37 chapters
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37 chapters
Chapter I A Retrospect
Chapter I A Retrospect
I am Black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. The Song of Songs. Awaking on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African Native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the la
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DIVISION
DIVISION
Dr. A. H. Watkins (Barkly) called for a division, which was taken with the following result....
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AYES — 32.
AYES — 32.
Andrews, William Henry Baxter, William Duncan Berry, William Bisset Blaine, George Boydell, Thomas Brown, Daniel Maclaren Creswell, Frederic Hugh Page Duncan, Patrick Fawcus, Alfred Fitzpatrick, James Percy Henderson, James Henwood, Charlie Hunter, David Jagger, John William King, John Gavin Long, Basil Kellett Macaulay, Donald Madeley, Walter Bayley Meyler, Hugh Mowbray Nathan, Emile Oliver, Henry Alfred Quinn, John William Rockey, Willie Runciman, William Sampson, Henry William Schreiner, Theo
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NOES — 57.
NOES — 57.
Alberts, Johannes Joachim Becker, Heinrich Christian Bosman, Hendrik Johannes Botha, Louis Brain, Thomas Phillip Burton, Henry Clayton, Walter Frederick Cronje, Frederik Reinhardt Currey, Henry Latham De Beer, Michiel Johannes De Jager, Andries Lourens De Waal, Hendrik Du Toit, Gert Johan Wilhelm Geldenhuys, Lourens Graaff, David Pieter de Villiers Griffin, William Henry Grobler, Evert Nicolaas Grobler, Pieter Gert Wessel Joubert, Christiaan Johannes Jacobus Joubert, Jozua Adriaan Keyter, Jan Ga
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Chapter III The Natives' Land Act
Chapter III The Natives' Land Act
I blush to think that His Majesty's representative signed a law like this, and signed it in such circumstances. Rev. Amos Burnet (Chairman and General Superintendent of the Transvaal and Swazieland District, Wesleyan Methodist Church). Up to now we have dealt with the history of the Land Act from its commencement, and all the speeches a
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Chapter IV One Night with the Fugitives
Chapter IV One Night with the Fugitives
Es ist unkoeniglich zu weinen — ach, Und hier nicht weinen ist unvaeterlich. Schiller. "Pray that your flight be not in winter," said Jesus Christ; but it was only during the winter of 1913 that the full significance of this New Testament passage was revealed to us. We left Kimberley by the early morning train during the first week in July, on a tour of observation regarding the operation of the Natives' Land Act; and we arrived at Bloemhof, in Transvaa
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Chapter V Another Night with the Sufferers
Chapter V Another Night with the Sufferers
Heureux ceux qui sont morts dans le calme des soirs, Avant ces jours affreux de carnage et de haine! Ils se sont endormis, le coeur rempli d'espoirs, Dans un reve d'amour et de concorde humaine! Ils n'ont pas entendu la sinistre remeur Qui monte des hameaux consumes par la flamme, Ni les cris des enfants et des vierges en pleurs, Ni le gemissement des vieillards et des femmes! Heureux les morts! Maurice Kufferath. We parted sadly
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Chapter VI Our Indebtedness to White Women
Chapter VI Our Indebtedness to White Women
O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou. Scott. Some farmers (unfortunately too few) who had at first intended to change the status of their native tenants, had been obliged to abandon the idea owing to the determined opposition of their wives. One such case was particularly interesting. Thus, at
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Chapter VII Persecution of Coloured Women in the Orange Free State
Chapter VII Persecution of Coloured Women in the Orange Free State
Ripe persecution, like the plant Whose nascence Mocha boasted, Some bitter fruit produced, whose worth Was never known till roasted. When the Free State ex-Republicans made use of the South African Constitution — a Constitution which Lord Gladstone says is one after the Boer sentiment — to ruin the coloured population, they should at least have confined their persecution to the male portion of the blacks (as is done in a milder manner in the other three Provinces), and have left the wome
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Chapter VIII At Thaba Ncho: A Secretarial Fiasco
Chapter VIII At Thaba Ncho: A Secretarial Fiasco
Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. Burns. The beginning of September, 1913, found us in the Lady Brand district. Besides numerous other sufferers of the land plague, the writer was here informed of one case that was particularly distressing, of a native couple evicted from a farm in the adjoining district. After making a fruitless search for a new place of abode, they took out a travelling pass to go to Basutoland with their stock. B
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Chapter IX The Fateful 13
Chapter IX The Fateful 13
He hath disgraced me and laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what is his reason? I am a Kafir. Hath not a Kafir eyes? hath not a Kafir hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a white Afrikander?
