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“To Make Them Serve”: The 1871 Transvaal Commission on African Labour as a Source for Agrarian History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Johan S. Bergh
Johan S. Bergh*
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria, cvnieker@postino.up.ac.za
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Extract

In the past twenty to twenty-five years valuable contributions have been made to southern African agrarian history. Stanley Trapido's publications, for example, opened up stimulating perspectives on the processes and forces inherent to nineteenth-century Transvaal agrarian history. Although he was modest in his 1980 chapter, “Reflections on Land, Office, and Wealth in the South African Republic, 1850-1900,” and referred to it as “a tentative and preliminary attempt to outline some important aspects of these social relationships,” it has provided historians and others with an important instrument of analysis.

However, there are still themes, regions, and periods that need attention, one of these being the central districts of the Transvaal before the industrial revolution. In this regard a little-known source which may contribute to our knowledge of the pre-industrial history of the Transvaal, and which will be published this year as an annotated source publication, should be taken note of. This is the 1871 Commission on African labor in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Despite the valuable information contained in its documents on agrarian history and various aspects of race relations, especially with regard to the central districts of the Transvaal, it has been neglected by historians in the past. Of the few historians who refer to the 1871 Commission, most have merely utilised the report of the commission and have probably missed the important testimonies, correspondence, and minutes. Very few have managed to locate these documents, which are concealed among the supplementary documents of the State Secretary for 1871 in the Transvaal Archives.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 29 , 2002 , pp. 39 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2002

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References

1 See for example Beinart, W., Delius, P. and Trapido, S. (eds.), Putting a Plough to the Ground. Accumulation and Dispossession in Rural South African 1850-1930 (Johannesburg, 1986)Google Scholar; van Onselen, C., The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, A South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985 (Cape Town, 1996)Google Scholar; Marks, S. and Atmore, A., Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Bozzoli, B., ed., Town and Countryside in the Transvaal. Capitalist Penetration and Popular Response (Johannesburg, 1983)Google Scholar; Delius, P., The Land Belongs to Us. The Pedi Polity, the Boers and the British in The Nineteenth-Century Transvaal (Johannesburg, 1983)Google Scholar; Shanin, T., ed., Peasants and Peasant Societies (2d ed.: Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar (especially the chapter by J.S. Saul and R. Woods, “African peasantries”); Klein, M.A., ed., Peasants in Africa. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Jeeves, A.H. and Crush, J., eds., White Farms, Black Labor. The State and Agrarian Change in Southern Africa, 1910-1950 (Pictermaritzburg, 1997)Google Scholar; Marks, S. and Rathbone, R., eds., Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa. African Class Formation, Culture and Consciousness 1870-1930 (New York, 1982)Google Scholar; Palmer, R. and Parsons, N., eds., The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (London, 1977)Google Scholar; Bundy, C., The Rise and Fall of The South African Peasantry (2d ed.: Cape Town, 1988)Google Scholar; Beinart, W. and Bundy, C., Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics and Popular Movements in The Transkei and Eastern Cape, 1890-1930 (Johannesburg, 1987)Google Scholar; Keegan, T.J., Rural Transformations in Industrial South Africa: The Southern Highveld to 1914 (Johannesburg, 1986)Google Scholar; Robertson, A.F., The Dynamics of Productive Relationships: African Share Contracts in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge, 1987)Google Scholar; Bozzoli, B., Women of Phokeug: Consciousness, Life Strategy and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900-1983 (Johannesburg, 1991)Google Scholar and a wide variety of articles in journals such as Journal of Southern African Studies, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of African History, Economy and Society and Journal of Historical Sociology by inter alia T. Ranger, C. van Onselen, M. Morris, S. Trapido, F. Cooper, J. Lewis, I. Phimister, J. Crush, J. Guy, M. Schoffeleers, C. Murray, M.J. Murray, T. Keegan, R. Levin, and M. Neocosmos.

