THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1979-1980 President Vice-Presidents Trustees Treasurers Auditors Chief Librarian Secretary Elected Members City Council Representatives Cr Miss P.A. Reid M.l.C. Daly, Esq. A.e. Mitchell, Esq. Dr 1. Clark S.N. Roberts, Esq. A.e. Mitchell, Esq. Dr R.E. Stevenson M.l.e. Daly, Esq. Messrs Dix, Boyes & Co. Messrs Thornton-Dibb, van der Leeuw & Partners A.S.e. Hooper (resigned May 1980) Mrs S.S. Wallis (appointed August 1980) P.C.G. McKenzie COUNCIL er Miss P.A. Reid (Chairman) S.N. Roberts, Esq. (Vice-Chairman) Dr F.e. Friedlander R. Owen. Esq. W.G. Anderson, Esq. F.l.H. Martin. Esq.. M.E.e. A.D.S. Rose, Esq. R.S. Steyn. Esq. 1.M. Sellers, Esq. A. Mostert, Esq. (resigned) M.l.e. Daly, Esq. (co-opted) Cr A. F. Tan Cr H.D. Browne er H. Lundie er e.W. Wood EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA Editor 1.M. Sellers, Esq. 1.M. Deane, Esq. T.B. Frost. Esq. W.R. Guest, Esq. Miss M.P. Moberly Mrs S.P.M. Spencer Miss 1. Faner (Hon. Sec.) Natalia 10 (1980) Copyright Natal Society Foundation 2010Cover Picture Natal Government Railways passenger carriage, 1878. (Seating capacity: 24 Tare: 5 tons) Photograph: Local History Museum, Durban. Copies of. this number and back numbers of Nalalia, except No. 1 (1971) a.nd No. S (1978), are obtainable at R3,00 per copy from The Chief Librarian, Natal Society Public Library, P.O. Box 415, Pietermaritzburg, 3200. SA ISSN 0085 3674 Printed by The Natal Witness (Ply) Lld Contents Page EDITORIAL 'i REPRINT On a Tough Missionary Post in Zululand Part II Edited by Charles Ballard Translated by Helen Feist ............ 7 ARTICLE The Battle of lvuna (or Ndunu Hill) 1. P. C. Laband . . . . . . ..... 16 ARTICLE The Voortrekker Dorps of Natal - R.F. Haswell 2J ARTICLE The Opening of the Rililway hetween Durhan and Pietermaritzburg - 100 years ago B. Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 34 ARTICLE The Special Collections of the Natal Societv Library-A.S.C. Ho(;per. . . . . . . . . . . 41 OBITUARIES R.A. Banks. 4'1 F.N. Broome . 47 A. Petrie . . . . 41\ NOTES AND QUERIES M. P. Moherly 'i I BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES 64 register of research on natal 1. Farrer . . . . 77 SELECI LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS 1. Farrer 78 NOTES ON CON IRIBUIORS 79 Editorial Readers will have noticed thaL with this number. Nl1tl1lia has reached 'I tenth milestone. We should. therefore, like to pay tribute to all those \\ 11\' have assisted in keeping this project going successfully during thc last dv cade. I n particular. we are grateful to the many people who have C(llltl,'" uted articles. These have covered a wide range of topics and have, wc h()l'l led to the realisation of the aims of the original promoters of Nata/"T 11 1971, who set out their policy in the following words: "It will publish articles in, roughly. five categories: environmcnt:li. pre-historical, historical, contemporary and cultural. It will also as a directory of information and current research. and about SOCicll'. '. organizations and individuals actively interested in the preservati() " Natal's heritage and in the study of its physicaL natural and hlll,' 1 resources. Since its early beginnings, the reputation of Notalia has spread beyond t 11" limits of this City and Province to South Africa as a whole, and even be V()l1lf its horders to countries overseas. For example, in the United States 1.1 America, the American Historical Association, in its issue of RecclIIl Published Articles (Vol. 4 No. 3 October 1979, pp. R2-3) has, in the sectioJ1 entitled South Africa. specific details of articles published in Nl1talia -, and 8. The range of articles included in this number is very great. the idea being to cater for the interests of a wide variety of readers. We have highlighted the centenary of the opening of the first railway link between Durhan and Pietennaritzhurg because we feel that, as this event was such a great land mark in Natal's economic history, it should be fittingly commemorated ill Nalalia. This railway line, which ultimately reached the Transvaal border ill 1891, was to prove increasingly important after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. It is also appropriate to reflect on the fact that the railway line provided Natal with its only reliable communication link with the interior until the construction of thc National Road network which was started towards the end of the 1930s. For the second consccutive year thc Natal Socicty has sponsored what is officially known as '"The Natal Society Annual Lecture". On 13th June this lecture was given by Mr Robert F. Haswell, Senior Lecturer in Geograph\ at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg). It was entitled '"Pietermaritzburg - a Voortrekker Dorp", and it was listened to by a most appreciativl' audience who filled the Library Auditorium to capacity. Wc are grateful to Mr Haswell for rc-organising and supplementing the material of his lecturt in order to produce an article, which has been included in this number. Natal has suffered the loss of three of her most celebrated citizens during the course of the year, and tributes are paid to them in this issue of Natalia. We are grateful to the Judge-President of Natal, Mr Justice Neville James, for his article on the late Mr Justice F.N. Broome, a former Judge-President of the Natal Supreme Court. The present Director of Education, Or G .A. Hosking, has kindly written about the late Or R.A. Banks. We felt that it would be fitting for a fellow Scot to write the tribute to the late Professor Alexander Petrie, and Or John Clark, a former Editor of Natalia, readily agreed to do this. At the end of May, Mr A.S.C. Hooper relinquished the post of Chief Librarian in order to assume duty as the University Librarian at the University of Cape Town. During the time that he was Chief Librarian he worked enthusiastically and imaginatively to consolidate and to build on the work of his predecessors. Soon after his appointment he had to face the challenge of moving the Library from the old building in Longmarket Street (now the PADCA Centre) to the new one on Churchill Square - an operation that was carried out efficiently and expeditiously. We are particularly grateful to him for the interest that he showed in Natalia, and for the way in which he gave encouragement and help to the Editor and members of the Editorial Committee. He took a personal interest in the planning and progress of each issue. We feel that it is fitting. therefore, that an article written by him should be included in this edition. It deals with the Special Collections in the Library ~ ~ n d it reflects the basic aim of his policy as Chief Librarian, which was to make information about the Library'S bibliographical treasures and resources as widely known as possible. Having paid tribute to the work of the former Chief Librarian, we should like to welcome Mrs S.S. Wallis who assumed duty as the new Chief Librarian on 1st August. Mrs Wallis was formerly on the staff of the Johannesburg Public Library where she was engaged in developing a number of specialist projects, the most important being the building up of the Music Library when she was in charge of that section. In addition to her professional qualification, Mrs Wallis holds the B.Mus. and M.A. degrees. In the wider sphere of library work, she has played an active role in the affairs of her local branch of the South African Institute for Librarianship and Information Science. Mrs Wallis is deeply conscious of the role that the Natal Society Library can play in the lives of the people of Pietermaritzburg, and we wish her every success in her new post. At the beginning of the Editorial, reference was made to the fact that this is the tenth issue. Thus it is fitting to conclude with a comment as Natalia enters its second decade. May it continue to play a significant role in the intellectual life of this community who support it, and in that of the wider world. May it continue to be a journal which the President and Members of the Council of the Natal Society are proud to sponsor. FLOREAT NATAL/A! JOHN M. SELLERS 7 On a Tough Missionary Post in Zululand PART II The Life Experiences of the Missionary Friedrich Volker according to the notes of his wife HERMANNSBURG 1928 Edited by Charles Ballard Translated by Helen Feist SYNOPSIS The life of the German missionary, the Reverend Friedrich Volker, in nineteeth century Zululand has been portrayed by his wife as one of great trial and tragedy. Part T which appeared in the 1979 edition of Natalia was concerned with Volker's arrival in Natal in 1858 and his subsequent establishment of Emlalazi Mission-station in southern Zululand in 1860. Volker's writings expressed much the same sentiment on Zulu society and political life as the majority of German, Norwegian and English missionaries. Like many of his colonial Victorian contemporaries, Volker felt strongly that the Zulu king, Cetshwayo, and members of the ruling class placed social and economic restrictions in the paths of those Zulu who desired to become Christians. More importantly, the king and the ruling class of chiefs and royal princes wanted to prevent mission-stations from becoming centres of sanctuary for Zulu who had committed crimes, who had been rebellious and who rejected established Zulu customs in preference for those practised by Europeans. With the approach of the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879, Volker and many Zululand missionaries despaired at having to leave their homes and the work which they had been doing for almost twenty years. But Volker was not opposed to the war on principle as was Bishop Colenso; instead he saw in a military solution the means of toppling King Cetshwayo and the traditional ruling class that hampered missionary endeavour. Ironically, the defeat of the Zulu by Britain did not "open up" Zululand to unrestricted missionary activity. Sir