefore "waste") the most land.
Province of the Cape of Good Hope
Cape Colony is about 83 3/4 million morgen in extent. It is usually
referred to as: --
(a) THE COLONY PROPER: 78,800,000 MORGEN, feeding 560,000 WHITES
and 1,090,000 BLACKS, with their 1,603,625 cattle,
240,000 horses and 20 million sheep and goats; and
(b) THE TRANSKEIAN NATIVE TERRITORIES: 5,000,000 MORGEN,
feeding 20,000 WHITES and 900,000 BLACKS, with their
1,111,700 cattle, 90,000 horses, 3 1/2 million sheep and goats,
and more poultry and pigs than in the Colony Proper.
Surely, no further mathematical demonstration is needed to show
on which side of the Kei there is a waste of land, if any.
But it is a maxim in South Africa that, except as mechanical contrivances,
Natives do not count, and cattle in their possession are not live-stock;
thus the districts in which they eke out an existence
are so much derelict land. The Commission, therefore,
propose the following alterations: --
The 20,000 whites in the Transkei must not be disturbed. A million morgen
in the Transkei is set aside for them, and it shall be unlawful
for the blacks to live there except as servants. On the other hand
the million odd Natives in the Colony Proper must betake themselves
to the remainder of the Transkei, with their cattle and other belongings.
A million morgen of Kalahari sand-dunes, worthless for farming purposes,
and the small tribal communes near Queenstown and King Williamstown,
are also set aside as native areas. And then the whole of Cape Colony
(supposing the Commission's extraordinary recommendations be enforced)
will balance itself as follows: --
(a) EUROPEAN AREAS: 76,392,503 MORGEN, feeding 560,000 WHITES,
their 1,030,000 CATTLE, 180,300 HORSES AND 15 MILLION
SHEEP AND GOATS.
(b) NATIVE AREAS: 7,356,590 MORGEN, feeding 1,500,000 BLACKS,
with their 1,580,000 HEAD OF CATTLE, 154,630 HORSES AND 8 MILLION
SHEEP AND GOATS.
At first sight it would appear that these awards allotted
say 288 acres per white and 7 acres per black person;
but, as the bulk of the English (a quarter of a million)
live in towns and are not affected by this trouble,
we may deduct the Urban districts and their white and black populations.
Then the Commission's allotments really work out at about 589.31 acres
per Boer (man, woman or child) and only 10.3 acres per Native.
And even then, this would be by no means the limit of the disproportion.
Appendix VIII (Annexure I) of the same Report recommends
future inroads by whites upon these attenuated native reservations,
but, to the blacks, there is to be no territorial compensation
from the Colony, which an adoption of all these recommendations
would practically depopulate.
As things are at present, the black population of these areas
is as much as 70 to 90 persons to the square mile. In density of population,
some of these "rural" native districts are second only to Capetown,
Durban, and Johannesburg -- South Africa's most populous centres.
Not one of the other South African "cities" can show
a population of more than 20 to 30 persons to the square mile.
So that every individual inhabitant of a city occupies a larger space
than some of these native farmers can have for themselves,
their livestock and agricultural pursuits. So says the Census Report
(U.G. 32-'12), which is fully borne out by the writer's own observations
in a travelling experience of more than ten years.
The average density of the rural population in white areas
is about five to eight persons per square mile. In native areas
the average is ten times that number, while the black belt
along the Indian Ocean contains from 100 to 140 Natives per square mile
(see Schedule F. and Tables XIII-XVI, of the Census Report).
Yet the Commission would saddle these congested native areas
with additional populations from the Colony Proper and raise the density
to something over 200 souls per square mile.
The density of cattle to the square mile in Cape Colony
is 6.39 in white areas, and 61.15 in native areas (see U.G. 32h. 1912.
pp. 1227-1228). Adopt the Commission's Report and you will have
in white areas 0.24 and in Native areas 163.26 cattle per square mile.
Is it fair or reasonable that the indigenes of an open country
who pay taxation for the benefit of their rulers and not of themselves,
should be forced to live the overcrowded lives of the Belgians without
Belgium's sanitary arrangements, or the precautionary hygienic measures
necessary in other thickly populated areas?
Is it natural that their cattle should be subjected to this
starvation process, while the grassy tracts of their God-given territories
are mainly untenanted and preserved as breeding grounds
for venomous snakes and scorpions?
Has it come to this that the standard of our unfortunate country
has sunk so low that dog-in-the-manger stories are now read
in Parliamentary publications?
It is clear that under the proposed arrangement native cattle must starve
and their owners with them. For it has come out in evidence
that even now (while many Europeans hold large tracts of idle land)
some of the blacks have not enough grazing for their stock.
But that little difficulty the Commission solves by proposing
that Natives should be taught to give up cattle breeding,
which alone stands between them and the required serfdom!
