Natalia 38 (2008) Complete

THE NATAL SOCIETY FOUNDATION
TRUSTEES P.M.C. Croeser (Chairman) Dr C.E. Merrett S.N. Roberts Ms P.A. Stabbins Mrs S.S. Wallis P.C.G. McKenzie (Secretary) Miss J. Farrer (Honorary Curator of the Special Collections)
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA T.B. Frost (Editor) Dr W.H. Bizley M.H. Comrie P.M.C. Croeser J.M. Deane Professor W.R. Guest Professor E.R. Jenkins Professor A. Koopman P.C.G. McKenzie (Secretary) Mrs S.P.M. Spencer M.H. Steele MP Dr S. Vietzen
Natalia 38 (2008) Copyright Natal Society Foundation 2010
Natalia
Journal of The Natal Society
No. 38 (December 2008)
Published by Natal Society Foundation Trust P.O. Box 11093, Dorpspruit 3206, South Africa
SA ISSN 0085-3674
Cover illustration The Fabian Window at Beatrice Webb House, Leith Hill, Surrey The large figures are, left to right, Edward Pease, Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw. The kneeling figures, members of the Fabian Executive Committee, are, left to right, H.G. Wells, Charles Charrington, Aylmer Maude, G. Sterling Taylor, Lawson Dodd, Mrs Pember Reeves, Mary Hankinson, Miss Mabel Atkinson, Mrs Boyd Dawson and Caroline Townshend. The books represent Shaws plays and Fabian publications. The window was commissioned by Shaw in 1910. The photograph originates from the late John Parker, former Secretary of the Fabian Society and a British MP. The link with Natal is through Mabel Atkinson who, as Mabel Palmer, lived in Durban from 1921 until her death in 1958, and through Bernard Shaw who visited Natal in 1935. In 1979 John Parker wrote, Miss Atkinson appears as one of the figures in the famous stained glass window designed by Bernard Shaw & carried out by Caroline Townshend about 1910. It showed the world being forged by Shaw & Webb & fired by Pease (The Sec. Fab.Soc.) with the motto Remould it nearer to the Hearts desire & the Fabian coat of arms as a wolf in sheeps clothing. Members of the E.C. kneel below led by H.G. Wells, cocking a snook at Shaw & Webb. Unfortunately the window has recently been stolen from Beatrice Webb House near Dorking (a conference house). Interpol seek it. (John Parker, House of Commons to Sylvia Vietzen, 15 February 1979.)
Page design by M.J. Marwick Printed by Intrepid Printers (Pty) Ltd Pietermaritzburg
Editorial
WITH this issue Natalia is approaching the end of its fourth decade of publication. It has been generously funded throughout by the Natal Society Foundation, but that covers only the costs of production. Beyond that nobody, neither contributors nor members of the editorial committee, is or has ever been in it for material gain, CVs or anything else. We have tried to maintain a quality journal for the sheer appreciation of what is valuable, good and precious in our KwaZulu-Natal heritage. Such altruistic endeavour must be rare in an increasingly materialistic age. Our unpublished piece/reprint slot this year is filled by a reprint of an account by Eliza Whigham Feilden (originally published in 1887) of a great flood of 1856 which inflicted huge damage on pioneer settlers along the Umgeni River. A feature of this years issue is the amount of material contributed by members of the editorial board. Of this, Dr Sylvia Vietzen has provided a scholarly article on the visit of the Irish man of letters and playwright George Bernard Shaw and his wife to Natal in 1935, while Dr Bill Bizley in his article A Horse, A Singer and A Prince two busy months in the life of Pietermaritzburg has focused on the year 1925 and copies of the newspapers of the day to provide an intriguing insight into topics which commanded public interest. The other two articles come from Dr Kalpana Hiralal and Dr Paul Thompson on Indian Merchant Families of Natal and Bhambathas Family Tree respectively. Other contributions from the editorial committee are Professor Adrian Koopmans substantial note which takes a quirky look at 19th century by-laws, further notes provided by board members John Deane, Shelagh Spencer and Pat McKenzie, and four obituaries written by the editor. Of these deaths recorded, perhaps the greatest loss to Natalia was the death of Michael Daly, for many years a member and chairman of the Natal Society Council and latterly the chairman of the Natal Society Foundation. He was the journals most ardent supporter and his passing is a sad blow. Mobbs Moberly, too, had a long association with Natalia as a former member of the editorial committee and compiler of the Notes and Queries section. Professor Colin Gardner has contributed a fine obituary on Professor Denys Schreiner, a former vice-principal of the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal and a pillar of liberalism in this province.
We regret the absence of a review of Jeff Guys latest book, but the reviewer (in the United States) who had undertaken the task let us down after keeping us on a string for over a year. Other overseas writers proved more reliable. The distinguished historian Shula Marks has kind things to say about Julie Parles unusual study of mental illness in Natal while John Laband reviews the new translation from the French of the Anglo-Zulu War observations of the French journalist Paul Delage. We trust our readers will find such book reviews and the listing of new publications, a task undertaken meticulously every year by Shelagh Spencer, of interest. JACK FROST
Ruined by a flood
Ruined by a flood a disastrous flooding of the Mngeni River in 1856

(Reprinted from My African Home; or Bush Life in Natal (18527) by Eliza Whigham Feilden. London, 1887.) INTRODUCTORY NOTE This extract about Natals 1856 Flood1 is compiled from the letters and diaries of Eliza Whigham Feilden (18101888), originally published in 18872. She was the daughter of James Kennedy of Knocknalling, Kirkcudbrightshire, and married John Leyland Feilden in 1851 in England. He was the youngest son of Sir William Feilden of Feniscowles Hall, near Blackburn, Lancashire, a wealthy cotton manufacturer and one-time MP for Blackburn. Leyland, as he was known, arrived in Natal as a Byrne emigrant in May 1850. However, in the same month, his father died and once the news had reached Natal he returned to England (date unknown, but he was certainly there by early 1851). He and Eliza arrived in Natal on 4 May 1852 and took up residence in Durban. Feildens main purpose in coming to the Colony in the first place had been to promote cotton-planting and export. The Natal Times reported on 9 June that he had taken over the landing, shipping and customs agency of one John Newton, and in the following October it was announced that he had also purchased George Christopher Catos business as landing and shipping agent. In the meantime he was also developing his farm Feniscowles3 on the Berea. On 19 June 1852 a notarial agreement was made whereby Alexander Smith (1818 1893) and his family would work for the Feildens, Alexander as general superintendent of Feniscowles, his wife Charlotte as housekeeper, and the children as cotton-pickers. At the same time Feilden & Co.4 advertised they would receive cotton for ginning and packing for export, and would shortly offer facilities for the cultivation and shipment of cotton on a large scale, while in November the firm announced it would also pack wool and pay cash for same. November was also the month that Leyland and Eliza moved to Feniscowles. Cotton proved unsuccessful in Natal, one of the reasons being that the bolls did not mature at one time, leading to harvesting problems. By early1853 Feildens emphasis had changed to sugar5. He purchased leases of lots on Milner Bros Springfield on the Durban side of the Umgeni River, and by October 1854 had 60 acres under cane. The
Natalia 38 (2008), Shelagh Spencer pp. 1 7
Ruined by a flood
first auction of Natal-made sugar (eight tons) took place on Durbans Market Square on 23 June 1855. This was manufactured from Feildens cane. In October 1855 Feilden and six other Springfield tenants entered into an agreement with Milner Bros and their partner J.B. Miller, whereby the latter two would assign them the abandoned leases of three other tenants, and that their own leases would be extended for a further five years. It was also agreed that the mill, the machinery and the rest of the farm (making 1 223 acres in all) would be leased to the seven for 13 years from 15 November 1855, and that for the improved running of the mill they be enabled to obtain better machinery, etc., by raising a loan of 1 000 for two years on the security of Springfield. The Milners and Miller engaged to mortgage the farm for that amount. Feilden was able to write in January 1856 that his Springfield plantation was in beautiful order; 130 acres of cane in different stages of growth. He wrote to his mother in March that he expected to crush between 50 and 60 acres this season (about 100 tons of sugar) and with the ruling price being 50 he should get 5 000. He remarked that it looked well on paper, but he feared it was too good to be realised. Disaster struck in April, when about 690mm (27 inches) of rain fell in the Durban area in three days (14th 16th). About eight months later, in a letter home, Eliza wrote that she was worried about Springfield (i.e. what had come to be known as the Springfield Sugar Co.) it was too large for its means to carry on. The flood was the main reason because the crops destroyed had been counted on to pay their expenses. Despite this, in April Leyland concluded a 10-year lease on four more Springfield lots (88 acres). At about this time Eliza wrote, The sugar estate looks well this year, as if it would redeem itself. However, by the end of July the decision had been made to visit England. At this stage it was uncertain whether they would return or not. When recording this, Eliza wrote that the Springfield shareholders had voted that Feilden had been hardly dealt with, and wished to give him a ton of sugar to sell in London. He declined, but the offer comforted him. On 3 August Feilden gave his power of attorney to A.W. Evans to dispose of his farms Feniscowles, Zee Koe Vallei and Richmond. On the following day the Feildens sailed for England. Milner Bros sued for the balance of rent owing on Springfield from the Springfield Sugar Co. in December 1858 and demanded that the partners return possession of the farm. The case was not defended. In February 1860 Evans assigned Leylands lease and his interest in the co-partnership to George Potter6, and on 11 April the lease between the Milners and Miller and the Springfield Sugar Co. was cancelled, and redrawn in favour of Potter. The Feildens never returned to the Colony. Besides their flood losses, another factor in their decision was the Natal Governments offering settlers farms quit-rent7 in 1857 1858, which led to the serious depreciation in the value of Feildens landed property. Feilden, a man with wealthy connections, but young and inexperienced, arrived in the Colony, ready for the plucking. From the first he was taken advantage of by the unscrupulous. Mrs Feilden wrote soon after they had landed that one of their first tasks was to examine the state of their affairs, left in the hands of agents. A nest of confusion, fraud, and neglect came to light. She confessed that she did not know which proved
Ruined by a flood
The Feilden house was in what is now Stellawood Cemetery worse, the men who got us into trouble, or those who pretended to get us out. Between them we were half ruined. An example of the wily business practice he was subject to can be found in Henry Milners8 machinations. Feilden estimated his 1855 cane could produce 1 100 or more. However, his agreement with the Milners stipulated that Henry receive one third of the processed sugar and all the molasses. Consequently Milner made sugar out of a small proportion of the crop, which yielded only 480, and rendered the rest into syrup, which he then reboiled, making it into what he called molasses sugar, clearing an extra 600, with Feilden receiving, after transport costs, only about 300, instead of more than 700. In her December 1856 January 1857 letter Mrs Feilden stated that the flood had provedmore disastrousthan we first counted upon. It has completely upset us, and will bring us near to beggaryfor not alone the hand of God has been laid heavily upon us, but also the hands of unprincipled worldly men. A person of great energy, Feilden possibly over-extended himself. Nearly a year after the flood Eliza reported to her mother that Leyland was looking haggard and careworn, owing perhaps to his having too many irons to attend to at once. This is unsurprising, what with superintending two farms, one at the very southern extremes of the Durban borough (i.e. the Umbilo river) and the other at the towns northern boundary (the Umgeni river), the affairs of the Springfield Sugar Co., his landing-agency and the oversight of both his and his brother Montagues farms at Richmond. Sources dating to 1882 and 1886 show Burwash in Sussex as the Feilden residence. After Elizas death, Leyland remarried in 1894. He was living at Newent in Gloucestershire in 1910, and died there five years later. Feniscowles remained in the Feilden family until 1930. Feniscowles Road (which Feilden had created as a shorter route into Durban than the original access track) and Feilden Drive, skirting the cemetery, are reminders of the Feildens.
4
NOTES
Ruined by a flood
1. For more on this flood see the article by Pam Barnes in Natalia 14, 1984 pp. 33 41. 2. Reprinted in Durban in 1973 by T.W. Griggs. 3. Part of Sea View, bordering Durbans Townlands, the boundary running along the top of the Berea ridge. Today it is the suburb of Carrington Heights, while a portion of it is in Stellawood Cemetery (the Durban Corporation having purchased part to extend the cemetery).The Feilden house was in what is now the cemetery. 4. Presumably comprising Leyland and his elder brother Montague Joseph, whose Natal connections predated Leylands emigration, but who does not appear ever to have come to the Colony. 5. Sugar was one of his crops on Feniscowles. Alexander Smith had planted their first cane at the end of 1850 or early 1851. That it flourished led to Feildens importing 3 000 canes from Mauritius to acclimatise and then sell. However, it was found that the settlers were too poor to buy them. 6. A partner in the Springfield Sugar Co. 7. For a small rate per acre, paid annually for 30 years, by which time the land would become freehold. 8. One of the three Milner brothers.
SHELAGH SPENCER April 17th, 1856. A fearful flood has half-ruined the sugar planter on the coast. One week ago, gentlemen were riding over the plantations to see if the canes could really be so fine as represented, and all returned with great hopes for the progress of the colony. We were rejoicing in the tons of sugar our canes were to produce in a very few weeks. All looked fair and beautiful and after so much toil and outlay, it seemed only reasonable to begin to count on the profits. Alas for our hopes! The river Umgeni rose so rapidly and so high that the whole country in its neighbourhood became a lake. Twenty or thirty feet of water covered many of the plantations. I am told that several islands, one above 100 yards long, floated over my husbands sugar canes. My husband and brother rode over to Springfield to see the wreck of last years hopes, when on the point of realisation. Each got a fall by the horses legs sinking in holes, the ground giving way under their feet. Neither were hurt, and today, the waters having subsided, they wish me to accompany them to see all the wonders of the flood at Springfield. I was soon equipped for the ride, and a ruinous sight we went to see. We had steep, slippery bits of road to go down or up, and I felt my brows knitted a good deal as I held my hand pretty firm on the bridle to be ready to hold the horse up in some of the worst steps. As we arrived in sight of Springfield Flat, we stopped to overlook. The flood had greatly gone down, and most of our cane was there, leaning over its roots, weighted down by the water and sand that had been washed over it. A man came up to us and told us that Spearmans1 cane, below ours, was all washed away, with another mans stock and half of his oat forage. Poor men, I felt very sorry. One cane of Spearmans was washed uphill into Mrs Smiths2 garden. This has been given for me to eat at my leisure at home; it is a remarkably fine cane, very heavy and large. When Smith was going to bed the first night of the rain, he said to his wife, I dont feel quite easy about that horse of Mr Feildens, I think Ill go and bring it up to the house-stable tonight. He did so and in the morning the river was above the roof of the poor animals shed, and a barrel of tar had been washed away. The horse was saved. The Flat for some days was a lake, and then it sank to a swamp, with the course of the great river tracked in water through its midst. After looking for a little, we rode on, but presently had to dismount, and lead our horses down to Smiths house, which has only suffered from damp. Here we had some
Ruined by a flood
tea and bread and butter, and then it was decided to go across the upper bank or fields to the mill. This was the worst of our ride; neither I nor the mare liked it through the wet, boggy grass. The mill looked a wreck; I do not wonder at the first, exaggerated reports. The facts were bad enough, for the water had got inside and had loosened the great sugar pans from their place, and everything had been floating. We were told that an elephant had been carried down the stream, bellowing all the way; ducks, fowls and pumpkins were all afloat. Mr Beningfield had lost 100 cattle; the Umgeni rose from sixty to seventy feet. The four great sugar pans all united, I think while floating could be moved by the touch of a Caffres hand; when I saw them they were moving one with a pulley and six or eight men, without the aid of water. Most fortunately there was no sugar in the mill. Poor Smith was very dull about it. This cane had been his pride; he planted and watched it as if it were his own. May so good a servant be long preserved to us. We returned home by a cross-cut over the grass, and found it as good as the longer road for the time. There were deep ruts and holes in the new road made by the soldiers, which quite spoiled it. The effects of this sad flood were greater and worse than we at all anticipated, and finally drove us out of Natal. This most unfortunate storm was nearly as destructive further inland. We heard later on that, on Captain Stephensons3 farm, the hailstones were as large as pigeons eggs, and that they killed 240 sheep running on Mr. De Kocs [sic] farm. This gentleman with his wife dined with us a few days after the flood; he then knew nothing of his own misfortune, the swollen rivers having made it impossible to cross them. One family, to escape being drowned in their house, climbed into the loft under the roof, and lived there upon beans and Indian corn for two or three days till their signals were seen by a gentleman4, who made a raft and brought them all away. Some weeks later (June 8th) my husband sent the following account of the flood in a letter to England: This flood has been a sad disaster; the mortality among cattle and horses has nearly ruined us all; I have only about thirty-three oxen left out of all my cattle and have lost four horses. My loss by the flood alone is estimated at 2 000, which, coming upon other losses, has crippled and disheartened me. Could you have witnessed the flood sweeping over all our magnificent cane-fields, you would almost have despaired; but it was a grand sight. The whole vale of the Umgeni was one sheet of water, rushing on to the sea in an impetuous torrent, carrying everything before it in its headlong course. Trees, houses, islands and an enormous hippopotamus were borne along within a few feet of the mill, in which the water rose nine feet, destroying the work of many days, breaking down the batteries and turning the inside of the place into a complete wreck, sweeping off 300 loads of fuel, implements, carts, wagons, cattle and everything within its reach. The water rose from sixty to seventy feet and was truly a magnificent sight, though a sad one. Durban had a very narrow escape from being washed into the ocean. Fortunately the sandbar at the mouth of the river burst, and in one hour the water sank four feet. We had nearly got all things in readiness to commence crushing in May; I should have had about 120 tons of sugar for market by Christmas. You may imagine my feelings, when so much depended on my sugar crop; that gone, and I was ruined. At one time I did not expect to see a cane left. The first report I heard was in Durban, that the mill
Ruined by a flood
was washed away and all the cane carried out to sea. The back beach was a wonderful sight, covered with the carcasses of oxen, bucks, poultry, etc. etc. I rode out at once to Springfield with my brother-in-law.5 We pulled up our horses on the summit of the hill to look upon the magnificent scene below us, and were so struck with its grandeur that it was not till I came close to the mill, and saw the sad devastation, that I thought about my own and others loss. One side of the mill was swept out, a wagon that was secured to a tree had lost its sides, and a large iron sugar pan was lying there. In the distance a few tops of green sugar-cane just appeared above the surface of the highest ground of the Flat. Islands of some hundred yards were carried away. In about a fortnight the water had gone down so far as to enable a few of the most venturesome of the men to go on the Flat, wading far above the knees in mud. One poor fellow had every bit of his cane washed off, except a few roots so buried in sand as to be useless. Almost all of my cane that would have been crushed this season was laid flat, some quite washed away, some buried; while almost all the young cane has been wonderfully improved by a deposit of rich mud being left a foot deep. So much for good coming out of evil. The cane in places soon began to recover, and a few showers helped to wash a portion of the mud and sand off it. I may save forty or fifty tons. We commenced at once to repair damages, and all put their shoulders to the wheel. I have got one set of batteries finished, and the other nearly so. We started the mill last Monday, and yesterday brought twenty-six bags of sugar to market two tons a portion of which sold for 34s. a cwt. This flood has made our house builder and joiner fear that their payment will not be forthcoming, and they have consequently been very troublesome, and I must name one trait in our dear old neighbour, Mrs Bowen.6 When I went to call on her after the disastrous flood, she said to me in an apologetic manner, as I was leaving, I dare say there will be heavy demands on Mr Feilden, and small tradesmen will all be sending in their bills at once, fearing his ruin; now I have 20 in the house, more than I want, and it is quite at his service. I thanked her, but declined the money, and she said, Well, I know how people press on the unfortunate, and it is here if you find you want it. Had the flood happened a little sooner we should probably not have built our new kitchen; meantime, it is an incalculable addition to our comfort, to mine in particular, and I wonder how we have managed so long without it; but except on stormy days we did not think much about the discomfort of cooking under the sky, or in the iron shed without a chimney. Now my new kitchen, with its scullery beside it, and my storeroom opposite, is the admiration of all who see it. The ample chimney draws well, and during the winter months we do not find it too hot to take our meals at its large table; thus we keep it as a sort of parlour-kitchen, and have all the dirty work done in the scullery or further away still. I have got my china and glass cupboard and linen chest from the house in the bay, which we had no room for before, and look quite snug. My brothers room above is the most comfortable-looking of any we have; he often takes his visitors to it, and keeps it in clean and beautiful order. I wish my husband was half as particular; he is only particular in wishing each article put in its usual place so that he may find it easily. Our two nephews7 have begun housekeeping for themselves in Gudgeons8 cottage, which they have made quite habitable for Natal. Daniel can make bread as well as I can, and as they are not yet engaged with any business, their housekeeping and garden
Ruined by a flood
occupy nearly all their time. I see the smoke rising cheerfully three or four times a day. They are making the little garden quite neat; already their beans are starting into life, and they have a fair promise of pineapples for next season. When they want any assistance out of my kitchen they come to borrow, sometimes a pan, or a dish, or anything else. They were pleasant, amiable young men and gave but little trouble in our house. Still, with having to do so much with my own hands, I was glad when they began to do for themselves, for two extra in a house like ours must cause more work to the cook; I had to devote my time exclusively to housework, which would have been too much for my feet and head if longer continued, but no visitors could have been more accommodating or unpretending, and I was sorry to let them go. It was their own proposition. When on their tour lately to see the country, and choose their further course, they walked twelve miles daily.
NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. George Spearman, a fellow member of the Springfield Sugar Co. Mrs Alexander Smith. The Smiths were resident at Springfield at this time. Capt. David Stephenson, ex 51st Regiment. His farm Sweet Home was in the present Eston area. Samuel Beningfield, a Durban auctioneer and a pioneer coffee planter. Feildens brother-in-law was Andrew Brown Kennedy, sugar planter of Sea Cow Lake on the north bank of the Umgeni river. 6. Mrs Melesina Bowen was the Feildens elderly neighbour at Kefentrenfa (which consisted of three of the Durban Boroughs Umbilo lots, totalling roughly 38 acres). These lots extended from todays Prospect Road to the Umbilo river. Kefentrenfa lay approximately between present Harrietwood and Stanley/ Birkenhead Roads, which branch off from Prospect Road. It is necessary to give this precise location because in Glenmore, the suburb adjoining Carrington Heights in the north-east, there are Bowen Avenue and Melesina Road. Apparently at the time of their naming, it was known that Mrs Bowen had lived somewhere in the area. Only in recent years has the site of Kefentrenfa been correctly identified. 7. Daniel Faber Whittaker (1829 1893) and Edward Leyland Whittaker (c.1834 1 November 1857? Durban) were the sons of Rev. John William Whittaker, DD, Vicar of Blackburn, Lancashire, and his wife Mary Haughton Feilden, J.L. Feildens sister. They came to Natal in 1850 and then went to Australia (1851 1856). There are still descendants of Daniel in KwaZulu-Natal. 8. John Gudgeon, the servant who had come with them from England. An alcoholic, the Feildens put up with his frequent desertions until mid-1855, when Feilden decided to send him back to England. However, he forestalled this by taking passage to Cape Town in July 1855 as cook on the Cleopatra.
Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935
It could be argued, from the vantage point of KwaZulu-Natal in 2008, that the arrival of George Bernard Shaw1 on the shores of Natal in 1935 was an event of little consequence. It could also be argued that the interest which greeted Shaws visit was of the kind which might greet Salman Rushdie, Bob Geldof, Steven Spielberg or perhaps Oprah Winfrey should they be visiting our province today. Public figures in the arts whose talent has drawn them into a mission to find the good society and espouse a cause aimed at improving the human condition are inevitably bold and challenging, argumentative, often arrogant, not always polite, and never far from controversy. They invariably attract considerable attention. For his time Bernard Shaw was such a person. In order to give perspective to Shaws month-long stay in Natal it is worth recalling, briefly, some features of his multi-faceted career and reputation which made him one of the most widely recognised personalities in the world of the early twentieth century. Shaw himself claimed to be the victim of many reputations. He described his breadwinning profession as that of playwright and, indeed, it was as the distinguished British dramatist that he was regularly introduced while he was in Natal. But he was also a professional journalist and critic of the fine arts in music, literature and the theatre. He claimed to be an economist and a biologist and, by religion, a Creative-Evolutionist. As his career developed, he would promote himself at various times as an Ibsenite, and a Shelleyan atheist. He was a Fabian socialist and, with the passage of time, his claim to being a Marxist gained increasing intensity. People were left in no doubt that he was a vegetarian, a non-smoker, a non-tea-drinking teetotaller and a very successful vestryman in St Pancras. Nothing if not self-centred, he rejoiced in being a funny man and a dangerous man and Heaven knows what else besides. Quite appropriately he is said to have described himself as ... not altogether what is called an orthodox man.2 Others, too, had opinions on Shaw. Among his contemporaries, Winston Churchill overcame his initial antipathy to him for his critical attitude to the army, and, writing in the late 1920s, summed him up thus, Saint, sage, and clown; venerable, profound, and irrepressible, Bernard Shaw receives, if not the salutes, at least the hand-clappings
Natalia 38 (2008), Sylvia Vietzen pp. 8 26
of a generation which honours him as another link in the humanities of peoples, and as the greatest living master of letters in the English-speaking world.3 Conversely, the historian, A.J.P. Taylor, in a piece for the Observer on 22 July 1956 marking the centenary of Shaws birth, was scathing on every score: yet he added a note declaring, Perhaps this essay is a little ungrateful in view of the pleasure and intellectual stimulus I derived from Shaws writing. Even if he had nothing to say, he said it incomparably well.4 The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges claimed that while some of Shaws early writing and much in the prefaces to his plays would lose their interest, Shaw had the ability, unique among authors, to create characters superior to himself. Borges wrote, I believe that from us cannot emerge creatures more lucid or more noble than our best moments.... Lavinia, Blanco Posnet, Keegan, Shotover, Richard Dudgeon and, above all, Julius Caesar, surpass any character imagined by the art of our time. Yet Borges regarded the public G.B.S. as represented by his witticisms and newspaper columns as ephemeral.5 Assessments of Shaw never stopped coming. For his ninetieth birthday in 1946 a whole book of tributes from well-known people was published.6 In a review of it John Betjeman wrote of Shaw,
He can see the Victorian conventions he flouted alone, now flouted by the majority. The Socialism he advocated is now in the ascendant. His plays are performed all over the world. The adjective Shavian is in the dictionary.... He is one of the last giants of English literature still alive and I cannot but think he feels lonely. He who started a lonely revolutionary lives now a lonely victor.7
On a more personal level Shaws friend and fellow writer, conversationalist and controversialist, G. K. Chesterton noted, Many people say that they agree with Bernard Shaw or that they do not understand him. I am the only person who understands him, and I do not agree with him.8 Even before his death in 1950 more had been written about Shaw than any other modern writer. And in the next 30 years there appeared, in six languages, over 130 full-length books on him. The performance of Shaws plays has gone in and out of fashion over the years and been limited by copyright conditions, but it has by no means ceased. The programme for the Fifth Annual Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario for July 2008 includes academic papers, talks from actors and directors and performances of Mrs Warrens Profession and Getting Married. The International Shaw Society has a wide range of meetings and conferences on topics such as Feminism Revisits Shaw, Shaws Contemporaries and Bernard Shaws Pygmalion. And for good measure, the BBC has released Shaws broadcasts on CD and these can be purchased from the British Library Press.9 Shaws celebrity status as a writer of some 50 plays would have been widely acknowledged in 1935. Less understood generally, though probably more significant to his stay in Natal, was his Fabian background. The Fabian Society was founded in London in 1884 with a view to infiltrating British society with socialism. Named after the Roman general Fabius Maximus known for his strategy of delaying the main thrust of his attack against Hannibal until the right moment the early Fabians believed in the permeation of institutions by socialist ideas based on a factual study of every facet of society. The inevitability of gradualness was the philosophy of those who spread the word. They were committed to reform rather than revolution, to ideas and rational argument rather than outbursts of anger. Their influence was to be carried into fields as diverse as local government, literature, academia and the colonies. The Fabian ethos was
10
In the style of the 1930s, the newspaper caption to this photograph reads, Mrs George Bernard Shaw photographed as she left the Llangibby Castle on her arrival in Durban yesterday morning with her famous husband. With Mrs Shaw is Mr E.H. Lawrence of Durban, Headmaster of Mansfield Road School. (The Natal Mercury, 29 April 1935) essentially intellectual. It absorbed scientists of the Darwinian model, artist-thinkers like William Morris, compassionate men and women who believed that only the state could relieve the ills of society, students of Karl Marx who believed only revolution would relieve the hardships of the working classes, new-found trade unionists and dissidents of a variety of traditions. Seen by some as London-based, middle class and a little stuffy, it nevertheless formed a rich reservoir of talent for the emerging socialism out of which was to grow the Labour movement of Edwardian times and, more specifically, the Labour Party, founded in 1900. Foremost among those driving it were Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, H.G. Wells and, in a later generation, R.H. Tawney, Leonard Woolf and G.D.H. and Margaret Cole. It followed that, sooner or later, the colonies would become home to a sprinkling of Fabians, and Natal was no exception. On Sunday morning, 28 April 1935, Bernard Shaw and his wife Charlotte arrived in Durban on the Llangibby Castle. Shaw was immediately bombarded by members of the press and was reported to be as provocative as usual. He was asked if he would address the Rotary Club luncheon meeting in Durban on Tuesday. He declined saying that Rotary was a good idea when it started the banding together of professional and commercial men to insist on professional status but had since become a luncheon club. Asked whether he would say anything about British drama, Shaw replied, No, certainly not. It is the one thing I know nothing about. He did however concede that there were good fish in the sea to keep dramatic writing going such as Sean OCasey. He divulged the name of the play and preface he had written while on the voyage to Natal: it was The Millionairess and was about a female Cecil Rhodes. There was no politics in it, but money, which was another form of politics. The play departed from the Shaw tradition in that the speeches were not as long as usual and the preface was short. Turning to Africa, he criticised people for saying that the problem was between white and black. He believed the issue was much more complicated than that. On the world scene he declared Russia to be the bulwark of the worlds peace against Japan and to some extent against Germany. After some general observations on how the British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald should handle the rise of Hitler, and some brief answers to various other questions, the interview closed.10 This was a gentle opening gambit compared to what some Natalians might have been expecting. Many would have listened to Shaws broadcast talk at the conclusion of his
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visit to Cape Town in 1932. Having enjoyed a month of Cape hospitality and friendship, mountains and sunshine, bathing and motoring, fruit orchards and vineyards, he stunned his listeners by launching into an attack on the faults and foibles of privileged white South African society. He spoke of the capital invested in splendid hotels, golf links, polo grounds ... and of unproductive plutocrats who at the least sign of trouble would collect their money and sail away. He spoke of their dependence on the labour of others not of my own colour and said he felt as if he was in the worst kind of Slave State. He went on in similar fashion in a broadcast which was carried by 1 500 miles of telephone wire from Cape Town to Durban, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Pretoria simultaneously. White South Africans were angry and there was strong reaction in the press. However unpalatable it may have been, Shaws parting shot to Cape Town, and introduction to Natal where he was heading, contained discomforting truths to those who regarded themselves as admirers of his fame in the world of theatre. He and Charlotte, accompanied by Commander Newton, left Cape Town the next morning. They motored along the Garden Route towards Port Elizabeth where they were to board a ship for Durban after which they would sail back home up Africas east coast. The story is well known. Shaw was driving, negotiated the mountainous road successfully, reached a smooth section, let the car rip, hit a bump and charged through a bank and five strands of barbed wire into a ditch. Charlotte was injured. They reached Knysna, booked in at the Royal Hotel and stayed for five weeks. While Charlotte recovered Shaw wrote his novella, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God. On 18 March they flew back to Cape Town on a chartered Union Airways Junkers, the first passengers to make the three-hour journey by air. They boarded the Warwick Castle and sailed home, seen off by a large crowd. That concluded Shaws first attempt to visit Natal.11 He did, however, indicate the possibility of returning to South Africa to learn more at first hand about the white, poor white and native questions and it was to Natal that he and Charlotte came three years later, this time through the Red Sea and down the east coast of Africa to Durban. There was a new tone to this trip as evidenced in his fairly low-key press interview on his arrival, referred to already. In his seventy-ninth year, he made it clear that he had retired from public speaking and was looking forward to a holiday. Furthermore, he was deeper into his pro-Russia phase; on the voyage he had studied the proofs of Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? by Sidney and Beatrice Webb. This gave added impetus to his own resolve to make his travels in the 1930s something of a mission for Communism to all parts of the world. How would this affect his time in Natal? Would he seek and find opportunities to meet members of all communities to learn more about them? Would he listen to them? Certainly he was to meet some old friends, among them some prominent Fabians. Mabel Palmer, for example, (See p.15 below) in a letter to her sister in England, just two days after the Shaws arrival, wrote, Bernard Shaw is in Durban & I am going to lunch with them to-morrow; it will be very pleasant to see them again.12 In the month ahead the people of Natal would find out which Bernard Shaw they would meet. The Shaws stayed at the Marine Hotel in Durban and spent the first day after their arrival as any tourists would. Shaw went out to the bank and Charlotte to the hairdresser, after which they were driven round to see something of Durban before lunch. In the afternoon they were taken on a drive to Umhlanga Rocks and almost to the Valley of a
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Thousand Hills by the headmaster of Mansfield Road School Mr E. H. Lawrence and Mrs Lawrence. Shaws insistence that they were in Durban for a rest was taken seriously; callers at the hotel were told they were out all day, and The Natal Mercury reported that their movements were shrouded in an air of mystery. There was speculation as to whether Shaw would relent and attend the Rotary meeting the following day, especially as the speaker Mr Norman Tiptaft, a visiting Rotarian from Birmingham, was a friend who had worked with Shaw in the Fabian Society and might even tempt him to speak. Shaw did attend and did speak. His first comment was that there were no women at the luncheon. Did it suggest that there were no businesswomen in South Africa? In fact there were, and nothing prevents men from babbling and wasting time on speeches as effectively as the presence of a practical businesswoman. He admitted being in a difficult position because instead of being able to withdraw a disparaging remark which he had rashly made, he needed to go further by saying, Your business is not to be good charitable men, but as employers of labour to organise the business of this country.... I want to wake you up and draw your attention to your own affairs. When it was suggested that Shaw might become so enthused by being at the meeting that he would feel Rotary to be the legitimate successor to the Fabian Society and would put in his application at the London club, he threw his head back and laughed silently.13 That same evening Shaw gave an informal broadcast talk from his hotel on landmarks in English literature and their relation to current events. He discussed Walter Scott, Thackeray and Dickens. He said that it was not fully realised that Dickens in Little Dorrit had forecast the decay of the parliamentary system. The whole business of Parliament when anything is to be done is to find out how not to do it, Dickens had said. This accorded with Shaws own view, as Durban would hear frequently in the next few weeks. He declared Dickens to be a political landmark justified by recent history in the form of rising dictators like Hitler and Mussolini. He discussed the effect of Karl Marxs writings on the contemporary social outlook, and the revolutionary effect on the theatre of Ibsens works.14 On Sunday, 5 May, a week after his arrival, Shaw was a guest of honour at the Indian sports held at Durbans Battery Beach in celebration of King George Vs Silver Jubilee. Two of the other guests were the Masked Marvel and Ali Bey, the Turkish wrestler who the next day would challenge the winner of the match between the Masked Marvel and Whiskers Blake. It was reported that Shaw, accompanied by Charlotte, took a great interest in the sports and made a short speech. The Natal Witness report continued:
But the younger generation and there were some hundreds of them took more interest in the masked wrestler than they did in the playwright. Indian and European children crowded around the Masked Marvel to get a glimpse of him, but they did not seem interested in Mr Shaw. Mr Shaw was asked to sign an autograph. He made an expressive gesture and declined.
Had Shaw missed a cue? The Masked Marvel, on the other hand, signed willingly and in a few moments there were queues of children and adults with scraps of paper, backs of cigarette cards and old pieces of wrapping paper waiting for autographs in such numbers that the running tracks had to be cleared before the sports could continue. At the conclusion, as the police were escorting him to his car, the Marvel was again mobbed by autograph seekers and photographers. Not so Mr Shaw, who, as the author of the novel Cashel Byrons Profession, which examined the morality of prize-fighting

