THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS 1988-1989

President M.l.e. Daly

Vice-Presidents H. Lundie
S.N. Roberts
Prof. e. deB. Webb

Trustees M.l.e. Daly

Miss P.A. Reid
S.N. Roberts

Fellow of the Natal Society Miss P.A. Reid

Treasurers Messrs Aiken & Peat

Auditors Messrs Thornton-Dibb, Van der

Leeuw and Partners

Director Mrs S.S. Wallis

Secretary P.C.G. McKenzie

COUNCIL

Elected Members M.l.e. Daly (Chairman)

S.N. Roberts (Vice-Chairman)

Dr F.e. Friedlander (resigned)

W.G. Anderson

Prof. A.M. Barrett

T.B. Frost

l.M. Deane

Prof. W.R. Guest

Prof. e. deB. Webb

G.l.M. Smith

Ms P.A. Stab bins (co-opted)

City Council Representatives CUr. E. L. Bennett

CUr. P.e. CorneU
CUr. G.D. de Beer

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA

Editor T.B. Frost

DrW.H. Bizley
M.H.Comrie
l.M. Deane
Prof. W.R. Guest
Ms M.P. Moberly
MrsS.P.M. Spencer
Missl. Farrer(Hon. Secretary)

Natalia 19 (1989) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010

 Cover Picture
The end of the era: Lt.-Col. R.M. Ovens (seated 4th from left)
and the officers of the 1st South Staffordshire Regiment. This
photograph was taken on the steps in front of the corrugated iron
Officers' Mess at Fort Napier.
(Photograph: NatalArchives)

SA ISSN 0085 3674

Printed by The Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company (Pty) Ltd
 Contents
Page
EDITORIAL .. 5

REPRINT

Deux Ans a Natal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

REPRINT

The Journal of William Clayton Humphreys: Port

Natal to the Zulu Country August-October1851 . . . . . 23

ARTICLE

Pietermaritzburg's Imperial Postscript: Fort Napier

from 1910 to 1925

Graham Dominy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

ARTICLE
The Political Career of Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler'
W. H. Eizley... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

OBITUARIES

Thomas George Vernon Inman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Howard St. George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Sushila Gandhi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Douglas Mitchell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

NOTES AND QUERIES

Moray Comrie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES............ 82

SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS 91

REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL. ... 93

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ....... . 94

Editorial

This year, collectors of Natalia will notice, the journal is somewhat thinner
than usual. This might reflect, perhaps, a certain lack of vigour in an editorial
committee which has held office unrelieved for a number of years. It certainly
reflects the impact of the Human Sciences Research Council's SAPSE system
on academic publishing. A well-intentioned bureaucratic attempt to reward
and encourage the publication of learned articles has not benefited Natalia.
Applications to get Natalia SAPSE-registered (and contributions to it,
therefore, eligible for financial subsidy), have come to naught: the journal is
not sufficiently 'academic' in character, it is not uni-disciplinary, it is not
refereed internationally. So articles published in Natalia remain without
pecuniary reward. It is understandable that academics should now prefer to
publish in journals which bring financial recompense - if not to themselves
personally, then certainly to their institutions and departments.
Thus, with no Natal Society Annual Lecture being delivered in 1989, we
carry only two articles as such: that by Graham Dominy on the latter years of
Fort N apier, and that by William Bizley on the political dimensions of a
railway engine. The latter has its element of humour - a quality not often
encountered in Natalia articles - as Edwardian politicians strive to debate a
railway lavatory without actually mentioning that indelicate word.
An Obituary of Douglas Mitchell should have been published in Natalia 18.
It was written and posted by Mrs Sheila Henderson from London, but never
arrived. Mrs Henderson, however, agreed to recast her thoughts in the form
of a personal memoir - which has the merit of telling us something about the
writer as well as the subject! Dr Uma Mesthrie has also written interestingly
about her grandmother, the late Mrs Sushila Gandhi, daughter-in-law of
Mahatma Gandhi. More formal Obituaries are those of two ecclesiastical
figures, the late Bishop Vernon Inman and Father St George.
But if articles as such are fewer, Natalia carries two unpublished pieces this
year: Part II of Deux Ans a Natal by the mysterious M. Bourbon, and a
carefully edited extract from the diary ofWilliam Clayton Humphreys.
For the rest, the mix of Notes and Queries, Book Reviews and Notices, and
Select List of recent Natal publications remains pretty well unchanged. We
hope that our readers will continue to find it interesting fare.
T.B.FROST
6

Deux Ans A Natal

by M. Bourbon
Introduction
In this second instalment of Deux Ans, the focus shifts from colonial society in Natal to the Zulu
kingdom of Mpande kaSenzangakhona and to the customs of the people he ruled.
As in the first instalment, so in this, much of the detail appears to be derivative, some of it
bearing a tell-tale resemblance to information published in Adulphe Delegorgue's Voyage dans
I'Afrique Australe, which had appeared in 1847, three years ahead of Deux Ans. However,
indebtedness entailed neither appreciation nor obligation on Bourbon's part. The borrowings
from Delegorgue are unacknowledged; and, in the one passage in which he does mention
Delegorgue by name, he does so for the purpose of casting doubt on his reliability. Nor did
indebtedness result in any identity of viewpoint between the two men. Most markedly this was so
in their attitudes to the Zulu king and his people. Delegorgue was deeply impressed by Mpande,
and in one passage described him as 'beautiful, superb, magnificent. imposing'; Bourbon was
conscious of the king's guilefulness, and described him, unflatteringly, as 'a short man ... broad
and fat'. Delegorgue saw in the Zulu people living exemplars of the nobility inherent in the
'savage' state; Bourbon saw Zulu society as 'barbarous', and found in it little, if anything, worthy
ofadmiration.
The fact that Bourbon offered an astringent antidote to the nineteenth century romanticism
that paraded in some of Delegorgue's writing does not. of course, mean that his own credentials
can be accepted without question. In the introduction to the first instalment of Deux Ans, the
question was raised whether he had ever set foot in Natal, and there were a host of other questions
besides. In a letter published elsewhere in this issue, Shelagh Spencer provides historical content
for some of these queries, but not for all; and this second instalment of the book raises its own
crop of new uncertainties.
If Delegorgue was a romantic, was Bourbon not, perhaps, a romancer? How true are the tales
that he tells') In the section of Deux Ans published below, who was the Frenchman whom he
claims to have found living as a Zulu homestead head? Who was the white woman who is alleged
to have beguiled Mpande with her charms, and given the Zulu king riding lessons? And how
historical were Jean Lemaire (alias J. Meyer perhaps?) and his pretty wife, whom Mpande fed and
fattened for so long that their absence from the colony was seen as evidence of a break-down in
black-white relations and a possible Zulu invasion. There is no question that Bourbon's reporting
on Zulu convention and custom needs to be approached with a measure of caution. So, should the
tales he tells not be handled with even greater care?
Bourbon himself piously declares that 'historical accuracy must always come first'. No one
would challenge him on that point, if accuracy of reportage was, indeed, the purpose of his book.
But was it? That is the unanswered puzzle of Deux Ans.
C.deB. WEBB

On 14 July 1848 I left Natal for the Zoula country with the intention of
acquiring a small herd of cattle. I say 'small' because my trading goods were
scanty and of little value. Urged on by necessity and accompanied by six
Cafres I set off bravely in a wagon laden with provisions and drawn by
fourteen oxen.
Deux Ans cl Natal 7

One must travel through barbarous lands in order truly to appreciate the
advantages of civilization particularly in regard to locomotion. My journey, or
should I say flight, from Paris to Le Havre the preceding year still fresh in my
memory (sixty leagues in six hours), I felt my present position to be
diametrically opposed, although my team of fourteen oxen was more royal by
ten than that of olden times when:
'Through the streets of Paris the indolent king was led
By four yoked bullocks with slow and measured tread.'
The 'indolent king' had disappeared, for I was neither indolent nor a king,
but the slow and measured tread remained the same. Mine was a conveyance
which progressed at fourteen leagues a fortnight, rather like the Auxerre to
Paris coach before the invention of steam boats and trains. Of course there is
no semblance of a road in this benighted country. I travelled blindly on with
no guide but the instinct of my Cafres who, they said, had done the trip many
times and who navigated as best they could through these vast empty spaces.
But I had faith in my lucky stars, and it is faith which preserves, even from wild
beasts, when one has taken the necessary precautions. 'Heaven helps him who
helps himself.'
My journey lasted twenty days, twenty mortal days, and this was the
unvarying routine of each day. At sunrise we started off at the pace which I
have already described. At midday there was a full two hours break; the oxen
grazed, my men slept and I made a little inspection of the provision bag,
whose contents I watched over as a miser watches his money, to ensure that
we did not starve before we reached our destination. At sunset the caravan
stopped and we settled down as best we could to spend the night in the open.
To keep the wild animals from our oxen, and from ourselves too of course, the
Cafres lit a great circular fire which they were careful to keep going, taking
turns all through the night, for the slightest negligence could prove fatal. As
soon as all precautions had been taken and the sentinels placed on duty like
the vestals of olden times around the protecting fire, we all retired to sleep; I
inside my wagon, with my men underneath and the oxen tethered round
about.
My sleep would have been peaceful but for the howls, inharmonious to the
European ear, of the hyenas and panthers whose voracious appetites were
apparently thwarted by our wall of fire. The Cafres who from experience
knew themselves to be safe paid no attention, but I must admit that at first I
did not sleep like the proverbial log. The horrible incessant growling was a real
nightmare. I expected at every moment to see our fire go out, and the hyenas
rush in on us and eat us all up, man and beast. But gradually I was reassured
and seeing my servants so light-hearted I finally thought no more about it.
One may grow accustomed to anything.
By the twelfth day the provisions were being depleted at an alarming rate
for we were all men of healthy appetite. I was becoming seriously worried
when, at about four o'clock one afternoon, I thought I heard a distant lowing,
which gave me renewed hope. We came upon a mouzi where my men and I
received patriarchal hospitality.
I had heard much in Natal of the mouzis or Cafre villages, but this was the
first I had seen, and I thanked Providence for putting it in my way, like an
oasis in the desert, at the very moment when my provisions were nearing their
end. Besides I wished to observe these primitive men and to study their
8 Deux Ans cl Natal

customs. Ulysses himself did as much! I blessed heaven for having provided
me so opportunely with such diversion. And although I risk delaying a little
my visit to Panda, the reader will perhaps not be sorry to learn in passing of
the nature of a mouzi and of the hospitality which is offered there.
All the mouzis are alike. They are greater or smaller according to the wealth
of the Om-Douna, the chief or sultan. One would give a false impression of a
mouzi if one compared it to a little village or hamlet in Europe, where a
number of families cluster together, some wealthier than others, but unrelated
to each other. A mouzi is composed of the members of one single family - a
numerous family as is the case in all countries where polygamy is allowed, for
example Turkey, Egypt, etc. The chief or sultan, Om-Douna, has as many
wives as his fortune allows. His wealth consists of the herds which he can
afford to maintain. His children are his servants and his wives his slaves.
But here the women are not stupidly shut up in a harem as they are in
Turkey and among the Pashas of Egypt, where they do not work with their
hands. With the exception of a few favourite sultanas, whom the chief honours
with his particular attention while their youth and beauty last, all the women
work, hoe the land, plant and harvest the maize, perform every task, except, a
strange thing, milking the cows, which they regard as beneath them. This task
then is performed only by the men!
The mouzi is built in a circle. In the centre is the cattle enclosure, more or
less large according to the size of the herd; wealth, fortune, esteem are all
vested here. Not far from the enclosure is the chief's hut and behind it, at
some distance away, stand the more modest huts of his wives, daughters,
sisters and female relatives. These huts which are often very numerous, are
arranged in one, two or three semi-circles, with a space between them. The
whole thing is protected on the outside against invasion from wild animals and
ferocious neighbours by a hedge of dry thorns.
The huts have an age-old simplicity. Imagine a camp of beehives, enlarged
to the height of a man, with no other entrance than a doorway eighteen inches
high, and covered in straw; this will give you an exact idea of the Cafre mouzi.
In the middle of the hut is the hearth built on stones where the food is cooked.
and round about the men are squatting on their heels, or lying on mats. They
sleep or talk while the women work for them.
It has been said that Paris is the paradise of wives, and the hell of husbands:
among the Cafres it is quite the contrary, our world turned upside down.
The floor made of crushed stones and cowdung resembles a marble slab
which shines with reflections. My host, whose name I did not know and who
did not know mine, seemed to me to be what we would call a bon bourgeois,
with a reasonable number of wives and cattle, neither too many nor too few­
an advantageous state in a country where the chief has the power of life and
death over all his subjects and does not lack pretexts for disposing of those
whose goods he covets.
He entertained me to the best of his ability, for hospitality is one of their
virtues. I did not want for curdled milk and roasted or boiled maize which is
the usual food for the Cafres. It is not very refreshing, but when a stranger
freely offers you what he has you must be satisfied. I was also served with a
drink which reminded me a little of the cider we drink at home, and which
pleased me very much, as does everything that reminds me of my native land.
This drink called tchouala, is made from a kind of millet which they call
mabele, and is very pleasant to drink, especially when one is thirsty. I would
Deux Ans aNatal 9

have preferred a bottle of Chateau-Margaux or of Gruau-Larose, but one

must not be difficult. This is the recipe:
You leave the grain to ferment, sprinkling it from time to time: next you put
it in the sun; then you crush it, add water and boil it in great pots. The next day
when the tchouala is fermenting and bubbling like champagne, the friends and
relations arrive in sufficient numbers to drink it to the last drop, for the
excellent reason that this drink easily turns sour and would not be drinkable
the next day. And I am inclined to believe, after what I saw, that even had it
been possible to preserve it, none would have remained. But the excuse is
valid: all must be consumed, and so they consumed it all.
I spent the night stretched out on a mat which was unrolled especially for
me, with my head on a pillow - a pillow of wood in accordance with Cafre
custom. One thing, however, worried me. Secure in my hut against invasion
from wild beasts, I was attacked by thousands of enemies who, although less
frightening, were as relentless: mosquitoes. I have never seen so many. The
Cafres appear to be insensitive to their sting, but I who had so bravely
resigned myself to sleeping on a simple mat with a wooden pillow, began to
long for the civilized comfort of a mosquito net. There were also a few of those
locusts which are so destructive to crops, but even though they ravage the
fields, they leave the traveller to sleep in peace. And for the moment, that was
all I asked. But mosquitoes - may God preserve you from them in such great
numbers!
The next morning I was preparing to take leave of my host, when I noticed
that the mouzi, which had been so peaceful the day before, was now a hive of
activity. I tried in vain to discover the cause. One of my servants later
provided me with the key to the mystery.
My host, that very day, was to marry off one of his daughters. As he had
said nothing to me about it the previous day, I naturally thought that he had
not intended to include me among the guests. Although I had no right to such
an honour, I admit that I would have liked very much to sit, not at his table
(for the table is a luxury unknown among the Cafres), but on the ground
beside him, to enjoy the spectacle and to obtain an idea of a Cafre wedding. I
had not this good fortune. Others in my place, for there are travellers who are
quite unembarrassed in presuming themselves to be invited, would give you a
complete description, to which their imagination would contribute a large
share. But truth will out, and I have to admit, however painful to my pride,
that my host allowed me to depart without the least invitation. I set off rather
disappointed, I confess.
I was not two gunshots from the mouzi when my servant said to me,
indicating a young Cafre dressed in the fashion of the country, which is to say
almost naked, 'There is the bridegroom'. A fine outfit, I said to myself, to go
and ask for a girl in marriage.
This boy was a pleasure to behold: his face handsome and expressive, shone
with childlike joy. It was certainly a marriage of inclination that he was about
to make. I approached him and entered into conversation, for I was beginning
to speak and understand the Cafre language which is simple like all primitive
tongues. He was bringing with him eleven cows, the finest that I had ever
seen. I thought that this was his wedding present. He was in a hurry and
quickly disillusioned me on this score.
We Europeans have a strange tendency to measure everything by our own
yardstick, to regard our customs as the best, simply because they are ours and
10 DeuxAnsaNatal

to call savages, people who have ideas different from our own. It is a great
mistake!
There is a good reason for every custom, and where the superficial observer
might criticize, the philosopher often approves and understands. Other
peoples have customs and usages and laws, whether written or unwritten,
which we try in vain to replace by our own, believing that in our so-called
civilized societies, men are happier than they are in those countries which we
are pleased to call barbarous.
This young bridegroom, so spruce, so joyful, so happy, told me things about
the matrimonial customs and conjugal life which would make the hair stand on
end - of even the least prejudiced of Europeans. The cattle which this young
Cafre was driving so proudly before him were, I shall not say the purchase
price for that would not be gallant, but the means of exchange, the
compensation if you prefer, for the beauty who had touched his heart. Upon
arrival at the mouzi, the first thing he would do would be to offer ten of them
to the father of his fiancee, while the eleventh would defray the cost of the
wedding feast. The poor boy was taking his first step into conjugal life; this
was only his first wife, acquired with his first eleven cattle. He frankly told me
of how long he had had to wait to complete the required number; for one can
understand that it is hardly possible to give credit in such a matter; cash
payment only!
The eleventh cow nearly cost him his life. He got it in exchange for an
elephant's tusk which his master had given him as his share of the booty after
an elephant hunt in which he had conducted himself with bravery. His
ambition and his hope was to increase gradually the number of his wives as he
acquired elephant tusks or cows. 'The more wives we have', he told me, 'the
greater our standing. Apart from the thousand services they perform, our
wives give us daughters who are later exchanged, as their mothers were.' This
then is the circle which we would call vicious, in which a Cafre's whole life
turns! - to have more wives as he acquires more cattle and to have more
cattle as he acquires more wives. So to preach monogamy among them is
equivalent to preaching equality of fortune amongst us. No missionary would
succeed in making a single convert.
'But jealousy', you will say. I have my answer ready for you. Jealousy is yet
another of the thousand prejudices of European civilization, and I can
confirm, from what I have seen and heard, that jealousy is unknown among
the Cafres. The women, instead of rejecting their rivals, welcome them and
every first wife of a Cafre will increase her work threefold so that her husband
may become rich enough to acquire a second wife, then a third, etc. This
attitude is strange, even unbelievable to us but it is nonetheless true, however
unlikely it may seem.
According to this way of thinking, which is so different from ours, it is the
interest of the community which is the most important. And as every
community prospers by labour, it follows that the more women there are
working for the common good, the greater will be the general well-being. I
have already said that the man, the Om-douna, does nothing: he is the great
consumer of the community, the sovereign lord and master!
On the twentieth day I reached the end of my journey, and entered the
royal mouzi of Panda. In respect of its size and the number of huts, it was quite
different from the one I had left a few days previously. According to custom,
his dwelling was situated in a special enclosure at the upper end of the great
Deux Ans cl Natal 11

oval precinct. His 500 wives each had her own hut behind his.
When I arrived at the royal hut, 18 or 20 inches high (sic), and large enough
to contain a hundred people with ease, I met one of the king's officials, to
whom I explained the object of my visit. He hastened to inform Panda, who
soon emerged from his hut to welcome me.
He is a short man of 40 or 45 years old, broad and fat. His face which
appears rather hard at first encounter, reveals much intelligence and subtlety.
He has a wide forehead and black eyes well set in a large handsome head. HM
was very simply dressed and good Saint Eloi would not have been able to say
to him, as he said to King Dagobert, that he was wearing his trousers back to
front, for he hadn't any. This was one indispensable with which he dispensed.
About his shoulders was carelessly flung a black garment which, however
much I tried, I could not take to be a royal cloak. His head and feet were bare.
This was my impression of the proud despot whose very name made all the
Zoulas tremble and who, it was said, could mobilize 40 000 armed men.
I asked his permission to trade with his subjects for the cattle I needed. He
asked me what I had to offer in exchange. I replied that I had little knives, etc.
He nodded an acceptance and went back into his hut like a wild animal to its
lair.
Many travellers have told me that they were very differently received by
Panda, in solemn audience, according to the rules of Cafre etiquette. Perhaps
they came bearing more than little knives, and perhaps they offered him
valuable gifts, glass necklaces for example, which he loves. I, who had nothing
to offer him, can only tell of what happened to me personally, and my whole
interview was no more than I have just told.
A French naturalist, Monsieur Delegorgue, tells in an account which he
published after his return to France, that he was shown into the royal hut with
his companions and that, sitting on their haunches, in the Cafre fashion, they
were honoured with a private audience. I believe him, since he says it was so,
but I admit that it was an honour that I did not envy: the story of Retief and his
59 companions who were received by Dingaan his predecessor, was too much
in my thoughts.
'The next day', he says 'wishing to be present at the king's levee, I arrived
early. Lying flat on my stomach, and supporting myself with my hands, I put
my head through the low doorway and made my way into the hut, where I
squatted down as on the previous day. It was dark when first I entered, but I
soon perceived, on the mats which were spread out on the ground, ten young
girls with rounded bodies, completely naked, one of whom supported his head
with her body, another his right arm, a third his left arm, a fourth, etc. etc. I
thought I was dreaming.' It was a real paradise of Mahomet.
A traveller is very fortunate to be able to give his readers a description of
such delightful scenes, but I have to admit that I have never seen such a sight,
not at Panda's residence or anywhere else.
I hastened to join my servants, whom I had left with my wagons two miles
away, for entrance to the royal mouzi was forbidden them. I then began
visiting the surrounding mouzis to obtain the best possible exchange for my
little pack oftrading goods.
I wandered about at random, according to the inclination of my Cafres, who
seemed devoted to my interests. They were very good people, who were not
yet civilized enough to try to deceive me, which would have been easy enough.
My wanderings lasted ten days, and I had occasion to observe that I had
12 Deux Ans aNatal

been very wrong to despise my little knives, commonly known as Eustaches in

France, for they were exactly what attracted the most attention among these
good people. Briefly then, for I am not writing particularly for traders who
might wish to undertake the same journey, I bought in ten days, within a
radius of 15 to 20 leagues, 75 cattle for the price of 5 or 6 shillings a head, all
told.
To achieve this I was obliged to visit many mouzis. I was well received
wherever I went, and I was offered the finest fare, whether of curdled milk
(amas) , maize or tchouala. As I travelled about, I continued to make my
observations on Cafre customs.
I had the opportunity of seeing many groups of women, of whom the fattest
appeared to be the most important. Distinction and nobility among them is
reckoned by weight as I later had the opportunity of confirming. Their dress,
almost as simple as the men's, does not restrict them. Women of quality wear
a sort of leather garment called om-gobo, which hangs from the waist to the
ground. Their naked backs and breasts are adorned with long necklaces of
glass worn on the cross. On special occasions, they wear around their heads a
ribbon of purple silk. Rakishly set above each ear and slanting slightly
backwards, is a bunch of black widow-bird feathers.
The only clothing worn by the young girls is a belt, scarcely two fingers
wide, made from skilfully fringed bark and, while pleasing in appearance to
the curious beholder, confounds the indiscreet glance.
I admit that although the semi-nudity of these highly attractive girls seemed
to me quite chaste, I could not free myself of myoId prejudices, and ventured
to ask one of my hosts why the privilege of dressing was reserved for the
women and almost entirely refused to the girls. 'Why?' he repeated gravely.
'Because a marriageable girl must show herself as she is.' The reply was
conclusive and I conceded defeat. The fact is that one would be insincere to
complain.
Widows are not obliged to throw themselves on to a funeral pyre, as they do
in India, but are completely free on the death of their husband. Not daring to
aspire to the honour of belonging to an Om-Douna who already possesses 40
or 50 wives, they are usually quite content with an Om-Phogazane, a simple
Cafre of lowly estate who, too poor to procure for himself a first wife, will not
lose the opportunity of obtaining one free.
Among such people as these, one can understand that the law of succession
must be very simple. The first male child, whom the father regards as superior
to the others, inherits all the wealth. On the death of the father, mouzi, wives,
herds, lands, all belong to him. Once again it is the old royal maxim, dating
from the time when there were still kings in France: 'The king is dead; long
live the king'.
I soon set off again for Natal where I looked forward to beginning my
apprenticeship as a cattle breeder. The return journey was identical to the one
which I have already described - the same slow progress, the same
precautions against wild animals, the same monotony, except for an increase
of anxiety on my part relating to my 75 cattle, my only hope for the future,
alas!
I was travelling slowly along and, like 'la laitiere au pot au lait'* , building a
thousand castles in the air, when I thought I heard, coming from an isolated

• The reference is to the poem ofthe same name by Jean de la Fontaine.