Garnet Wolseley's Ulundi Settlement of 1879 reflected little sympathy for the expansion and protection of mis8 On a Tough Missionary Post sionary interests. Wolseley had, in keeping with Colonial Office policy, devolved political and economic power to thirteen puppet chiefs - some of whom were extreme in their anti-missionary bias. Volker was forbidden to re-occupy Emlalazi by the District Chief, John Dunn. The Natal Colonist commented on this strange twist in missionary fortunes: Instead of the 'missionary borne back on the wave of conquest' which they invoked, they find themselves stranded, shut out from the very spots they voluntarily relinquished in hopes of speedily re-occupying freed from such checks and trammels as have hitherto hampered them.l In August 1881 Volker and his family moved to northern Zululand and established themselves at Ekuhlengeni. Part II focuses on Volker's last years of mission work in post-war Zululand. However, Volker did not find the peace and political stability that he now so desperately wanted in order to carry on his evangelical work. He had the misfortune of running a missionstation that was located squarely in the war zone during the destructive Zulu Civil War of 1883-84. The anxiety, fear and grief which Volker and his family experienced is given full expression in this concluding section. CHARLES BALLARD PART 11 In Northern Zululand As dear Brother Volker realised the impossibility of returning from Sinkwazi to Emlalazi, the Superintendent gave the order in August of the year 1880 to rebuild Ekuhlengeni (i.e. the salvation) in Northern Zululand, which had been destroyed during the war. The mission was then suffering from a great shortage of funds, the salary of the missionaries had been reduced and Volker had to see to it that he could manage without special help, but together with his family he was looking forward to going to such a nice station and he was thankful to God in his heart that he could once again embark on a full programme of missionary work. After having made the necessary purchases in Durban for the construction of the station, he departed from Sinkwazi on the 11th September, \880, accompanied by his eldest son, Johannes. The road led via Eshowe and Kwamagwaza (where the English missionary Robertson had resumed his activity) throughout Zululand. On the 28th of the month they arrived at Brother Stallbom's at Bethel. Here they were met by the missionary Schroder, who had recently arrived from Germany, in order to accompany them to Ekuhlengeni, where they arrived on the following day. As expected they found the whole station, which had been built by Brother Wagner and afterwards tended by him, completely destroyed by the war. The buildings were burnt down, the fire also having spread through the banana plantation. Many trees were felled and the water supply wrecked. Some of the walls, especially of the living quarters, were reasonably intact. After all that Volker had gone through, his heart was filled with much gladness that he could take up his vocation once again. He therefore looked to 1 Natal Colonist, 28 Oct. 1879. 9 On II Tough Missionary Post the future with confidence and spared neither trouble nor expense to put the station to rights once more. To start with. the permission of the local ruler, Zulu Chief Ugcinwayo. had to be obtained and the British resident Osborn had to be notified. This was done during the next few days, and after some difficulties had been overcome. friendly advice and permission were obtained. Volker returned to Sinkwazi to fetch his family and the rest of his belongings, after having covered the ruin of the old waggon house with corrugated iron held in place by large stones, thus establishing a temporary lodging. He was advised to avoid the difficult route through Zululand and to return via Hermannsburg and Greytown and through the thorn country in Natal via Helpmekaar. His son 10hannes stayed behind with the missionary Schrbder on the station Ekuhlengeni. From Sinkwazi Volker, with his wife and a few children, first had to go to Durban again to buy provisions for house and family including seed potatoes, seeds and whatever else was missing. They were given a friendly reception by the family of the missionary Flygare, whose wife was a relative of Volker's wife. Flygare had resigned from the Hermannsburg Mission and had found employment with the Swedish Mission. After all the essentials had been obtained, they returned to Sinkwazi in order to set out as soon as possible for Northern Zululand. With the start of the rainy season, the unfavourable weather made the journey very difficult and time-consuming. The Volkers travelled in a covered waggon with a span of fourteen oxen. followed by two goods waggons. At the beginning of December they arrived at the Swedish Mission Station Oskarsberg. where they were received very warmly. Before they departed on the next day, they still visited the local cemetery where the Britons who had fallen during the Zulu War had found their last rest. The graves were temporarily provided with small black wooden crosses, on each of which hung a wreath of white everlasting flowers. with a red satin bow. with which the Empress Eugenie of France had had the graves decorated on her recent visit to the resting-place of her son. On the following morning they crossed the Buffalo River and the next day reached our station Bethel. where the brother and sister Stallbom were pleased about the visit. At two o'clock in the afternoon Brother Volker had the oxen inspanned again. It was hoped to reach Ekuhlengeni before sunset. However at the next river the goods waggons stuck fast, and it was only after some hours that the poor oxen with lashes of the whip and great commotion, could be brought to drag the waggons out of the mud. Finally, it became so dark that someone had to walk ahead with a lantern to find the waggon trails which sometimes showed the way past precipices. Thus at eleven o'clock at night they finally arrived at their future home, where missionary Schroder and 10hannes Volker were sleeping deeply and only awoke after loud whip cracking; they had bedded down in an old calf stable. The whole family settled down to sleep, the grown-up daughters in a part of the waggon-house which was already equipped with a door and windows. the parents and the little ones in the former stable, where the holes in the walls were covered with sacks and the entrance with ox-hide. Thus all slept soundly after the long journey and rose early to view their new world. which they found enchanting. especially the rivulet (here called Schlote) , As all kinds,of seeds had been sent ahead. they found there was already a 10 On a Tough Missionary Post pretty little garden full of vegetables, which had been started by the young missionary Schroder and which he had planted with circumspection and good taste, surrounding it with a hedge of sunflowers. The small congregation of Christians who had fled from Emlalazi with Brother Volker had settled with other missionaries in Natal, since Burpham was not a good place to live. Only a very few, who were still in the christening instruction classes, accompanied him to Ekuhlengeni. However, soon the faithful Petrus Quabe arrived with his family from Emlalazi, followed later by his brother-in-law Matthaus Mtembu. The heathen living in the vicinity of Ekuhlengeni showed themselves friendly towards the missionary family, even if they only came hesitantly to work and very gradually to instruction. A lot of building now had to be done. By Easter 1881 the living quarters were habitable. To the delight of Volker some youngsters and an old granny and her daughter also reported for Christian instruction. Schroder in the meantime studied the language and held morning prayers for our people until after some time he asked Ham [in the nineteenth century Europeans spelled Hamu in several variations - Uhamu, Uhama and Ham C.B.] the brother of Cetshwayo, for a plot where he could set up a new station, and this was granted him.lO So he took leave of Volker and moved into the vicinity of Hlobane, between Zululand and the territory of the Transvaal. He revisited Ekuhlengeni only once, after that the Volkers did not see him again, for during the Second Zulu War, which soon broke out, he was cruelly murdered by a Black named Mapele. He was faithful unto death and he therefore also gained the unfading crown of honour as a martyr and witness to Christ. The Ravages of the Second Zulu War New unrest had broken out when the 13 chiefs or small kings appointed by Sir Garnet Wolseley skirmished and warred among themselves. While Cetshwayo as a prisoner paid a visit to England, messengers continually proceeded to Maritzburg to ask for his reinstatement as king. The requests of the Zulus were supported by the party of Bishop Colenso. As a result England relented, Cetshwayo returned and on 29th January 1883 he was installed as king by Sir Theophilus Shepstone in the presence of 3 000 Zulus. As the whole of the land was, however, not restored to him, he was dissatisfied, especially because the son of Mapita, Usibepu, his former subject and one of the 13 chiefs, retained a small area in the North East and he regarded him with particular suspicion. Cetshwayo therefore sent messengers to Usibepu and let him know that he was to return the cattle which he had appropriated during the absence of the king. Usibepu's answer was: "Come and get them with an impi" (armed group). Thus war broke out and the stay in Northern Zululand was almost more dangerous than during the First Zulu War. Volker lived among the Usutu, the king's party, when they fought the first battle with Ham's men, who had combined with Usibepu and his people. The Usutu were beaten and returned in disorderly flight. Many wounded came to the station and had to be bandaged, the others looked for a hiding place in the vicinity; old women who could not keep up any more were left at the station. Other