You have all heard your parents speak of Mr Bernard Shaw. He is a very great writer probably as great as Shakespeare or some of the famous Greek dramatists, and his plays are known and acted in many countries. He not only writes plays but does many other interesting things, and he is well known for his original opinions. He is on a visit to South Africa with Mrs Shaw, and recently spent two days in Maritzburg. Despite his greatness, he is very fond of children, and always has time to talk to them. And children all seem to like him and go straight to him without shyness. In this photograph he is seen with a little girl and boy who live in Maritzburg.
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This piece was obviously written by Sidney Potter, editor of The Natal Witness, whose children they were. (The Natal Witness, 18 May 1935) and betting on the outcome, did at least speak to the wrestler. The day had been very different from the evening before when the Jubilee celebrations had taken the form of fireworks, dancing and dining at the Marine Hotel. Among the guests, Mr and Mrs Bernard Shaw were hosts to Mr and Mrs A.C.D. Williams.15 The Shaws spent Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week in Pietermaritzburg. Friends drove them from Durban and, though they stayed at the Imperial Hotel, it was Sidney Barnett Potter, the editor of The Natal Witness who hosted them and showed them around. Potter was a World War I veteran, a Fabian socialist, a friend of Bernard Shaw, and had invited him to the city.16 The result was generous press coverage of Shaws visit. After lunch at the Imperial Hotel with Mr and Mrs Potter, on Tuesday afternoon they went to Worlds View and had tea at the Country Club where Shaw signed the visitors book. In the evening they dined privately and the following morning drove to Howick where Shaw indulged his camera enthusiasm at the Howick Falls. They drove on to Mooi River and were able to see the snow which had fallen on the Drakensberg and caused the much-discussed fall in temperature. Later they drove round Maritzburgs Botanic Gardens and admired the autumn foliage. They particularly appreciated the views from the upper parts of the Sweetwaters road. Shaw also visited the Natal Museum and talked much about tsetse fly and nagana problems. Shaws conversation during the visit ranged across various topics. He spoke amusingly about a number of men of letters and statesmen as well as British pioneers of the Socialist and Trade Union movements. He spoke of the early pamphleteering days of the Fabian Society, mentioning especially the parts played by Sidney and Beatrice Webb. He told some amusing stories interspersed with criticisms of World War I. He did not discuss South African politics beyond mentioning his liking for General Hertzog and General Smuts. His view of the native question was that many of the natives were more gentlemanly and civilised than many of the Europeans, and that speaking of orga-
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nising the natives within a specific framework savoured of impertinence. When near Weenen and reminded of the Battle of Blood River, Shaws reply was typical: No need to abolish Dingaans Day. Let the Zulus keep Isandhlwana as an annual celebration. What seemed to be much on his mind was Soviet Russia and his admiration of its form of political, social and economic organisation. This was to be a recurring theme in Natal. Aside from several smart quips Shaw seems to have been unusually genial:
Despite his 78 years Mr Shaw is still erect and tall, his eye clear, his complexion fresh and his mind keen and alert. He no longer pretends to sustain the pose of a publicity seeker; on the contrary, he was very grateful for the absence of limelight in Maritzburg. Nor does the brusque and devastating Shaw of public legend find any support in his private personality. Though his range of intellectual penetration is still marked, he was unpretentious and considerate, qualities which expressed themselves with singular attractiveness in his treatment of small children and (perhaps an even better guide) their friendly reaction towards him.
Mrs Shaw, in turn, persisted in remaining in the background. ... a woman of much intelligence and culture with clear-cut ideas which do not always accord with those of G.B.S., as she always calls him ... she handles her tall and wayward husband with little apparent effort and almost unnoticeably but always effectively, the report concludes.17 Potter was not going to miss the opportunity of using Shaws visit to publicise some of the issues about which Maritzburg citizens were protesting at the time. In an editorial entitled Pursued by Civilisation the following Saturday, he wrote at length of the unsightly effects of commerce and industry on the beauty of the city and its surroundings. Shaw was said to have winced when he saw the large advertisement hoarding which had been placed at the entrance overlooking Griffins Hill, blighting the view for visitors from the coast whom the city was so keen to attract. With similar effects, there was a large poultry farm visible on entering the city from the Howick side down Town Hill. Potter continued:
But Maritzburg has better things than that to show and by the time he had glanced down Commercial Road and Church Street, seen the now famous poultry farm, admired our wealth of corrugated iron, feasted his eyes on the sylvan setting of the Railway workshops, and wondered how long it would be before the quarry off Victoria Road changes Town Hill into Town Flats, he regarded the advertisement hoarding with positive relief and gratification.
He quoted Shaw as saying, with reference to the ravages of dynamite and mechanical scoops in the Malvern Hills in England, Commerce, like faith, can move mountains. The punch line to Potters editorial was that those responsible for the quarries and hoardings and wireless masts and all the other appendages of civilisation were careful to live elsewhere. That, as Mr. Shaw said is Fine for them.18 To the present-day reader of The Witness this interchange is recognisable and fascinating. Here were two Fabians demonstrating the contradictions for which the movement was frequently criticised. On the one hand they showed a distinctly middle class, intellectual view of civilisation, which appeared to be trying to hold on to the finer things of life. On the other hand, they appeared to be distancing themselves from the unattractive realities of commercial and industrial progress. Certainly they showed the expected disdain for the bosses. But there was no mention in the report of the working classes whose well-being was presumably an area of concern to professed Fabian social-
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ists. Shaws detractors were often critical of him on this score. A.J.P. Taylor credited him with being a hard-working socialist but described his socialism as off-stage, springing from intellectual arrogance rather than sympathy. He went so far as accusing Shaw of despising, even fearing, the working classes and of bringing them into his plays as comic relief.19 This is a harsh judgment not always supported in Shaw commentary as a whole. However, it should be noted, in the interests of perspective, that the Fabian movement was not always regarded as a strong, mainstream force in the progress of socialism, and the Fabians, including Shaw, were not partial to the working classes. Theirs was rather a socialism of the comparatively well-to-do and, by working to ease the plight of the working classes by gradual permeation, and thus postponing radical reaction, the Fabians are actually seen by some as counterproductive to the interests of the marginalised masses.20 Shaw, while known to mistrust the political capacity of the common man, nevertheless had a lifelong concern for the alleviation of poverty. On a less serious note before leaving the Pietermaritzburg scene, was how Shaw was mistaken for G.B.S. on his first day in the city. At his own request his visit was kept as quiet as possible. Shaw was looking for the Museum when a well-known Maritzburg man, seeing a familiar figure with a flowing white beard and bright blue eyes walked up and said, If you are not very careful you will be mistaken for Bernard Shaw. But I am Bernard Shaw, he replied. Shaws stroll in the afternoon was more successful. Though the streets were crowded he walked through the gardens in front of the Market apparently unnoticed.21 Back in Durban the Shaws continued their varied programme. During their stay they dined and lunched widely, called on the mayor, visited the homes of the wealthy on the Berea, saw the library, museum and art gallery, visited the Jewish Club and attended symphony concerts and a lecture at the Library Group. Shaw visited the less vaunted parts of ... town that lurk behind Grey Street, listened to Edward Roux preaching communism, discussed the Grey Shirt movement with its Natal leader and much else. He has made friends among all races and all classes, and has extended consideration and courtesy to all, wrote Maurice Webb, yet another partisan reporter.22 However many people Shaw knew and met in Durban, it was Mabel Palmer he would have known best. She claimed to be, probably, the only person in South Africa who had known and worked with Bernard Shaw in his capacity as a social reformer. Mabel Atkinson, as she was then, joined the Fabian Society in 1897 while an undergraduate at Glasgow University. After post-graduate study at the London School of Economics from 1900 to 1902, a scholarship from Mrs Charlotte Shaw took her to Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, for a year. Her first real acquaintance with Shaw was at the first Fabian Summer School in 1907 held in an old house in Llanbedr in north Wales. Shaw was well on his way to being recognised as an important dramatist so Fabians at the school were delighted to hear that the Shaws had taken a house nearby and would attend. She recalled how he gave them impromptu talks, swam and walked with them and photographed them at every opportunity. Subsequently Mabel served on the Executive of the Fabian Society in London from 1908 to 1916 and during that time met Shaw almost every week on various committees. Here she experienced his steady devotion to a political cause. She took considerable pleasure in relating to her Durban friends how she, when chairing a committee, had, on occasion, to tell Shaw he was out of order and he stopped talking immediately. She described Shaw as an excellent committee man who attended meetings
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regularly. She took every opportunity in Durban to dispel the myth that he was a buffoon and could not be taken seriously. She insisted that Shaw will put a truth in the lightest and most humorous way, but throughout he is faithful to the truth.23 She testified to Shaws important influence behind the scenes, as, for example, in working towards the covenant of the League of Nations, a process in which the Webbs, Gilbert Murray, Leonard Woolf and, indeed, Mabel Palmer herself and others were also involved. As a founder member of the Fabian Womens Group in 1908 she Postcard written by Bernard Shaw to Mabel also worked closely with Mrs Shaw and, Atkinson after the first Fabian Summer as a result of research done in that group, School in Llanbedr, Wales in 1907 published a Fabian Pamphlet entitled The Economic Foundations of the Womens Movement in June 1914. From this rich environment Mabel Palmer settled in Durban in 1921. She took a post as organiser of the Workers Educational Association based at the Durban Technical College and then became a foundation staff member of the emerging Durban branch of the Natal University College. With all the might of her stunning intellectual power, persistent personality and Fabian intensity, she immediately engaged in activities aimed at advancing the cause of the underprivileged. She became involved in the Joint Council movement founded in the 1920s to encourage dialogue between blacks and whites. In 1929 she joined the South African Institute of Race Relations. Gradually she became recognised as knowledgeable about the social and economic conditions of the black people and a notable factor in their efforts towards racial justice. In doing so she made good use of her influential Fabian friends in England, including Bernard Shaw. There is, for example, her involvement in the 1920s with the black trade union movement, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa. With the British writer Winifred Holtby, who had toured South Africa for three months in 1926, Mabel Palmer facilitated contacts between the ICU and the labour and trade union movements in England. During a visit to England in 1926 Mabel discussed the ICU with her socialist friends, Sidney Webb, Bernard Shaw, H.N. Brailsford and Arthur Creech Jones. She set up arrangements for the visit to England in 1927 of Clements Kadalie, the national president of the ICU, during which he met key persons, travelled widely, attended a conference in Geneva and observed the workings of the trade unions. Through the columns of The New Leader, of which Brailsford was the editor, Winifred Holtby and Mabel organised donations of books to be sent to the ICU in South Africa. In an extensive correspondence Mabel tried unsuccessfully to persuade Creech Jones to take up the position of adviser to the ICU, a position subsequently filled by William Ballinger. The third member of the female triumvirate, as it came to be called, was the writer Ethelreda Lewis who pursued the cause in the Johannesburg arena.24 In fact, it is questionable whether this white philanthropic intervention did Kadalie or the ICU a
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favour. One questions to what extent these well-intentioned people were in touch with grassroots black opinion. And in Kadalies absence administrative procedures became lax, finances ran out and factions developed in the ICU. Chief among these was the rivalry between Kadalie and his deputy, a Zulu leader of considerable political influence, A.W.G. Champion. Champions main constituency was Natal the strongest branch of the ICU numerically and financially which, in 1928, proceeded to break away and become the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union yase Natal with Champion in control. This sounded the death knell of the ICU of South Africa. Champion, described by the communist academic Edward Roux as ... urbane, slow-moving, slightly obese, an indifferent speaker but a competent organiser was not slow in asserting his leadership.25 With considerable popular support he challenged the Durban municipalitys system of administering its black workers. He and the ICU were blamed for complicity in the black unrest in Durban in1928, focusing on the beer monopoly system, and the full-scale riots and strikes which took place in June 1929. In short, Champion was banned from Natal on 24 September 1930 by means of Oswald Pirows Riotous Assemblies (Amendment) Act (No. 19). In 1934 General Smuts allowed Champion to return to Durban where he proceeded to rebuild his career in local affairs and African national politics, and where he believed he had many white friends who understood him. While he was in Durban Bernard Shaw called on Champion at the African Workers Club. He told Shaw the story of his exile and presented him with a Zulu walking stick. Shaw responded with a letter dated 17 May 1935 from which the following is an extract:
Bad as things are here, they can easily be paralleled [sic] or outdone by events in Europe. Your exile was pretty hard; but you can claim as your companion in misfortune no less a person than Albert Einstein, the greatest white man in the world. ... I am glad to have had the privilege of meeting you personally, and wish you all success in organising your countrymen and making them conscious of the resources they have within themselves to assimilate all that appears so formidable in white civilization.26
This statement is as much an insight into Shaw as it is a message to Champion. Discreet but direct: Shaw reassured Champion and drew attention to the power which the black people possessed to achieve what, in their ambiguous situation, they had been led to believe lay within the greater power of the white people. With subtlety he reminded Champion that he was part of the wider world of the 1930s. Nevertheless, there was a detachment in Shaws response. Clearly, he could deliver his message and walk away from Champions world. Not so Mabel Palmer whose working relationship with Champion had been severely bruised in 1930. In the course of a letter asking for early documents of the ICU which she felt should be preserved for future historians, with a distinct lack of subtlety she went on to comment on his administrative inexperience and unwillingness to clear his name from financial slackness with trust funds which had led to his exclusion from the Joint Council in Durban. Champions reply came promptly:
... Why do you want to heap an insult on my injury. I do not care to be a member of the Joint Council in Durban, nor do I care to win the favour of those friends of yours unnamed.... You should always try and respect my feelings, Mrs Palmer, whether you are a European and I, a Native.... I simply cannot tell what is your ulterior
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motive in writing me this disturbing letter. I do not think that a man can write me such a letter. Women sometimes do things that men cannot understand....27
This was a loaded reply which, had he read it five years earlier, would have given Bernard Shaw food for thought. He would have known Mabel Palmer to be imperious but, in his quest to learn more about the white, the poor white and native questions in South Africa, and as a noted supporter of womens rights, he would probably have been challenged by Champions remarks. He would no doubt have had a quotable answer but should nevertheless have been left pondering the intricacies of racial and gender dynamics in Africa. Bernard Shaw was a great talker. Despite his statement on arrival in Durban that there would be no speeches, he appears to have found it irresistible to hold willing or unwilling listeners spellbound. He was brought to the Durban Technical College by his escort, A.C.D. Williams. He arrived at 9.30 a.m. and the head of the institution, Dr Humphrey Jones, found him very fascinating, very straight with no side. Shaw agreed to give them ten minutes but stayed until 1.00 p.m. He told the students tales of his guttersnipe years in Dublin and exhorted them to work hard. He agreed to talk to the staff but told Jones, no women. So he spoke to about a dozen men. Shaw was ever unpredictable.28 Even more telling is the recollection by Dr Jack Cowden of an occasion when he was a part-time student at the Natal University College in Durban in the1930s. In the University of Natal journal, Focus, Dr Cowden, a medical doctor, wrote in 1995:
... Completion of necessary professional examinations saw us savour the humanities via the BA. My two years with Bernard Notcutt and Mabel Palmer in the realms of Political Science, Psychology and English were the happiest studies of my life. And Mabel Palmer, a great intellectual lady, reminds me that in 1935 she brought Bernard Shaw to campus.... He accepted her invitation to meet a cross-section of the Durban community and hear their views. There were students there, lecturers, and others of all races. But the great Bernard Shaw was not interested in our views. He spent nearly two hours telling us of his tour to Russia with the Astors, and how great Socialism was. We were impressed by his greatness as an intellectual giant and a playwright, yet in retrospect his love-affair with Stalin and Litvinov took place when a million kulaks were being liquidated for their belief in free enterprise.29
Yet again one questions whether Shaw was really wanting to learn more or whether he simply wanted to tell. He had already puzzled his large audience when he spoke for one and three quarter hours along the same lines in the Cape Town City Hall on behalf of the Fabians on his first visit to South Africa. He thought it was a stupendous lecture on Russia but Leon Hugo, a professor of English at the University of South Africa felt Shaw failed himself and his audience. He went on too long and confused his listeners who actually wondered if he was the one who was confused.30 So Dr Cowden was not alone in feeling let down.31 In fact, many people, not least his contemporaries, wondered why Bernard Shaw became so enamoured with Stalin. Beatrice Webb challenged him on his return from his nine-day pilgrimage to Russia in 1931 about reported Soviet atrocities. Shaws reply which was his standard reply was that they were manifestations of a backward country with a barbarous history.32 In a recent study of Stalin the modern British writer
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Martin Amis reveals the full scale of Stalins atrocities and describes H.G. Wells, Shaw and the Webbs as the ... centurys four most extravagant dupes of the USSR. Shaw, he writes, after some banquet diplomacy, declared the Russian people uncommonly well-fed at a time when perhaps 11 million citizens were in the process of dying of starvation.33 For Shaw, communism as he saw it in Russia was the culmination of his lifes work of preaching socialism, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb were his first converts. He felt he had found a country which had established socialism, made it a political system, thrown out private property and abandoned capitalism. He embraced it with religious fervour and a corresponding suspension of disbelief. In one of his famous paradoxes he declared, The Russian Revolution was pure Fabianism.34 He admitted his impression was based on instinct, so when the Webbs were going to see Russia for themselves, he encouraged Sidney Webb to do a survey and base their conclusions on facts, in true Fabian style. Hence the Webbs tome, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? the proofs of which Shaw read on his voyage to Natal. He is known to have attended a Communist Party meeting in Durban addressed by Edward Roux and by H.A. Naidoo whom Roux had introduced to the Party in the early 1930s. Naidoo recognised Shaw in the audience and welcomed their distinguished visitor, inviting him to say a few words. Shaw replied, surprisingly, Tonight Ive come to listen to you, so just carry on.35 Perhaps it should be noted that Shaw started out as a revolutionary. He declared himself to have been completely converted by reading Marxs Das Kapital, the turning point in my career, during his self-education in the British Museum Reading Room, my daily resort. It was there, too, that he met Eleanor Marx, Karl Marxs fourth daughter, with whom he became increasingly friendly.36 Shaw admitted that he joined the Fabian Society in his early lonely London days because he knew he would meet people of his own kind there. While some moderates view Shaws and the Webbs obsession with Russia in their latter years as mere senility, Margaret Cole, historian of the Fabian Society, wrote of the Webbs and Shaw, Their hearts were in Russia and Russia alone.37 Lenin declared Shaw to be Left of the Fabians politically, and one is reminded of Lenins often-quoted description of him as a good man fallen among Fabians. It was in 1935 that Mabel Palmer was hard at work trying to persuade the Natal University College to admit black students. The University Councils eventual agreement that, starting in 1936, black students could pursue a selected number of the universitys courses on condition that the classes were conducted separately and off the campus, and Mabel Palmers involvement for twenty years as organiser of the Non-European Section, as it was called, can be followed elsewhere.38 In the meantime she had been tutoring black part-time students, predominantly African and Indian teachers, in her own sitting room since 1932. It was these students and some of her close friends whom she invited to a tea party at her home at 24 Clair Avenue, Manor Gardens to meet Bernard Shaw. He had various theme tunes during his stay in Durban, another of which was soon aired on this occasion. In no time the students were enlisting his support for their campaign for the parliamentary vote on an equal footing with whites. The issue was a live one as the Smuts-Hertzog government had published a bill which would end the association of black and white South Africans on the common voters roll in the Cape and replace it with a separate African voters roll by which they would be able to vote for three white members of parliament to represent their interests. Shaw took the ground from under their feet by meeting their pleas with the reply, Who wants to go
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into Parliament anyway? What good will it ever do anybody? Florence Macdonald, Mabel Palmers great friend and collaborator in the black university classes, summed it up thus: They could not understand what he meant, but he talked all afternoon. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon.39 Recounting the occasion later Shaw claimed to have told them, Dont try to defend the vote for natives. It is quite worthless. What you have to do is to move an amendment to the Bill abolishing the white vote as well. Mabels guests were surprised, to say the least. Shaws contradictions were many, but his long-standing resistance to parliamentary democracy through universal suffrage was one that was especially difficult to reconcile with his commitment to equality. It rested on his belief that government should be in the hands of competent and informed people who should completely restructure society and oversee the systematic and even-handed implementation of socialism. Furthermore, Shaw believed the vote could be counterproductive. Never a supporter of the suffragette movement, he had written in 1928:
The belief in the magic of the vote was so fervent that I could not be forgiven for warning the suffragettes that votes for women would probably mean their selfexclusion from Parliament, and that what was needed was a constitutional law that all public authorities should have a representative proportion of women on them, votes or no votes.40
In similar vein, the Natal activist, lawyer and politician Ismail Meer who was a student in Mabel Palmers classes in the early 1940s wrote of an incident between Shaw and the Swedish-Indian activist, Palme Dutt. Dutt was a recognised interpreter of Marxism/Leninism and founder of the India League in London. When Dutt was standing for parliament in Britain Shaw wrote to say he would vote for him knowing full well that he would lose, because intelligent people like him did not stand a chance. Perhaps Shaw should be credited with some degree of prophecy. Had he lived in the present day, his reservations about the vote could very well have been confirmed.41 Ismail Meer attended a meeting addressed by Shaw at the Gandhi library in Durban. It was there that he offered miscegenation as a solution to South Africas race issue.42 This is the topic most associated with Shaw by those South Africans today who know anything about him. It formed a significant part of his pronouncements in Cape Town and assumed concrete form in his novella written in Knysna, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God. In it Shaws creative mind runs through various recognisable colonial themes, most notably the damaging effect of the missionaries on black identity, and he ends up with his much-quoted image of the coffee-coloured South African of the future. Furthermore, while he was in Durban he heard the pro-Nazi Minister of Transport and Defence Oswald Pirow make an appeal to immigrants to keep up the white population. Shaw concluded that interbreeding of the races was the answer to what seemed like a drop in the white birth rate. When he returned to England he declared himself an advocate of intermarriage between the white and black inhabitants of South Africa. This brought Shaw considerable notoriety in newspapers around the world. The South African press reported that it was regarded as a bad joke in Britain and as blasphemy in Germany. Shaw did not relent. All his life he kept to the view that South Africas ghetto legislation was comparable to the persecution of the Jews by Nazi Germany.43 Pauline Podbrey observed the negative effects of his pronouncements during his Natal visit. She wrote:

During his visit to South Africa Shaw earned the opprobrium of the whites by declaring that South Africas problems would be solved by intermarriage between the races, by the dreaded word miscegenation. After that he was shunned by the white population and maligned by the press. He spent most of his time in Durban strolling around the Indian area of Grey Street.
21
However, it should be noted that Podbrey could have been over-sensitive to the issue. She was soon to marry H. A. Naidoo, the Indian speaker at the communist meeting Shaw attended, and was experiencing the difficulties attached to mixed marriages in South Africa. Her observations might well have been close to the truth but she could also have been overlooking Shaws pure interest in exploring the less vaunted parts of our town that lurk behind Grey Street as reported in the press. The Shaws were also reported as having ... been everywhere and seen everybody as far as their time and strength allowed.44 It is probably true to say that Shaw received most of his media publicity while he was in Natal from those associated in some way with his Fabian connection. Among these was Maurice Webb. It was Webb who interviewed him in the radio talk on books, broadcast from Durban throughout South Africa. It was Webb who published the valedictory article which appeared in The Natal Witness on the Shaws departure from Natal. And it was Webb who entertained the Shaws in front of a log fire one afternoon when Durban was hit by pouring rain and howling wind and who later published their conversation in The Outspan under the heading By the Fireside with George Bernard Shaw. Because of his role, tangentially, within the Fabian dynamic of Durban, a little more needs to be said of Maurice Webb. Of lower middle class origins and self-educated, Webb was first and foremost a Quaker but, in his early years in England, he was also exposed to influential Fabians in night schools, in the Workers Educational Association and elsewhere. He emigrated to Durban in 1921, the same year as Mabel Palmer. He took up a post at Brabys directory publishing firm in Durban and launched into a whole range of activities aimed at the betterment of the less privileged classes of society. His approach has been described by one historian as social welfare liberalism.45 He aspired to a Fabian intellectualism and served in most of the same fields as Mabel Palmer. In some cases they worked together as, for example, in the Workers Educational Association, Adult Education, Bantu Child Welfare, and Joint Council movements. In particular, Webb was on the Council of the Natal University College so in all her negotiations regarding the Non-European Classes, Mabel worked through him and often sacrificed the credit to him. He was also chairman of the Council of Adams College where Mabel held the July vacation schools for her students. They did not like each other. Mabel did not fully trust Webb as she felt he was a committee man and a talker rather than a worker. Webb found Mabel overbearing in her indefatigable persistence, as did a number of people, and he was jealous of her intellectual prowess and the honorary doctorate which the University of South Africa awarded her in 1947 in acknowledgement of her work in race relations and education. He claimed acquaintance with Bernard Shaw in London but did not come anywhere near the association with Shaw that Mabel had. Mabel, too, was a writer of journal and newspaper articles, including ones on broadcasting, and she also gave radio talks on Durbans A Programme. With no firm evidence available, it can be surmised that she would have been a trifle peeved that Webb dominated the interviews with Shaw. On the other hand, she was content to accept the male dominance of the
22
day if it achieved the goals for which she was working, and she would have wanted the best for Bernard Shaw.46 In this media publicity many of the familiar themes were aired. Webb wrote of Shaws talking which he described as very good, ranging over the stage and actors and actresses, music and musicians, politics and painters and writers, motor cars, and countries and people and causes. When asked how they liked Durban, Mrs Shaw was profuse in her praise, but Shaw sneaked in his gibe that the pervading laziness in the air would cause him moral degeneration and he would do no work if he stayed on. With regard to queries that Shaw was funny but not sincere, Webb wrote, Bernard Shaw is sincere and funny which is the secret of his power. The fact is that behind all his wilfulness and paradoxes there is a fundamental sincerity and simplicity. Shaws belief that war is the great destroyerand the enemy of the artist, is set against his belief that to get rid of war, those who believe in it should be allowed to get on and shoot each other off. Perhaps one needs to remember that Shaws paradoxes are meant to proclaim a truth with a bang. There was room for another gibe. Shaw told how he asked a young woman if she had come to South Africa from England. She replied that she was from Durban. Ah, he said, then you are a native. Shaw waxed strong in these interviews on his aversion to parliament: Scrap Parliament. The modern world needs a system of government that gives the people a voice, not an ineffective vote, and gives the executive the necessary power to make and carry out decisions. While in Durban Shaw, it is reported, has given and taken hard knocks on what now appears to be his favourite topic the decline of Parliament and the Russian experiment but apparently he enjoyed the controversy. Webbs articles contained much praise, wit and incidental chatter, but perhaps his most telling summing up of Shaws current message was this:
Bernard Shaw, the Fabian, and Socialist propagandist, looks back on the enthusiasms and hopes of the earlier part of the century and sees them frustrated by war, dissipated by Parliament. His Socialism and Fabianism have survived, and it is in the experiments of modern Russia that his hopes are centred. Many logs have to be added to the fire before G.B.S. tires of talking of his favourite topic, Russia.47
Shaws intent becomes clearer when it is remembered that during his travels, he spent part of his time on the ship every day writing letters and preparing his press interviews. Mabel Palmer, for her part, continued to promote Shaw at every opportunity, but on a different level. Her presentations were based on knowledge, not reportage. In her personal papers are scripts of public talks, articles, broadcast talks and lectures on Shaw, all with a didactic purpose. Of particular interest are her short handwritten notes, on yellow writing pad paper, of a lecture she gave to her black students entitled G. B. S. Special ref, to Man & Superman. Although she told them that ... it must be difficult for non-E-students indeed for all S. African students to understand him, she spared them nothing. She analysed the characters, gave page references for reading, gave details of Shaws life and his political thinking and activity, spoke of the developments at the time the new women, the new theology and the New Theatre in which Shaw was a major influence. She developed Shaws theory of Life Force, linking it with the theory of evolution and explaining that unless man was always working towards something higher than himself, humanity was doomed.48 In a manuscript attached to a broadcast talk given in 1949, Mabel explained Shaws rejection of what she called
23
Marxianism in their Fabian Society days, thus influencing the direction of socialism in England and the British Labour Party away from Marxist economic theory. His obsession with Communist Russia when he visited Natal must have at least puzzled her. She referred, too, to the help Shaw gave her personally in stirring up opinion on the position of women and the treatment of the suffragettes, of which she was one, and in doing so had some effect on the history of S. Africa.49 Another elegantly-written, comprehensive article was entitled G.B.S., written to mark Shaws death in 1950. It was requested by Ismail Meer for publication in Indian Views. It begins, It is amazing what a blank the death of Bernard Shaw leaves. It is fifteen years since I saw him ... but one felt he was always there, almost like a great natural force making for wisdom & righteousness. Why did he loom so large in the public eye?50 One might ask whether the people of Natal would have identified with this last statement. Shaws visit to Natal in 1935 was but a small episode in his long and many-sided life and it could be said that it was but a small episode in the long and complex history of the Natal and Zulu region. When Shaws visit is mentioned today, a memory or a story is quite often ready at hand. Here is an example from someone whose father-inlaw remembered Shaws visit to Durban before the War very well:
He remembered that GBS was staying at the Royal Hotel and a waiter asked him whether he would like a whisky. GBS replied by asking the waiter what that thing suspended in a glass of water was. It was an avocado pear pip. GBS then suggested to the waiter that he replace the water with whisky which the waiter declined to do because then it wont grow. Precisely! replied GBS. Thats why I wont have a whisky....51
These memories are invariably on the level of Shaws idiosyncrasies and witticisms, or on his rather provocative pronouncements on miscegenation. A worthwhile assessment of his impact on Natal or Natals impact on him is hindered by the absence or inaccessibilty of sources. What, for example, might be contained in the Shaws letters from Natal to Lady Astor? Or what other details might emerge if more sources were discovered in Natal? One communication that has been unearthed, dated Durban 18 May 1935, was to Gilbert Murray in Oxford and it revolved around Shaws own English agenda. He sent Murray a cutting from The Natal Witness of 15 May 1935 of his article entitled, Bernard Shaw on the Jubilee: The King in Relation to Art and Drama: Why Lawrence of Arabia, Wells, Chesterton (and Shaw) are Without Titles: Royal Preference For Football. The opening question is, Would it be indiscreet, Mr Shaw, to allude to the fact that though you have talked on many things since your arrival in Durban, you have said not one word about the Jubilee? This is a lengthy, in-depth, argumentative interview with himself written and copyrighted by Shaw. It is rich in facts about his contribution to drama but is largely self-serving and self-congratulatory, using a contradictory method of disparaging King George V for his attitude to the arts, then defending him. On the subject of no title having come his way Shaw wrote:
As for myself I am a Red Marxist Communist of 50 years standing, a persistent friend of the Russian Revolution and the Soviet State and the prophet of a modern religion which would make short work of the Thirty-nine Articles. And the King to confer on me the Order of the Garter and I should consider anything less an insult and he will reply: Am I the defender of the faith or not?
24
The article would have been of interest to a section of the empire-loving component of Natals population but it had more meaning for Shaw and Murray. He appended a cynical note to Murray suggesting that Mrs Murray should receive nothing but a dukedom, then ended by saying, Still, its a real difficulty. We expect to be back in the middle of June. G.B.S.52 On the whole it seems safe to say that Shaws Fabian connections were pleased with his visit and a fair cross section of Natalians recognised that a famous figure had been in their midst. The Shaws themselves appear to have had a restful and entertaining holiday ending with perhaps the most interesting of their experiences. On their last Monday they were the guests of Mr and Mrs Denis Shepstone who took them to Maphumulo where Shaw joined in a Zulu war dance. He sang with the warriors and even attempted a step or two. He was very interested in the music and informed the chief that one of the songs had obviously given Wagner the inspiration for the Flying Dutchman. Shaw made a brief speech telling the entertainers what a fine race of people they were and what pleasure their music had given him. The chief thanked him and hoped that he and Mrs Shaw had many photographs to take home with them. Two days later, on 22 May 1935, the Shaws left Durban on the fast train for Cape Town where they were to join the Winchester Castle for their return to England.53 It would be presumptuous in the extreme to attempt a definitive article on Bernard Shaw on the basis of his short visit to Natal in 1935. So long was his life and so vast his output, and so extensive the Shaw discourse, that one can but explore the subject and attempt to trace ideas, influences, opinions, associations and connections. The question remains, Has Shaw anything to say to KwaZulu-Natal today? Many people who have never read a Shaw play, like to quote Shaw: in speeches, in introductions to guest speakers, in votes of thanks or in reflections for the day in newspapers. They feel they know him by reputation. More salutary is to look afresh at his writing and to discover that, despite the long period it covers, there is a timelessness about the kernel of Shaws deepest thinking. Winston Churchill took his children to a performance of Major Barbara in the late 1920s. The world had undergone profound and sweeping changes and a complete reshaping of opinion since Churchill had seen the play twenty years before. Yet, wrote Churchill,
... in Major Barbara there was not a character requiring to be re-drawn, not a sentence nor a suggestion that was out of date. My children were astounded to learn that this play, the very acme of modernity, was written more than five years before they were born.54
Of more lasting value than his visit to Natal in 1935 would be a refreshed reading of Major Barbara, especially the preface. In G. K. Chestertons words, The ultimate epigram of Major Barbara can be put thus. People say that poverty is no crime; Shaw says that poverty is a crime; that it is a crime to endure it, a crime to be content with it, that it is the mother of all crimes of brutality, corruption, and fear.... The point of this particular drama is that even the noblest enthusiasm of the girl who becomes a Salvation Army officer fails under the brute money power of her father who is a modern capitalist.55 In a world beset by anxieties generated by industrialisation, capitalism, money, brutality, religion and, above all, poverty, Shaws message in this work continues to be modern, not least in South Africa and, indeed, in KwaZulu-Natal. SYLVIA VIETZEN