Deux Ans aNatal 13

hut, some disjointed words, which brought me down to earth by recalling the
language of my own country, which I still reproached myself for having
abandoned in order to live a life so unsuited to my sedentary ways. I drew
nearer - oh joy! It was a compatriot who, impelled like myself by the wish to
see the world, and by a restless disposition, had become a Cafre in order to
live the life of a little sultan. He had, as yet, only laid the first foundation stone
of his harem, and was on the way to procuring a second. All he needed was
nine cows to make up the required eleven.
I found him stretched out on his mat as lazily as a real Cafre, savouring the
delights of idleness. I spoke with him for a little while. He tried to prove to me
the superiority of the life he was leading, but I admit that he did not convert
me. To live alone, with only a slave for company, to deprive oneself of every
comfort, with only maize to eat, never to meet a living soul to converse with­
this I confess would not be an existence to my taste.
I shall not say he appeared happy, but at least he seemed satisfied with his
lot. He had no worries in the world, apart from the time of his next meal, and
heaven knows what meals they were!
But I cannot leave the land of the King of the Zoulas without telling of a
little incident in his private life. Shortly before my visit, a new immigrant from
England had arrived to pay his respects, much as I had done, and from the
same motives. Panda received him as he received all who come to him. He was
'short' as the English say, but polite enough for a king of his temper. In order
to ensure his welcome, the immigrant had had the excellent idea of taking with
him a young and pretty person, an immigrant like himself, who excelled in the
art of the Franconi. She was a fine horsewoman and appeared before the
astonished eyes of the barbarian king mounted on a richly caparisoned Arab
horse, which she managed with a dexterity that was unknown at Panda's
court.
Panda, bemused at the sight of such talent combined with such charm,
offered a hundred cattle for the horse and fifty for the horsewoman. His
intentions were honourable, for he wished her to give him riding lessons which
were to extend over a period of three moons. The bargain was soon
concluded, and the immigrant departed with his hundred and fifty cattle,
chosen from among the finest and the fattest of the royal herd. The
horsewoman and the Arab horse remained in the possession of Panda; the
horse in full ownership and the horsewoman in usufruct for three moons ­
without the honey, I suppose!
The riding lessons began the next day and as Panda had great aptitude he
made rapid progress, so that after fewer than twenty lessons, he believed he
could challenge the woman's horse and even the rider herself. His pride was to
be punished. At the appointed hour he appeared, prancing on the liveliest of
his chargers beside the charming horsewoman mounted on her Arab,
caparisoned as on the day of her arrival and awaiting the signal to start. The
signal was given and they were off as though it were a steeplechase. The king
was soon outdistanced so completely that his wily companion, borne like
Mazeppa across the deserts, arrived the next day but one in Natal, safe and
sound, and congratulating herself on the success of her subterfuge. Since that
day, Panda wants no horsewoman - certainly not one with an Arab horse!
My return journey lasted 22 days. I had the good fortune to meet, during
one of our last outspans, two Europeans, brave hunters, who were travelling
in a large P~Hty and bringing back with them many elephant tusks, hyena and
14 Deux Ans aNatal

panther skins, the spoils of their distant and dangerous hunting expeditions.
It is so pleasant on these journeys to find someone to talk to, and this
unexpected encounter was for me and for them a real stroke of good fortune.
Added to this the situation, which was agreeable enough for a desert, had the
incomparable advantage of the proximity of a little stream whose pure waters
provided a real oasis. I suggested making a halt of 24 hours. My proposition
was unanimously accepted and, if universal suffrage were not the exclusive
privilege of bipeds, my oxen would not have been the last to support the
motion, for they were tormented with fatigue.
Monsieur de Talleyrand expressed this profoundly egotistical (sic) thought:
'Mistrust your first impulse for it is the best'. My first impulse was from the
heart, my only thought being to welcome and entertain, as best I could, two
strangers who, because we were far from Europe, our common motherland,
had become immediate friends. But on second thoughts I realized that my
provisions were almost depleted, and I knew from experience that travellers
have hearty appetites. I took a quick decision, the only one possible. I needed
a victim. I resolved to sacrifice one of my 75 oxen on the Altar of Hospitality.
And so we all applied ourselves to the task; we killed, dismembered, grilled
and devoured the poor beast, sacrificed to the demands of my predicament.
I have no intention (Heaven forbid!) of underestimating the European and
Mauritian cooks whose culinary talents I have enjoyed, but I must say, in all
honesty, that this ox done to a turn over an improvised fire in the manner of
Homer's heroes, was a hundred times better than anything I had eaten of the
kind. The fillet in particular, which my guests and I reserved for ourselves, was
without doubt, in its simplicity, fit for a king.
Hunters are like travellers; they do not wait to be asked to tell of their
prowess. Imagine how it must be when the hunter is also a traveller; doubly
talkative and even, alas, doubly a liar, you will perhaps say! They told me so
much that I need to order my thoughts before giving you the substance of what
I considered the most interesting of their accounts. For the present I shall tell
of a little episode that nearly brought about a revolution in Natal.
When I arrived back in Natal, I found the whole population in a state of
excitement. 'Did you meet, on your visit to Panda', they asked, 'a man called
Jean Lemaire?'
,Jean Lemaire? Who is Jean Lemaire? I don't know Jean Lemaire. '
'You don't know Jean Lemaire? It is impossible', they said.
Thereupon, there was a great to-do in Port Natal and the surrounding
districts. And, as I like to know the reason of things, I soon discovered the
cause of all the excitement.
Jean Lemaire was one of the richest farmers in Natal, rich in land and cattle.
He was in the habit of going every year for reasons of trade, to visit Panda.
The latter said to him one day, 'Lemaire, you come every year to see me, you
give me gifts; all this pleases me very much, but I know that you are married.
Why do you not bring your wife with you?'
'The desire for a woman is a fire that devours,
The desire of a Cafre is much stronger than ours.'
Jean Lemaire excused himself as best he could, saying that he feared being
injudicious, infringing the laws of etiquette, etc.
'On the contrary', said Panda. 'You will do me much pleasure. Bring her,
Lemaire, bring her.'
The following year Jean Lemarie set out accompanied by his wife, a good
Deux Ans aNatal 15

Dutch woman who, unlike her compatriots, bowed to the wishes of her
husband. They arrived at Panda's place and were received with all the
appearance of great satisfaction. They were assigned a hut of honour. They
were sent many pots of tchouala and, in addition, as a special favour from the
king, a heifer to be killed, roasted and cut up as they wished. Jean Lemaire, by
nature a man who enjoyed life, found all this to his liking.
His wife, deeply puritanical, began to be a little alarmed at the excess of
politeness. 'Panda is still a young man', she said to her husband. 'He looked at
me in a way that forebodes no good, and I think that for your honour's sake, as
well as for mine, we had better leave as soon as possible.'
Unperturbed, Jean Lemaire, with conjugal cheerfulness, attempted to
dispel the exaggerated fears of his wife and explained all the difficulties of
their position. In short, he persuaded her to brave the risks of royal hospitality
till the end. The poor woman, admiring her husband's calm approach in face
of such danger, submitted to his wishes and promised to endure till the end.
The next day, Panda sends one of his aides-de-camp to inform Jean Lemaire
that he expects him and his wife to come to dinner. A refusal is impossible, so
they accept.
To dine with a Cafre, even though he may be a king, is not an attractive
thing for a woman. To sit on the ground when one is in the habit of using
chairs, to use one's fingers, when one has known the pleasure of forks; there is
nothing very attractive in all this even for the wife of a Boer, however
uncivilized she may be. Nevertheless Madame Lemaire, accompanied by her
husband, presents herself at the appointed hour, with a smile on her lips,
before Panda who receives them and entertains them, to the best of his ability.
An ox, killed especially for them, a real 'fatted calf', forms the basis (solid I
hope) of the Homeric feast which is offered them.
Jean Lemaire and his wife thought that they could get away with one
helping. But, conscious of great honour being heaped upon them when Panda
had their plates (plates, fie for shame!) refilled, the unfortunate couple found
themselves in a cruel dilemma - either to perish by the assegai in case of
refusal or, if they accepted, to die of indigestion.
The next day and every following day, Panda repeated his invitation. The
formalities remained the same, as did the menu, which invariably consisted of
a monster ox, killed every morning, for the purpose, and roasted over an open
fire before their eyes. If Jean Lemaire had had the advantage of a little
education, his memories of the classics would have come crowding back. But
the poor man had no such associations to call upon, and believed quite firmly
that no white man before him had ever been present at such a feast. 'Oh what
a fine thing a little knowledge is', Monsieur Jourdain * would have said.
Three months passed in this way. Monsieur and Madame Lemaire grew
fatter by the day, thanks to the succulent diet provided by their host.
However, as all good things must come to an end and as Panda appeared to
take more and more pleasure in their society and seemed not to tire of killing
his finest oxen, Jean Lemaire dared one day to speak timidly of departure. He
was, he said, extremely honoured by the hospitality of the king, but business
and the demands of his trading interests recalled him to Natal, etc.
'Already?' said Panda, looking a little offended. 'You will please me to wait
a while.'

*The principal character in Moliere's play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

16 Deux Ans aNatal

Jean Lemaire, somewhat disappointed, and not knowing how to escape

from the royal wasp's nest into which he had rushed headlong, waited on the
king's pleasure for his release. For if you had no Arab horse, there was no
possibility of escape without the king's permission, no means of sending news
to family and friends who, during all this time, were becoming very anxious.
It was a trick on Panda's part, a trap into which he had drawn poor Jean
Lemaire in order to assegai him and make off with his wife, who was indeed
one of the prettiest farmers' wives in all Natal. That is what they said, and it
seemed the more likely, as no one who returned from the royal mouzi brought
back any news of the hostages; no one had dared to enquire about them for
fear of incurring the wrath of Panda.
As usual the rumours gradually grew and supposition became reality: 'Jean
Lemaire has been assegaied, it's obvious. Revenge! revenge!' The word was
spread that Panda, anticipating that his crime would not go unpunished, had
armed 10 000 warriors and that he was marching at their head to attack Natal.
The frightened farmers left their land and with their wives, children and
herds sought refuge in the towns. The Cafre servants, all fugitives from Panda,
fearing his anger and even more his assegais, abandoned their masters and
fled into the bush. The Governor himself, to counter this new invasion and to
reassure the inhabitants, sent troops to the Tonguela to guard the only
practicable crossing.
Amidst all this commotion, I found myself the target of every question. In
this matter of life and death, I feared that I would be suspected of knowing
more than I admitted, and would be considered an accomplice of Panda. In
the absence of the guilty party, who was beyond their reach, I feared I might
become the scapegoat. Fortunately, one fine day when feelings were running
so high that nothing would do but to cross the Tonguela and advance against
the enemy, wagons were sighted some way off and droves of cattle; they drew
nearer and who should it be? Why, Jean Lemaire and his wife, as cheerful and
jolly as they were big and fat, and very surprised to learn of all the ridiculous
stories that were circulating about them. The colony put down its arms and
everything returned to normal. The farmers went back to their farms, the
troops to their barracks and the servants to their masters.
But the reader will perhaps be pleased to know, as I was myself, how Jean
Lemaire and his wife succeeded in escaping from the mire of difficulties in
which they had foundered.
One fine morning Panda, in his usual scanty attire, went in person to seek
out Lemaire in his hut. 'Jean Lemaire', he said, 'you have pleased me; you
came to see me as a friend, and I received you as such. You may go now and to
demonstrate my gratitude and my friendship, allow me to give you a little
present. Here are 300 cattle which I beg you to take in memory of me.'
Even if these were not Panda's precise words, the 300 cattle which Jean
Lemaire brought back to Natal were real enough. And to think that people
had dared to condemn a man - a man did I say? - a king! whose behaviour is
such that he overwhelms his guests with gifts in the manner of Alexander the
Great.
'He has had Lemaire assegaied', they said, 'in order to steal his wife away.'
In the first place, if he had wanted to, he could have taken the wife without
killing the husband. And then the very idea that he wished to appropriate
another man's wife, is simply one of the thousand prejudices of a civilization
which is quite unknown to Panda, who with 500 wives already, would hardly
Deux Ans aNatal 17

have deprived a man who had but one. And I must say, in his favour, that
never had such an idea entered his mind. When he was told some time later of
the flurry in Natal, 'I did not give a thought to that woman', he said, 'she is too
thin.' It is well known that among the Cafres, a woman is valued, like fat
cattle, for her weight.
Obviously, after such famous adventures, Jean Lemaire became the centre
of much interest in this obscure little corner of the world. People came from
twenty miles around to congratulate him; he was the hero of the day. His wife
also had her share of the interest which attaches to those who have known
great danger. And who has known greater - except her poor husband?
Neighbours who found her a great deal plumper than before, were tireless in
their conjectures, and the most malicious of them went so far as to say that
Panda was a rogue, who had put her on a royal diet to fatten her to his liking,
but that he hadn't had time enough. There was general agreement on one
point - Jean Lemaire had had a narrow escape. Jean Lemaire was one of
those men who, they said, would never set the Thames on fire. But this did not
prevent him from being a great social success. On the contrary! I did what
everyone else was doing - I went to see him. He welcomed me but would not
speak freely of his three months of trial and tribulation at Panda's place. He
had not yet recovered, poor man.
'B ut the 300 cattle have helped you to forget all that' , I said.
'No indeed', said he, 'and I would not do it again for double the number.'
His wife, on the other hand, who appeared a few minutes later, seemed to
enjoy telling of her adventures, and as she was not as tongue-tied as her
phlegmatic husband, she gave me some information which I would regret not
passing on to you.
Imagine my joy! She had witnessed a Cafre marriage; what am I saying?­
three Cafre marriages! and as they are all alike, I shall describe only one; but I
shall describe it truthfully, and not, as some do, by elaborating on the events
and exaggerating beyond measure. Historical accuracy must come first.
A young Zoula of good family, for no others are received in the royal
mouzi, had cast his eye upon a young girl, grand-daughter of Panda, the
daughter of a daughter of one of his 500 wives. The young person, apart from
the aristocratic advantage of royal descent, had in addition the advantage of
being very shapely. Because of her physical and moral attractions, she excited
the desire of all the dandies of the neighbourhood. Many rivals had stabbed
each other for her sake. In short she was the belle of the mouzi.
After much hesitation, her heart finally led her to make a choice. A young
Cafre, well-proportioned and brave, won her away from all his rivals. With
the prior consent of the young princess, for she was a princess, he approached
the parents and made his request. The family, who regarded him with some
favour, had only one regret; he did not possess the required eleven cattle, for
that is the fixed price. He had only five but they were all in calf. In view of the
circumstances in his favour and in anticipation of the future, these cattle were
accepted as ten. There remained the eleventh cow which was to provide the
wedding feast; but one of the aunts of the young girl, a woman of great
distinction, and a member of the Cafre nobility, made a generous gift of it to
her future nephew who was filled with joy now that there were no more
obstacles to his marriage with the beautiful Tamboussa; that was the princess's
name; he was called Schala.
On the appointed day, all the men of the mouzi gathered together to
18 Deux Ans aNatal

prepare to take part in the festivities. As these gentlemen had absolutely

nothing else to do, they all arrived faithfully at the meeting place. In another
place, in the shade of some isolated trees, numerous groups of young girls
were to be seen, with the radiant bride in their midst. A thousand officious
hands put the finishing touches to her toilet.
Suddenly, a beating of shields was to be heard in the centre of the mouzi.
Believing this to be the announcement of a mock battle or of some war dance,
one might have expected to see men armed to the teeth emerging from their
huts. Not at all!
A strange spectacle gradually unfolded. All the old women of the mouzi,
respectable matrons with their faces painted in stripes of red and white and
their grizzled heads encircled with leaves, appeared armed with shields and
assegais which their feeble hands were barely able to support, uttering hideous
cries like starving hyenas.
Apparently, married life among the Cafres does not begin very cheerfully.
The scene is awful to describe and more awful still to observe and continues
for several hours, until these toothless Bacchantes, overcome with fatigue, are
obliged to make way for others. Then the men advance en masse into the
centre of the mouzi, where the female contingent is not slow to join them.
Soon the singing begins, and heavens! what singing, with the usual
accompaniment of clapping hands and stamping feet. When the singing stops
- thank God everything comes to an end at last - it is the turn of the dance, a
primitive dance if ever there was one. Faces are animated and bodies are
contorted until the moment comes when the dancers, male and female,
overcome by fatigue, can dance no more.
But fortunately, refreshment is not far off. Away with the barley syrups and
the lemonades which are the delight of civilized balls! Cafre beer, tchouala, is
flowing, sparkling, tickling the palate, and spreading joy all around. What
pleasure to go to a wedding, the more so as it costs nothing. This is true for all
times and all places.
After drinking, and I do not need to say that the hollow of the hand is the
glass favoured by the Zoulas, after drinking one thinks of eating; what could
be more natural? So with great ceremony the cow destined to provide the
wedding feast, is led in before the assembled mouzi. At a given signal, chosen
men rush upon the animal, strike it down before the eyes of the assembled
gathering and in no time at all its flesh is smoking over the burning coals.
When the cooking is done, men and women hungrily tear off pieces of meat,
eat, drink and dance all at once until fatigue and satiety force them to rest.
Then everyone retires, the bridegroom last of all with his young bride,
according to Cafre custom; but where does he retire to?
'In heaven's name, to his own house', you will say.
'With his wife?'
'Of course, with his wife. You do ask strange questions', you will say.
Not so strange as you might think! For indeed, the bridegroom does not
retire to his house with his bride. He leads her calmly back to her own house
and goes off wherever he pleases.
'A strange custom', you will say.
'Perhaps, but that is how it is.'
To be brief then; two days pass in this fashion and it is only at the end of the
third that he can anticipate his wedding night. Every nation has its customs,
but it is apparent that this custom could only have taken root in a country
Deux Ans it Natal 19

where polygamy is permitted. The chief victims of such a state of affairs are
the poor devils who are only on their first eleven cows. Well, beggars can't be
choosers.
Madame Lemaire, after having supplied me with the information from
which I have drawn the greater part of the above account, was silent for a
moment as if to draw breath; then she continued more or less thus: 'There is
among the Zoulas a custom which I would like to see adopted elsewhere. This
is an excellent custom which King Solomon himself might well have conceived
of. It is simply this - that a man who deceives young girls is stabbed to death.
This happens very rarely. However, I have seen an example of it. A young
Cafre, smitten by a young and pretty Cafre maiden and not having the
required number of cattle, resolved, whatever the cost, to precipitate the
event. "Troy was lost for love." Some months later the treachery was
discovered and the young man, convicted of abusing the innocence of the poor
girl and of betraying the trust of the family, was put to death by the assegai
without pity or mercy.'
Then turning to Jean Lemaire, who, in spite of his innocent appearance,
had doubtless some youthful sin on his conscience, 'What do you say to that
Monsieur Lemaire? Do you not think it an excellent means of protecting the
virtue of young girls?'
'Certainly an excellent means, though rather violent', said Jean Lemaire.
'Rather violent! That's men for you,' went on his wife, who evidently
harboured some painful memory. 'At least in that country, a man betrays only
once Monsieur Lemaire.'
I conceded the argument without comment, but Madame Lemaire, as a
betrayed woman herself perhaps, was oddly mistaken as to the morality
behind the severe penalty, when she compared Panda with King Solomon. For
this law does not aim to preserve the virtue of young girls but to protect
property. After all what does it really mean to the Cafres to deceive a girl? It is
simply a matter of stealing ten cows from her father. And according to their
custom, theft is punishable by death.
The reader will perhaps be curious to know how a criminal case is
investigated and judged in the kingdom of Panda. An insignificant theft had
been committed in the mouzi of Souzouana, a man held in high esteem, who
was, unfortunately for him, also very wealthy. The theft was reported to
Panda by the plaintiff himself, a European traveller who, to his honour, soon
repented of having done so.
The next day two captains appointed by the king to investigate, arrived with
the plaintiff at Souzouana's place and were well received. Two days later, all
the men of the mouzi, young and old, summoned from three leagues around
and numbering 2000, had gathered in the main enclosure. I say men because
the law, which is very gallant for a Cafre law, does not admit that a woman
might be responsible for a theft. The commissioners asked the names of any
absentees. The entrance to the enclosure was barred and one of the delegates
said, 'If you know anything of the theft committed at Souzouana's place, reply
Vouma; if you know nothing, say Naba. And remember that he who does not
reveal what he knows by his silence renders himself as guilty as the culprit
himself.' A voice arose from the midst of the throng, declaring that the author
of the theft was the son of the chief of a neighbouring mouzi. They took hold
of the accused, they bound him and they imprisoned him in a nearby hut.
Panda was immediately informed by a messenger of the discovery of the guilty
20 Deux Ans aNatal

party and the next day the culprit was no more.

But Panda was not satisfied. An execution had taken place certainly, but
the outcome was not what he had hoped. 'My heart tells me that the real
culprit is Souzouana', he said to his counsellors. In brief then, for the story is a
long one and time passes, Panda ensured that, a few months later, and in
connection with the same matter, Souzouana should be stabbed to death, and
his fortune which had for so long excited the covetousness of the fierce despot,
was confiscated in favour of the king. Some days before, Souzouana who had
had a premonition of his death, was advised to flee.
'Never', he said, 'I am innocent, but if I must perish, I choose to die here
among my own people.' and his wish was granted. Panda, like Djaka and
Dingaan, his predecessors, has the right of life and death over his subjects,
which simplifies civil and criminal procedures.
The right of succession to the throne is perhaps less respected than all the
others. The rule is that the eldest son of the first wife should succeed his
father; but a king who never has fewer than 500 wives, cannot fail to have a
regiment of male children from among whose number the most ambitious
does not delay in disposing of all his rivals. Thus Djaka, who had killed his
father in order to take his place, was murdered by Dingaan his brother, who
was in return defeated and driven off by Panda. Once he was king, Panda had
all his other brothers put to death as well as all of his principal subjects who
bore him a grudge. Of course all the inhabitants of the mouzis belonging to
these victims were likewise assassinated to a man.
In everyday matters there is however a semblance of justice. Thus the king,
in the exercise of his powers, is always assisted by three counsellors whom he
consults before making a decision, but this is for form's sake only: these
unfortunates tremble before him and would not dare to gainsay him; the
assegai is ever present. There exists, however, alongside the barbarous
despotism, an ancient custom which recalls the patriarchal government of
primitive times. During the first days of December, when the maize is ripe, the
people have the right, for three days, to demand of the king an account of his
conduct. Then, at a great gathering, simple warriors come forward from the
ranks, brave the anger of the king, make outrageous reproaches, force him to
reply, threaten him even, and provoke him with scorn if his replies are not
satisfactory. At these stormy annual gatherings, the king's party and the
opposition are often on the point of attacking each other. But immediately
after the close of these 'people's assemblies', order is restored and matters go
on as usual.
If there is talk of war against a neighbouring tribe, the king calls a gathering
of notables, comprising all his captains, to the number of 3 000. He hears their
advice and bows to the opinion of the majority. If war is declared, he has the
right to take command of the army or to retire (which he usually does) to one
of his royal residences.
The territory is divided up under governors of his choosing, who are
accountable to him for their actions and who are responsible for all their
subordinates. The least negligence on their part is punishable by death. Are
the taxes proportional to the resources of the people? No, but to the needs of
the king who, like all kings, does not live cheaply. The women who have the
honour of living near the royal mouzi pay their dues in kind, by providing a
certain number of days labour on the king's lands. Men who can provide
neither cattle nor grain, the proletariat in fact, are at the disposal of the king,
Deux Ans aNatal 21

and must render any service which he might demand of them. Those who live
by hunting pay their dues in skins, furs and elephant tusks.
When a district has the reputation of producing good mabete or good maize,
the king orders the inhabitants to increase the production in order to pay the
Treasury a fixed quantity without affecting their own needs. If the population
cannot meet the demand, orders come from the king that the inhabitants
should pack up and go elsewhere. Dura lex, sed lex! A harsh law in our eyes,
but nobody dreams of avoiding it for the excellent reason that the assegai is an
irresistible argument. There are no extenuating circumstances, no exceptions,
one must obey!
This tax is what we would call direct taxation. Indirect taxation is even
simpler if that is possible. If it happens, and it often does, that as a result of
excessive consumption, the herds of the king are too much reduced,
messengers are sent out to the richest captains to invite them in the king's
name to make over a certain number of horned beasts in the king's favour, a
number fixed in advance to avoid misunderstandings. It is a sort of 'voluntary'
tax that must be paid immediately on pain of death. In a case of emergency,
the king simply confiscates without warning, according to his needs.
Historians seem to agree, and I do not really know why, in ridiculing that
poor Roman emperor Domitian who amused himself by killing flies in his
moments of leisure; an innocent pastime for an emperor. Panda is not so easily
amused. When, like Neree of old, he has counted his herds, reviewed his
troops, ordered his women to sing and dance, he does not know what to do, if
he has no neighbouring tribe to conquer. Then he invents a thousand
phantoms: 'Such and such a captain', he says to himself, 'wishes to kill me.' At
night he, like Pygmalion, is a prey to the most terrible dreams. And the next
morning, to put an end to the nightmare which haunts him, he surrounds the
mouzi of the captain who bears him a grudge, sets it alight and kills the
inhabitants. A few days later, the herds of the victim arrive at the royal kraal
and Panda, watching them file past, seems to breathe more easily: his heart is
lightened ... and his conscience is heavier.
The Zoulas have no religious belief or ceremony. It is only since 1824 that
they have known that there is a God. An Englishman, Farewell, was the first
to tell them these glad tidings, of which they take no heed. If by chance they
talk of it - Kospezou they say, which means Lord on high.
It is a mistake to give the name of priest to the iniangas [doctors] who claim
to heal the ills of body and soul, and who know how to exploit certain
superstitions. Thus when a poor patient appeals to him, the inianga, instead of
feeling his pulse and making him put out his tongue according to ancient and
solemn practice, simply says in oracular tones, 'It is your dead brother living
under the ground who is the cause of the sickness you suffer from.' The
remedy is simple: sacrifice a cow to the shades of the dead brother and feast
the bystanders. This is the remedy for all evils, which sometimes succeeds, as
distraction is the best means of dispelling anxiety and relieving pain. Are our
European doctors not doing the same when they send their patients to the
seaside, the Pyrenees or elsewhere?
If, in spite of the universal panacea, the patient dies, he is buried, just like
Monsieur de Marlborough*, isn't he? Well, that is where you are wrong,
because he is not buried at all. The family and friends of the deceased, those

* The Duke of Marlborough immortalised in the burlesque song 'Marlborough se vafen Guerre'.
22 Deux Ans aNatal

who have generally taken part in the feast prescribed by the inianga, remove
the body by means of ropes or branches, taking care not to touch it, and carry
it some distance from the mouzi, and place it in a gully or in some thick
bushes. The next day nothing remains: the hyenas have tidied up.
Talking of iniangas, 1 saw a strange sight one day, a woman on her knees
appeared to be absorbed in the contemplation of a calabash surmounted by a
sculptured head with two eyes made of red seeds. Numerous glass necklaces
adorned the neck of this hideous fetish. 1 asked the woman what it
represented.
'It is my child whom you see there', she said. 'I am caring for him so that
he will grow big.'
'Have you many like that one?'
'No, he is the only one. 1 have never had another.'
'But what a strange idea to take care of a calabash as if it were a child.'
'It is on the orders of the inianga whom 1 consulted so that 1 might have a
child like all the other women. He made me this one.'
'At least the consultation must not have cost you too much?'
'A cow - that is the fixed price.'
1 picked up the calabash-child; it weighed 25 pounds. The calabash was full
of iron ore.
And 1 pitied this poor woman who loaded her 'child' onto her back,
according to the custom of that country, wrapped in an apron tied at the waist
and the neck. She went calmly on her way, as happy as if she carried the fruit
of her womb.
My first impulse was to blame the inianga for having so cruelly abused the
credulity of this poor creature: but on consideration, 1 believed that 1
understood the intenton of this Cafre philosopher, 'Go woman, carry your
burden, and when you have learnt what it is to care for a child, you will no
longer torment me to find the means of bearing one.'
One must admit that the inianga's advice was well worth a cow.
(To be concluded)
 23

The Journal ofWilliam

Clayton Humphreys:

Port Natal to the Zulu Country

August-October 1851

Introduction
Humphreys' life and career

William Clayton Humphreysl was born in Liverpool in 1829. In April 1851, he

emigrated to Natal as part of a private immigration scheme aboard the lane
Morice, arriving in Port Natal on 9 July 1851. Humphreys spent his first few
weeks in Natal accompanying a Mr Holden on a hunting and trading
expedition to Zululand. 2 During this trip, Humpreys kept a detailed journal of
his experiences in Zululand. 3 Little else is known of Humphreys' South
African career until the year 1857, by which time he had become Town
Treasurer in Durban, one of the first people to hold this post. In the same
year, he married Mary Elizabeth Benbow who had come to Natal from
Liverpool. Humphreys remained Town Treasurer until 1864 and there is
another gap in his career until 1868, when he moved to Verulam. He moved
his family to the Cape during the 1870s and eventually settled in Oudtshoorn
where he died in 1885.

