The Reminiscences of Sir Walter Stanford; Vol. II

The Reminiscences of Sir Walter Stanford

Volume I: 1850–1885
Volume II: 1885–1929

Sir Walter Stanford se tweede volume handel oor sy tyd as hooflanddros in Pondoland, tot en met die anneksasie daarvan, die impak van die Suid-Afrikaanse Oorlog, die skepping van Ndabeni (Kaapstad se eerste lokasie), en die Naturellesake Kommissie van 1904.

Sir Walter Stanford

Walter Ernest Mortimer Stanford was ‘n afstammeling van die 1820 Setlaars aan beide sy ma en pa se kant. Hy is op 2 Augustus 1850 in Alice in die Oos-Kaap gebore. Toe hy ses jaar oud was, is sy pa in ‘n perdry ongeluk oorlede en moes sy ma ses kinders alleen grootmaak. Walter is gestuur om by sy oom, ‘n sendeling in beheer van die Glen Grey sendingstasie in die Queenstown distrik, te bly. Hier het hy onderrig van sy tante ontvang. Na drie jaar keer hy terug na sy ma in Alice en spandeer twee jaar by die Lovedale Missionary Institution. Sy formele opvoeding eindig dus voor sy twaalfde verjaarsdag.

Op 1 Julie 1863, net voor sy dertiende verjaardag, word hy ‘n klerk onder sy oom by Glen Grey, wat in daardie stadium aangestel is as ‘n regeringsagent vir die “Tambookie”, die naam wat vir die abaThembu-mense gebruik is. Walter Stanford betree dus die diens van die Departement Naturellesake. Hier is hy vir die volgende vyf-en-veertig jaar werksaam en het hy ‘n diepgaande invloed op die ontwikkeling van Suid-Afrika gehad.

From Walker’s Historical Atlas of Southern Africa  (By kind permission of the Clarendon Press)

Die eerste volume van sy Reminiscences is in 1958 deur die Van Riebeeck Vereniging gepubliseer (VRS Vol I-39) en handel oor die tydperk van sy geboorte in 1850 tot 1885, net voor hy sy amp as hooflanddros van Griekwaland-Oos aanvaar het.

Hierdie uitgawe, die tweede volume van Stanford se Reminiscences, dek die tydperk van 1886 tot met sy afsterwe in 1933. Dit beklemtoon die rol wat swart Suid Afrikaners in die Suid-Afrikaanse Oorlog gespeel het en hul houding teenoor die wyse waarop dit gevoer is. Hy het ‘n kritieke rol gespeel in die totstandkoming van Ndabeni (die eerste sogenaamde township in Suid-Afrika) om die skepping en voortbestaan ​​van oorvol onhigiëniese krotbuurte in Kaapstad te vermy en om trekarbeiders te red van die gierigheid van die verhuurders.

Nqwiliso, Chief of Western Pondoland

Na sy aftrede het hy sy lewens- en werksherinneringe begin neerskryf. Hy het gedeeltelik staatgemaak op sy geheue maar grotendeels op geskrewe rekords. Van 1876 tot 1933, tot drie maande voor sy afsterwe, het hy ‘n dagboek bygehou waarin hy byna daaglikse inskrywings gemaak het. Die dagboeke bestaan uit nie minder as twee-en-sewentig volumes. Ten spyte van verskeie onderbrekings is sy Reminiscences, wat nou in twee volumes gepubliseer word, in 1929 voltooi.

A

Staff of the Native Affairs Department, Cape Town, ca 1898. Stanford, the Under-Secretary is seated third from the left.

Toespraak wat deur die Nqamakwe stam aangebied is.

Stanford is in 1909 as die Kaapse afgevaardigde na die Nasionale Konvensie benoem in die plek van premier Schreiner, waar hy voorgestel het dat stemregte aan alle inwoners toegestaan moet word, ongeag hul ras of kleur. Hy was nie suksesvol in die verkryging van ‘n algemene ‘inheemse’ stemreg, gekwalifiseerd of ongekwalifiseerd, nie. Hy het egter daarin geslaag om die destydse bestaande Kaapse ‘inboorling’ stemreg in die Suid-Afrika Wet te laat verskans.

UITTREKSEL UIT DIE TEKS 

[..] warnings of intended treachery reached the magistrates but the meeting passed over without any overt act. The conduct of Makwaai’s men however was such that Mr. Brownlee was satisfied of their intention to rebel.