women came daily from their hiding II On a Tough Missionary Post places and asked for provisions with milk if possible for their small children. No one could or would refuse all these poor people. As a result, however. Volker was seen by Ham's people as an adversary, although he maintained the strictest neutrality and only aided those in need. One evening when Volker held a service and an instruction class in the church, three messengers from Brother Stallbom came riding up to the house and brought the shocking news of the murder of Brother Schroder. One can imagine the pain and sorrow with which all were affected. How many of the following nights were spent in fear and horror! There was continual speculation as to how it might have happened and what the poor Brother must have suffered. "Yes, eternity ~ i l l disclose it", Volker used to say, but all must be prepared, day and night, against the possibility of sudden attack. The news that Cetshwayo had been beaten and that the enemy army was approaching was given to Volker in the middle of the night by fleeing Usutus. It was too late to fly, as even Petrus Quabe admitted. So everyone commended their affairs to the Lord and expected in God's name the arrival of Ham and Usibepu's people. Great clouds of smoke already heralded their approach as they burned down everything before them, grass, huts and kraals. The small band of Christian ones, especially women and children, old grannies and old men, fled into the living quarters; some, having rested awhile, tried to make their way across the border. The black masses could be seen approaching like a tide, ever nearer through the valley of the Black Umfolosi. Midday had approached and Brother Volker, accompanied by Petrus, Phillipus, Moses and Kleophas, went to meet them in a composed manner in order to receive them at the entrance to the station and to sav a few polite words to the indunas (leaders). His people in the house w ~ r e seized with fear and took refuge beneath the verandah, the mother with the four youngest children (the other children were safe at school in Hermannsburg). Only the eldest son 10hannes kept guard behind the house. All knew that the first reception would decide their fate and fervent prayers and sighs went up to Heaven from their hearts that almighty and merciful God would help and save them in their great need. In a few minutes the whole family was surrounded. More than 1 000 of Ham's and Usibepu's men encircled the house while Volker himself was still negotiating with the indunas. Out of fear Mrs Volker and her children greeted the crowds surrounding them as amicably and obligingly as possible. The reply was: "We have killed the Usutu, give us matches so that we can also burn their houses and kraals." Then they became insistent and started making demands. With bloodthirsty eyes, their hands full of glistening assegais, they called for blankets, sugar, soap and so on. Brother Volker gave the indunas nearly all his coats and other possessions to gain their goodwill because without their orders and against their wishes nobody was allowed to plunder and murder. Most of them were already laden with all kinds of things which they had robbed from Cetshwayo's people. Furthermore, they had many women and small children and girls with them whom they had captured and gagged and bound because according to their instructions, they were only allowed to kill men, youths and boys. All the prisoners stood trembling and shaking like a herd of sheep under the trees. 12 On a Tough Missionary Post Finally, shortly before sunset, after terrible pressure and afflictions and after they had finally taken hold of everything they could lay their hands on, even the washing from the bathtub, the whole army moved across the river. But as the life and health of all had been so graciously spared, Volker and his people could only praise and thank the Lord for saving them in their dire need. Now when all thought that the last of the enemies had departed, an old woman emerged from the banana plantation where she had hidden. At that moment a wild Zulu warrior dashed from the other side towards her, swinging his spear and calling: "Ha! shall I stab her now'? Shall I kill her'?" But Johannes Volker stood with his mother in front of the kitchen door. Whether he remembered the fable of the Wolf and the Fox at this moment, or for whatever reason, the quickwitted and brave Johannes called out to the savage: "Au, if you stab her, you cannot boast to have killed a person; she is hardly a person any more." And behold, the wild warrior stopped as if thunderstruck. jumped once more into the air and was off. But unfortunately with the defeat of Cetshwayo the war did not come to an cnd: instead the insecurity increased continuously, the King a fugitive in his own country and the people split up into marauding bands. On 22nd September 1883 the station was again attacked by a detachment of Ham's people. Since their wild war cries: .. Wafshctsha wilfshctsha izulu" could already be heard from afar. a number of men, women and children fled before them into Volker's house. They fired at the fugitives but did not hit them. Roaring, they surrounded the house and demanded that those in hiding be handed over. To comply would have meant the certain death of these poor wretches. They had crept trembling into all the nooks under the tables and the beds. When Volker refused to hand them over, they threatened him, stabbed to death his dog, which had barked at them, and drove away his cattle and those of the heathen Christians. As it started to get dark, however. they released them again and camped for the night in the vicinity of the station. Before dawn the inhabitants of the house were awakened by their shouting. They hit with sticks against the window panes, crying: "Kipa abanfu: kipa abarlfu" ("Bring out the people!") When they did not get their will, they drove away all the cattle. but returned some of them later when Johannes Volker. together with several heathen Christians, made representations to Ham. Daily it was hoped that England would intervene to restore peace and order in this part of Zululand, but that was a vain hope, because everything was in a state of chaos. Even Mapela, the murderer of Brother Schroder, was allowed to rove up and down the country with his bands. One day he came to Ekuhlengeni on horseback with mounted and armed followers and addressed Johannes Volker with the words: "Do you know who I am'?" He answered: "Yes, T see you are Mapela". Not having expected to be recognised, he asked somewhat disconcertedly for food. He came another time when Father Volker was also present and asked for bread. It was terrible to see this person and to have to hand food to him willy-nilly; but it was considered the lesser evil. as any use of force on the part of the Volkers would have been their undoing. Missionary Weber at Emyati had approached the Governor of Natal in writing and asked that steps be taken for the punishment of the murderer of 13 On a Tough Missionary Post Schroder and for the security of the rest of the missions; but the petition was refused on the grounds that this did not concern Natal. All our missionaries had also sent a petition to the German Government in connection with Schroder. The reply was: "Detailed enquiries had been made in respect of Schroder's background and of all circumstances concerning him and they had been officially informed that Schroder and all missionaries who left Germany together with him had excluded themselves from the community of German subjects and that this matter could therefore not be taken in hand." This proved again that human help is of no avail. Volker tried to the utmost to hold out on the station which had only just been newly built in order to preserve it from destruction, but it was all in vain, because the confusion and distress increased from day to day. On a Sunday after the service, Volker had already packed the most necessary effects and food into bundles and the heathen (i.e. converted) Christians had offered to carry these as far as Natal. As evening approached, they became increasingly reluctant to go on their way and the Lord influenced them in their hearts to unpack again and stay put. After a few days it was decided that the mother and children should travel to Hermannsburg to good friends in Natal on the waggon and with the oxen, which they had got back from Ham's people, while Volker himself, with the eldest sons, still wanted to stay on. And so it came to pass. Yet on the return journey Mrs Volker heard that they all had to leave Ekuhlengeni. ll She now hurried back and when one day they outspanned at the Buffalo River, the Swedish missionaries P. Witt and Friestadt,12 knowing what went on in Zululand, came and offered her spacious quarters in Fort MelvilI near to the new house at Oskarsberg. Mrs Volker preferred to move on first to Emfunyane where she met her dear ones and also brother and sister Stallbom. This was a sad and yet happy reunion, for God's hand had preserved them, body and soul, from harm. From Emfunyane, where they all had to camp out in the open, they moved back again to Fort MelvilL near the Buffalo River, which they had to cross. They were kindly welcomed by the English Bishop Douglas MacKenzie whose station was in the vicinity. He saw the waggon full of children, as well as black women and children carrying their bundles in front and behind the waggons. After some days he came with his wife to the place of refuge, Fort Melvill, enquired after all and sundry and helped the Volkers as best he could. In the meantime a number of Boers, who had also been joined by some Germans and Englishmen, had seized on the idea of occupying the land of the Usutu. They offered Prince Dinizulu, the son of Cetshwayo, their help against Ham and Usibepu, in exchange for which he was to give each one of them a free farm. Dinizulu agreed, and after the Boers had pronounced and anointed him King, the fight against Ham and Usibepu started. Soon one could read in the English newspaper: "The Boers opened such an infernal fire, that Usibepu's people could not stand it." For the Boers were all excellent shots and the Zulus scattered in all directions. The Boers occupied the whole district and founded a new republic. England calmly acquiesced in the certain expectation that "our time is still coming". Later Dinizulu was accused of high treason and banished to St. Helena in 1889; however, he was brought back and assumed the rank of a Zulu King under English supervision until his death. 