2 Trapido, S., “Reflections on Land, Office and Wealth in the South-African Republic, 1850-1900” in Marks, S. and Atmore, A. (eds.), Economy and Society 350–68Google Scholar; Trapido, S., “Landlord and Tenant in a Colonial Economy: the Transvaal 1880-1910”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 5/1 (Oct. 1978), 26–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Trapido, S., “The South African Republic: Class Formation and the State, 1850-1900”, Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries, 3:53–65.Google Scholar

3 Trapido, , “Reflections,” 350.Google Scholar

4 For some publications in this regard see for example Mbenga, B. and Morton, F., “The Missionary as Land Broker: Henri Gonin, Saulspoort 269 and the Bakgatla of Rustenburg District, 1862-1922”, South African Historical Journal, 36(1997), 145–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mbenga, B.K., “Forced Labour in the Pilanesberg: The Flogging of Chief Kgamanyane by Commandant Paul Kruger, Saulspoort, April 1870”, Journal of Southern African Studies 23/1(March 1997), 127–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mbenga and A. Manson's research on the Fokeng of Rustenburg; Bergh, J.S., “African Reaction to White Penetration: The Central Districts of the Transvaal in the 1870s”, Historia, 45/1 (May 2000), 47–56.Google Scholar

5 Edited by J.S. Bergh and F. Morton.

6 See, for example, van Biljon, P., Grensbakens Tussen Blank en Swart in Suid-Afrika (Cape Town, 1947), 338–42Google Scholar and Huyser, J.D., “Die Naturelle-politiek van die Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek” (D. Litt., University of Pretoria, 1936), 174, 186.Google Scholar

7 See, for example, Stals, W.A., “Die Kwessie van Naturelle-eiendomsreg op Grond in Transvaal, 1838-1884”, Archives Year Book for South African History (1972/1972), 13–14Google Scholar; Bergh, J.S., “Die Berlynse Sendinggenoorskap in Pretoria en Omgevving, 1866-1881” (M.A., University of South Africa, 1973), 105ff.Google Scholar; Delius, , Land Belongs to Us, 151–53.Google Scholar Stals does not focus on the Commission at all and devotes only one and a half pages to it. Bergh also merely uses those documents of the Commission pertaining to intergroup relations from a missionary perspective and Delius is concentrating on the Pedi polity.

8 Minutes Of The Volksraad, 30 November 1871, article 421.

9 Ibid.

10 Transvaal Archives (hereafter TA), Staatsekretaris (hereafter SS) 139, Supl. 90/1871, 307-08.

11 Minutes of the Volksraad, 7 September 1871, articles 28 and 29.

12 TA, SS 139, Supl. 89/1871, Minutes of the Meetings of the Commission for Native Affairs, 11 September 1871-1 November 1871, 285-306.

13 TA, SS 139, Supl. 86/1871 and 91/1871 – 116/1871, 280, 310-402.

14 TA, SS 139, Supl. 81/1871-86/1871, 249-82.

15 TA, Eerste Volksraad (hereafter EVR) 214, No. 78, Report of the Commission, 1 November 1871, 340-57, entry number 40.

16 TA, SS 139, Supl. 89/1871, Minutes of the Meetings of the Commission, 20 September 1871, entry number 24.

17 Although I am positioning the article in the sphere of agrarian history, I am not trying to contribute to the debate on aspects such as the concept “peasant” and the way it should be applied, or the “origins of agrarian capitalism in South Africa” (see note 1). Rather I am focusing on agrarian history in general in the way it was used in, for example, in Beinart et al, Putting a Plough to the Ground.

18 African reaction to white penetration has been excluded since an article was already published on that theme. (Bergh, J.S., “African Reaction to White Penetration: The Central Districts of the Transvaal in the 1870s”, Historia 45/1 [May 2000], 47–54.Google Scholar) Some of the material on aspects such as Africans and missionaries, Africans and the right to carry firearms and Africans and passes have also been excluded and will be discussed in a later article. I have further restricted myself to the testimonies and correspondence before the Commission and have not tried to include the report of the Commission and the lengthy discussion of the report in the Volksraad.