The Manuscript
Humphreys' account of his hunting and trading trip to Zululand contains
interesting information on a number of topics. Material has been selected for
this extract to cover the various issues he described, such as the variety of
game encountered, the personalities he met in the Zulu kingdom and the
mission station where he and Holden based their hunting. Humphreys also
made an effort to learn some of the Zulu language and he included a list of
vocabulary at the end of his journal.
In this extract, nineteenth century phonetic spellings of Zulu words and
names have been retained as Humphreys used them, while modern
orthography has been used in the explanatory footnotes.
Holden's and Humphreys' expedition into Zululand was one instance of an
increasing trend during the mid-nineteenth century. Between 1849 and 1851,
24 William Clayton Humphreys

some 5000 new British immigrants came to Natal and this influx intensified
the trade between Port Natal and the interior of the Zulu state to such an
extent, that after 1840, Zululand became increasingly reliant on imports.4
These Natal traders wanted cattle from Zululand, and the Zulu monarch,
Mpande kaSenzangakhona, objected strongly to his subjects negotiating with
the traders and selling cattle to Natal against his orders. This eventually
resulted in the balance of cattle shifting from Zululand to Natal by the late
1840s. 5 By the 1860s, these cattle depletions had caused a serious resource
crisis, worsened by the introduction of cattle 'lung-sickness' (bovine pleuro­
pneumonia) during the mid-1850s. 6
With the escalating number of white hunters entering Zululand, hunting
also passed from the control of the Zulu rulers and the destruction of game
added to the resource shortage. 7 The settlers hunted indiscriminately over the
entire Natal-Zululand region with the result that by the 1870s, many species
such as lion and elephant, had been entirely destroyed. 8 This situation was
made worse by the fact that no protective legislation was passed by the Colony
of Natal until 1866. 9 The indigenous vegetation was also severely exploited but
as timber was vital to the colonial economy, a proclamation was made as early
as 1853 regarding its conservation.lO In the first entries of his journal,
Humphreys described the relative abundance of both flora and fauna in 1851:
'Port Natal for 15 miles from the coast has the appearance of a dense
forest full of fine timber (while) the country a short distance inland
abounds in elephants, leopards and other animals. '11

Mpande's Zulu Kingdom

The Zulu king Mpande kaSenzangakhona, had defeated his half-brother
Dingane in 1840 and since that time had been steadily consolidating his
control within the Zulu stateY By the late 1840s, Mpande was probably at the
height of his power and during the early 1850s was contemplating the external
consolidation of Zululand. 13 Humphreys' comment on the Zulu monarch was
a typical colonial assessment.
'the country belongs to his highness King Panda, one of the most cruel,
bloodthirsty and despotic monarchs I ever heard of. He can muster
50000 warriors and is continually quarrelling and fighting with the
neighbouring nations. '14
Mpande in fact possessed considerable diplomatic qualities, and succeeded in
manoeuvring both internal and external forces to his own gain. On his
accession he formed an immediate diplomatic alliance with the British on his
southern border, and in 1847 he had repudiated the Klip River agreement
with the Transvaal Boers in order to retain British favour .15 During 1851,
Mpande sent an army against the Pedi in the north-eastern Transvaal, but the
reasons for and outcome of this engagement are unclear. 16

Norwegian Missionaries in Zululand

In 1845, Mpande had refused to allow the Norwegian mISSIOnary, Hans
Schreuder, to establish a station in Zululand. By 1849, however, Mpande felt
powerful enough to admit missionaries to his kingdom and following
William Clayton Humphreys 25

Schreuder's successful medical treatment of Mpande, the Norwegian

missionaries built a mission station at Empangeni which was situated near
Mpande's royal capital, Nodwengu. 17 During their trip into Zululand, Holden
and Humphreys lived at Schreuder's mission for some time and used it as a
base for their hunting and trading activities.

FOOTNOTES (INTRODUCTION)

1 I would like to thank the William Humphreys' Art Gallery in Kimberely, for providing me
with information about the Humphreys family. William Clayton Humphreys' grandson
(1889-1965) founded the Kimberely Art Gallery. See the Diamond Fields Advertiser, 27 July
1965: Obituary.
Private information (October 1988) from Mr Aubrey Humphreys.
3 I would like to thank Spencer Womack for making Humphreys' unpublished manuscript
available for this article.
4 See P. Colenbrander 'External exchange and the Zulu kingdom' in W. Guest and J. Sellers
(eds), Enterprise and Exploitation in a Victorian Colony. Aspects of the Economic and Social
History ofColonial Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1985), pp. 108-109.
5 P. Kennedy, 'Mpande and the Zulu Kingship' in Journal of Natal and Zulu History, 4 (1981),
p.36.
6 Colenbrander, 'External exchange', p. 110.
7 Ibid.,p.109.
8 B. Ellis, The impact of white settlers on the Natural Environment of Natal, 1845-1870', in
Guest and Sellers (eds), Enterprise and Exploitation, pp. 75-78, 92.
9 Ibid.,p.78.
10 Ibid.
11 Unpublished manuscript ofWilliam Humphreys, entry dated 'July 1851'.
12 P. Colenbrander, 'Some reflections on the kingship of Mpande' (Paper given at a Conference
on Natal and Zulu History, University of Natal, Durban, 1985), p. 5; Kennedy, 'Mpande and
the Zulu kingship', pp. 28-31; D.R. Edgecombe and J. Wright, 'Mpande kaSenzangakhona'
in c.c. Saunders (ed.), Black leaders in Southern AJrican History (London, 1979), p. 53;
P. Maylam, A history oJthe AJrican people ofSouth Africa (Cape Town, 1986), pp. 70-72.
13 Ibid.
14 Unpublished manuscript ofWilliam Humphreys, entry dated 'July 1851'.
15 Kennedy, 'Mpande and the Zulu kingship', pp. 31-35.
16 Colenbrander, 'Some reflections on the kingship of Mpande', pp. 8-9.
17 P. Hernaes and J. Simensen, The Zulu kingdom and the Norwegian missionaries, 1845-1880'
(Paper given at a conference on Natal and Zulu history, University of Natal, Durban, 1985),
pp. 3-5; A. Winquist, Scandinavians and South Africa. Their impact on cultural, social and
economic development before 1900 (Cape Town, 1978), pp. 94-97.

JULIE PRIDMORE

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF

WILLIAM CLAYTON HUMPHREYS, 1851

Note: Humphreys recorded that he left Holden's home at Sea Cow Lake on
18 August and reached the Umvoti 'location' on 20 August.

20 A ugust
There are hundreds of kraals on the Umvoti. It is a missionary station and as
usual the kafirs there who call themselves Christians l are more inhospitable
26 William Clayton Humphreys

and saucy than any other. They would not give us any milk or beef though they
had been killing an ox that afternoon.

23 August
Saw a great number of reed bucks and other game and about 2 pm arrived at
the river Tugella the boundary between Zulu Country and the Colony of
Natal. 2 It is the widest and fullest river in the colony and abounds in alligators
and hippopotami.

25 August
Inspanned at sun rise and proceeded, fell in with two deserters from Panda's
army, escaping for the kafir location on the Umvoti. 3 Saw an eland close to the
cart - it was as large as an English ox and the handsomest beast I ever saw.
We also saw a great number of tiger tracks and also the tracks of elephants
and buffalo. The elephants could not have been far off and had we guns we
might have had a slap at some. Slept in the bush and was much disturbed with
wolves and hyenas which kept prowling about and making a most hideous
noise the whole night through.

26 August
About 2 pm arrived at the first kraal in Zulu Country. The Zulus were
extremely kind, giving us as much amas 4 and new milk as we wanted. We
trekked on and at sundown arrived at Mr Schroeder, a Norwegian missionary
having travelled 30 miles since morning. 5

27August
Rose at sunrise and took a walk to look at the country which was very hilly and
bushy. On my way back I perceived some of the natives running towards me at
full speed. I perceived it was about a dozen Zulus chasing another who was
certainly running for his life. It appeared that the one who was trying to escape
was believed to be an Umtanganti or evil spirit6 and the others had gone to his
kraal to murder him but he ran out and when about 100 yards from me one of
the pursuers threw his assegai which entered the man's neck and brought him
down he was then murdered with knob kerries or sticks with large heads.

28August
Began to feel very unwelJ.7 The missionary gave me medicine which did me a
little good. The heat here on the hills is almost unbearable during the day and
at night I cannot keep myself warm. I have seen the thermometer vary more
than 40 degrees the same day. Bartered with some Zulus for a cow and young
ox today. Three of our kafirs went over the country to trade for cattle, they
each took as much goods as they could carry.
William Clayton Humphreys 27

29August
Rose at 7 am after passing a sleepless night and prepared for service. At about
10 o'clock a Zulu boy went on all the surrounding hills with a Chinese gong
and struck it for about 5 minutes on each; in a short time the Zulus began to
assemble until they numbered 163, principally females, many had come a long
way. It was one of the most interesting sights I ever witnessed. They squatted
all together on the grass in front of the hut and service commenced by the
missionary praying, he afterwards read a chapter from the Bible (in the Zulu
language of course) and they afterwards sung a hymn. The missionary then
put up a placard with the Zulu alphabet on and they pronounced each letter
after him.8

30August
About a dozen Zulus came this morning to be doctored by the missionary. He
gave them medicine enough to physic a horse. There are on average I should
say 20 come every morning to be doctored. Y

1 September
If I had been well I might have plenty of sport for there is any quantity of game
about and the missionary has two first rate guns.

12 September
Am now beginning to feel stronger, went this morning to a Dutchman's wagon
that was outspanned about two miles off. Got a good breakfast there of sea
cow. He shot the sea cow last night. He let me have about a dozen pounds of
it. This afternoon saw a white hunter who had been here seven months and
had the tusks of seven elephants he had shot.

13 September
The missionary told me that the walk would not do me any harm so I
determined to pay a visit to Noncalass one of the greatest chiefs in Zulu
country.1O I was told his kraal was eight miles off and I started about 9 am
taking my pistols and a soldier's bayonet, together with a good assegai. I
eventually arrived at the kraal at about 4 pm and was surprised to see a larger
place than I ever saw before in the Zulu country. Noncalass had not less than
2000 head of beautiful cattle besides sheep and goats. He had about 200 wives
and 300 or 400 children. He was exceedingly kind to me and treated me to a
pot of thin amas with boiled mabele 11 in which I made a first rate meal of and
afterwards drunk more than a quart of tchualla or beer. Many of his wives and
children had never seen a white man before. After they had become a little
more used to me they all gathered round. The old chief and his head men
examined the pistols and bayonet. I was offered an ox for the latter but it was
not mine and for the former I believe I could have got four or five cows
although the pistols were not worth more than as many shillings but besides
28 William Clayton Humphreys

there being a penalty for selling firearms to the kafirs I would never do so for
there is no knowing how soon they might be used against the whites. 12

17 September
I am now mending Mr Holden's tents to go further up the country with the
cart, we have been staying within 20 miles of Panda's kraal. 13 I would have
gone up to see him if I had been well. Proceeded directly after breakfast and
about 1 o'clock outspanned at a kraal belonging to Panda in which he keeps a
regiment of soldiers. 14 I had no idea that the Zulus ever had such a kraal as the
one I was now at. It was built up as the rest but the outer fence was fully a mile
and greater in circumference and enclosed about 1 000 huts. About a score of
the soldiers came to the cart but they were a saucy lot of devils and most of
them drunk with tchaulla. We met the queen of the kraal (one of Panda's
wives)15 and she was very kind and agreeable but did not give us anything.

18 September
Started on our way to Mondi's (a great chief who is sick and who the
missionary treats).16 About 4 o'clock we arrived at a large kraal belonging to
Mondi where we outspanned, and slept in the cart.

20 September
About 2 o'clock this afternoon the chief Mondi and his retinue appeared. He
shook hands with me and said he was very glad I came to see him. He is very ill
indeed. I think he cannot live long; he spits blood and his breathing is quite
audible. He is of royal blood about 6 feet 4 in. high and if well would be a
remarkably fine looking man. He lay in front of his hut in the sun all day
looking at his cattle. He has about a thousand in that kraal of the finest cows
and oxen I have seen. In the evening he gave us an ox to kill. This evening a
messenger from Panda came with a proclamation ordering every body capable
of bearing arms to report to his kraal as he was going to warY We could not
learn who he is going to fight with and Mr Holden is in a terrible fright as he
says he is sure it is with the whites if so we are in for it and no mistake. Mr
Holden has determined to pack up and start back again by daylight in the
morning.

FOOTNOTES (JOURNAL)
1 In 1847, the American missionary Grout had left Zululand and established a mission station in
the newly-established Umvoti Location. The American missionaries laid down strict rules for
their converts and most of the Nguni people in the area were, for this reason, unwilling to
become amaKholwa. See N. Etherington, The Rise of the Kholwa in South East Africa:
African Christian Communities in Natal, Pondoland and Zululand, 1835-1880 (Michigan,
1971), pp. 83-85.
2 The Thukela (Tugela) boundary was official from 1839, following Mpande's agreement with
the Natalia Volksraad after the defeat of Dingane. See P. Kennedy, The Fatal Diplomacy: Sir
Theophilus Shepstone and the Zulu Kings 1839--1879' (unpublished PhD thesis, University of
California, 1976), pp. 41,49,52; Kennedy, 'Mpande and the Zulu kingship', p. 29.
William Clayton Humphreys 29

3 The Umvoti Location was declared in March 1847, following West's 1846-IR47 Locations
Commission. E.H. Brookes and C. de B. Webb, A History of Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1965),
p. 27; Kennedy, The Fatal Diplomacy', p. 48.
4 i.e.amasiorsourmilk.
5 Holden and Humphreys stayed at Hans Schreuder's Norwegian Missionary Society station at
Empangeni.
6 An umThakathi is a person who uses supernatural forces for evil purposes. C. de B. Webh and
J. Wright (eds), The lames StuartArchive, VoU (Pietermaritzburg, 1976), p. xxiv.
7 Humphreys' illness, which he described as a 'severe chest cold', lasted from 28 August to 9
September.
H Schrcuder, while living in Natal in 1850, constructed a Zulu grammar as well as a
Zulu-Norwegian dictionary and a Zulu hymn book. Winquist, Scandinavians, p. 128.
9 Schreuder had considerable knowledge of medicine, and during his early years in Zululand,
spent much of his time treating the population near his mission station. See Winquist,
Scandinavians, pp. 127-128.
10 Nongalaza kaNondela, a prominent chief of the Nyandwini people, was Mpande's
commander-in-chief and had led Mpande's forces in the battle against Dingane at the
amaQongqo hills in 1840. Webb and Wright, The lames Stuart Archive, Vo!. U, p. 225; Vo!.
III, pp. 292-295.
11 i.e. amaBele or grain. Webb and Wright, The lames StuartArchive, Vo!. I, p. xxiii.
12 Before leaving Port Natal, Humphreys reported that 'Mr Holden told me such awful accounts
of the cruelty of the brutes that he almost frightened me from going'. See also introduction,
footnote 14.
13 i.e. Mpande's royal capital at Nodwengu.
14 Mpande had revitalized the amabutho system and built many new amakhanda near his
Nodwengu homestead. Colenhrander 'Some reflections on the kingship of Mp an de' , pp. 8-9.
15 A female relative of the king traditionally presided over an ikhanda and was particularly
charged with the distrihution of food and other provisions. Mpande had deliberately used
loyal relatives in positions of authority in order to ensure that his position was maintained.
Kennedy, 'Mpande and the Zulu kingship', p. 32; E. Krige, The Social System of the Zulus
(Pietermaritzburg, 1936), pp. 264-265.
16 'Mondi' is possibly Mundi kaTshangana kaJobe, one of Mpande's prominent izinduna. See
Wcbb and Wright, The lames StuartArchive, Vo!. HI, p. 258.
17 This call-up was for Mpande's campaign against the Pedi in the north-eastern Transvaal. See
Introduction, footnote 16.
30

Pietermaritzburg's Imperial
Postscript: Fort Napier
from 1910 to 1925
Introduction
For 71 of the 150 years of Pietermaritzburg's recorded history, Fort Napier
and its imperial garrison was one of the most significant institutions in the city
and indeed in the whole colony.] A.F. Hattersley, and many other writers
following in his footsteps, have described the history of the garrison with a
heavy emphasis on the social, sporting and cultural activities of the officer
corps in the life of the colonial elite during the heyday of Victorian N ataI.2 The
role of the garrison during its twilight years, particularly during the period
between the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 and the departure
of the imperial troops at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 has been
seriously neglected and there has been little discussion of the subsequent fate
of Fort Napier.
Natal was no longer a separate colony within the British Empire and
Pietermaritzburg was no longer a colonial capital. English-speaking white
Natalians felt threatened in a largely Afrikaner-dominated South Africa.
Pietermaritzburg, in particular, suffered a loss of status and an economic
decline. Political power and bureaucratic activity were slipping away to
Pretoria and this resulted in some suspicion towards the central government
and a clinging to the imperial past.' One of the most important factors in
providing a sense of continuity with the past and an imperial link in the present
was the continued presence of a British regiment in garrison at Fort Napier.

The withdrawal ofthe garrison: 1910-1914

The creation of a unified South African state in 1910 meant that the imperial
government could at last realize its long-cherished objective of making the
whites of South Africa defend themselves. Moves to co-ordinate the defence
of the four colonies had been made as early as 1907 and after Union they came
to fruition in 1912 when the Defence Act was passed. 4 From the moment of
Union on 31 May 1910 the withdrawal ofthe British garrison from Fort Napier
was simply a matter of time. The Pietermaritzburg City Council had early
warning of impending changes in April 1910 when the Town Clerk received a
letter from the Officer Commanding the Royal Engineers in South Africa
objecting to the payment of a fixed charge of £500 per annum for five years for
sewage removal from Fort Napier on the grounds that by the end of that
Imperial Postscript 31

period the barracks would be likely to contain ' ... only a few details or
caretakers'.s Between 1909 and 1913 Fort Napier was garrisoned by the 1st
Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment under the command of Lt. -Col. L.N.
Warden. The regiment, as its garrison predecessors had done since 1845,
played a prominent part in the social life of the city. The regimental band
performed in Alexandra Park, the drums beat the 'Retreat' for the public and
regimental sports and 'other entertainments', in the words of the Deputy
Mayor, Clr Hugh Parker, 'greatly contributed towards the pleasure and
amusement of the citizens'. 6
At a superficial level these activities of the Wiltshire Regiment can be
regarded simply as social amusements intended harmlessly to occupy bored
troops and amuse pleasure-seeking civilians. On the other hand , as Denis
Schauffer has pointed out, Martin West used the theatrical and social talents
of the 45th Regiment in an effort to woo the Voortrekkers in 1845 and gain
their support for the new colonial administration in Natal. 7 Thirty years later,
Sir Garnet Wolseley used his coterie of staff officers and the brass band of the
garrison to dazzle and overawe colonial legislators into passing a new colonial
constitution .8
The City Council of Pietermaritzburg was clearly following well-established
precedent when it paraded the officers and men of the 1st Wiltshire Regiment
in bandstands, on sports fields and around town at every available opportunity
to counteract local fears. Even the rowdiness of the troops in the city's bars
and houses of lesser repute was accepted in good humour by most of the
townspeople, particularly, of course, by those in the liquor trade. 'The
Tommies' , reminisced the old timers, 'kept the town alive'.9
By the time that the Wiltshire Regiment was replaced by the 1st Battalion of
the South Staffordshire Regiment, considerable changes in the status and
duties of the imperial garrison had occurred. The Union Defence Act of 1912

The city centre on 1 June 1914. Note the garrison NCO watching the motorcyclist
(Mr B. Adams) racing down Commercial Road .
(Photograph: Natal Museum)
32 Imperial Postscript

had established a South African military force responsible for what would now
be called 'national security'. The allocation of duties to the Union Defence
Force clearly illustrates the nature of South Africa as a 'conquest' state: the
permanent force consisted of five regiments of the South African Mounted
Rifles which were given both military and police duties. 10
The imperial garrisons were controlled from Pretoria and the troops
stationed at outposts such as Fort Napier were allocated duties or sent on
manoeuvres according to priorities decided upon by the General Officer
Commanding at Roberts Heights (now Voortrekkerhoogte). Locally this
affected the 'Knots', as the South Staffordshire Regiment was nicknamed,
who were not able to provide as many band performances in Pietermaritzburg
as the Wiltshire Regiment had done, because their bandsmen were detached
on duty elsewhere for much of 1913. 11
As war clouds gathered over Europe in July 1914 the 'Knots' set off from
Pietermaritzburg on 17 July for the annual manoeuvres near Potchefstroom. 12
Only administrative and auxiliary troops were left at Fort Napier to use this
locally quiet period by enjoying outings to the Howick Falls.u The looming
crisis necessitated the cancellation of the Potchefstroom manoeuvres and
the South Staffordshire Regiment returned to Pietermartizburg on Thursday,
6 August, infected with 'war-fever' and ready to 'fight anywhere and
everywhere' , according to the newspaper columnist 'Pipeclay'. 14
The following week saw frantic activity in Pietermaritzburg as the garrison
prepared itself for imminent conflict. On Friday, 7 August, the troops were
granted leave and the Saturday edition of the Natal Witness coyly reported
that the 'men of the garrison were prominent in the city' the previous night. l )
On the following Monday the garrison commander, Lt.-Col. R.M. Ovens,
stated that the regiment was preparing to move and the press added that the
officers and men were beginning to sell their possessions. Queues of troops
formed at the General Post Office as soldiers withdrew their savings from the
Government Savings Bank and the city began to feel the first economic effects
of the withdrawal of the garrison. 16 Meanwhile crowds gathered outside the
offices of the Natal Witness for the latest war news or in the Market Square to
listen to patriotic speeches and to the band of the Natal Carbineers play
rousing music. 17
Organizations which were closely associated with the garrison began
holding farewell functions. On the evening of Monday, 10 August, the Good
Templars met at the 'Peace and Harmony' lodge and passed a resolution
thanking Lt.-Col. Ovens for his support for the 'Temperance and Good
Templary cause'. Ovens was described as the 'finest champion' that the cause
had ever had in the Pietermaritzburg garrison. IS Alan Skelley attributes the
widespread drunkenness in the British army to a lack of basic amenities and
illustrates the attempts of evangelical religious movements to wean soldiers off
alcohol, provide them with alternative recreation and offer them psycho­
sociological support. 19
On the evening of Wednesday, 12 August 1914, a huge patriotic meeting
was held at the City Hall and addressed by Natal notables such as the
Provincial Administrator, Charles Smythe, and P.H. Taylor, the Mayor of
Pietermaritzburg. Before the meeting began the band of the South
Staffordshire Regiment, dressed in service khaki and not in scarlet, beat the
'Retreat' in front of the City Hall to add to the crowd's patriotic fervour.
The following morning's edition of the Natal Witness, with a front page
Imperial Postscript 33

scarred with the black bars of military censorship, mourned the end of the
'Retreat' ceremonies and the imminent departure of the garrison. 20
On Thursday, 13 August, the furniture and effects of officers and men were
auctioned at Fort Napier at a sale that attracted the biggest crowd ever to
attend an auction in the city. More than £300 was raised during keen bidding,
and among the items sold was a 'rally cart' that raised 20 guineas and a polo
pony that sold for 15 guineas. 21

Fort Napier abandoned. These two photographs were taken in 1914 after the garrison
had withdrawn and show opposite sides of the old barrack square built by the 45th
Regiment in the 1840s.
(a) South-west angle of the square. Original Officers' Mess on left and original
Officers' quarters on the right.
(b) North-east angle. Most of these buildings have been demolished (note the wagon
tracks) .
(Photographs: Natal Museum-original by Cl. Bird in 1914)
34 Imperial Postscript

Wartime censorship prevented the press from publishing details of troop

movements, so the exact date that the South Staffordshire Regiment left
Pietermaritzburg cannot be determined from a study of the Natal Witness. On
the night of Wednesday, 19 August, the regimental band gave a farewell
performance in the City Hall to a packed and emotional house which stood for
the national anthem and gave three rousing cheers for the band. The following
day's paper also carried an interview with Lt.-Col. Ovens on the history of the
Staffords in which he pointed out that the regiment first served in South Africa
in 1806 when the Cape was occupied permanently by the British. 22
On Saturday, 22 August, the editor of the Natal Witness, Horace Rose,
touched on the real fears that the withdrawal of the imperial garrison had
aroused in the minds of the colonists:
In South Africa, in the event of the withdrawal of Imperial troops for
service elsewhere the question of the native population at once assumes
an importance beyond the normal. So far it is true that from the natives
and from the coloured people nothing has been heard save expressions
of loyalty and devotion, but it is an axiom of South African policy that
behind the amenities of a fractional civilised community must always
stand the power of the rifle to enforce law and order. 23
Rose reassured his readers that the Union's forces were adequate for this
purpose, but added that the Government should use the Native Affairs
Department to satisfy 'native curiosity' before it developed into a 'sense of
uneasiness or apprehension'. 24
The fears of the editor were doubtless the fears of many white Natalians,
namely physical insecurity in the face of a numerically superior black
population. Hamish Patterson lays great stress on the military weakness of the
colony of Natal and of white settlers vis-a-vis the black population,
particularly before 1879. 25 Brookes and Webb point out that with only a small
garrison, colonial rule in Natal depended on 'moral sanctions' and add that the
fear of 'Native rising' was strong, enduring and at times almost
'pathological'.26
The situation in Natal and South Africa in 1914 differed radically from the
situation in the 1870s: there was no longer a strong Zulu kingdom and the
frontiers had been 'closed' Y The single battalion at Fort N apier was a
reassuring symbol of a worldwide imperial power supporting the local settler
structures, but it was not essential to settler security. Nevertheless the
withdrawal of the garrison coincided with a titanic struggle in Europe that
Great Britain was by no means certain of winning. Hence the immediate call
from the editor of the Witness for the official manipulation of the flow of
information about the war to the black population.

Intimidation and the internment camp: 1914-1919

On the same day that the last major news reports on the Fort Napier garrison
appeared in the Natal Witness, there is a brief reference to an event in
Johannesburg that was to have important repercussions in Pietermaritzburg
and at Fort Napier in particular. The newspaper reported that reservists in the
Austrian and German armed forces were being detained at the Milner Park
showgrounds. 2H The Union Government arranged for the detention of enemy
aliens at various places throughout the Union during August and September
Imperial Postscript 35

1914. As the news from the Western Front grew more dismal for the British,
so the situation within the Union deteriorated and in mid-September rebellion
broke out in the Afrikaner heartland. Whether or not this caused the Union
Government to move the internees to more 'loyal' parts of the country is not
entirely clear but in 1916 the Prime Minister, Louis Botha, informed a
Pietermaritzburg deputation that the Government had selected Fort Napier as
an internment camp because Natal was the 'most British portion' of the
country.29
On 11 September 1914 the internment camp was moved from the Milner
Park showgrounds to Roberts Heights and internees from other parts of the
country were also concentrated there. Over the weekend of 24--25 October the
internees at Roberts Heights were packed into trains and moved to
Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Witness reported that a commotion occurred at
the Pietermaritzburg railway station on Sunday, 25 October, as a train,
containing 2000 men arrived from Pretoria. Col. Weighton, the Officer
Commanding the Pietermaritzburg Defence Rifle Association, caIled out his
men to guard the prisoners as they marched, wearing aspects of 'sullen
weariness', from the station to Fort Napier. The city's Central Gaol was
cleared of its supplies of blankets and mattresses as empty British barrack
rooms were turned into quarters for the King's enemies. 30 Throughout
October German internees arrived in dribs and drabs from various parts of the
Union and from other British colonies. 31
On 27 October a further commotion occurred as the city was swept by
rumours that the German prisoners at Fort Napier were attempting a mass
break-out and that men of the Rifle Association were required to prevent it.
Hundreds of middle-aged and middle-class white Pietermaritzburg men
poured up Church and Longmarket streets to mill about the closed gates of the
Fort. Col. Manning, the officer-in-charge ofthe internees, tartly informed the
press that there had been no break-out and that he had merely requested extra
guards as a precaution, but twenty times the required number of guards had
appearedY The slightly hysterical tenor of Pietermaritzburg patriotic feelings
is clearly discernible in this incident. Two days later the Rifle Association held
a mass meeting at the showgrounds and Col. Weighton had more than enough
support to provide Col. Manning with 50 extra guards for Fort Napier and to
station a further 25 men at strategic points around the city. 33 These
precautions lasted for as long as the rebellion lasted and the patriotic feelings
of the citizens of Pietermaritzburg were constantly whipped up by strident
pro-British, anti-German, and anti-Afrikaner rebel articles. The disorderly
rabble that pitched up at the gates of Fort Napier on 27 October 1914 was an
unpleasant foretaste of the problems that were to afflict the city the following
year and much of the raw emotional atmosphere that pervaded the city can be
blamed very largely on the editor of the Natal Witness, Horace Rose.
A.T. van Wyk has described Rose as having the most vitriolic pen in Natal.
He 'propagated with assiduous zeal his belief in the omnipotence of the British
Empire and the supremacy of the British race ... and bedevilled relations
between the English and Afrikaners' .34 But it is clear from a study of the Natal
Witness during the First World War that the pages of the newspaper reek of a
xenophobia directed more widely than just at Afrikaners. These attitudes
were prevalent in the British press as well, but in Pietermaritzburg they
contributed to the most unfortunate consequences.
The internees at Fort Napier were originally entirely men of military age,
36 Imperial Postscript

German internees in Fort Napier in 1915.

