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“We Must Never Forget Where We Come From”: The Bafokeng and Their Land in the 19th Century Transvaal1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

J.S. Bergh
J.S. Bergh*
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria
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Extract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the events, forces, realities, challenges and opportunities with which the Bafokeng community in the vicinity of Rustenburg was confronted during the course of the nineteenth century, especially with regard to the loss of their land and the way they responded to this dispossession. Much of the groundwork for their subsequent successful acquisition of land was laid during this period. These successes—and the good fortune of the Bafokeng that rich platinum deposits were later discovered on the land they obtained in this way—elevated them to a prominent position at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The status of the Bafokeng was emphasized when the former South African President Nelson Mandela, the Home Affairs Minister Mango-sutho Buthelezi, the South African first lady Zanele Mbeki, and the Lesotho Queen Mother were among the guests at the coronation of Leruo Moletlegi as kgosi or chief of the Bafokeng in 2003.

The dispossession of the land of the Bafokeng by white settlers from the end of the 1830s and the Bafokeng's attempts to regain this land should be seen against a number of important nineteenth-century trends. Firstly, there was the forfeiture to the white settlers of large tracts of land claimed by indigenous communities in European colonies in the nineteenth and earlier centuries. In southern Africa white settlers seized no less than 40. million hectares of land up to 1860 and another 107. million hectares during the next hundred years. A second important trend was the mineral revolution in the interior of southern Africa. Thirdly, the settlement of a large number of missionaries among African communities in this period also influenced the dynamics of the dispossession and acquisition of land.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 32 , 2005 , pp. 95 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2005

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Footnotes

1

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Biennial Conference of the Historical Association of South Africa, Stellenbosch, April 2004, and the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, New Orleans, November 2004. I wish to express my appreciation to Charles van Onselen, Ian Phimister, and Sue Cook for their constructive comments and suggestions for improving these earlier versions.

References

2 Sunday Times, 17 August 2003 (“Bafokeng king takes the throne”).

3 South of the Zambezi, Okavango, and Kunene rivers, but excluding areas in Mozambique. Christopher, A.J., “Official Land Disposal Policies and European Settlement in Southern Africa, 1860-1960,” Journal of Historical Geography 9(1983), 369–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Transvaal Archives (hereafter TA), Archives of the Superintendent of Natives (hereafter SN) 177, Minutes of Native Location Commission, 22 August 1883 and 26 December 1887, 15, 43; Potgieter, F.J., “Die Vestiging van die Blanke in Transvaal (1837-1886) met Spesiale Verwysing na die Verhouding tussen die Mens en die Omgewing,” Archives Year Book for South African History (1958/2), 25Google Scholar. In 1906 the population numbers of the Bafokeng were calculated to be 11, 673 (TA, Archives of the Native Location Commission, 1904-1908, hereafter C27, vol. 13, Reports on Rustenburg Locations, C. Griffith to Location Commission, 11 February 1906) and the above estimation of 3,000 for the 1880s is perhaps too low.

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12 Coertze, , Bafokeng Family Law, 34Google Scholar; August Mokgatle testified before the Native Location Commission on 17 December 1906: “[o]ur tribe has lived in this part of the country for a very long time. Thirty two chiefs have died here in succession” (TA, C27, vol. 13, Evidence of Chief August Mokhatle and Indunas, 17 December 1906).

13 TA, Archives of the State Secretary (hereafter SS) 139, Supl. 27/1871, Declaraties aangaande overwinning van Moselikatze door de oude emigranten, Verklaring van den Hoofd Capitein Magata wonende in het District Rustenburg, 1871, 106-07; Coertze, Bafokeng Family Law, 33-37.

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

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18 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…, 158Google Scholar: Minutes of the Volksraad, 13 November 1871, article 344.

19 Ibid, 158-59.

20 Evidence taken at Bloemhof before the Commission Appointed to Investigate the Claims of the South African Republic, Capt. N. Waterboer, 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)Google Scholar: Evidence of Moilwa, 3 June 1871, and Matlaba, 2 June 1871, 316-17, 363.

21 Jeppe, F., and Kotzé, J.G., eds., De Locale Wetten der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, 1849-85 (Pretoria, 1887), 142Google Scholar: Minutes of the Volksraad, 28 September 1858 (sic) (1860), art. 149.

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

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25 See, for example, Article 159 of the Volksraad Minutes of 18 June 1855 and the so-called Thirty-Three Articles of 1844 in Jeppe, /Kotzé, , Locale Wetten, 1-6, 31Google Scholar.

26 Ibid., 97: Instructie voor Veldcornetten, 17 September 1858.

27 Ibid.

28 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 174Google Scholar: Wet no. 9 (1870), Native Taxes and Vagrancy Law, Article 15.

29 Ibid, Articles 16 and 17.

30 Jeppe, /Kotzé, , Locale Wetten, 273–74Google Scholar: Ordonnatie ter voorkoming van landloopery, dievery en andere ongeregeldheden der Kaffers …, Articles 16, 18, 19, and 20.

31 J.H. Breytenbach and D.C. Joubert, eds., South African Archival Records, Transvaal No. 5, Minutes of the Volksraad…with Annexures, 425: Wet ter voorkoming van landloopery, dievery Articles 15-18.

