African Journals Online
Historia

Volume 47, Issue 1, November 2002
Abstracts

Militêre strategie tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog (1899-1902) : `n herwaardering na verloop van 100 jaar
Wessels, A. 9-32

Abstract: It is the purpose of this study to ascertain what the nature and extent of the British and Boer strategic planning (if any) before the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War was, to indicate how they implemented their strategies, and to show what the implications of their strategies were for both the military course of events during the war as well as for the civilian population (of all races) in the war zone.
To start off with, the terms strategy and tactics are explained and compared, and a review is given of the principles of strategy. Thereafter the British preparations for a war in what is today South Africa, are discussed, and it is concluded that when the war broke out on 11 October 1899, Britain was not ready to take on the two small Boer republics. However, the Boers also neglected to plan properly for war, and consequently they squandered their only chances to defeat the British Army in South Africa to such an extent that the British government might have been forced to negotiate a peace treaty that would have guaranted Boer independence.
A review is given of the military-strategic course of events during the war, and it is clear that the war was one of missed strategic opportunities for both the British and the Boers. Eventually the British Army blundered its way to a contentious victory, leaving behind a trail of destruction and bitterness.

M.T. Steyn se ervaring van die Anglo-Boereoorlog vanuit `n sielkundige perspektief
McLeod, A.Pretorius, F. 33-55

Abstract: At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War President M.T. Steyn was 42 years of age. This article examines Steyn's experience of the Anglo-Boer War from a psychological viewpoint, more specifically from a perspective dealing with the concept of stress and psycho-physiological disorders. A brief look is given to the work and theories of Hans Selye, the different types of stressors, the importance of general resistance resources and the constructs of salutogenesis and fortigenesis.
Steyn's experiences are reviewed with emphasis on three matters: his ceaseless struggle to keep his ally, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), from succumbing to peace overtures and his subsequent mistrust of his ally's leadership; his persistent problems among his own forces and lastly his frequent involvement in military operations.
The conclusion is reached that Steyn's double vision and subsequent muscle disorder, seen in the light of today's scientific knowledge, and despite the various biomedical theories, can be described as a psycho-physiological disorder and not pathological in origin. It serves as an example of how stress can play a role in the course of history.

Early ANC leaders and the British world: ambiguities and identities
Limb, P. 56-82

Abstract: In the article the author interrogates the lives of a range of early African political leaders in the first two decades of the twentieth century to argue that their attitudes to things British were more complex and ambiguous than hitherto perceived by historians. British liberalism and culture strongly influenced the early leaders of the ANC. After the denial of full South African citizenship to black people in 1910 and the imposition of harsh anti-African legislation, their leaders appealed to Britain and to a sense of `British justice' based on their professed Empire loyalism. `British' themes remained part of the plethora of identities of ANC leaders until at least the twenties but complicated the assertion of African identities. There were many ambiguities in African attitudes to the British World, which could range from support for `the glorious British Empire' to more ironic or even derisory references to being `slaves under the Union Jack'.

The uneasy electoral relationship between socialists and the South African Labour Party, 1910-1924
Visser, W.P. 83-104

Abstract: Since the inception of the SALP in 1909, conservative, reformist right-wing and militant socialist left-wing elements within the party would compromise uneasily on issues such as the colour policy and the socialist objective. Party and ideological schisms eventually took place in 1915 between pro-war and anti-war factions within the SALP on the question of Labour participation in the First World War. As a result the anti-war, left-wing militant socialist faction broke away from the SALP to form the ISL and which would eventually culminate in the formation of the CPSA in 1921. From 1915 onwards these two factions of the white labour movement would more and more diametrically and ideologically oppose one another as all efforts at reconciliation failed. This was especially the case since 1924 when the SALP became absorbed in protective and racial white labour policies, whereas the CPSA would embark on a policy to organise black labour politically and economically.

`Whiteness', `blackness', `neitherness' – The South African Chinese 1885-1991: a case study of identity politics
Harris, K.L. 105-124

Abstract: The Chinese in South Africa form one of the country's smallest ethnic minorities, yet from the start of European hegemony their relatively insignificant numbers did not exempt them from the discriminatory impact of the evolving structures of segregation and apartheid. Their colour and cultural heritage gave them a precarious, inconsistent and ambiguous legal status on the periphery of black-white society. This article traces the history of Chinese legal status from the genesis of segregationist policies in the mid-nineteenth century to the abolition of the Population Registration Act a century later as a case study of identity politics. While not escaping the ii.human suffering and degradation of colour legislation, in a sense the Chinese were the first identifiable minority to transcend the apartheid divide and ultimately attain an anomalous position which was neither white nor black. This ambivalence is characteristic of the Chinese encounters with structural discrimination in South Africa.