An African home without its flock and herd is like an English home
without its bread-winner.
==
"Von Franzius considers Africa the home of the house cattle
and the Negro the original tamer. . . . Among the great Bantu tribes
extending from the Soudan toward the South, cattle are evidence of wealth;
one tribe, for instance, having so many oxen that each village
had ten or twelve thousand head. Lenz (1884), Bouet-Williaumez (1848),
Hecquard (1854), Bosman (1805), and Baker (1868) all bear witness
to this, and Schweinfurth (1878) tells us of great cattle parks
with two to three thousand head, and of numerous agricultural
and cattle-raising tribes . . . while Livingstone describes
the busy cattle raising of the Bantu and Kaffirs."*
--
* `The Negro' (Du Bois), pp. 108-109.
--
==
But the Commission would force us to give up our agrarian occupation
when we are debarred by Acts of Parliament from following
other profitable industries in our own country. This is equivalent to saying
that Englishmen must be taught to close down their shops,
stop their shipping industry and give up their maritime trade.
The Orange "Free" State
The Provincial difficulties I have endeavoured to point out become
more serious when we regard the conditions in the so-called "Free" States.
There the native position is rendered exceptionally desperate
by a number of rigorous class enactments. Formerly these discriminating laws
were eased by the action of the State Presidents who were in the habit
of issuing exemption certificates to Natives who wished to buy land,
either from other Natives or from Europeans; but now, these harsh laws,
besides being rigidly enforced against all Natives, were made more acute
in 1913, while there is no one in the position once occupied by the President,
who might be able or inclined to grant any relief.
Whenever by force of character or sheer doggedness one Native has tried
to break through the South African shackles of colour prejudice,
the Colour Bar, inserted in the South African Constitution in 1909,
instantly hurled him back to the lowest wrung of the ladder
and held him there. Let me mention only one such case.
About ten years ago Mr. J. M. Nyokong, of the farm Maseru,
in the Thabanchu district, invested about 1,000 Pounds
in agricultural machinery and got a white man to instruct his nephews
in its use. I have seen his nephews go forth with a steam sheller,
after garnering his crops every year, to reap and thresh
the grain of the native peasants on the farms in his district.
But giving evidence before the Lands Commission two years ago,
this industrious black landowner stated that he had received
orders from the Government not to use his machinery except under
the supervision of a white engineer. This order, he says,
completely stopped his work. The machinery is used only at harvesting time;
no white man would come and work for him for two months only in the year,
and as he cannot afford to pay one for doing nothing
in the remaining ten months, his costly machinery is reduced
to so much scrap iron. This is the kind of discouragement and attrition
to which Natives who seek to better their position are subjected
in their own country.
The Native Affairs Department
Perhaps the greatest puzzle in this ocean of native difficulties,
to which one can but slightly refer in this chapter, is the attitude
of some of the gentlemen in charge of the Native Affairs Department --
the only Branch of the South African administration run exclusively
on native taxes. It is perhaps as well to cite one instance
illustrative of their methods of administering native affairs.
The Rev. J. L. Dube, President of the Native Congress,
gave evidence before the Lands Commission and produced letters
addressed to him by certain Natal firms, from which I extract
the following passages: --
==
If you are prepared to purchase this land my Company would be prepared
to do business with you. . . . In view of the fact that you and Cele
have already purchased portion of the Company's property adjoining the land
now offered for sale, we think there would be no objection
on the part of the Governor General in giving his consent to the transfer.*
--
* U.G. 22, p. 557.
--
==
Another extract runs: --
==
"We have a piece of land at the edge of our estate cutting right into land
owned by various Natives, and we are willing to dispose of this land to Cele
for this reason. We understood that the Department of Native Affairs raised
no objection, but we were astonished when everything was "cut and dried"
to find them refusing the application."*
--
* U.G. 22, p. 557.
--
==
How then can the Native be expected to survive this organized opposition,
on the part of the authorities, and also of these official beneficiaries
and prospective pensioners of native taxes? Will it be believed
that these gentlemen of the Native Affairs Department, whose salaries
are actually paid by us, should have sent messengers at our expense
to convene a meeting of their colleagues, at which letters were dictated
prohibiting the sale of this land to Zulus -- the stationery,
the typewriter and the typist's labour, to say nothing of the cigarettes
smoked by those present, being paid for out of native money?
Is it surprising if we feel that their adverse interference in matters
which so vitally affect us has long since become intolerable?
It may be asked what useful purpose is served by the Native Affairs Department
as it now stands? This would be my answer: --
The Department is responsible for the gathering in of all native taxes
throughout the Union. And after paying the salaries of the staff,
it pays over annually a huge surplus to the Union Exchequer
for the benefit of "a white South Africa". Further, the Transvaal Natives
believe that they would get along much better with the white population,
and with officials of other Departments of State, were not
"the Native Affairs Department continually stirring them up against us."