Following on the meeting traders were warned to leave the district. In doing so they were not personally molested but their stores were looted. On the evening of the 3rd October Ramhlagwana warned Mr. Brownlee that an attack on Mooiterie’s Kop had been arranged for that night. Ramhlagwana’s son Stampi and his brother Umsi were in the plot. On this information Mr. Brownlee and the officers with him put up defences and this becoming known the attack was deferred. On the morning of the 4th it was decided that Mr. Brownlee and party should return to Kokstad and Liefeldt [with] his clerk Austin fall back on the Fingo locations southward where later he successfully organised a defensive force. Ramhlagwana and his brother Sili with fifty armed men met the chief magistrate as he approached the border of his location.

The hostile Basuto, some four hundred strong, who were threatening a flank attack from the right, fell back on observing this movement. For about five miles Ramhlagwana kept with Mr. Brownlee and then turned homeward. The Umizimvubu drift was not far off when some mounted Basuto galloped forward to intercept the chief magistrate. These were checked and at the river a force of thirty Europeans and one hundred natives thoughtfully sent forward from Kokstad by Mr. J. T. Wylde, then Magistrate of the Mount Currie district, was found.

A laager had been formed by farmers from the neighbourhood near this drift and, leaving Commandant Strachan in control, Mr. Brownlee proceeded to Kokstad and energetically entered upon the task of organising such forces as were available to meet the emergency.

For an hour after Mr. Brownlee’s departure from Mooiterie’s Kop Liefeldt and Austin waited there with sixty loyal Fingos of the Hlubi tribe. The treacherous petty chief Umsi with about forty Basuto were also there. After the interval mentioned Liefeldt dashed out on horseback with Austin and got through to the location of the chief Ludidi and other Fingo headmen on the Kenigha River. The people there were in a state of panic, but the presence of their magistrate restored confidence and [they] faced the Basuto, who were already devastating the country around. The sixty Fingos who were at Mooiterie’s Kop belonged to three locations. They were suffered to depart with their arms by the Basuto headman, Sekaki, but were afterwards attacked and lost eleven men in cutting their way through the Basuto.

Umhlonhlo now came forward as the friend of the Government. He sent a congratulatory message to Mr. Brownlee and expressed readiness to take the field with his men under [the] command of the magistrate. Umhlonhlo’s loyalty in this critical time would have been very valuable to the country and it was even suggested that his well-known influence with the Bathlokoa chief, Lindingwana, might be used to detach that chief from the rebel Basuto with whom he was rightly suspected of being in sympathy.

It was not without grave misgivings that the experienced Chief Magistrate accepted the offer of Umhlonhlo made through his magistrate. But Hope was confident and the issues at stake were very important. So, accompanied by Umhlonhlo, Hope attended a preliminary meeting at Hlankomo (Chevy Chase) and then proceeded to Maclear. Here he met the magistrates of Maclear and Tsolo, Thomson and Welsh. Umhlonhlo and Lindingwana played their parts with consummate skill. ‘They were children of the Government.’ In reality Lindingwana was pressing Umhlonhlo to begin operations then and there by the murder of the three magistrates. In fact they had the magistrates at their mercy. Umhlonhlo refused. He had been promised arms and ammunition for his men, and until these were secured he would not move. Thus the meeting broke up with protestations of friendship and loyalty from these two chiefs.

Hope and Welsh returned to their respective magistracies. Meanwhile the Chief Magistrate had rapidly got forces together and, with these, Commandant Strachan attacked Makwaai, Sekaki and other Basuto leaders driving them and their adherents

Redakteur

Die Skots-gebore Mnr. Macquarrie dien vir ses-en-dertig jaar as opvoeder in Suid-Afrika. Hy het begin as onderwyser en dien later as skoolhoof, voor hy inspekteur van blanke, kleurling, en swart skole in die Kaapse Onderwys Departement geword het. Toe die Bantoe Onderwyswet in 1953 aanvaar is, is Mnr. Macquarrie oorgeplaas na die onderwysafdeling van die Naturellesake Departement. Hy het beide die beginsel van die wet asook die toepassingsmetode daarvan teengestaan en bedank dus as inspekteur. Hy aanvaar ‘n pos as senior lektor in die Fakulteit Opvoedkunde aan die Universiteit van Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Hy het baie oor onderwys en maatskaplike probleme geskryf en is bekend vir sy reguit sienings oor ras en opvoeding.