NOTES
1
25
3 4
5 6 7
8 9 10 11
12
13 14 15
16
17 18
19 20
21 22 23
24
25
26
27
28 29
30 31 32 33
Shaw disliked the name George and dropped it professionally when he moved from his native Dublin to London in 1876. See Michael Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 1 18561898: The Search for Love (Penguin, 1988), p. 25. Michael Holroyd ed., The Genius of Shaw: A symposium (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979), Introduction, p. 9. Winston S. Churchill, George Bernard Shaw in Great Contemporaries (Fontana, 1959), p. 51. A.J.P. Taylor, Shaw: The Court Jester in From the Boer War to the Cold War: Essays on Twentieth Century Europe (Penguin, 1996), p. 61. Jorge Luis Borges, A Note on (towards) Bernard Shaw in Labyrinths (Penguin, 1970), pp. 249 50. S. Winston, ed., G.B.S. 90 (Hutchinson, 1946) John Betjeman, Coming Home: an anthology of prose 1920 1977, ed. Candida Lycett Green (Vintage, 1998), p. 198. G. K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw (House of Stratus, 2001), p. iii. (First published 1910) This is an example of what is available on the Internet. The Natal Witness, 29 April 1935. Also The Natal Mercury, 29 April 1935. See Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 3 1918 1950: The Lure of Fantasy, (Penguin, 1993), pp. 271 284 for the details of the Shaws Cape visit from 11 January to 19 March 1932. Campbell Collections, Mabel Palmer Papers, KCM 16732, Mabel Palmer to Mildred Atkinson, 30 April 1935. The Natal Mercury, 29 and 30 April and 1 May 1935. The Natal Mercury, 1 May 1935. The Natal Witness, 7 May 1935. Williams was involved in taking Shaw to various places on behalf of Durban Publicity. Simon Haw, Bearing Witness: The Natal Witness 1846 1996 (The Natal Witness, 1996), p.197, pp. 207 8. The Natal Witness, 10 May 1935. The Natal Witness, 11 May 1935. Griffins Hill is usually associated with Estcourt, but it would appear that the name was also given to the hill rising towards Ridge Road on entering Pietermaritzburg from Durban. At one time the Griffins owned substantial properties there. The poultry farm on entering the city from the Howick side would have been L.T. Forsyths Granton where Granton Mews is today. (Information from Shelagh Spencer, Pietermaritzburg.) A.J.P, Taylor, Shaw: The Court Jester, pp. 62 3. E. J. Hobsbawm, Labouring Men: Studies in the History of Labour (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964), p. 259. The chapter, The Fabians Reconsidered is helpful in understanding the place of the early Fabians in the developing socialist movement in Britain. The Natal Mercury, 8 May 1935, from the City Correspondent. Maurice Webb in The Natal Witness, 24 May 1935. Mabel Palmer Papers, KCM 17325, G.B. Shaw as I knew him, broadcast talk by Mabel Palmer on Durban A Programme, Sunday, 31 July 1949. Kingston-upon-Hull Central Library, Winifred Holtby Papers, correspondence passim. For a full study of the ICU see P.L. Wickins, The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa, (Oxford University Press, 1978). Edward Roux, Time Longer than Rope: The Black Mans Struggle for Freedom in South Africa (University of Wisconsin Press, 1964), p.177. (First published 1948) Quoted in M.W. Swanson ed., The Views of Mahlathi: writings of A.W.G. Champion a black South African (University of Natal Press and Killie Campbell Africana Library, 1982), p. 41. University of South Africa, Champion Papers, Mabel Palmer to Champion, 13 February 1930 and Champion to Mabel Palmer, 17 February 1930. Personal interview, Dr Humphrey Jones, Durban North, 7 August 1979. Focus, Vol. 7, No. 1, undated, p. 3. The reference is to Maxim Litvinov, Foreign Commissar to the Soviet Union, who accompanied Shaw and his party during much of their Russian visit. See Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 3, p. 273. Personal interview, Mrs Nancy Gardiner, Hilton, 2 February 2006. (Dr Cowdens sister) Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 3, p. 249. Martin Amis, Koba the Dread (Vintage, 2002), p. 21n. Perhaps it should be noted that support of communist Russia was not uncommon among intellectuals in the 1930s and 40s. There were the notorious
26

Cambridge spies Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby and Donald Maclean for example. Even the distinguished historian Eric Hobsbawm, in his recent autobiography, argues that the full extent of Stalins tyranny was not known to British communists until the revelations of 1956, thus justifying his own continued membership of the party. See Eric Hobsbawm, Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life (Abacus, 2002), pp. 197 209. Quoted in Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 3, p. 251. In Pauline Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party (Hadeda Books, 1993), p. 28. Yvonne Kapp, Eleanor Marx, Vol. I 1855 1883 (Virago, 1979), p. 192. Margaret Cole, The Story of Fabian Socialism (London, 1961), p. 252. See Sylvia Vietzen, Mabel Palmer and Black Higher Education in Natal c1936 1942 in Journal of Natal and Zulu History, Vol. VI, 1983, pp. 98 114. Personal interviews, Mrs Florence Macdonald, Sea View, Durban, 8 November 1977 and 5 August 1979. Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Womans Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism & Fascism (Penguin, 1982), p. 481. (First published 1928) Ismail Meer, A Fortunate Man (Zebra Press, 2002), p. 56. Ibid. See Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 3, pp. 283 4. Podbrey, White Girl in Search of a Party, p. 28 and The Natal Witness, 24 May 1935. See Barry White, Maurice Webb: A Case Study in Social Welfare Liberalism in Natal, 1926 1953 in Journal of Natal and Zulu History, Vol. XV, 1994/5, pp. 1 16. Webbs tendency to infiltrate intellectual circles had caused his clash with Roy Campbell. Campbell resigned the editorship of the two-year-old literary journal Voorslag in 1926 because he felt Webb as publisher was intruding on his role as editor. He raged at the owner, You yourself confided in me in the beginning that we must take care not to let Voorslag develop Webbed feet. Now you want it to have a Webbed head.... He went on to lampoon Webb, among others, in his poem The Wayzgoose: A Socialist thou art in thought and act, And yet thy business flourishes intact: A Boss in trade, thou art securely placed, And only art a Bolshevik in taste: To kill a sheep, too tender is thy heart, Yet wilt thou massacre a work of art. See Peter Alexander, Roy Campbell: A Critical Biography (David Philip, 1982), pp. 48 55 and 71 2. Campbell Collections, Maurice Webb Papers, KCM 22306, The Outspan, 14 June 1935, At the Fireside with George Bernard Shaw and The Natal Witness, 24 May 1935, Bernard Shaw Leaves South Africa: Impressions of a Distinguished and Charming Visitor. Mabel Palmer Papers, manuscript stapled to KCM 17323, undated. The yellow writing pad paper would date it around 1936 or soon after as she used this stationery to submit records in the early days of the black classes. Mabel Palmer Papers, carbon copy of manuscript attached to KCM 17325, 31 July 1949. Mabel Palmer Papers, KCM 17324 attached to letter, Mabel Palmer to Mr Meer, 7 November 1950. Told by Dr Andr le Roux of Cape Town, formerly of Natal. The Shaws stayed at the Marine Hotel at the start of their visit to Durban. Reference to the Royal Hotel could be a trick of memory, or it could suggest they stayed there later, or that perhaps Shaw was visiting there. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Gilbert Murray 167, f. 130. The Idler in Down Our Lane, The Natal Mercury, 22 May 1935. Churchill, Great Contemporaries, p. 44. Major Barbara was written in 1905. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw, pp. 72 3.
34 35 36 37 38
39
40
41 42 43 44 45
46
47
48
49 50 51
52 53 54 55
Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950
27

The arrival of passenger Indians in Natal from the 1870s onwards heralded a new era in colonial history. They arrived to serve the economic needs of the indentured labourers and laid the foundations of the Indian commercial class in the colony. However, their growth and prosperity in commercial enterprise produced anti-Indian sentiments that culminated in a series of laws that aimed at restricting their economic, political and residential rights in South Africa. This paper traces their early arrival and settlement and examines some of the challenges Indian family businesses encountered during the period 1870-1950. Passenger or Free Indians The arrival and settlement of indentured Indians in Natal inevitably paved way for free or passenger Indians to Natal, who largely came to serve the economic needs of the Indian labourers. They came as free Indians, under normal immigration laws and were subjects of the British Empire. They paid their own passage and were therefore described by the colonists as passenger Indians. Unlike their indentured compatriots they were not bound by any contractual labour conditions and were initially free to settle and trade in the colony. Like indentured Indians, they were motivated by both push and pull factors and the prospect of a better life prompted their migration to the colony. The free or passenger Indians who immigrated to Natal in the mid-1870s were in the main Gujarati-speaking Hindus and Muslims from the west coast of India. This group of Indians, to a very large extent, pioneered Indian trading activity in Natal. They migrated mainly from the province of Kathiawad, and its surrounding coastal districts and villages, for example, Surat, Kutch, Porbander, Jamnaggar, Rander and Kholvad.1 The Gujarati-speaking Muslims in Natal comprised two groups, mainly the Memons and Khojas. Both groups were converts from Hinduism and were disciples of Abdullah, an Arab missionary. In India the Memons were highly concentrated around Bombay, and its surrounding districts of Kholvad and Kathor. A few also migrated from Kathiawar, particularly from the districts of Kolaba and Ranavav.2 Memons were not only active in Natal but were economically active in Mauritius, East Africa and the Far East. Prominent Memon traders in Natal were Abbobaker Amod, Abdoola Hajee Adam Jhaveri and Moosa Hajee Cassim.3 In Natal Muslim migrants who originated from Surat were referred to as Surti Bohras. Prominent amongst them were the Lockhat Brothers, the Paruks and the Motalas. They established business ventures not only in KwaZulu-Natal but nationally and internationally.
Natalia 38 (2008), Kalpana Hiralal pp. 27 37
28
The Gujarati Hindus amongst the passenger Indians migrated to Natal at the turn of the century. Like their Muslim counterparts they shared a common language and place of origin but differed in religion. Migrants who came from the District of Surat and its nearby villages such as Bardoli, Navasari and Broach were often referred to as Surtees. They consisted of different caste groups and in many cases this determined the type of occupation they engaged in. For example the Sonis (goldsmiths) migrated from Porander, Rajkot and Jamnagar. The Dhobis (laundrymen), and the Mochis (shoemakers) originated from Kholvad, Kathor and Navasari. Many after immigrating to Natal continued in their respective occupations. For example, Makan Naran, a dhobi (laundryman), arrived in Natal at the end of the nineteenth century from Surat. Because of the uneasy socio-economic conditions in India, he migrated to Natal. On arrival he engaged in the laundry business, collecting and carrying bundles of laundry to finish at streams and rivers on the outskirts of Durban. He later established his laundry business at 181 Gale Street.4 Other Gujarati immigrants, such as Mohanlal Kanjee Lodhia and Mohanlal Valjee, who were goldsmiths in India, continued with their trade in Natal. For example, the latter emigrated in 1905 and immediately began hawking fruit and vegetables. Later he rented a two-bedroomed house in Umgeni Road and used this as a workshop for his jewellery business. Another Gujarati-speaking Hindu, Bhana Parsotham, arrived in 1888 from Surat. He settled in Durban and established an eating-house for African labourers and adjacent to this he built a clothing store. He is also credited with establishing the first Indian confectionery store, which sold a variety of Indian delicacies. He was extremely successful and by 1913 was a regular advertiser in The Colonial Indian News and the Indian Opinion, two popular Indian newspapers serving the Indian community in South Africa.5 Settlement of Indian Traders Indian traders were often also referred to Arab traders, largely because the Muslims amongst them were in the majority and they often dressed in their traditional attire, which though not the same, nevertheless suggested flowing Arab robes. The trading community were mainly concentrated in Natal due to the large presence of indentured Indian labourers and the improved transport and communication systems. Indian traders established trading stores along the coast and the interior. They settled in the magisterial districts of Inanda, Umlazi and Alexandra, and also moved towards the interior and settled in Umkomanzi, Umgeni and Umvoti. Others moved even further inland to Ladysmith and the coal mining districts of Dundee, Newcastle and Ladysmith. Most of them were petty traders, concentrating mainly on selling Indian groceries and African goods. Durban and Pietermaritzburg also provided strong and lucrative markets for Indian traders who settled there. Durbans development and importance as a centre of trade is described by Swanson as follows:
White Natal at the turn of this [20th] century was a close-knit commercial and agricultural society of some 90 000 people whose major development had come with the rise of commerce through the great harbour at Durban; serving the mineral boom at Kimberley and the Witwatersrand. Urban growth was dramatic from the 1870s onwards. Durbans population and trade doubled each decade in contrast to half that rate for Natal as a whole. By the 1890s the port city alone contained nearly a third of the colonys white inhabitants and had acquired the material and institutional attributes of urban modernity.6
29
In Durban the presence of indentured and ex-indentured Indians led to many Indian traders opening shops in the city centre. Several Indian locations could be found at the west end of West Street, the northern part of Field Street and the boundary of the Western Vlei.7 The business directory of the Natal Almanac and Yearly Register and the voters roll for the Borough of Durban between 1885 and 1908 provide valuable information on the occupation and residential addresses of Indian traders. The voters list shows that the early traders initially settled and traded in West Street but later moved to Grey and Field streets and Commercial Road. This was largely due to the fact that the Durban municipality wanted to restrict Indian trading to a specific area, to eliminate competition with white traders. Nevertheless, the lists consist of both traders of passenger origin as well as ex-indentured Indians who engaged in trade. The first Arab trader to establish a shop in West Street was Aboobaker Amod. Between 1885 and 1886 the voters list for the Borough of Durban listed 33 traders, 12 of whom were Arabs, eight of them trading in West Street. Between 1887 and 1888 there were 48 traders, 19 Arabs and 14 residing in West Street. In 1894, 86 traders were listed, of whom 74 were Arabs and 39 of whom traded in West Street. Indian traders also rented and owned other valuable property in West Street which indicated that they were plying a fairly prosperous trade. Earlier, for example between 1885 and 1886, only one Indian trader owned property in West Street, namely Aboobaker Amod. Others soon followed. Moosa Hajee Cassim, a wealthy merchant and shipowner, rented premises in West Street between 1885 and 1891. However, by 1905 he became the sole owner of his premises at 456 West Street.8 Thus by the beginning of the twentieth century Indian traders or Arab stores had become a regular feature of Durbans economic landscape. A visitor described the shops along the north side of West Street in 1902 1903:
They are mostly clothing shops, or fruiterers kept by Indians all neat and clean. They have also spread east of Grey Street and there is one shop where Indian curios are sold, on the south side of the street. The other shops are kept by white people with ladies and gentlemen to serveOne meets only respectable Indians in the streets, generally Bombay men, who are evidently traders, as distinct from the coolies who mostly come from Madras, but a few from Calcutta.9
Internal Organisation and Pattern of Trade Indian trade in Natal can be characterised into three distinct categories: the established merchants, petty traders and hawkers. Collectively they formed the Indian commercial class. As merchants, petty traders and hawkers, their skills were reflected in their ability to diversify, integrate and specialise in their respective trades. This was clearly reflected in the trading patterns of the more established merchants who constantly embarked on new economic ventures. Apart from retailing and wholesaling, many took to real estate, shipping, importing and manufacturing. In addition, the structural organisation and patterns of trade are a clear reflection of the nature of Indian businesses: strong kinship ties and frugal mode of living.10 The pioneer traders were often representatives of major international companies who wanted to expand their business enterprises to Natal. Others (a small minority) who had sufficient capital opened up shops immediately or entered into partnerships with a relative or friend from the same village and often belonging to the same religion. A study of 28 Indian business partnerships formed between 1884-1900, shows that 17
30
belonged to Indians of passenger origin, namely Gujarati-speaking Muslims. In some instances partnerships were formed temporarily, often one partner later leaving the firm to establish a business of his own. Petty traders formed the core of the Indian commercial class in Natal. They generally arrived in the Colony when they were between the ages of 17 and 25, and served apprenticeships with an established firm for a few years, until they had saved enough capital to set up their own shops. Well-established traders who offered apprenticeships to prospective traders were Aboobaker Amod, Amod Bayat and Parsi Rustomjee. Caste and kinship ties played an important role in the employment and early organisation of Indian businesses. Top priority was always given to family members and friends who shared the same caste affiliation and village origin. The more established merchants were able to recruit skilled artisans under a contract system. In most cases contracts offered the individual medical, travelling and boarding benefits. The wages paid to employees often ranged from 30 shillings to 15 a month. White traders often complained about Indian business practices. For example, George L. Russell, a draper in Ladysmith, stated in 1905 that his business suffered due to strong Arab competition. He claimed that Arabs imported assistants from India and paid them between 3 and 4 a month. He added that juniors from India were paid 30 shillings per month while white traders were paying their assistants between 14 to 20 a month.11 Indian merchants were also criticised for the primitive method of bookkeeping of their business transactions. Books were drawn in either Gujarati and Urdu, the former predominating. The petty storekeeper was in the habit of keeping a cash book and a daily book to record transactions, while the larger merchants kept an invoice and a stock book. Books were drawn once a week or once a fortnight. The owner of the store usually dictated to the accountant what entries to make, especially if the latter was a non-Indian and who was not fluent in the Gujarati language. Colonial traders often accused Indian traders of resorting to illegal trading methods because of their non-compliance with proper bookkeeping methods. Subsequently, the Natal Government passed the General Dealers Licensing Act, which made it compulsory for all traders to keep their accounts in the English language. This placed severe restrictions on the petty Indian traders, who were not fluent in English and could not always hire a competent bookkeeper who was. Consequently, a considerable number of them were refused trade licences because of their inability to keep books in the approved way.12 While the petty traders formed the core of the Indian commercial class, the more established merchants were a tiny minority, often described as an lite group. They engaged not only in retailing and wholesaling of Indian and African goods but also diversified their trade by investing in real estate, shipping and by importing, as stated above. Those who headed the list of major importers were Dada Abdoolla and Co., Jalbhoy Sorabjee Bros, Moosa Hajee Cassim, Dada Osman and Aboobaker Amod. These merchants were representatives of major international companies which regularly supplied them with Indian groceries. For example, Ajum Goolam Hoosen and Co., a firm based in Mauritius, exported dholl, ghee, dates and haberdashery to their agent Aboobaker Amod fairly regularly after 1880. Moosa Hajee Cassim, another merchant, made regular trips abroad sourcing Indian goods.13 Importing Indian goods was essential, as many of these items could not be manufactured in Natal. Besides, these merchants knew precisely the preferences and customs of
31
the Indian people and used this knowledge effectively in their trading ventures in Natal. A witness stated at the Wragg Commission in 1885-87:
Their friends and partners in India can watch the market and purchase at the moment of greatest profit and advantage, they know the ways and habits of Indian immigrants and choose their stock by the aid of such knowledge. 14
The chief articles imported were dholl, ghee, rice, spices and other Indian condiments referred to as coolie stores in the list of general imports.15 Besides being major importers of goods, Indian merchants also took the role of money-lenders or local bankers. In 1908 an advertisement appeared in the Indian Opinion to the effect that loans were available against bonds, title deeds and other available securities. In East Africa, Indian merchants played a similar role by assisting European explorers in their expeditions, on occasion contracting to forward additional supplies of provisions and trade goods into the interior.16 Indian merchants also advanced money to family members and friends. Most often these loans were made to assist relatives or friends to set up their businesses. They were often extended on the basis of trust, with no legally binding documents. Failure to repay the debt often meant exclusion from the trade and credit network. The vast majority of Indian traders were general dealers, but a few specialised in certain types of trade. For example, the Gujarati-speaking Muslims in particular those who originated from Bombay and Surat specialised in Indian fabrics and clothing. Amongst them were Hoodamals, E. Aboobaker & Bros and M.C. Camroodeen & Co. For example, Hoodamal was a Mooltani silk merchant trading at 476 West Street. He stocked a large variety of Indian curios and fancy goods such as cashmere shawls, Chinese and Maltese silks, amongst other items. Aboobaker and Camroodeen dealt chiefly in the imported ladies and childrens clothing, namely hats, boots and underskirts. Others specialised in tobacco. For example, S.P. Mahomed & Co., Ebrahim Camroodeen and M.Sohner Peerum were tobacconists. They sold a variety of cigars, cheroots and perfumes. A few, such as N.M.A Karrim, O.N Mahomed & Co., and Suliman Essop, specialised in hardware and timber.17 Indian merchants, in particular the more established traders, also took to commercial advertising to promote and market their wares. As early as 1883, established merchants such as Dada Abdoolla & Co; Parsee Rustomjee and Aboobaker Amod, made their appearances in the Natal Almanac and Yearly Register. Others followed in 1890: Hajee Mahomed, Hajee Dada, Ismail Mamojee & Co. The circulation of local Indian newspapers at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as Indian Opinion, Al Islam, The Colonial Indian News and the African Chronicle, provided Indian merchants with an opportunity to advertise. Readership was mainly confined to local Indians as many of these newspapers appeared in the vernacular languages. Advertising in the early years was generally conservative, with adverts appearing in Gujarati and English, and at times Urdu. They simply stated the name and address of the company, and the type of goods for sale. Advertising space bought by petty traders was often no larger than the size of a match-box, but more established merchants placed larger, bolder adverts, and at times also printed the logo of their company as well as a picture of their premises.18 Competition and Conflict 18901914 The monopolisation of both the retail and African trade by Indian traders in the 1880s unleashed a wave of anti-Indian sentiment in Natal. It culminated in the passing of racial
32
legislation which aimed at curtailing the economic and political freedom of Indians in the province. This was possible once Natal had attained Responsible Government in 1893. (This was a stage of colonial development where the British Government granted a very large measure of self-government to the white inhabitants of the colony.) Several of the leading and pioneer Indian merchants viewed the constitutional change in Natal with great fear and anxiety. They were convinced that the Colonys government, now under the almost unfettered control of the white colonists, would place their trading rights and vested interests in jeopardy. In 1891 the Durban Indian Committee under the chairmanship of Hajee Dada was formed. The aim of the committee was to protect the economic interests of the Indian merchants. The committee petitioned the Colonial Office and officials in India, arguing that responsible government in Natal would do us incalculable harm.19 During the first parliamentary session under responsible government, legislation was passed that was to affect Indian commercial interests. In 1894, Act 22, Powers of the Municipal Corporations Bill was introduced to empower town councils to regulate sanitary conditions in Natals boroughs. Indian shops and residences came under severe scrutiny for being unwholesome and unsanitary. During a debate on the bill held 3 May 1894 Sir John Robinson, Premier of Natal stated:
It is notorious that the only parts of Durban that can be considered as being in an unwholesome or unsanitary condition are those parts which are more particularly occupied by Asiatic residents.20
However, in many ways Act 22 was used as a means of refusing trade licences to Indians on alleged sanitary grounds. This practice was later reinforced with the introduction of Act 18, the General Dealers Licences Amendment Law of 1897. This stipulated that local bodies such as the town councils or town boards would appoint an officer to issue licences to wholesale and retail dealers in the boroughs and townships. The licensing officer was bound to refuse to grant or renew a licence if the premises concerned did not comply with sanitary regulations and if the applicant was unable to fulfil the condition of the Insolvency Law no. 47 of 1887, which required account books to be kept in English. In addition, there was no right of appeal to any court of justice, if the licence was refused. The denial of the right of appeal was considered by Indian traders as an affront to their rights as British citizens. Even Natals prime minister Harry Escombe, one of the chief architects of this Act, found it difficult to justify this aspect of the legislation:
It would not be possible to pass this Bill without appearing to take away a part of the liberty of the subject, because the subject now had a right to a licence as a matter of course, and if this Bill were passed into Law, the subject would no longer have the right. He would only have that right if the licensing authority thought fit to grant it. This Bill interferes with the course of Law, because the Bill would be defeated in its objects if the Courts had jurisdiction.21
L.E. Neame, writing on the Act in 1907 in Asiatic Danger in the Colonies states:
Outwardly it carefully avoids class legislation, for in theory it applies equally to Europeans and Asiatics. But in practice it operates against the Indian storekeepers. No white man is refused a licence.in Durban; the Act had been admittedly utilised in order to prevent Indian merchants opening shops in the principal streets. The licensing officer is the servant body [sic] of white storekeepers. He knows their

views and whatever his personal opinion may be, he can hardly be expected to sacrifice his appointment by opposing those who employ him. As a protective measure to the white trader, the Act is valuable. From the standpoint of expediency the system may find supporters; in reality it is simply class legislation.22
33
The licensing law placed severe restrictions on Indian trade. Loss of a licence made it very difficult for a storekeeper to sell his business because there was no guarantee that the purchaser would be successful in acquiring a licence. Sometimes retail licences were granted for a limited period only in order to enable the applicant to sell off his goods. The plight of the Indian traders in Natal became so acute that the Indian government threatened to put a stop to the provision of indentured labour. Despite the threat Natal premier Albert Hime stated in 1903 that Arab traders posed a mortal danger to Natal which can never be a matter of indifference to a European population enjoying rights of Responsible Government.23 In the same year, the Natal government passed the Immigration Restriction Bill which was aimed at the Indian trading class. In the late 1880s and early 1890s there was an influx of passenger Indians into the Colony which to some extent alarmed the white colonists. In the course of six months from July 1896 to January 1897, 1 964 passenger Indians arrived. Between July 1894 and December 1895 4 432 indentured Indians arrived. Colonial agitation against these developments reached a climax with the anti-Indian demonstration of December 1896-January 1897 at the Durban dock area known as the Point. Gandhi was returning
Anti-Indian demonstration at the docks, Durban 1896. Many white colonists were concerned about continued Indian immigration and a demonstration was organised in order to stop further immigrants landing. Tempers flared and Harry Escombe, then a member of the cabinet who became prime minister the following year, mounted a pile of wood to address the crowd. Although the demonstrators eventually dispersed peacefully, M.K. Gandhi was subsequently assaulted as he made his way into town.
34
to Natal after a controversial trip to India. While in India, he had published a pamphlet titled The Grievances of British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public. Gandhi detailed the discriminatory policies of the Natal Government and the hardships of British Indians residing in the colony. When he attempted to disembark at the Point, together with other Indian passengers, he was met with resistance from colonists. The Point demonstration highlighted the growing hostility between the colonists and the free Indian population.24 Thus the Immigration Restriction Bill was an attempt to allay the colonists concern about the Asiatic invasion. The Bill required immigrants to have 25 and knowledge of a European language in its written form. The Bill to some extent hindered the development and expansion of Indian commerce because the language test made it difficult for Indian merchants to recruit assistants from India, as the latter were fluent only in Gujarati and had no knowledge of English. In addition the trading class made regular trips to India to connect with family and friends, but on their return they were forced to apply for domicile certificates.25 The position of the Indian trader deteriorated after 1905. In the post Anglo-Boer War period an economic recession hit Natal which coincided with an anti-Indian outburst. The battle cry was Down with the Indian trader. Public meetings were held throughout the colony calling for the more rigid application of the Licensing Act. In Pietermaritzburg, the Chamber of Commerce called upon the licensing officer to refuse all new licences and transfers. The most vociferous opponents of Indian trade were the numerous petty white traders who came into direct competition and were united in their agitation. Yet for a large section of the population, in particular indentured Indians and African labourers, the Indian trader with his low prices and variety of goods, in times of economic recession provided relief. In 1908 the Natal government introduced legislation aimed at fixing trade licences for 10 years, after which no licences would be granted. This was to affect primarily Indian traders. Fortunately for the Indian community the legislation was not approved by the British Colonial Office.26 In 1910 the colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, and the former Boer republics the Orange Free State and the Transvaal entered into a political Union, and fresh restrictions on Indian immigration and trade were to continue in the post-Union period. In 1913 the Union government passed the third Immigration Bill, aimed at restricting the Indian trading class. An immigrant could be excluded if he could not read and write in a European language. Domicile rights were lost after three years, only immigrants having domicile had the right of appeal to the Courts. The Indian trading community objected to the bill. Many recruited friends and relatives to work as clerks, managers and supervisors in their shops, and the majority of their assistants were not fluent in English. The Indian community protested by engaging in a massive passive resistance strike, which received widespread publicity in both India and London. The strike culminated in the passing of the Indian Relief Act in 1914. While this provided temporary relief, in that one wife and minor children of domiciled Indians were given residential status, the language test was still enforced.27 However, by 1914 the outbreak of the First World War did much to push the Indian question aside. Nevertheless, anti-Indian sentiment was still strong and the position of Indian traders deteriorated further.
35
1914 1950 During the First World War the Indian trading community of Natal assisted eagerly in the war effort. Both the established merchants and the petty traders contributed generously to war funds and made regular donations of food and clothing. The war inevitably created economic boom conditions with the influx of foreign troops and the rise in food prices. However, it also created a climate for unscrupulous Indian traders to monopolise basic food items, and rice in particular. They often became targets of petty white traders whose resentment unleashed another wave of anti-Indian feeling in the post-war period. This led to the appointment of the Asiatic Enquiry Commission of 1921, the findings and recommendations of which are important in that they dispelled the myth of the Asiatic menace. It argued that low standards were a matter of class and not race, and that Indian traders though they did undersell white traders benefited the consumer. However, despite these comments and findings, the Commission recommended voluntary segregation. The Nationalist and Labour parties Pact government which came to power in 1924 sought to act on that recommendation. It viewed the Indian community as aliens and a threat to white economic interests, and sought to restrict the entry of Indians into South Africa and to impose further trading and residential restrictions on domiciled and South African born Indians. It did this by introducing the Class Areas and Areas Reservation and Immigration and Restriction (Further Provision) Bills of 1924 and 1925 respectively. If enacted they would have legislated compulsory segregation of the races.28 Because in the post-Union period many established Indian traders had diversified their business activities to include shipping, real estate and manufacturing, such legislation would have been critical to Indian vested interests as it would have allowed Indians to lease and purchase immovable property only in demarcated areas. In addition, Indian traders were constantly at loggerheads with licensing officers who sought to restrict the issuing of new retail licences. Several crucial cases brought before the Natal Supreme Court bear testimony to this fact. However, the intervention of the Indian Government in 1927 prevented the bills from being enacted, much to the relief of the Indian community.29 The issue of compulsory segregation, however, resurfaced in the 1930s and 1940s. This was a response to the penetration of Indians into predominantly white areas that was supposedly taking place throughout Natal. When a few wealthy Indian merchants acquired or occupied property in such areas, whites denounced this and raised concerns over Indian penetration. In response, the government appointed the Broome Commission (under Mr Justice F.N.Broome). Its finding was that acquisition of property was based not on race but economic need. The more established Indian merchants were seeking alternative forms of investment, and purchase of immovable property was an important one. It affected only a small group of Indians as the vast majority of the Indian commercial class were petty traders and were not in a position to invest in property. A temporary solution was achieved in 1944, after a negotiated agreement whereby the more established Indian merchants showed a pragmatic willingness to accept some form of voluntary segregation, as long as their vested interests were not affected.30
36
Conclusion The arrival of the passenger Indians to Natal from the 1870s onwards laid the foundations of the Indian commercial class. They played an important role in developing and expanding Natals commercial network. The pioneer merchants not only laid the foundation of Indian commercial expansion and diversification, but also challenged the colonial economic system based on racial prejudice. The post-Union period was challenging, as the war had created new economic and social conditions. In their endeavours to survive, many succeeded while others sought alternative employment. Their position did not improve after 1948, as the Nationalist government adopted the apartheid policy, which further entrenched separation of the races. The Group Areas Act of 1950 was to create innumerable problems for Indian family businesses in the years that followed. Events in South Africa since 1950, and their effect on Indian South Africans in general and on Indian businesspeople in particular, form another important topic, but one which is beyond the scope of the present article. KALPANA HIRALAL
NOTES
1
3 4
5 6
7 8
10
11
12
13
14
15 16 17
S.Bhana and J.B.Brain, Setting Down Roots Indian Migrants to South Africa 1860 1911 (Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press), 1990. p.37. R.S Rungta, Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851 1900 (Cambridge University Press, 1970), p.164. M.Swan, Gandhi The South African Experience (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1985), p.3. University of Kwazulu-Natal (Westville Campus) (hereafter cited as UKZN), Makan Collection, 1237/16. Indian Opinion 10 December 1903, vol. 28; The Colonial Indian News, 28 June 1904, no. 8. M.W.Swanson, The Durban System: Root of Urban Apartheid in Colonial Natal, African Studies 35 (3 4), 1976, p.161. Swanson, ibid. p.418. Natal Government Gazette, 25 August 1885, XXXVII(2125), p.777; Natal Almanac and Yearly Register (henceforth NAYR), 1900, p.247. Statistics were compiled from the voters lists in the Government Gazette for the Borough of Durban between 1885 and 1908. C.H.Wyley, The Natal Dealers Licences Act of 1897 and the Conflict between Indian and White Capital in the Borough of Durban (BA Hons., University of Natal, 1986). p 13. Unpublished thesis. The South African Indian Whos Who and Commercial Directory, 1936 1937, vol. I, pp.371 8; D.P.Ghai and Y.P.Ghai, Asians in East Africa : Problems and Prospects, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3(1), 1965, p.37; K.Hiralal, The Natal Indian Trader A Struggle for Survival 1875 1910. MA, University of Durban-Westville, 1991). p.262. Unpublished thesis. K. Hiralal, ibid., pp.26572; J.S.Mangat, A History of Asians in East Africa c. 1886 to 1945 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969), p.15; Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, (hereafter cited as PAR), LU 78A, 1901: Port Shepstone minute papers 3/2/9; PAR, Natal Parliamentary Papers (NPP) 413, s.c. no. 4, 1905. UKZN (Westville Campus), Thaker Collection, 1107/324; PAR, Weenen Magistrates Records: Licensing Board Application[s] Note Book 1898 1904, B1/1. A.C.Kalla: The Gujarati merchants in Mauritius. 1850 1900, Journal of Mauritian Studies, 2(1), 1987, p.54; K. Hiralal, The Natal Indian Trader, p. 269; Whos Who, 1936 1937, vol. I, p.131. Y.A.Meer et al, Documents of Indentured Labour, Natal 1851 1917 (Durban, Institute of Black Research, 1980), p.391. The Colonial Indian News, 28 June 1901, no. 8. J.S. Mangat, Asians in East Africa, p.11; Indian Opinion, 22 February 1908. K. Hiralal , The Natal Indian Trader , p.289; Al Islam, 1907; Indian Opinion, 1906; NAYR, 1902; Indian Opinion, 1905.