14 On a Tough Missionary Post It was however above all a gracious dispensation of God's Providence that the Boer Commando had once again re-established peace and order, even if it had to be deplored that during these troubled times our station Ekuhlengeni was totally destroyed for the second time. As fire was the main cause one could not be sure whether the fire had been caused by the carelessness of the Boers who had camped in the house, or deliberately by vengeful heathen. The blessed Th. Harms at that time wrote in his mission paper 1884, p. 195 f.: "We have here no permanent abode, but we seek the future one. It was this word of Holy Scripture which our missionaries in Zululand had to experience to the full. Already once all our stations in Zululand had burned down and our missionaries had barely escaped with their lives. After the end of the (first) war, they returned again to Northern Zululand, rebuilt their stations with much effort and diligence, began again to collect the dispersed little band of Christians and to bring the Word of God to the heathen and now they have once again had to leave everything behind. Missionary Volker's station is totally destroyed, all buildings burnt down and all the utensils of the house, which could not be saved, have been smashed. The fields of the missionaries and of the Christians, planted in high hopes, are devastated. In the meantime the conditions in Zululand have somewhat changed, for a number of Boers have got together to restore peace in Zululand. They have done us the great favour of rescuing the missionaries Kiick and Hermann, who were surrounded on all sides and they have also proved to be very friendly towards our missionaries. They have promised our brothers that they will protect German missionaries and take care of the mission. " It might be mentioned here that this promise has been faithfully kept. In the Safe Haven of Peace On 21st February 1858 Brother Volker, in the harbour of Durban, had written in his diary: "As the Lord has permitted us to reach this harbour, so may He also permit us to reach the heavenly harbour of peace, that none of us may stay behind." That should now, after thirty-five years, be granted him. On 3rd May 1893 the Lord fetched His loyal servant home and brought him into His blessed heaven, into the safe haven of peace, "where all suffering and the buffeting of storms make way for the countenance of the Lord." The missionary Friedrich Volker passed away at the age of 67 years and 5 days. When he had been dressed in his official robes he lay on his bed, a picture of peace. Soon the family, Germans from nearby whom he had looked after spiritually and the Black congregation assembled around the deathbed with loud lamentations. Then in the evening he was laid in his coffin and this was taken by moonlight into the church. The funeral took place the next day. Old Brother Schiitze delivered a sermon in German from Psalm 73, 25. This was Brother Volker's blessing on his being assigned to Africa and the last word of comfort which he had heard on earth from the mouth of his wife. As Andreas, Volker's cattle herdsman, had also died the same night, they were both buried together. Brother Stallbom preached, standing between the two graves, in Zulu from Phi!. I, 21 and the Native teacher, Martin, preached from John 11,25,26. Soon afterwards one could read the following in the Hermannsburg Mission Journal: "It must have been moving to see the procession of mourners 15 On a Tough Missionary Post at this service, who looked half-dead themselves, but still would not miss following their dear Father to the graveside. The disease had affected and laid low many and yet whoever could somehow manage, had come." Though the dear Brother's pilgrimage was a life full of troubles and drudgery, his last journey was in supreme peace. Eve,n if he attended to his missionary vocation in true faith, he still knew that he could only receive salvation through grace and he trusted in the mercy of his Saviour. We may count him among those who have prevailed through the Blood of the Lamb. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; for they rest from their labour and their works follow them." NOTES 10 Brookes and Webb, History of Natal, p. 99-100. Ekuhlengeni was located in the district given the royal prince Hamu as a reward for having defected to the British during the early stages of the Anglo-Zulu War. 11 The Zulu Civil War of 1883 had adverse repercussions for missionaries in northern Zululand with most of them fleeing to Natal for safety. 12 J. du Plessis, Christian Missions in Sourh Africa, (Cape Town, 1965), p. 386. Zibhebhu (Usibepu), Royal Prince and arch-rival of Cetshwayo, shared John Dunn's hatred for missionaries. He made life untenable for the Swedish missionary Friestadt, forcing him to abandon his station at Ekutuleni on two occasions. 16 The Battle of Ivuna (or Ndunu Hill) Of the many battles fought in Zululand during the second half of the nineteenth century, the engagement of 23 June 1888 was one of the most singular. It was fought between the Usuthu adherents of Dinuzulu and their rival Mandlakazi under Zibhebhu, and embroiled a force of Zululand Police garrisoning Mr Addison's magisterial post of Ivuna, situated in what is now the middle of the little town of Nongoma in north-western KwaZulu. Britain had formally annexed Zululand in May 1887, and for administrative purposes had divided it into six magisterial districts. Ndwandwe District, comprising the north-western segment of the new colony, had been allotted to Dick Addison, an experienced civil and police official, considered to have a close knowledge of the Zulu. It was potentially a most troublesome district, for there dwelt Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, the son of the last Zulu king, with the bulk of his adherents known as the Usuthu. From the outset, Dinuzulu had shown dissatisfaction with his reduced status in a British Zululand, and his recalcitrant behaviour had prompted the Governor Sir Arthur Havelock and Melmoth Osborn, the Resident Commissioner of Zululand, to resort to a disastrous expedient. They had decided to return Zibhebhu kaMaphitha and his adherents, the Mandlakazi, to Ndwandwe whence in 1884 they had been driven by the Usuthu in the final act of the civil wars that had riven Zululand following Britain's dismantling of the old kingdom in 1879. and her subsequent failure to take immediate responsibility for what she had brought about. Havelock and Os born hoped that the near presence of their traditional foes would act as a natural check on Usuthu truculence towards the colonial authorities. In one sense, their decision to employ the Mandlakazi was a rational one, for, since the middle of 1879, Zibhebhu had proved himself the most steadfast of collaborators with the British, and Addison's small police force was clearly unequal to the task of curbing the Usuthu. Yet in another, it was extremely short-sighted, for the civil wars had left a legacy of great bitterness between the Usuthu and Mandlakazi. Consequently, when the latter had returned to Ndwandwe under government auspices in late 1887, clearly thirsting to avenge their defeat of 1884 and loudly demanding the expUlsion of those Usuthu who since then had settled on former Mandlakazi lands, the Usuthu had naturally been filled with alarm. Addison's open bias in favour of Zibhebhu, who .had come, after aiL as a stick with which he was to beat the Usuthu, had greatly increased their disquiet. Despairing of the situation, Dinuzulu and his adherents had retired in May 1888 to Ceza mountain, a traditional Usuthu fastness on the borders of Zululand and the Boer New Republic, some twenty miles south-west of Addison's post at Ivuna. By late June the authorities had been unsuccessful in their attempts to dislodge them, while for their part, the Usuthu had been engaged in raiding Zulus living in the vicinity whom they considered to be guilty of collaborating with the British. - - ' " " -./ / / ~ " . --e-;-/ '*'~ Dick Addison (left, with pointer), Commandant Mansel (centre) and a detachment of the Reserve Territory Carbineers (later the Zululand Police) c. 1886. With grateful acknowledgment to the Natal Archives. Pictermaritzburg Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo c. ISgS. With grateful acknowledgment to the Natal Archives. Pietermaritzburg Zibhebhu kaMaphitha with one of his wives c. 1886. With grateful acknowledgment to the Natal Archives. Pietermaritzburg 17 The Battle of lvuna The government, meanwhile, had called in the assistance of Imperial troops, and a considerable force was now massing at Nkonjeni, 38 miles to the south of Ivuna, preparatory to a renewed offensive against the Usuthu. Part of the Ivuna garrison had gone to swell this concentration, and in their absence Osborn had ordered Zibhebhu and his fighting men to move up to Ivuna from their location in the eastern parts of the district in order to help protect the magisterial post. Under the guise of undertaking patrol work on the magistrate's orders, Zibhebhu had promptly made use of this opportunity to raid Usuthu sympathisers and personal enemies living in the vicinity of Ivuna. When word of these doings reached the Usuthu on Ceza, their leaders determined to launch an immediate surprise attack on Zibhebhu in order to settle with him and his