The justice of this complaint is well exemplified at Johannesburg,
where the autocrats of this department are armed with, and liberally exercise,
the peculiar and exceptional powers of locking up Natives without warrants,
without any charge, and without a trial -- powers which even
the Judges of the Supreme Court do not possess.
General Hertzog's Scheme
It may interest the reader to know that General Hertzog
is the father of the segregation controversy. The writer and other Natives
interviewed him before Christmas, 1912, at the Palace of Justice, Pretoria,
when he was still in the ministry. We had a two hours' discussion,
in the course of which the General gave us a forecast of what he then regarded
as possible native areas, and drew rings on a large wall-map of the Union
to indicate their locality. Included in these rings were several Magistracies
which he said would solve a knotty problem. He told us that white people
objected to black men in Government offices and magistrates in those areas
would have no difficulty in employing them.
General Hertzog was dismissed shortly after, and it has been said
that in order to placate his angry admirers the Ministry passed
the Natives' Land Act of which this Report is the outcome.
Judging by the vigour with which the Union administration has been
weeding Natives out of the public service and replacing them with Boers
without waiting for the Commission's Report, it is clear
that they did not share General Hertzog's intention as regards
these magistracies. I cannot recall all the magistracies
which General Hertzog mentioned as likely to fall in native areas;
but I distinctly remember that Pietersburg and Thaba Nchu were among them;
while Alice and Peddie (and possibly a neighbouring district)
were to be included in a southern reserve into which the Natives
round East London and Grahamstown would have to move, the land vacated by them
to be gradually occupied by the white settlers now scattered over the would-be
native block. He went on to forecast a vast dependency of the Union
in which the energies and aspirations of black professional men
would find their outlet with no danger of competition with Europeans;
where a new educational and representative system could be evolved for Natives
to live their own lives, and work out their salvation in a separate sphere.
But the lands Commission's Report places this plausible scheme beyond
the region of possibility, for no native area, recommended by this Commission,
includes any of the magistracies mentioned.
General Hertzog's plan at least offered a fair ground for discussion,
but the Commission's Report is a travesty of his scheme.
It intensifies every native difficulty and goes much further
than the wild demands of the "Free" State extremists.
Thus even if it be thrown out, as it deserves to be,
future exploiters will always cite it as an excuse for measures
subversive of native well-being. In fact, that such legislation
should be mooted is nothing short of a national calamity.
How They "Doubled" a Native Area
Near the northern boundaries of Transvaal there lies
a stretch of malarial country in which nothing can live unless born there.
Men and beasts from other parts visit it only in winter and leave it again
before the rains begin, when the atmosphere becomes almost too poisonous
to inhale. Even the unfailing tax-gatherers of the Native Affairs Department
go there only in the winter every year and hurry back again
with the money bags before the malarial period sets in.
A Boer general describes how when harassed by the Imperial forces
during the South African war, he was once compelled to march through it;
and how his men and horses -- many of them natives of the Transvaal --
contracted enough malaria during the march to cause
the illness of many and the death of several Burghers and animals.
Of the native inhabitants of this delectable area the Dutch General says:
"Their diminutive, deformed stature was another proof of the miserable climate
obtaining there."*
--
* `My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War' (General Ben Viljoen), p. 222.
--
When the Land Commissioners contemplated this "salubrious" region,
their hearts must have melted with generosity, for whereas
in our own healthy part of South Africa they have indicated
possible native areas by little dots or microscopical rings
(as in Thaba Nchu for instance), here, in this malarial area,
they marked off a reserve almost as wide as that described
by General Hertzog himself at our Pretoria interview. It is possibly
in this way, and in such impossible places, that the Commission is alleged
to have "doubled" the native areas. In the rest of the country
they ask Parliament to confiscate our birthright to the soil of our ancestry
in favour of 600,000 Boers and aliens whose languages can show
no synonym for HOME -- the English equivalent of our IKAYA and LEGAE!
The Britishers' vocabulary includes that sacred word: and that, perhaps,
is the reason why their colonizing schemes have always allowed
some tracts of country for native family life, with reasonable opportunities
for their future existence and progress, in the vast South African expanses
which God in His providence had created for His Children of the Sun.
The Englishman, moreover, found us speaking the word `Legae',
and taught us how to write it. In 1910, much against our will,
the British Government surrendered its immediate sovereignty over our land
to Colonials and cosmopolitan aliens who know little about a Home,
because their dictionaries contain no such loving term;
and the recommendations of this Commission would seem to express
their limited conception of the word and its beautiful significance.