19 TA, SS 139, Supl. 93/1871, Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, 394-95.

20 TA, SS 139, Supl. 103/1871, Testimony of David, 25 September 1871, 349.

21 TA, SS 139, Supl. 93/1871, Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, 394-95.

22 TA, Plaas Requestenregister (hereafter RAK) 2433, Z.J. de Beer, Beerfontein, 30 July 1849, no. 462, folio 42.

23 TA, RAK 2433, M. van Stade, Palmietfontein, 26 May 1843, no. 971, folio 158.

24 TA, RAK 2433, N.J. Teunisse, Zandfontein, 8 September 1849, no. 528, folio 44; D. Fourie, Grootvallei, 27 September 1849, no. 543, folio 44; H. Engelbrecht, Kleinfontein, 10 December 1849, no. 666, folio 49; A. Staanders (?), “Wilgenhoutspruit of Nooitgedacht”, 3 May 1850, no. 823, folio 55; S. van Dyk, Goedgedacht, 3 May 1850, no. 824, folio 55. (Some of these farms cannot be identified in the vicinity of Mokgatle on modern maps. It is possible that their names were later changed.)

25 Evidence taken at Bloembof before the Commission Appointed to Investigate the Claims of the South African Republic, Capt. N. Waterboer, Chief of West Griqualand, and Certain Other Native Chiefs, to the Portions of the Territory on the Vaal River, Now Known as Diamond Fields (hereafter Bloemhof Blue Book 1871) Cape Town, 1871: Evidence of Moilwa, 3 June 1871 and Matlaba, 2 June 1871, 316-17, 363.

26 Bergh, J.S., Geskiedenisatlas van Suid-Afrika: Die Vier Noordelike Provinsses (Pretoria, 1999), 128–32.Google Scholar

27 Trapido, , “Reflections,” 355–58.Google Scholar

28 TA, SS 139, Supl. 115/1871, Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, 394-95.

29 TA, SS 139, Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 19 September 1871, 333-34; Supl. 97/1871, Testimony of J.J. Meintjes, 20 September 1871, 339-40; Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 362; Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, September 1871, 363, 364-65; Supl. 115/1871, Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, 394.

30 TA, SS 139, Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 29 September 1871, 362.

31 Ibid, 359.

32 TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 364.

33 TA, RAK 3015-3023, Farm register books for the District of Rustenburg.

34 Beinart, et al., Putting a Plough to the Ground, 23–29Google Scholar, and the detailed chapters in this book by Delius, Keegan, and Beinart.

35 Ibid, 28.

36 TA, RAK 3015-3023, Farm Register Books for the District of Rustenburg.

37 Ibid; TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 363.

38 Dictionary of South African Biography 2:339–40Google Scholar (hereafter DSAB).

39 TA, RAK 3015-3023, Farm Register Books for the District of Rustenbrug; DSAB 2:340, 4:513.

40 TA, RAK 2989-3008, Farm Register Books for the District of Pretoria; DSAB 2:219-20.

41 TA, RAK 2989-3008, Farm Register Books for the District of Pretoria.

42 Ibid; TA, RAK 3015-3023, Farm Register Books for the District of Rustenburg.

43 Ibid.

44 Delius, , Laud Belongs to Us, 129.Google Scholar

45 TA, RAK 2989-3008, 3015-3023, Farm Register Books for the Districts of Pretoria and Rustenburg.

46 Bergh, , “African Reaction,” 52, 55.Google Scholar

47 Beinart, et al, Putting a Plough to the Ground, 37.Google Scholar

48 TA, SS 139, Supl. 83/1871, Renewal of contract, 2 November 1870, 253-56

49 TA, SS 139, Supl. 85/1871, S.J.P. Kruger—State President and Executive Council, 20 December 1870, article 3, 272-73.

50 TA, SS 139, Supl. 93/1871, Testimony of Makapane Ntshaupe, 14 September 1871, 320-21.

51 TA, SS 139, Supl. 105/1871, Testimony of Mathibe Kgosi, 27 September 1871, 353-54.

52 TA, SS 139, Supl. 83/1871, Renewal of contract, 2 November 1870, 253-56. For other copies see SS 471 and Bloemhof Blue Book 1871, 157-59.