Mandlakazi once and for all. Accordingly, just after dusk on 22 June, they set off with the entire armed force at Ceza on a night march towards Ivuna. Zibhebhu had with him fifteen amaviya ('companies'), or between seven and eight hundred men. They were encamped with a number of women and children in temporary shelters in the scrubby bush of the Ndunu hill, nine hundred yards to the east of Addison's post, which in turn was situated on the low range of the Nongoma hills. The marshy headwaters of a stream, the Mbile, ran through a deep, narrow valley between the two positions. On the lower slopes of the Ndunu hill, about half a mile south-west of Zibhebhu's camp, another large body of Zulu were encamped with their livestock. These were followers of Ziwedu kaMpande, whose nephew Dinuzulu had raided for co-operating with the authorities, and who had thought in consequence that they would be safer if they settled temporarily in the vicinity of the magisterial post and its garrison. Addison's post itself had been built to withstand an attack. At its core was a sturdy little earthwork fort thrown up by the Zululand Police. It had a diameter of fifteen yards, and its parapet was sandbagged and loopholed. Around it ran a wide, deep ditch. About fifty yards from the fort, and surrounding it, was a strong zereba of thornbushes. Between the ditch and the zereba Addison had almost completed the construction of a house, in which he had hoped his wife and children, then living in Eshowe, would soon be able to join him. A mess house and the Zululand Police huts were also within the enclosure, while the magistracy office itself was outside. The force actually garrisoning this post was not large, consisting of only fifty Zulu land Police under the command of Sub-Inspector Jack Osborn (the Resident Commissioner's son), Dick Addison the magistrate, his clerk Cuthbert Foxon, three Imperial soldiers who operated the heliograph, a few local traders and transport riders, and a handful of court orderlies and messengers; yet considering that they all had to fit inside the fort, it was perhaps just as well that there were no more of them. Mkhwezili Mangele, an adherent of Zibhebhu's, recounted in 1942 that the Usuthu force from Ceza bivouacked on the night of the 22 June some four miles from the Nongoma hills, and there prepared themselves for the coming battle. During the dead of night, when all was quiet, Zibhebhu's scouts heard Dinuzulu's men chanting their war-songs, and the Mandlakazi, as Mkhwezili recalled, in turn hastened to make themselves ready. Sadly, this romanticised version is contradicted by the testimony of Zimbube kaMaphitha, a brother of Zibhebhu's, whose account was taken down by the NAT -8 18 The Battle 0/ iVlllla magistrate stationed at Nongoma in 1935. Zimbube's story, which Mr Braatvedt checked for accuracy against the memories of other surviving veterans of the battle, also tallies substantially with the contemporary reports of the whites within the fort, and with the evidence of blacks engaged on either side. It would appear, in fact, that far from being fore-warned, Zibhebhu had neglected to post any sentries at all, as he had not anticipated an Usuthu attack. Consequently, when at five minutes to six on the morning of Saturday 23 June police sentries at the Ivuna camp gave the alarm that a large armed force was approaching from the north (the steep western flank of the Nongoma range seems to have dictated the direction of the Usuthu advance), the Mandlakazi were taken completely off their guard. Through his spy-glass, Addison recognized the advancing impi from their distinctive mshokobezi (the white cow-tail decorations hanging from necks and elbows) as being an Usuthu force, and with the rest of the garrison and its hangers-on, precipitately abandoned the camp and took refuge within the fort. Within ten minutes of their first being sighted the Usuthu impi, between three or four thousand men strong, breasted the Nongoma ridge about 1 200 yards from the camp, and apparently undeterred by their long march and sleepless night, swept resolutely down towards the fort. To those watching apprehensively from behind its walls, they seemed to come on like a great half moon, and indeed, their battle formation was strictly traditional, with skirmishers to the front of the curving horns and a reserve in support. Their tactics were traditional too, and while the left horn, nearly three thousand strong, wheeled to the south-west and moved along the slope leading to Zibhebhu's camp, the smaller right horn, of about a thousand men, came on straight towards the fort. On the Ndunu hill, Zibhebhu was doing all he could in the few minutes allowed him to form up his men to face the Usuthu onslaught. Numbers of them ran away at the first sight of the enemy, but the remainder of his badly-outnumbered force, all of whom wore a red ribbon around the neck or forehead which had been served out to them by Addison and which distinguished them as Native Levies in the government's service, responded manfully. In the centre, Zibhebhu drew up his best fighting men, the iNyonemhlophe (white bird) ibhutho ('regiment'). flanked to left and right respectively by the elderly Ekuvukeni and Banganomo amabutho (regiments). named after two of Zibhebhu's principal homesteads. As the Mandlakazi moved to take up position before their camp, Zibhebhu rode before them on his white horse, encouraging them with his indomitable courage and contemptuous references to the Usuthu 'rabble', which he declared his men could chase off with their sticks alone. Neither side made a sound as they approached each other, but when at a distance of about 350 yards the Usuthu charged and the Mandlakazi ran to meet them, a terrific din broke out, with the Usuthu yelling their cry of USlIthu! and the Mandlakazi responding with their Washesha! Though the venerable Usuthu induna Hemulana kaMbanyezeli had devised the Usuthu strategy, Dinuzulu and his uncle Ndabuko kaMpande actively led the attack, assisted by three or four Boers from the New Republic, who had accompanied the impi as 'advisers'. These last were dressed in light coloured clothing with the mshokobezi in their hats, and by some reports had blackened their hands and faces in order not to be detected by the Ivuna garrison. Dinuzulu opened the Usuthu attack by leading 19 The Battle of Ivuna his force of thirty or forty horsemen against the iNyonemhlophe of the Mandlakazi centre, but these hurled stones and assegais at the horses, causing the force to recoil in complete confusion. The unmounted Usuthu uFalaza (chatterers) ibutho was in close support, however. followed by the imBokodwebomvu (red grindstone) and inGobamakhosi (bender of kings) amabutho, and immediately engaged the Mandlakazi in hand-to-hand fighting with the assegai. For a moment the Usuthu wavered and even fell back a few paces at the Mandlakazi's determined resistance, but their greatly superior numbers quickly told. The Ekuvukeni and Banganomo amabutho on the Mandlakazi flanks began to crumble, while in a classic manoeuvre the Usuthu imBokodwebomvu ibutho outflanked the Mandlakazi and took them from the rear. The shattered Mandlakazi flanks disintegrated, and were almost at once joined in their precipitate flight by the iNyonemhlope of the centre, who could not alone sustain the overwhelming Usuthu attack. While the Usuthu left horn engaged the Mandlakazi on Ndunu hill, their smaller right horn continued its advance on the fort. This horn was made up of the abaQulusi, close adherents of the Zulu Royal House who, as a result of the creation of the New Republic. were now subjects of the Boers. In his address before the battle, Dinuzulu had reminded them that their mission was to obliterate Zibhebhu, and not to fight the white people. The Usuthu strategy, however, which envisaged that the right horn would cut off the Mandlakazi line of retreat to the Ivuna camp, demanded that it pass close by the fort. This would bring it within easy range of the garrison, but Dinuzulu had strictly cautioned the abaQulusi not to retaliate, even if fired upon. The garrison were naturally not to know of these instructions, and were therefore taken by surprise when the abaQulusi, instead of launching the anticipated frontal attack on the fort, suddenly wheeled to their left about six hundred yards short of their presumed objective and set off in the direction of the battle now raging on Ndunu hill. Sub-Inspector Osborn, clearly hoping to prevent their joining in the unequal struggle against Zibhebhu, now ordered the Zululand Police to fire upon the abaQulusi as they changed front. The effect of their volley was to cause the abaOulusi to rush towards the cover of the narrow valley of the Mbile, yet without interfering with their primary objective, which was to get between the now flying Mandlakazi and the protection of the fort. In this they were most successful, for they intercepted and killed large numbers of the Mandlakazi in the bed of the Mbile stream and on the slope leading up to the fort. Only a handful managed to break through and gain the fort. One of these was Zimbube, who had the advantage of being mounted. After being momentarily stuck in the mud of the marshy Mbile, and having suffered an assegai wound, he managed to shake off his pursuers and gallop his horse up the Nongoma ridge to the fort. There it was promptly shot from under him by one of the panicky Zululand Police who had taken him for an enemy. Addison recognized Zimbube and shouted to the police to hold their fire, but another persisted in firing and shattered the butt of Zimbube's rifle. Understandably enraged at being fired upon by his allies after so narrowly running the gauntlet of Usuthu, Zimbube raised what was left of his weapon to retaliate in kind. Addison was too quick for him, however, and in a deft movement knocked up his gun, and seizing him by the throat. threw him over backwards with such effect, that all