Natives Have no Information about the Coming Servitude
All too little (if anything at all) is known of the services rendered
to the common weal by the native leaders in South Africa. In every crisis
of the past four years -- and the one-sided policy of the Union
has produced many of these -- the native leaders have taken upon themselves
the thankless and expensive task of restraining the Natives
from resorting to violence. The seeming lack of appreciation
with which the Government has met their success in that direction
has been the cause of some comment among Natives. On more than one occasion
they have asked whether the authorities were disappointed because,
by their successful avoidance of bloodshed, the native leaders
had forestalled the machine guns. But, be the reason what it may,
this apparent ingratitude has not cooled their ardour in the cause of peace.
To-day the Native Affairs Department has handed over 7,000 Pounds
from native taxes to defray the cost of the Land Commission,
consisting of five white Commissioners, their white clerks and secretaries --
the printing alone swallowed up nearly 1,000 Pounds with further payments
to white translators for a Dutch edition of the Report.
But not a penny could be spared for the enlightenment of the Natives
at whose expense the inquiry has been carried through.
They have been officially told and had every reason to believe
that the Commission was going about to mark out reservations
for them to occupy and live emancipated from the prejudicial conditions
that would spring from contiguity with the white race.
For any information as to the real character of the contents
of the Dutch and English Report of this Commission, they would
have to depend on what they could gather from the unsalaried efforts
of the native leaders, who, owing to the vastness of the sub-continent,
the lack of travelling facilities and their own limited resources,
can only reach a few localities and groups.
It may be said with some reason that English leaders of thought
in South Africa have had a task of like difficulty: that they worked
just as hard to get the English colonists to co-operate loyally
with a vanquished foe in whose hands the Union constitution has placed
the destiny of South Africa. It could also be said with equal justice
that the Boer leaders' task has been not less difficult,
that it required their greatest tact to get the Boer majority
-- now in power -- to deal justly with the English who had been responsible
for the elimination of the two Boer flags from among the emblems of
the family of nations. But the difficulties of their task is not comparable
to that of the native leaders. English and Dutch Colonial leaders
are members of Parliament, each in receipt of 400 Pounds a year,
with a free first class ticket over all systems of the South African Railways.
They enjoy, besides, the co-operation of an army of well-paid
white civil servants, without whom they could scarcely have managed
their own people. The native leader on the other hand,
in addition to other impediments, has to contend with
the difficulty of financing his own tours in a country
whose settled policy is to see that Natives do not make any money.
His position in his own country approximates to that of an Englishman,
grappling single-handed with complicated problems, on foreign soil,
without the aid of a British consul.
Bullyragging the Natives
For upwards of three years the Government of the Union of South Africa
has harassed and maltreated the rural native taxpayers as no heathen monarch,
since the time of the Zulu King Chaka, ever illused a tributary people.
For the greater part of our period of suffering the Empire was engaged
in a titanic struggle, which, for ghastliness is without precedent.
I can think of no people in the Eastern Hemisphere who are absolutely
unaffected by it; but the members of the Empire can find consolation
in the fact that almost all creation is in sympathy with them.
Constant disturbance has brought a realization to the entire universe
that nature, like the times, is out of joint. The birds of the air
and the fishes, like other denizens of the deep, are frequently drawn into
the whirlpool of misery; and a mutual suffering has identified them as it were
with some of the vicissitudes of an Empire at war. And they too
have in their peculiar way felt impelled to offer their condolence
to the dependants of those who have fallen in the combat on land, in the air,
on sea, and under the sea. And while all creation stands aghast
beside the gaping graves, by rivers of blood, mourning with us
the loss of some of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived,
South Africa, having constituted herself the only vandal State,
possesses sufficient incompassion to celebrate the protection
conferred on her by the British Fleet and devote her God-given security
to an orgy of tyranny over those hapless coloured subjects of the King,
whom the Union constitution has placed in the hollow of her hands.
Is there nobody left on earth who is just enough to call on South Africa
to put an end to this cowardly abuse of power?
We appeal to the Colonists of Natal, who have declared themselves against
the persecution of their Natives; and would draw their attention to the fact
that in spite of their disapproval, expressed to the Lands Commission,
the Union Government, at the behest of a prisoner, is still tyrannizing
over the Zulus.
We appeal to the Churches. We would remind them that in the past
the Christian voice has been our only shield against
legislative excesses of the kind now in full swing in the Union.
But in the new ascendency of self and pelf over justice and tolerance,
that voice will be altogether ignored, unless strongly reinforced
by the Christian world at large. We appeal for deliverance
from the operation of a cunningly conceived and a most draconian law
whose administration has been marked by the closing down
of native Churches and Chapels in rural South Africa.
We appeal to the Jews, God's chosen people, who know
what suffering means. We would remind them that if after 1913
there was no repetition of a Russian pogrom it was largely because
the native leaders (including the author) have spared neither pains nor pence
in visiting the scattered tribes and exhorting them to obey
all the demands of the South African Government under the Grobler law
pending a peaceful intercession from the outside world.
