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The 1952 Jan Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Festival

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The 1952 Jan Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Festival j COMMEMORATIONS AND CONFLICTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PASTS: THE 1952 JAN VAN RIEBEECK TERCENTENARY FESTIVAL LESLIE WITZ Thesis Presented for the Degree of University of Cape Town Doctor of Philosophy iii the Department of History University of Cape Town February 1997 ·J Ti··, U,.,,,,., ... ·., ~·; '"' .._,, T-.. ·- !·"'" hc""n ~•-,.,.~ ' 1 ~ ttl~~~ l'i~;;.·~· ·<.~ ·i~.• ~.·.: _,~ ;~ :; :~j;;.!;;~:;~·;; ':~·1·\~.-.:~·:·:~~:~ ~- or in p:lrt. C0;J~ j i·,J:,i ;s he!:! by tht1 C.l:!h~)r. }j v~~itl/""' ... , ..... ---. •• • . ._ ... , • ~-: •• ·~· '·'= . , ... ~·- •... ~···· ... _..... J The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town Contents Abstract Acknowledgements 11 List of illustrations IV Introduction Journeys, Festivals and the Making of National Pasts 1 Chapter One Van Riebeeck's Pasts 33 Commemorating the past 37 Schooling the past 66 Diarising the past 93 Moments in Van Riebeeck' s pasts 112 Chapter Two "We Build a Nation": The Festival of Unity and Exclusion 114 Planning for Van Riebeeck 118 Negotiating and authorising Van Riebeeck's past 139 Van Riebeeck's week of history 181 "Ek land saam met Van Riebeeck" [I land together with Van Riebeeck] 190 Chapter Three Contesting Van Riebeeck's Nation 193 Boycotting Van Riebeeck 195 Promoting the boycott on stage 219 The printed history lesson 232 International opposition to Van Riebeeck: Dr White Anderson, the festival and "native problems" 240 "Wat dink die Bantoe van die Fees?" [What do the Bantu think of the Festival?] 246 Chapter Four "'n Fees vir die Oog" [A Festival/Feast for the Eye]: Looking in on the 1952 Jan Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Festival Fair 250 The plans and the chaos 253 Going to the festival fair 258 Siting the fair 259 On show at the fair 263 The gold mine at the seaside 281 "This terrible thing" 289 "History! Van Riebeeck! Forget it!" 299 Chapter Five Local and National Pasts: The Journeys of the Mail Coaches Through the Eastern Cape 302 Problems on the coastal road 308 Different routes to the nations 315 "Skaduwee oor die groat feespad' [Shadows over the great festival road] 322 Sir Harry Smith's town 333 Port Elizabeth - the landing of Van Riebeeck's settlers 336 The commonwealth of nations . 340 Conclusion Post Van Riebeeck 344 Bibliography 356 r Abstract This thesis investigates how the icon of Jan van Riebeeck acquired a position of prominence in South African public pasts through the government sponsored festival organised in 1952 to commemorate his landing three hundred years previously. From the seventeenth to the mid­ twentieth centuries van Riebeeck and the landing in 1652 had, through commemorative events, school text books and the publication of the Dutch East India Company journal for the period when he was commander at the Cape of Good Hope, acquired different meanings. These ranged from conveying Christianity to southern Africa, to initiating British colonial rule and providing the ancestry for an Afrikaner volk. tVsing material from the various· planning committees for the tercentenary celebrations, newspaper reports, pamphlets, high school year books, interviews with organisers and participants, radio broadcasts and documentary film footage, this thesis argues that the festival in 1952 selected elements from these various pasts to construct a Van Riebeeck as the founder figure of a racially exclusive settler nation in South Africa. The pasts that were produced for this festival of European settler founding often resulted from negotiations between opposing groups over its constituent elements, what events · and personalities should be included and excluded and how they should be represented. It was immensely difficult to produce this consensual past, particularly as local identities often clashed with the national pasts the festival was attempting to construct and the audiences viewed the exhibitions and performances in a variety of different ways. There was also a massive boycott of the proceedings by those whom the festival organisers attempted to incorporate into its displays and audiences as, separate, developing 'non-European' ethnic entities. One of the most notable aspects of the boycott campaigns against the festival was that they largely mirrored and inverted its symbols·. Instead of subverting the images of the festival, they therefore unintentionally bolstered and sustained their significance in South African public pasts. }. Acknowledgements In a thesis ofthis nature, which is primarily concerned with the construction of public history, the range of people who have contributed to its production 'is very wide. It encompasses film and radio archivists, environmental activists, advertising agents, secretaries in government departments, curators at museums, sales