18
37
19 20
21
22
23
24 25
26
27
28
29
30
NAYR, 1883; Indian Opinion, 1908; African Chronicle, 1908; The Colonial Indian News, 1901; K. Hiralal , The Natal Indian Trader, pp.292 295. M. Swan, Gandhi The South African Experience, pp.41 3 Duncan Leslie Du Bois, Sir John Robinson, The Mercury and the Indian Question in Natal 1860 1897. (MA, University of Natal, 1989). p.180. Unpublished thesis. Debates of the Legislative Assembly of the Colony of Natal, vol. XXII, 1894, p.83. Unpublished thesis. M.Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Vols. I XV. (Delhi, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1958 59), pp.334 5. (hereafter cited as CWMG). H.S.L.Pollak, The Indians of South Africa: Helots within the Empire and how they are treated (Madras, G.A. Nateson, 1909), pp.8 9. R.A.Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa: British Imperialism and the Indian Question 1860 1914 (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1971), p.227; PAR, LU78A, 1901. Port Shepstone minute papers 3/2/9. K.Hiralal, The Natal Indian Trader, p.342; CWMG, vol II, pp.271 7, vol. II, p.3. PAR, CSO, vol. 1500 no. 73/1897; M.Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (Ahmedbad, Navajivan Publishing House, 1928), pp.54 5; PAR, CSO, vol. 1522 no. 4799/1899, vol. 1537 no. 7897/1897, vol. 1801 no. 9272/1905; Immigration Restriction Department, vol. 63, 746/1906, vol. 84, 792/1910. PAR, CSO, Petition by Natal Indians Regarding their Position Under Closer Union; vol. 1878 no. 5595/1909; Indian Opinion, 9 November 1907; K.Hiralal, Indian Family Businesses in the Natal Economy 1890 1950 (PhD, University of Natal, 2000), pp.207 11. Unpublished thesis. Indian Opinion 8 July 1914; M. Swan, Gandhi The South African experience, p.210; Richard D.Keiser, The South African Indians Challenge to the Union and Imperial Governments, 19101919, South African Historical Journal, 13, 1981, p.83. Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on Areas Reservation and Immigration and Registration (Further Provision) Bill, 3 March 1926, pp.16 17; Hindi, 4 September 1925, 11 September 1925, 16 October 1925. K. Hiralal, Indian Family Businesses in the Natal Economy, pp.204 10; Mesthrie, From Sastri to Deshmukh, p.312; Indian Views, 18 February, 1938. Report of the Indian Penetration Commission, 1941, pp.63 4; Indian Views, 17 January 1941; K. Hiralal, Indian Family Businesses in the Natal Economy p.211.
38
A Horse, a Singer and a Prince
A Horse, a Singer and a Prince two busy months in the life of Pietermaritzburg
The intersection, in the life of a single city, of three very different characters, each come and gone in a matter of days, can spotlight the culture and milieu of that city in this case, Pietermaritzburg which the official record might miss. Of the trio of characters here recalled, one might say that the city was in a fair state of titillation well before the scheduled visits of the singer and of the prince, but that the horse only achieved fame in retrospect. In 2008, however, it is probably more widely known that a horse once won the Comrades Marathon than that Natal produced a singer who became something of a by-word in the twenties and thirties, the era of Ivor Novello. On April 7th 1925 The Natal Witness announced the imminent arrival in Natal of its girl-made-good, the mezzo-soprano Garda Hall. The paper cites the recent comment of one London critic that, for sympathy and warmth, I prefer her to Galli Curci. (In 1925, Amelita Galli-Curci was the diva par excellence the leading exponent of Italian coloratura, so this was no faint praise!) Accolades like this cast in a most unexpected light the former pupil of Girls Collegiate who had left Pietermaritzburg only five years before with the reputation (as became evident, when the school searched its records) of being consistently ejected from singing classes for singing out of tune. It must be admitted, of course, that if quantity of newsprint was anything to go by, Miss Halls home-coming was quite overshadowed by the scheduled visit of the heir to the British throne, Edward, Prince of Wales. When it became known that it would be in Maritzburg and Maritzburg alone that Edward would open an agricultural show on his tour, local excitement knew no bounds. Extraordinary claims were voiced and counter-voiced that the prince was a beef-farmer with a preference for shorthorns, that he was a dog-lover with a fixation on Welsh Terriers. One correspondent declared that it would be a definite and graceful act of loyalty to refrain from shaking the royal
Natalia 38 (2008), Bill Bizley pp. 38 48
39
hand, so as to save further strain on one who does not spare himself... (In fact, when Edward arrived in Cape Town after long tours of Canada and Nigeria, he was often seen to use his left hand in greeting.) A vulgar statistician promptly informed the Witness that, though the prince might indeed have performed a thousand handshakes at a single ceremony, President Coolidge had recently shaken hands with 1,869 people in 45 minutes, at the rate of 49 a minute. Nevertheless, for all this swelling royalist ardour, there was a discernible tremor of excitement when the Maritzburg public learned, on April 14th, that Garda Hall had arrived by mailship, and was staying with her South Africas best singer parents at Seecliffe, Winklespruit, prior to giving her and Maritzburgs very own, first concert in Durban. That event duly took place, said the Natal Witness of this and was greeted by the leading Durban critic with the portrait of Garda Hall, then announcement that her voice and artistry far exceeded in her mid-twenties. anything that I had been led to expect. Came April 22nd 1925 and Garda Halls homecoming to the city in which she had grown up and received her first music lessons. Curiosity was intense. In the words of the paper: those who remember the girl who left five years ago to seek training and fame in London will be able to judge for themselves as to the beauty of the voice that has found so much commendation amongst the London critics critics who are usually sparing in their praises and free with their criticism. A composite portrait begins to emerge in the run-up to the concert. Says one columnist: The question of Miss Halls birth place might well be called a Tale of Two Cities, for although she was born in Durban she came to Maritzburg when she was seven and lived in the city, receiving her education at the Girls Collegiate School, and her first lessons at the hands of local masters. (I suspect that, in 1925, even the most zealous mistresses would be called masters.) She departed, in her own words a very poor mezzo soprano, some five years ago. Apparently it was after only a year or two at the Royal Academy that her reputation began to spread. She has since then recorded success after success, until now when her services are in such demand that she has been, prior to her trip out here, singing at five or six concerts a week... Maritzburg was ready for a gala occasion, and a gala occasion it certainly got. On the morning papers front page, usually given to imperial and international news, a headline read Remarkable scenes at the Town Hall. A hall that was designed for 1 200 brimmed with 1 500 for the concert. Every seat was taken, the organ steps were crowded, and many had to stand. Bouquets were literally showered on the singer. She gave Maritzburg, said the paper, the greatest treat it has had for years. Next day came the more sober write-up by the regular columnist. Even he was pressed to say that he had never expected to see such a remarkable gathering. Leaders of society, music lovers, school girls, the man in the street who rarely goes to concerts in these days of the cinema all were there, awaiting the appearance of the young Maritzburg girl who has made good in London and has added to the laurels gained by South Africans in the worlds metropolis. Miss Hall launched the concert straight off
40
with an aria from Rigoletto, leaving the local critic marvelling at the tremendous work she must have done to attain the wonderful ease of production which characterises her singing. This critic (he signed himself Jongleur) certainly revelled in the occasion. Noting that Miss Hall had, besides an exceptional voice, a most attractive and winsome personality he added that the silence after her last note was not merely the negative of sound, it was a positive entity! The little Maritzburg orchestra was roundly appreciated by singer and audience alike, but, at the end of the concert, accompanied by piano only, she treated the audience to some lighter numbers. Amongst these were some of the songs that she went on to record with His Masters Voice in 1926 pieces that are somewhat dated, now, but still retrievable from the HMV archives.1 One has to say that, with the swishing background of 1920s 78s, the result can hardly be called the negative of sound! The voice that emerges, however, has remarkable clarity and brightness, and the singing is as much a tribute to Miss Halls elocution teacher as to anyone more musical. She brought the Maritzburg evening to a close with Poor Wandering One from The Pirates of Penzance.
Another Natalian who had recently created a stir over in London was the 42-year-old athlete and long-distance runner Arthur Newton, sometime Michaelhouse schoolmaster and then a farmer at Harding. Newton did not in fact run the very first Comrades of 1921, but his pre-eminence in the following years was so striking that he is today often cited as the father of the Comrades. After setting a new record for the up run in 1924, he travelled to England to test his prowess in the famous 52-mile London to Brighton roadrace. This certainly gave the Natal farmer a world stage. Not only did he set a new record for that event, but a new world-time for a distance of 50 miles, namely 5hrs, 53 mins and 43 secs. In those days the Comrades marathon was run on an ordinary working day in the last week of May, in this case the Monday before Empire Day. Needless to say the local readership, aware that it now had an international celebrity in its midst, speculated at length how Newton would fare in this, his fourth Comrades. Will Newton run on Monday? asked the headline on the Athletics page. Apparently he had developed a serious muscular strain in one leg, and would spend Sunday deciding whether he could start with the runners on Monday. His drill was to run, typically, 20 miles a day, or about 500 a month. This last month, however, he had only run 116 miles, and had shortly beforehand given up (said the agitated reporter) after merely two miles. We must remember that, in 1925, the Comrades race was itself only four years old, and all the present-day hype about the Comrades spirit was not yet part of the vernacular. Nevertheless Newton gave a hint of it when he declared that he would run even if he were not in 100% form. I should of course be beaten by several of the competitors but I am quite capable of enjoying the joke with the best of them. Came Monday morning, and mounting speculation as to what Newton would do. Early-morning trams were laid on to get supporters to the starting point. The fame of the race was already such that a large crowd (including, says the Witness, a large female contingent) huddled at the intersection of Church Street and Commercial Road to hear Mayor Sanders call out go on the last stroke of six.
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Off went the runners, Arthur Newton included. In 1925 there was no problem of the bunching of the field there were only twenty starters! The onlookers were beginning to disperse when, three minutes later, an extraordinary apparition advanced on the starting line. 67-year-old Mr George Cookman Robinson, farmer of Middlefield near Rietvlei, arrived atop a thoroughbred hunter, which he had appositely named Why Not. There had been no press forewarning of this variation, so it was hardly fair of the Mercury to report that: There appeared to be very little interest in this phase of the contest and the major portion of the crowd did not wait to see the horse start. What the Witness said was that the rider came past the Town Hall in the half light of dawn on a chestnut horse. The horse was very fresh and excited and was trying to make a faster pace than the rider wanted. Farmer Robinson (a descendant, by the way, of the first editor of the Natal Mercury, George Edgecombe Robinson) had apparently been provoked by the claim that Newton would kill a horse. He had decided to give Why Not some training sessions on his farm in the previous months. (It is not recorded whether Why Not was so called before he was chosen for this historic mission.) Mr Robinsons unusual entry in the field had the support of the Comrades organiser, Mr. Vic Clapham, whose stipulation was simply that the horse should start after the runners so as not to increase the bunching. In 2008 we should not be patronising about the times that were achieved in the Comrades of those days. In 1925 the road from Maritzburg to Durban was almost completely untarred to the extent that Newton, at one point, couldnt see 20 feet in any direction on account of the dust. In those days, too, the hour-by-hour state of the race could only be gauged by faint messages from party-line telephones that were strung along the route. First reports indicated that the horse had covered the first 22 miles in two hours and was well ahead of the runners. From Drummond came the news not only that the horse was ahead of leader Harry Phillips, but that Phillips himself was a mile ahead of Newton. With time in hand at Drummond, Why Nots owner gave the horse a good rub-down and permitted a bottle of stout to be added to its water. This, said the spectators, must have been of very fine quality, judging from the animals performance thereafter... (In the light of modern Athletics, I wonder whether Why Not would have passed a drugs test.) As it turned out, Why Not came into Durban a good 80 minutes before Newton. It would not have been known, at that point, that the human runner was running his fastest Comrades ever, setting a record that was not surpassed for another 12 years. The singular eruption of Mr Robinson on his horse in the streets of Durban was too early to cause a stir. There was no applause for the valiant horse says the Mercury, for the Durban crowd was not yet even lining up for the runners. In fact, if one sizes up the newsprint that was spent on the occasion, it seems the equine victory might well have been forgotten if Newton himself had not made a feature of it. Newton came in at 6 hrs 24 mins 31 minutes better than his down record of two years earlier, and 40 minutes ahead of the lagging Harry Phillips. (One must again recall the condition of the road in those days only eight runners came in in under nine hours.) The Durban crowd may not have been ready for Why Not, but they certainly were ready for Arthur Newton. Even the workmen busy building the new Stuttafords in West Street stopped their labours to cheer him through. Says the Mercury: there was little doubt amongst the spectators that they were watching the worlds greatest long-distance
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Why Not looks as breezy as ever posing next to his owner, George Cookman Robinson, and (far right) the man he beat on the 1925 down run, the famous Arthur Newton. The Esplanade statue of Dick King provides an appropriate backdrop. runner. On reaching the finishing line Newton made what today would be the thoroughly incorrect gesture of asking for a pipe. When no pipe was available he settled for a cigar. What was particularly gracious about this modest hero was that he then sought out Mr Robinson and his fresh-as-a-daisy horse, in order to shake the riders hand. The photograph that survives is a family treasure; in the local press there was no photograph at all. It must have been taken next day, with a much recovered Arthur Newton in a suit, a stern Mr Robinson in his jodhpurs and riding boots, and Why Not looking as fresh as a bottle of stout might have made him. The photograph, you notice, has been taken, appropriately, in front of the statue of Natals epic horse-ride hero, Dick King. Three other amazing things about Arthur Newton in 1925: in June he and a Mr Henriksen pushed a heavy wood-and-brass government measuring wheel all the way from the Maritzburg Town Hall to the Durban Town Hall to establish the exact distance of the Comrades race: 54 miles and 670 yards. Then in August Newton settled any doubts as to his world-class status by running solo to Durban, beating his own Comrades record with a time of 6 hrs and 14 mins, and setting, along the way, three new world records for 30, 40 and 50 mile distances. But the strangest item in the Newton story comes out in a letter to the Witness that he wrote shortly thereafter. It transpired that Newton had an ulterior motive in drawing public attention to himself, and one that had nothing to do with long-distance running. He wanted to protest against the injustice he believed
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he was suffering having his farmlands near Harding expropriated by the state. For all the lustre of his name he did not win this particular battle, and he left Natal that year to settle in Bulawayo.
But now the likes of Arthur Newton and Garda Hall rapidly took back-page status as the city prepared to entertain Edward, Prince of Wales. One must remember that the readers of the Witness were now living under the Nationalist Party/Labour Party Pact government of General Hertzog. Their birthright confidence in the power and ambience of Empire was considerably under strain. General Hertzog was diplomatic enough to send a telegram to HMS Hood as it steamed down the west coast, assuring the prince of South Africas warmest welcome. (If we talk of the ambience of empire here, it is indicated, for example, in the Witnesss casual mention that Maritzburgs Show Week would see the opening, at Scotts Theatre, of a show then playing in Londons West End, Clothes and the Woman, starring Iris Hoey. The ambience of 1925 can be sampled in various Witnesses and Mercurys for these months. Glancing through the fashion pages one finds endless attention to the latest feminine styles, complete with instructions how to bob ones hair with that familiar 1920s curl forwards at both sides of the chin. (Readers were not concerned, apparently, with the news that, at the University of Vienna, some bobbed female students were thrown off campus, because the look was a Jewish invention.) On the motor-car pages one is quite astonished at the range of cars that were then locally available not just Fords and Austins but the Paige-Jewett, the Bean, the Oakland, the Durant, the Rugby, the 8-cylinder Hupmobile, the Italian Ansaldo, the Willys-Knight, the Maxwell and so on. (Studebaker boasted that their Duplex could be converted from an open to a closed saloon in 30 seconds, simply by raising a hood.) The cheapest car was the Gray at 235 this in an era when the cheapest voyage to England from Durban cost 30. (A BSA bicycle cost ten guineas 10 10s, so the boat-fare was about three times the cost of a standard bicycle.) In 1925 the technological breakthrough that unified the imperial audience was not the petrol engine but radio the wireless as it was referred to for decades to come. Such being the state of technology, the Witnesss readers had every hope that they would hear Edwards first words when he stepped ashore at Cape Town on April 30th. Next days paper of May 1st shows huge crowds gathered outside the Witness offices in Longmarket Street, all poised for a technological breakthrough. The princes voice was to be relayed by telephone all the way from Cape Town to Durban, and from that point radioed up to Pietermaritzburg. One imagines someone holding a telephone receiver near the dais where HRH stood, and then a long succession of manual exchanges all the way to Natal, bringing the long-awaited voice to its patriotic audience. The Witness had no hesitation in calling it the worlds longest telephone relay, and crowds gathered in such proportion that Longmarket Street had to be closed to vehicular traffic. Alas! the princes voice, in its local rendering, was all but inaudible, and one had to rely more on good faith to hear him than on radio technology. However, on May 5th a letter to the paper informed Maritzburg that if the crowd had only moved to Burger Street, two blocks away, it would have got much better reception! Thats how critical tuning was in those days a different result from street to street. What Burger Streets
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superior reception revealed, however, was a hitch in the worlds longest telephone relay, and that of a very human variety. Said the Burger Street correspondent:
Everybody was on the tip-toe of expectation. First came the Mayor of Cape Towns speech, delivered like a parson at a grave-side, and which must have reduced the prince to tears. And then the Durban broadcaster intervened to say that in a minute or two we would hear the prince speak. Will it be a tenor voice? Its not likely to be a bass. He is a little man, probably a boyish baritone. Will he have the Eton drawl?
And then, at the height of expectation, what should happen but that a conversation started up between two remote telephone exchanges, one male, the other female. When are you coming up? Oh, Im going away on Tuesday... Really! Wish I was going... To the great frustration of the gathered audience this went on for some minutes, until somebody at last plugged in the correct connection, and the loyal subjects got to hear the final words of the princes speech. Fortunately, their effect was reassuring. Says our Burger Street radio-phile: We heard sufficient to decide that the timbre of the voice is a good, strong, incisive baritone, not a throaty tenor and with nothing boyish about it... As for the humble technician who had inserted the wrong plug: Personally, I feel that ordinary murder would be much too light a punishment... Through the month of May the Witness readership was far too busy following the princes marathon through the Union of South Africa to celebrate the horses marathon of the same month. What became evident, during this royal progress, was that the diplomatic prince wooed the Afrikaans section of the country as much as the English, and made an unexpectedly large impression on the black population, which often turned up in numbers larger than any white contingent in order to see him. At Umtata 30,000 Xhosas turned out, and a Witness leader, a little anxious about Edwards preference for casual lounge suits, advised that the opportunity should not be lost for the immense impression made on the native mind by the appearance of the prince and his staff in the full panoply of war. At Bethlehem, on his way down to Natal, he noticed a native tin whistle band gathered on the platform, and asked them to play to him. The ensuing cacophony obliterated the fact that this was a rendering of God Save the King, so no-one stood to attention. Eventually Edward reached Natal. He was lionised in Durban (as witness the famous incident when, introduced to the pupils of Durban Ladies College, he said, But these arent ladies, theyre just young girls, upon which the school promptly changed its name to the Durban Girls College). Soon the special train took him to Eshowe, capital of Zululand. Quite a literature could be amassed about this particular visit. Fifty thousand Zulus assembled there for the dance of a lifetime, and there was a sort of running ambiguity as to whether it was Edward, Prince of Wales, or Solomon, King of the Zulus, who was actually the drawcard. In 1925 Solomon owned four cars, each one driven by a white chauffeur. At Eshowe he arrived in a blue open saloon with leopardskin seats grander than anything the sugar barons produced for the prince! Letters criss-crossed after the Eshowe visit, some blaming the whites for exceptional rudeness during the praise-oratory of the Zulus, and others complaining of Solomons taunting disposition, almost flicking a whisk directly at the prince. Incidentally, railway aficionados will be interested to learn that we nearly lost the Imperial heir as the royal train coiled down the hills from Eshowe to the coast. Apparently
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the bogey of the second-to-last coach became derailed. Fortunately the train was moving so sedately that it could rapidly be halted. The whole entourage thereupon trans-shipped to the pilot train ahead. That evening the prince calmed all nerves by having a smokers concert on the train, making available his own ukelele for the festivity.
Meanwhile the question as to what to do with the prince when he arrived in Maritzburg was raising considerable controversy. A letter of 19th May, written by no less a personality than one of the citys top physicians, Dr Oddin-Taylor, expressed shock and dismay at the discovery that there was a plan afoot to send Edward down Commercial Road to open the Royal Show in a ricksha. Dr Oddin-Taylor found the idea quite intolerable:One can hardly imagine anything which could be more likely to create an extremely bad impression amongst the natives than that they should see their future king being treated in this facetious manner... He was supported next day by Mr Roy Hathorn who said it was like the unthinkable idea of the King being asked to ride a bicycle in a State procession. The Witness confirmed that the ricksha proposal, so far from being dropped, had received official sanction, and had been submitted to the prince. It transpired that the applicant was the Students Representative Council of Natal University College. They were much impressed by the fact that the University of Cape Town Rag committee had put the prince on an ox-wagon for his triumphal ride into Cape Town a festivity which he seemed to enjoy. The Witness was assured that the rag would not have the boisterous elements usual on such occasions, and would simply be a procession of decorated rickshas. The hauling of the princely ricksha would be deputed to the most picturesque ricksha-man of the day, rather unfortunately named Whisky. (Another version was that the students themselves would do the pulling. It seems that the word students had the same effect then as it has today. One reader growled: If such a thing is attempted, I hope doctors will line the route...) For all those first reactions, the SRCs idea seemed to be well on the way to success. On May 25th a letter from the princes entourage announced that he had agreed to the rag on Thursday the 11th. This gave the Natal Witness excellent opportunity to encourage a major debate. On May 26th a column appeared: What the Public Thinks. What surprises us all these years later is the class feeling that was evident in this debate. Says one correspondent, referring back to Messrs. Oddin-Taylor and Hathorn, Both letters savour too much of the Victoria Club...The prince is not out here on a state procession. He has had enough of the stiff-back business at home...I feel the ricksha ride will have more lasting and more pleasing recollections for him than a ride in anyones motor car. In the same vein there was a colourful pronouncement from G. Scott-Riddell of Howick.
Our dear old Maritzburg still contains some specimens of the now happily obsolete and small-minded person, the snob, for none but a snob could possibly see anything undignified or unseemly in the picturesque ricksha, pulled by a picturesque and not unworthy member of a very fine race...A well got-up ricksha puller is as pretty and interesting a character as the world holds, and to be drawn by human hands surely is a greater tribute than a merely mechanical or commonor-garden motor car...
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So the ideological battle raged until as late as June 6th, only a few days before the princes arrival. On that day, however, the Rag Committee wrote to the paper to say that an unfortunate contretemps has arisen and permission has been refused the students to process in the streets...We have no alternative but to abandon the project. (One suspects that if Edward, Prince of Wales, had arrived at the Maritzburg Showgrounds in a ricksha, the city would have earned a little more glory in the immortality stakes...) Edwards subsequent biography has tended to sour the memory even of his successful years as the travelling servant of the Empire. There was no doubt that, in terms of immediate report, Natal simply glowed in proximity to the prince. It seems he was perfectly aware of the diplomacy that 1925 demanded. For instance, he said in his speech when he arrived: Here in Maritzburg you have the proud traditions of those splendid Voortrekkers whose tracks I have been following very closely ever since I left Cape Town. He had (he said) been in Natal for just over a week and could hardly ask us to accept him here as a Natalian so soon, but the hospitality he had received encouraged him to believe that, at any rate, he was no stranger amongst us. (Cheers). He said he was under handicap and had to get many of his impression of this marvellous country from the train, but one week in Natal such as he had experienced and he had travelled through the glorious scenery of the Drakensberg and through the gorgeous country between Durban and Maritzburg had been enough for him to realise why this Province was called the Garden Colony... On the public dais he seemed to touch just the right note. Even when he got to the Show on Thursday the 11th, he realised that his job was to import the imperial perspective. Natal farmers were part of a nation especially when the animals exhibited come from all parts of the Union, and are representative of some of the finest herds and flocks in the country... But the nation itself was part of a larger whole. The markets opened to them by the Empire must lead to no complacency: The development of the unpopulated spaces of this vast land demands that the most up-to-date machinery and methods should be used, if you are to compete successfully with farmers in other countries... It was often remarked during the 1925 visit that the demeanour of the prince was a slightly sad one. In uniform he did not cut an upright dashing figure, but took on the slightly bowed form of the humble servant. Like many 1920s personalities, a doubleedge was discernible between a jazz-age love of life after a horrific war, but, on the other hand, an appreciation of the sacrifice that had made this good life possible. So when Edward doffed his endless set of uniforms, he became a very focused polo-player, and, for the female faction of his vast audience, a lounge-suited glamour-boy (slightly assisted by built-up shoes). To quote the gossip columns, he was an exceptionally versatile dancer with a variety of steps. He is said to have a preference for the toddle, a step he probably picked up in America... On the Wednesday evening of Show Week, Pietermaritzburg hosted no fewer than three dances on the same evening the Administrators official Grand Ball at the Town Hall, the Railways and Harbours Ball at the Masonic Hall, and a Regimental Ball at the Sons of England Hall. Edward was guest of honour at the first, but to the delight of the town he called in on all three, and danced with partners that (says the paper) he himself selected. The Witness had a field day collecting various womens comments: Hes a darling; Every look is a thrill. Perhaps Maritzburg did not field quite the feminine devotion of the Durban schoolgirl whose glove he had kissed, and who
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thereafter allowed her friends to queue up and kiss it for days afterwards... The Oddfellows ball was the least formal, and it was reported that he mingled with the dancers and thoroughly enjoyed his 40 minute stay. During one of the dances it was noticed that the prince was singing with great gusto It aint gonna rain no more , and he especially complimented the orchestra, and asked for each member to be presented... But the thrill of being suddenly singled out by Prince Charming occurred at the Administrators ball. Here one Zo Rawlinson, a secretarial assistant in the town, was moving from partner A to partner B between dances. Suddenly there was a touch on her arm, and there was the heir apparent asking her for the next dance. (Needless to say, partner B didnt stand a chance.) She said to reporters next day that they had three dances during which he made her feel completely at ease with his excellent dancing and relaxed chatter. He danced a number of original steps I had never danced before. One notices that Edward was, again and again, capable of putting a company at ease. After the various dances he would stroll out to the corridors, smoking and smiling while he smoked. Whilst dancing with Miss Rawlinson, he went over to the band and asked for Show me the way to go Home (a loaded request?) which he was fond of dancing to. The mythology that subsequently grew up around Edwards visit certainly had some less flattering reports but, while it was on, Maritzburg revelled in it. Even as the prince left the town a signalman at the Maritzburg North signal cabin called out to him as the train slowly passed You must be glad, sir, it is all over. No, said the prince with a beaming smile, I am rather sorry. O, no, you cant be... Yes, I am very sorry, said the prince. And with that the train steamed off to Merrivale, where he won favour with a huge crowd of Howick schoolchildren by getting their headmaster to agree to a half-holiday.
Meanwhile Maritzburg, with hardly time to draw breath, knew that in the midst of these imperial excitements, Garda Hall would be giving her second and final concert at the end of Show Week. So there was Clothes and the Woman from the London West End at Scotts Theatre, there was the itinerant prince calling in at various civic balls, there was Boswells Circus, doing its regular showtime routine, and there was also the travelling piano impresario Mark Hambourg a sort of Liberace of his day all vying for public attention. But meanwhile there was Garda Hall. It was not only in her home province that she had been garnering rave reviews. The Rand Daily Mail for June 11th reported: Miss Halls voice is sheer allurement of timbre, and in clarity and flexibility is one of the most remarkable heard in a local concert hall for many years. Big arias like Delibes Bell Song and Verdis A fors a lui held every vocal distinction... A strange notice appeared in the Witness for June 9th saying that Garda Hall would love to meet old friends in country districts with a view to giving private renditions. Interested parties should contact JE Hall of Halls Motor Works.2 That she could yet again fill the Town Hall at the end of this momentous week is no small testimony. As columnist Jongleur reported, In spite of all the other festivities of the week, and the consequent state of exhaustion prevalent amongst most people, the Town Hall seating capacity was filled to the uttermost... From Jongleur, however, we
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get the first suggestion that, though the charming presence and manner is still there, and that the beautiful lilting phrases in her Verdi are pure joy to listen to, Maritzburgs golden girl might peak a little earlier than her sunny career promised. This comes out in his report on the Delibes Bell Song: one felt that, owing to the cold weather, the artist did not produce this with as great a success as she is wont... He goes on:
It seems a hard-hearted thing to say, but one could almost wish some sorrow to befall the artist, that she may be able to sound the depths of life and so gain that sympathetic timbre which is all that is needful to make her a really great singer. The gifts are there, but the experience of life has not yet come to her. It would be foolish to press the hand of fate, so at present we may revel in the joyous youth of her singing...
So the cold June wind was not the real problem or was it in fact a touch of ice in Miss Garda Halls voice that was her real talent? She ended the concert with the minor ditty, Soft-footed Snow by Signidi Lei, ... a gem of music, says Jongleur, glistening with the coldness of snow and ice. It suited Miss Halls voice to perfection... Garda Hall returned to London to be taken up by His Master Voice, and to become a top soprano, very much in demand on the oratorio circuit. How she teamed up with Webster Booth for Coronation concerts at the accession of not Edward VIII but George VI belongs to another story. But Jongleur of The Natal Witness was eventually proved correct. A few recorded ditties in the HMV archives give evidence of a delightfully fresh but essentially light voice, and Garda Halls career was soon to be narrowed by the huge events of 1939 1945, when it was the lot of the singer to be the public entertainer rather than the rising star. On the Webster Booth website (expertly maintained by the Johannesburg musician Jean Collen) one learns that Garda Hall did survive the war, and is last mentioned in a Musicians Whos Who gardening at her London flat in the late forties. At least the Collegiate schoolgirl accrued enough in her concert life to live in comfort, even if she never quite displaced Amelita Galli-Curci. BILL BIZLEY
NOTES 1. The author is particularly grateful to Andr de Swart for his research in the London EMI studios, and the transcription on to CD of three of these ditties. 2. In 2005, the family of the present AG Hall group, seem not to be connected with the Hall that I, as a schoolboy cyclist, would have associated with Halls Cycle Works, the predecessor to Jowetts Cycles. So what connection Garda Hall had to JE Hall of Halls Motor Works I cannot trace.
Bhambathas Family Tree
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Bhambathas Family Tree: Oral Evidence, New And Old