(Photograph: Natal Archives)

but as the Union Government grew more alarmed by the rebellion, the net
was spread more widely and German settlers of long standing were swept up in
it. A pathetic group of near-destitute wives and children crept into the city
seeking lodgings and charity so that they could be near their husbands and
fathers confined in the Fort. These unfortunate victims of a conflict not of their
making were snubbed, ignored or patronized by the whites of the city
according to temperament or affiliation.
On 7 May 1915 an event occurred that resulted in the spread of terror
throughout Pietermaritzburg: the Cunard liner Lusitania, carrying 1200
passengers, was sunk by the German submarine U20, off the Old Head of
Kinsale on the Southern Irish coast. Allied and American opinion was
appalled, but many Germans, within and without the Central Powers,
celebrated a great naval victory. The British propaganda machine portrayed
the sinking as an act of terrible savagery and the gutter press whipped up an
intense anti-German feeling among a public whose nerves were already made
raw by war. 35 In Pietermaritzburg, Horace Rose's Natal Witness was as crude
in its anti-German feelings as the worst British tabloids.
On 12 May, under the headline 'Enemies in our midst', Rose demanded a
mass meeting to condemn the sinking of the Lusitania and accused the
Government of being lax in its dealings with enemy nationals in the Union:
Our reply to the crime of the Lusitania should be an instant and
overwhelming agitation for every German enemy in the Union to be
forthwith interned and for all trade relationships with Germans at large
to be stopped immediately. 36
Imperial Postscript 37

It appears that the most virulently anti-German section of the community

were the white English-speaking railway workers, who petitioned the Mayor
demanding a public meeting and the internment of all Germans. 37 Men and
women suspected of having German sympathies were harassed in their homes
and workplaces and those who worked on the railways suffered acutely.
Rumours that local Germans had celebrated the sinking of the Lusitania swept
the city, but no public figures used the press to appeal for calm. On the
contrary, there is evidence that civic and political leaders were involved in the
incitement of the crowds. 38
In these circumstances the riot that occurred in Pietermaritzburg, on the
evening of Friday, 13 May 1915, was inevitable. At 7 pm. an organized,
purposeful crowd of 400 men marched down Church Street smashing the
windows of shops and offices owned by people suspected of being pro­
German or simply having German-sounding names. The crowd moved from
Niesewand the optician, to Schwake's jewellers, to Baumann's Bakery in
Boshoff Street (where they set fire to several carts), to Timm Bros and finally
to Hanover House where it was rumoured that Germans had cheered the
sinking of the Lusitania. The mood became uglier and uglier and the police
finally intervened decisively and managed to prevent the loss of life and
further destruction. 39
On the following evening a mass meeting was held in the City Hall and fiery
resolutions were passed demanding that all suspected German sympathizers
be dismissed from government, municipal or other public employment; that
all their business ventures be boycotted and that they be interned at Fort
Napier. 40 As a result of the meeting the civic leaders and principal notables
formed a Citizens' Vigilance Committee to give effect to the resolutions
passed at the public meeting. It appears from the minutes of the committee
that on the one hand the Mayor and other leaders hoped to use the committee
to cool down inflamed feelings and protect victims of intimidation, while on
the other hand the committee was also used to conduct a witch-hunt into the
private lives and family ties of suspected Germans or German sympathizers.
At the first meeting of the committee on 17 May, the Mayor, Cllr. P. H.
Taylor, was elected Chairman. Other members included the Deputy Mayor,
ClIr. Sanders, the Town Clerk, Cllrs. W.l. O'Brien and D. Paton, the Hon.
l.G. Maydon, F.S. Tatham KC, Col. l. Weighton (of the Defence Rifle
Association), and Messrs D.F. Forsyth, A.E. Hirst, G.B. Anderson, l.C.
Howard and E.W. Young. Messrs Anderson, Howard and Young appear to
have been the spokesmen for the inflamed railwaymen. The committee set
itself the task of inviting all 'male adult citizens of German, Austrian or
Turkish descent ... for the last two generations' to give the committee 'full
particulars of their antecedents, including those in Government or Municipal
employment.' The committee decided to issue certificates, signed by the
Mayor and the Town Clerk, to those 'applicants' whose bona fides satisfied it.
The committee was unable, for legal reasons, to force the Corporation to
cancel immediately all licences granted to Germans or Austrians, but instead
passed a motion proposed by F.S. Tatham (a barrister), that ' ... so far as the
law allows, enemy subjects should be prevented from trading' and that it
should be the 'policy of the Union to restrict trading facilities to British
subjects'.41
The full investigations of the Vigilance Committee are a separate story, but
it is important to note the stress that city notables laid on the commercial
38 Imperial Postscript

activities of the Germans. Clearly patriotism was used to mask a greedy

attempt by elements in the city's business community to secure financial and
commercial advantages, such as licences previously granted to Germans, for
themselves.
A second important point that emerges from the minutes of the Vigilance
Committee is the extent to which people associated with the internees at Fort
Napier were victimized during this period of 'unrest'. At its meeting on 18
May 1915 the committee heard evidence of the wife and three children of an
internee being evicted from their lodgings because the landlady received
threats that her house would be burned down. The women and children were
given temporary shelter in Fort Napier, but permanent accommodation was
not available. 42 The City Solicitor, Mr A.O. Kufal, received threats, not only
because of his German name (although he was born in Ireland), but because
he acted as an interpreter for the internees. 43 On 20 May the Vigilance
Committee resolved that the wives and families of internees
... should be distributed, as far as possible amongst their own people at
New Germany, New Hanover, etc. and should be removed from
communities where the population is purely British in order to save
irritation, and for the sake of themselves. 44
The Vigilance Committee ceased meeting after a week of nightly sittings
and the tension in the city eased. One of the factors that contributed to this
was the success of the Union forces in conquering German South-West
Africa. 45
The following year trouble flared up again after Lord Kitchener was
drowned when HMS Hampshire was sunk. On this occasion the police and
civil authorities acted with greater speed and energy and forestalled the
demonstrations which apparently threatened the internees at Fort N apier as
well as the German civilians in the city. The Union Government was,
however, alarmed by the unrest and decided to move the internment camp
away from the city. This resulted in a high level delegation headed by Mr
Taylor, the Mayor, and including Messrs W.J. O'Brien and D.F. Forsyth
(formerly members of the Vigilance Committee) travelling to Pretoria to meet
the Prime Minister. The deputation informed General Botha that the
demonstration would not have resulted in an attack on Fort Napier and
stressed that the 'overwhelming majority' of the citizens were opposed to
violence. The Prime Minister was also assured that the local authorities would
ensure the safety of the camp if it were permitted to remain in the city. 46 One
of the factors that was stressed in the meeting was the probable cost of
removing the prisoners to Kimberley (the proposed alternative site) and this
leads one to postulate that the real reason for the city notables urging the
government to retain the camp in Pietermaritzburg was economic: the camp
brought business to the city which replaced that lost when the garrison was
withdrawn. While the citizens of Pietermaritzburg were anxious to prevent
Germans from trading with them they did not want to lose the market that the
camp offered, even if the customers were German. The Government backed
down and the camp remained at Fort Napier until 1919 when the internees
were released and many were repatriated, willingly or unwillingly, to
Germany.
There were very few press reports on conditions in the internment camp and
as the records of the Commissioner for Enemy Subjects are only available in
Imperial Postscript 39

the Central Archives in Pretoria, it has not been possible to provide a

comprehensive picture of life in the camp. The 'camp captains' did, however,
submit representation to the House of Assembly's Select Committee on the
Enemies' Repatriation and Denaturalization Bill in 1919 and they hint at poor
housing, poor food and intense boredom. They are also quite explicit about
the financial hardship common to all internees and the discrimination suffered
by those who were released on parole. 47
The complaints of the camp captains are corroborated in the annual report
of the Medical Officer of Health for 1917-1918. He reported to the Mayor that
there was an outbreak of enteric fever at Fort Napier in January 1918 and that
approximately 30 internees were infected and 'two or three' died. He added
that the Union health authorities had concluded that the origins of the disease
and its spread were due to conditions in the camp itself.48

Thefateofthe Fort: 1919-1925

Once the internment camp was closed down in 1919, Fort Napier stood empty,
an embarrassment to the Imperial, Union and local authorities. The Union
Government permitted homeless ex-servicemen and their families to rent
some of the quarters, but no positive use could be found for the complex until
the Imperial Government transferred ownership of its properties in South
Africa to the Union Government. Negotiations began in earnest between the
Union and the British governments in 1921 and from the first the
Pietermaritzburg City Council asked William O'Brien (by this time a Member
of Parliament) to monitor the negotiations as they affected Fort N apier. 4~
Protracted negotiations followed between Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, Cape
Town and London. In November 1921, the Secretary for Defence, Sir Roland
Bourne, visited Pietermaritzburg and proposed that the City Council take
over the whole of Fort Napier (excluding a small area required by the
railways) and that in return the Corporation give the Defence Department
free use of land in the city on which a flight station and training camp would be
established. Services (such as electricity and water, etc.) and their supporting
buildings would also have to be supplied free by the Corporation. Sir Roland
aroused the Council's interest, but grave reservations were expressed over the
vagueness of the railway's requirements. 50
Here matters rested and the Council was given to understand that nothing
would be done until the Union Parliament passed the legislation that would
enable the government to take over the imperial properties. In early June
1922, O'Brien informed the City Council that the Bill was being considered by
Parliament and that he intended requesting the Minister of Defence to allow
the Council to acquire Fort NapierY Three weeks later, the Mayor, Cllr.
Sanders, reported hearing a rumour that the Government intended
establishing a mental hospital at Fort Napier and complained that no
consultations had taken place between the Government and the City Council.
Mr O'Brien was requested to investigateY
O'Brien's investigations uncovered an apparent conflict of interests
between various government departments: the Department of Defence
wished to negotiate with the City Council over the whole property, the
Department of the Interior (which administered mental hospitals) wanted all
the Methven Barracks; and the railways was stipulating its requirements
independently of both. S3
40 Imperial Postscript

On 31 July 1922, the Mayor called a special Council meeting and issued a
public statement summarizing Sir Roland Bourne's proposals and criticizing
the Union Goverment for unilaterally deciding to establish a mental hospital
at Fort Napier without consulting the CounciJ.54 Even this criticism failed to
elicit a coherent response from the government, but in December the Chief of
the General Staff of the UDF, Brigadier-General A.J. Brink, arrived in
Pietermaritzburg with new proposals for the Fort. Sir Roland Bourne's
proposals were to be regarded as 'entirely cancelled' and instead the Defence
Department was prepared to offer 1114 acres of the Fort Napier site and its
buildings to the City Council for £94145. This was practically the whole site,
but the offer was hedged with qualifications. 55
The Council mulled over the matter during the Christmas holidays, but in
January a letter arrived from Brigadier Brink stating that the original offer
contained certain regrettable errors and in fact the Defence Department could
only offer the Council 1010 acres of Fort Napier for £94145 and this sum
excluded the Polo Grounds which would have to be separately valued. This
letter virtually killed negotiations between the Council and the Government
and the whole matter was stood down sine die. 56 A year or so later, the Council
managed to acquire the Polo Grounds and in December 1924 a deputation of
tenants from Fort Napier begged the Council to provide them with alternative
accommodation because they would have to leave the Fort in February 1925
to make way for the mental hosptial. 57

The end of the beginning: Monument to the 45th Regiment in Fort

Napier Cemetery in 1914. A replica stands outside the City Hall
and this original monument has recently been tastelessly replaced
by a modern replica in the cemetery.
(Photograph: Natal Museum -original by c.l. Bird in 1914)
Imperial Postscript 41

Conclusion
For its 71 years as a military post, Fort Napier exercised a dominant influence
on the city's life and its physical position also enabled it to shape the human
geography of the city. Between 1910 and 1914 the garrison was a potent
symbol of past glories and the city's sentiments were sustained by the glitter of
garrison life. After the garrison departed Fort Napier acquired a new
symbolism and its German occupants became a focal point for bigotry and
intense racial hostility. After the Armistice the Fort became a political
embarrassment, but the City Council invested considerable time and effort in
attempting to acquire it, at great cost, for the city. However, bureaucratic
incompetence and Pretoria's double-dealing thwarted all their efforts. As the
tangle of red tape tightened, interest in Fort Napier waned and by the time the
mental hospital was established the garrison had become a ten-year-old
memory and the complex was no longer a focal point for imperial sentiment.
What is probably of even greater importance is the fact that Fort N apier no
longer provided the city's business sector with an important market and
ultimately, money mattered more than imperial sentiment or anti-German
hostility.

REFERENCES
1 This article is a revised version of a paper presented under the title, 'Fort Napier, from
imperial post to mental hospital 1910--1925' , at a workshop on 'Natal in the Union Period' held
by the Department of Historical Studies at thc University of Natal. Pietermaritzburg on 27-28
October 1988. The original paper should be consulted for an in-depth consideration of some of
the theoretical aspects of imperial military history.
2 For example. A.F. Hattersley, More annals of Natal (London 1936); Pietermaritzburg
panorama: a survey of one hundred years of an African city (Pietermaritzburg. 1938) and
Portrait of a city (Pietermaritzburg, 1951). A similar approach is followed in E.H. Brookes
and C. de B. Webb. A history of Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1965). For a recent work in the
Hattersley genre see Ruth Gordon, The place ofthe elephant (Pietermaritzburg, 1981).
1 See P.S. Thompson, 'Natal and the Union 1909-1939: an historiographical essay' and A.J. van
Wyk, 'Press, public and politics in Natal 1910-1915' in Natal and the Union, 1909-1939: A
col/ection ofpapers on affairs in Natal during the formative period ofthe Union of So uth Africa,
presented at a workshop at the University ofNatal, July 5-6 (Pietermaritzburg, 1978). See A.H.
Duminy, 'The "Natal Party", 1910' and T. Wilks, 'The smaller parties of Natal: 1909-1960' in
Natal, 1909-1961: A collection of papers on developments in Natal in the Union period,
presented at a workshop at the University of Natal, October 27-28, 1988 (Pietermaritzhurg,
1988). See also Brookes & Webb, Chaps. XXV, XXVI and XXVII (pp. 248-285).
4 R.J. Bouch(ed.),1nfantryinSouthAfrica lo52-1976(Pretoria,1977),p.50.
Archives of the Town Clerk of Pietermaritz/Jurg: Natal Archives: 31PMB 111117, Council
Minutes, 21 AprillYlO, p. 908.
6 Corporation Year Book 1912-13 (Pietermaritzburg, 1914): 'Regiments stationed at Fort
Napier', pp. 30-31. (Hereinafter referred to as CYB.)
7 D.L. Schauffer, The establishment of a theatrical tradition in Pietermaritzburg (unpub. PhD
thesis, 1979), pp. 9-12.
, John Benyon, Proconsul and paramountcy in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, 1980), p. 139;
Brookes & Webb, p. 120 and Adrian Preston (ed.), The South African diaries of Sir Garnet
Wolseley 1875 (Cape Town, 1971), p. 157.
'1 Natal Mercury: Pielermaritzburg centennial su.pplement (1938): Reminiscences of Messrs
Mockler and Froomberg, pp. 36-37.
10 Bouch, p. 50.
11 CYB 1912-1913,p.21.
12 Natal Witness, Sat.,July25, 1914, p. 2.
11 Ihid., Wed.,July 19,1914, p. 7.
14 Ibid.,Wed.,Aug.5,1914,p.7.
I' Ibid.Sat.,Aug.8,1914,p.5.
42 Imperial Postscript

16 Ibid., Tues., Aug. 11, 1914, p. 5.

17 Ibid., Mon., Aug. 10,1914, p. 5.
18Ibid.,Tues.,Aug.11,1914,p.5.
19 A.S. Skelley, The Victorian army at home (Montreal, 1977), pp. 143, 160-4 & 166.
20 Natal Witness, Thurs., Aug. 13, 1914, p. 6.
21 Ibid.,Fri.,Aug.14,1914,p.1.
22 Ibid., Thurs., Aug. 20, 1914, p. 5 (,Staffs' bands farewell) and p. 6 (Interview with Col.
Ovens). In Gordon, p. 116 the date of 14 August is given for the last 'Retreat' ceremony; R.G.
Crossley states that 12 August 1914 ' ... witnessed the final departure of the Imperial
Garrison, when the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment, after their drums had beaten
the Retreat in front of the City Hall for the last time, marched away to embark from Durban,
for the carnage of the First Ypres.' SA Military History lournal2 (5), June 1973, pp. 183--184.
Both Gordon and Crossley ignore the band performance of 19 August.
23 Natal Witness, Sat., Aug. 22,1914, p. 4: Editorial: 'Natives and the war'.
24 loc. cit.
25 Hamish Paterson, The military organisation of the colony of Natal 1881-1910 (unpub. MA
thesis, 1985), pp. 1-5 & pp. 129-135.
26 Brookes & Webb, pp. 113--114.
27 See H. Lamar & L. Thompson (eds), The frontier in history: North America and Southern
Africa compared (New Haven & London, 1981), pp. 9-10 for a brief analysis of the role of the
military on frontiers and on the concept of the 'closing' of the 'frontier'.
28 Natal Witness, Fri., Aug. 21, 1914,p.5.
29 CYB 1915-1916, p. 28.
30 Natal Witness, Mon., Oct. 26, 1914,p.1.
31 Ibid., Sat.,Oct. 31, 1914,p. I.
32 Ibid., Wed., Oct. 28, p. 1.
33 Ibid., Thurs., Oct.29, 1914,p,5.
34 AJ. van Wyk, 'Press, public and politics in Natal 1910-1914' ,pp. 1-2, in Natal and the Union,
1909-1939.
35 See M. Maddocks, The Great Liners (Amsterdam, 1978), pp. 136-137 for a brief summary of
the sinking of the Lusitania and its exploitation for propaganda purposes.
36 Natal Witness, Wed., May 12, 1915, p. 1. (editorial).
37 Ibid., Thurs., May 13, 1915,p.1.
3R 3/PMB 9/3, Minutes of the Citizens' Vigilance Committee: cutting from the Natal Witness (May
18,1915): 'Vigilance Committee'.
39 Natal Witness, Fri., May 14,1915, p. 1.
4D Ibid.,Mon.,May17, 1915,p. 1.
41 3/PMB 9/3: Minutesofthe meeting held on 17 May 1915, p. 1-2.
42 Ibid., Minutes of meeting of 18 May 1915, p. 2.
43 Ibid.,p.3.
44 Ibid., Minutes of meeting of20 May 1915, p. 5.
45 CYB 1914-1915 (Pietermaritzburg, 1916), p. 23.
46 CYB 1915-1916 (Pietermaritzburg, 1917), pp. 27-29.
47 SC 12-19, Report of the select committee on the Enemies' Repatriation and Denaturalization
Bill, appendix A, pp. i-xii.
4R CYB 1917-1918 (Pietermaritzburg, 1919),p. 50.
49 3/PMB 7111123: Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Committee (FGPC), 9 June
1921,p.66.
50 Ibid., FGPC Minutes, 24 Nov. 1921, pp. 153--154.
51 3/PMB 7/11124, FGPC Minutes, 6 June 1922, p. 62.
52 Ibid., FGPC Minutes, 27 June 1922,p. 70.
53 Ibid., FGPC Minutes, 6 July 1922, p. 75.
54 3/PMB 11119, Minutes ofthe City Council, 3IJuly 1922, pp. 115-117.
55 3/PMB 7/11/24, FGPC Minutes, 5 Dec. 1922, pp. 150-151.
56 Ibid.,FGPCMinutes, IlJan 1923,pp.159-160.
57 3/PMB 1/119, Minutes ofthe City Council, 9 Dec. 1924, p. 59.

GRAHAM DOMINY
 43

The Political Career of

Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler'

1902: times had changed. Even in Natal, times had changed. The Anglo-Boer
War had been the summation of an Imperial sense of 'calling', but it had also
been the herald of a new Edwardian class-consciousness. So we find Mr
Pepworth, Member for Klip River in the Natal Legislative Assembly,
congratulating the colony's railwaymen for deferring their threatened strike
until the war was over. 'These men' , he reported,
have done their duty to the Colony and to the Empire, and although we
have a threatened strike in the workshops of Durban, those men have
been good enough to allow that to stand over until such time as the
Colony will allow them to make their influence felt. It is not too late to
prevent that strike ... (31: 39)
And yet, even before the war was over, the voice of Labour was heard in
Natal. A penny-pinching railway management had driven its workers too far,
and they came out on strike in March of 1902.
The race of Victorian gentlemen who governed the colony were mortally
offended at this unheard of breach of trust. In the Legislative Assembly they
rushed to defend their mightiest civil servant, the General Manager of
Railways. Mr Hitchins assured the House that 'if they knew what I know' they
would be 'lost in admiration of that grand man in Durban, Sir David Hunter'.
He told them how
on Sundays and through the night his telephone has been going down
there in connection with the removal of troops, and the disorganization
of the line. But he has gone through the whole thing. (31: 94)
This did not impress Mr F.S. Tatham, an important precursor of the Labour
Party in the Natal House. It was difficult not to be sardonic about the 'titles
industry' in the Edwardian empire. Noting that 'Mr David Hunter is now Sir
David Hunter' , Mr Tatham believed that the time for boss figures was over:
(He) is far too big to run this little railway of ours. We do not want
belted Earls running our railways. We want plain, common-sense,
business men who are approachable, not only by their servants ... but
by their masters - this House. And Sir David Hunter is absolutely
unapproachable by anybody. Why, the Minister of Lands and Works
dare not approach him ... (31: 75)
By becoming an Edwardian, Sir David Hunter's claim to dour plainness and
Scots common-sense had undoubtedly been compromised. In Victorian times
44 Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler'

that morality was everywhere implicit and intact, but in Edwardian times it
had to be taught. The General Manager founded the 'Natal Government
Railways Lecture and Debating Society' for that very purpose, and also to
compete with the new working-class papers that were putting rebellious ideas
into the heads of his staff. For those who had come up the rungs of the
Victorian ladder, economic value was proved not in theory but in practice. It
was proved in the Darwinian struggle for survival that one saw, for instance, in
the development of locomotives out there on Natal's main line. This was the
moral that was preached on that august occasion, the inaugural lecture of the
'Natal Government Railways Lecture and Debating Society', and delivered by
the General Manager himself.
In the time of Mr Milne, our first Locomotive Superintendent, we had
the advance, from the original small but capable engines of Kitson and
Stephenson, to the well-known Dubs engine. Then Mr Reid,
successfully, and in the face of many difficulties, produced the powerful
machine which bears his name, and which pulled us through a very
critical period ... I
The Edwardian decade might be well advanced, but the Victorian mythos was
still intact. But it was only intact because the General Manager chose not to
mention that at least some of those 'many difficulties' that Mr Reid faced were
of his own making, and that at least one reason why the period had been
'critical' was that the General Manager had made some very questionable
decisions - decisions which had not promoted the cause of railway evolution.
One looks back with a certain nostalgia to the days when railway engines
could be the subject of 'no confidence' debates. But in 1902, with the Anglo­
Boer War almost over, and Sir Alfred Hime's 'old guard' government
challenged by the Milnerite progressives under Maydon, Mr Reid's locally
designed 4-10-2 engine (or 'ten-wheeler') providentially offered itself for
political ammunition. Maydon's men exulted in the unsuccess of this latest
production of the Natal Government Railways, a massive tank engine which
had notched up an unprecedented count of derailments, and in fact laid open
the possibility that the solid Victorians who governed the railway were not so
much Imperial heroes as a sort of Scottish Mafia. Maydon threw down his
gage in the annual 'no confidence' debate. Mr Reid's new engine possessed

The Reid Ten Wheeler

(Photograph. SA TS)
Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler' 45

an aptitude for running off the line which nothing of its kind (has)
hitherto been able in the least degree to rival, and we do hope that
nothing that we have in Natal at any future time will in any way approach
this horrible thing. (31: 23)
The opposition gloated over the fact that 62 derailments had been reported
since the inception of 'Reid' haulage in 1901. One excited critic demonstrated
the destructiveness of the new engine with a fresh exhibit:
I had placed on my desk only this morning two large pieces of steel which
I should like to hold up for honourable members of this House to see.
These pieces of steel were carried off ... our line by the Reid engine.
(31:36)
A political analogy obviously offered itself. If the Prime Minister had 'nailed
his colours to the funnel of that engine', then, 'just as that engine sticks at the
first heavy grade, breaks innumerable chairs, and runs off the line', so would
Sir Alfred Hime and his government.
One hopes that poor Mr Reid was not an avid reader of Hansard: he
would have found himself accused there of not having 'the remotest idea of the
relations necessary between an engine and the line'. Natal had, until now, had
its engines built by Messrs Dubs of Edinburgh, and Mr Taylor, MLA, couldn't
see why a change was necessary.
If the Government had done their duty, they would have gone to
recognised people, like the Dubs people, and said 'Your engines have
worked most satisfactorily on our line, but we want something heavier
... ' But ... this man starts his inventions. What is the result of it? We
have got engines running on our line today that are a perfect curse to the
country. This man has put forward a base on his driving wheels which
cannot get around a curve without destroying the line ... it is estimated
by the platelayers that £1 000 worth of chairs are being destroyed per
month ... (31: 36)
In vain did the Prime Minister protest. Only the other night he had been told
by the Stationmaster of Maritzburg ('with whom I incidentally entered into
conversation') that 'the Reid engine had been the saving of the Railway'. (31:
31) It was most unfair to blame all the Reids as a class: of the 62 derailments,
one third were caused by only one of their number, and the majority by only
three of the 41 units then in use. But the MP for Ixopo, Mr Nicholson, was not
to be persuaded. There had been insufficient testing: 'this Colony has
committed itself to the ordering of a large number of these engines before they
have been running a sufficient time.' (31: 50)
Needless to say, the General Manager had sooner or later to step into the
argument, and he did so with an eloquence that, after twenty years, could still
make governments quail. It is there in the style of the General Manager's
Report for this year, where, for example, he calls the feat of despatching 2500
tons a day up the line from Durban 'unique in Railway history'. In a private
report to the Legislative Assembly (Sessional Papers, 1902), we find him
ready to take on all corners. 'I understand', he says, that 'the "Man in the
street" has condemned the "Reid" engine' (a gentleman 'usually in evidence
when a new development takes place'). The man in the street is squashed with
a homely maxim: 'disappointments, common to all new enterprises, are
generally the presagers of success'.
46 Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler'