remaining fight was knocked out of him. 20 The Battle of Ivuna In the course of his flight towards the fort, Zimbube had come across Zibhebhu, heading down Ndunu hill in the same direction. But Zibhebhu, gauging that there was no hope of escape across the Mbile, mounted his horse and made good his escape in the opposite direction. Mkhwezile rather fancifully recounted that at one stage in his flight Zibhebhu, on being hotly pressed by his pursuers, covered himself with corpses in order to avoid detection. Be that as it may, most of his followers were forced by the presence of the Usuthu right horn along the Mbile to follow the direction of his flight. They were pursued by the enemy's left horn, including Dinuzulu on his little bay mare with the half-cut tail, out of sight of the fort, across the Mona river over five miles away, and as far as the Mangwana hill some way beyond. The Usuthu did not confine themselves to the Mandlakazi, but having routed them, began to loot and burn their huts (in which activity the Boers among them took a prominent part), and then turned on Ziwedu's people, cowering in caves and holes near the Mbile stream on the lower slopes of the Ndunu hill. It was while parties of his men were rounding up these unfortunates' cattle and other livestock, that Dinuzulu ordered his mounted men to take up position on the rocky crest of Ndunu hill, whence they commenced a desultory and inaccurate fire on the fort. Their intention was apparently to discourage any hostile intervention from that quarter, and if Dinuzulu's charge is true, also to drive back a small party of mounted Zululand Police who had made a sortie and were 'finishing off' the abaQulusi lying wounded from the fire earlier directed at them from the fort. Having rounded up a great herd of about 750 cattle, mainly from Ziwedu's people but including a number belonging to Zibhebhu, which they had found lower down the valley of the Mbile, as well as some from the Police cattle kraal 300 yards in front of the fort, the Usuthu re-formed. With their booty and prisoners (a number of captured Mandlakazi men, women and children), they began to retire along the ridge, coming under the fire of the Zululand Police all the while. Passing to the east of Ndunu hill, they only turned back in the direction of Ceza a mile north of the fort and out of its effective range. At the outset of the battle Addison, who had supposed that the Mandlakazi would attempt to take refuge in the ditch surrounding the fort (which was itself too small to accommodate both them and the garrison), had ordered that the horses which were tethered there be cast loose. These had naturally galloped off in panic and the Usuthu had succeeded in capturing and riding off with seventeen of them, including two of Addison's own. One of Addison's, however, bolted back up the wagon road to the fort, and its new owner Makhunya, the induna of the abaQulusi, had little choice but to throw himself off at a full gallop rather than face' Addison's retribution. A number of the Boers did set off after it, but coming under fire from the fort, gave up the chase. Addison, who had a great reputation as a horseman, was especially pleased to have it back, for his recovered cream-coloured horse was apparently a most valuable beast. He was less fortunate with his two dogs, a pointer and a greyhound, which, running loose at the time of the attack, had been caught and killed by the Usuthu. Once it became apparent that the Usuthu were definitely retiring, Addison ordered out a mounted patrol of eight Zululand Police under Corporal Mathutha to ascertain in which direction they were headed. Mathutha and 21 The Battle of Ivuna his men followed in the impi's wake along the ridge, occasionally dismounting and exchanging shots with its rearguard. An attempt by some Usuthu horsemen to take them from the rear was foiled by supporting fire from the fort. At length, the intrepid Police caught up with four amaviyo of the enemy, all on foot, who had lagged behind the main body as they were driving a herd of captured cattle before them. The nine Policemen charged them with determination, and the Usuthu fled without attempting to make a stand, abandoning their booty. As their ammunition was now running out, Mathutha decided to return to the fort with the recaptured cattle. On the way he set his men about collecting stray cattle in the dongas, and there they came across some eighty of Zibhebhu's and Ziwedu's women and a number of their children who had been sheltering there. Apart from these, Mathutha and his gallant men had succeeded in recapturing or rounding up about 200 head of cattle. They had failed, however, to regain any of the captured goats and sheep. Despite the return of Mathutha's successful patrol, tension in the fort remained high, for the retiring impi hovered in sight until late afternoon, when it finally began to withdraw in the direction of Ceza. Until then the garrison had waited in increasing dismay, for Addison had doubted their ability to withstand the determined, full-scale attack on their position which the continued Usuthu presence had seemed to threaten. The following morning, in response to Addison's alarming heliographs of the previous day, a column of Imperial troops and Zululand Police arrived from Nkonjeni to relieve the garrison. The grisly task of assessing the casualties suffered in the battle then commenced. No one from the lvuna garrison had suffered the slightest hurt, but Zibhebhu's losses had been very heavy. He himself estimated these at 200 killed and between 50 and 60 wounded, though Commandant Mansel of the Zululand Police, after a careful examination of the field, put the Mandlakazi dead at nearer 300. Many of them were in his words 'terribly butchered', and lay heaped up in piles in the Mbile spruit where the abaQulusi had intercepted their flight. Mansel saw 40 men lying dead in one line on top of Ndunu hill where the main encounter had taken place, and counted more scattered along the line of the Mandlakazi rout towards the Mona river. Ziwedu's people had lost seven killed and one wounded. Not more than 25 to 30 Usuthu had been killed, and some of these were victims of the fire from the fort. On the 25 June, the Ivuna post, which in the circumstances the military authorities considered untenable, was abandoned, and its garrison (including Zibhebhu's surviving adherents, whom he had gathered together in the interim) were evacuated to Nkonjeni. Knowing that the abandoned post would inevitably be looted, Cuthbert Foxon, the magistrate's clerk, buried the valuables and documents that could not be taken with them in the ditch of the fort. And indeed, when Ivuna was re-established in August 1888 once the British had succeeded in finally defeating and dispersing the Usuthu, Addison found that his magistracy building had been wrecked, while his house, the mess and the Police huts within the zereba had all been burnt down. The fort itself was still intact, and this was immediately strengthened. But marauders had left the site of the camp covered in debris, while the magistracy safe, which Addison had purposely left open to show that it contained no money, had nevertheless been broken. The money-boxes which Foxon had buried in the ditch 22 The Battle of Ivuna had been unearthed and cut open, while Addison's receipt book, ledger and journal had all been destroyed. It was as if the Zulus, chary of attacking the post when garrisoned by the representatives and armed servants of the Crown, had vented their resentment of the new colonial order by pillaging and destroying its artefacts. J.P.c. LABAND NOTE ON SOURCES Information on the battle of Ivuna is scattered throughout private and public collections of documents and contemporary newspapers. It would serve little purpose to enumerate every single source, but a selection of those which have either thrown important light on the subject or which have been extensively consulted are listed below. Primary sources In the private collection of R.H. Addison, Esq.: E.N. Braatvedt & F.M. Braatvedt, History of Nongoma and The Fort at Nongoma (typed manuscript, 1935); F. Addison, The Family of Dr. W.H. Addison (Pinetown, 1959). In the Killie Campbell Africana Library: Mkhwezili Mangele, as told to S.W.J. Mozibuko, Battle of Nongoma (entry in Dr KiIlie Campbell's Essay Competition, 1942). In the Natal Archives, Pietermaritzburg: Government House Zululand 712, No. Z377/88: Addison to Osborn, 26 June 1888 - the official report on the battle. Colenso Collection, Box 106, (Trials of the Zulu Chiefs 1888-9, No. 1): Dinuzulu's Statement, pp. 33-4; Ndabuko's Further Statement, pp. 8, 21-2. Colenso Collection, Box 109 (Trials of the Zulu Chiefs 1888-9, No. 4: Court of the Special Commissioners for Zululand (London, 1889: Addison's evidence, pp. 30, 120-1,356; Foxon's evidence, pp. 159--61,183-4; Mansel's evidence, p. 195; Vuzindhlu's evidence, pp. 175,178; Matuta's evidence, pp. 262-4, 266; Umhlahlo's evidence, pp. 294-5,298; Mbusane's evidence, pp. 255,258-9; Mhlupeqi's evidence, pp. 260-1; Norris's evidence, p. 245: Roberts's evidence, p. 241. In the Natal Society Library: Times of Natal, 7 & 12 July 1888; Natal Advertiser, 23 July 1888; Natal Mercury, 7 July & 6 December 1888. The diagrammatic reconstruction of the battlefield by Bruno Martin, University of Natal Cartographer, was made possible by relating the extant evidence of those present on the day with the topographical features depicted on the modern Trigonometrical Survey map of Nongoma. Especially useful when attempting to show the exact disposition of the contending forces was the 1906 plan of Nongoma in the Office of the Surveyor-General, for in their testimony veterans still alive in the twentieth century constantly related their narrative to buildings and landmarks then existing in Nongoma. William Cooper's sketch of the fort and its surroundings in the Court of the Special Commissioners, p. 238, is of use only in giving