The Importance of Bhambatha kaMancinza
Reinstatement and a new history Bhambatha kaMancinza, previously well known in KwaZulu-Natal as the leader of a rebellion against colonial rule, has now become officially a figure of importance in South Africas heritage. On Sunday, June 11, 2006, a large crowd assembled near Greytown, in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, for a half-days celebration entitled Saluting our heroes: reinstating Inkosi Bhambatha, the culminating event of a series which had begun in April and collectively called the Bhambatha Centenary Commemoration. The president of the Republic of South Africa, the premier of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, the king of the Zulu nation, and other public notables were there. The president, Thabo Mbeki, laid a special wreath at the Bhambatha monument, near Ambush Rock at Mpanza. The celebration then moved to the Mpanza Sports Field, where the important personages spoke briefly. The minister of communications then presented a commemorative postage stamp and the premier, Sibusiso Ndebele, and the king of the Zulu nation, Goodwill Zwelithini, handed over the certificate of reinstatement of the inkosi which the Natal colonial government had deposed in 1906. The keynote address by the president followed, and the celebration ended with a luncheon and musical entertainment.1 A week later a Youth Day rally, also near Greytown, carried forward the Bhambatha theme.2 In September the president awarded Bhambatha the Order of Mendi for Bravery in Gold, for bravery in leading a rebellion against the repressive laws of the colonialist government and for laying down his life for the cause of justice.3 Meanwhile, the provincial premiers office and department of education gave prominence to Bhambatha and others in the rebellion in a series of newspaper supplements aimed at schoolchildren.4 The premiers office also employed a popular playwright for the staging of 1906 Bhambada The Freedom Fighter, a musical which ran for ten days in the provincial capital, Pietermaritzburg.5 Two other musicals without government financial backing had shorter runs in the port city, Durban.6
Natalia 38 (2008), P.S. Thompson pp. 49 68
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Subsequently the schools history series was published by the local university press as Remembering the Rebellion.7 The centenary elicited only one other book, published without fanfare and without official recognition, Freedom Sown in Blood: Memories of the Impi Yamakhanda: An Indigenous Knowledge Systems Perspective.8 The Indigenous Knowledge Systems perspective of the new history Freedom Sown in Blood was the product of three years field work by a research team of the University of KwaZulu-Natal among the Ngome section of the Zondi clan at Mpanza. Professor Yonah Seleti, an historian with the University of KwaZulu-Natals Campbell Collections, obtained a grant of R400 000 from the National Research Foundation for an Indigenous Knowledge Systems project, Commemoration of the Bhambada uprising of 1906: a research agenda and a quest for an indigenous knowledge system framework.9 The book was edited by Seleti and fellow academics Thenjiwe Magwaza and Mpilo Pearl Sithole. The latter, with Nelson Zondi, grandnephew of Bhambatha, wrote a chapter, Genealogies of the Royal AmaZondi of Ngome.10 There is much of interest in this unique book, which contains nine chapters, four of them on methodology and interpretation, two on artifacts, two on women, and one on genealogy; however, there is no chapter which narrates the experience of the abaseNgome in the rebellion, an omission which the editors never explain. The book is closely tied to the government-sponsored Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme in arts and sciences.11 Professor Seleti lays great stress on the Indigenous Knowledge Systems framework in the first chapter of the book,12 and the book is strong on their ostensive methods and interpretation. It is not a history book. It tells us nothing about the causes and course of the rebellion at Mpanza and little that makes sense about the effects of the rebellion. There is little narration by the local people. Dr Magwaza mentions that seventy-six people were interviewed, thirty-four of them intensively. The stories of the seventeen men about the rebellion13 who presumably were quite willing to talk,14 one of them apparently quite knowledgeably15 are not given at all in the text. A handful of stories from the twenty-one16 women are used, but they are practically useless for historical purposes. While much that is positive has been done to promote the recovery, preservation and even amplification of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in the past few years,17 there is a problem between previously recorded history and indigenous knowledge qua oral history. Oral history is most useful with respect to recent events, especially in the case of living memories. Oral history of a time beyond the reach of living memory, when it is consolidated and repeated for a relatively long period, becomes oral tradition. Yet consolidation and repetition do not make it immutable. Collective memory can be fickle. What seems to be fixed in the communal mind can change according to political or religious imperatives. The main story is twisted and the erosion of details makes it simpler.18 This seems to be the case with much that happened in the traumatic rebellion or uprising of 1906. The purpose of the present article is to compare earlier and more recent statements about the descent and family of the rebel inkosi, in order to establish which are probably correct. It will necessarily reflect on the practice of oral history, as linked in this case to IKS. Examples of the defectiveness of memory will become obvious.
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Fixing the royal genealogy Let us now turn to inkosi Bhambatha and his family tree, and focusing on the third chapter of Freedom Sown in Blood, entitled Genealogies of the Royal AmaZondi of Ngome. A Cambridge-educated anthropologist,19 Mpilo Pearl Sithole, and a grandnephew of Bhambatha and whilom regent of the Ngome people,20 Nelson Zondi, combine their knowledge and expertise to fix the succession and describe the family of the new national hero. This is the first time that Bhambathas genealogy has been the subject of a separate study and an attempt has been made to delineate his ancestry. Considering the prominence which Bhambatha now enjoys, this achievement is both noteworthy and praiseworthy. Zondis role is of great importance. He and Sithole state: [O]ur indigenous perspective-sensitive approach involves writing with indigenous people the people at the heart of the story. In this chapter we occasionally highlight the voice of Nelson Zondi, a royal Zondi of Ngome. This happens in sections where specific recollections or experiences are recounted. . . . Otherwise this chapter constitutes a joint project, in terms of mutual interpretation, planned layout and focus.21 Zondi himself states: Being a descendant of Funizwe, Bhambadas brother, I, Nelson Zondi, know the core genealogy of amakhosi of amaZondi backwards, from the current inkosi to Zacela. My knowledge derives from the fact that Funizwe, my grandfather, brother of Bhambada, was inkosi from the 23rd of February 1907 to 1950 The political dynamics of the Zondi, that were partly a result of the Bhambada-led Impi Yamakhanda, were such that the genealogy, particularly that of the royal house, was well known.22 According to the official IKS policy [t]raditional leaders are the formal custodians of the customary values of the communities, which are historically and constitutionally entrusted to them. The existence of traditional leadership in the development process of IK is therefore significant. In fact, no IKS development strategy will work if indigenous and local communities and their leaders are not directly and actively involved.23 It would seem, by his own profession, that, apart from the present inkosi and perhaps a few (unnamed) others, Nelson Zondi pretty much fills the rle of the traditional leadership. He will speak and he does speak with authority on the genealogy. It seems unlikely anything in the chapter could have passed muster without his approval, and this is particularly so in the case of lineage and succession. In other words, he functions as the group or collective memory. If so, then the Ngome collective memory is subsumed in what V. R. Yow calls official memory.24 But is the genealogy presented in the projects book actually correct? The information contained in their chapter is at variance with information recorded earlier, in colonial documents and a few books which have appeared based on contemporary research. Let us now turn to them. ORAL EVIDENCE, OLD AND NEW Documents and the orality of yesteryear Information on the subject of Bhambathas lineage and family was collected separately and independently by Father Arthur Bryant, Magema Fuze, and James Stuart almost a hundred years ago. Fuzes first appeared in 1922, and has been recently translated as The Black People and Whence They Came: A Zulu View (Pietermaritzburg, University
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of Natal Press, and Durban, Killie Campbell Africana Library, 1979). Bryants was published in Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London, Longmans Green, 1926). Stuarts remained in manuscript until published in The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1976 ongoing). None of the works pays particular attention to Bhambatha, although Stuart has much to say about him in A History of the Zulu Rebellion 1906 (London, Macmillan, 1913), presumably based on knowledge from his acquaintance with Bhambathas brother Funizwe and other members of the abaseNgome in 1906.25 In addition to the above there is information on the abaseNgome in the colonial government reports on chiefs and chiefdoms published in 1853.26 More information is found in the colonial records, housed in the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository; however, these references are very scattered among the records groups of the Secretary for Native Affairs and the Colonial Secretarys Office, and, in so far as they pertain to the trial of Dinuzulu, of the Attorney Generals Office and the Registrars of the Supreme Court.27 A comparison of the two sets of sources Let us consider these documents, published and unpublished, in comparison with what Sithole and Zondi have recorded. The object is to note where the two source sets disagree, and then to try to explain why. In so doing I shall follow the sequence of the Sithole-Zondi chapter, referring to the chapter subheadings Zondi Amakhosi in History, The House of Sondaba amongst other Segments, Mancinza Consolidates Sondabas Legacy, and Bhambada: The Fighter for the Zondi and Nguni Legacy. I shall not deal with the Ngome succession after Bhambatha. As far as possible I shall use the terms and spellings of the chapter. There are two notable and noticeable exceptions: the use of Bhambatha instead of Bhambada, which latter name, it is suggested in the books glossary, is ahistorical,28 and the avoidance of the royal in describing the Ngome ruling house.29 Zondi Amakhosi in History and The House of Sondaba amongst other Segments Sithole and Zondi give the Zondi succession 30 Zondi NoNdaba Gagashe Luqa Nhlabushile Zacela Nomagaga Magenge Sondaba Jangeni (= Mancinza) (mother MaMyeza) Magwababa (mother MaMyeza) Bhambada (mother MaPhakade) 1904 1906 Funizwe (mother MaPhakade) 1907 1950
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After Nhlabushile the amaZondi divided into four groups, of which Zacelas lived at Ngcengeni at Nathi. Subsequently the senior house of the Zondi it is not stated, but presumably it is Zacelas house moved to Mkhabela, leaving the junior house under the induna Phungula at Nathi. When amaBomvu began to move into the Nathi area, the induna Vaphi reported it to the royal houses of Zondi and Sondaba, and Sondaba returned to Nathi, apparently with his own people and some of the other house, while the rest of the senior house went to KwaMachibisa (which they named Nadi) at Pietermaritzburg, Sondaba did not stay long at Nathi, but moved KwaMhlamvunkulu.31 The junior house of Mashobane remained at Nathi and eventually became incorporated under the political patronage of amaBomvu.32 Sondaba established his major homestead eNdabuko at KwaNhlamvunkulu. It is at eNdabuko that the amaZondi of Ngome begin their separate historical journey, for, it is implied, Jangeni was born there.33 Also mentioned at this stage is a Zondi tradition that the third wife of an inkosi often was lobolad by the isizwe, and for that reason bore the heir.34 The published accounts reflect a different procession. Fuze states, in The Black People (1922), that the Ngome was the Zondi junior house, following the Nadi and Mphumuza clans.35 His line of descent is 36 Dlaba Magenge Jangeni Mancinza Bambada Bryant suggests, in Olden Times in Zululand and Natal, that the Zondi and Nxamalala peoples were Sotho immigrants, who settled in proximity in the Nadi and Thukela river valleys. The abakwaZondi were also called the abaseNadi, under Nomagaga, [the son] of Ntsele. Both clans were subjugated by Shaka. Subsequently the Zondi clan broke up. A portion of it went to Zululand. Another portion allied with the abaseNxamalala. Yet another became the abakwaMpumuza, who lived at the confluence of the Mpofana and Mpanza rivers. The amaNxamalala fled from Dingane, and some lodged at Zwartkop, near the future Pietermaritzburg, but the majority were overtaken and brought back. The Zondi remnant, under Jangeni, son of Maqenge, had their land taken by white farmers. There is an implication that they have may moved away then, but whither they might have gone is not mentioned. About this time a sub-clan of the abakwaMpumuza, called the abakwaMadlala, moved to near Table Mountain. Sondaba is mentioned only as the son and heir of Siguqa of the amaNxamalala but then it is suggested they might be one and the same person, who was given to Shaka as a hostage and died on campaign without leaving an heir.37 Stuart interviewed Mqaikana kaYenge, of the amaMpumuza, in 1916, when he was about eighty-five years old. He tells how the Nadi and several other peoples originally were Dlamini people from Swaziland, who migrated to Natal, and at the tree of Dhlamini, in a forest on a ridge near KwaPakwe,38 they broke into different groups to go and settle the country around. The Nadi people became known as the Zondi for having done a wrong in disliking a certain girl. Their first inkosi was Bihla but later on in the interview he says Luqa. In any event the amaZondi seem to have divided into
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three separate branches Nadi, Ngome, and Mpumuza before the Shakan troubles. The Nxamalala (or Zuma) clan were their neighbours.39 Mqaikana is more interested in the careers of the amaMpumuza and the amaNxamalala than that of the abaseNgome. He does not mention the latter even by name and gives no more than the lineage of their leaders 40 Nomatshumi Magenge Jangeni Mancinza Bambata Funizwe Mqaikana does not say if Nomatshumi was next in the line after Bihla/Luqa. He also places Nomagaga with the abaseNadi and Sondaba with amaNxamalala.41 The archival records provide no information on persons and events before the time of Jangeni. It will come as no surprise to scholars familiar with legendary and mythical family trees that obscure sources disagree among themselves. Bryants and Fuzes sources are not known, but presumably were similar to Stuarts, and they belong to the same period. There are a few matching names between Mqaikana and Sithole-Zondi, while the correspondence of movements of people between Bryant and Sithole-Zondi is tenuous. Probably none of the sources is correct, certainly not in toto, but elements common to all suggest some degree of factual basis. Mancinza Consolidates Sondabas Legacy Sithole and Zondi state: It is important to note that Jangeni became popularly known as Mancinza through his praise names; this has confused some writers who thought that Mancinza and Jangeni were two distinct invidivuals.42 Jangeni lived at eNdabuko. He had four wives, and gradually he established independent houses for them at or named Mhlabutho, Sikhaleni, KwaGade, and Mzinto. The wives were known as MaMzila, MaDlamini, and MaPhakade. MaPhakade, daughter of the Chunu inkosi Phakade, was the third wife, lobolad by the people, and so would bear the heir. She died and her place was taken by another of the same inkosis daughters. MaMzila bore (at least) one son, Nomatshumi, as did MaDlamini, Mazwi. The first MaPhakade bore two sons, Bhambada and Funizwe, and three daughters, Thenjiwe, Nonkasa, and Kiki. The second MaPhakade bore Mpabanga.43 Magwababa succeeded his brother Jangeni.44 Magwababa was appointed to the throne by colonial officials, who made the brief period of Bhambadas reign questionable as they wished to impose [a? the?] colonial seal of legitimacy to Magwababas succession.45 There is now a sharp divergence between the two source sets. The 1853 government reports state that Jangene, Iangene or Unjangene was a petty chief of the Engome tribe at Table Mountain, acting for the chief Ngoza, who had twelve tribes under him, scattered over a wide area east of Pietermaritzburg. Jangeni claimed to be an hereditary chief, but the government did not recognise him as such.46 Bhambatha himself stated in 1895 and again in 1902 that Jangeni and his people moved
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to the Loza-Mpanza area when Dr. Kelly was the resident magistrate of Umvoti,47 i.e. between March 6, 1853 and February 20, 1856.48 Bhambatha also stated that Jangeni was his grandfather and Sobhuza was his father.49 Mancinza was the son of Jangeni by Mahlati.50 He was also called Sobhuza.51 Other sons of Jangeni were Sotshangana, Zikwazi and Magwababa.52 His homestead was called eMhlabatweni.53 Mancinza married four times,54 and his youngest wife was MaPhakade, daughter of the Chunu chief.55 According to Stuart, she was the principal wife, and by custom the tribe was called upon to contribute towards her lobolo; however, the tribe objected to their chief taking a Chunu wife and refused to provide for lobolo. Mancinza was determined to marry her, and provided the forty head of cattle from his own herd. A few months after the wedding she accused his three other wives of wanting to kill her, left his homestead to live in a Chunu one, where Bhambatha was born. MaPhakade insisted on a homestead of her own, and got it. Mancinzas other wives complained that Mancinza gave too much attention to MaPhakade, and the old homestead was wrecked.56 MaPhakade bore Mancinza two sons, Bhambatha and Funizwe, just under two years apart, and three daughters, Nonkasa (who may have been older than they), Kiki and Tengiwe.57 Mpabanga and Nomatshumi were half brothers.58 Nonkasa married one Falazi, who lived near the Nhlazatshe, in Zululand.59 Kiki married Koti, a Bomvu, in 1902.60 There are reports that other sisters, whether full or half sisters is not stated, were married to the amakhosi Matshana kaMondisa (Sithole) and Silwana (Chunu).61 Bhambatha was born circa 1865.62 His father died in 1883,63 and his uncles Zikwazi (18831884)64 and Magwababa (1884 1890)65 acted as regents for Bhambatha, who was appointed chief on June 6, 1890.66 It should be remembered that the above compression of information from colonial sources does not represent a single, discrete corpus of documents. The data are extracted from a fairly wide range of documents, whose spread attests rather than detracts from their probable veracity. All manner of persons, including Bhambatha himself, are giving evidence, and that on his antecedents is incidental to the subject of the declaration, deposition, memorandum or report. The person giving evidence has no reason to lie about it and the person taking the evidence has no reason to twist it into a lie. Bhambada: The Fighter for the Zondi-Nguni Legacy Sithole and Zondi state: All oral sources point out that Bhambada kaMancinza went through his youth and early married life without noteworthy troubles politically and otherwise.67 The outline of succession shows that Bhambatha was inkosi for only two years (1904 1906).68 They say nothing further about his career here, although in another chapter Sithole deals with it at some length.69 Nor do they speak of his demise, except to say that he disappeared in 1906,70 but again, the matter is referred to elsewhere in the book.71 Sithole and Zondi also state that Bhambatha had four wives MaMvanyana, MaKhuzwayo, MaSithole, and MaZuma. MaMvanyana bore him two sons, Ndabayakhe and Sizungu. MaKhuzwayo bore him two also, Nkani and Gosa. MaSithole bore a son, Cijo, and a daughter, Neleni. MaZuma, who was popularly known as Manqukuthu amongst
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the Royal Zondi of Ngome (and in the written records as Siyekiwe), bore him two sons, Bulawayo/Nwelezabelungu and Mehlomnyama, and a daughter, Libalele.72 MaSithole was the third wife, and it was assumed that her son Cijo would succeed Bhambatha.73 Then Bhambatha made it known that his favourite wife MaZuma was the one who would produce the heir (Bulawayo), which caused a few perplexities and was seen as unfair in certain circles. It led to some dissatisfaction within the royal amaZondi and led to MaSithole and her children leaving the homestead towards an unknown gloomy future.74 Our research revealed that nothing is recorded about the views of Bhambadas mother, of his sisters, of his wives or of his daughters, on how they saw Bhambada and interpreted the 1906 political series of incidents that cost them and their whole clan so dearly.75 Again there are remarkable discrepancies between the source sets. There is a great deal in the official records about Bhambathas disorderly conduct as a chief.76 Stuart also has more to say about Bhambathas tempestuous career77 and marriages 78
He rapidly squandered the property his father had left and, like his father, ran counter to the wishes of the tribe in selecting his principal wife. The elders were in favour of his promoting a particular woman, and opposed to his own choice, on the ground that the woman was a twin. He ignored their wishes and, after one of his wives (there were four in all), had committed adultery and been expelled, whilst another had deserted, he erected a solitary hut for the principal one calling it Emkontweni (the place of the assegai) thereby following once more the irregular example set by his father.
More information on Bhambathas family comes from the statements made by Siyekiwe/MaZuma herself and two of his children by MaMqayana, made before and during the trial of Dinuzulu, and is eked out with bits and pieces from other contemporary sources. According to these unpublished sources, Bhambatha had four wives MaMqayana, his first wife (whether in point of time or prominence is not clear), MaGogotshwane, MaMbalungeni, and MaSikonyana.79 They are sometimes referred to by their (unmarried) names Nontelelezi, Nomadhlozi, Nomakulu, and Siyekiwe80 the first being the same as MaMqayana81 and the last as MaSikonyana,82 also called Manqukutu,83 of the Zuma clan,84 who is variously described as Bhambathas youngest,85 favourite,86 and principal87 wife. Bhambatha married her about the time of the rinderpest.88 The names of MaSikonyanas children two of them are not given, presumably because they were not with her at eMkontweni or afterwards, when the crucial events of the rebellion (which primarily interested officials taking statements) took place. They lived at eMkontweni a while and then were sent to Sikonyanas homestead.89 Bhambatha sent the children of MaMqayana to be MaSikonyanas companions at eMkontweni.90 They were the girl Kolekile (Bhambathas eldest child,91 born circa 1883/492 or circa 188993), and the boys Ndabayakhe (born 188794 or circa 189295) and Nonkobotshe (born circa 1896).96 The two other lobolad wives remained at the eMnyembezini homestead.97 MaMbalungeni was an aunt of Zungu, inkosi of the local abaThembu.98 She was not fully lobolad, and therefore returned to her fathers homestead,99 but she bore Bhambatha an (illegitimate) son, Citsho (or Ncitsho),100 who was acting as a herd boy when
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he was killed in 1904.101 Zungu and one of his wives were charged with murder, but in an official enquiry the charge could not be proved.102 As with the documentation of his antecedents, so with Bhambathas family. There is no reason the persons giving evidence should lie. The officials who recorded it were curious about the family relationships, but they did not could not have turned the evidence to any political use. Irreconcilability of old and new The reader is thus presented with two sets of sources which diverge in their information on Bhambathas family and forebears. Section by section the two source sets have been examined in detail. The divergence and contradictions between them must now be considered and explained. The reader will have noted that both sets of sources reflect oral history. IKS lays great store by it. Seleti, comments: While the colonial archives are important as a knowledge base for researching the past, the project recognises the significance for this study of the landscape of oral archives and memories.103 Yet indebtedness to oral sources is also implicit in the published works of Bryant and Fuze, and is explicit in the case of Stuart. The statements in the colonial documents can also count as oral history. Moreover they are contemporary, or at least they are closer to the time referred to, which those of the Ngome projects informants are not. There is sufficient information on the methods and procedures of the Ngome project and the community generally, also in the specific cases which are the subjects of specific chapters, but not, unfortunately, in the chapter on genealogy. The chapter has no bibliography and no notes, although some information on sources is contained in the text. The reader has no inkling of how Sithole and Zondi acquired and sorted data. It is worthwhile in connexion with this lack to repeat Zondis assertion of his authority: Being a descendant of Funizwe, Bhambadas brother, I, Nelson Zondi, know the core genealogy of amakhosi of amaZondi backwards, from the current inkosi to Zacela. My knowledge derives from the fact that Funizwe, my grandfather, brother of Bhambada, was inkosi from the 23rd of February 1907 to 1950 The political dynamics of the Zondi, that were partly a result of the Bhambada-led Impi Yamakhanda, were such that the genealogy, particularly that of the royal house, was well known.104 As mentioned earlier105, Zondis version of the genealogy is the official memory. In so far as the reader can tell, it is the admissible collective memory. One would like to hope that some of the anecdotal information with regard to persons and places within living memory reflects a sharing of popular memory, but there is no proof of it. The only other sources cited, presumably for the early period, are praise names, presumably furnished by the clan praise singer, Nyoni Ndlovu106. Of course, he is official, too. The statements of the two source sets on the identity of Jangeni-Mancinza cannot be reconciled, nor consequently can the details concerning their wives be reconciled. Sithole-Zondis statement that Jangeni and Mancinza were the same man is incorrect. The published information is sufficient to separate Jangeni from Mancinza-Sobhuza. Some time during the last century the Ngome people apparently obscured the distinction. Why? Also incorrect are the Zondi informants elevation of Magwababa to inkosi (and the confusing explanation) and dating of Bhambathas accession. Perhaps they reflect an
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attempt by the partisans of Bhambatha to shift the blame for the many unhappy events preceding the rebellion onto Magwababa. How did these errors arise? Oral historians are familiar with the phenomenon of factual error being psychological truth for their informants,107 and in the Ngome time of troubles there would seem to be ample scope for the repression of memory and the development of false memory.108 There can be little doubt that the 1906 rebellion or uprising and its suppression were traumatic events for the abaseNgome. Sithole suggests elsewhere how this may have affected her reluctant women informants;109 but there is no effort to analyze the possible impact of this trauma in this instance. Sithole and Zondi also state that a succession controversy between Bhambathas and Funizwes sons in the early 1950s had a profound effect on the community, but they do not say how it might have affected the collective memory.110 It is also strange that the clan inyanga would not talk to the project team at all.111 It is not surprising then that there is no mention of any counter memory.112 Nor is it surprising that the Ngome informants should be ignorant of the details of Bhambathas complicated marital relations. These might well have been contentious, too, considering what Nelson Zondi tells of us the tension between Bhambathas and Funizwes descendants over the succession.113 That there were and are? disputing factions is plain.114 It seems clear from the book that any hostile criticism of Bambatha and his followers in the rebellion would have been and has been silenced.115 Information such as existed with MaSikonyana and Kolekile and others earlier seem to have been forgotten or, given the circumstances, suppressed? by the Ngome informants, more probably by their informants earlier on. The married names of Bhambathas wives are totally different in the two source sets. The respective accounts of the unfortunate Cijo/Citsho do not so much contradict as miss each other. Kolekile and Nonkobotshe are omitted from the Sithole-Zondi genealogy altogether. The net result of the comparison between the two source sets is to raise serious doubts about the accuracy of the Ngome projects oral history of Jangenis progeny and the Ngome succession in the period circa 1850 1906. TWO PEDIGREES FOR BHAMBATHA Which evidence is correct? There are several reasons for preferring the version of the colonial documents to that of Ngome project. I shall discuss the two sets of sources then in turn. First, the colonial documents and the books, also referred to here as the old oral evidence. It has already been stated, but needs to be reiterated, that the colonial documentation does not consist of a comprehensive, coherent corpus of statements focused on some political end. The relevant documents were produced over a period of about fifty years, and the most significant ones were produced between 1896 and 1908. They concerned succession and inheritance, land claims and litigation, and latterly the investigation and trial of Dinuzulu, and were intended to establish or clarify matters of fact. Colonial officials may have made mistakes, but usually they were careful not to, and it is unlikely that they did so. Whatever the feelings or duties of the officials recording the evidence, they had no obvious motive to distort or to falsify information about Bhambathas family and forebears. Indeed, much of the information provided comes
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from Bhambatha himself, his brother Funizwe and his uncle Magwababa, and his wife Siyekiwe and children Kolekile and Ndabayakhe. Whatever their resentments, these would not have been served by lying about his background. Unless one believes that colonial officials as a class are untrustworthy and their informants as a rule are dissembling, there is no reason for the reader to suspect them of falsehood.116 The same may be said of the books, which contain the information on the early lineage of the Ngome ruling house. In this case they are often dealing with legend and myth, and they cannot pretend to be much more accurate than their inaccurate informants. Second, the project version, the new oral evidence. There is nothing analytical about it, so the reader does not know if and how individual or plural accounts were composed to make the single given one. It is incumbent on oral historians, as it is on all professional historians, to analyze the evidence, to weigh the probabilities of truth, and to apprise their readers of their judgement. They cannot treat oral sources in isolation. This means consulting written sources, i.e. pertinent publications and, if possible, documents.117 Although members of the Ngome project evidently were familiar with interviewing techniques and made some probing inquiries, none of them seems to have been a trained oral historian. There is little analysis evident in the genealogical presentation. Granted the authors were concerned for the sensitivities of their informants, they could still have pointed out at least the salient mistakes of their informants, rather than just pass them on, as though they were correct.118 It is scarcely conceivable that Dr. Sithole would not have applied the rigour of critical method, had she been allowed to do so. She was acquainted with the published works (and therefore, secondhand, with some of the documents), which she refers to in another chapter.119 But in respect of the royal genealogy, knowledge seems to have been the preserve of the clans elite. Nelson Zondi knows; he does not have to reflect. One may suspect that Dr Sithole could not have made headway against him in any circumstances, given the dynamics of the project. One may suspect that if she had tried, she would have jeopardised the project, which, of course, could not be allowed to happen. IKS and alternative history IKS places high value on oral evidence for its instrumentality in the decolonization of the indigenous mind. It is therefore part of a political agenda. The official policy stresses, as has been noted earlier, that traditional leadership is indispensable, but does that mean it should prevail even when it is liable to be mistaken? In the Ngome project, it appears that traditional leadership represented by Nelson Zondi has imposed an official version of the genealogy, and the official memory is given ipso facto as true one. Yet IKS does not claim a privilege against truth. There is nothing in the IKS policy which suggests that rigorous critical method is not to be used, though admittedly, in a case such as this, it might be hard to apply. But is objective truth, even as an ideal, a desideratum? According to Sithole and Zondi it is not really their concern 120
We have been used to looking at history from the point of view of documents written by white archivists and historians who reflected the attitudes and concerns of the colonial authorities. This chapter has outlined an alternative history, handed down through the oral traditions of people who had to sustain their pride through resilience.
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Thus the alternative history is a function of identity and resistance. But is the alternative history accurate? The published and archival documents altogether give a plausible account of persons and events. Indeed, Bhambatha himself is one of the witnesses to it. The alternative history, the oral history of the Ngome project, gives a different account, rendered implausible for having been sealed off from comparison with the written one. Now that the projects work has been published has become written history it is susceptible to the critical methods applied to the written word. Thus this article. P.S. THOMPSON
REFERENCES Books BOSMAN, WALTER. 1907. The Natal Rebellion. London, Longmans Green, and Cape Town, Juta. BRYANT, ARTHUR T. 1926. Olden Times in Zululand and Natal. London, Longmans Green. MAGWAZA, THENJIWE; SELETI, YONAH; & SITHOLE, MPILO PEARL (editors). 2006. Freedom Sown in Blood: Memories of the Impi Yamakhanda: An Indigenous Knowledge Systems Perspective. Thohoyandou, Ditlou FUZE, MAGEMA. 1922/1979. The Black People and Whence They Came: A Zulu View. Edited by A. T. Cope and translated by H. C. Lugg from the 1922 Zulu edition. Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, and Durban, Killie Campbell Africana Library. GUY, JEFF. 2006. Remembering the Rebellion: The Zulu Uprising of 1906. Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. SELDEN, ANTHONY & PAPPWORTH, JOANNA. 1983. By Word of Mouth: lite oral history. London, Methuen. SLIM, HUGO & THOMPSON, PAUL [1983] Listening for a Change: Oral Testimony and Development. London, Paros. STUART, J. 1913. A History of the Zulu Rebellion 1906 . . . . London, Macmillan. STUART, JAMES. 1976 ongoing. The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples. Edited by Colin deB. Webb and J. B. Wright. 5 vols. Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press. THOMPSON, PAUL. 1978. The Voice of the Past: Oral History. Oxford, University Press. THOMPSON, P. S. 2005. Bambatha after Mome: Dead or Alive, Historia, 50, 1, pp. 23 48. THOMPSON, P. S. 2004. Bambatha at Mpanza: The Making of a Rebel. Pietermaritzburg, the author. YOW, VALERIE RALEIGH. 2005. Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 2nd edition. Walnut Creek, Calif., Alta Mira Press. Colonial Records (Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository) Attorney Generals Office Volumes 1/7/51 81: Zulu Rebellion. Blue Book of the Colony of Natal. 1854 and 1857. [Pietermaritzburg, Government Printer, 1855 and 1858] Colonial Secretarys Office, Archives of the Various files. Proceedings and Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the past and present state of the Kafirs in the District of Natal . . . 1852 1853. [Natal, Government Printer, 1853.] The Natal Government Gazette. Supplements March 8 and 22, 1853. Registrars of the Supreme Court Volumes III/3/1 30: Special Court: Zulu Rebellion Secretary for Native Affairs Various files. Current Government Publications KwaZulu-Natal. Provincial Government. Saluting our heroes and celebrating our rich heritage in KwaZuluNatal 2006: Bhambatha Centenary Commemoration 1906. Pietermaritzburg, [Office of the Premier] 2006. South Africa. Republic. Department of Arts and Culture and KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government. Age of Hope: Through Struggle to Freedom: Saluting Our Heroes: Reinstating Inkosi Bhambatha. Pietermaritzburg, [Office of the Premier] 2006. South Africa. Republic. Department of Science and Technology. Indigenous Knowledge Systems. [2004]. Newspapers (see notes for specific citations)