53 TA, SS 139, Supl. 83/1871, Renewal of contract, 2 November 1870, 353-56.

54 TA, SS 139, Supl. 103/1871, Testimony of David, 25 September 1871, 349-51; Supl. 104/1871, Testimony of Maubane Moepi, 25 September 1871, 351-52; Supl. 83/1871, O. Sachse—Volksraad, 4 December 1870 with petition of Maubane Moepi, 4 December 1870, 263-66; Supl. 85/1871, S.J.P. Kruger—State President and Executive Council, 20 December 1870, 270-77.

55 TA, SS 139, Supl. 93/1871, Testimony of Makapane Ntshaupe, 14 September 1871, 320-21.

56 TA, SS 139, Supl. 105/1871, Testimony of Mathibe Kgosi, 27 September 1871, 353. The Hwaduba lived on the farm of Field-Cornet Gert Engelbrecht and his people. Engelbrecht was the Field-Cornet for Gatsrand in the District of Potchefstroom (See SS 139, Supl. 89/1871, Minutes of the Meetings of the Commission, 29 September 1871, no. 47).

57 TA, SS 139, Supl. 86/1871, Testimony of J. Lewis, 14 September 1871, 280.

58 Ibid.

59 TA, SS 139, Supl. 111/1871, Testimony of D.J. van der Merwe, 4 October 1871, 381; Supl. 114/1871, Testimony of G. Brits, 5 October 1871, 391.

60 TA, SS 139, Supl. 91/1871, Testimony of S.T. Prinsloo, 1 September 1871, 313; Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Wecber, 13 September 1871, 315; Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 370; Supl. 113/1871, Testimony of J.L. Jansen van Rensburg, 5 October 1871, 386.

61 TA, SS 139, Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 372-73.

62 TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 367.

63 TA, SS 139, Supl. 115/1871, Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, 395.

64 TA, SS 139, Supl. 115/1871, Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, 394.

65 TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 364-65.

66 TA, SS 139, Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Weeber, 13 September 1871, 316, 318-19; Supl. 94/1871, Testimony of W. Skinner, 14 September 1871, 323; Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 19 September 1871, 336; Supl. 111/1871, Testimony of D.J. van der Mervve, 4 October 1871, 379.

67 TA, SS 139, Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 370.

68 TA, SS 139, Supl. 105/1871, Testimony of Mathibe Kgosi, 27 September 1871, 354.

69 TA, SS 139, Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 362.

70 De Volksstem, 17 October 1873 (Arbeiders op de Diamandvelden).

71 Tromp, T.M., Herimterittgeii nit Zuid-Afrika (Leiden, 1879), 96, 167.Google Scholar

72 TA, Landdrost Pretoria vol. 34, R. Lys-Zwartbooi (Mathibe Kgosi), 8 July 1879.

73 TA, SS 139, Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 369-70; Supl. 110/1871, Testimony of H.P. Malan, 3 October 1871, 377.

74 South African Archival Records, Transvaal No. 5, 271-74: Ordonnantie No. 2 van 1864.

75 Ibid, 424-26: Wet ter voorkoming van landloopery, dievery en ander ongeregeldheden.

76 Jeppe, F. and Kotzé, J.G., De Lokale Wetten der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, 1849-1885 (Pretoria, 1887), 90–100Google Scholar: Instructie voor de Veldcornetten, 1858.

77 Ibid, 1: Veldcornet-instructien, 9 April 1849.

78 TA, SS 139, Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Weeber, 13 August 1871, 315-16; Supl. 95/1871, Testimony of J.R. Lys, 14 September 1871, 322; Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 18 September 1871, pp. 327, 336; Supl. 106/1871, Testimony of O. Sachse, 28 September 1871, 355; Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.C. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 359-60; Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 363-64, 367; Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 2 October 1872, 370; Supl. 111/1871, Testimony of D.J. van der Merwe, 4 October 1871, p. 378; Supl. 113/1871, Testimony of J.L. Jansen van Rensburg, 5 October 1871, 385, 388.