32 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 136Google Scholar: Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871; TA, RAK 3015-3023, Farm Register Books for the District of Rustenburg, No. 427, Morgenzon.

33 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 135–36Google Scholar: Testimony of C. Penzhorn, 29 September 1871; TA, RAK 3015-3023, Farm Register Books for the District of Rustenburg, No. 419, Rietspruit.

34 Ibid., Testimonies of Christof Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, and Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871.

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40 TA, SS 1144, R6352/85, Deed of Sale between SJP Kruger and C Penzhorn, 4 November 1868, 79-80.

41 Ibid, Deed of Transfer No 8133, Turffontein, and Deed of Transfer No 8134, Beerfontein, 18 July 1871, 77-78.

42 TA, C 27, vol. 13, Evidence of Chief Mokhatle and Indunas, 17 December 1906.

43 TA, Archives of the Executive Council (hereafter UR) 2, URB, 21 January 1868, art. 14, 583-84; Breytenbach, J.H., ed., South African Archival Records, Transvaal No 3, 28–29Google Scholar: Minutes of The Volksraad, 6 October 1868, art. 111.

44 TA, UR 3, URB, 19 July 1869, art. 1, 124-25.

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

48 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 104, 113Google Scholar: Evidence of David, 25 September 1871; Evidence of H.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871.

49 Ibid., 108: Evidence of Mathibe Kgosi, 27 September 1871, and 113: Evidence of M.L. Gonin, 28 September 1871.

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51 De Volksstem, 17 October 1873 (“Arbeiders op de Diamandvelden”).

52 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 79, 134Google Scholar: Testimonies of O.C. Weeber, 13 September 1871, and G. Brits, 5 October 1871.

53 Ibid., p. 74: Testimony of S.T. Prinsloo, 11 September 1871.

54 Coertze, , Bafokeng Family Law, 40Google Scholar.

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56 See, for example, the testimony with regard to the Honingfontein No. 122, Vlakfontein No. 276, Elandsheuvel No. 282, Kleindoornspruit No. 108, and Goedgedacht No. 114, where it was specifically mentioned that they had been bought by the kgosi and Beerfontein No. 263, Turffontein No. 262, Boschfontein No. 268, Klipfontein No. 300, Klipgat No. 281, and Reinkoyalskraal No. 278 by “the tribe.” The testimony regarding Doornspruit No. 106, Styldrift No. 90, and Hartebeestspruit No. 88 indicates that these farms had been bought by “the chief and the tribe.” (TA, C27, vol. 13, Evidence of Chief August Mokhatle and Indunas, 17 December 1906).

57 TA, C27, vol. 13, Evidence of Chief August Mokhatle and Indunas, 17 December 1906.

58 Ibid.

59 Coertze, , Bafokeng Family Law, 38Google Scholar.

60 Ibid., 30-41.

61 Ibid., 43; Also see Kruger, Paul, Memoirs of Paul Kruger (London, 1902), 67Google Scholar; Mokgatle, , Autobiography, 29–31Google Scholar; anonymous traveler's account in the Natal Mercury (11 December 1866), quoted in Morton, Fred, “Captive Labor in the Western Transvaal After the Sand River Convention” in Eldredge, E.A. and Morton, F., Slavery in South Africa. Captive Labor on the Dutch Frontier (Pietermaritzburg, 1994), 176Google Scholar.

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65 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 138Google Scholar: Testimony of S.J.P. Kruger, 17-18 October 1871.

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67 Bergh, /Morton, , “To Make Them Serve…”, 131Google Scholar: Testimony of J.L. Jansen van Rensburg, 5 October 1871.

68 Ibid., 126: Testimony of D.J. van der Merwe, 4 October 1871.

69 Ibid., 136: Testimony of Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871.

70 Ibid., 115-16, 135, 145: Testimonies of Christof Penzhorn, 29 September 1871, and Mokgatle Thethe, 27 September 1871, and the Report of the Commission, 7 November 1871.

71 Anonymous traveler's account in the Natal Mercury (11 December 1866), quoted by Morton, “Captive Labor”, 176. I am grateful to Fred Morton for bringing this to my attention.

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75 Ibid., 142.

76 Memoirs of Faul Kruger, 175-78; Informers of the British forces in the vicinity of Rustenburg relate this incident differently, but their versions also differ substantially from each other (Rhodes House, Oxford, Lagden Papers, Diaries, Notebooks, 1877-1883, Mss. Afr. S 142-152: See, for example, the information supplied by “Lucas and Moses,” 28 February 1881, “Josiah and Cobus,” 3 March 1881, “Saul and Gert,” 7 March 1881, and “Fritz,” 7 March 1881).

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84 Ibid., 15; J.S. Bergh, “Grondregte,” 43.

85 TA, SN 177, Minutes of the Native Location Commission, 24 and 26 December 1887, Articles 70 and 71,42-45.

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87 TA, SN 177, Minutes of the Native Location Commission, 26 December 1887, 4345.

88 Unisa Archives, ADA 366595 (266.4168 WEN), Chronik der Missionstation Kana von Missionar Hermann Wenhold, 16-17, 18.

89 South African Native Affairs Commission 1903-5, vol. IV, 610Google Scholar: Evidence of Ernest Creux, 6 October 1904, paragraph 41, 744.

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92 Sunday Times Business Times, 10 August 2003 (“The Bafokeng Hail a New King”).