Having delivered this salvo, the General Manager proceeds to answer his
critics. He points out that the Reid engine was in fact build by Dubs, that there
had been a test engine (it arrived in Durban in May 19(0) which had fulfilled
all expectations, and that it was only because of the immense pressure put on
the railway by the Anglo-Boer War that individual units were now being
entered into traffic without sufficient testing. The Reid engine was, in 1902,
the heaviest on 3'6" gauge anywhere in the world, and, of course, difficulties
were to be expected. There was, he admits, an 'excessive wear of tyres' on the
Reids, and (what sounds much more alarming) a 'tendency' of the unflanged
pair of driving wheels in the front 'to drop off the rail and break the chairs'.
But this, he assures the House, is a temporary problem, and will be redressed
as parts of the line are rebuilt. The new chairs had cost a mere £954, and, in
the meantime, the fact was that each Reid engine carried '20000 to 24000
more tons per annum' than the old Dubses. ('Notes by General Manager on
Reid Engines' , Sessional Papers, 1902.)
But the Opposition was too excited by the whiff of scandal to be put down
by wise maxims from the General Manager of Railways. The 'Reid' engine
was notoriously the production of a certain race who tended to people the top
echelons of the railway empire. The notion of a Caledonian conspiracy was
actually put by Mr Taylor:
There is only one conclusion I can come to with regard to the
management of the Locomotive Department, and that is that those
works have resolved themselves into an asylum for imbeciles of a certain
nationality. Like most imbeciles they are carried away by their
imaginations. They imagine they are geniuses. This experiment with
regard to an engine for our Railway is not only at the cost of the Colony,
but it is the ruination of the Colony ... (31: 36)
Now it has to be said that David Hunter had given scope to the conspiracy
theory by the importation from Scotland of his own brother, in order to fill a
senior post in the NGR. This chink in his moral armour was often exposed and
the 1902 debate saw it again. Why could one not, these days, ever correspond
with the General Manager himself? Because of a Scottish intrigue. 'I was told
by a very reliable authority', said one member of the Legislative Assembly,
referring to the railway in Scotland from which both Hunters had originally
come,
that they had there a man whose duty it was to deal with all claims
against the railway ... And the way he dealt with claims was as follows:
Directly a claim was received he would write reams of paper to the
complainant putting him off until he wore him out, and abandoned the
claim. And, on reliable authority, I may tell you that they have imported
that man into Natal ... That is exactly what they are doing with us ...
We get a letter signed 'David Hunter ... XYZ' and this 'XYZ' I am
firmly convinced is the very individual I have made reference to ... (33:
446)
The aura of intrigue was obviously grist to the Opposition mill, and eventually
Hime's Government had to accede to the appointment of a Committee of
Enquiry into the Reid engine.
And it cannot be denied that this committee received further evidence for
a 'conspiracy' theory. Messrs Hunter and Reid had proceeded, it seems, with
Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler' 47

their ambitious ten-wheeler against a good deal of advice. There it was in the
NGR records: on 22 February 1898, the NGR Engineer-in-Chief, Mr Shores,
had recommended against 'the adoption of this type and weight of engine'.
And the local agent for Messrs Dubs, Mr Lorimer, had given a 'decided
opinion against it', and pronounced that the curves on the Natal main line
were 'fatal' to the employment of a ten-wheeled locomotive. If that wasn't
enough, the Consulting Engineer in London described the adoption of any
such engine as a 'risky experiment'. So, while the Committee admitted that
Mr Reid's locomotive had 'undoubtedly enabled the railway to deal with an
increased traffic', it reprimanded the management for introducing it 'without
sufficient trial, and too hurriedly'. The strengthening of the track that the
'Reids' necessitated had cost the Colony £458000, and it would only be
'ascertained by experience' whether they warranted such costs.
But by the time this report was presented railway affairs had dramatically
changed, and it had nothing like the political force that one might have
expected. One factor was that the Imperial Military Railways, operating on
the Reef, had graciously endorsed Mr Reid's 'imbecile' ideas by ordering a
good number of 'Reid' engines for themselves. But, closer to home, matters of
considerably greater moment had taken the heat off the Locomotive
Department. The Natal railway strike of March 1902 spelt the end of the
Victorian ethos even more forcefully than engine failures out on the line. A
more aggressive Opposition began to be heard in the Natal House,
representing the 'labour' interest. For William McLarty, one ofthe MLAs for
Durban from 1903, the mantle of Darwinian evolution fell now on the
workers: their 'battle for survival' made the class of gentlemen look
comparatively effete. (His reference to 'the shops' here is of course to the
railway workshops):
As soon as a white man comes into this country he is spoiled, because he
is expected not to do any hard manual labour. You put a man into the
shops in Durban. He comes out full of energy, and he takes off his coat,
and he hustles around. At the end of a week you see all his energy is
fading away. The climate is blamed. But it is not the climate: it is the
people. As the newcomer looks round he finds that they are all
gentlemen. None of them intend to work ... (36: 350)
This low rating of 'gentlemen' demonstrates nicely the change of ethos. The
sort of engineering works that the likes of McLarty pounced on were not
concoctions of the Locomotive Department, but things like safety bridges,
gangways, facilities in the workshops, and so on. The heroic age was over; the
functional, proletarian one had just begun, as an extraordinary exchange in
the Natal Legislature on 5 August 1903 amply proves.
Apparently the NGR management, with an entrenched Victorian view of
their employees, resorted to the grisly expedient, in the Durban Workshops,
of measuring the amount of time that workers spent at the urinal. This drastic
supervision required the reconstruction not of a locomotive but of a lavatory
(or so, at any rate, one presumes: the ethos was still Victorian enough for the
edifice in question to be strictly unmentionable.) Labour spokesman Mr
McLarty, blaming the government for not listening to the men's side of any
dispute, suddenly revealed to the House
one grievance that should be remedied within 24 hours. I think it is a
disgrace to this Colony, and ought to be at once remedied ... Such a
48 Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler'

thing has never been known, and I consider that a far better way could
be taken than the mean way that the Management has taken to prevent
some of the men, as it were, pilfering time from the Government ... (34:
502)
What was this thing that had 'never been known'? No one would bring the
unholy word to their lips. After a while another 'labour' member, Mr
Ancketill, moved that the present motion (the Railway Supply Bill) stand
down, since the railway management
has seen its way to deny the essential right of privacy consistent with all
recognised laws of decency to the men in the employment of the Railway
in Durban ...
At last we get a small clue as to what was offending proletarian sensibility:
I move that this vote stand down until the masonry at Durban is restored
to its former proportions, and if necessary, a clerk or a timekeeper, or
some other mode be adopted, which is said to he needful in order to
prevent men wasting the time of the public service. (34: 508)
But how could one keep the whole process of legislation waiting while some
mysterious masonry down in Durban was put in order?
The Prime Minister: it seems to me that the motion of the hon. member
for Durban is a most unreasonable one, especially as it is one which
cannot possibly he discussed - as the hon. member knows - without
moving for strangers to leave the House ...
The word 'strangers' was the euphemism, I suspect, for 'ladies', whose ears
must be guarded even at the inconvenience of parliamentary process. But
what would be more likely to keep 'strangers' glued to the proceedings than an
item which, as the Prime Minister himself said, 'cannot possibly be discussed'?
In fact, what were they discussing?
Nobody else in the House knows a thing about it except the two hon.

members for Durban, and the hon. memher says that this work must be

restored, the brickwork must be restored to its original position (Mr

Ancketill: Hear, hear) - because, he says, the workmen object to it

having been removed.

Mr Ancketill:

No. Sir. I do not say that. I say because it is flagrantly indecent; and I

repeat it, and I am sorry to say that I can never see the right hon.

gentleman referring to this question without a smile on his face, showing

the views that he holds in regards to these matters.

The Prime Minister:

I was never further from smiling.

Mr Ancketill:

I have seen you, Sir, smile to-night.

The Prime Minister:

I have said, and I repeat it, that I was never further from smiling than I

was when I was speaking on this subject; and I still say that it is utterly

wrong for the hon. member to ask that a vote shall stand down until a

certain work is restored. I say it is positively indecent on the part of the

hon. member ...

Mr Reid's 'Ten Wheeler' 49

Mr Pepworth:

I beg, Sir, to draw your attention to the fact that there are strangers in

the gallery.

MrMcLarty:

The arguments of the right hon. Prime Minister are the most conclusive

that could ever be brought before this House for the immediate

appointment of an Appeal Board - (Cries of'Order, order')

The Acting Chairman:

The question is that strangers be ordered to withdraw. Those in favour

please say Aye.

(Motion negatived ... )

MrTaylor:

I venture to say that if they (the Prime Minister or any member of the

government) had had to put up with the indecency that these men have

been subjected to they would not have been two hours in the employ of

the Government ... A strike would have been on long since ... (34:

508f.)

Order was only restored when the Prime Minister promised that he would
'myself personally tomorrow' look into the matter. (I may add, by way of
touching the surface of an unresearched drama, that it was while Sir Alfred
Hime was examining the unmentionable masonry in Durban that his
government fell, and the progressives came in under Sutton!)
With such excitements as these on the go, Mr Reid's 'horrible thing' was
largely forgotten. In fact it was serving Natal too well by now to offer itself for
political ammunition. Besides, its chief weakness was eventually put right by
Mr Reid's successors. The remedy for the troublesome 'Reids' was
marvellously simple - you removed the rear pair of its ten driving wheels and
called it an eight-wheeler! In that condition the locomotive lived to do service
for another seven decades. Several of these modified 'Reids' were shunting up
and down the coaling wharves of Durban as late as 1977, long after the Natal
Legislative Assembly and its Committees of Enquiry had passed to dust. And
it is nice to know that - all those years later - a very different generation of
railway men deferentially referred to those grimy maids-of-all-work as 'the
Reids'.2

REFERENCES
1 The NGR Magazine 1905, quoted in Bizley, W.H., The Life and Times of the Inchanga
Viaduct', Theoria, 50, May 1978, p. 1.
2 Gilberthorpe, John. Memories ofthe 'Reids'. S.A. Rail 29 (2) March-April 1989.

All references to parliamentary debates from Debates ofthe Legislative Assembly ofthe Colony of
Natal, volume first and then page number, e.g. (41: 356).

W.H. BIZLEY
50

Obituaries
Thomas George Vernonlnman (1905-1989)
In his charge to Synod in 1924 Bishop S.F. Baines, D .D., fourth Bishop of
Natal, made special reference to the development of a South African ministry
and to the number of recruits to that ministry who were coming forward. In
particular he referred to a young man from Durban, from the Parish of St
Mary, Greyville, who was on his way to St Augustine's College, Canterbury,
to commence his ordination training, with financial help from the Ordination
Candidates' Fund. That young man was Vernon Inman , who went on to obtain
his M.A. at Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1932. Having been ordained in
England in 1930 and having served as an Assistant Priest in London, he
returned to Natal to be Assistant Priest in the Parish of Estcourt in 1933,

Rt. Rev. T.G.V. Inman

(Photograph: Natal Witness)
Obituaries 51

followed by four years at St Paul's, Durban, where he was Vicar from 1937 to
1951. A Canon of St Saviour's Cathedral, Pietermaritzburg from 1944, he was
appointed Archdeacon of Durban in 1950. He was consecrated Sixth Bishop
of Natal in St Paul's Church, Durban, on 18th October, 1951. He was a sub­
Prelate of the Order ofSt John from 1953.
He began his episcopate in an era when the winds of change were starting to
blow with gale force through Africa as a whole. It was to his great merit that he
brought the Diocese through these tumultuous years to a point where it
became well-equipped for a changed world. This could not have happened
had he not been an able administrator and far-seeing Father in God, initiating
many changes aimed at improving communication and lay participation in the
organized life of the Diocese. He saw to the setting up of a central
administration with full-time staff in a Diocesan Office. He found African
priests assistants to missionaries, and left them as Rectors of Parishes in their
own right. Under his leadership the principle of equality of clergy stipends,
irrespective of race, was finally implemented, and the stipends of all clergy
improved. To him was owed the appointment of the first Bishop Suffragan to
share in the epsicopal oversight of the rapidly growing Diocese, and his firm
but broad governance established a unity in his flock where parishes and
individuals of wide and strong difference of outlook were able to contribute to
the common task of the Household of God, each in their own way.
A major achievement of his was the setting up of a New Cathedral Building
Committee and this led, after many delays and difficulties, to the unification of
the parishes of St Peter and St Saviour in Pietermaritzburg, and the building of
the Cathedral of the Holy Nativity.
During his years as Bishop he sought untiringly to encourage ordination
candidates and to give them experience beyond our Diocese and Province. His
concern for the social and educational needs of society was reflected by the
Diocesan Schools, Homes and other institutions which went from strength to
strength under his patronage.
As Bishop of the CPSA, as Dean of the Province, and finally Acting
Metropolitan, Thomas George Vernon unfailingly led his people towards the
goal of Christian Unity. He retired as Bishop of Natal in June 1974 and then
spent ten years in Australia. He continued to be interested in the affairs of the
Diocese and made regular use of the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer. He returned to
Natal in June this year, but passed on to higher service on 4th July at the age of
84.
(Reprinted from The Bishops' Newsletter, with permission)
52 Obituaries

Father Denis Howard St. George OMI

(1902-1989)
Early Years
Father Denis Howard St. George was born in Pietermaritzburg on 6
September 1902. On both his father's and his mother's side he came of well­
known and well-established colonial families. His mother was a Vanderplank.
He grew up in the Pietermaritzburg so well described in Alan Paton's Towards
the Mountain. He was born into a family that ultimately numbered ten
children, five girls and five boys.
The Catholic life into which he was initiated came under the pastoral care of
the missionary body known as the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to whom
Catholic evangelization in Natal had been entrusted by the Holy See in 1850.
Among their commitments was St Charles College, which they conducted in
the premises that later became the Ansonia Hotel. It was there that young
Howard began and finished his schooling with an interruption of a few years
which he spent at Merchiston, between the time when the Oblates
relinquished control of St Charles and the Marist Brothers took over.
After matriculation Howard went to the South African School of Mines and
Technology in Johannesburg in 1920. Its principal was then the youthful and
precocious Jan Hofmeyr. While Howard was there it became the University of
the Witwatersrand at the beginning of 1922 and he became one of the early

Fr. Howard St. George

(Photograph: Nancy Ogilvie)
Obituaries 53

Wits graduates with a BSc in engineering in 1923. A memory that haunted him
was that of his experience in a university contingent guarding captured strikers
during the 1922 insurrection. It left him anything but militaristic.
Not many years went by before he became aware of another very different
call. While discerning how he should respond to this call he happened to read
some words of Cardinal Hinsley reported in The Tablet, an English Catholic
periodical. The Cardinal was emphasizing that the future of the Church in
Africa would depend on the African population. This convinced Howard that
he should become a missionary priest.
He applied to enter the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
was accepted and set sail for Ireland in the second half of 1928. He entered the
Oblate novitiate at the beginning of September, took his temporary vows in
the Congregation on 8 September 1929, pursued his studies for the priesthood
in Dublin where he made his final vows in 1932, crossed over to Jersey in 1933,
was ordained priest there in 1934 and completed his theological studies in
1935.
On his return to Natal he was posted as curate to Bellair with pastoral
responsibilities extending down the South Coast and inland to Pinetown. The
people he was serving were almost exclusively English-speaking. This was not
quite what Father Howard wanted, not quite in keeping with the vocation that
had come to him through Cardinal Hinsley's words. He put his case to his
superiors, Bishop Henri Delalle and Father Joseph Kerautret, the provincial
superior of the Oblates. No doubt he was given a sympathetic hearing, but
another person had to be consider~d and that was his parish priest, Father
Chauvin. However, he got his toe in the doorway by obtaining permission to
go to Maphumulo for three months to learn Zulu. His love affair with the Zulu
people and their language was to continue to the day of his death.

Missionary among the Zulus: Inchanga

He finally got his chance to serve his beloved Zulus full-time when he was
posted to Inchanga in 1940, with a double function: pastoral responsibility for
Inchanga and neighbouring places like Camperdown (which had derived its
name from a farm owned by his Vanderplank grandfather) and the hills and
valleys that tumbled down to the Umsunduze River. Throughout these hills
and valleys the equestrian figure of Father Howard became a familiar and
welcome sight.
Life was extremely busy for him. Besides his parishioners and their
associations and his catechumens he had schools to supervise, including a high
school that served as juniorate or minor seminary for secondary school
candidates considering entrance into the Oblate Congregation. He was also
novice master. Among his first novices was the young man who is now Bishop
Dominic Khumalo OMI.
In the midst of all this he found time to pursue his interest in the Zulu
language. The elusive verb to be intrigued him and he hunted its traces
through various grammatical constructions. On one occasion he dared to
expound his theory to the formidable CM. Doke. As Father Howard
described the result, Doke seemed unimpressed.

Diocesan Responsibilities
This gratifying stage of the fulfilment of Father Howard's vocation came to an
end in 1950 when I asked him to take on a new three dimensional expression
54 Obituaries

of his missionary commitment at diocesan level; spiritual director to the

Catholic African Union and the Catholic African Teachers' Union and
secretary for mission schools. This three dimensional task gave him great
responsibility for the structures supporting the religious life of Zulu-speaking
Catholics in the Archdiocese of Durban. The Catholic African Union co­
ordinated the activities of the various parish and diocesan associations. The
Catholic African Teachers' Union was a special organization for teachers in
Catholic African schools. These commitments involved Father Howard in
frequent diocesan and inter-diocesan congresses. He also took the lead in
redrafting the constitution of the CAU and renaming it the Catholic Africa
Organization. The post of secretary for mission schools involved Father
Howard in all the problems arising from the Bantu Education Act of 1953 and
the withdrawal of State subsidies to mission schools.
Other responsibilities that came his way were those of secretary to the
Catholic African Savings Union and the Oblate District Nursing Service which
co-ordinates the work of half a dozen rural clinics. As if that were not enough
he also exercised the functions of diocesan treasurer for four years from 1959
to 1962 and was acting vicar general, that is, number two in the Archdiocese,
in 1960. No accumulation of work ever seemed to daunt him.
In 1963 while continuing his work as spiritual director to the Catholic Africa
Organization and as secretary for mission schools he accepted a transfer to the
Emmanuel Cathedral to serve as curate with special responsibility for the
Zulu-speaking congregation which under his guidance became a very large
and flourishing one. He remained at the Emmanuel Cathedral until ill health
occasioned his transfer to Nazareth House at the end of 1988.

The Last Quarter Century: Emmanuel Cathedral, Liturgical Translation, History

Father Howard's diocesan responsibilities gradually faded out in the late 60s
and early 70s. The mission school situation was a rapidly shrinking one and its
remnants became the responsibility of a successor in that field. The Second
Vatican Council of the Catholic Church held between 1962 and 1965
introduced new ideas and new practices and some of the old structures lost
their importance. Among these were the Catholic Africa Organization in the
Archdiocese of Durban.
Among the innovations of Vatican II was a move away from Latin in
Catholic worship to the use of the vernacular. All over the world translation
teams were going into action. In 1968 Father Howard became the organizing
secretary of the Zulu Liturgical Translation Commission and a vigorous
participant in all its undertakings. He worked on Zulu liturgical translation
and publication literally to the day of his death. He was proof-reading a Zulu
lectionary in his sick room at Nazareth House when his energies finally failed.
With his close collaborator Father Raphael Studerus OSB and a team of
excellent laymen he had completed the translation and publication of ten
liturgical books in Zulu and had left a four-volume lectionary almost ready for
publication.
The last 25 years of his life saw Father Howard indulging another
enthusiasm: history. Those who knew him as a theological student in Dublin
and Jersey were aware of this enthusiasm. At the Emmanuel Cathedral the
old baptismal and marriage registers and tombstones in the cemetery caught
his eye and he began to unravel Catholic family histories. He became very
Obituaries 55

interested in the ministry of Father Sabon OMI, whose priestly service in

Durban lasted from 1852 to his death in 1885, and in the life of Saturnino do
Valle, a Mozambican and the lay leader of a group of Catholics, rescued with
others by the British Navy from slave ships, and settled on church land at the
Bluff.
Father Howard wrote the story of Saturnino in a brief monograph.
But the historical character that really became Father Howard's obsession
was Bishop Marie lean-Francois Allard OMI, the first Catholic prelate in
Natal in episcopal orders with the title of Vicar Apostolic of Natal. A Vicar
Apostolic is a Catholic bishop in a mission territory not yet established as a
diocese but falling under the immediate control of the Holy See with the
bishop acting as vicar ofthe Pope.
For several years Father Howard dedicated all his spare time to unravelling
and translating Bishop Allard's journal written in French and in a crabbed and
at times almost indecipherable handwriting. This he published in 1981 with
voluminous notes and painstaking indices. He gave it the title Failure and
Vindication, the failure referring to the lack of success that attended Allard's
efforts among the Zulus and the vindication celebrating the happier results in
Lesotho (then Basutoland) which was also part of the territory committed to
him.
Bishop Allard was well served by Father Howard. Every cause that Father
Howard took up was well served; the cause of the church in which he
ministered as priest, the cause of the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary
Immaculate to which he gave a deep and affectionate loyalty, the cause of the
Zulu people whom he loved as he loved their language. He was a man of
prayer, faithful, trustworthy, reliable, determined and resolute in pursuit of a
goal, indefatigable in working for it; friendly, affable, hospitable and ready to
regale visitors from his inexhaustible fund of historical erudition.
Surely the Master must have welcomed him on 25 April 1989 with a hearty:
'Well done, good and faithful servant'.

DENIS E. HURLEY OMI

Sushila Gandhi (1907-1988): Guardian

of Gandhian Traditions in South Africa
When Mahatma Gandhi left South Africa in 1914 he left a very significant
legacy to Indian South Africans, an ideology of resistance, satyagraha. He also
left two tangible products of his stay in this country, a newspaper Indian
Opinion (f. 1903) and a communal settlement of 100 acres situated nine
kilometres out of central Durban, Phoenix (f. 1904), where the newspaper was
published. While the history of the satyagraha campaign (1907 to 1913), the
role of Indian Opinion in this struggle, and the founding of Phoenix
Settlement have been fairly well recorded, few people (historians included)
realize that there is a history of Phoenix and the newspaper after Gandhi's
departure which is worth recording. Inextricably linked with this history are
the names of Manilal and Sushila Gandhi. This article provides a brief glimpse
56 Obituaries

into the role of Sushila Gandhi who died in November 1988.

Albert West, a printer who was one of the first settlers at Phoenix, took
over the task of editing Indian Opinion from H.S.L. Polak in the years after
Gandhi's departure from South Africa. In 1916 Gandhi was informed that the
production of the Gujerati sections of the paper was presenting some
difficulty. He thus deputed his two sons, Manilal and Ramdas, to assist West.
When Ramdas left South Africa after helping out for a short while, Manilal
remained behind. Initially he assisted West by simply translating English copy
into Gujerati, but in 1919 he took over the position of editor from West, a post
which he retained until his death in 1956. Considering his lack of formal
education this was no mean achievement.
Manilal Gandhi was no stranger to South Africa or Phoenix Settlement. He
had first come to South Africa in 1897 at the age of four when his father had
decided to remain in Natal to pursue a role in Indian politics. In 1901 the
Gandhi family left for India only to return in 1904, living first in Johannesburg
and later at Phoenix. Here Manilal was the subject of his father's educational
experiments. His father had by now begun to question the validity of formal
education and took it upon himself to educate his son. To Gandhi education
meant not a 'knowledge of letters' but 'character building'. He guided his
son's reading and insisted on manual labour on the farm. When Manilal
wished to study medicine his father's advice to him was that 'learning to live a
good life is in itself an education'. Going to prison in aid of a good political
cause was considered to be far more educational than the acquisition of
degrees and the pursuit of a career. His son enthusiastically courted arrest
during the satyagraha campaign and served two terms of imprisonment in 1910
and 1913.
Essentially Gandhi's family became the victims of his 'Experiments with
Truth' and the sons found their father to be a stern disciplinarian. While at
Phoenix, Manilal committed a misdemeanour that slipped below his father's
expectations that they should control their senses and desires. The outcome of
this was that the son, quite remorseful, decided as an act of penance and to
develop self-control, not to marry until he was 30 years old. In the 1920s he
began to broach the subject of marriage, his period of penance having come to
an end. Now too, his father was not encouraging. Gandhi had taken a vow of
celibacy in 1906, which he was to maintain all his life. The idea was that he
would be better able to devote himself to social service. He thus tried to warn
his son of the pitfalls of marriage and lust:
Take it from me that there is no happiness in marriage ... If, at this
moment, I get enamoured of Ba [his wife] and indulge in sexual
gratification, I would fall the very instant. My work would go to the dogs
and I would lose in a twinkling all that power which would enable one to
achieve swaraj [home rule] ... I cannot imagine a thing as ugly as the
intercourse of man and woman. That it leads to the birth of children is
due to God's inscrutable way.
(Collected Works ofMahatma Gandhi, Vo!. 23, p. 102.)
Five years later, however, Gandhi informed Manilal (now 34 years old) that
he had found a suitable wife for him and that the marriage could take place if
both parties were agreeable.
The young girl whom Gandhi recommended to his son was Sushila
Mashruwallah, who was 19 years old and slightly hard of hearing as a result of
Obituaries 57

Sushila Gandhi
(Photograph: Omar Badsha)

an overdose of quinine while being treated for malaria as a child. She was a
good artist, was educated up to the fourth form in school, and could speak
Gujerati and Marathi and understood Hindi as well as a little English. Her
family were among the first to throw their support behind Gandhi's civil
disobedience movement in India and they boycotted British institutions and
British products. A wealthy land-owning family, they surrendered their
wealth to the resistance movement and wore clothes made out of cotton which
they had themselves spun and woven in keeping with the home handicrafts
movement inaugurated by Gandhi. The family was well known to Gandhi and
he was very receptive to the idea of a marriage between his son and Sushila
when the suggestion was made by a mutual friend of both families.
The marriage took place in March 1927 in the Mashruwallah's hometown,
Akola, in the state of Maharashtra. The wedding was a simple one without the
pomp and ceremony of traditional marriages . Sushila wore no jewellery and
the only gifts they kept were a Gita given by Gandhi and a cotton garland
which Gandhi had spun himself. Any money which might have been otherwise
spent on the wedding was channelled into the funds of the nationalist
movement. Sushi la saw her husband for the first time on her wedding day. She
did not find this unusual as it was common practice. Soon after the marriage
the couple set sail for South Africa.
In an interview with her in 1980 I asked her what her first reactions were on
coming to Phoenix. She had left behind a large family and while she was struck
58 Obituaries

by the unspoilt beauty of Phoenix, her main impression was the solitariness of
her surroundings. There were only two other houses on the entire farm and
she found herself a lone woman amongst the men who worked in the press.
Her second reaction was to note with horror the existence of a giant coal stove
in the kitchen which was quite unlike the six-inch-high stoves used in India.
Not only did she overcome the constant threat of loneliness and master the
workings of the stove, she threw herself into the work of producing Indian
Opinion. She recalled that quite by chance, on visiting the press building, she
began to play with the types and found to her delight she could easily compose
a few words. As part of her daily routine on the farm, thereafter, a few hours
of work in the press became a compulsory delight. Not only did she aid in the
task of composition, she soon took on the task of attending to the
correspondence and the financial management of the press. She also sold
books through Indian Opinion and processed these orders.
When most Gujerati women in Durban lived secluded and caste-bound
lives, Sushila represented an exception. The Gandhis knew no caste
distinctions and also had numerous acquaintances outside the small culturally
conservative Gujerati community. Sushila began to add to her command of
Indian languages by learning some Tamil through her daily contact with the
Tamil workers in the press. In addition she tried to learn English so that in the
1980s she represented a most unusual Gujerati woman of her generation in
terms of her command of the language. She also acquired some knowledge of
Zulu.
In her marriage, which was based on equality, there was an extremely
blurred sexual division of labour; this, she said, she owed to the teachings of
Gandhi who constantly urged his son not to restrict his wife to domestic
chores. Gandhi, in fact, had given his son considerable advice before the
marriage. He wrote in 1927: 'You know my attitude towards women. Men
have not been treating them well'. He instructed his son:
... I want a solemn assurance from you that ... you shall honour

Sushila's freedom; that you shall treat her as your companion, never as

your slave; that you shall take as much care of her person as of your own;

that you shall not force her to surrender to your passion, but that you

shall take your pleasure only with her consent ...