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Chapter X Dr. Abdurahman, President of the A.P.O. / Dr. A. Abdurahman, M.P.C.
Chapter X Dr. Abdurahman, President of the A.P.O. / Dr. A. Abdurahman, M.P.C.
(Native of the Cape, and M.B.C. of Edinburgh) President of the African Political Organization on the South African Colour Trouble The following presidential address was delivered by Dr. Abdurahman at Kimberley on September 29, 1913, at the opening of the tenth annual Conference of the A.P.O. His Worship Councillor E. Oppenheimer, Mayor of Kimberley, presided: — == Nearly two years have elapsed since we last met in Conference — two years crowded with events that have an important bearing on
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Chapter XI The Natives' Land Act in Cape Colony
Chapter XI The Natives' Land Act in Cape Colony
It must not be lost sight of that all land held by Europeans in Africa has been acquired by conquest or diplomacy, and that the aboriginal Natives have been ousted by the white man: that being so, I cannot see any reason why the Native should not be allowed to buy back what he has lost; in my opinion he should be encouraged to do so. . . . He is a better citizen than the thriftless European who lives from hand to mouth and makes no effort to better his circumstances.
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Chapter XII The Passing of Cape Ideals
Chapter XII The Passing of Cape Ideals
Naboth was right to hold on to his home. There were garnered memories that all the wealth of Ahab could not buy. Ward Beecher. From the great meeting place — Sheshegu — we went through the Alice district. In this district we met several men who would get no crops — their annual income — the next year, as the law had placed an embargo on their ordinary avocation. King Williamstown was also visited, and there at a meeting held in the Baptist Church, whi
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Chapter XIII Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, the Pioneer Native Pressman
Chapter XIII Mr. Tengo-Jabavu, the Pioneer Native Pressman
Egotists cannot converse; they talk to themselves only. Alcott. There is issued in King Williamstown (Cape) `Imvo', the second oldest newspaper published in any one of the South African native languages. This paper formerly had a kind of monopoly in the field of native journalism, and it deserved a wide reputation. In later years the `Izwi', another native journal, appeared on the scene; and then the King Williamstown pioneer could hardly hold its ground
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THE NATIVES' LAND ACT IN NATAL
THE NATIVES' LAND ACT IN NATAL
In the following months both the Minister in charge of Native Affairs and the Chief Native Commissioner of Natal asked Rev. John L. Dube, President of the S.A. Native National Congress, to furnish them with information and particulars of Natives in misery as a result of the Natives' Land Act. Mr. Dube had been collecting some concrete cases of hardship, including Chief Sandanazwe of Evansdale, Waschbank, who stated that he and fifty members of his tribe "are given notice to remove, and that he h
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Chapter XV The Kimberley Congress / The Kimberley Conference
Chapter XV The Kimberley Congress / The Kimberley Conference
Sorrow like this draws parted lives in one, and knits anew the rents which time has made. Lewis Morris. When everything was ready another special Congress was called to meet at Johannesburg in February, to carry out the deputation's scheme and appoint the delegates to proceed to England. In view of the dissatisfaction of the Government after the July Congress, the author considered it his duty to inform the Government that a meeting was about to take
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Chapter XVI The Appeal for Imperial Protection
Chapter XVI The Appeal for Imperial Protection
Of all the characters of cruelty, I consider that as the most odious which assumes the garb of mercy. Fox. On arrival in London the native delegates were received by several friends, including Dr. Chas. Garnett, M.A., of the Brotherhood League; Rev. Amos Burnet, of Transvaal, introduced them to the Wesleyan Missionary Committee in session at Bishopsgate; the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society communicated with the Colonial Office regarding
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Chapter XVII The London Press and the Natives' Land Act
Chapter XVII The London Press and the Natives' Land Act
Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall. Cowper. The native deputation (thanks to Mr. H. Cornish, secretary of the Institute of Journalists) can truthfully assure their people, at the present critical state of their position, of the sympathy of the London Press. It is hardly necessary to mention that religious papers, to which the object of the deputat
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Chapter XVIII The P.S.A. and Brotherhoods
Chapter XVIII The P.S.A. and Brotherhoods
The Brotherhood must help not only the spiritual part of life, but also in social matters. They should always help the down-trodden, showing the brotherly feeling which was portrayed throughout the life of Christ. Rt. Hon. A. Henderson, M.P., President of the Brotherhood Movement, at Weston-super-Mare. In a previous chapter we mentioned a yellow-covered newspaper which abused our English friends for supporting the appeal of the
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Chapter XIX Armed Natives in the South African War
Chapter XIX Armed Natives in the South African War
Oh, where is he, the simple fool, Who says that wars are over? What bloody portent flashes there, Across the Straits of Dover? Nine hundred thousand slaves in arms May seek to bring us under But England lives and still will live, For we'll crush the despot yonder. Are we ready, Britons all, To answer foes with thunder? Arm, arm, arm! The Gallant Bakhatla Tribe When Bechuanaland was invaded by the Republican forces at the outbreak of the Boer War, the British Po
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Chapter XX The South African Races and the European War
Chapter XX The South African Races and the European War
Oh! the Battle-bow is strung, The Banner is outflung: From lowlands and from valley, From mountain-tops, they rally! L. J. Coppin. Africa is a land of prophets and prophetesses. In the course of our tour of observation on the ravages of the Land Act, we reached Vereeniging in August, 1913, and found the little village astir because the local pastor, Rev. S. H. Senamela, was returning from a certain funeral service. To many of the people of the place
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Chapter XXI Coloured People's Help Rejected / The Offer of Assistance by the South African Coloured Races Rejected
Chapter XXI Coloured People's Help Rejected / The Offer of Assistance by the South African Coloured Races Rejected
The Africans and their descendants in America have proven to the world that they do not lack courage and military ardour. This the French have recognized by enlisting them in their present struggle. We hope for the sake of the Africans that they will give a good account of themselves, but the coloured race is like the Irish who are invincible in fighting for other nations, but not for themselves. An American on the Great War. The African Political Organization was early in the field. Dr. Abdurah
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Chapter XXII The South African Boers and the European War
Chapter XXII The South African Boers and the European War
I slept and had a vision; and what was it about? For lo and behold, the sky was covered with a dark cloud on which was impressed the number 15, and blood issued from this cloud. Thereupon I beheld General Jacobus De la Rey returning to his Lichtenburg home without a hat on his head, and he was closely followed by a carriage full of flowers. Niklaas Rensburg (the Boer Prophet). When the war broke out, there was no question, as far as on
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Chapter XXIII The Boer Rebellion
Chapter XXIII The Boer Rebellion
Arm, arm, Burghers; we never had more cause! The Goths have gathered head; and with a power of high-resolved men, bent to the spoil, They hither march amain, under conduct Of Manie, son to old Gerit Maritz, Who threats in course of his revenge, to do As much as ever Black Bambata did. The following telegram was published by the South African Government: — == October 13, 1914. Ever since the resignation of General C. F. Beyers as Commandant-General of the Citizen Force, there have b
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Chapter II:
Chapter II:
(p. 42) [ delivered by the Governor-General at the opening af the session ] changed to: [ delivered by the Governor-General at the opening of the session ] (p. 44) [ H. Mentz and G. A. Louw, teller ] changed to: [ H. Mentz and G. A. Louw, tellers. ]...
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Chapter VI:
Chapter VI:
(p. 82) [ my hushand's and children's peculiar wants, if Anna ] changed to: [ my husband's and children's peculiar wants, if Anna ]...