Greytown Gazette, 1905 1906. The Mercury. Durban. 2006 2007. The Natal Mercury. Durban. 1906. The Sowetan. Johannesburg, 2006. The Witness. Pietermaritzburg. 2006.
61
NOTES 1 See Republic of South Africa, Department of Arts and Culture, and KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, Age of Hope: Through Struggle to Freedom: Saluting our Heroes: Reinstating Inkosi Bhambatha, for the Programme 11 June 2006; and, for the planned series of events, Saluting our heroes and celebrating a rich heritage in KwaZulu-Natal 2006: Public Launch[,] Bhambatha Centenary Commemoration [8 April 2006]. Something of the historic importance may be gleaned from Sibonelo Msomi, Mbeki hails great hero Bhambatha, in The Witness, June 12, 2006; but most of the press reports concern current party politics, e.g. Canaan Mdletshe and Sapa, Mbeki, Zuma show unity, in The Sowetan, June 12, 2006. 2 See the advertisement in The Witness, June 15, 2006: KwaZulu-Natal celebrating Youth Heroism and activity 2006. 100 years of Bhambatha Poll Tax Uprising; and Sibonelo Msomi, Comrades, hands off June 16, ibid., June 19, 2006. 3 Sue Segar, Mbeki honours KwaZulu-Natals greatest with National Orders, ibid., September 27, 2006. 4 See the premiers statement, An event to remember, and Stephen Coan, Premier launches Bhambatha Rebellion centenary year, both in ibid., March 16, 2006. There were twelve instalments, appearing in Ilanga, UmAfrika and The Witness. 5 See Edutainment at the Winston [Churchill] theatre, and Nhlanhla Mkhulisi, When drama, dance obscure the facts, in The Witness, November 16 and December 2, 2006, respectively; and Sipho Khumalo, Premiers office spent R7m on Bhambatha play, in The Mercury, February 23, 2007. 6 See Billy Suter, War, song and dance, in The Mercury, November 10, 2006. The plays were Wars of Resistance Bhambatha KaMancinza and Maluju Zulu. 7 Jeff Guy, Remembering the Rebellion: The Zulu Uprising of 1906. Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2006. 8 Published by Ditlou Publishers, Thohoyondou, in 2006. 9 www.nrf.ac.za/publications/regofgrants: NRF focus area programmes grants, p. 40. 10 Chapter 3, pp. 27 39. Hereafter the book will be cited without its title, in contradistinction to other works cited. 11 According to the South African governments department of science and technologys Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy statement, adopted in 2004 (cited hereafter as IKS): Indigenous knowledge (IK) is generally used synonymously with traditional and local knowledge to differentiate the knowledge developed by and within distinctive indigenous communities from the international knowledge system generated through universities, government research centres and private industry, sometimes incorrectly called the Western knowledge system. (p. 10) The deputy minister states: The underlying fact is that indigenous knowledge has always been and continues to be the primary factor in the survival and welfare of the majority of South Africans. (p. 4) More pertinent in this case: Mechanisms should be put in place to retrieve and preserve oral forms of IK to contribute to national archive material. This will be done in consultation with the Oral History Project and the National Archives. (p. 34) 12 Profesor Seleti states: The project to commemorate the Bhambada uprising of 1906 has been pursued within the emerging paradigm of IKS Analytical Framework. [It] afforded researchers an opportunity to interrogate the politics and domination of knowledge production by western based theoretical frameworks. (p. 10) One of the outcomes of the project was to provide an analytical framework based on full recognition of indigenous systems of knowing and knowledge preservation and dissemination. (p. 12) By researching alternative approaches to knowledge production, this project has contributed to the framing of an indigenous knowledge analytical framework. (p. 11) 13 p. 20. 14 pp. viii ix. 15 p. 97. See also p. 93. 16 pp. 9 and 20. On women see chapters 6 and 7. 17 Consider, for example, the publication Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (2002 ongoing).
62
18

See Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History (Oxford, University Press, 1978), chapter 4, Evidence, and Valerie Raleigh Yow, Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2nd edition; Walnut Creek, Calif., Alta Mira Press, 2005), chapter 2, History and Memory, passim. p. v. pp. vii and 28. p. 28. Cf. p. 143. p. 28. IKS, p. 19. See Yow, Recording Oral History, pp. 36 and 54. In late April 1906 Captain Stuart, Natal Field Artillery, rode from Greytown to the Nkandhla magistracy, in Zululand. He was accompanied by Funizwe, the Greytown court induna Kafula, and three others for the purpose of identifying Bhambatha, then engaged in the Nkandhla Division, in the event he was killed or captured. Thereafter Stuart served as Intelligence Officer with Colonel Mackays column of militia operating in Zululand and Natal. See the reports of the Umvoti Field Force and of Mackays column in the records of the Colonial Secretarys Office, volume 2599, confidential minute 147 of 1906, and The Natal Mercury, April 25, 1906, The Native Trouble. See above. The records groups are cited hereafter as SNA, CSO, AGO, and RSC, respectively. Bhambada [:] this is our chosen spelling for the hero of the 1906 Zulu Uprising. The choice is based on the prevalent use among his descendants, the amaZondi of Ngome and by the play on words in his Izibongo praises, which describe him as ubhambada (he strikes viciously) his enemies with a knobkerrie, in comparison to others who only fight with walking sticks. The other most common spelling is Bhambatha (from the verb ukubhambatha) which means a mothers soothing action for her baby. This evidently has no meaning for our hero, known for his strong character and violent outbursts. A Zulu name is meant to describe the person, and a mother was traditionally believed to receive it from the family ancestors, interested to describe the destiny of the child from birth. Other spellings, found in the quoted sources, are Bambata and Bhambata. (p. xii) See also the comments on pp. 115116 and 154155. The team and/or their informants are in effect saying that they use the name Bhambada because they like it better than the generally accepted (since 2001) name Bhambatha. It is quite singular that they should overthrow the name preferred by the ancestors and MaPhakade and to which Bhambatha himself responded apparently without demur. The definition of bambata given in the Colenso Zulu dictionary of 1905 is to pat with the hand, as a horse or a dog. The Doke-Vilakazi dictionaries (19481990) define bambatha as to pat with the hand (as a child or dog) and to slap on the back; and the Dent-Nyembezi dictionary has for bhambada and bhambatha, which are evidently interchangeable, to pat; slap on the back; press down hair. There is nothing about striking viciously. The committee organising the centenary celebrations use the spelling Bhambatha. (And yet Bryant, Fuze, R. R. Dhlomo, and Elliot Zondi have used the d.) In citing names in the earlier sources I have tried to keep to the historic spellings as much as possible, in conformity with the documents of the period. I am mindful that this will be of assistance to scholars, especially foreign ones, who may not be familiar with the changes in Zulu orthography over the years. Bhambatha and his immediate predecessors were not kings (see p. 6), and the use of royal by Sithole and Zondi to describe the house of Jangeni in this instance would seem to reflect either a mistranslation or a misunderstanding of the English term or perhaps some pretension on the part of the present inkosi. This is a consolidation of the lists on pp. 27 and 30. See also the photograph of the list on the Bhambatha monument on p. 42. pp. 30 31. p. 31. pp. 31 33. p. 32. The Zondi peregrinations in and around Nathi seem to have resulted in a relocation from the middle Nadi river valley to the upper Loza river valley. It would be helpful if the book had a map showing the places mentioned in the text. Magema M. Fuze, The Black People and Whence They Came: A Zulu View (translated by H. C. Lugg and edited by A. T. Cope from the original; Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, and Durban, Killie Campbell Africana Library, 1979), p. 110. Ibid. Bryant, Olden Times., pp. 520 523.
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28
29
30
31 32 33 34
35
36 37

38
63
39
40 41 42 43 44 45 46
47
48 49
50
51 52
53
54 55
56 57
58
59
60 61
62 63
64
65
Stuarts informant Sende kaHlunguhlungu states that the tree was at oPisweni. James Stuart Archive (hereafter cited as JSA), V, 281. JSA, V, 1, 3 4, 12, 22. Cf. the completely different Zondi genealogy, ascribed to Nomgamulana, V, 12. Incidental information is also found in III, 6 and 12 (Mbokodo), and V, 281 (Sende) and 342 and 344 (Singcofela). Ibid., V, 2, 4, 12. See ibid., V, 1, 12 and 17, 22, respectively. p. 32. p. 33. p. 27. p. 29. See the Statement, shewing the Names of Chiefs, whether hereditary of otherwise, their places of residence, the estimated number of their people, & the amount collected . . . in payment of their taxes for the year 1851, by the Magistrate of the Inanda Location ., in the Supplement to The Natal Government Gazette, March 8, 1853; the evidence of the Magistrate in the Second Supplement, of the same date, and of the Magistrate of the Umvoti Location in the Supplement of March 22, 1853; and also the Proceedings and Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the past and present state of the Kafirs in the District of Natal . . . 18521853, pp. 32 and 35. Also, see SNA I/1/319: 853/1905, statement of Swaimana, chief of the Amagcumisa, April 17, 1905. SNA I/1/210: 1353/1895, Memorandum of the Under Secretary for Native Affairs, November 4, 1895. CSO 1714: 7764/1902, Petition of Bambata to the Supreme Chief, October 4, 1902. See the Blue Books for the Colony of Natal, 1854, p. 172, and 1857 [n.p.] See Petition (n. 15) and SNA I/1/210: 1353/1895, Magistrate Krantzkop to Secretary for Native Affairs, December 2, 1895. Also, on Jangeni being his grandfather, see Memorandum (n. 15) and SNA I/1/296: 2278/1902, Memorandum of Interview with Bambata et al., by the Under Secretary for Native Affairs, August 25, 1902; and on Mancinza/Sobhuza being his father, SNA I/1/134: 1422/1890, Statement by Chief Bambata of Zondi or Engome tribe, November 20, 1890. SNA I/1/196: 1647/1894, Magistrate Umvoti to Secretary for Native Affairs, December 27, 1894: deposition of Nyaniso; evidence of Mahlati and Nyaniso. See n. 18. These are the ones who have been found mentioned in the official records, e.g. SNA I/1/66: 760/1883, Magistrate Umvoti to Secretary for Native Affairs, October 30, 1883 and December 5, 1884; and I/1/84: 894/1884, Secretary for Native Affairs to Magistrate Ixopo, November 27, 1884. AGO I/7/67: deposition of Siyekiwe, December 23, 1907. RSC III/3/2, pp. 292 -293: evidence of Siyekiwe. An inference from Stuart, Zulu Rebellion, p. 157. Ibid., which states she was Mancinzas principal wife; but she is referred to as the chief wife in the correspondence of the Magistrate Umvoti (November 11, 1884) and Secretary for Native Affairs (December 5, 1884) in SNA I/1/66: 760/1883. Stuart, Zulu Rebellion, p. 157. AGO I/7/67: declaration of Siyekiwe, July 17. 1907. See also SNA I/4/19: C289/1907, declaration of Funizwe, December 13, 1907. SNA I/1/338: 841/1906, Memorandum of Interview between the Minister of Native Affairs and the Under Secretary for Native Affairs with Magwababa, Funizwe and 19 others, March 16, 1906. AGO I/7/68: Resume of statement made by Cakijana at Krantzkop on the 20th May 1908. Cf. SNA I/6/28: MJ C164/1906, evidence of Duluka AGO I/7/61: declaration of Siyikiwe, July 17, 1907; and I/1/67: deposition of Siyekiwe, December 23, 1907. SNA I/1/356: 3860/1906, Commissioner for Native Affairs to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, November 29, 1906, and Magistrate Vryheid to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, December 21, 1906. SNA I/1/296: 2278/1902, Statement of Bambatha, August 22, 1902. Memorandum (n. 27) and SNA I/4/16: C146/1906, Magistrate Greytown to Minister of Native Affairs, April 5, 1906. Stuart, Zulu Rebellion, p. 158. SNA I/1/66: 760/1883, Magistrate Umvoti to Secretary for Native Affairs, October 30, 1883. Cf. Stuart, Zulu Rebellion, p. 158; and Walter Bosman, The Natal Rebellion (London, Longmans, Green, and Cape Town, Juta, 1907), p. 18. SNA I/1/66: 760/1883, Magistrate Umvoti to Secretary for Native Affairs, October 30, 1883, and February 9 and November 11, 1884, and Under Secretary to Magistrate, February 9, 1884. Ibid., Magistrate Umvoti to Secretary for Native Affairs, November 11 and December 5, 1884, and May 28, 1890.
64
66

Ibid., Secretary for Native Affairs to Magistrate Umvoti, June 8, 1890; and I/1/333: 78/1906, letter of the Supreme Chief deposing Bambata, February 23, 1906. p. 34. p. 27. See pp. 152 - 154. p. 34; but cf. p. 43. See pp. x, 6, 120, 151 - 152. There is a prevailing belief that Bhambatha was not killed at the battle of Mome on June 10, 1906, but uncertainty surrounds his later career. The team, if not all the informants, believe he fled to Mozambique. Cf. p. S. Thompson, Bambatha after Mome: Dead or Alive? Historia, 50, 1 (May 2005), pp. 23 48. The question of Bhambathas whereabouts also touches on the authenticity of the photograph on the cover of the book. When and where was the original made? The caption states: This is a picture of early Zondis with Inkosi Bhambada in the middle of the front row. It is originally from the Illustrated London News of 16 June 1906, published during the Uprising. Although there is controversy over whether this is indeed Inkosi Bhambada, the present heir inkosi Mbongeleni Zondi has the picture displayed proudly in his house and confirms his forefathers identity. The photograph is also reproduced in Guy, Remembering the Rebellion, pp. 64-65, with the comment (p. 65): Inkosi Bhambatha kaMancinza Zondi, a photograph taken sometime before the rebellion, but revived, decorated and sensationalized in 1906. The head of this Bhambada/Bhambatha has been used as the logogram for the Bhambatha Centenary Commemoration and on the commemorative postage stamp. The photograph is probably a press fabrication. There is no evidence otherwise of its being taken during the rebellion. If the photograph were taken before, then presumably it would have been as readily available in Natal as in England. There would have been no need for Stuart and Funizwe to go to Zululand to identify Bhambatha (see n. 3) or for uncertainty whether or not it was Bhambathas head that was cut off purposes of identification after Mome. p. 34. p. 34. p. 34. p. 112. See also comments and Siyekiwe and other wives on pp. 120 and 154. See p. S. Thompson, Bambatha at Mpanza: The Making of a Rebel (Pietermaritzburg, the author, 2004), Chapters 1 and 2, especially the notes. Stuart, Zulu Rebellion, pp. 158 159 (and cf. Bosman, Natal Rebellion, p. 19.) Ibid., p. 158. AGO I/7/67: statement of Ndabayake, December 23, 1907. AGO I/7/67: deposition of Siyekiwe, December 23, 1907. AGO I/7/67: statement of Ndabayake, December 23, 1907. AGO I/7/67: declaration of Siyekiwe, July 17, 1907. SNA I/1/256: 3860/1906: Magistrate Umvoti to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, January 30, 1907. RSC III/3/2, p. 347: evidence of Kolekile. SNA I/4/19: C289/1906, declaration of Funizwe, December 13, 1907. RSC III/3/2, p. 288: evidence of Siyekiwe. AGO I/7/67: declaration of Kolekile, December 24, 1907. RSC III/3/2, p. 338: evidence of Kolekile. Stuart, Zulu Rebellion, p. 158. According to Siyekiwe (AGO I/1/61: deposition, July 17, 1907, and I/7/67: deposition, December 23, 1907) Bhambatha did not appoint a chief wife. RSC III/3/2, p. 289: evidence of Siyekewe. AGO I/7/61: deposition of Kolekile, July 15, 1907. RSC III/3/2. p. 238: evidence of Siyekiwe. AGO I/7/61: deposition of Kolekile, July 15, 1907. SNA I/4/19: C289/1907, declaration of Funizwe, December 13, 1907. Ibid. AGO I/7/67: statement of Ndabayake, December 23, 1907. SNA I/1/356: 3860/1906, Magistrate Umvoti to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, January 30, 1907. SNA I/4/19: C289/1906, declaration of Funizwe, December 13, 1907. SNA I/1/356: 3860/1906, Magistrate Umvoti to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, January 30, 1907. Ibid. AGO I/7/67: declaration of Kolekile, December 24, 1907. SNA I/1/324: 1912/1905, Magistrate Umvoti to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, November 1, 1905. Ibid. AGO I/7/67: statement of Ndabayake, December 23, 1907. SNA I/1/324: 1912/1905, Magistrate Umvoti to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, November 1, 1905. Ibid. Greytown Gazette, October 7, 1905: A Chief Charged: With Wilful Murder.
67 68 69 70 71
72 73 74 75 765
77 78 79 80 81 82 83
84 85
86 87
88 89 90 91 92 93
94 95
96 97 98
99 100
101

102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109
65
110 111 112 113 114
115
116 117
118 119 120
Greytown Gazette, October 14, 1905: Week by Week. p. 8. Ibid. See supra, p. 5. See pp. 30 and 32, and cf. pp. 27, 28, 30, 34 and 38. Yow, Recording Oral History, pp. 22 and 58. Ibid., pp. 4549. pp. 113 and 116; also cf. p. 138. Also, see Thompson, Voice of the Past, p. 110, and Yow, Recording Oral History, p.p. 4546. pp. 2930. p. 77. See Yow, Recording Oral History, p. 54. See and cf. pp. 28 and 35. See and cf. pp. 29, 34, and 3839. For the period of Bambathas chieftaincy see SNA I/1/196: 1487/1896, Magistrate Umvoti to Secretary for Native Affairs, September 15, 1896; I/1/228: 1496/1896, C. Tatham to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, September 3, 1896, and the Under Secretarys memorandum, September 9, 1896; I/6/27: MJ C163/1906, p. 98: evidence of Umfulatelwa, and MJ C194/1906: p. 53, evidence of Magwababa; also Greytown Gazette, February 24, 1906: Scarecrows, a letter by C. Tatham, February 23, 1906. For the period just afterwards see SNA I/1/348: 2581/1906, Notes on Interview (October 11, 1906): Secretary for Native Affairs and Magwababa; and in the records of the Chief Native Commissioner 178: 1175/1914, Acting Magistrate Umvoti to Chief Native Commissioner, July 17, 1914. Pace Nelson Zondi. This construction can also be placed on the relative reluctance of women to speak out about the rebellion see Chapters 6 and 7. By which I mean a lie rather than an error. Yow, Recording Oral History, pp. 143149 passim. Thompson, Voice of the Past, pp. 134 and 209. Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson, Listening for a Change: Oral Testimony and Development (London, Paros [1993], pp. 5657 and 140145 passim. Also, see Anthony Selden and Joanna Pappworth, By Word of Mouth: lite oral history (London, Methuen, 1983), pp. 4345, 129130, and cf. pp. 1719, and 3233. See ibid., pp. 129148 passim. See Chapter 8, Rebellion or Uprising, especially pp. 142, 147149. p. 38. Italics are mine.
66
BHAMBATHA GENEALOGIES (Prepared by Shelagh Spencer, assisted by Paul Thompson and Adrian Koopman)
SITHOLE/ZONDI Zondi NoNdaba Gagashe Luqa Nhlabushile Zacela Nomagaga Magenge Sondaba Jangeni (or Mancinza) (mother MaMyesa) m. MaMzila son Nomatshumi (possibly other children) m. MaDlamini son Mazwi m. MaPhakade (1) Bhambada Thenjiwe first son (girl) (Chief 1904-6) Nonkasa (girl) Kiki (girl) Funizwe second son (Chief 1907-50) son m. MaMvanyana sons Ndabayakhe & Sizungu m. MaKhuzwayo sons Nkani & Gosa m. MaSithole son Cijo Neleni (girl) m. MaZuma sons Bulawayo (or Nwelezabelungu) & Mehlomyama (or Manqukuthu Libalele (girl) or Siyekiwe) m. MaPhakade (2) Mpabanga Nelson Zondi (informant for this project) Magwababa (mother unknown) (Chief after Jangeni)

MQAIKANA kaYENGE (born c.1831) in Stuart Archive Bihla or Luqa ? ? number of ? generations unknown ? Nomatshumi Magenge Jangeni Mancinza Bambata Funizwe
67
Sondaba stated to be of the amaNxamalala tribe
A.T. BRYANT Ntsele Nomagaga ? ? number of ? generations unknown ? Nomatshumi Maqenge Jangeni Information on Sondaba contradictory l) mentioned as son and heir of Siguqu of the amaNxamalala tribe 2) suggested that Sondaba and Siguqu were one and the same person
MAGEMA FUZE Dlaba Magenge Jangeni Mancinza Bambada
68

ARCHIVAL SOURCES (No relevant information found prior to Jangeni) Jangeni m. Mahlati Mancinza (Sobhuza) (mother Mahlati) (died 1883) m. wife m. wife son Mpabanga m. wife son Nomatshumi m. MaPhakade Sotshangana Zikwazi (Regent 18834) Magwababa# (Regent 18841890)
Bambatha# Funizwe# (c.18651906) (Chief from 6 June 1890)
Nonkasa (girl)
Kiki (girl)
Tengiwe (girl)
m. MaMqayana (or Nontelelezi) children: Kolikile (girl)# Ndabayakhe# Nonkobotshe m. MaGogotshwane (or Nomadhlozi) m. MaMbalungeni (or Nomakulu) son Citsho (Ncitsho) (died 1904) m. c.1897 MaSikonyana# (or Siyekiwe or Manqukutu) two children These informants include: Family members in 1906 and 1907 (indicated with #)
Notes and Queries
69
Notes and Queries
FORT NAPIER DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR Contributed by Shelagh Spencer The fort was established in 1843 by a detachment of the 45th Regiment as a show of force. The enemy was a number of dissident Boers who were unwilling to accept British rule, even after the defeat of their forces a year previously. It was built on a hill above the highest part of the village of Pietermaritzburg, the Boers capital of their defunct Republic of Natalia. From then until 1914, the fort was the headquarters of the British garrison in Natal. With the withdrawal of the South Staffordshires for service in Europe in August 1914 it was unoccupied briefly and then converted into an internment camp for German nationals. Eckhard (Jos) von Fintel has painstakingly researched this era and has produced a monograph Fort Napier: internment camp for Germans during World War I. Compiled in 2005 it contains 210 numbered pages and also a series of appendices (unpaginated). There are numerous photographs and also copies of archival documents. In addition he has traced the histories of a number of the individuals interned and also many details of their families. The research is ongoing. One of the most interesting facts that emerges is that after General Bothas evacuation of Lderitzbucht for tactical reasons in the South West African campaign, the ports women and children were all sent to Fort Napier (their menfolk being away in the desert serving with the territorys Schutztruppe). This work is not published but a copy is freely available for research in the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository. LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE Contributed by Adrian Koopman If one reads the current columns of The Witness, whether the columns of irate letters written by readers, or the more staid columns which emanate from the reporters, one is immediately given the impression of a city in chaos so far as its traffic is concerned.
70
Notes and Queries
Speeding kombi taxis; unco-ordinated traffic lights, or worse non-functioning traffic lights; overloaded kombis; inadequate access roads; kombis that ignore traffic laws; Eskom electricity outages that result in no traffic lights at all; cattle wandering all over Sweetwaters Road; kombis that shoot the few traffic lights that actually still work; giant potholes; and above all overloaded and unlicensed kombi taxis that obey no traffic laws and speed down an unlit Sweetwaters Road, now and then demolishing the odd vagrant cow. It wasnt always like that, though. Take a break from The Witness of today and its reports of motorised mayhem, and browse instead through the illuminating pages of the 1895 By-laws of the City and Borough of Pietermaritzburg, published by P. Davis & Sons, Printers, 254 Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg. Todays speeding overloaded taxis would not recognise the name Longmarket Street any more. A wise city council replaced this in 2004 with Langalibalele Street, a name meaningless to the majority of residents of Pietermaritzburg in 2004, but which in 1895 would have resonated as the name of the Hlubi rebel chief who took up arms against Her Majestys Government in Natal. But I digress. What sort of picture do we get of the pace of transport on the streets of Sleepy Hollow in 1895 a mere 113 years ago? Perhaps by-law No.12 gives us an indication:
No person shall allow any wagon or vehicle under his charge, or being his property, drawn by oxen to pass through the streets or roads within the borough without a driver and a person at the head of the oxen as leader.
Note that it is perfectly in order to drive an ox-wagon through the roads and streets of the borough. Any of the roads and the streets of the borough, by the look of it. It is simply necessary to have a driver. A good idea, that, I would have thought. Oh, and a touleier is also required. That is to say, the person who walked in front of the team leading them with a short rope. Note again, the person who walked in front of the team. Not the person who ran in front of the team. Or the person who suddenly appeared around the corner at enormous velocity with the team in full cry behind him. Life was quieter then. And you can see the emphasis put on this aimed-for quietness in by-law No.11:
No person shall by shouts, gestures, or actions, wilfully frighten any horse, mule, ox, or other animal, so as to endanger the safety of any person.
By-law No.7 supports this intention of noise-free and fright-free streets:

No person shall crack, flourish or extend the lash of any wagon whip on any street or road within the Borough, and every wagon whip shall be looped while being carried along such street or road.
All sorts of thoughts crowd my mind when I read this by-law. One is admiration for the sheer poetry of the phrase crack, flourish or extend. Another thought is to wonder how the modern version would fare: no kombi taxi driver is to sound his horn to alert potential passengers to his presence. And yet another thought the requirement that each wagon whip shall be looped is this the origin of the name of Loop Street? (An irrelevant query, of course, as there is no longer a Loop Street in Pietermaritzburg.) By-law No.10 seems to me to have inherent contradictions. It calls upon those wagon teams going downhill to stop to allow those going uphill to pass more easily. This seems sensible certainly it is easier to keep on going once stopped if you are facing
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a downhill than if you are facing an uphill. The same by-law, however, instructs mule and horse-drawn wagons travelling in the same direction as ox-drawn teams to call on the latter to stop so the horse or mule-drawn wagon may pass more easily. This smacks to me of superiority, and almost inevitably calls to mind the attitudes of drivers today who are in charge of a vehicle, or a convoy of vehicles, which flash blue lights. Ox-drawn vehicles. Horse-drawn vehicles. Mule-drawn vehicles. It all seems very quiet and safe from our viewpoint in the 21st century. And yet there were hidden dangers on the thoroughfares of late-19th century Pietermaritzburg, dangers which we today cannot even begin to think of. By-law No.25 gives a hint of these:
No person shall roll any hoop or wheel, or fly any kite, or throw stones, or use any bows and arrows, or catapults, or play at any game whatsoever, in the streets or thoroughfares of the Borough
The throwing of stones at vehicles is occasionally reported from bridges on the highways of the Natal South Coast today, but thank heavens! we no longer in any street, road or thoroughfare have to deal with flying hoops, wheels, kites, bows and arrows, or catapults. They must have taken this seriously, though, in the streets of 1895 Pietermaritzburg, for by-law No.25 goes on to say that
the officers of the Corporation are hereby empowered to destroy all such kites, catapults, hoops, and other articles so used
Nor were kites, catapults and hoops the only perils of the road. By-law No.26 states that
no person shall drag any block, plough, harrow, tree, bush, or roll any cask, barrel, or other thing dangerous to public safety, in any street or road.
Nor shall they (By-law No.27)