But for this self-imposed duty on the part of the native leaders,
I am satisfied that numbers of the native peasantry would have been mown down
early in 1914, and humanity would have been told that they were
justly punished for disobedience to constituted authority.
We appeal to the leaders of the Empire -- that Empire for which
my own relatives have sacrificed life and property in order to aid
its extension along the Cape to Cairo route, entirely out of love for
her late Majesty Queen Victoria and with no expectation of material reward.
We ask these leaders to honour the plighted word of their noble predecessors
who collectively and severally assured us a future of peace and happiness
as our membership privilege in the Empire for which we bled.
They were among the noblest Englishmen that ever left their native shores
to create a prestige for their nation abroad. They included
heroes and empire-builders too many to mention, who all told us that they
spoke in the name of Queen Victoria and on behalf of her heirs and successors.
What has suddenly become of the Briton's word -- his bond -- that solemn
obligations of such Imperialists should cease to count? And if it is decided
that the Victorian Englishman and the Twentieth Century Englishman
are creatures of different clay (and that with the latter honour is binding
only when both parties to the undertaking are white), surely this
could hardly be the moment to inaugurate a change the reaction of which
cannot fail to desecrate the memories of your just and upright forebears.
We would draw the attention of the British people to the fact
that the most painful part of the present ordeal to the loyal black millions,
who are now doing all they can, or are allowed to do, to help the Empire
to win the war, is that they suffer this consummate oppression
at the bidding of a gentleman now serving his term for participating
in a rebellion during this war. We feel that it must be
a source of intense satisfaction to Mr. Piet Grobler in his cell,
that the most loyal section of the King's South African subjects
are suffering persecution under his law -- a fact which, looked at
from whatever standpoint, is equal to an official justification of the ideals
for which he rose in rebellion. And if there is to be a return
to the contented South Africa of other days, both the Natives' Land Act
-- his law -- and the Report of the Lands Commission -- its climax --
should be torn up.
Courting Retribution
For three years and more the South African Government have persecuted
my kinsmen and kinswomen for no other crime than that they have meekly
paid their taxes. I had come to the conclusion, after meeting Colonials
from all quarters of the globe and weighing the information
obtained from them, that in no Colony are the native inhabitants
treated with greater injustice than in South Africa.* Yet in spite of all
I had seen and heard, I must say that, until this Report reached me,
I never would have believed my white fellow-countrymen capable of conceiving
the all but diabolical schemes propounded between the covers
of Volume I of the Report of the South African Lands Commission, 1916,
and clothing them in such plausible form as to mislead
even sincere and well-informed friends of the Natives. There are
pages upon pages of columns of figures running into four, five or six noughts.
They will dazzle the eye until the reader imagines himself witnessing
the redistribution of the whole sub-continent and its transfer to
the native tribes. But two things he will never find in that mass of figures;
these are (a) the grand total of the land so "awarded" to Natives;
and (b) how much is left for other people. To arrive at these he has to do
his own additions and subtractions, and call in the aid of statistics
such as the Census figures, the annual blue books, etc., before the truth
begins to dawn on him. They talk of having "doubled" the native areas.
They found us in occupation of 143,000,000 morgen and propose to squeeze us
into 18 million. If this means doubling it, then our teachers
must have taught us the wrong arithmetic. Is it any wonder
that it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to continue
to love and respect the great white race as we truly loved it
at the beginning of this century?
--
* Some white South Africans in recent years have migrated
to the Katanga region in the Belgian Congo. I have read
in the South African daily papers, correspondence from some of them
complaining of their inability to make money. They attributed
this difficulty to the fact that the Belgian officials will not permit them
to exploit the labour of the Congolese as freely as white men are accustomed
to make use of the Natives in British South Africa.
--
We would submit a few problems in this Report for the British People
and their Parliamentary Representatives to solve: --
First: Who are to become the occupants of the lands from which the Commission
recommends the removal of the native proletariat?
Secondly: In view of certain upheavals which we have seen not very long ago,
and others which might take place in the future, it is pertinent to ask,
concerning the "very small minority of the inhabitants" -- the Whites --
alluded to by Mr. Schreiner at the head of this chapter,
(a) what proportion is in full sympathy with the ideals of the British Empire;
(b) what proportion remains indifferent; and (c) what proportion
may be termed hostile?
Thirdly: Does the autonomy granted to this "small minority"
amount to complete independence, or does it not?
Fourthly: Would it not be advisable also to inquire:
Of "the vast majority of the inhabitants" the King's Black subjects,
doomed by this Report to forfeit their homes and all they value
in their own country, (a) how many of these are loyal,
and (b) how many are not?