(Collected Works ofMahatma Gandhi, Vo!. 33, pp. 55-56.)

Asked what it was like to have had Gandhi for a father-in-law Sushila said
she had not been in awe of him although she knew they shared him with the
whole of India. She found that Gandhi had mellowed considerably in his later
years and eased off on his stern discipline of those who lived with him. On the
times that she met him during visits to India, she found him to be one of the
easiest persons to talk to. She spoke with a grimace about the restricted type
of food that Gandhi insisted all the inmates of his ash ram should eat. This
unspiced bland food she ate like 'medicine'.
The one thing that bothered her was that in keeping with Gandhi's ideals,
she and her husband had little money that they could call their own. All
money earned at Phoenix was channelled back into its running. Being a
practical person and with three children to look after (Sita, Arun, Ela), she
raised this question with Gandhi in the 1940s during a visit to India. His reply
to her was that she should trust in God to provide for her and her family.
When this reply failed to convince her, Gandhi finally agreed that she could
Obituaries 59

draw £5 from the press per month for her work there. Going against Gandhi's
ideals was not easy. Although what she subsequently withdrew and put into a
savings account she regarded as a paltry sum, she was full of remorse when
news of Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948 reached her. Peace only
came when she withdrew her savings and put this money back into the
settlement.
Apart from gardening and helping in the press, Sushila had the important
role of being hostess to the numerous guests who came to see the very first
communal settlement established by Gandhi. In the very year that she was
married the Indian government had begun its practice of appointing a
representative to South Africa. All these representatives, V.S. Srinivasa
Sastri, Kurma Reddi, Kunwar Maharaj Singh, Syed Raza Ali, Benegal Rama
Rau, Shafa'at Ahmad Khan and R. Deshmukh visited Phoenix. Sushila joined
the Durban Indian Child Welfare Society which was founded in 1927 under
Sastri's guidance. She was also subsequently a member of the Durban Indian
Women's Association, which was founded in 1933 by the Kunwarani Maharaj
Singh. This was a non-sectional, non-communal organization aimed at
bringing Christian, Hindu, and Muslim women together as well as to perform
social and charitable work. She was also to play an important role in another
women's organization - the Gujerati Mahila Mandal, where she served in an
official capacity right into the 1970s.
It was unusual for women to participate in politics as the Natal Indian
Congress, reflecting the norms of the community, was dominated by
patriarchal attitudes. In 1939, Sushila and Mrs Albert Christopher did the
unusual. They attended a political meeting in the Transvaal with their
husbands. The meeting was concerned with offering passive resistance to the
government's policy of segregation and both women then stood up and briefly
addressed the gathering. While Sushila did not otherwise play an overt role in
Indian politics, she played an important supportive role in the family. This was
so in 1930 when Manilal spent one year in jail in India after participating in the
satyagraha campaign against the salt tax law. In 1946, she took on greater
responsibilities at Phoenix when Manilal took part in the passive resistance
campaign led by Yusuf Dadoo and G.M. Naicker and served a term of
imprisonment. In 1951 Manilal began an individual campaign to defy petty
apartheid laws by entering places demarcated 'Whites Only'. On one such
occasion in October 1951 Sushila and her daughter, Sita, accompanied
Manilal and entered the 'Whites Only' Durban Municipal Library. In 1953
Manilal spent over a month in jail in Germiston after participating in the
Defiance Campaign. In the 1970s Sushila's youngest daughter, Ela, who lived
with her, was served with a banning order. Being a Gandhi meant taking a
pride in such activities and Sushila bore her responsibilities unquestioningly.
On a very individual basis, throughout her life, she very effectively conveyed
to white South Africans she met, the injustices of apartheid.
Manilal and Sushila and their three children first lived in the small dwelling
which Gandhi had erected in the 1900s. This home, Arun Gandhi recalls, was
'an unimpressive wood and iron structure eaten by white ants. There were
gaping holes in the rusted tin sheets but it was home to all of us. The press was
housed in a similarly dilapidated structure down the hill near the well.' The
Gandhis took the decision to move the location of the press building up the
hill. They also built a new home for themselves which they named 'Kasturba
Bhavan' after Gandhi's wife, who died in 1944 while imprisoned by the British
60 Obituaries

'Sarvodaya': Gandhi's home at Phoenix

(Photograph: Local History Museum)

in the palace of the Agha Khan. Gandhi's original home was rebuilt, on the
original plan, with new materials. This home was formally opened in 1950.
Manilal and Sushila spent the rest of their lives preserving this home, which
they named 'Sarvodaya' (the welfare or the rising of the people), as a
memorial to Gandhi.
In 1951 Sushila started a small school for the children of the workers on the
settlement. Initially five children attended her classes in the 'Sarvodaya' but
numbers soon grew . The Gandhis then (out of donations received) built the
Kasturba Gandhi School, which was officially opened in 1954 and catered for
over 270 pupils. It was the one part of the settlement for which a state subsidy
was received, albeit reluctantly.
The Gandhis were well aware in the 1950s that Phoenix, despite their work,
had not fully lived up to the original ideas of its founder. It had been
established by Gandhi after he had read John Ruskin's Unto This Last and was
particularly struck by the tenet that 'a life of labour, i.e., the life of the tiller of
the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life worth living'. He attracted a
handful of whites and Indians to take part in the experiment of communal
living. According to the trust deed of the settlement of 1912, the settlers were
'to order their lives so as to be able ultimately to earn their living by handicraft
or agriculture carried on ... so far as possible without machinery; ... to
promote purity of private life in individuals by living pure lives themselves; ...
to train themselves generally for the service of humanity'. The trust deed also
provided for the establishment of a school and a health institution which
would be guided by nature cure methods. The newspaper, Indian Opinion,
was to be used to advance the above ideals.
After Gandhi's departure from South Africa, the settlement began to
founder. Few of the settlers remained. Apart from the production of Indian
Obituaries 61

Opinion and the establishment of the school, Manilal and Sushila regarded
their duty in the 1950s as being to preserve the settlement because of its
historic and - as they considered it - its holy significance. Their wish was
that the settlement could one day 'be restored to its former greatness'. Sushila
suffered a major setback in 1956 when her husband died. Being a strong
woman she accepted the responsibility of being custodian of the settlement
and the newspaper. Her son Arun left for a visit to India, where he
subsequently married. The laws of South Africa prevented him from returning
to South Africa with his Indian-born wife. Sushila wrote numerous letters to
the government to secure their admission, citing the historic nature of the
Phoenix Settlement, the importance of having her son to run it, and the
continuance of the Gandhi name in South Africa. These appeals fell on deaf
ears and Sushila carried with her the knowledge that she would be the last
Gandhi to live on the settlement.
By 1962 the running of the paper proved difficult on two accounts: finance
and finding a suitable editor. Sushila herself took on greater responsibility in
producing the paper and was assisted by her daughter Sita. In addition, the
editorial hands of Ranji Nowbath and Jordan Ngubane were employed. As
the chief managing trustee, Sushila took the difficult decision to close down
the paper as it was proving difficult to maintain editorial consistency and
Gandhian ideals. Gandhi had often advised his son that sentimentalism should
be put aside and that if it was not possible to run the paper on his principles, he
would rather see it closed. The closure of the paper nonetheless meant that the
heart ofthe settlement had been removed.
Gandhi's ideal had been that those who lived at Phoenix should also work
there. Following the death of Manilal and the closure of the press, this ideal
could not be maintained. Former press workers remained on the settlement
but sought work outside it. In addition, a few other new families were
allocated space to live on. This practice Sushila interpreted as being one of
providing assistance to the poor. The children of these families attended the
daily evening communal prayer which Sushila held in the 'Sarvodaya'. Seated
on the wooden floors, these children learnt from Sushila the fundamentals of
Gandhism. Among the most important ideas conveyed was a tolerance of all
religions, and hymns from all the faiths were sung.
New developments took place to revitalize the settlement in the 1960s. The
building that once housed the press was now used as a medical clinic. Doctors
came voluntarily twice a week to attend to patients, who were mainly Africans
from the surrounding areas. Sushila's solitary stay in the main house also came
to an end as her daughter, Ela, and her husband, Mewa, moved in. The main
catalyst for the revitalization of Phoenix was the Gandhi centenary
celebrations. In preparation for this event, working committees were
established to fulfil the decision taken to mark the centenary of Gandhi's birth
by putting up two new buildings at Phoenix. One was to be a museum and
library while the other would house the clinic. These two buildings were
opened in 1969. Provision was also made for a Girl Guides centre. In addition
to these developments, Phoenix also became an important political meeting
ground in the next few years. As both Ela and her husband were politically
active, they attracted to the settlement people of all races who were opposed
to apartheid. Holiday camps were also held for children of all races and a new
political consciousness was passed on to these young minds. Sushila spoke
with pride about these camps in which she took an active part showing city­
62 Obituaries

The original press building put up by Gandhi. First from the right is Manilal Gandhi.

Third from the right is Sushila Gandhi .

(Photograph: Sita Dhupelia)

Obituaries 63

born children how to work in the fields as well as giving them lectures on
Gandhi.
As the settlement was revitalized so too did it quickly burn out. In the 1970s
Ela and her husband moved to a new home in Verulam. Now in her late
sixties, Sushila was unable to continue to live on her own at Phoenix. So she
left the home which she had known since she had been 19 and went to live with
her daughter. Power for running the settlement passed quickly from her hands
to the working committees. The clinic continued to provide an important
service but, without a resident manager, the settlement began to bear the signs
of neglect. Visitors who now came to the settlement missed the presence of
Sushila and the glimpses into the past which only she could offer so vividly.
Squatters began to encroach on the settlement and shacks were put up. In
August 1985 Phoenix did not escape the unrest which spread through Inanda
and led to the loss of property and lives. Sushila's former home, the press
building, and the school were set alight. The 'Sarvodaya' was dismantled so
that only its foundations remained. The contents of the library and the other
buildings were looted. The families who had lived on the settlement from
early days also fled from the destruction. A settlement which had stood for
peace, non-violence and harmony between the races died a violent death and
was soon overrun by squatters who established their own law. For Sushila this
meant that nothing of her or her husband's life's work remained. Three years
later, at the age of eighty-two. she died.
While the Gandhi family has lost an important link with its past, it is with
some pride that they recall the role of a remarkable woman. Their loss is
shared by people of all races and faiths, by the former settlers at Phoenix, by
those who also served the settlement in various ways, by the women's
organizations she served, by politicians who recognized the symbolism of
Phoenix and by the thousands of visitors from all over the world who came to
visit Gandhi's ashram. All remember the tranquil but strong personality of a
woman clad in the simplest hand-woven white cotton sari who served with
distinction the role of custodian of Gandhian traditions in South Africa.

REFERENCES
Interview with Sushila Gandhi by author in 1980.
Personal informatiion from Sita Dhupelia, Arun Gandhi, Ela Ramgobin.
Collected Works ofMahatma Gandhi 1915-1930 (Navajivan Press).
Drum, September 1971, December 1974, Interviews with Sushila Gandhi.
Gandhi, M.K., An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth (Second Edition,
Ahmcdabad.1940).
Golden Jubilee 1904-1954: Phoenix Settlement (Indian Opinion Special Publication).
Hunt. 1.D., 'Experiments in Forming a Community of Service: the Evolution of Gandhi's First
Ashrams, Phoenix and Tolstoy Farm', Paper presented to conference on 'World Problems and
Human Responsibility: Gandhian Perspectives', New Yark, May, 1985.
Pachai, B .. The History of the Indian Opinion: Its Origin, Development and Contribution to
South African History, 1903-1914' in Archives Year BookJor South African His/orv, 1961.

UMA SHASHIKANT MESTHRIE

64 Obituaries

Douglas Mitchell (1896-1988): A Personal

Memoir
The passing from the parliamentary stage of the last representative of the old
United Party tradition, Ralph Hardingham, leads thoughts inevitably to the
great Natalian who shaped and led so many of this province's public
representatives, Douglas Mitchell.
I saw him for the first time 40 years ago, with a decisive general election
pending in 1948. An 'uitlander', new to the district and new to South African
politics, I had returned from honeymoon only the day before, and was now
part of a large and enthusiastic crowd at the annual general meeting of the
Elandslaagte branch of the United Party.
The Farmer's Hall was packed, and amidst the hubbub of the teacups a
certain undercurrent of dissatisfaction could be heard. Several farmers were
still smarting from what they considered had been Douglas Mitchell's cavalier
treatment of a delegation which had been to see him in his capacity as
Administrator of Natal. He had apparently been impatient of some of their
proposals, and their amour-propre was wounded. Other old Smuts men were
uneasy about local and provincial representation for Indians. Post-war
shortages were an irritation, and womenfolk were complaining about the poor

Mr Douglas Mitchell
(Photograph: Natal Witness)
Obituaries 65

quality of flour, and the drudgery of (illegally!) sieving it.

As the chairman led in the speaker, the crowd rose, and there was hearty
applause. Douglas Mitchell compelled attention as he vigorously and
trenchantly addressed the large problems facing Natal and South Africa. He
spoke with the authority of a man chosen by the 'Oubaas' to be one of his
lieutenants. Appraising the crowd, he clearly outlined the findings of the
Fagan Commission, 'the bridge', as he called it, to accommodation with the
'great race' -the Zulus - who were our neighbours. To me he seemed to
have a vast knowledge of that nation. As he outlined in curiously mixed
metaphors his vision of the future, his powers of leadership were plain to see.
Then, with some relaxation and a touch of humour in his blue eyes, he set
about demolishing the opposition - to the amusement and approval of the
crowd.
Later in the meeting, elected branch secretary, I came to meet the man of
the hour, who questioned me shrewdly. 'Do you know anything of our
politics?' 'Nothing.' 'Ah well. then you know just about as much as our
voters!' And when our candidate and his organizer spoke casually of what a
safe polling district Elandslaagte was, I was startled by Mitchell's sharp
rejoinder: 'You have nothing to be complacent about. Work is your only
answer!'
Work indeed became the lot of those loyal teams that he led for the next 25
years. Baptized by him into the United Party, I soon realized that total
immersion was his style! One exhausted friend after a particuarly gruelling by­
election campaign compared Douglas Mitchell to Simon Legree, lashing us on
to further efforts. His workers were indeed slaves to his relentless and ruthless
opposition to nationalism, but he gave them purpose and pride.
'Fancy' men and place-seekers he derided; traitors he despised. Of one
chairman's election to office in a higher tribunal Mitchell once ruefully
remarked: 'Oh dear, I do wish he'd stop adding to his titles!' Talkers and
'smooth 10hnnies' were often discomfited by his undisguised distrust and
scorn. Integrity and simplicity were what he valued, and he preferred these
qualities to any amount of intellectual brilliance. He relished the unbridled
rallies of the 'oudstryder' Oom Jan Landman, who would fiercely label a
renegade 'that old political chameleon', or react to Dr D.F. Malan's claim to
be the true leader of Afrikanerdom with an explosive bilingual 'Ladies and
yentiemen, ek se vir jou, when I was sleeping under the same blanket as
Yeneral Botha, waar was daardie Daniel Francois Malan? Sleeping in silk
pyjamas under the union yack!' I can still hear Douglas Mitchell's crow of
mirth.
He had deep empathy with the Afrikaner. In the 1953 election the
Flentershoek United Party branch asked for him as a guest speaker. The
venue was a simple farmhouse in the hills. The black mass of Majuba with its
memories of Boer independence and British blundering loomed in the
background. Lit by moonlight, paraffin lamps and braaivleis fires, the party
stalwarts gathered round the stocky figure in his usual crumpled brown suit.
Their seamed. bearded faces looked like the bronzes of Anton van Wouw or
Moses Kottler. These earnest, solemn elders smiled as Mitchell teased them,
but he dealt gently with them in his speech, ever sensitive to the price such
men paid in their community for their refusal to abandon the ideals of Union.
They took no offence at his addressing them in English: these Afrikaners
knew and valued him as a true friend. Indeed, his impatience was far greater
66 Obituaries

with the English-speaking South African. Irascible at many meetings, Mitchell

rounded furiously on one pussy-footing speaker with '1 am sick and tired of
you English sitting with your feet in the gutter and weeping crocodile tears.
Get up and do!' The compelling finger jabbed the air. We got up and we did,
all right!
The Republican Referendum campaign of 1960 was the climax of our
'doing', and the leader of a fighting Natal was indubitably Douglas Mitchell.
He strode the province in truly Napoleonic fashion, bringing an exhilaration
to party workers which they think of with nostalgia to this day. Meetings were
well organized, and the postal vote headquarters in Durban was a model of
streamlined efficiency. Constituency agents aimed at the targets Mitchell had
set - percentage polls of 80 to 90. Ever watchful for young men to carry on
the political fight into parliament, he noted the unflagging dedication of the
Three Musketeers of the North - Charles Henderson, Monty Crook and
Jannie Moll. Sounding me out one day on the possibility of their standing for
office, Douglas voiced his one reservation: '1 wish they were more rugged
characters.' Twenty years later when the trio had served in the Senate with the
same unflinching devotion to their leaders as his own, he recaIIed his early
criticism and acknowledged: 'They turned out rugged all right!' Like him,
these men could not be bought with the temptations of office.
Determination, hard work and a steady sense of purpose motivated him.
Fragmentation of the opposition was a recurring nightmare. Prior to the great
referendum fight against a republic, he had been deeply distressed by what he
saw as the dissipation of opposition forces in the Torch Commando and the
Black Sash. My husband and I had played a leading role in the work of these
two movements in Northern Natal, and Mitchell decided to come and speak to
us about our iniquities. His humour was always disarming, but as he revealed
what I considered were short-sighted criticisms, my temper and his flared. It
didn't help my suffragette soul to discover that he seriously distrusted
women's role in politics. Resentfully 1 blurted out: 'You obviously think we're
good enough to work ourselves to the bone in the back rooms while you men
strut it out on the platforms. You're nothing but a political St Paul!' He
promptly defused my wrath by replying 'This is the first time anyone has called
me a saint. And it's likely to be the last!' Engagingly, when he phoned a few
days later, he began: 'This is St Paul speaking.' Thereafter he left me in peace
to my aberrations, provided that at election time 1 did my duty in the back
room.
The year 1961 marked the beginning of my husband's 20 years service in the
republican Senate, and we were privileged to observe Douglas Mitchell at
work in the arena where he showed at his best, the Houses of Parliament. His
Cape Town home was across the Gardens, as close to his office as he could
get. Early in the morning, trilby firmly planted on his grizzled head, heavy
brief-case in hand, he would stride past the two 'dreadful' statues of his
revered Jan Christiaan Smuts, salute the police at the green gates, exchange a
few pleasantries with the parliamentary messengers, and disappear across the
green carpet of the Lobby into his office. After a day spent chivvying the idlers
of his team into action, as darkness fell he would make the march home again,
turning a sardonic glance towards the parliamentary bar where lesser and
light-hearted members were congregated.
With hindsight, 1 realize that the validity of Douglas Mitchell's views on
affairs was remarkable. He had demonstrated in 1953 at a Northern Natal
Obituaries 67

Regional Council AGM the need for viability of independent 'Bantustan'

economies, and had the foresight to realize that world reluctance to recognize
such puppet states would make them the millstone round the South African
taxpayer's neck. His private criticism of Minister M.C. Botha was scathing, his
attacks on him in the House were continual. As architect of a Provincial
Administration that could boast of 75 years of honest government, he was
angered by corruption in high places.
High living and social climbing were of no concern to him. Meeting him one
evening in the Lobby as he made his way home to study the day's papers and
prepare for the next day's caucus and committee meetings and a main debate,
I was surprised and flattered to be complimented on my appearance. 'We're
off to dine with the British Ambassador', I explained with some self­
importance. 'Climbing on that bandwagon, are you?' was his sardonic remark.
The implied rebuke went home. And on a later occasion he shamed us
thoroughly. Weary after a stressful week of hammering fruitlessly against
newly-tabled security legislation, we had made up our minds to fly out of the
turmoil and find peace with the animals in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park. At the
airport we met Douglas Mitchell, brief-case in hand, as ever. He was on his
way to Natal 'to put people in the picture'. Our weekend away from it all was
not a success.
For all his authoritarian ways, Douglas Mitchell was a team player. No more
generous gesture could have been made than Natal's readiness to
accommodate voiceless Transvaal, Free State and Cape opposition voters in
the Natal Senate team, and that move was engineered by Mitchell himself.
His love of South Africa with all her warts and her diverse ways led him to
deplore the endless divisions that Nationalism brought - in education, in
internal and external relationships. Long before the State of Emergency he
foresaw the end result of the Verwoerdian policy. Peering with disbelief at a
Bantustan map of our country, he said despairingly: 'What are they trying to
do? It can only end in chaos.' And when Dr Verwoerd returned home to a
triumphant and euphoric welcome after withdrawing South Africa from the
British Commonwealth of Nations, Mitchell said sadly 'They are cheering
because we have withdrawn from the world. Will they cheer when the world
withdraws from us?' - words with great poignancy in South Africa's present
situation, boycotted and undermined by world sanctions.
Dr Verwoerd's landslide victory of 1966 after a strange, unnerving, gagged
election, did not deter Douglas Mitchell from the task of fighting Nationalism
at the ballot box. Stolidly he continued to keep his faltering teams together,
and when an opportunity came to contest a by-election in 1969 in the safe
Nationalist seat of Newcastle, he flung them in. The resulting reduction in a
Nationalist majority - the first in Natal since 1948 - had him jubilant. His
opponents called him the Natal rhino, short-sighted and blundering as it
charged. But to me he was a wire-haired terrier, holding on fearlessly to the
muzzle of a larger adversary.
This bold persistence was the more remarkable because personal problems,
including the tragic illness of his beloved companion and wife, Mildred, would
have justified his retirement from politics in 1969. Instead we found him firmly
at the helm in 1970. There was every possible reason, financial and otherwise,
why we should have the sense to withdraw from the general election of that
year, but there was no refusing the demand of a leader who put his own
personal considerations aside. My husband accepted the task of contesting
68 Obituaries

Klip River, the safe seat of the Natal leader of the Nationalist Party, Henry
Torlage. A scratch campaign team, blessed with little but enthusiasm,
surprised even itself by reducing the Nationalist majority so substantially that
shortly afterwards Torlage was removed and installed as Commissioner­
General for KwaZulu. To this success could be added the winning back of nine
seats from the government party, and also the strengthening of 'Mitchell's
men' in the Natal Provincial Council. Typically, Douglas Mitchell did not
exult: he got out the lash and whipped us on to greater effort.
The two ensuing Klip River by-election campaigns made history as a
volunteer team created a superb election machine to stand up to a mighty
Nationalist onslaught. It was something of a David and Goliath affair, and
Mitchell revelled in it. He and I spent that tense day in 1974 together. As
phones rang and voting figures came in from polling stations, we watched with
mounting excitement as the gap between government and opposition
candidates narrowed. Brusquely silencing some self-appointed expert in
election analysis (who had already prophesied our victory) Mitchell began a
careful weighing-up of our chances. He turned to me and said quietly: 'Sheila,
this could be the last chance to save South Africa. Nothing will deter John
Vorster except defeat here tonight. We must not fail.' We failed by fewer than
250 votes. The weariness and despair on Douglas Mitchell's face as the result
was known was heartbreaking.
His indomitable spirit never broke. In retirement after 1973, honoured by
his erstwhile parliamentary foes with the Decoration for Meritorious Service,
he gave his mind to powering his young lieutenants on the Natal Provincial
Council and the Natal Parks Board. On one occasion I expressed to him an
uneasiness my Welsh witch's instin~ had felt at the inauguration of John
Vorster as State President in the Groot Kerk in Pretoria. Behind him had
stood Magnus Malan and P.W. Botha. There had been a sense of militant
ambition, of hawk-like ruthlessness that had disturbed me. Once more he
urged me to carry on the fight.
Two other episodes after his retirement are vivid memories. Dr Louis
Steenkamp and the Dundee History and Museum Committee were trying to
rescue the virtually derelict Trappist mission station of Maria Ratschitz in the
Waschbank valley. This daughter station to the famous Mariannhill had been
the victim of the government's removals policy, and its superb monastic
buildings and church with a carillon of bells stood weedstrewn and crumbling.
My memorandum suggesting rescue by Douglas Mitchell's own Natal Parks
Board had brought instant response. Douglas Mitchell, Parks Board
Chairman Horace Rail and John Geddes-Page, its Director, were on our
doorstep. We drove towards the mission in its grand setting under the forested
flanks of Hlatikulu Mountain, talking of the birds and the buck, and the rare
plants and trees of the area. I watched the elder statesman's face begin to light
up with excitement. As we walked into the silent and deserted church, his
voice rang out in anger: 'This is a crime against our civilization. This must be
rescued.' His anger burst out spontaneously and grandly against all the
divisive, shrivelling, malicious and negative aspects of Nationalist Party
policy. So much for press rumours that John Vorster had bamboozled him.
The most extraordinary memory was still to come. He was our guest on a
private visit, and one evening our daughter arrived with a band of fellow­
students from the University of Cape Town. Among them were some
impassioned radicals. They groaned when I told them that 'that old
Obituaries 69

conservative' was their fellow-guest. They were aghast when I told them
crisply to show respect for his years and position by bathing and dressing
decently - with shoes - for dinner. They would report for a drink at the
appropriate time in the drawing room. Rebellious and scoffing, they vanished.
They filed in sheepishly and awkwardly at the indicated hour, and confronted
their host and his distinguished guest - both of them, in their youthful eyes,
'as bad as any Nat'. Quietly the two elderly statesmen began to talk of the 30
years they had spent in opposition. Student faces began to turn their way, and
questions began to break the conversation. The young slipped from their
chairs and settled comfortably on the floor at the feet ofthe old Natal rhino.
The questions continued throughout dinner, with the coffee, as we piled log
after log on to the fire, long into the winter's night. Douglas Mitchell told
them of the great fight to defend the Constitution, of the Centlivres
judgement, of the disgraceful High Court of Parliament and the packing of the
Senate, of the struggle against the Group Areas Act and its application, of our
fierce Natal Stand against a republic, and against the fragmentation of South
Africa by the Bantustan policy. And then with characteristic humour and his
old sardonic twinkle, he said: 'I suppose that's what made me a Nationalist.'
The time passed unnoticed as he spoke of his best love, the Natal Parks Board,
and he revealed his deep and sympathetic knowledge of the Zulu people.
There was a sigh as, at two in the morning, he declared himself tired and bade
liS goodnight. Still enthralled, the young sat on before the fire in silence.
Douglas Mitchell's departure next morning was something of a triumph.
Without prompting, the students were at the door to wish him Godspeed.
Hands held out, smiles respectful, they thanked him for a 'great experience'.
It was a maturing experience for us all, and taught us much about the dignity
and responsibility of dissent. From such memories comes the power to fight on
as Douglas Mitchell fought on. Success or failure were not, and are not, at
issue. To be popular is irrelevant. To be faithful is all. Douglas Mitchell was
faithful.

