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IN the SHADOW of the Great White Queen the Edendale Kholwa of Colonial Natal, 1850–1906

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IN the SHADOW of the Great White Queen the Edendale Kholwa of Colonial Natal, 1850–1906 IN THE SHADOW OF THE GReat WHITE QUEEN The Edendale Kholwa of Colonial Natal, 1850–1906 Sheila Meintjes IN THE SHADOW OF THE GREAT WHITE QUEEN: The Edendale Kholwa of Colonial Natal, 1850 – 1906 Sheila Meintjes S F Occasional Publications of the Natal Society Foundation PIETERMARITZBURG 2020 In the Shadow of the Great White Queen: The Edendale Kholwa of Colonial Natal, 1850–1906. © Sheila Meintjes 2020 Published in 2020 in Pietermaritzburg by the Trustees of the Natal Society Foundation under its imprint ‘Occasional Publications of the Natal Society Foundation’. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without reference to the publishers, the Trustees of the Natal Society Foundation. Natal Society Foundation website: http://natalia.org.za/ Editors: Peter Croeser, Phila Mfundo Msimang and Christopher Merrett Indexer: Christopher Merrett Proof reader: Catherine Munro Maps: Marise Bauer Layout artist: Jo Marwick Printed and bound by: CPW Printers, Pietermaritzburg. ISBN 978-0-6398040-1-9 Cover illustration from Lady Barker’s A Year’s Housekeeping in South Africa (1879) This book is dedicated to the people of Edendale, to the memory of those who struggled for recognition as citizens and against the depradations of colonial settler rule CONTENTS Abbreviations Maps and illustrations Foreword Preface Note on orthography A note on the Wesleyan Missionary Society mission stations where James Allison and his followers served between 1832 and 1851 mentioned in the book Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 1 On the origins of a mission community Missionary enterprise in transition from pre-colonial fragmentation to colonial settlement, 1830–1847 ............................. 13 2 The formation of Indaleni Integration of a refugee community into Natal’s political economy, 1847–1851 ......................................................................... 35 3 The Edendale mission Production relations, property, family life and piety ......................... 57 4 Dissension and assimilation Parting with Allison and Edendale under Wesleyan Mission Society control ...................................................................... 73 5 The 1860s Economic and social crisis at Edendale ............................................ 87 6 The Babblers oNonhlevu evangelists and mission control ....................................... 109 7 Edendale’s search for inclusion Exemption, collaboration and political organisation ........................ 131 8 The post-Shepstone era Colonial use of the ‘tribal tradition’ and its impact on the Edendale Kholwa ............................................................................... 151 9 Contracting opportunities Land purchase, depression and discrimination ................................. 173 10 Land ownership New patterns and implications ......................................................... 185 11 Divided loyalties The Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and its aftermath ................................. 201 12 The Kholwa petty bourgeoisie The impact of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) on the Edendale community .......................................................................... 209 Appendix 1: Annual baptisms between 1847 and 1893 ............................. 219 Appendix 2: Land ownership .................................................................... 224 Appendix 3: Edendale mortgage bonds in the 1860s ................................ 290 Sources ...................................................................................................... 293 Index ......................................................................................................... 307 ABBREVIATIONS ABCFM American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions AGO Attorney-General’s Office CO Colonial Office CSO Colonial Secretary’s Office cwt hundred weight DNA Department of Native Affairs ed. editor/edited GH Government House GN Government Notice NGG Natal Government Gazette NNAC Natal Native Affairs Commission NNC Natal Native Congress NWM Natal Wesleyan Missionary Society PDR Public Debt Register SANAC South African Native Affairs Commission SC Supreme Court SD selected documents SGO Surveyor-General’s Office SNA Secretary for Native Affairs SPG Society for the Propagation of the Gospel USNA Under-Secretary for Native Affairs vol. volume WO War Office MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Map 1 Reverend James Allison’s missions Zwartkops 307 Commonage 344 304 316 1 305 305 B 342 271 245 2 249 310 273 239 4 5 300 Duzi 222 241 356 3 357 118 108 253 6 218 Smeroe 106 