leave or cause to be left upon any road, street, bridge or thoroughfare within the borough, any plough, harrow, wagon, cart or other vehicle, without any horse, mule, ass or ox being harnessed thereto
Note here that the prohibition is not against the ploughs, harrows and carts as such being left in the streets. It is the leaving of these vehicles unattached to an animal. No doubt the streets, roads and thoroughfares of Pietermaritzburg were blocked three or four deep with harrows and ploughs, each with mule or ass attached, and there was absolutely nothing the traffic wardens of the day could do about it. The kombi taxis that regularly today block Pietermaritz Street three or four deep would have been proud of them. Bicycle riding was freely permitted so long as a bell was attached for use by day. Both a bell and a lighted lamp had to be attached if the bicycle was to be used by night. By-law No.18, which provides this ruling, usefully tells us that the purpose of the bell and the lamp are as a warning to the public. It is interesting that this by-law includes tricycles as well as bicycles. Clearly these were not the miniature pink plastic tricycles that we find today sold for the use of toddlers, but something more robust and useful. Public transport in the Pietermaritzburg of today is almost entirely based on the kombi taxi. What did the public transport system consist of in 1895? We get an idea from the heading of Section XXXII: OMNIBUSES, CABS, HACKNEY CARRIAGES, AND RICKSHAS. Unfortunately, we do not learn much more from the by-laws that follow. We do learn from by-law No. 322 that annual licence fees were three pounds for a four-wheeled
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vehicle, two pounds for a two-wheeled vehicle drawn by animal power, and twenty shillings (why not one pound?) for every ricksha [sic]. All vehicles were required to have a registered number displayed, and the driver of the vehicle had to wear a metal identification badge. By-law No.328 requires that
all jinrickshas1 plying for hire shall provide a bell to be affixed to the shaft, and shall have the owners name in letters no less than 1 inches in length, and in luminous paint, on both sides of the vehicle
The problems in 1895 were not about public transport vehicles speeding, as they are today, but more about their dawdling or otherwise going too slowly. By-law No. 329 deals specifically with this problem:
When hired by time, the driver in charge of this vehicle shall be required to drive at a proper rate of speed, say not less than five miles per hour .
For those of us no longer familiar with speed reckoned in miles per hour, this works out at a madcap eight kilometres per hour! Clearly there were passengers who could not take this kind of reckless speeding, for after the words five miles per hour, the by-law continues with unless requested to drive at a slower rate. And if any are appalled at the idea of rickshaw pullers being forced to dash about madly at five miles per hour, the last line of this by-law will make them feel happier:
Provided that this shall not apply to persons in charge of rickshas.
Sensitive readers will also be happy to note that rickshaw pullers are exempt from by-law No.331 which allows each passenger in a public vehicle up to thirty pounds of luggage without any extra charge. A final by-law under this section makes for amusing comparison with today. By-law No. 342 states that:
Every person in charge of vehicles plying for hire, but not actually hired, is forbidden to loiter in any public thoroughfare; nor shall he by calling out or otherwise, importune or solicit any person to hire such carriage to the annoyance of such person or of any other person.
Compare this to a more recent description of todays kombi taxis by Trevor Wills:
At peak periods the ranks used by minibus taxi operators ring with the cries of the usually very youthful drivers assistants who hang out of doors and windows announcing the route to be followed and exhorting people to climb aboard.2
Wills tells us further that rickshas were introduced to Pietermaritzburg in 1892 and provided a means of transport for all but the very poor. The numbers peaked at 912 rickshas in 1902, and then started declining in 1904 after the introduction of the tram system, which ran until 1936. Wills notes that the rickshaw, although overshadowed by the trams, outlasted them, for rickshas:
did not disappear from city streets until well after the Second World War, being used particularly to transport purchases home from the Market Square, or up to the railway station.
The present writer recalls rickshas lined up outside the Durban Railway Station in the mid-1950s, taking people from the station to various venues in the city and returning them with their purchases to the station. These were not the gaudy, fancy affairs later and still to be found on the beach-side promenades.
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Sadly, neither the 1895 By-Laws, nor Trevor Wills, nor indeed any other contributor to Laband and Haswells work give any further information about the Omnibuses, Cabs [and] Hackney carriages that appear in the heading of section XXXII of the 1895 By-laws. Perhaps I will have found something by the next issue of Natalia.
NOTES
1
The by-laws spell this word in three ways: as jinricksha, as ricksha with a prefixing apostrophe replacing jin [ricksha], and simply as ricksha. The word is a 19th century loan from Japanese jin (man) + riki (power) + sha (carriage). (Collins English Dictionary, 1986: 821) Trevor Wills: From Rickshaws to Minibus Taxis, in Laband and Haswell (1988:138). Note yet another spelling in rickshaw.
SILENT BELLS Contributed by John Deane The old sort of bell, cast in a foundry and hung in a belfry or other high place, plays a much smaller part in todays world than it used to. In many places, such as schools, electric bells now mark the passage of time with nerve-jarring clamour. In Pietermaritzburg there are three old bells that have been silent for many years, though they still hang in full view. Perhaps readers know of other noteworthy mute bells in the city, and may wish to inform Natalia about them. The smallest of these is in a high little turret on St Johns United Church in Jabu Ndlovu Street (Loop Street). The church was for many years the chapel of the sisters of St John the Divine, where for almost seventy years the little bell sounded at certain solemn moments in the Anglo-Catholic Eucharist on weekdays as well as Sundays. The sisters moved their convent to Durban in 1968, and although the building remains a place of Christian worship, the bell fell silent. Then there is the bell of the old Merchiston Preparatory School building in Burger Street. A larger classroom block was built in 1917 when the school was only fifteen years old, and above the headmasters office the new school bell hung in its turret. Merchiston moved to new premises in Bulwer Street in 1965, and its old buildings were used by the Provincial Administration for other purposes, none of which required the tolling of a bell. That bell had divided up the school days for forty-eight years, and has now been silent for almost forty-five. Largest and most impressive of the three, and unused now for about half a century, is the bell in the tower of Publicity House (formerly Electricity House, formerly the Municipal Offices) on the corner of Chief Albert Luthuli Street and Langalibalele Street (Commercial Road and Longmarket Street). [See the article New names for old. Transformation in the streets of Pietermaritzburg in Natalia 35.] Until about the 1940s it had various functions, including at one time tolling the curfew after which no African was supposed to be abroad in the streets. Mention must also be made of a fourth bell, which after a silence of more than 40 years recovered its voice. The bell of St Georges Church, Napierville, (formerly the garrison chapel) became too dangerous to use when its very inaccessible wooden supports became decayed. Recently, on the inititive of the chapelwarden Michael Daly [See
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Obituaries elsewhere in this issue.] and with the use of a crane, the bell was lowered to the ground, a new, free-standing belfry was built and the bell re-hung. Sadly, it tolled at Michaels funeral on 24 January 2008.
THE NATAL SOCIETY FOUNDATION Contributed by Pat McKenzie The Natal Society Foundation has awarded a bursary to John McGuiness to assist him in his studies. He is a registered MSc student in the field of Music Analysis Software and in 2006 was awarded the BSc degree summa cum laude. His thesis is titled Investigation of Techniques for Automatic Polyphonic Music Transcription using wavelets. The programme he developed in his Honours degree work is a music analysis tool, which is able to extract musical notes and generate a musical score given a sound recording. This tool will be useful for musicians who are not able to read or write music, but would like to preserve their compositions on paper. His MSc programme is a continuation of this work and in his motivation he added that A large part of South Africas musical heritage has been handed down through successive generations simply by ear; so a lot of this music has never been written down. When complete, my software should be able to capture recordings and even live performances, thus preserving them in written form. He also intends to develop software geared for use with school music programmes. Ian Kiepiel, who was awarded a scholarship by the Foundation in 2007 for research into the pollination biology and breeding system of the charismatic plant genus Clivia has made good progress and has enough evidence to document the reproductive biology of Clivia miniata and Clivia robusta. and is working on the functional significance of colour and scent for the attraction of butterflies and evidence of bird pollination.
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Michael Daly (19312008)
Michael Daly, who died aged 76 in Pietermaritzburg in January, was an attorney, city councillor, director of companies and president of The Natal Society. Born in Barberton, the son of a state veterinarian, he came to Pietermaritzburg as a schoolboy when his father was transferred to the AllertonVeterinary Laboratory in Pietermaritzburg. He went to school at Michaelhouse, and then completed a BA at the University of Natal, followed by an LlB. In 1956 he was admitted as an attorney, conveyancer and notary public of the Supreme Court of South Africa, Natal Provincial Division, and was later also admitted as a solicitor in the High Court Michael Daly, 1970 of Swaziland. Daly practised as an attorney for many years in Pietermaritzburg, retiring in 1985 to become the assistant general manager and legal adviser of the Central Timber Coop. He later became general manager of the Central Timber Fire Protection Co-op Ltd, which became Safire, and retired in 1999. He was active in public life as a city councillor between 1961 and 1968 until obliged to resign due to the pressures of his legal work. In 1975 the Administrator of Natal appointed him a member of the Town Planning Appeals Board, of which he served as chairman from 1977 to 1985. He was a director of various companies, chairman of the Pietermaritzburg Philharmonic Society from 1961 to 1980, and president from 1986 to 1998 of The Natal Society, which then ran the Pietermaritzburg public library on behalf of the city council. When the Msunduzi Municipality assumed control of the library, he was instrumental in separating the accounts and holdings of the Society from those of the library and establishing the Natal Society Foundation Trust, of which he was a trustee and chairman from its inception in 1998 until his death. On his initiative the special collections of The
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Natal Society, comprising the libraries of William OBrien and Alan Hattersley, were transferred to the Alan Paton Centre at the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Former director of the Natal Society Library Shona Wallis spoke warmly of Dalys ability to turn a meeting into a lively and amusing event, his command of the English language and his quirky sense of humour. Former secretary of the society, Pat McKenzie, recalled him as an attorney of total integrity, who was very principled, which some may have mistaken for stubbornness; and a respecter of tradition, with a sense of history. At his funeral, warm tributes were paid by two of his former articled clerks who have gone on to have distinguished legal careers. Mr Justice Kevin Swain of the Natal Bench wrote: Professionally, he pursued only what was fair and reasonable for his client, without compromising his duty to advance such interests to the best of his ability. This quality of fairness also found expression in the many years he sat on the Town Planning Appeals Board, in which forum the many judgments he handed down bear testimony to his considerable ability. He was, however, a modest man which meant that he never abused his natural ability to the detriment of those who appeared before him. I was always grateful for the confidence he showed in me at a very early stage of my career when I was a struggling junior at the Bar. To have such confidence placed in me by a very senior and experienced attorney, did a great deal for me and was one of the vital building blocks for my future career. Professor Lawrence Baxter, former Professor of Law on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal and at Duke University School of Law, North Carolina, and recently retired Chief e-Commerce Officer of Wachovia Corporation in the United States, another of Dalys one-time articled clerks, wrote: It is sad to learn of Michaels passing. But as I recall the life Michael lived it is also a time for thanks and a time to celebrate a wonderful man. Michael was one of the best lawyers I ever knew. He was my first mentor and he taught me a standard of incisive thought, eloquence and juristic excellence that few if any ever surpass and to which I can only aspire. He also displayed courage: I remember the time when in the face of bullying by the government he refused to allows the doors of the Pietermaritzburg public library to be closed to children who were not white. Michael showed that to be a great lawyer one also has to be a truly honorable person. Daly is survived by his wife Marlene, four children of a previous marriage and eight grandchildren. As a boy, he was taken by his father to St Georges Garrison Church. In his retirement years its worship and welfare became the great passion of his life, and as chapel warden he was responsible for significant improvements to its fabric. His funeral service took place there in the presence of a large congregation. As he was taken from the church for the last time, the church bell, which he had made usable again after a silence of more than 40 years, was tolled possibly for the first time since the days when the British garrison occupied the nearby Fort Napier. JACK FROST
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Oscar Dumisani Dhlomo (19432008)

Business, the intelligentsia and politics in South Africa, especially the province of KwaZuluNatal, have been dealt a heavy blow by the sudden death of one of the prominent leaders in these fields. The death on Friday 29 August 2008 of Dr Oscar Dumisani Dhlomo, has been almost universally seen as a severe loss to the country. Dhlomo, who died the age of 64, cut his political teeth as a leading member of the then Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe (National Cultural Movement), which was to later become the Inkatha Freedom Party, under the leadership of veteran politician Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Having joined the movement in 1978, Dhlomo rose within its ranks to eventually attain the position of Secretary-General, before resigning and quitting active politics in 1990. Oscar Dhlomo During the same year, however, he founded the Institute for Multi-Party Democracy, an intellectual think tank whose aim was to foster and support the institution of democratic practice in South Africa. Dhlomo was born in Umbumbulu, south of Durban, on 28 December 1943. He completed his matric at Amanzimtoti Training College before proceeding to the University of Zululand, where he obtained a BA degree in 1965, followed by a University Education Diploma in 1967. He went on to teach history at Menzi High School in Umlazi, and while teaching continued to study privately, obtaining an honours degree and Bachelor of Education from the University of South Africa three years later. He joined his alma mater, the University of Zululand, as history lecturer soon thereafter. Dhlomo held directorships in several prominent companies in the province. Among the several chairmanships he held were with The Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company, the Standard Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Afrisun KZN and Shell SA. Dhlomos leadership capabilities and contributions received recognition through the award of the Ernest Oppernheimer Travel Fellowship from the British Council. He was also a columnist for The Star newspaper, and co-authored two school textbooks in Guided Social Studies which were prescribed for grades seven and nine. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele said Dhlomos death casts a big shadow over the province of KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. As an intellectual, said Ndebele, [Dhlomo] attracted attention through his writing on the burning issues of the day with the problems of education claiming more of his thought-provoking attention. At the funeral service, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi said Dhlomos resignation from politics left a big void in his party.
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Dhlomo is survived by his wife Nokukhanya, three sons and a daughter. The funeral service was held at his place of birth, at the United Congregational Church, Umbumbulu, on September 6, 2008, followed by a cremation at the Stellawood cemetery in Durban. THABO MASEMOLA
Robert (Robin) Douglas Guy (19322008)

When Rob Guy died on 2 January 2008 he was 75 years old. He leaves his wife Bella; they had been married 52 years and had four children and six grandchildren. Rob went to various primary schools including Merchiston, Treverton and Kilgobbin in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands during the Second World War. It was as a boy that he used to catch the train to Underberg to visit his grandfathers farm Peakvale and it was here that he developed his Robin Guy love for birds (which he had from an early age), local history and the southern Drakensberg. He finished his schooling at Hilton College, where his father had been and where in due course his sons would go. At Rhodes University he studied Botany and Geology and on graduating he initially worked for Anglo American, prospecting, and then was a game ranger and ecologist for the then Natal Parks Board. However, once Don was born he realised that he could not support a family on 40 a month and together with his father and cousin started farming bees and sugar cane. He went on to run one of the largest apiaries in the Southern Hemisphere with over 2 000 hives spread out over most of Zululand. One of his sons said that as a little boy he was taken to so many of the farms where his father had hives that he believed that his father owned the whole of Zululand! Rob became President of the Beekeeping Association and editor of their journal. While on their farm in Zululand Rob and Bella had four children, three boys (Don, Duncan and Robert) and a daughter (Jane). After nearly 25 years of marriage spent in Zululand they moved to Underberg where Rob made a living by growing seed potatoes, building houses and commercial properties and for a while owned a share in the Sani Top Chalet. As time went on he became more interested in the natural history and cultural history of the region. He became the most knowledgeable bird watcher in the district and for many years contributed articles to the local newspaper and when the Southern African Bird Atlas project started in 1987 he became one of its most active participants. As he grew older Rob was more and more interested in the history of the southern Drakensberg and became an expert on the San and their art, the early Zulu people of the
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region and the European settlers. When he sat his examination to be registered as a San Rock Art guide his examiner said that Rob was the best-informed person he had ever tested! He wrote a number of pamphlets on historical aspects of the district and these were printed and are still in print today. These are famous for the detailed primary research which he undertook and stand apart from other local historical tracts by the quality of their research. He helped discover who killed Hodgson and even found his grave! (Talk about cold case files!) Rob and his wife Bella had many good friends in the district and his middle years were marked by his participation in the public life of the district: he served on the Health Committee, the Wildlife Society, Lions etc. However, he became known nationally and then internationally as a bird guide taking visitors from all over the world up Sani Pass into Lesotho. He also found a number of sites in the upland grasslands and down in the mist-belt forests and mist-belt grasslands where important, rare or endangered birds could be found and where he took many visitors. It is estimated that he took many thousands of visitors bird watching and it is certain that he helped foster a local tourism industry that today attracts over 20 000 visitors a year. This rather bland description in no way adequately describes one of the most interesting and interested people we ever knew. Rob filled his life with an energetic exploration of the physical, historical and intellectual landscape in which he found himself. He was in every aspect of his life fearless and was prepared to try his hand at many different occupations and proved that he was equal to all lifes challenges. He was a gentle person, he enjoyed lively conversation and with his passing we have lost a business partner, colleague, neighbour, wise counsellor and above all a good friend. We extend our condolences to Bella, his children, grandchildren, family and all those who loved this man who lived all his life with such joie de vivre. BILL SMALL and STEVEN PIPER
Gordon Lindsay Maclean (19372008)

Gordon Lindsay Maclean, Professor Emeritus of Zoology of the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal), internationally famed ornitholgist and author of the fifth and sixth revisions of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa died in Howick at the end of March after a long battle with cancer. Maclean was born in Durban in 1937 and grew up in Basutoland (now Lesotho) and the neighbouring eastern Free State. He had to leave school after Standard 8 (Grade 10) to do farmwork, where the outdoor life and the timeous gift of a bird book kindled his interest in birds. After completing his schooling by private study, he was admitted to the University of Cape Town
Gordon Maclean
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Medical School for six months until his funding source dried up. He then joined De Beers to prospect for diamonds on the Skeleton Coast, where his abiding fascination with deserts and the adaptations of desert birds was born. His academic career began at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, where he graduated with a BSc (Hons) in 1963. Then it was back to semi-desert in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park for 19 months doing doctoral research on the Sociable Weaver. He spent a year at Cornell University in the United States, prominent at that time in the use of sonograms for the study of bird song. And while in America he took the opportunity to visit deserts in Chile and Argentina. In 1968 he was appointed a lecturer in the Department of Zoology at the University of Natal, becoming an associate professor in 1975 and a full professor in 1986. Here he was subsequently awarded a DSc for his desert bird research (thus gaining two doctoral degrees in five years), and he retired in December 1997 as Emeritus Professor of Zoology. During those years some of his numerous tasks involved the supervision of various postgraduate students whose names are all associated with advances to knowledge of southern African birdlife and who filled nearly every significant ornithological post in museums and provincial conservation departments in South Africa and Namibia. A common experience for such students was of being stretched by Macleans rigorous and uncompromising scientific standards and by his mastery of language. His English was impeccable and he was also fluent in German self-taught by translating classical German choral works into English and by association with the Namibian German-speaking community during his diamond-prospecting years. Woe betide any student who used what he termed non-words (such as predated), and his liberal use of a red pen on student scripts could produce a draft that Professor Steven Piper aptly described as looking like the parting of the Red Sea. In the 1980s he was invited by the trustees of the John Voelker Bird Book Fund to revise Roberts Birds and the university granted him unpaid leave for two years so as to give the task his full-time attention. He rewrote the work completely and when his fifth edition was published in 1985 it rapidly became a best-seller and ran to six impressions. An entirely new feature was sound reproductions (sonograms) made from recordings of bird calls. In 1993 Maclean produced the sixth edition of Roberts incorporating new information which had become available through the published literature, through personal observations by other ornithologists and his own research and experiences in the field. Illustrating 907 species of birds in full colour, it incorporated a number of special features including revised and corrected bird names in English, Afrikaans, eight African languages and German (besides the scientific Latin-based names). The colossal, five-kilogramme seventh Roberts (2005) is no improvement in omitting not only the sonograms but also the bird lists in every language other than English and Latin. Moreover, Maclean was unashamedly scornful of the new bird names which it incorporates. Other Maclean publications include Aids to Bird Identification in Southern Africa (1981), Ducks of Sub-Saharan Africa (1986) which won the Lady Usher Prize for Literature the following year, and Ornithology for Africa (1990), besides academic papers and invited contributions to the proceedings of international and local congresses and symposia. He was also well-known as a member of the radio panel for the weekly programme Talking of Nature on the SABC.
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Maclean was awarded a fellowship by the University of Natal in 1992 in recognition of his academic achievements and he was the recipient of the Gill Memorial Medal of the Southern African Ornithological Society for services to ornithology south of the Zambezi River. In 1994 he played a pivotal role in campaigning for the choice of South Africa (rather than contenders Israel, India, Canada and Japan) to host the 22nd International Ornithological Congress in Durban in 1998. This was only the second time an IOC had been held in the southern hemisphere, and the success of the Durban event is now history. In retirement Maclean took up painting in watercolours, an activity in which he soon demonstrated great skill, his pictures usually based on slides which he had taken of Namibian scenes. He even held a successful solo exhibition of his work. He is survived by his wife Cherie and their children David and Marion who, together with those who knew him well, will fondly remember his penetrating (and often caustic) comments and his sense of humour, and rejoice in the rich legacy of his achievements. JACK FROST and TERRY OATLEY
Margery (Mobbs) Moberly (19382008)

Margery (Mobbs) Moberly (70) well-known in Pietermaritzburg from her long association with the University of Natal Press, died in Durban in June after a brief illness, the victim of a particularly aggressive cancer of the lungs. Born in Kokstad, Moberly grew up in Kloof, starting her schooling at St Marys and, after her parents had moved to Eshowe, completing it at Durban Girls College of which she was Dux in 1954. She then did an arts degree and teaching diploma on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal, taking a very active part in student life. It was on that campus that much of her later working life was to be spent. On graduating she taught briefly in government schools in Natal, then for a few years in Kenya at Limaru Girls School, followed by a further spell in London before returning to Margery (Mobbs) Moberly South Africa in the mid-sixties to a post at Epworth. The acquisition of a library science diploma brought her back to the university, first in the library, then to the university archives and finally to the university press. Initially termed the manager of the University of Natal Press, she was eventually awarded the rather grand title of Publisher to the University and built up the press from a shaky start as a somewhat amateur and part-time operation to a highly professional institution, internationally respected for the quality of its scholarly publications.
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In her years at the Press Moberly notched up an impressive list of publications. Among them were four volumes of the James Stuart Archive (edited by Colin de B Webb and John Wright), A Zulu King Speaks (with the same two editors), six volumes of British Settlers in Natal (by Shelagh OByrne Spencer), The Colin Webb Natal and Zululand Series, The Anglo-Zulu War (edited by Andrew Duminy and Charles Ballard), Natal and Zululand from Earliest Times to 1910 (edited by Andrew Duminy and Bill Guest), Enterprise and Exploitation in a Victorian Society (edited by Bill Guest and John Sellers), Receded Tides of Empire (with the same two editors), Kingdom and Colony at War (edited by John Laband and Paul Thompson), Betrayed Trust (by John Lambert), The Hunting Journal of Robert Briggs Struthers (edited by Patricia Merrett and Ronald Butcher), The Praises of Dingana (edited by David Rycroft and Bhekabantu Ngcobo) and the two volumes of Travels in Southern Africa by the Frenchman Adulphe Delegorgue (both translated from the French by Fleur Webb and introduced by Stephanie Alexander and Colin Webb in the case of the Volume 1 and Stephanie Alexander and Bill Guest for Volume 2). Perhaps Moberlys greatest triumph as a publisher was the production of Pietermaritzburg 1838 1988, A new portrait of an African City (a work now out of print) to mark the capitals sesquicentennial. It was a project which she both conceptualised and drove with relentless energy and enthusiasm. Edited by John Laband and the present Msunduzi Municipal Manager Rob Haswell (then on the staff of the university), the book embodied contributions by an astonishing 73 authors from a wide range of academic disciplines. It covered virtually every possible aspect of the citys history from two million years before the present to what were at that time contemporary developments. Moberlys death coincided with the Cape Town Book Fair and, appropriately, the University Press flew the flag on its stand at half-mast for the duration of the fair. Val Ward, formerly of the Natal Museum and a long-standing acquaintance said of her: Mobbs Moberly was a generous, witty and caring friend with whom I shared many meals, laughter and tears as well as the occasional argument. We enjoyed working together on The Witness series The way we were in 1999. She was dynamic and a perfectionist who leaves a gap in the lives of her large circle of friends. Moberly never married. She leaves two older sisters and their respective families as well many friends. A well-attended memorial function was held in the Dargle. JACK FROST
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George Deneys Lyndall Schreiner (19232008)

Professor Deneys Schreiner was a pivotal figure on the Pietermaritzburg campus of what was then the University of Natal from 1959 to 1987. He was a scientist of note, but he played many other significant roles, both within the University and beyond it. He was born in Johannesburg in 1923. His father was Oliver Schreiner, who became Chief Justice and challenged the Nationalist government on its discriminatory legislation. His grandfather was W.P. Schreiner, who had been Prime Minister of the Cape until he was forced out of office because of his disapproval of the war-mongering that led to the AngloBoer War and who later came to Pietermaritzburg to defend Chief Dinuzulu when he was charged with treason after the 1906 uprising. W.P. Schreiners Deneys Schreiner sister, Deneyss great-aunt, was Olive Schreiner, the distinguished author of The Story of an African Farm who was also an early feminist and a campaigner for justice. Schreiner grew up, then, with a strong inherited sense of social responsibility. Shortly after he had completed his schooling at St Johns College at the end of 1939, he joined the South African army, and served as a lance-bombardier in North Africa and Italy. In 1945 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he attained a PhD in 1951. (He played for the University at rugby and for his College at cricket.) After 18 months as a Visiting Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State College, he was appointed as Senior Research Officer in the Nuffield Geochronological Unit at the Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research at the University of the Witwatersrand. He came to the Pietermaritzburg centre of the University of Natal as Professor of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry in August 1959. Much of his published research concentrated on the dating and chemical properties of igneous rocks, particularly granite. In the early days as a researcher at the University he had to make his own equipment, including a mass spectrometer. He published important papers in Nature and the Proceedings of the Royal Society. He was a member of the Royal Society of South Africa and also actively involved in the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. He was concerned about the teaching of science and was a founder of PINSSA, the Pietermaritzburg and Inland Schools Science Association. Deneys Schreiners talents, interests and background pushed him beyond the important world of analytical chemical research and science teaching. He had a flair for administration and for taking the wider view. He became Deputy Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Science and under his influence a number of significant innovations took place within the faculty. At the same time he was making an impact in a range of university committees. He also thought deeply about society and its institutions, especially, of course, the university. He was concerned about justice, academic freedom and integrity, and social
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and educational development. At a time when South Africa was being more and more tightly constrained by the governments apartheid policies, he was one of the fairly few academics who clearly saw the need to think against and beyond the pressures being exerted by the state. In a variety of ways he became a humanising influence in the university. In 1975 he was appointed Vice-Principal in charge of the Pietermaritzburg campus, a post that he held until his retirement in 1987. In this capacity he had overall responsibility for much of what happened on the campus, as well as continuing to be influential within the University as a whole. He took an active interest in every aspect of life on the campus, encouraging innovations, often himself proposing different ways of doing things, and exerting his authority, when necessary, in a gentle way. One of his initiatives was the reduction of the length of a lecture on the university timetable from one hour to 45 minutes: this was done in order to allow students a greater range of subject choices. Those were memorable years: they were the years in which, among many other things, the University of Natal was launched was allowed to be launched on to the non-racial path that it has of course followed ever since. Schreiners role in the transition, and in hastening the transition, was a very significant one. His dislike of privilege or discrimination was always admirable but at times almost quirky. For example, he disapproved of reserved parking bays and therefore at times had to walk some way to get from his car to his office. He was also a lively influence in more relaxed circumstances. He played a role in matters as diverse as debating, drama and sport. And both members of staff and students enjoyed from time to time the hospitality of the Schreiner home, Highwood, at 14 Wendover Road. Professor Terry King, for example, who was grateful for Schreiners continual support and encouragement for him when he was head of the Fine Arts Department, spoke of wonderful evenings at the house witty and interesting and entertaining discussions surrounded by sculpture and other works reflecting the vibrancy of artmaking in this region. In a letter published in The Witness ex-students Peter and Hilde Colenbrander, writing from Vancouver, recalled Sunday evening suppers: They were wonderfully relaxed and lively affairs, with much laughter, a great deal of vigorous discussion and a lot of good fellowship. Another ex-student who paid a tribute to Schreiner was Blade Nzimande, the secretary-general of the South African Communist Party. I feel a sense of deep personal loss, he wrote, as he was my principal when I joined the then UNP at the tender age of 20. To many of us, young black students from impoverished townships and educational backgrounds, he was like a father figure because of his passionate commitment to the transformation of the then white universities, his hard work to make us feel accepted at those campuses, and his total commitment to the abolition of racism and apartheid. Nzimande also spoke of his incredible sense of humour, even in the face of adversity. Those tributes are representative of many others that were received. In Schreiner there was a fascinating combination of dignity and relaxedness, of what sometimes seemed a detached formality with great warmth and generosity of feeling. He was indeed, as many noted, full of humour: he could pull ones leg with a very straight face, and loved to play the devils advocate, often deliberately confusing the person he was addressing, who was quite unprepared for arguments of this sort. This was a
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kind of game, but it wasnt only that. He really did believe that everything should be questioned and tested, and taking the opposite view was a way of energising his own mind and challenging the person he was speaking to. He was certainly a central figure on the campus. He and his thinking stood out firmly and visibly; there was something permanent and reassuring about him, as Blade Nzimande suggested. In fact he was, in his own very special way, an icon. With his deep-set and alert eyes, his large beard, his often solemn (but also sometimes mock-solemn) face, he was, in his quiet and unassuming way, a figure who generated a certain awe. A cross between some of the old-fashioned depictions of God the Father and a well-known portrait of Charles Darwin, he was able to satisfy, or disturb, unbelievers and believers alike. But if he was a sort of god or a venerable hero-figure, he was an extremely friendly and kindly one. In a farewell speech on his retirement from the University he was described as a person of sincerity, energy and dedicationman-in-charge, friend, arbiter, facilitator, innovator, catalyst. In 1992 the Main Science Lecture Theatre on the campus was renamed the Deneys Schreiner Lecture Theatre. But his interests and influence had from the first gone beyond the University, and he became a significant public figure. He was in the 1960s and 70s a leading figure in the local branch of the SA Institute of Race Relations. He participated in 1961 in the remarkable Natal Convention, which was a small and distant forerunner of CODESA which took place 30 years later. He chaired the funding committee of PADMRO (the Pietermaritzburg and District Malnutrition Relief Organisation). In 1978 he was instrumental in convening a Conference on Constitutional Models and Constitutional Change in South Africa. This led to the publication of an important book and to his appointment, later, as chair of the Buthelezi Commission of 1980-1982 which looked at models of governance for Natal and KwaZulu. In the years of his retirement he and his wife Else played the major role in the establishment of the Tembaletu Community Education Centre in Pietermaritzburg. Richard Rangiah, the executive director of the Tembaletu Trust, paid tribute to Schreiner: Nearly 20 years after [his] visionary idea of an educational park, Tembaletu has contributed to changing the lives of literally thousands of otherwise marginalised people across the province, sometimes in little ways and every so often in life-altering ways too. He added: We shall all remember him strolling through the passageways of Tembaletu, popping into offices for a quick chat and joke with the staff. Schreiner had a wide range of talents. He was a skilled wood carver, for example. He and Else were very interested in the arts music, theatre, painting, sculpture, ceramics. Their house is full of original local works of painting and sculpture. This has all been exhibited at the Tatham Gallery, and is due to end up there. One of the galleries at the Tatham is now named after the Schreiners. More broadly they have been patrons of the arts, and helped a number of black artists, particularly the late Vuminkosi Zulu and his family. Schreiner married Else Kops in 1949. They had four children: Oliver (who died in 1978), Deneys, Jennifer and Barbara. COLIN GARDNER
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Obituaries
Victor Von Brunn (19342008)

Victor von Brunn, polar scientist and for 32 years lecturer, senior lecturer and associate professor in the Department of Geology on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal, died suddenly in February in the city of a heart attack. Matriculating from Vryheid High School, Von Brunn graduated from the University with an arts degree in 1956, majoring in German and Afrikaans/Nederlands. However, he was so inspired by the single course in geology which he did towards that degree Victor Von Brunn that he went on to the University of Cape Town where he acquired a BSc Hons in geology. This qualified him for appointment as professional officer of the First South African National Antarctic Expedition (December 1959 to January 1961) based in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. (There must have been something in his genes because his grandfather, Dr Victor von Varendorff, had gone to Greenland as ships surgeon with a German scientific expedition in 1908). In Antarctica Von Brunn was responsible for the disciplines of geology, glaciology and geomagnetism. He spent the long Antarctic night in a hut buried under deep snowdrifts. His daily duties involved glaciological observations and the maintenance of geomagnetic instruments set up in another hut 200 metres away, free from any magnetic field interference from objects at the main base. During the summer months he carried out geological and glaciological work in the mountain area south of the base. He was especially interested in the Aurora Australis, which he studied with the aid of an all-sky camera. These photographs enabled him to watch the development of this remarkable phenomenon over the whole area of the Antarctic sky. In 1961 Von Brunn was stationed at the Magnetic Observatory in Hermanus and in 1962 was awarded a CSIR grant to continue his analysis of geological and glaciological data under Professor Eric Simpson of the University of Cape Town. This came to fruition in an MSc degree (1963). In the same year he was awarded the South African National Antarctic Medal. Geologists face the extremes of cold and heat. Between 1963 and 1967 Von Brunn was attached to the Chamber of Mines Precambrian Research Unit doing geological investigations on the fringe of the Namib Desert, research submitted for his PhD degree (1967), also from UCT. The following year he began his long association with the University of Natal. At the time of his appointment Von Brunn was the sole member of staff of the geology department in Pietermaritzburg. He was assigned the task of expanding it up to graduate level, a status reached in 1973. He taught practically all spheres of geology up to third year level, but from 1977 onwards specialised in sedimentology, which he taught at honours level. Beyond that, he supervised nine masters and doctoral students and was the examiner for a number of others, not only at his own university but at the universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand and the Orange Free State.
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Besides his Antarctic experience, Von Brunn travelled widely. In his student years he had participated in a private expedition to central Africa to familiarise himself with the African Rift Valley and to ascend the Nyamuragira volcano. He spent time in the geology department at the University of Western Ontario and visited geological institutions in Australia, Britain, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Korea, Norway and New Zealand. He was invited to be a member of the Norwich Spitsbergen Expedition of 1979, his participation involving the study of glaciers and glacial processes on the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic. Von Brunns list of publications in his CV housed in the University of KwaZulu-Natal Archives runs to an astonishing four-and-a-half pages of small type. It includes contributions to 10 books, 27 full-length articles in specialised journals, eight published reports and 26 articles in conference proceedings, published abstracts and excursion guides. Von Brunn was a devout churchman, a member of the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Hayfields. It was here that his well-attended funeral service was held. Among the several tributes paid was that of Dr Owen McGee formerly of the Department of Geography. He and Von Brunn had joined the university at much the same time as young lecturers. As McGees field was physical geography, specifically meteorology, and the departments of geography and geology were adjacent to each other, they had much in common professionally and a close personal friendship developed. McGees expression of acute loss at Von Brunns death was a widely-felt sentiment. Von Brunn was married briefly earlier in his life to a woman much younger than himself but had no children. He is survived by the partner of his later years, Elize Osborne, and a large circle of friends. JACK FROST
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Book Reviews and Notices