Finally and solemnly we would put it to all concerned
for the honour and perpetuity of British dominion in South Africa,
can the Empire afford to tamper with and alienate their affections?
As stated already, this "very vast majority of the inhabitants"
of South Africa has been strafed by the "very small minority"
for over three years. And when the burden loaded on our bent backs
becomes absolutely unbearable we are at times inclined to blame ourselves;
for, when some of us fought hard -- and often against British diplomacy --
to extend the sphere of British influence, it never occurred to us
that the spread of British dominion in South Africa would culminate
in consigning us to our present intolerable position, namely, a helotage
under a Boer oligarchy. But when an official Commission asks Parliament
to herd us into concentration camps, with the additional recommendation
that besides breeding slaves for our masters, we should be made
to pay for the upkeep of the camps: in other words, that we
should turn the Colonials into slave raiders and slave-drivers
(but save them the expense of buying the slaves), the only thing
that stands between us and despair is the thought that Heaven
has never yet failed us. We remember how African women have at times
shed tears under similar injustices; and how when they have been made
to leave their fields with their hoes on their shoulders,
their tears on evaporation have drawn fire and brimstone from the skies.
But such blind retribution has a way of punishing the innocent
alike with the guilty, and it is in the interests of both
that we plead for some outside intervention to assist South Africa
in recovering her lost senses.
The ready sympathy expressed by those British people
among whom I have lived and laboured during the past two years
inspires the confidence that a consensus of British opinion will,
in the Union's interest, stay the hand of the South African Government,
veto this iniquity and avert the Nemesis that would surely follow
its perpetration.
Her mind must have been riveted on South Africa when, quite recently,
Ida Luckie sang: --
Alas, My Country! Thou wilt have no need
Of enemy to bring thee to thy doom. . . .
For not alone by war a nation falls.
Though she be fair, serene as radiant morn,
Though girt by seas, secure in armament,
Let her but spurn the vision of the Cross;
Tread with contemptuous feet on its command
Of mercy, Love and Human Brotherhood,
And she, some fateful day, shall have no need
Of enemy to bring her to the dust.
Some day, though distant it may be -- with God
A thousand years are but as yesterday --
The germs of hate, injustice, violence,
Like an insidious canker in the blood,
Shall eat that nation's vitals. She shall see
Break forth the blood-red tide of anarchy,
Sweeping her plains, laying her cities low,
And bearing on its seething, crimson flood
The wreck of Government, of home, and all
The nation's pride, its splendour and its power.
On with relentless flow, into the seas
Of God's eternal vengeance wide and deep.
But, for God's grace! Oh may it hold thee fast,
My Country, until justice shall prevail
O'er wrong and o'er oppression's cruel power,
And all that makes humanity to mourn.
[End of original text.]
[Original Advertisements.]
Some Opinions of the Press on the First Edition
"It is difficult to believe that such barbarities are possible;
but Mr. Plaatje gives chapter and verse for every one of his indictments;
the Act itself is quoted in extenso; various debates
in the Colonial Parliament are given, and arguments for and against the Act
furnished by the different speakers. The whole book is really interesting,
and will come as a great surprise to many English people
who know little of the South African Native as an educated,
thinking human being, and will certainly excite sympathy
with his present precarious state under colonial laws,
which seem to be little inspired by the principles of justice and liberty
which British supremacy formerly guaranteed." -- `Yorkshire Observer'.
"Whatever may have been the intention of the home Government,
in practice this Act has meant the restriction of Natives
to their reservations, or to servitude among the white population.
Mr. Plaatje states his case clearly and asserts that this movement
is reactionary and a false step on the part of the Government
to placate the extreme Dutch party in South Africa." -- `Glasgow Herald'.
"The author makes an excellent case for the consideration
of the Imperial Government. He convincingly proves
that the fortunes of the native races should not have been
handed over to the Dutch Republicans without adequate safeguards.
He gratefully acknowledges the enthusiastic support given to the Natives
by the British settlers and appeals for an inquiry. The interest of the book
for the Punjabis consists, not in the similarity of the grievances,
for we here have no such grievance against the Government,
but in showing the way for inviting attention to the injustice involved
in excluding a large class of Hindus from agriculture."
-- `The Tribune', Lahore.
"It is a serious case, well and ably put, and the evidence embodied in it
is very disquieting. Here at any rate is a book which makes
the native agitation intelligible and may conceivably have an influence
on future events in South Africa -- and at home, for by no legal fiction
can the Imperial power dissociate itself from responsibility
for Native affairs." -- `Birmingham Post'.
"The supporters of the Act do not make the principles attractive
in explaining them. Mr. J. G. Keyter, Member for Ficksburg,
said "they should tell the Native as the Free State told him,
that it was white man's country, that he was not going to be allowed
to buy land there or hire land there, and that if he wanted to be there
he must be in service." -- `New Statesman'.