Plessislager 242 430 217 Comm- 104 283 21 A 126 B on- 23 Pietermaritzburg 22 age 28 21 256 214 AB 96-102 G D 79 10 210 E 11 3 R 54-62 A 206 4 76 325 12 295 Georgetown S 34 19 15 5 N 31 Edendale 32 O 33 324 297 42 13 6 37 30 7 366 20 16 319 9 119 17 233 Commonage 317 163 232 265 Commonage 86 165 Zwartkops 224 225 169 227 292 176 322 New Politique 177 Commonage 180 296 C 228 182 294 353 187 184 294 A Map 2 Edendale Mkuzi R. Newcastle Dundee Glencoe Nyanyadu Biggarsberg Range Jonono’s Kop Mf Besters Driefontein Complex olozi R. Ladysmith T Estcourt ugela R. Kwatunzi Cedara Pietermaritzburg Impendle Edendale Kwangubeni Richmond Durban Indaleni Map 3 Indaleni, Edendale and offshoots Buff alo T Bushmans ugela Mgeni Valley Mgeni Kwatunzi Mk omaas Polela t Rie Mzimk ulu Kokstad Stuart version Bryant version Mzim vubu Map 4 Origins of the Mzolo (Mini) Newcastle Zululand Ladysmith Weenen Greytown Mooi River Pietermaritzburg Durban Private white holdings Produce companies holdings Land companies holdings Church lands Black lands Municipal land, Crown land and native reserves/locations Map 5 Colony of Natal landownership, 1910 Edendale, c.1930: Georgetown is nestled at the foot of the hill in the background (note the mealie fields) Edendale falls, c.1930 (courtesy E. Tate, Durban) Architectural drawing of the Native Training Institution, 1884 (SNA 1/1/71, 102/84) Drawing of exemption medal (SNA 1/1/28, 852/1890) Driefontein leaders (from R.C.A. Samuelson, Long, Long Ago) Missionary conference, Edendale, 1890s (courtesy P. Garstang, Pietermaritzburg) Kholwa choir that went to England, 1892 (Natal Archives) Miss E. Mini (courtesy V. Erlmann) Zulu choir programme (SNA 1/1/172) Typical Kholwa homestead (Natal Archives) Victorian women (Natal Archives) Reverend J. Allsopp, missionary at Mrs J. Allsopp Edendale during the Zulu War (courtesy Unity Lewis, Pietermaritzburg) Reverend James Allison Job Kambule FOREWORD LEGEND HAS IT that while lying on his deathbed, Swazi King Sobhuza I repeated a request he had earlier made when he invited missionaries to visit his kingdom and bring with them umculu, the Bible. He was desirous to ensure the spread of Christianity among his subjects. His successor, King Mswati I, relayed this wish to the Wesleyan Mission Society in Mparane, not far from present-day Ficksburg in the Free State. To honour the request, missionaries James Allison and Richard Giddy selected ten African converts and travelled with them to eSwatini, some time in 1846, to establish what was to become the Mahamba Wesleyan Mission Station. Among the chosen converts were Job Kambule, Johannes Kumalo, Jonathan Xaba, Abraham Malgas, Reuben Caluza, Adam Molife and Daniel Mavuso Msimang. These men, and several others, were later to form the nucleus of the Edendale community under Allison’s leadership. Msimang was my great-great-grandfather. Allison’s evangelical mission to eSwatini was, unfortunately, cut short by a violent succession dispute at the palace, necessitating his hasty exit from the country. He fled with his followers, who now included upwards of 200 Swazis, into the Colony of Natal, settling at Indaleni, near Richmond. At Indaleni, a severe leadership crisis hit the mission station. It ultimately led to Allison’s expulsion from the Methodist Church. His loyal followers beseeched the authorities to reinstate Allison, their guardian and mentor. But it was all in vain. With land security issues at Indaleni still unresolved in 1851, Allison bought, on a share basis, a 2 478-hectare farm located 10 kilometres south of the city of Pietermaritzburg. Nestled in the fertile Msunduzi River valley, the farm, Welverdiend, had previously belonged to Andries Pretorius, the Voortrekker leader. Allison renamed the farm Edendale and it soon became home to a community of some 500 people of mixed ethnicity: Swazi, Hlubi, Zulu, Rolong, Griqua, Tlokwe and a couple of others. This acquisition made history as it was the first time in Natal that Africans had been allowed individual landownership. Sheila Meintjes, the author of this exceptionally well-researched book, has painstakingly chronicled the history of Edendale and the complex socio- political factors that influenced its development. In the Shadow of the Great White Queen: The Edendale Kholwa of Colonial Natal, 1850–1906 narrates the story of zealous African converts, Kholwa, who adopted the Christian faith convinced about the supremacy of its spiritual value. Witness, for instance, their unilateral establishment of Nzondelelo which, as Selby Msimang, a famous son of Edendale and my uncle, points out is rather poorly served by its description by the missionaries as the Natal Wesleyan Native Mission. It emanated, to paraphrase St John 2:17, the zeal of God’s house that had consumed the African evangelists. The vigour and independence of the Nzondelelo initiative caused panic, the fear being that it
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