the relative positions of the fort and magisterial post. Harriette Colenso's diagram of the battlefield in Trials of the Zulu Chiefs, No. 1, p. 21, is positively misleading. Secondary sources The earliest secondary account of the battle of Ivuna is by J.Y. Gibson (who succeeded Dick Addison as the Magistrate of Ndwandwe in May 1889), in The Story of the Zulus (London, 1911), pp. 307-9. It is based on Addison's report (GHZ 712, No. Z377/88) which was printed in British Parliamentary Papers LXXV of 1888 (c. 5522), enc.1 (11) in No. 52: Addison to Osborn, 26 June, 1887. Gibson gives a detailed and imaginative account of the Usuthu night march. There is a brief, but comprehensive, version of the battle, told graphically from a Zulu point of view, and based on accurate oral tradition in M.M. Fuze, The Black People (Pietermaritzburg and Durban, 1979), pp. 125--{). H.C. Lugg, Historic Zululand and Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1949), pp. 148, 150, supplies colourful details on Zibhebhu's part in the battle, clearly based on oral evidence. Oliver Walker's short account in Proud Zulu (London, 1949), pp. 244-5, casts an heroic glow over the Mandlakazi. The two cursory and very similar descriptions of the battle by T.V. Bulpin in Shaka's Country (Cape Town, 1952) p. 210; and in Natal and the Zulu Country (Cape Town 1966), pp. 301-2, are both clearly based on Addison's published report in the B.P.P., as is C.T. Binns' in Dinuzulu: the Death of the House of Shaka (London, 1968), pp. 126--7. 23 The Voortrekker Dorps of Natal Historians have tended to gloss over the Voortrekker period of Natal history and for good reason. The main source of information for this period, the minutes of the Natal Volksraad, is written in Nederlands-Afrikaans and is frustratingly incomplete. The historian is thus confronted by missing data and this coupled with the unwritten assumption that virtually all traces of Voortrekker settlement have been erased, has resulted not only in superficial treatment but also in inaccuracies and inconsistencies with respect to the foundation and character of the Voortrekker dorps in present day Natal. The purpose of this paper is, firstly, to demonstrate that geographical analysis can help overcome the problems posed by missing data, and, secondly, to suggest that such analysis yields urban conservation guidelines. The analysis proceeds on an assumption basic to cultural geography: each culture group moulds the physical landscape into a cultural landscape.! Townscapes or dorp images and plans should be seen then as part of the cultural baggage which is taken along by migrating groups. In order to see the Voortrekker dorps of Natal in context, and to discern common elements which help to overcome some of the problems posed by missing data, it is instructive to outline the origin, early character, and pattern of the dorps established during Dutch rule of the Cape. The Dutch-Afrikaner Dorp Family The Afrikaner dorp was born during Dutch rule of the Cape as a result of the transplanting of Dutch town planning ideals and plans in South African soil. Dutch Cape Town soon took on the appearance of a typical Dutch canal town - even the main street was named after its counterpart in Amsterdam, the Heerengracht. Other street names were Kerk (Church), Langemarkt (Longmarket), Loop (Walk) and Berg (Mountain). In 1771 the French naturalist Bernardin de St. Pierre visited Cape Town and remarked: the streets are very straight, some of them are watered with canals and most of them planted with oak trees ... When a man has seen one Dutch town he has seen them all ... (Colvin, 1912, pp. 272-278). As late as 1832, some 26 years after the British had taken possession of the Cape, the town was still remarkably Dutch in appearance. The Cape-Dutch dorpe, or nucleated agricultural communities, grew organically as a result of the congregational gathering for several days on the occasion of the 'nagmaal', or quarterly communion service. The embryonic dorp characteristically developed as a single row of houses located at the front of irrigated agricultural erven. Commercial or defensive requisites thus had very little bearing on the choice of dorp sites. Stellenbosch, Swellendam, Paarl and Tulbagh were all single street dorps during their embryonic period. William Burchell visited Tulbagh in 1811, and described the place as: nothing more than a half score of neat white houses placed in a row ... In front ... and running under the shade of trees is a strong rill of 24 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal excellent water, led there, as well for the supply of the inhabitants, as for the irrigation of their gardens, which lie on a gentle declivity immediately below it (Burchell, Vol I, 1824, p. ]28). In the same year BurcheIl also visited Paarl and described it as consisting of " ...between forty and fifty neat houses, placed at a considerable distance from each other, and forming a single street, about the middle of which stands the church ..." (Burchell, Vol 1,1824, pp. 143-]44). The settlement of farmers in the eastern Cape Province resulted in the growth of two further dorps prior to the advent of British control in 1806: Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage. In 1786 Governor van der Graaff authorised the establishment of a church and drostdy on the Sundays River, and in ]797 John Barrow described the place as: an assemblage of mud huts placed at some distance from each other, in two lines, forming a kind of street ... There is no butcher, no chandler, no grocer. no baker (Barrow, 1801, pp. 113-114). In 1812 however Burchell noted: It consists of one broad princip,"ll street, of detached houses, adjoining to each of which is a garden wdl planted with fruit trees and continually supplied with water. The church, a large handsome building, on the ground plan of a cross, stands on a spacious plain at the northern end of the main street, of which it forms the terminating object ... Along the principal street a row of orange and lemon trees, at this time loaded with fruit formed a decoration as novel to an English eye, as it was in itself beautiful ... (Burchell, Vol 11,1824, pp. 144-145). By 1823, Graaff-Reinet had grown into a fully-fledged dorp consisting of: irrigated erven measuring 15 by 40 Rhineland Roods,2 or one morgen, and extending from street to street: and, houses built along the tree-lined streets.3 Uitenhage, which was laid out in ]8U4, also had many dorp characteristics, including irrigated erven of one morgen. Such was the character of the dorps most familiar at the time of the Great Trek to the Voortrekkers, with one notable exception, Grahamstown, where Pieter Retief lived and built prior to leading one of the Voortrekker parties (Figure a). Grahamstown is usually associated with the 1820 British settlers but it was an established single street dorp when they arrived. In 1812 Colonel Graham chose a site to serve as military headquarters but doubts soon arose about the suitability of the site from a strategic point of view, and because of its water supply. Graham, acting on the advice of a young ensign, Andries Stockenstrc)m, reluctantly ordered the headquarters to be transferred to the present site of Grahamstown. The establishment of the Albany District in 1814, with the Landdrost stationed in Grahamstown, stimulated demand for land in the vicinity of the fledgeling dorp, and Surveyor Knobel was given the task of laying out a town. Tn his report to the Governor, Knobel wrote: I have thought necessary, previous to any measuring of the lots, to submit to you a sketch of this place as it now stands (Cory, Vol I, 1921, pp. 269-270). 25 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal THE EARLY SPREAD OF Schoemansdal (1848) o THE AFRIKANER 'DORP' Early Voortrekker dorpe The dorpe of Natalia o l.a1er Voortrekker dorpe * Dutch dorpe Voortrekker which resulted in the foundation of dorpe lwIrtI... * h 11111) 11145 *P ..... (1IID)c.,. TDWIt * *8..11..... __---'-_ 100, 200 300, ,(1157) (1745) ..,tI......PI7I, Figure a Knobel's sketch plan contains the surveyor's suggestion of keeping the existing street which ". . . would give the Drostdy House a view of the whole street, and although a triangular space would be left open that space having the most elevated ground in its centre, might allow a very convenient situation for a church or any public building" (Cory, Vol I, 1921, pp. 270-271). Knobel's plan was approved and the sale of erven, measuring '50 paces broad and 150 paces long' (Cory, Vol I, 1921, p. 269) took place in May 1815. Eleven erven were sold: five to military personnel, and the remainder to bearers of German and Dutch names - Pieter Retief bought two. Not only were Retief, Diety, and Pohl active in the building industry, they were also signatories to the 1820 town regulations. The twelfth article of these was clearly Dutch-inspired in that it promulgated a single building line: The irregular way of Building tending to greatly disfigure the village everyone intending to build in future shall be bound to give notice to the Landdrost who will take care that the proper Line of the Street be pointed out according to which the Builder will be bound strictly to regulate himself in laying the foundation ... being obliged to change the line he has Built on if it be found that he has deviated from that on which the other Houses stand (Unpublished regulations, Albany Museum). This regulation, which is also to be found in Pietermaritzburg's original erven occupance regulations, ran contrary to British notions of free standing houses, and was repeatedly violated after the influx of the 1820 settlers into Grahamstown. 