SHEILA HENDERSON
70

Notes & Queries

DeuxAns aNatal
In response to the formerly unpublished piece Deux Ans a Natal, Shelagh
Spencer has contributed the following note:
It is certainly difficult to decide whether 'M. Bourbon' ever came to
Natal. There is no sign of such a person in the Port Captain's lists of
arriving and departing passengers during the period late 1847 to 1851.
On the other hand, Bourbon's reference to the wreckage of two
French ships he had observed when entering Durban Bay is genuine
(viz. the Suffren, which foundered in 1845, and the Bordeaux, wrecked
in 1847).
Again, the bigamist (or was it trigamist?), well known in Mauritius,
whom Bourbon encountered ten miles from Durban, is presumably
Henry Shire (alias Lyster Henry), one of Natal's pioneer sugar planters.
The Shires came to Natal in mid-1846 (here there is a discrepancy
because Bourbon states that he had been in Natal four or five years), and
settled at 'Milkwood Kraal' on the Little Umhlanga river, near Durban.
Lyster Henry, as he was known, became a well-respected figure - one
source even describes him as 'the squire of the district'. The evidence
points to his having had a personal interview with Lt-Governor
Benjamin Pine in June 1854, in which he gave his reasons for wishing to
assume his own name, Henry Shire. Permission was granted. A week
later he advertised in the press that he would resume the use of the name
Henry Shire. Three weeks after this, Shire and his 'wife', Elizabeth
Maillot, were married. One can only presume that these events were the
consequence of the death of his real wife in Mauritius. (Incidentally, the
Shires are credited with introducing the flamboyant tree to Natal from
Mauritius. )
The story of the tragic lovers, however, is suspect. With its being 'the
topic of every conversation' when Bourbon arrived, it seems strange that
no report of such a death has been found in the Colony's newspapers
then in existence (i.e. the Natal Patriot and the Natal Witness). Also,
'some little distance from town' suggests that they were not far from
either Durban or Pietermaritzburg (the only centres at this early stage).
Why, then, did they have to wait to get married, when clergymen were
available in both centres?
The detail in which M. Bourbon gives the history of the Voortrekkers
and early white settlement in Natal certainly indicates access to sources
which, in that early era, it would have been difficult to obtain without an
actual visit to the Colony. Did he come to Natal, or was his account
compiled from information provided him by someone from Mauritius
Notes & Queries 71

who did? Bourbon's plagiarism of Delegorgue contributes to this

scepticism as to his veracity.

AlanPaton
Alan Paton, in his autobiographical Towards the Mountain, recounts how, at a
Speech Day assembly at Estcourt High School many years after the student
days during which he and R 0 Pearse took long walks together (encompassing
Estcourt, Durban and even Ladysmith from Pietermaritzburg), he told a story
involving the Headmaster: 'I thought it was funny, and the boys and girls
thought it was funny. I think the staff thought it was funny, but 1 don't think
the headmaster thought it was funny'.
Perhaps, after all, Paton misjudged the reaction of his host on that occasion.
Professor Colin Gardner's 1988 Natal Society Lecture on Alan Paton
(published in Natalia 18) has drawn a response from Mr Pearse.
It gives one of the clearest accounts 1 have yet seen of the
development of Dr Paton's political philosophy. However, 1 would like
to have seen greater emphasis on the Alan Paton whom his friends
knew, the human Alan rather than the political philosopher - his love of
a joke: 'he loved a drink, he loved people', as Professor Gardner so aptly
puts it.
Stories of the humorous, puckish, fun-loving Alan are, of course,
legion. Here is one that occurs to me at random.
The year was 1935, and I was on the Staff of Maritzburg College
together with Alan. It was the year of King George V's Silver Jubilee,
and 'Scratch' Leach, still beloved by many an old boy, was Acting Head
of College (the Headmaster, Pape, was on leave). The occasion was the
Morning Assembly. Of course the Hall was packed with boys, with the
Staff, in dignified array, drawn up in a large semicircle on the stage.
After explaining the significance of the occasion, 'Scratch', in his
rather heavy, ponderous manner, said, 'Now boys, tomorrow we are all
going down to the Show Grounds to take part in the celebrations. You
will all march down to the Show Grounds, and when you arrive you will
line up in front of the pavilion. Each boy will then - sit - down - on - his
-own-AREA'.
The silence that followed was electric with tension. Each boy was
holding his breath, trying desperately not to laugh, for, of course, you
never, never laughed on such an august occasion as Morning Assembly!
Suddenly, in the silence, Alan let out a bellow of laughter, and of course
brought the house down. Against the assault of laughter, said Mark
Twain, nothing can stand.
Mr Pearse also comments on Natalia's choice of a photograph to accompany
Professor Gardner's lecture. 'It is the only decent one of him 1 have ever seen,
apart from the rather juvenile one on the dust cover of the first (1948) edition
of Cry, the Beloved Country. 1 have never been able to understand why the
media persisted in using those dreadful pictures of Alan, the grim, dour,
unsmiling political philosopher, rather than of the Alan whom his friends
knew, impish and fun-loving.'
With Paton and Pearse at N. u. C. during the early 1920s was Neville
Nuttall, not such a great walker but a close friend who at one time edited the
college Magazine with Paton as his assistant. The trio all intended going into
72 Notes & Queries

teaching, and to that end supplemented their university studies with courses at
the Natal Training College (the institution whose consignment to oblivion was
lamented in Natalia 17). The recollection that Mr Nuttall later became
Principal of N.T.C. adds piquancy to an already barbed verse that he and
Paton accepted for publication in the summer term of 1922 (NUC Magazine,
Volume 6).

NATAL TRAINING COLLEGE

('How it strikes a Contemporary')
Age-old, musty specimens,
Rows of worn and battered books,
Soulless women, biting pens,
Imbeciles, with vacant looks.
Dry discussions, nearly dead;
Words on words, and meaningless.
Weak-eyed students, deeply read.
Minds as rusty as their dress.
Gloomy lecturers flit round,
Hovering like a hot nightmare,
Everywhere a dreary sound,­
Endless talking, always low,
Sound asleep, and yet awake.
By-and-bye a bell will go,
And the drowsy spell will break.
MORPHEUS

It was unusual for the N. U. C. Magazine to publish material under noms de

plume other than the writer's initials, so that authorship can generally be
readily traced. Perhaps Mr Pearse (or some other student contemporary) may
be able to identify the scathing rascal concealed behind the dormant deity?

M ashea and the Barnacle

In last year's number of Natalia, contemporary verses referring to tsetse fly
control under the title 'Mashea and the Barnacle' were published, together
with a query about some of the references contained in them. Dr Tan Player
has responded with these comments:
MASHEA should be spelt MASHIYA, and the person thus named is
W E Foster, or Willie Foster as he is known in Zululand. He had big,
bushy eyebrows and the Zulus therefore named him 'Mashiya '.
Foster was right-hand man to R H T P Harris - of Harris Fly Trap
fame. In fact it was Foster who developed the first trap while Harris was
on leave in Durban. It was, however, rather a crude one, and Harris
immediately altered it. Another man involved in the making of the first
trap was Sam Deakin who worked for Harris in the late 20s/early 30s.
Foster was originally a stock inspector in Zululand and went there
after the Bambatha rebellion. In the 1920s he was seconded to Harris to
help with the anti-tsetse fly work. When Harris retired, Foster worked
for Dr Kluge who took over from Harris, then in 1953, when the
Notes & Queries 73

Umfolozi Game Reserve was handed back to the Province of Natal, he

became Game Supervisor for the Natal Parks Board. He was a fluent
Zulu linguist and greatly respected by the Zulus. I took over from him at
Umfolozi Game Reserve in 1955 and enjoyed many interesting hours in
his company.
Sorry to say I don't know who the Barnacle is. If he had a Zulu name it
would be easy. Harris's Zulu name was Makamisa, meaning The
Stutterer.

Flat Earthmen
In his article on Fort Napier, Graham Dominy notes the unfortunate part
played by the Natal Witness and its then editor Horace Rose in whipping up
anti-German sentiment in Pietermaritzburg whilst German nationals were in­
terned there during the Great War. Today, as the reprinting of book reviews in
the present number confirms, the editors of Natalia and the Witness have a
productively cordial relationship. Regular readers of the country's oldest
newspaper will be familiar with the contributions to its columns from the Mid­
lands' most staunch Flat Earther, and the happy connection between the two
journals leads us to pre-empt any future editors' efforts to mark a centenary
that is still a few years off. In April 1895 Captain Joshua Slocum sailed, alone
in his sloop Spray, from Boston Massachussetts on the first leg of a circumna­
vigation of the world. A little over two years later, escorted by the port pilot
tug but in a 'smart gale' and with seas too rough to permit a tow, Slocum
brought the Spray safely across the bar and into Port Natal.
Captain Slocum remained in Durban from 17th November to 14th Decem­
ber 1897. He did some cruising with Harry Escombe (but declined to stake his
sloop on a game of cribbage with Natal's Prime Minister), encountered the
great explorer Stanley at the Royal Hotel, and visited many public schools
where he 'had the pleasure of meeting many bright children'. The last com­
ment, however, was made in the context of his doubts regarding the quality of
education in the hinterland of Southern Africa. When he eventually got back
to the United States (in June 1898) he wrote out his experiences in Sailing
Alone Around the World.
Tt sounds odd to hear scholars and statesmen say the world is flat; but it is
a fact that three Boers favoured by the opinion of President Kruger pre­
pared a work to support that contention. While I was at Durban they
came from Pretoria to obtain data from me, and they seemed annoyed
when I told them that they could not prove it by my experience. With the
advice to call up some ghost of the dark ages for research. I went ashore,
and left these three wise men poring over the Spray's track on a chart of
the world, which. however, proved nothing to them. for it was on Merca­
tor's projection. and behold, it was 'flat'. The next morning I met onc of
the party in a clergyman's garb. carrying a large Bible. not different frOIll
the one I had read. He tackled mc, saying, 'If you respect the Word of
God. you must admit that the world is flat'. 'If the Word of God stands
on a flat world - ' I began. 'What!' cried he, losing himself in a passion,
and making as if he would run me through with an assegai. 'What!' he
shouted in astonishment and rage, while I jumped aside to dodge the
imaginary weapon. Had this good but misguided fanatic been armed
with a real weapon, the crew of the Spray would have died a martyr there
74 Notes & Queries

and then. The next day, seeing him across the street, I bowed and made
curves with my hands. He responded with a level, swimming movement
of his hands, meaning 'the world is flat.'
Captain Slocum's complaint was against the ignorance of the Boers, how­
ever, and not their bigotry. 'Real stubborn bigotry with them is only found
among old fogies, and will die a natural death, and that, too, perhaps long be­
fore we ourselves are entirely free from bigotry' - an observation confirmed in
time by Horace Rose and a continuing line ofothers like him.

A Maritime Museum in Durban

Captain Slocum was thoroughly charmed by Port Natal: 'this delightful place
is the commercial centre of the "Garden Colony", Durban itself, the city,
being the continuation of a garden'. He would doubtless be distressed to find
that today the view of the Berea from his anchorage in the bay has been
obliterated by glass and concrete towers, but perhaps encouraged to discover
that recent town planners have been able to recreate garden-like open spaces
in the very centre of the city. Having been much impressed by the enterprise
of Durban's two yacht-clubs and the quality of local seamanship ('the Spray
was not sailing in among greenhorns when she came to Natal'), he might be
pleased, too, to find that long-overdue steps have been taken towards
providing this great seaboard city with a maritime museum.
When this scribe discovered the museum on a bright winter morning, the
enthusiasm of the curatrix made a rather stronger first impression than the
scope and range of the exhibits. A reconstruction of a small early Durban
building (the original, built in 1902, still stands in Seaview) features a
collection of enlarged photographs covering various aspects of activity on and
around the bay down the years, and contains the nucleus of what could
become a lively record of the development of one of the world's major ports.
Propped high on trestles, the small steam pilot boat Ulundi is entirely
inaccessible to the visitor, but moored in tandem at the quayside and moving
gently on the last vestiges of swell are the two real treats, the ocean-going tug
J R More and the minesweeper SAS Durban.
The most memorable deeds of J R More's working career are documented
in a display of press cuttings. It is the sort of collection which might have been
assembled by the vessel's Master himself, and indeed the tug, for all that it is
dormant and retired, has about it an air of having merely paused between
jobs, as if the crew might come back on board even before one has left,
shoulder one aside, and bring her back to life. SAS Durban has much the
same feel. Wads of cotton waste are tucked between pipes ready to be used
again in a moment. There's a chart on the chart table, just where it was left for
the next watch.
These do not match the conventional image of museum exhibits, sterilised
into facsimiles of what once they were: they are working ships in which the
visitor becomes one of the crew, squeezing out of a hard and narrow bunk,
clambering up to the bridge, grumbling about what comes out of the galley,
shouting orders into a speaking tube and ringing down to the engine room for
Slow Ahead as we gently pick up a tow or edge towards an errant mine. No
doubt pilfering and scratching fingers will in time force the erection of
barriers, and looking will replace acting, but by then the museum will perhaps
have developed other attractions.
Notes & Queries 75

A Day ofGenealogy
Interest in origins is one of the aspects of The British Character which the late
Mr Pont might well have enjoyed depicting. It is not, however, a trait peculiar
to the British alone, and the serious study of genealogy is gaining popularity
locally. Dr M. J. O'Connor provided the material for the note below.

Following an offer to deliver a lecture to the Natal Coastal Branch of

the Genealogical Society of South Africa by Mr Gordon Haddon from
England, and a similar offer to the Natal Midlands Branch by Mr Des
Armstrong, South African representative of the Irish Heritage Foun­
dation, the two branches decided to co-operate and arrange a Day of
Genealogy, making use of the services of these two gentlemen as well as
of local speakers. In the event, the lecture that Mr Armstrong was to
have given was delivered by Mrs Kathleen Neill, founder of the Irish
Heritage Foundation.
Various crises - including the eleventh-hour discovery that the pro­
posed venue would be without electricity - threatened to upset the plan­
ning, but, with the help of Mrs Addison of the Public Relations division
at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, a suitable lecture theatre
was found at the university and the participants gathered there on 11th
February 1989. The event had been widely advertized on radio and in the
press, but the public response was well beyond the expectations of the
organizers, with over 150 people attending.
The topics of the lectures were carefully selected to cover as wide a
range of topics as possible to assist the family historian, both beginner
and more advanced. After the opening, Mr Con Roeloffze, president­
elect of the Genealogical Society of South Africa and chairman of the
Southern Transvaal Branch, introduced proceedings with a talk on
'What genealogy is all about'. He was followed by Mrs Neill, who spoke
on research in Ireland, and Mrs Annaliese Peters (secretary of the
Coastal Branch) on the Bergtheil Settlers. Mrs Beryl Laing, chief librar­
ian of the Family History Library of the Mormon Church, spoke about
the Genealogical Library of her church, and Mr Brian Spencer of the
Don Africana Library on the topic 'Libraries and Genealogy'.
Lunch and teas were provided by a small team of members and their
wives, and in the afternoon Mrs Judy Hawley of the Natal Archives
spoke on 'Genealogy and the Natal Archives Depot' and Mr Gordon
Haddon on genealogical research in the United Kingdom. Before a
panel discussion brought the formal proceedings of the day to a close,
Mrs Cynthia Giddy spoke on the topic 'Putting Leaves on your Genealo­
gical Tree'.
Apart from the lectures, the day featured a number of exhibitions.
These included displays by the Natal Archives of genealogical source
material and by the Mormon Church of the use of its International Gen­
ealogical Index. Mrs Neill's Irish Heritage Foundation mounted a dis­
play which included the cloak used in the installation of the chief of the
Neill clan, Mrs Giddy had illustrations to complement her lecture,and
there were displays of books on family history and the use of computers
in genealogy.
The excellent response shows the increasing popularity of genealogy,
and this trend is confirmed by statistics from various archives depots
76 Notes & Queries

which indicate that about a third of researchers using their facilities are
working on family history. As a follow-up to the day, participants were
invited to a Saturday morning workshop at the Natal Archives, and this
was also well supported. In spite of gremlins in the planning stages, the
organizers could congratulate themselves on a very successful event.

Settler Descendants' Solidarity

Mr John Deane has provided this note on a memorable gathering.
To mark the 140th anniversary of the arrival of the first Byrne Settler
ships in Natal, an enterprizing group of descendants arranged a
gathering at Baynesfield on 4th July 1989. It was widely advertized in the
press, and despite unseasonably overcast and rainy weather, about 400
people arrived at the Baynesfield community hall on that Sunday
morning. For those who were not sure in which settler party their
forbears reached these shores, ships' passenger lists were available, and
all were encouraged to wear name-tags which included the name of the
ancestral vessel. A general feeling of affinity prevailed, and
intermarriage of settler families enabled some to sail under more than
one flag. Morning tea was followed by talks on Joseph Byrne and his
agent John Moreland, given by well-known Natal historians Shelagh
Spencer and Ruth Gordon. Cooking-fires were provided outside, and
the family picnic parties illustrated a persistence even unto the third and
fourth generations of many aspects of The British Character
immortalized by the cartoonist Pont. The afternoon session, back in the
hall, was devoted to contributions by various settler descendants who
spoke of particular pioneering experiences of their families. The day
proved to be a very enjoyable occasion, and by general consensus, worth
repeating.

The EnvironmentatRisk
During the past year, the 'Garden Colony' where Joshua Slocum called some
ninety years ago has experienced some rude shocks. Significant levels of 'acid
rain', apparently related to the injudicious use of hormonal herbicides, have
heen measured over Durban and elsewhere in the region. Toxic industrial
waste, instead of being safely disposed of, has been merely dumped,
seemingly on a large scale. Raw sewage in the Umsindusi River, never entirely
absent from the water that flows through Pietermaritzburg, has more than
once risen to poisonous levels, and the authorities have acknowledged that the
familiar pall of factory smokc over the once-slecpy hollow may really be
endangering human as well as animal and plant life. Also in the capital, some
of Scottsville's jacaranda trees - along King Edward A venue and elsewhere ­
have perhaps not survived the mistaken application of an over-strong weed­
killer. and the canopy over upper West Street has been hacked down to make
way for traffic. Expanding human settlement everywhere is eating away at the
natural habitat of animals and birds, and in the Midlands the conversion of
open grassland to commercial forests is having the same effect.
The changes being wrought on the environment by human folly and greed
are irreversible and hugely destructive. It is a situation which the journal of an
organization calling itself The Natal Society' must note with great alarm.
Notes & Queries 77

Fortunately, educationalists in Natal are alert to the danger, and increasing

emphasis is being given to environmental education. An annual competitive
symposium on the conservation of our environment and natural resources
provides a forum for reports on secondary school research projects which
achieve increasingly laudable standards. The overall winner in 1989 was the
Conservation Club of Pinetown Boys' High School, which made a study of the
Mhlatuzana Valley that extends from Key Ridge to the Durban harbour.
Some of the conclusions drawn in that study (entitled 'Catchment
Conservation - A Logical Approach Towards Environmental Responsibility'
- warrant repeating:
Now, more than ever before, Man's survival on Earth is threatened:
threatened by the explosion of his population numbers and his
irresponsible actions. Those basic elements upon which he survives - air,
water, and soil- he is now polluting, mismanaging, or simply destroying.
Lack of care will result in damage to those very foundations on which
Man's life depends, as green pastures are transformed to deserts and
majestic rivers to dry troughs.
Urgent and appropriate action is needed now. Procrastination and
ongoing debate often lead nowhere. It is only through decisive action
that our survival, and that of other species, can be ensured.

The Provincial Council Building in Pietermari[zburg

The building that latterly housed Natal's defunct provincial council was built
for its colonial predecessor, the Legislative Council, and first occupied in
1889. To mark the centenary, T.B. Frost has provided the note that follows.
Natal's first Legislative Council was opened in 1857 and met in the
only place available, the government schoolroom which stood on the
corner of Longmarket and Chapel streets. While the doings of the
politicians attracted considerable popular interest in a society with little
in the way of entertainment, the venue was hardly commensurate with
even the small dignity of a nominated Legislative Council in one of the
least of Her Majesty's colonies.
In 1864 plans were drawn up by the Colonial Engineer, Peter
Patterson, for a new building on the government erf in Commercial
Road facing the market square. The foundation stone was laid in 1865,
but such was the economic adversity of the times that the project was not
complete until 1871. This building served a variety of purposes: it housed
the Supreme Court, the rooms at the northern corner were used as the
Post Office, and it accommodated the sessions of the Legislative Council
in its principal hall.
In the 1880s, with Responsible Government in the offing, the
parliamentarians of the day sought more commodious and permanent
accommodation than a Supreme Court building, used merely on
sufferance of the Chief Justice. Accordingly, the adjoining erf 24 in
Longmarket Street, on which stood St Mary's church, was purchased
from Bishop Colenso. A new St Mary's was erected at the corner of
Burger and Commercial roads before the old was demolished, but the
ground was cleared in time for the celebration of Queen Victoria's
Golden Jubilee in June 1887, when the foundation stone of the new
78 Notes & Queries

parliament building was laid by the Governor, Sir Arthur Havelock. The
winning design was that of James Tibbet, who had probably been
employed as a draughtsman by the famous architect P.M. Dudgeon, and
the building was taken into use in April 1889 with due pomp and
ceremony, the guard of honour provided by men of the 64th Regiment,
the 6th Dragoons, and cadets from Maritzburg College.
The building has been described by Brian Kearney as 'one of the finest
in Pietermaritzburg'. The exterior is graced by classical columns and
pediment. Inside, a visiting Englishman thought that 'it would put to
shame, as far as internal arrangements are concerned, our Palace of
Westminster'. Corridors ran down both sides of the lofty assembly hall
and led to the various offices of the legislative councillors. The hall itself
was panelled in dark timber, with hangings and upholstery of crimson
velvet. Semi-circular clerestory lights were arranged along the two long
sides of the space. A ladies' gallery was added in 1890. In 1894 it was one
of the first places to be fitted with 'the electric light'.
Additions were made in 1898 to provide a library, refectory, larger
kitchens, a billiard room and so on. The building was set off by the
elegant cast-iron fences and gates which surrounded it, while a marble
statue of Queen Victoria was erected on a pedestal in front. Including
furnishings, it cost £28000. Considering the resource base of the colony
at the time, it was indeed a remarkably splendid and prestigious public
building.
The granting of Responsible Government to Natal in 1893 created a
bi-cameral parliament. The lower house, now known as the Legislative
Assembly, met, of course, in its new premises. The new upper house,
the Legislative Council, met in the equally new Town Hall. That, alas,
was burned to the ground in 1898, hastening the day when the
Legislative Council would have a home of its own. Plans for a building
attached to the Legislative Assembly were accordingly drawn up and a
foundation stone laid in 1899.
Progress here was hindered, however, by the outbreak of the Anglo­
Boer War later that same year. The stone was coming from the Mooi
River area, but was held up when the railway was required for military
purposes. The contractor, one Frank Turner, seeking further materials,
was besieged in Ladysmith, caught by the Boers when he attempted to
escape, and sent to Pretoria as a spy! Not until 1902 was the building
completed. Delays in construction, moreover, were not the only effect
of the war. As the casualties from General Buller's disastrous early
attempts to raise the siege of Ladysmith flowed back to
Pietermaritzburg, the Legislative Assembly building, together with St
George's Garrison Church and Maritzburg College, was commandeered
by the military as an emergency hospital. Once more, for a time,
parliament had to hold its sessions in the Supreme Court next door.
May 1910 brought the advent of Union and the end of the colonial
parliament. The Legislative Assembly premises were henceforth to be
home to the new Provincial Council. The Legislative Council building
was used by a variety of provincial departments until the Natalia building
was opened in 1973. Thereafter the Provincial Council used the vacated
building as offices and committee rooms.
Notes & Queries 79

When South Africa became a Republic in 1961, the position of the

Provincial Council was preserved for a further 25 years despite steadily
encroaching central government authority. The Constitution Act of
1983, however, sounded its death knell and in 1986 it was disbanded.
Since then the historic old buildings have been occupied largely by the
ghosts of politicians past, though present-day ones still use the debating
chamber occasionally when Joint Committees of the Tri-cameral
Parliament meet there.

Poetry in Prince Alfred Street

In Natalia 18, Notes and Queries briefly outlined the history of the Prince
Alfred Street house now occupied as a studio-cum-gallery-cum-library-cum­
office by the Midlands Arts and Crafts Society. MACS' regular exhibitions
generally confirm the usual notion that 'arts and crafts' means painting,
ceramics, sculpting and working with fibre and fabric in various ways, but the
society has also on occasion hosted what can best be termed 'soirees'. The
patrons (the word is more appropriate in this context than in the cinema)
assemble to sip wine, sherry, or whatever while they listen to local poets read
their own works. Musical interludes - at the latest event, Jimmy Freeborn
singing his own compositions - are interspersed between the readings, and the
whole is rounded off with a light and simple supper. The twice-invited poets
have been Moira Lovell, Floss Mitchell, George Candy, Clive Lawrance, and
David Pike, and their various works complement one another and balance
nicely to make up a stimulating evening. Mr Lawrance has graciously granted
permission for Notes and Queries to print two of his shorter poems:

AFRICA
This land is old and kind:
You feel it
In the veld, in rocks and trees,
Even in cities and townships,
On warm and windless days,
There's a stillness, old and kind:
Only the weather
(Bridge-bending storms
Or slow-drying decay)
And the people, white and black,
Are new and violent,
Blaspheming of privilege and revenge,
Grappling or grovelling for power,
Not for Africa;
Africa waits for the rain, the seed,
The tree, the fruit ...
Africa is immensely patient,
Old and kind.
80 Notes & Queries

JACARANDA IN A WHITE SUBURB

Only this morning,
Serene in sunlight,
This purple lady
Presided over green lawns:
Now she trembles
In the reaching fingers
Ofastorm ....

The Township Troubles

Pietermaritzburg's enthusiasm for celebrating its 150th year in 1988 was
greatly dampened by the events that have affected, fearfully and terribly,
black people in the neighbouring townships. Although they share the same
workplaces, white people are generally so isolated from the lives of their
compatriots that they have had little knowledge of, and scant insight into,
these events. The two short letters printed below were written by a domestic
servant in order to explain her seeming unreliableness to her employer. They
are reproduced here, verbatim, as an unusual piece of primary historical
evidence. Perhaps the only comment required is that Natalia feels a need not
to reveal the identity of the writer.
Monday 5th June, 1989.
I was a risk to come to work this morning. But I saw the buses & kombis
full with people this morning. So I thought what will happen if I follow
the people. Anyway we didn't see anything this morning. Some of the
people didn't go to work like my husband didn't go. he said he was
frightened because they warned them on Friday if they happen to see
them at work they take further steps for them and they are Inkatha so he
stay away. Well we dont know what it will be this afternoon when we go
home. Lets hope will be safe until Thursday.
16th June, 1989
I am coming to do my ironing tomorrow please leave the door opened.
But come a little bit later because its a holiday or stay away or goverment
holiday I dont know mybe you heard about it. Thats why III come a little
bit later to see first whats happening. Anyway hope to come to morrow.

NationalMonuments in Natal
Notes and Queries customarily lists the national monuments proclaimed in
Natal during the previous year, and the list is generally a lengthy one. This
year only one proclamation and two provisional proclamations can be
reported. The Annual Report of the National Monuments Commission for the
year ended 31st March 1988 describes them as follows:
Declared monument:
The Old City Hall building in Main Street, Kokstad.
This building with its Neo-Classical element was erected in 1900 to serve
as City Hall and municipal offices. The building was designed by the
architect Arthur Fyfe and officially inaugurated on 1 January 1901.
Notes & Queries 81

Provisional proclamations:
a) Stand (Erf) 313 with the buildings on it at Umzinto.

b) St Andrew's Presbyterian Church building (also known as The Little

Abbey Theatre) at 86 Commercial Road, Durban.