79 TA, SS 139, Supl. 86/1871, Testimony of J. Lewis, 14 September 1871, 280; Supl. 91/1871, Testimony of S.T. Prinsloo, 11 September 1871, 313, 314; Supl. 101/1871, Testimony of T. Erasmus, 22 September 1871, 344-45; Supl. 110/1871, Testimony of H.P. Malan, 3 October 1871, 373, 376; Supl. 114/1871, Testimony of G. Brits, 5 October 1871, 390-91; Supl. 116/1871, Testimony of S.J.P. Kruger, 396-97, 401-02.

80 TA, SS 139, Supl. 110/1871, Testimony of H.P. Malan, 3 October 1871, 373-74.

81 TA, SS 139, Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 18 September 1871, 327-31.

82 TA, SS 139, Supl. 103/1871, Testimony of David, 25 September 1871, 351; Supl. 104/1871, Testimony of Maubane Moepi, 25 September 1871, 352; Supl. 105/1871, Testimony of Mathibe Kgosi, 27 September 1871, 353-54.

83 TA, SS 139, Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 18 September 1871, 328.

84 TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 363.

85 See above.

86 See for example TA, SS 139, Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Weeber, 13 September 1871, 316; Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 359.

87 TA, SS 139, Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Weeber, 13 September 1871, 316, 318-19; Supl. 94/1871, Testimony of W. Skinner, 14 September 1871, 323, 324; Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 19 September 1871, 336; Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 362; Supl. 113/1871, Testimony of J.L. Jansen van Rensburg, 5 October 1871, 387.

88 STA, SS 139, Supl 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 359; Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 363-64, Supl. 96/1871, Testimony of P.J. van Staden, 19 September 1871,327-32; Supl. 113/1871, Testimony of J.L. Jansen van Rensburg, 5 October 1871, 386-87, 389-90; Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Weeber, 13 September 1871, 318-19; Supl. 94/1871, Testimony of W. Skinner, 14 September 1871, 323-24; Supl. 111/1871, Testimony of D.J. van der Merwe, 4 October 1871, 379-80.

89 See section V.

90 TA, SS 139, Supl. 116/1871, Testimony of S.J.P. Kruger, 17-18 October 1871, 397.

91 TA, SS 139, Supl. 101/1871, Testimony of T. Erasmus, 22 September 1871, 346.

92 TA, SS 139, Supl. 110/1871, Testimony of H.P. Malan, 3 October 1871, 376.

93 Ibid, 374.

94 TA, SS 139, Supl. 106/1871, Testimony of O. Sachse, 28 September 1871, 356.

95 TA, SS 139, Supl. 110/1871, Testimony of H.P. Malan, 3 October 1871, 376-77.

96 TA, SS 139, Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 371.

97 TA, SS 139, Supl. 101/1871, Testimony of T. Erasmus, 22 September 1871, 346.

98 SS 139, Supl. 91/1871, Testimony of S.T. Prinsloo, 11 September 1871, 310.

99 TA, SS 139, Supl. 92/1871, Testimony of O.C. Weeber, 13 September 1871, 315; Supl. 114/1871, Testimony of G. Brits, 5 October 1871, 391; Supl. 86/1871, Testimony of J. Lewis, 14 September 1871, 280; Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 370-71.

100 De Volksstem, 17 Oct. 1873 (Arbeiders op de Diamandvelden).

101 TA, SS 139, Supl. 109/1871, Testimony of P.J. van der Walt, 2 October 1871, 369.

102 TA, SS 139, Supl. 91/1871, Testimony of S.T. Prinsloo, 11 September 1871, 310.

103 TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 363-64.

104 Ibid, 364.

105 TA, SS 139, Supl. 111/1871, Testimony of D.J. van der Merwe, 4 October 1871, 382.

106 TA, SS 139, Supl. 107/1871, Testimony of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871, 359.

107 TA, SS 139, Supl. 108/1871, Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, 364.

108 See above.