"There is the spice if not the charm of novelty about this book.
It is written by a South African native and he holds strong views
on some recent public questions. He occasionally expresses himself
well and forcibly, and it is all to the good that South African publicists
should have the advantage of reading the opinions of a native observer
when dealing with legislation affecting his race." -- `South Africa'.
"In this well arranged and lucidly written book the author shows
from authentic sources how changeable and often unreasonable has been
the treatment of the loyal Natives under the South African flag.
Mr. Plaatje is no fire-brand; he writes with moderation,
and his book should attract sympathetic attention." -- `Booksellers' Record'.
"Mr. Plaatje has marshalled his facts with considerable skill.
He sets forth the case of his countrymen with energy and moderation.
His conclusions seem to be warranted by the information at his disposal,
and the facts he adduces seem to bear but one interpretation.
And lastly, in the existing circumstances, he is fully justified
in appealing to the court of public opinion." -- `United Empire'.
Books by the same author
730 Sechuana Proverbs
With Literal Translations and their European Equivalents
(Diane Tsa Secoana, Le Maele a Sekgooa, Aa Dumalanang Naco).
By Solomon T. Plaatje.
An interesting and instructive comparison of African and European Proverbs
A Sechuana Reader
(In International Phonetic Orthography, with English Translations)
By Daniel Jones, M.A., and Sol. T. Plaatje.
The Texts include native fables and stories of adventure,
and form a collection of reading matter suitable either
for native Bechuanas or for foreign learners.
Both word-for-word translations and free translations are given throughout.
In the introduction will be found detailed information with regard to
the pronunciation of the Sechuana language.
[End Original Advertisements.]
Notes to the text:
The Titles listed in the Table of Contents are not always identical
to those in the text. Therefore, the longer versions have been used,
or in those cases where they are significantly different,
both titles have been given.
Cases of battered type, and even missing letters, where obvious,
are too numerous to be commented on in detail. Less obvious cases
are noted.
Chapter II:
(p. 42)
[ delivered by the Governor-General at the opening af the session ]
changed to:
[ delivered by the Governor-General at the opening of the session ]
(p. 44)
[ H. Mentz and G. A. Louw, teller ]
changed to:
[ H. Mentz and G. A. Louw, tellers. ]
Chapter VI:
(p. 82)
[ my hushand's and children's peculiar wants, if Anna ]
changed to:
[ my husband's and children's peculiar wants, if Anna ]
Chapter VIII:
(p. 106)
[ under notice to leave, We informed them ]
changed to:
[ under notice to leave. We informed them ]
(p. 110)
[ Pieter Dout consented, and joined the exlpedition ]
changed to:
[ Pieter Dout consented, and joined the expedition ]
(p. 112)
[ to mulct them in more money than the land. is worth. The best legal advice
they have received is that they should sell their inheritances to white men ]
changed to:
[ to mulct them in more money than the land is worth. The best legal advice
they have received is that they should sell their inheritances to white men. ]
Chapter IX:
(p. 120)
[ says Dr. Kellog, ]
changed to:
[ says Dr. Kellogg, ]
(This is the correct spelling of the name of a doctor who was famous
about the time that Plaatje was writing, and who was undoubtedly
the source for the quote.)
(p. 132)
[ Hence, let the leaders direct them into cruel way as they are seemingly ]
changed to:
[ Hence, let the leaders direct them into cruel ways as they are seemingly ]
Chapter X:
(p. 142)
[ went unarmed to hold with the Matebele chiefs ]
changed to:
[ went unarmed to hold with the Matabele chiefs ]
(in accordance with other usage, and another edition.)
(p. 144)
[ the papers and the public chorus with joy hear that the C.S.A.R. ]
changed to:
[ the papers and the public chorus with joy to hear that the C.S.A.R. ]
Chapter XIV:
(p. 178)
[ and Mid-Illovu, ] (end of paragraph)
changed to:
[ and Mid-Illovu. ]
(p. 179)
[ July 20, 191. ]
changed to:
[ July 20, 1913. ]
Chapter XVI:
(p. 197)
[ (Mr Alden) and the hon. Baronet th Member for Hackney (Sir A. Spicer ]
changed to:
[ (Mr. Alden) and the hon. Baronet the Member for Hackney (Sir A. Spicer) ]
(p. 221)
Regarding the reference to `The Biglow Papers', the quote is from No. VI,
and `The Biglow Papers' was written by J. R. Lowell (see below).
Chapter XVIII:
(p. 225)
(subtitle) [ Bear ye one another's Burdens" ]
changed to:
[ "Bear ye one another's Burdens" ]
(p. 231)
[ F. R. Lowell ]
changed to:
[ J. R. Lowell ]
James Russell Lowell [1819-1891], the Massachusetts poet, wrote these lines,
under the title "Stanzas on Freedom". As the italic forms of "J" and "F"
are similar, and frequently confused, this error is not to be wondered at.