26 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal An 1823 painting of Grahamstown provides one of the best early views of any South African townscape. The broad High Street running into the triangular open space where the cathedral now stands, the streetline row of buildings, already exhibiting contrasts between the flat-roofed or gabledand-thatched Dutch buildings, and the hip and pitched-roofed English houses, as well as the long narrow erven given to cultivated fields and orchards, are all clearly shown. A fusion or blending of these two architectural traditions took place in Grahamstown, and this along with the town's dorp site, erven, street plan and church location combined to impart a truly South African character to the townscape. In many ways embryonic Grahams town served as the prototype for the dorps established by the Retief party in Natal and beyond. The Dorps of Natalia In November 1837 the Retief party descended the Drakensberg into what is now Natal. They were followed in 1838 by the Maritz and Uys parties. Retief left the main body of his party in northern Natal while he led an advance party to the Bay of Natal and it is probable4 that Retief himself chose the site for the capital dorp, Pietermaritzburg, en route. Pieter Mauritz Burg In a January 1838 letter Andries Pretorius, who had just returned to the Cape after a fact-finding tour of Natal, wrote "Vierhondern waens was op weg na die kant waar die nuwe stad sou aangele word - nml. in Natalwat gelee sal wees aan 'n welgekose vallei, een dagreis van die Baai af"s (Preller, 1937, p. 22). Only the Retief advance party had passed through the chosen area by the date of Pretorius's report, and the spur site chosen for the dorp was very similar to that of Grahamstown. Piet Greyling, Retief's son-in-law, became the commandant of the laager which was formed on the present site of the dorp by July 1838. In his diary entry for 23rd October 1838 Erasmus Smit, the Voortrekker minister, recorded that the dorp recently laid out by Greyling had been named "Pieter Maritz Burg'"" (Schoon, 1972, p. 143). In the following month one Gideon Joubert visited Greyling's laager and noted the existence of a sizeable furrow which was used to irrigate cultivated erven (Jansen, 1938, p. 22). On the 31st March 1839 Pretorius, the Chief Commandant of the Republic of Natalia, informed the British Military Commandant at Port Natal that "...300 beautiful erven have already been given out, surveyed and partly planted,,7 (Bird, Vol. I, 1965, p. 522). As in the case of Grahamstown it seems likely that the dorp's erven were paced out, because although there is evidence that 450 by 150 Rhineland feet (463,5 by 154,5 English feet) was the Natalia Volksraad's standard erf size,S none of Pietermaritzburg's erven blocks were found to be of those dimensions by the first English survey in 1845. Rather, erven depths ranged from 460 to 479 English feet. Despite these variations in erven sizes the dorp developed in a highly regulated manner. Article 5 of the Erven Occupance Regulations, which were promulgated in February 1839, decreed that: De Woonhuizen zullen, naar aanwyzing van een daartoe gekwalificeerde persoon, in den front moeten worden gebouwd en in een gelyke linie9 (South African Archival Records, Natal No. 1, 1958, 27 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal p. 295). This prescription of near-uniform street vistas can be traced back to Grahamstown and even to Holland. where Burke maintains that the " ... tenet that the street should be regarded as a single architectural composition ... " was widely adhered to in the making of Dutch townscapes (Burke, 1956, p. 71). Although the original plan of Pietermaritzburg has been 10st,1O a perusal of the Natal Volksraad minutes suggests that the plan (Figure b) closely resembles the original. The dorp was laid out on a spur of sloping land between the Umsindusi River and one of its tributaries, in such a way that water could be led in furrows from the tributary - soon to be appropriately named the Dorpsruit - down the long streets. Five cross streets demarcated rectangular blocks, each of which was subdivided into ten erven.ll PIETERMARITZBURG Figure b Embryonic Pietermaritzburg was a worthy member of the Afrikaner dorp family, and in the 1860s John Shedden Dobie perceptively noted: a stream of pure water is fed in an open ditch or 'sluit' down the side of each of the streets which lie parallel with the ridge ... This is quite a Dutch fashion. The streets are also lined on one side. sometimes on both sides, with trees (Hattersley, 1945, p. 15). The names of Pietermaritzburg's long streets included Kerk. Langmarkt, Loop and Berg which recall thoroughfares in Dutch Cape Town, and one can concur with Charles Barter who declared that" ... the selection of the spot and the original design had been the work of no mean prentices of their craft ..." (Barter, 1852, p. 22). Voorrrekker Dorps of Natal One other morphologic feature needs to be noted to complete this review of early Pietermaritzburg's layout and character. This is that the cemetery, as in other historic dorps, but unlike the juxtaposition of church and churchyard in British settler towns and villages, was located on the outskirts of the original dorp.12 Thus although Pietermaritzburg is renowned for its Victorian architecture, its setting, street plan, street names, and peripheral cemetery stamp it as a Voortrekker dorp. Congella and Durban In the vicinity of the Bay of NataL the Voortrekkers clustered in three laagers somewhat removed from the small group of British traders at Port Natal. The Congella laager was the only one which progressed to the stage where it could be identified as a fledgeling dorp. By November 1839 the Volksraad was selling erven at Congelia and in May 1842, Congella was described as " ... a small village belonging to the Dutch" (Holden, 1963, p. 109). There are records of the Volksraad granting 450 by 150 feet erven at Congella (South African Archival Records, Natal No. 1, 1958, p. 136), and the British Commissioner, Henry Cloete, produced the sketch plan. The further development of Congella was however stifled by the laying out of the town of Durban on the shores of the Bay and only a few kilometres away from Congella. G.c. Cato, a British trader at the port, was apparentlyl" instructed by the Volksraad to " ... layout a seaport town anywhere from the Umbilo to the mouth of the Umgeni" (Goetzsche, 1966, p. 28). He chose a bayshore site and his plan consisted of beach erven measuring 100 by 500 to 700 English Figure c Published with grateful acknowledgment to the "'Jatal Archives, Pie1ermaritlhurg 29 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal feet, and smaller erven which were supposed to measure 100 by 150 Rhineland feet, or 103 by 154V2 English feet. The first 'English Survey' plan, (Figure c) accepted 103 English feet as the width of an erf but set their length at 150 English feet, with one exception. The lot set aside for the Chapel should have measured 150 English feet square. However the English measure was used along the cross street and the Rhineland measure along Smith Street. The lot thus measured 150 by 154V2 English feet (Russell, 1899, pp. 67-69). Thus early Durban was a blend of Dutch and English townscape preferences, and this example of intercultural borrowing suggests that wherever these two culture groups came into contact in the making of towns, such borrowing produced truly South African places. Weenen According to Christopher (1976, p. 109) the dorp of Weenen was laid out alongside the Bushman's River in 1838. Russell selects 1839 as the year in which "a permanent camp or village" (Russell, 1911, p. 172) was formed, while Theal (1892, p. 398) puts the laying out in 1840. The minutes of the Natal Volksraad support Theal's date. The establishment of a Bushman's River dorp was first proposed at the Volksraad meeting held on 2nd April 1840 (South African Archival Records, Natal No. 1, 1958, p. 40). On the 5th June 1840 the Volksraad \ c Published with grateful acknowledgment to the Natal Archives. Pietermaritzburg. 30 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal granted a compensation farm to C. Klopper, since his farm was to be used for the dorp, and a commission was appointed to inspect the site and draw up a plan for the 'aanstaande' (intended) dorp (South African Archival Records, Natal No. 1, 1958, p. 45). At the meeting held on 13th August 1840 the dorp was named Weenen by acclamation (South African Archival Records, Natal No. 1, 1958, p. 57). On the 7th April 1841 it was decided to make a further one hundred erven available, under the same regulations as the earlier grants at Weenen (South African Archival Records, Natal No. 1, 1958, p. 87), but these regulations and the Volksraad plan have both been lost. Commissioner Cloete's 1843 sketch plan (Figure d) is the earliest plan of Weenen, and although the floodplain site as well as the reservation of erven for a church at the top of Church Street are reminiscent of Graaff-Reinet, the 450 by 150 English feet erven stamp Weenen as a Retief party dorp. John Moreland's 1853 sketch of Weenen suggests perhaps a dozen houses and this is corroborated by Mann's 1859 description: this village consists of fourteen houses, scattered over a broad valley ... There is an abundant and never-failing supply of water ... There is a Dutch Reformed Church in the village, and a branch of the magistrate's office is still retained there; but the headquarters are now placed upon the drift of the Great Bushman's River. .. (Mann, 1859, pp. 125-126). The movement of the magistrate to Estcourt and the Afrikaner trek away from Natal after British annexation, meant that Weenen was largely deserted and little has changed since that exodus. Consequently the dusty streets, the abandoned erven, the old furrows, the handful of early houses and some aged rows of oak, gum and jacaranda trees provide us with a unique glimpse of a voortrekker dorp in the making (See below). 31 Voortrekker Dorps of Natal Later Voortrekker Dorps The Voortrekkers who left British-annexed Natal in the 1840s were responsible for the foundation of two more dorps: those from Pietermaritzburg played