END OF A DYNASTY: THE LAST DAYS OF THE PRINCE IMPERIAL, ZULULAND 1879 by DELAGE, Paul, translated by FLEUR WEBB. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007. 212 pp. illus., map. ISBN: 978-1-86914-138-7 On the afternoon of 1 June 1879 a Zulu patrol ambushed and killed a young officer, attached as an observer to General Lord Chelmsfords staff, who was scouting in advance of the 2nd Division, South African Field Force. In itself, this would have been a minor incident in the course of the Anglo-Zulu War that cost so many thousands of lives and such widespread devastation. Except that the 23-year-old man was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince Imperial of France, only child of Napoleon III, the deposed Emperor of the French, and the Bonapartist pretender to the French throne. His death consequently eclipsed even the battle of Isandlwana in the publics imagination in England, where he had been living in exile, and had major political repercussions in France. Strictly speaking, his dynasty did not end with him (as is implied in the title of the book under review) for his line was that of the great Napoleon Is younger brother, Louis, and the current pretender, Napoleon VII, is the direct descendant of Jerome, Napoleons youngest brother. Nevertheless, the Prince Imperials death proved, as his followers feared it would, the terminal blow to the Bonapartist cause. Why the Prince Imperial found it politically essential to prove his military prowess in a distant colonial campaign, how he overcame the opposition of his mother and advisers to go out to Zululand, how he met his death there and how his body was brought back to England have been covered many times in articles and books, none better than by Ian Knight in his definitive study, With His Face to the Foe: The Life and Death of Louis Napoleon, the Prince Imperial, Zululand 1879 (2001). So what has this latest book to offer? Paul Delage was a correspondent attached to the influential French newspaper Le Figaro who was sent out to cover the Prince Imperials activities in Zululand. Although inherently a republican, Delage found himself completely won over by the Princes
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infectious charm and many abilities including his superb horsemanship. He was deeply affected by his death which he blamed on the selfishness and cowardice of the British officers serving with the Prince, rather than on the Princes strongly developed streak of recklessness, bravado and military romanticism that Knight has so convincingly identified. On his return to France, an emotional Delage immediately turned his experiences into a book, Trois Mois Chez les Zoulous et les Derniers Jours du Prince Imprial [Three Months among the Zulus and the last Days of the Prince Imperial]. In many ways, it is similar to other books of Anglo-Zulu War reminiscences published by serving officers and war correspondents. It starts with impressions of the voyage out to Zululand, describes the people, places and unfamiliar cultures he encounters as well as the hardships of life on campaign, and indulges in critical commentary on the conduct of the campaign. Where Delages book is different from the rest is that, as a Frenchman, he observed events as an outsider, unlike the British war correspondents who were regarded as honorary officers and subscribed enthusiastically to the prevailing ethos of the British army. Nothing Delage described, therefore, was from a conventional British perspective, and his gaze was fresh, acute and critical. He never forgot he was a patriotic Frenchman in an alien, primitive land, and this helped draw him close to the Prince, to whom he developed an ever-stronger personal loyalty, and whose exuberant personality comes alive in his pages, as does his burning desire for military action. To Delage the towns and little settlements of Natal, and their rough inhabitants, both black and white, were unremittingly exotic, and he noted how Boers and Africans were united in their common hatred of anything English. He was intrigued by the rudimentary transport system of ox-wagons and post-carts, and the danger posed to horse and rider by the ant holes in the veld. His was also an enviable ability to conjure up a scene and atmosphere with a few, carefully honed phrases. His description of finding the small, firm white body of the Prince in the donga where he had been killed and kissing his icy hands is truly affecting, as is his verbal sketch of Lord Chelmsford watching the slain Princes cortge move off, leaning sadly on his cane, his eyes red rimmed and his heart full of bitterness over this fresh catastrophe blighting the already tarnished record of his command in South Africa. Because it was written in French, Delages intriguing book has not been as readily consulted by historians of the Anglo-Zulu War as it might have been. Now it is accessible to an Anglophone readership in Fleur Webbs translation. She is already known for her excellent translation of the two volumes of the French traveller, hunter and naturalist Adulphe Delegorgues Travels in South Africa (1990 and 1997), and her sprightly translation of Delage is again commendably fluent. It ably captures the spirit of the original French without falling into the doldrums of some of its more pretentious passages. Bill Guest wrote the introduction to volume II of Delegorgue, and he has done the same for Delage with equal clarity and informed expertise. He has also supplied reliable explanatory notes to the text that must in many cases have proved challenging because Delage, especially when relaying orally transmitted history and describing African cultural practices, is often perceptibly off-beam. Guest misses very few opportunities in his notes, though when Delage is describing casualties in the hospital at Utrecht, and refers to a soldier blinded in both eyes by a shot to the head, I would have been tempted to suggest that the man must have been Major Robert Hackett of the 90th Regiment who
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had been wounded in just that singular way at the battle of Khambula. The book is further enhanced by a useful map and by a good selection of illustrations, many of which come from Delages original publication. In all, End of a Dynasty is to be welcomed as a significant addition to the literature on the Anglo-Zulu War. JOHN LABAND AN HISTORICAL MEANDER THROUGH THE MIDLANDS OF KWAZULU-NATAL by BIZLEY, William H. and McKENZIE, Patrick C.G. Howick: Midlands Meander Association, 2007. 153 pp. illus., maps. ISBN: 978-620-39179-5 R150,00 When a book is written by two members of the Natalia editorial board, reviewed by a third member, and the review is published in the journal itself, it may seem too much of a cosy family affair. Not necessarily so: the reader will judge. The title of this book may be slightly misleading to those whose knowledge of the Natal Midlands is defined by the Midlands Meander, an association of sites and establishments offering accommodation, scenic attractions, artistic endeavour, cuisine and a wide variety of artefacts and agricultural produce for sale. Anyone who thought An historical meander was the history of that 23-year-old commercial initiative would soon realise that it is about the Midlands as an area with a history of settlement going back 170 years, not about the modern Meander. The history of the latter is briefly told in a Post Script and serves as due recognition of the publisher. This is social history, very anecdotal and concerned with what the newspapers would call human interest stories. It is also carefully referenced, so that a reader wishing to follow something up and there are many temptations to do so will know where to go. Pat McKenzie grew up in the Midlands, and his knowledge of its old families is extensive, as shown by the special PM remembers snippets in boxes thoughout the book. Where it needed to be supplemented, or given documentary corroboration, the authors consulted published works and also family papers and transcripts of oral tradition, many of the latter now in the Howick Museum. To that institution and those associated with it, now and in the past, they pay grateful tribute. The Museum also provided very many of the photographs with which the book is generously illustrated. The laudable pursuit of an entertaining and quizzical style sometimes leads the narrative into infelicities and obscurities. For example, saying But seductress Natal was not to be won so easily misrepresents the mating game. Those being seduced are usually spared any need to win, because the initiative is all on the other side. Similarly, a sentence like The departing trekkers a well-disposed but sceptical audience to their successors etc, requires of the reader an effort to reconcile the ideas of departing and at the same time staying to form an audience. Such things might have been adjusted in a more rigorous editing, and more careful proofreading might have tidied up the errors that can irritate like pebbles in a shoe. When works are cited, accuracy is necessary. Brian Kearneys Verandas in the Mist is called Houses in the Mist, A.F. Hattersleys More Annals of Natal becomes More Annuls (sic!) for Natal, and Wackford Squeerss
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notorious school in Nicholas Nickleby is given as Dotheboy Hall. These are slips that should have been eliminated. And someone surely should have noticed that the University of Natal publisher acknowledged in the Foreword is given the wrong surname. Mary Moore (with an e) is twice deprived of that letter in the Notes. Unimportant? Not in a book about people and families. The Moors were a quite different Natal family. Such irritants, however, do not detract significantly from the appeal of a book which is generally a delight to read. The eleven chapters concentrate on different aspects of Midlands settler life and experience, beginning with Methodists and Romantics in the Garden of Eden and ending with Unsung Heroes, Ox and Horse. Feuds and wars, love and marriages, childhood and school, disasters, and many other things besides, come in between. And always the emphasis on people ordinary and extraordinary. Among the latter we encounter a vengeful vicar, an anglicised Zulu woman whose life came to an unhappy end in a Soho sidestreet in 1907, a missionary who yielded to Mammon, a former chaplain of the Duchess of Sutherland with a weakness for drink, and the doctors daughters whose eyes were opened to many things well outside the scope of a Victorian young ladys education as they read the back numbers of the British Medical Journal placed by their unsuspecting father as toilet paper in the pit lavatory at the bottom of the garden. These are just some of the many people whose personalities and exploits will captivate the reader, not only in Chapter Eight which is entitled Characters, Great and Small, but throughout the book. The present reviewer will indulge himself by mentioning also the string of seven (usually Scottish) governesses to the King children at Fort Nottingham, who came and went in a regular procession. One could almost construct a mnemonic like the one about Henry VIIIs wives, though not nearly as succinct (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived) This one might go consorted with men of colour, had ungovernable temper, could teach only the names of rivers and cities of the British Isles, left in a huff when her cosmetic bottles were washed out, was almost stone deaf, left with the horrors when pupil told how he had lost a finger, fell in love with a teenage boy pupil and was shipped home. A readers enjoyment of An historical meander is sharpened by familiarity, or at least some significant connection, with the attractive area known as the Natal Midlands. The book is, however, likely to appeal to anyone who has an interest in the lives of pioneering people far from their mother country, and who appreciates a lively account of their public and private lives. JOHN DEANE STATES OF MIND: SEARCHING FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN NATAL AND ZULULAND, 1868-1918. by PARLE, Julie Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007. 334 pp. illus. ISBN: 13-978-1-86914-098-4 Madness and societys responses to it have long been a fruitful field of exploration for novelists, reflecting as they do societys wider symbolic and social representations, while in Europe and North America there is a burgeoning literature exploring the social
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history of insanity. Abandoning the either-or of the now somewhat sterile debate between essentialists, who see mental illness as universal and transhistorical, and social constructionists, who argue that it is simply a social artefact, a label devised by society and its psychiatrists to control the deviant, recent historians have brought to the study of madness the underlying premise of social history that patients and their communities [are] historical agents in their own right, not merely the objects of hegemonic discourses.1 Rather slower off the mark, in recent years a small number of African social scientists have also begun to turn their attention to studies of psychiatry and psychiatrists, insanity and the asylum, inspired by the recognition that a study of insanity can help uncover a wider social history, not because the mad are exemplars of a social context (such as colonialism) but precisely from their anomalous status, as Jonathan Sadowsky has remarked. Their stories, he continues, can therefore illuminate perceptions of reality, and when their cases are ambiguous, show ways in which perceptions are challenged.2 Julie Parles recent States of Mind, published by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, is a welcome and distinguished addition to this body of work.3 Like her University of KwaZulu-Natal thesis on which this book is based, Parle looks at the history of mental illness and its treatment in colonial Natal from the genesis of the Natal Custody of Lunatics Act of 1868 and the founding of its first and only asylum in 1875, to the incorporation of the Natal asylum into the new psychiatric order inaugurated by the Unions 1916 Mental Health Act, and its decline thereafter. Her starting point is provided by the records of the colonial government and of the Town Hill Lunatic Asylum (later the Natal Government Asylum and the Pietermaritzburg Mental Hospital) between 1868 and 1918, which reveal, inter alia, that legislation for the mentally ill and the establishment of a psychiatric hospital in Natal were earlier than in the Cape Natals first lunacy laws were passed in 1868, while the colonys Government Asylum on Town Hill was established in 1880 when 37 patients were admitted. This overturns the conventional wisdom that Valkenberg was the first custom-built asylum when it was opened in Cape Town 1894.4 And unlike Valkenberg, which admitted only white patients until World War I (when it received its first Coloured and African patients from Robben Island because it needed their labour), Town Hill treated Indians, Africans and whites on the same site, although in the wards patients were segregated by race and gender from the outset, while later on they were housed in different buildings. As at the Cape and in other colonial situations, rations, sleeping arrangements and clothing were also all determined by race. Like Valkenberg, which owed its early reputation to its Scottish Superintendent, Dr William Dodds, Town Hill owed its ethos and reputation to another Scotsman, its first superintendent, Dr James Hyslop, who was appointed in 1882.5 In both cases, their more humane stewardship ended after World War I, when the 1916 Mental Disorders Act replaced earlier colonial legislation and the responsibility for mental hospitals moved to the Department of the Interior and placed under Dr J.T. Dunston, who became the Commissioner of Mentally Disordered and Defective Persons. As Parle shows, these changes marked a decisive shift towards entrenched racial discrimination, grounded in scientific racism and eugenicist policies (p.24). Despite the relatively more humane stewardship of Dodds and Hyslop, however, both asylums suffered from overcrowding within a few years of their foundation, a familiar problem with the silting up of
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institutions for the mentally ill elsewhere. Within five years of Hyslops arrival, Town Hills accommodation intended for 89 patients held 115. Poor food, overcrowding, appalling sanitation and the already debilitated state of many admissions lay behind the high death rate of black patients, which Hyslop himself believed was unacceptably high (p.112).6 States of Mind encompasses a far wider world than these statistics, or the importance of race in the asylums practice, however, and herein lies its novelty and significance. Aware of recent critiques of narrowly focused studies of mental illness restricted to the confines of the asylum or the discourses of its doctors, Parle is concerned not only with institutional history, the various paths to the asylum7 taken by its patients and the content of their and their psychiatrists delusions, but also with the many alternative ways in which Natals disturbed sought solace through folk and popular remedies before turning to or being interned in the asylum as a refuge of last resort. In so doing, she shows that the resort to alternative therapies was as true for Natals white settler population as it was for its African and Indian inhabitants. Moreover, like the best of the recent social historians of madness, while fully acknowledging the methodological difficulties, she is as concerned to discover the agency of those labelled insane and the role of their families and friends in treatment as she is to document the discourses of the psychiatric establishment. As noteworthy is her treatment of the gendered nature not simply of discourses around mental affliction, but also of the experience of mental affliction itself. This sensitivity runs through the book but is most illuminating in her account of African idioms of psychological understanding expressed through spirit possession known as ndiki. She analyses this through a vivid exploration of the trial of eleven women tried for witchcraft in Zululand, and interprets their possession as resistance not to colonialism per se, but to a patriarchal social order that was itself coming under intense strain (p.14 and chapter 3, Witches, Spirits and Hysteria).8 Parle deals with equal assurance with changing African and Indian definitions of and treatments for madness, and probes that area of confusion when Western notions of consciousness, culpability and insanity came up against very different understandings (p.23). Parles decision to define her subject as mental health and not mental illness leads her to show both the resilience of indigenous notions of madness, and the limitation of psychiatry as site of colonial control9 it remains as limited to this day, given the paucity of mental health services for the large number of people who need them. Popular and alternative healers were the first and often the only source of help for the mentally ill then as now.10 For whites, as for Africans and Indians, nineteenth and early twentieth century psychiatry only represented one weapon in the armoury against madness, and one that was often only used as a last resort.(p.305) As she points out, this did not and does not mean that there was no relationship between the state and aspects of psychiatric practice, despite the small numbers of western trained psychiatrists. At the same time, her sensitivity to the voices of the confined provides a counter both to heroic and to purely discursive analyses of the asylum. Her profound awareness of the world outside the asylum also enables her to give due attention to the mental health of Natals Indians who rarely entered its walls, and to address the issue of suicide, then still defined as a criminal act. Despite its apparently narrow focus on Natal, the book is richly informed by Parles wide-ranging reading and fine understanding of the comparative literature on the history
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of psychiatry and mental illness, indigenous knowledge and popular remedies in Africa. Nor does she neglect the possibilities of comparison within Natal itself something of a microcosm with its diverse population and many different understandings of madness as can be seen from her sophisticated analysis of the incidence of suicide among Indian, African and European men and women. The result is an original, meticulously researched and finely balanced account which shows a welcome awareness of the complexity of the issues under discussion, and handles both the secondary literature and the archival record judiciously. While the focus of the volume and its main contribution is for the period before World War I, its final substantive chapter provides a useful general, if necessarily somewhat summary, account of developments in psychiatry both in Natal and more widely in the Union of South Africa after World War I. Conceptually sophisticated, elegantly written and subtly argued, States of Mind is an important contribution to the growing literature on the history of the mentally afflicted in South Africa, and indeed in Africa and beyond. SHULA MARKS
NOTES Ann Goldberg, Sex, Religion and the Making of Modern Madness. The Eberback Asylum and German Society, 1815 1849 (Oxford: OUP, 1999), pp.7 8. 2 Jonathan Sadowsky, Imperial Bedlam. Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1999), p.18. 3 For a recent collection representing some of the key work in this field, see Sloan Mahone and Megan Vaughan, eds, Psychiatry and Empire (Basingstoke: Macmillan/Palgrave for Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies, 2007). 4 This chronology incidentally contradicts Richard Kellers assertion in an otherwise admirable review article that the first British institutions for the mentally ill in sub-Saharan Africa appeared only in the 1910s; his further assertion that from Mombasa to Cape Town, psychiatrists, colonial administrators and settlers focused their concerns about madness on indigenous rather than European populations is equally mistaken in relation to Cape Town and probably to South Africa more generally (see his Madness and colonization: psychiatry in the British and French empires, 1800 1962, Journal of Social History, 25, 2001, p.305). 5 Their Scottish provenance is no accident: Scots dominated the South African medical profession in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (John Mackenzie with Nigel P. Dalziel, The Scots in South Africa. Ethnicity, Identity, Gender and Race, 1772 1914 [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007], p.217) 6 According to M. Minde, the death rate for white patients was high at 30 per cent, but even higher for Africans at 39.6 per cent in the pre-Union period. (M. Minde, History of Mental Health Services in SA, Part V, Natal, SAMJ: 1 March 1975, p.324). Parle, remarks in the case of Native patients the odds on dying were greater than recovering (p.112). 7 See Megan Vaughan Introduction in Mahone and Vaughan, Psychiatry and Empire, p.4 8 This chapter has also been published in her Witchcraft or Madness? The Amandiki of Zululand, 1894 1914, Journal of Southern African Studies, vol.29, 1, 2003. 9 Cf. Roland Littlewood, Madness, Vice and Tabanka: Post-colonial Residues in Trinidadian Conceptualisations of Mental Illness, in Mahone and Vaughan, Psychiatry and Empire, p.220 1. 10 For the recent importance of indigenous notions of healing in both urban and rural South Africa, see, for example, Adam Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence and Democracy in the New South Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Jonny Steinberg, Three Letter Plague. A young mans journey through a great epidemic (Johannesburg and Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2008).
1

CLASSROOMS IN THE SHADE by SHANTHEE MANJOO. Johannesburg, STE Publishers, 2008. 300pp. illus. R145.00
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Classrooms in the Shade is in fact not about those classrooms, but about the dedication to excellent teaching, combined with the love and compassion which Shanthee Manjoo brought to those classrooms in the greater Pietermaritzburg area from the 1960s to the 1990s. It is encapsulated in the letter written to her when she was overseas visiting family in 1992, which reads in part:
When are you coming back to us? Here things are worse each day that goes by. The whole class miss you a lot. The way English has gone so boring. I cant even express it. Each day by the end of the period half of the class has fallen asleep. We no more have the energy we used to have when you were with us Maam. We just sit there for the whole lesson doing the listening and she the talking. We dont get a chance to talk or say something. The last time we added on our vocabulary is the last day you were with us. Everyone has dropped in his standard. Please do come back because we need you and miss you a lot. Love Cynthia
The Preface by Betty Govinden and the Foreword by Fatima Meer direct readers to the scope and texture of what is to follow as the author entertains and enriches, describing her richly textured family and community life as a backdrop to the events of those decades. Her reminiscences covering her own schooling and college days include frequent references to the discrimination suffered by non-white students. The early days of the Natal Indian Congress and the wider resistance movements, as well as former Market Square landmarks such as McDonalds (the seed and grain merchants, not the fast food chain), the old Plough Hotel and the Lambert Wilson Library will be familiar to many readers. Anecdotes around the mango tree in the garden as well as the peacock from the local temple will also be familiar to many who know the easternmost area of central Pietermaritzburg. As a member of a Hindu family Shanthee Manjoo describes in moving terms her struggle to wed across the religious divide, finally converting to Islam before marrying her husband. Their rich family life was affected by the brutalities of apartheid restrictions, but through all shines her devotion to excellence in her teaching and mothering of family and students. The photographs of early days at Haythorne and Woodlands schools capture the characters who led education at the time, and she traces the success of her own children and other students who travelled overseas to qualify in medicine and other disciplines. Her love of English literature and drama was easily communicated to her pupils. In recalling the unveiling of the Gandhi statue in central Pietermaritzburg she quotes the words on the pedestal My life is my message, and this surely is also what her memoirs show of her own richly lived life in the city.
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The present reviewer taught under some of the same conditions she and her students experienced, and hopes that her message of devotion to excellence in teaching could be emulated. Alas, even today, decades later, with improved conditions in many schools, the same doleful and uninspired teaching is prevalent in many classrooms in and out of the shade. May Shanthee Manjoos testimony inspire other teachers of today, or at least aspiring student-teachers still in training, how to love and inspire as she did. This is the message of her beautifully written autobiography. DEANNE LAWRANCE ZULU IDENTITIES: BEING ZULU, PAST AND PRESENT Edited by BENEDICT CARTON, JOHN LABAND and JABULANI SITHOLE. Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008. xxvi, 633pp. illus., maps. ISBN 978-1-86914-154-7. Zulu Identities is a big, ambitious book. A central aim, editor Jabulani Sithole states, is to represent different voices. What we bring together are diverse interpretations, which we hope will initiate an interdisciplinary dialogue. In this the editors succeed admirably, if not completely. There are 50 contributors and 52 chapters. Twenty contributors are connected with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and eight have Zulu surnames, indicating the work is solidly based on home ground. Eleven contributors are at other South African institutions. Four contributors are situated elsewhere in the Commonwealth. It is remarkable that no less than 10 of the contributors are in the United States. The three editors, who contribute eight of the chapters, are from KwaZulu-Natal, Canada and the United States. This breadth of scholarship assures us that this is no parochial work. Indeed, there is nothing quite like this book. It will become a standard reference. The book comprises six main sections: 1) Frames of Debate; 2) Foundations of Zuluness: Iron Age to Late 1800s; 3) The Roots of Gathering Struggles: Late Nineteenth to Middle Twentieth Century; 4) Hybridities: Customary Traditions, Healing and Spirituality, and Contentious Politics; 5) Symbolisms of Culture; and 6) Futures of Zuluness. The text is illustrated and there are colour plates to accompany the chapters on pots and beadwork; however, there are only two maps. Zuluness, a term, we are told (p. 387), coined by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi as early as 1984, in connection with his promotion of ethnic nationalism, is interpreted more broadly here. Editor Ben Carton believes it is not a vanishing relic, but a malleable construct (p. 4), and Jabulani Sithole refers to our Zuluness (ubuZulu bethu), which is not a sealed vernacular idea, but a phrase that encompasses competing views held by different actors for different reasons (p. 328). The editors set ethnic limits, not political ones, to Zuluness, and the book is informed by ideas and interpretations of writers, in so far as they reveal themselves, who are more sympathetic to the African National Congress than to the Inkatha Freedom Party. Buthelezi and his partisans do not come out well in this book. The editors are historians, and they are very much aware of the importance of historiographical shifts in the interpretation of the Zulu past. There are at least seven chapters which deal with the different perspectives and tensions between old and new political
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groupings. Nowhere are these differences more evident than the in methodological critiques of sources contained in the chapters concerning Shaka and Dingane. The sections of the book have, more or less, an historical sequence, but the chapters therein range widely, according to themes. There are chapters on art, culture and literature. Others are essentially archaeology, anthropology, sociology and political science. There is something for everyone. Or almost. The editors succeed admirably, but not completely. There are gaps, particularly in the narrative, which should have been filled. The weight of material is cultural/social, not political/economic, and the work is very uneven. Disparate chapters give a centrifugal quality to the larger sections, especially the fourth and fifth ones. Editor Ben Carton tries manfully to sum up all the chapters compendiously in sequence in his Introduction, but this does not work. The reader needs an introduction to each section, to give the disparate chapters coherence as well as to bridge gaps. The book falls short of being comprehensive. It is not quite a companion to Zulu Studies, but rather a portmanteau full of variegated pieces. Most of the chapters are good, and a dozen or so are very good indeed, but some are not. A few do not even seem relevant. And it is ironic that the historian editors do not give us a coherent history, not even section by section, of the Zulu people (or nation). But, of course, they have given us a great deal, and the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. It is doubtful that we shall see the like again at least for long time. PAUL THOMPSON ORAL HISTORY IN A WOUNDED COUNTRY: INTERACTIVE INTERVIEWING IN SOUTH AFRICA Edited by PHILIPPE DENIS and RADIKOBO NTSIMANE. Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008. vii, 196pp. ISBN 978-1-86914-147-9. This slender but informative book is a guide and manual for the practitioners of oral history in South Africa. The editors, who are also authors, are located in the School of Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Philippe Denis, Professor of the History of Christianity, is the Director of the Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory Work in Africa; and Radikobo Ntsimane, a doctoral student, is a researcher with the centre. The other contributors are South African or American academics with long experience in the field. In the Introduction Professor Denis states: Our ambition in publishing this book is to equip South African oral history practitioners with the skills necessary to better practise their discipline. In a country still wounded by a legacy of racial discrimination, the retrieving of oral memories is a task more urgent than ever. (p. 16) The aims are (1) to provide guidance to oral history practitioners, programme directors and educators who wish to start an oral history project; and (2) to analyse aspects of oral history practice of particular relevance to South Africa. (p. 16) Oral history, as we understand it, is the complete interaction between an interviewer and interviewee about events of the past, which requires questioning, as well as listening, on the part of the interviewer. (p. 3) Oral history is not simply a discrete type of
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historical study with a special methodology; its focus on plain people and the passion it involves also makes it what Ronald Grele calls a movement (p. 3). The development of oral history is described in some detail from the 1970s to the establishment in 2005 of the Oral History Association of South Africa, partly sustained by the Department of Arts and Culture and the National Archives (pp. 5 16). For many years it was a phenomenon of academe, nurtured by radical historians concerned with common people, but after 1994 the new regime took it up as a means of securing the indigenous heritage and promoting a new nationalism, and it has since been introduced into the history programmes of schools and institutions. The application and practice of oral history is contextualised in the Introduction and chapters 1, 4 and 6. The writers of these chapters are very positive about its application, but they are not unaware of the new Historys possible flaws, just as the old History had its flaws. The success of the governments policy is assessed by Julia Wells, in Are We Nation-Building Yet? The Role of Oral Historians in Documenting the Transition out of Apartheid, which fixes on the parameters, and by Cynthia Kros and Nicole Ulrich, in The Truth of Tales: Oral testimony and Teaching History in the Schools (chapter 4), which gives a glimpse of the application in Mpumulanga, where it faces many challenges, but has had some striking successes. In South Africa oral history is also attractive for its perceived ability to retrieve, affirm and disseminate long-repressed African traditions (p. 4). Jan Vansina distinguished between oral history, a conversation between an interviewer and an interviewee based on the latters personal reminiscences, and oral tradition, a record of past events transmitted from generation to generation. (p. 3) In Are rural communities Open Sources of Knowledge? (chapter 6) Mxolisi Mchunu writes of applications in KwaZulu-Natal: in his home community of KwaShange, and in the Ngome community near Greytown. Mchunus experience at Greytown involved the recovery of oral tradition as part of an Indigenous Knowledge Systems project on the 1906 rebellion, and as such contrasts markedly with the oral history work described in the other chapters. The real utility of the book lies in the advice for practitioners in chapters 2, 3, 5 and 7. The advice and instructions given by Ben Carton and Louise Vis, in Doing Oral History (chapter 2) and Philippe Denis, in The Ethics of Oral History (chapter 3) have general relevance. The same may be said for most of the Appendices. These include a check list and questionnaire for interviews, a code of ethics and guide lines for school projects, and a sample interview release form. The thrust of the book is, of course, towards helping the wounded. This was made clear in the Introduction, and it is implicit in the contextual chapters. There are two chapters which focus on just these individuals Radikobo Ntsimanes Why Should I Tell My Story?: Culture and Gender in Oral History (chapter 5), and Sean Fields What Can I Do When the Interviewee Cries?: Oral History Strategies for Containment and Regeneration (chapter 7). These chapters are most carefully and sensitively written, for the obvious reasons, and are deserving of the readers special attention. While the book will become a standard reference for oral historians in this country, the last mentioned four chapters and appendices might profitably be converted to a separate handbook for work in the field. PAUL THOMPSON
Select List of Recent KwaZulu-Natal Publications
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BHENGU, Nozipho Precious. Against the wall. Nasou Via Africa, 2008. 72 pp. R60,00 BIGGS, Tim. Three rivers of the Amazon. Pietermaritzburg: The author, 2007. 298 pp. illus., maps. ISBN: 978-0-620-39815-2. R354,00 BLACKBURN-WRIGHT, Sandy. Holding up the sky: an African life. Millers Point (NSW):Murdoch Books, 2008. 518 pp. illus. ISBN: 9781921208232. R199,00 COAN, Stephen. Chant of the doves. Kloof: Leopard Press, 2008. unpaginated, illus. ISBN: 978-1-920082-03. R82,00. A book of poetry. COURT, Peter. Hear the ringdove call. Reach Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 9781920084769. R152,00. A novel. CRESSWELL, Evelyn. Keeping the hours on the frontiers of faith. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2007. 150 pp. illus. ISBN: 978-18750-53-674 DENNISON, Clive. A brief history of the Wild Coast. Howick: Brevitas, 2008. DESAI, Ashwin and VAHED, Goolam. Inside indenture: a South African story, 1860 1914. Durban: Madiba Publishers, 2007. 480 pp. illus. ISBN: 1-87494523-3. R204,00 DORNING, Denise N. Chimneys in the clouds: an overview of the historic buildings in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands (1845 1925). 2nd edition. Pietermaritzburg: the Author, 2007. 123 pp. illus., map. ECKSTEIN, Brenda. ABCs of effective networking: 52 ways of achieving success. Pietermaritzburg: The author, 2008. FREUND, Bill. The African city: a history. Cambridge: University Press, 2007. 214 pp. illus., maps. (New approaches to African history). ISBN: 978-0-521572972-7. R274,00 GOVENDER, Ronnie. In the manure: memoirs and reflections. Cape Town: David Philip, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-86486-209. R166,00 GOVENDER, Ronnie. Song of the Atman. Johannesburg: Jacana, 2007. ISBN: 978177009-863. R138,00 GOVENDER, Rubendra. Sugar cane boy. Durban: Bambata Publishing, 2008. 129 pp. ISBN: 1-920135-87-1
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GOVINDEN, Devarakshanam Betty. A time of memory: reflections on recent South African writings. ?Durban: 2008. GREEN, Michael Cawood. For the sake of silence. Roggebaai (Cape Town): Umuzi, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-4152-00452. R254,00. An historical novel about the Mariannhill Trappists. GUTHRIE, Iain. Free bounds. Balgowan: Michaelhouse, 2007. 136 pp. illus., maps. R299.55. Sold in aid of Michaelhouse Oribi Reserve. HONE, John. Encounters with the Dragon: a photographers passion for the Drakensberg. Durban: Art Publishers, 2007. 277 pp. illus., maps. R425,00 HUNTLY, Jeff. Veld sketchbook: wildlife portraits and essays. Roggebaai (Cape Town): Sunbird, 2008. 192 pp. illus. ISBN: 978-1-9919938-71-4. R224,00 INGLIS, Robert and BEUKES, Leonore, eds. The Maloti Drakensberg experience. Jive Media, 2007. ISBN: 978-0620381482. R148,00 KHUMALO, Sihle. Dark Continent my black arse. Johannesburg: Random House, 2008. ISBN: 978-1415200360. R133,00 KYD, Hamish. Charlie. ?Durban: Storyland, 2008. ISBN: 978-0140272239. R92,00 LEE, Sumayya. The story of Maha. ISBN: 978-0795702467. R154,00 McNULTY, Bridget. Strange nervous laughter. 2007. ISBN: 978-1770200623. R123,00 MANJOO, Shanthee. Classrooms in the shade. Sunnyside (Johannesburg): STE Publishers, 2008. 300 pp. illus. ISBN: 1-919855-67X. R149,00 MARTIN, Julia. A millimetre of dust: visiting ancestral sites. Kwela Books, 2008. MNGADI, Mzi. Sobantu village. Pietermaritzburg: Nutrend Books, 2008. 27 pp. illus. ISBN: 978-1-920244-99-6. R32,00 NAIDOO, Phyllis. Footprints beyond Grey Street. NTSHINGILA, Futhi. Shameless. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008. 108 pp. ISBN: 978-1-86914-143-1. R95,00 NYEMBEZI, Sibusiso. The rich man of Pietermaritzburg; translated from the Zulu by Sandile Ngidi. Laverstock (Wiltshire): Aflame Books, 2008. 200 pp. ISBN: 978-0955233999. R113,00 OMARA, Bree. Home affairs. 30 Degrees South, 2008. ISBN: 978-1920143190. R138,00. A novel. PARKER, J.W. Just now, now, now. Durban, Just Done Productions, 2008. PATON, Alan. The hero of Currie Road: complete short stories. Roggebaai (Cape Town): Umuzi, 2008. 175 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4152-0050-6. R140,00 PATTMAN, Rob and KHAN, Sultan, eds. Undressing Durban. ?Durban: Madiba Publishers, 2007. 499 pp. illus. R220,00 POOLEY, Elsa. Trees of eastern South Africa. Revised edition of the 1993 work. POWER, Michael St George. Shadow game. Johannesburg: Penguin, 2008. (Penguin Modern Classics). ISBN: 978-0143-18556-7. RAGAVALOO, Andrew. Richmond: living in the shadow of death. STE Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 978-1919855820. R135,00 RABIE, Sue. Boston snowstorm. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 2008. A novel. RINGDAHL, Bridget. Blonde on a bike in India, South East Asia, South West China and Tibet. Noordhoek (Cape Town): Print Matters, 2007. 129 pp. illus., maps. ISBN: 978-0620-36331-0. R174,00
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RINGDAHL, Bridget. Blonde on a bike in South America. Noordhoek (Cape Town): Print Matters, 2007. 163 pp. illus., maps. ISBN: 978-09802620922. R199,00 SCHEFERMANN, Vernon. A German settler saga: a Schfermann story. Vryheid, the Author, 2005. 42 pp. illus., diagrs. SCHTTE, Richard. 150 years of the Volker family in South Africa: a special anniversary souvenir of 15 June 2008. Priv. print, 2008. 24 pp. illus. STEWART, Dianne, ed. Durban in a word. Penguin, 2008. ISBN: 978-0143-025504 TOMASELLI, Keyan G. Encountering modernity: twentieth century South African cinemas. ?Pretoria: Rozenberg-UNISA Press, 2007. VON FINTEL, Eckhard. Die Nachkommen von Friedrich Ksel und Johanna Schrder: die Geschichte eines Missionskolonisten und seine Nachkommen, 1858 2008. Pietermaritzburg: The Ksel family, 2008. 576 pp. illus., map. ISBN: 978-0-620-40350-4. R300,00 VON FINTEL, Eckhard. Die Nachkommen von Johann Heinrich Jakob Filter 1824 2008: die Geschichte einer Pionierfamilie in Nordnatal. Pietermaritzburg: Filter family, 2008. 462 pp. ISBN: 978-0620-41725-9 WHITESIDE, Alan. HIV/Aids: a very short introduction. WINTER, Martin. A resum of the life and times of Henry Daniel Winter, his forebears and descendants. Estcourt: The author, 2007. 73 pp. illus. R174, 00 ZULU, Musa E. Wheels on the souls of my shoes. Pietermaritzburg: Nutrend Books, 2008. The assistance of Book World, and Carmen and Aba of Exclusive Books in the compilation of the above list is gratefully acknowledged. SHELAGH SPENCER
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Notes on Contributors
Notes on Contributors
DR SYLVIA VIETZEN is a former principal of Girls High School in Pietermaritzburg who has been researching the life of Mabel Palmer. DR KALPANA HIRALAL is a lecturer in Historical Studies on the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. DR BILL BIZLEY retired as senior lecturer in the Department of English on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. DR PAUL THOMPSON retired as associate professor of Historical Studies on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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Ruined by a flood a disastrous flooding of the Mngeni River in 1856

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

Fabian Connections: Bernard Shaw in Natal, 1935

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Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

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Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

Indian Family Businesses in Natal, 1870 1950

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