Popular environmental struggles in South Africa, 1972-1992
Steyn, P. 125-158

Abstract: This article examines the activities of the non-governmental sector of the South African environmental movement between the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm) in 1972 and the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro) in 1992. During this period non-governmental environmental organisations in South Africa gradually moved away from its predominantly conservation-based environmental agenda that was apolitical and important mostly to white people, to an environmental agenda that, by the late 1980s, was highly emotive, politically charged and racially inclusive. The twenty years under discussion is divided into three periods: 1972-1982 during which time the white conservation agenda dominated; 1982-1988 in which the non-governmental sector gradually started to move towards an environmental justice agenda, and 1988-1992 which was dominated by highly political and emotive environmental struggles against various environmental problems in South Africa.

Neerlands India. De wereld van de VOC: calvinistisch en multi-cultureel
Schutte, G.J. 159-186

Abstract: The VOC was founded by a group of Dutch merchants and was one of the first and most succesful multinationals. It represented the history of Western expansion and was an agent of the modern world system and globalisation. But its 1602 charter (Octroy) gave the Company also public authority, the right to make war and peace, and to acquire and govern countries and nations. The historiography of the Company, therefore, can not been restricted to travel, commerce and money, but has to give attention too to state formation and the making of a new society. Seventeenth- and eighteenth cities such as Batavia, Colombo, Malacca and Cape Town demonstrated its vitality, and both modern Indonesia and South Africa are part of its legacy.
The formation of the VOC world, of course, had to do with maritime expansion, commercial conflicts and wars, monopolies and colonialism. But that's not the whole story. The creation of the VOC State had also much to do with the encounter of cultures and religions, the meeting of East and West, the moulding of new societies. The VOC State stretched from Cape Town to Nagasaki, its subjects and inhabitants came from many parts of Europe, Africa and Asia, and in many parts of it various ethnic and cultural groups lived next to each other in crowded areas or pluriform cities. How did the VOC State accommodate all these groups and cultures and by which policy did it keep peace and order? It is time for a close scrutiny of the policies that guided the formation of the VOC State and gave Nederlandsch India its identity: at the same time Calvinist and multi-cultural.

Serendipity - `Governor' Joan Bax, and the Herentals connection
Laing, R.A.Goris, J-M. 187-218

Abstract: It seems possible that many of the findings made in research are serendipitous. The chance publication of a paper or book or a conversation overheard in a lift or passageway may have an enormous effect in changing the direction of someone in the midst of a research endeavour. For example the chance meeting of the authors of this research paper could never have been foreseen. Neither of them was aware of the other before their serendipitous encounter. This act of pure happenstance led to clarification of certain problem areas in the story of Joan Bax (1637-1678), Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. If Laing and Goris had not had this `serendipitous' meeting this analysis would never have been done. The research digresses into the period of the Eighty Years war and the involvement of the Bax family during this era. Research was done on three levels - heraldic, historical and genealogical. The authors brought together different strengths in a `synergistic' manner, which tries to find an answer to this enigmatic figure in Cape history. It is strange that this Cape Governor was destined to enter the history books as Bax `entitled Van Herentals.' This paper hopes to show that the so-called Herentals connection is very dubious.

Die VOC-nedersetting aan die Kaap die Goeie Hoop se betrokkenheid by die lande van die westelike Indiese oseaan, 1652-1700
De Wet, C. 219-246

Abstract: The establishment of the Dutch East India Company's replenishment station at the Cape of Good Hoop was not an immediate success and for the greater part of the 17 th century it was unable to provide in the needs of the settlement and visiting fleets. Therefore, possibilites of establishing trade and other relations with the east coast of Africa and the islands of the western Indian Ocean were explored. The main aim was to eliminate the English, Portuguese and French as trade rivals in the western Indian Ocean, and to win the indigenous population over as trading partners by representing the opposition as unreliable. This strategy partly succeeded and the Cape established fairly extensive relations with Madagascar, Mauritius and Mozambique. The Company maintained no other relations with the countries of the western Indian Ocean during the 17 th century. Other than Mauritius, no trading posts were established anywhere in the region, nor were military actions undertaken against any of the countries in order to subject them. No attempts were made to convert them to Christianity or to promote the Dutch language and culture. The major aim was to become an important trading power in the western Indian Ocean region by eliminating their main European rivals.