The same report (Annual Report No. 19) notes the publication in the
Government Gazette of a Government Notice concerning the issue of a salvage
permit for the wreck of the English steamship Newark Castle, which stranded
near RichardsBayin 1908.
Compiled by MORAY COMRIE
82

Book Reviews and Notices

PIETERMARITZBURG 1838-1988: A NEW PORTRAIT OF AN AFRICAN

CITY
Edited by JOHN LABAND and ROBERT HASWELL
Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press and Shuter & Shooter, 1988.
286pp. illus. R49,95 + GST.
It is at once an exciting and a disturbing experience to read this handsomely
produced book, which marks the 150th anniversary of Pietermaritzburg:
exciting because it echoes in so many ways Alan Paton's evocative phrase ­
'Pietermaritzburg, the lovely city'; disturbing because of its constant reminder
that here, as with Disraeli's England of the mid-nineteenth century, we have
an account not just of one city, but of two - a city of wealth and privilege, and
a city of poverty and exclusion.
This two-fold response is to the great credit of the editors and authors of the
book, because it is an indication that this portrait of Pietermaritzburg has not
made the mistake of so much past writing about our capital city, in which the
focus has been almost entirely on the one community to the virtual exclusion
of the other. Even that doyen of our Natal historians, Professor Alan
Hattersley, was guilty of this myopic one-sidedness. Indeed, he revealed his
complacency and bias with his remark in his Portrait of a City (1951), quoted
in this volume, that 'Pietermaritzburg has done not a little for its Bantu
population' .
It is extremely poignant to find oneself reading in this book three carefully
researched and revealing chapters on the peri-urban Vulindlela, on Edendale
and on Sobantu Village, with a chapter sandwiched in-between giving Brian
Spencer's memorable description of growing up in Loop Street. Two cities
indeed!
In fact, there are more than just two cities described here, because in
Pietermaritzburg, as in Durban and elsewhere in Natal. we have the meeting
point of the three great cultures of Africa, Asia and Europe. The book is
described as 'the portrait of an African city'. That is true in the sense that it is a
city in Africa; but there is a long way to go before it becomes truly African.
The range of subjects in this portrait is remarkable. Ecology and geology;
architecture and the arts; education and the economy; history and politics;
religion, health and sport: all these and more are covered. But not only
covered; they are illuminated by admirably short chapters or boxed insertions,
which both inform and fascinate the reader. So we have, for example (and
selecting almost at random), pieces on 'The Pietermaritzburg Town Hall',
The trial of Langalibalele', 'From rickshaws to minibus taxis', 'Afrikaans
authors of Pietermaritzburg', 'Alan Paton of Pietermaritzburg', 'The Pubs
of Pietermaritzburg', The Duzi Canoe Marathon,' 'Gandhi: the
Book Reviews and Notices 83

Pietermaritzburg experience', as well as somewhat longer descriptive or

analytical pieces. There are three poems as well: 'Sinjale' by D.J. Opperman
(written at 20 Longmarket Street), 'cloudburst over machibise' by dikobe wa
mogale, and the very moving 'echo sounds in Maritzburg' by Mlungisi
Mkhize. It is a pity that nothing similar in Zulu was "found, but it is much to the
editors' credit that contemporary orthography has been used in regard to Zulu
names. It is very disappointing that, apart from the two poems mentioned,
there is no contribution to this book by an African. Is this due to the
constraints of our time, such as the emergency regulations? The editors drop a
hint along these lines (p. xix). But surely this shouldn't have excluded black
reminiscence such as that given from a white perspective on life in Loop
Street?
The book includes a fine, wide collection of photographs and other
illustrations. There is even a clever page full of Leyden cartoons illustrating a
variety of Pietermaritzburg personalities. The beer halls, the railways, the
Hindu temples and Christian churches, the hospitals and schools, houses and
huts, gardens, gracious homes, thorn trees and forests, shops and traffic: these
are there as well as the very varied human face of Maritzburg and its
immediate environment.
Is this a classic example of 'a coffee table book'? Yes and no. It is a book
which can be dipped into with interest and delight. Yet it is a book which also
challenges, disturbs and inspires. It does not try to avoid the seamier and even
tragic side of our capital city's life and history. It describes 'an apartheid city'
which has itself been built on 'a segregated city', the one a more savagely
ideological version of the other. It does not avoid the grievous truth that the
150th anniversary has occurred in a city caught up in terrible conflict and
violence. Yet is also points the way to a new future, already being adumbrated
among the more reasonable and far-sighted of Pietermaritzburg's citizens, in
which the divided city will more truly become a city for all - an African city.
So the concluding chapter ends with an adaptation of some words written long
ago by Gandhi, whose philosophy was shaped deeply by what happened to
him on the Pietermaritzburg railway station on 7 June 1893 (the story is told in
this book):
We do not want our City divided and our windows burglar-proofed
against those who could be our neighbours; we want all the people of this
land to move about our City as freely as possible, knowing that none of
us will be blown away.
I find that it is impossible to review a book like this dispassionately. If one
cares for Pietermaritzburg and its people, one is left, reflectively, penitently,
hopefully, wanting very much to be part of the kind of future this book holds
outto us all.
MICHAEL NUTTALL
84 Book Reviews and Notices

FOR HEARTH AND HOME - THE STORY OF MARITZBURG

COLLEGE 1863-1988.
by SIMON HAWand RICHARD FRAME.
Pietermaritzburg, MC Publications, 1988. 518pp. illus. R49,95.
All the best books about schools emphasize the people, for it is people who
make or break schools. For Hearth and Home is rich in people in all their
idiosyncratic glory. This galloping tale of the fortunes of Maritzburg College
recounts in picaresque style the adventure that is education. The action, the
ideas and values are informed by the South African character of its birth and
its realization of ethos in a city where Brit and Boer have left their corporate
cultural stamp.
Schools are fascinating places. Like Eugene Marais' antheaps, they are the
sum of their parts - organic entities at once concerned with common goals
and vulnerable to the imperatives of individuality. They are shaped by
decisions taken at the flood and their character reflects an image of human
interaction in the cause of progress - for the pupils, for the school. Part of the
considerable charm of this book is that experience of success is handled, on
the whole, with disarming candour. The trumpets are blown but the bum
notes are also heard.
The structure of For Hearth and Home deals mainly in narrative but the
business of recording perceived success and failure makes the work an
essential item for educational archives. Its concern with the human factor
provides a drama of struggle in the early days, and mainly successful strategies
to deal with the pervading demand for 'success' over the last 50 years or so.
The problem for small schools is expectation of failure; that of big schools
anticipation of inviolate superiority. School communities become beguiled by
the performances of the few. The danger is that individual effort is trivialized
into scoreboard generality and corporate achievement melodramatized into
myth. In this story of Maritzburg College, the boys, the teachers, and the
headmasters, are downstage-centre. Brightly-lit, theirs is a tale told of
movement towards greater appreciation of the need for school and home to
work closely in the education of the boys. Until the time of Hector Commons
as Headmaster, 'both staff and headmaster had tended to treat "nosy" parents
with the glacial distaste that an Englishman might accord to a drunken hobo
stumbling through the hallowed portals of his club'. This attitude changed in
1966, and a more sensitive and sophisticated view of fagging and initiation
procedures began to influence policy.
The authors, Haw and Frame, weave the story of College into the cloth of
the contemporary scene. One sees policy and practice against the events of the
day. The business of school is clearly the business of life. Challenge and
opportunity evoke a response of remarkable variety from remarkably various
headmasters. The redoubtable Clark, his office marked by wars at both ends,
and the College motto in 1896; 'Pixie' Barns and the 'Spanish flu'; Septimus
Pape of the 'bombastic voice': John Willie Hudson with his 'thundering
authoritarianism' and 'histrionic ebullience'; 'Bones' Fuller, the delegator and
stickler for 'standards' (,You long-haired lout, get out of my school and when
your hair conforms to the standards, come back and see me and perhaps I'll
take you back to my school!'); Hector Commons, 'leading from the top';
Keith Olivier, with a renaissance grasp of curricular possibilities, recognizing
individuality and the richness of cultural opportunity. And for much of the
later history, the character and charisma of the remarkable Skonk Nicholson,
Book Reviews and Notices 85

deputy-headmaster from 1957 to 1982.

Readers closely associated with Maritzburg College as former pupils,
teachers, parents, and headmasters, will enjoy this accurate and carefully
recorded account of the fortunes of one of Natal's most famous schools.
Fables and foibles come thick and fast, and the humour is splendidly open and
fair. Sacred cows are kindly but summarily despatched, and the authors have
not flinched from attempting judgments of leadership and management styles.
In this fine chronicle, teachers are spared nothing. Credit is given where it is
due; criticism is fulsome and sensitive to personality and engaging
eccentricity. For Hearth and Home has much of the bounce and zip of 'The
Boys' Own Paper' or 'Champion'. It is also rich in perceptive observations of
what things make good schools work.

NEIL JARDINE

THE BATTLE OF ULUNDI

byJOHNLABAND

Shuter & Shooter, Pietermaritzburg and KwaZulu Monuments' Council,

Ulundi, 1988. xvi + 56 pp. illus. maps, gloss., chron., bibl. Rll,40.

In this short book the last great battle of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 is
described and put into its historical context. Though based on very extensive
research, it is not forbiddingly scholarly in presentation. It is clearly written,
and is obviously intended for readers who may be unfamiliar with both the
British and Zulu background.
On the importance of the battle of Ulundi, John Laband takes issue with
Jeff Guy. Guy argues in The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom that Ulundi was
a minor battle puffed up into a major victory in order to re inflate the
reputations of Lord Chelmsford and the British army after their humiliation at
Isandlwana, and in order to enable the British to retire from Zululand without
seeming to have been defeated. Guy argues that the Zulu attack on the British
position at Ulundi was half-hearted, their casualties were far fewer than
Chelmsford claimed, their capacity for further resistance was essentially
unimpaired, and the real reason the war came to an end shortly (not
immediately) after Ulundi was the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley with the
news that the Zulus were to retain their land and cattle.
Against this Laband argues that Chelmsford's victory was indeed a decisive
one. The evidence for Zulu half-heartedness is countered by evidence for
'intrepidity', 'enormous pluck' and 'amazing courage'. Laband suggests that
the evidence of courage refers to the initial stages of the battle, and the
evidence of half-heartedness to the later stages, when the hopelessness of the
attempt had become apparent. This would not, however, explain why the
Zulu failed at any stage to reach the British lines and engage in hand to hand
combat as they had done at Khambula, the great majority getting no closer
than 70 to 100 metres. The fact that the British fired only between 6.4 and 7
rounds per infantryman during the course of the battle, which lasted between
half and three quarters of an hour, is not fully explained by Laband's reference
to a statement in an official manual on 'small wars' that 10 rounds per man was
the norm in a typical battle. One would not expect this war against the Zulu to
be below average, particularly since they also had some firearms, while many
86 Book Reviews and Notices

'small wars' must have been fought against enemies not having them. Laband
gives reasons for believing that Chelmsford's estimate of 1500 Zulu dead was
accurate; but it seems that between a third and a half of these were killed
attempting to escape after the battle proper was over, a process compared by
the gloating British to tent-pegging and pig-sticking.
Laband's strongest argument is based upon the fact that the British position
at Ulundi was unfortified. The Zulu had learned from bitter experience at
Khambula and Gingindlovu that an attack on a fortified British position was
suicidal. But they still cherished the belief that if they could get the British to
fight them in the open their numbers and their valour would prove irresistible.
It was this belief that was shattered at Ulundi. As the British had calculated,
the Zulu were forced to recognise that they were defeated and that the war
was over.
Laband, however, continues: 'In fact, the predominant Zulu attitude was
that they had had enough of war, that they wanted peace and to be able to go
home to resume the normal course of their lives. Everywhere was the hope
that the British, having made their point, would go home too'. (p.47). This
seems to support Guy's position, rather than Laband's. Although it is true that
by July 1879 the British objective had become confined to 'destroying the
power of the Zulu state' (p.48), it had originally been more ambitious than
that. Zulu valour, and the British philanthropy and parsimony that it
stimulated, caused the Imperial government to decide against annexation.
There is evidence that the Zulu understood they were fighting to avoid being
made to pay taxes and work like the amakhafula of Natal. With Wolseley's
arrival they knew that they had succeeded, and that they would indeed be able
'to resume the normal course of their lives'. Although the Zulu defeat at
Ulundi would probably have been the last great set-piece battle of the war in
any circumstances, a British attempt at annexation, rule and settlement might
well have provoked a guerilla resistance more serious than the 'few minor
skirmishes .... in the remote north-western corner of Zululand' (p. 47) that did
occur.
Laband has shown that the battle of Ulundi was more important than Guy
allows, but there remains a good deal of truth in Guy's arguments. One is left
with the impression that the defeat of the Zulu army at Ulundi ended the
resistance of the Zulu state, but that Wolseley's peace terms played a major
role in ending the resistance of the Zulu people.
Much of what has been written on the Anglo-Zulu war is by participants or
amateur popularisers. Laband's work, by contrast, is thorough and scholarly,
and the results, even in popular form such as the present book, cast new light
on old questions.
To help visitors identify sites, the maps depict (in light grey) features which
did not exist in 1879. Visitors should take note, however, that, while the maps
in this volume show the modern main road as running east of Fort Nolela and
the drift through the White Mfolozi used by the British, the map in Laband
and Thompson's Field Guide to the War in Zulu/and (1979) shows it as running
to the west, and that the earlier map seems to be correct.
R.L. COPE
Book Reviews and Notices 87

MOODIE'S ZULU WAR

by D.F.C. MOODJE, with an introduction by JOHN LABAND
The Anglo-Zulu War Series. Cape Town, North & South Press, 1879,
reprinted 1988. 264pp. illus. R49-95 (hardcover), R29-95 (paperback).
Settling down to write a review of this book on the 1l0th anniversary of the
Battle of Ulundi is a reminder of the continuing interest evoked by that
conflict. The centenary produced a considerable literature, both academic and
popular, and ten years later the flood continues. This volume is to be followed
by three more reprints of rare titles.
In 1977 the late Frank Emery mined a rich vein of historical ore in long­
forgotten newspapers to produce The Red Soldier, a collection of first hand
accounts of their experiences by soldiers who fought in the Anglo-Zulu War.
Moodie's Zulu War is a much earlier example of the same sort of work.
Duncan Moodie grew up in Pietermaritzburg, to which he had come as a
child in 1845 when his father was appointed Colonial Secretary to the first
British administration of the newly acquired colony of Natal. In 1869 he
moved to Australia where he embarked on a career in journalism. The
interest aroused, even in colonies as distant as those in Australia, by the shock
Zulu victory at Isandlwana, encouraged him to produce this collection of
extracts from popular journals and newspapers, aimed at the general reading
public. As an empire loyalist, Moodie was concerned to include stirring
accounts of British bravery, fortitude and action, as well as to justify the
British initiation ofthe conflict.
Some of these tales, particularly those connected with the epic dash of the
survivors from Isandlwana to Fugitives' Drift, or the eerie visits to the
battlefield some months later to bury the dead and retrieve undamaged
wagons, have become well-known through much secondary retelling. Others
are less familiar. I was particularly intrigued with the morbid fascination which
the untimely death of the Prince Imperial had for the Victorians. A whole
chapter of over 40 pages is devoted to it and the seemingly unending obsequies
which followed. They were certainly not ones to try to avoid the realities of
death.
The publication of a facsimile edition of this hitherto rare volume, is a
thoroughly worthwhile project. John Laband, the General Editor of the
series, has written an informed and perceptive introduction. One looks
forward to the appearance of further titles.
T.B.FROST
(Reprinted from the Natal Witness, with permission).
88 Book Reviews and Notices

GANDHI'S EDITOR: THE LETTERS OF M.H. NAZAR 1902-1903

Edited by SURENDRA BHANA andJAMES D. HUNT
New Delhi, Promilla & Co. Publishers, 1989. 125pp.
Mansukhlal Hiralal Nazar was born in Surat, India in 1862 and, after living
for a time in England, arrived in Durban in December 1896. A confirmed
Indian nationalist, he immediately became embroiled in South African Indian
politics when he established a close personal relationship with Mohandas K.
Gandhi. He served as joint-secretary of the Natal Indian Congress between
1902 and 1904, and as first editor of Indian Opinion, the weekly newspaper
founded by Gandhi in 1903, until its base of operations was moved in 1904
from central Durban to the Phoenix Settlement. In that capacity, N azar was
largely responsible for implementing the objectives which underlay the
establishment of Indian Opinion, namely, to unify southern Africa's disparate
Indian community, to create a greater awareness among whites of the
disabilities which Indians in the sub-continent had to endure, and to seek
redress through appeals to both local and imperial authorities.
The sixty-one letters contained in this volume, more than half of them
addressed to Gandhi, were written in Durban between September 1902 and
June 1903. They provide insight into the thought and hard work that was
involved in launching Indian Opinion, as well as into the discriminatory
conditions to which Indian South Africans were being subjected during the
early twentieth century. Each letter is individually contextualized by means of
an introductory note and the text has been carefully edited, though,
disappointingly, the editors have not been able to identify the mysterious
Atmaram Maharaj, to whom almost a third of the letters published were
addressed.
Surendra Bhana and James D. Hunt have already published extensively,
the former on the history of Indian South Africans, the latter more specifically
on Gandhi. Their collaboration in editing this collection of letters has made a
worthwhile contribution to both of these interrelated fields.
BILL GUEST

VINNICOMBE'S TREK: SON OF NATAL, STEPSON OF TRANSVAAL,

1854-1932

byR.N. CURREY

Portsmouth, Heinemann and Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press,

1989,232 pp. illus. R39,95 + GST.

This is the story of a Natal family during the last three decades of the
nineteenth century, with Tom Vinnicombe, the grandfather of the author, the
main character. Of Devonshire stock, Tom's father, George, had come to
Natal with the Byrne settlers and established himself as the infant colony's first
organ builder. Besides making and repairing musical instruments, he taught
music, singing and dancing. In 1863, however, (the family tree creates
confusion by giving the date of his death as 1849), he died after an accident,
leaving his wife with five young children to support.
Tom had been born in Pietermaritzburg, and grew up here and in Durban.
In the year of the Anglo-Zulu war, he married Rachel Phipson, daughter of
Thomas Phipson who, for twelve years, was Sheriff of Natal. At a time when
the railhead to the interior had reached no further inland than Pinetown, their
Book Reviews and Notices 89

lives depended on the wagon. In it they trekked after gold, first to the Eastern
Transvaal, and then further north. Yet it was not as a miner, but as a builder of
churches - for the gemeentes in Pietersburg, Standerton and Bethal- that Tom
Vinnicombe was to leave his mark. His disgust at the Jameson Raid led him to
become a Burgher of the Transvaal Republic.
Inevitably, the Anglo-Boer War split his loyalties. He was working on the
church at Bethal when hostilities broke out, but refused to serve with the Boer
commandos, and was eventually imprisoned in April 1900. Escaping, he
joined the forces of General Buller as they pressed into the Transvaal, and
served with the Natal Guides. Here he risked execution for treason by slipping
through to Bethal, still in republican hands, to take food to his family. It was a
huge piece of bluff. His presence in the town in British uniform was taken to
mean that the advancing British forces were near and that he had simply come
on ahead to see his family. In fact, such was not the case, and Tom's trip back
to the safety of the British lines is a classic of high adventure.
He later exchanged the life of a Guide for that of Town Overseer of
Volksrust. Outside the town there grew up a concentration camp, full of the
displaced victims of the policy of farmhouse burning, and among them were
Cornelius and Sannie Uys whose daughter Tom had once courted and who had
been kind to him in his youth. Tom used his influence to get the two old people
out of their tent in the burgher camp, and took them into his own home. Alas
for his kindheartedness. Like two elderly cuckoos, they took shameless
advantage of his hospitality and eventually bought the house from him at well
under its market value. His generous nature was similarly exploited by the
Bethal church building committee who got him to complete the window-high
structure after the war at the contract price which he had quoted before it. As
a consequence, though he indeed finished the church, the church finished him.
Tom spent a number of his retirement years in Pietermaritzburg, working
on the verses in which he recorded his experiences. Do any elderly residents
remem ber him in the 1920s when he lived here? His story, however, is
undoubtedly more memorable than the medium in which he so often chose to
record it. Modelled on the cliche-ridden Victorian ballads of his youth, many
of them would have done credit to the great poet McGonegal himself. The
extracts quoted in the text are eminently skipable. But his story is not. Its
publication in this volume is certainly worthwhile.
T.B.FROST
(Reprinted from the Natal Witness, with permission)

NATAL MUSEUM JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES, VOLUME 1

edited byORJ.G.H. LONOT
Pietermaritzburg, Council ofthe Natal Museum, 1989. 168pp. illus.
The Annals of the Natal Museum, now in its twenty-ninth volume, is a
learned journal well-known in academic circles in this country and abroad.
Over the years it has published the results of much significant research,
especially in those branches of the natural sciences in which the Natal Museum
is known as a specialist institution: Arachnology, Entomology, Lower
Invertebrata and Malacology. The establishment of research departments for
Archaeology, Ethno-Archaeology and (more recently) Cultural History has
resulted in a growing number of research articles in these disciplines appearing
90 Book Reviews and Notices

in the Annals. In view of this trend, the Museum Council this year considered
that the time had come to publish a separate journal of studies in the
humanities. The Annals will revert to being a publication for the natural
sciences only. Hence we note the appearance of the new Natal Museum
Journal of Humanities. Its first issue sets a bench-mark of excellence, and is
devoted entirely to Dr A.D. Mazel's paper, based on four years'
archaeological work, 'People making history: the last ten thousand years of
hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin'.
JOHNDEANE
 91

Select List of Recent Natal

Publications

ARDINGTON, E.M. Nkandla revisited: a longitudinal study of the strategies

adopted to alleviate poverty in a rural community. Durban: Univ. of
Natal,1988.
BALLARD, Charles. The House ofShaka. Durban: Emoyeni Books, 1988.
BEGG, George. The wetlands of Natal. Part 2. The distribution, extent and
status of wetlands in the Mfolozi catchment. Pietermaritzburg: Natal
Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1988.
BELL, loy. A taste of Durban. Pinetown: Owen Burgess Publishers, 1988.
BENDER, Colin. Who saved Natal? Durban: Privately printed, 1988.
BENNETT, lan. Editor. Eyewitness in Zululand: the Campaign
reminiscences of Colonel W.A. Dunne, C.B. South Africa, 1877-1881.
London: GreenhillBooks, 1989.
DUCKWORTH, 1.G. The St Mary's story; a history of St Mary's Catholic
Parish, Pietermaritzburg. Mariannhill: Mission Press, 1989.
DU PLESSIS, H.l.l., and Spies, P.H. The future structure and functioning of
NatallKwaZulu towns and cities. Pieterrnaritzburg: Natal Town and
Regional Planning Commission, 1988.
DU TOIT, Welly. God's Grace; the revival at Kwa Sizabantu. Durban:
Rowell & Sons, 1988.
EDGERTON, Robert B. Like lions they fought! The Zulu War and the last
Black empire in South Africa. Bergvlei: Southern Books, 1988.
EVANS, Rl. Blacks in administrative Natal; case studies in marginality.
Pietermaritzburg; Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission,
1988.
GORDON, Ruth E. The story of Deanery Lane; a brief history of its origin,
growth and residents. Pietermaritzburg: 1989.
HOLLIDAY, 1.D. Dottings on Natal, as published in 1865, and Sundry tit­
bits of colonial experience. Reprint. Pietermaritzburg: Prontaprint,
1988.
LAMBIRIS, Angelo. Frogs and toads of the Natal Drakensberg.
Pietermaritzburg: Univ. of Natal Press, 1988.
M<DLLER, Valerie. Community reactions to the introduction of an educare
programme at a home for black aged in KwaMashu. Durban: Centre for
Applied Social Sciences, Univ. of Natal, 1988.
NATTRASS, N.l. and Natrass, 1. Small formal businesses in Durban.
Pietermaritzburg: Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission,
1988.
92 Select List

PIONEER'S progress: early Natal, edited and presented by Bob O'Keefe.

Hillcrest: Hilltop, 1988.
RAW, Vause. Flares. Durban: King & Wilks, 1988.
RYCROFT, D.K., and Ngcobo, A.B. Editors. The Praises of Dingana:
IzibongozikaDingana. Pietennaritzburg: Univ. of Natal Press, 1988.
SHEPHERD-SMITH, Jack. Buthelezi. Pretoria: Hans Strydom, 1988.
THOMAS, R.J. The geology of the Port Shepstone area. Pretoria:
Government Printer, 1988.
TOURISM in the NataVKwaZulu region. Proceedings of a symposium/
workshop held at Midmar on 6--8 October 1986. Pietermaritzburg:
Regional Development Advisory Committee, 1988.
VINCENT, Jack. Web of experience; an autobiography. Pietermaritzburg:
Teeanem Printers, 1988.
VAN KOTZE, Astrid. Organise and act; the Natal Workers Theatre
Movement, 1983-1987. Durban: Culture and Working Life
Publications, Univ. of Natal, 1988.
 93

Register ofResearch on Natal

This list has been compiled from individual submissions of subscribers to

Natalia.
If you know of any current research which has not been listed, please fill in
the slip which has been provided for this purpose so that the information can
be included in the next issue.

BRAIN, Prof. J .B. and Brain, Dr Peter.

History of disease, health and medical care in Natal.
LAMBERT, John.
Africans in Natal, 1900-1913.
Teteleku KaNobanda.
MACHIN,I.M.
The levying of forced black labour and military service by the Colonial
State of Natal.
MINNAAR, A. de V.
Early gold mining in Zululand.
Game preservation and nature conservation in Zululand.
Migrant labour in Zululand.
94

Notes on Contributors

WILLIAM BIZLEY is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of

Natal.

MORAY COMRIE is a Senior Lecturer at the Natal College of Education.

RICHARD COPE is a member of the History Department at the University

of the Witwatersrand and a specialist in Zulu history.

JOHN DEANE is Deputy-Director of Education in Natal.

GRAHAM DOMINY is a graduate of the University of Natal and the

National University of Ireland. He has worked as an archivist at the Natal
Archives and as head of the Research and Museum Development section of
the Natal Provincial Museum Service. In April 1989 he was appointed as the
first historian at the Natal Museum. He is conducting research on Fort Napier
for the museum and for a PhD degree.

T.B. (JACK) FROST is a Senior Lecturer at the Natal College of Education

and Editor of Natalia.

BILL GUEST is Associate Professor of History at the University of Natal.

SHEILA HENDERSON, an Oxford graduate, is a veteran of opposition

politics in Northern Natal.

DENIS HURLEY is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Durban.

NEIL JARDINE, a former Rector of Michaelhouse, is Headmaster of

Kingswood College in Grahamstown.

UMA MESTHRIE is a former lecturer in the Department of History at UDW.

She is presently a Teaching Assistant in the Department of History at UCT.

MI CHAEL NUTTALL is the Anglican Bishop of Natal.

JULIE PRIDMORE, a graduate of the University of Natal, teaches History

at Collegiate School and part-time at the University of Natal.

COLIN WEBB, first Editor of Natalia, is Vice-Principal of the University of

Natal in Pietermaritzburg.