assistants at second-hand bookshops, students in lectures, guests at dinner parties and even passers-by in the street. While it is not feasible to acknowledge each of these contributions individually, they have. enabled me to develop an understanding of how history is produced, contested and received in different ways in the public terrain. There are, however, many individuals whom I would like to thank specifically for the support that they gave me over the past five years spent while I researched and wrote up this thesis. Andrew Meston, Carol Witz, Patricia Hayes, Uma Mesthrie, John Mason, Chris Saunders, William Frater, Andrew Ball, Rena Sherman and Michele Pickover all helped in locating source material and made interesting and valuable suggestions. Ingrid Scholtz and Wayne Dooling assisted with the translation of Dutch documents. Anriette Esterhuysen and Ran Greenstein not only extended their hospitality to me during research trips to Johannesburg but also, through discussion, encouraged and supported the project. Carolyn Hamilton's comments and incisive questioning helped to provide direction at a stage when the thesis threatened to become bogged down in the. almost overwhelming mass of sources on the festival. Andrew Bank read chapters of an early draft and made very useful, detailed comments. Pat van der Spuy proof-read this thesis meticulously, picking up on my inconsistencies, incorrect usage of certain phrases and various other grammatical errors. There are some special thanks that must be made. The first is to my supervisor Nigel Worden who gave me constant encouragement, directed me to certain material and most importantly, helped me to refine and cohere the ideas I presented. Secondly, I am indebted to my friends and colleagues at the University of the Western Cape, Ciraj Rassool and Gary Minkley. We share a common interest iri public history and have worked and taught together on several projects that examine the construction of public images of the past in spheres ranging from festivals to museums and tourism. This has allowed for an incredible cross-fertilisation of ideas that, in turn, ./ 11 have fed into several of the formulations and the arguments that I develop in this thesis. Lastly, thanks to Josi Frater. She proof- read parts of the thesis, attempting to eradicate some of the long sentences and tautologies. She was also incredibly helpful in collecting material, constantly being on the look out for public images of Van Riebeeck and the festival. But, most of all it was her encouragement and support that sustained me in the venture of writing a PhD thesis. 111 List of illustrations 1. "Allemagtig! I Feel Quite Young Again", Cape Argus, Weekly Edition, 10 October 1910. 2. Landing of Jan, Maria and Lambertus van Riebeeck at Granger Bay, 5 April 1952, Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, Cape Town (1952), p.35. 3. "Not Good-bye, but 'Tot siens"', Cape Times, 24 April 1947. 4. "Whither, South Africa?", Cape Times, 17 December 1949. 5. "Darkest Africa", presented by the Speech Training and Drama Department, University of Cape Town, at the People's Pageant, 3 April 1952, Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, p.S. 6. "We Build a Nation", presented by Mrs D F Malan, enters the festival stadium, 3 April 1952, Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, p.23. 7. Anti-Van Riebeeck Festival Protest Meeting, Grand Parade, 30 March 1952. On stage, from left to right are Phyllis Ntantala Jordan, Willem van Schoor, S A Jayiya, Goolam Gool, Dan Neethling and Jane Gool, P Ntantala, A Life's Mosaic, Cape Town (1992). 8. The Landing of Sheik Yusuf at the Festival Stadium, 2 April 1952, -Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, p.38. 9. "A Van Riebeeck Welcome Home", Cape Times, 6 March 1952. 10. Going underground at the gold mine at the seaside, March/April 1952, Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, p.45. 11. "I Believe If You Annoy Baboons They're Quite Dangerous", The Guardian, 27 March 1952. 12. The mail coaches arrive for the tea party at the festival stadium, 30 March 1952, Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, p.37. 13. The East London float, "The Statute of Westminster" ("The Commonwealth ofNations"), passes through the streets of Cape Town, 3 April 1952, Cape Times, The Festival in Pictures, p.21. 14. "No Shit on Our Shore", Cape Argus, 11 July 1992. IV INTRODUCTION JOURNEYS, FESTIVALS AND THE MAKING OF NATIONAL PASTS. The week of26 to 31 October 1992 was a hectic one forD F Malan airport in Cape Town. For years relegated to a minor air terminal, largely carrying domestic traffic, strong ·predictions of an imminent end to white rule in South Africa saw its doors being opened to the international world as, amidst much fanfare and publicity, the first scheduled regular flights from Germany, France and Holland landed on its runways and the first weekly direct non-stop flight from Cape Town to London was inaugurated.
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