The 1st, 3rd, and 4th stanzas are quoted in the text. The complete text
is presented here:
Stanzas on Freedom
Men! whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother's pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?
Women! who shall one day bear
Sons to breathe New England air,
If ye hear, without a blush,
Deeds to make the roused blood rush
Like red lava through your veins,
For your sisters now in chains, --
Answer! are ye fit to be
Mothers of the brave and free?
Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free!
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
Chapter XIX:
(p. 242)
[ to those of the Barolongs, who used their own rifles, ]
changed to:
[ to those of the Barolongs who used their own rifles, ]
The Crest of Queen Victoria, mentioned in brackets, is, of course,
unavailable in ASCII. The letters V R. are for "Victoria Regina",
or, "Queen Victoria".
Chapter XXI:
(p. 276)
[ both missionaries, also poke offering to associate themselves ]
changed to:
[ both missionaries, also spoke offering to associate themselves ]
(p.278)
[ the districts of Calvania, Kenhardt, Keimoes, and Upington ]
changed to:
[ the districts of Calvinia, Kenhardt, Keimoes, and Upington ]
in accordance with other use in the surrounding text.
Chapter XXII:
(p. 291)
[ her privileges of free citizenship (Cheers.) ]
changed to:
[ her privileges of free citizenship. (Cheers.) ]
(p. 302)
[ half a million Boers. ] & [ people's gathering.) ]
changed to:
[ half a million Boers.) ] & [ people's gathering. ]
Closing parenthesis was at end of wrong paragraph.
(p. 303)
[ the harm that as likely to follow a provocation ]
changed to:
[ the harm that is likely to follow a provocation ]
(p. 308)
[ in addition to his own rebels commando. ]
changed to:
[ in addition to his own rebel commando. ]
(p. 312)
[ assaulted a policeman. ]
changed to:
[ assaulted a policeman.) ]
Clause missing closing parenthesis.
Chapter XXIV:
(p. 336)
[ a petition from Rustenberg, made it compulsory ]
changed to:
[ a petition from Rustenburg, made it compulsory ]
in accordance with other use in the surrounding text.
(p. 338)
[ Deuteronomy xix. 14, ]
updated to:
[ Deuteronomy 19:14, ]
Epilogue:
(p. 348)
[ signed the Natives' Lant Act ]
changed to:
[ signed the Natives' Land Act ]
(p. 351)
[ has done her duty. ]
changed to:
[ has done her duty." ]
Report of the Lands Commission:
(p. 357)
[ Chairman of the Commission a retired Judge ]
changed to:
[ Chairman of the Commission, a retired Judge ]
(p. 358)
[ and the terms of the Act." ]
changed to:
[ and the terms of the Act. ]
unmatched quotation mark removed according to surrounding usage.
(p. 364)
[ the Klerksdorp Magistrate, who incidentalgl exploded
the stale old falsehood about Natives liviny on the labour ]
changed to:
[ the Klerksdorp Magistrate, who incidentally exploded
the stale old falsehood about Natives living on the labour ]
(p. 376)
[ the Empire was engaged in a titantic struggle, ]
changed to:
[ the Empire was engaged in a titanic struggle, ]
Terms:
lager/laager: a defensive camp formed by circled wagons.
sjambok: a rhinoceros or hippopotamus-hide whip.
The following lines contained characters that cannot be presented in ASCII:
under the Republican re/gime, no matter how politicians raved
Ils se sont endormis, le c(oe)ur rempli d'espoirs,
Dans un re\ve d'amour et de concorde humaine!
Qui monte des hameaux consume/s par la flamme,
Ni le ge/missement des vie/illards et des femmes!
the inquiries of the Commission, whose report is nai"vely alleged
did its best to fill the ro^le of an enemy.
but who, after three months' drill and man(oe)uvring, were as expert
and that Nakob Su"d was clearly depicted in the old maps
(Sued)
of high-resolve\d men, bent to the spoil,
Goe^n dag, Pikadillie
of these neighbours. The Natives, according to Mr. Lu"dorf,
gathered in a heap and burnt alive. This, says Mr. Lu"dorf,
(Luedorf)
generally preferred, aspire; and each fills his ro^le
* `Political Economy of Art': Addenda (J. E., Section 127).
(Symbol used for "Section")
Also numerous instances of fractions, here presented, for example,
as 1 1/2 for one and a half, and the symbol for the British Pound,
so that where the original may have said L100 (where L represents
the symbol for Pound) it now says 100 Pounds (Pound or Pounds
has always been capitalized as above in such cases).
End of this Etext of Native Life in South Africa, by Sol. T. Plaatje