Die VOC, wins en verlies : `n perspektief vanuit 2002
Cruywagen, W. 247-269

Abstract: “The main strength of Holland was derived from the ocean, from whose destructive grasp she had wrestled herself, but in whose friendly embrace she remained.” This description by John Motley, the celebrated 19th century American historian, summarizes the source of Holland's existence. Holland was Europe's foremost trading nation, the continent's carrying trade in local and Oriental goods was conducted by the Dutch, and they were the leaders in the fishing industry and in shipbuilding.
When the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602, trade with the East Indies was, though, a new challenge, practically nothing more than a continuation of a well known practice. What was new was a vast colonial empire that grew as trading activities expanded. For about a century the trading dividends were high, but the cost of wars, illegal trading by company officials, mismanagement and aggressive English competition, were so exhausting that the Company was dissolved and its remaining activities and liabilities were taken over by the Dutch Government in 1795.
At the Cape of Good Hope the Company established a refreshment station that eventually developed into a permanent settlement. A shortage of immigrants and the refusal of free trading opportunities for the free burgers hampered the development of the Cape colony. However, when the errors and neglects of the Company are weighed against the positive legacy of its existence and involvement, the latter bears testimony that the world and civilization would have been poorer had it not been for the Dutch East India Company.

Foreign African migrant labour at the Messina Copper Mines, 1905-1960
Malunga, F. 270-290

Abstract: This study examines foreign African migrant labour supply to the Messina copper mines. The dependence of the mining industry on foreign migrant labour helped the company in the short term to reduce labour costs through the exploitative wage structure which the mineworkers had no choice but to accept. However, on a long term basis, this arrangement became a problem to the twin oppressive forces of capitalism and segregation systems because foreign migrant mineworkers acquired mining skills and monopolised the majority of job categories available for African mineworkers at the Messina mines to the exclusion of local Africans. In elaborating on foreign African migrant labour for the Messina mines, reference is made to the recruitment drive launched by the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association to secure foreign labour for the Witwatersrand gold mines. This serves to provide a comparative context which highlights the distinctiveness of the Messina mines.

Die Afrikaner en die demokrasie I : die negentiende eeu
Scholtz, I.Scholtz, L. 291-314

Abstract: This is the first of two articles in which the authors try to establish at least part of the reasons why the Afrikaners, with their strong democratic antecedents of the nineteenth century, became the perpretators of undemocratic practices after 1948. The pioneer circumstances of the nineteenth century and the regard for patriarchs produced the possibility of both a democratic and an authoritarian development. Calvinism as a source of Afrikaner political thought is largely discarded by the authors, but the Enlightenment played a significant role in the nineteenth-century political theory. However, it appears that the patriarchal tradition won from the pioneer situation and the Enlightenment, as the legislatives of the two Boer republics jealously protected their powers and claimed full and unfettered powers inbetween elections.

Hugh Archibald Wyndham (1877-1963) : His ancestry and family connections
Van der Waag, I. 315-344

Abstract: Wyndham, the epitome of a nineteenth-century English country gentleman, migrated to South Africa in 1901. After serving Milner as an unpaid private secretary, he helped re-established the horse industry after the devastation of the Anglo-Boer War and entered South African politics first as a Transvaal Progressive and after 1910 as a Unionist. This article places Wyndham in his setting, explores his extraordinary background and analyses the extent and importance of his social network. Family connections saw to a job on Milner's staff and inherited money established his later farming and political career. Yet, an anachronism in a changing South Africa, he returned permanently to Britain in 1930, which, as he soon realised, had changed too.

The Bakwena ba Magopa (North West Province, South Africa): consequences of a forced removal, 1983-1994
Oosthuizen, G.Molokoe, B. 345-362

Abstract: A particularly sensitive issue, which is gaining prominence in South Africa, is the redistribution of land and claims made by various groups to land, which they were to surrender after 1913 and even earlier. During the period 1960 to 1983, some 3,5 million South Africans were affected by the resettlement policy of former apartheid governments. To address this situation, the Reconstruction and Development Plan make provision for the establishment and implementation of a national land redistribution plan to address effectively the injustices of forced removals and the historical denial of access to land. A striking example of injustices suffered due to forced removals in the North West Province, is that of the Bakwena ba Mogopa. This article deals briefly with the reasons of the forced removal, the execution of the removal process and attempts made by the Bakwena to resist and focuses on the following: Social consequences; Economic consequences; Consequences regarding the internal political organisation of the Bakwena; and consequences regarding infrastructure.

Hans Endler se studie aan die Conservatorium für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wenen, 1892-1897
Van der Mescht, H. 363-375

Abstract: Hans Endler (1871-1947), co-founder of the Conservatorium of the University of Stellenbosch in 1904, exerted a very great influence on the development of music in South Africa. However, little is known about his studies at the Conservatorium für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna where he was a student from 1892 to 1897. Entries in the official documents of the Conservatorium show that Endler started studying with a backlog at 21 years of age. After working hard and having gained enough experience and confidence, he could take part as chamber music cellist in five private performances of the Conservatorium in 1897. The experience of five years of study at one of the best-known music training institutions in the world was greatly to his advantage when he came to South Africa in 1903.