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Chapter VIII:
Chapter VIII:
(p. 106) [ under notice to leave, We informed them ] changed to: [ under notice to leave. We informed them ] (p. 110) [ Pieter Dout consented, and joined the exlpedition ] changed to: [ Pieter Dout consented, and joined the expedition ] (p. 112) [ to mulct them in more money than the land. is worth. The best legal advice they have received is that they should sell their inheritances to white men ] changed to: [ to mulct them in more money than the land is worth. The best legal advice they have
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Chapter IX:
Chapter IX:
(p. 120) [ says Dr. Kellog, ] changed to: [ says Dr. Kellogg, ] (This is the correct spelling of the name of a doctor who was famous about the time that Plaatje was writing, and who was undoubtedly the source for the quote.) (p. 132) [ Hence, let the leaders direct them into cruel way as they are seemingly ] changed to: [ Hence, let the leaders direct them into cruel ways as they are seemingly ]...
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Chapter X:
Chapter X:
(p. 142) [ went unarmed to hold with the Matebele chiefs ] changed to: [ went unarmed to hold with the Matabele chiefs ] (in accordance with other usage, and another edition.) (p. 144) [ the papers and the public chorus with joy hear that the C.S.A.R. ] changed to: [ the papers and the public chorus with joy to hear that the C.S.A.R. ]...
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Chapter XIV:
Chapter XIV:
(p. 178) [ and Mid-Illovu, ] (end of paragraph) changed to: [ and Mid-Illovu. ] (p. 179) [ July 20, 191. ] changed to: [ July 20, 1913. ]...
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Chapter XVI:
Chapter XVI:
(p. 197) [ (Mr Alden) and the hon. Baronet th Member for Hackney (Sir A. Spicer ] changed to: [ (Mr. Alden) and the hon. Baronet the Member for Hackney (Sir A. Spicer) ] (p. 221) Regarding the reference to `The Biglow Papers', the quote is from No. VI, and `The Biglow Papers' was written by J. R. Lowell (see below)....
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Chapter XVIII:
Chapter XVIII:
(p. 225) (subtitle) [ Bear ye one another's Burdens" ] changed to: [ "Bear ye one another's Burdens" ] (p. 231) [ F. R. Lowell ] changed to: [ J. R. Lowell ] James Russell Lowell [1819-1891], the Massachusetts poet, wrote these lines, under the title "Stanzas on Freedom". As the italic forms of "J" and "F" are similar, and frequently confused, this error is not to be wondered at. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th stanzas are quoted in the text. The complete text is presented here: Stanzas on Freedom Men! wh
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Chapter XIX:
Chapter XIX:
(p. 242) [ to those of the Barolongs, who used their own rifles, ] changed to: [ to those of the Barolongs who used their own rifles, ] The Crest of Queen Victoria, mentioned in brackets, is, of course, unavailable in ASCII. The letters V R. are for "Victoria Regina", or, "Queen Victoria"....
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Chapter XXI:
Chapter XXI:
(p. 276) [ both missionaries, also poke offering to associate themselves ] changed to: [ both missionaries, also spoke offering to associate themselves ] (p.278) [ the districts of Calvania, Kenhardt, Keimoes, and Upington ] changed to: [ the districts of Calvinia, Kenhardt, Keimoes, and Upington ] in accordance with other use in the surrounding text....
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Chapter XXII:
Chapter XXII:
(p. 291) [ her privileges of free citizenship (Cheers.) ] changed to: [ her privileges of free citizenship. (Cheers.) ] (p. 302) [ half a million Boers. ] & [ people's gathering.) ] changed to: [ half a million Boers.) ] & [ people's gathering. ] Closing parenthesis was at end of wrong paragraph. (p. 303) [ the harm that as likely to follow a provocation ] changed to: [ the harm that is likely to follow a provocation ] (p. 308) [ in addition to his own rebels commando. ] changed
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Chapter XXIV:
Chapter XXIV:
(p. 336) [ a petition from Rustenberg, made it compulsory ] changed to: [ a petition from Rustenburg, made it compulsory ] in accordance with other use in the surrounding text. (p. 338) [ Deuteronomy xix. 14, ] updated to: [ Deuteronomy 19:14, ] Epilogue: (p. 348) [ signed the Natives' Lant Act ] changed to: [ signed the Natives' Land Act ] (p. 351) [ has done her duty. ] changed to: [ has done her duty." ] Report of the Lands Commission: (p. 357) [ Chairman of the Commission a retired Judge ]
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