Notes and Queries

AFRICAN GENEALOGIES Address by Shelagh O’Byrne Spencer to fellow graduands at the ceremony at which she was awarded her honorary doctorate

Chancellor, Honoured Guests, Ladies under the leadership of Francis and Gentlemen Farewell, a half-pay Royal Naval officer. Their purpose was to acquire My research concerns the British men, women and children who came to Natal ivory through trade and/or hunting. between the years 1824 and 1857. Their coming predated the arrival To a degree, I have investigated their of the Voortrekkers by 14 years. The genealogies, but my main interest is in Trekker republic, Natalia, lasted from the lives they led once here. Because the 1838 to 1843 when Britain took over settlers could not live in isolation, I have the region south of the Thukela as a acquired a cross-section of knowledge colony. Rejecting British rule, many about the peoples of our multi-cultural of the Boers trekked away, and in province. Stemming from this, I would the 1850s a large number of British like to share two main topics with you immigrants came here, either under – something of what has been done various schemes or independently. In to preserve African genealogy and Zulu folk-lore they were likened to history; and, a glimpse into the origins birds of destruction coming out of the of KwaZulu-Natal’s ‘Coloureds’, as the sea! apartheid government classified them. Genealogy is the study of family The first group of ‘white’ people to descent. In Britain it was important settle at Port Natal (today’s Durban) because the disposal of property came from the Cape Colony in 1824, within a family depended on it. Here

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I am referring to wealthy families. An In 1942 another such competition example is the well-known explorer, was organised by Killie Campbell. Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who sports a Judging from the winners’ choice family tree going back 42 generations of subjects, the emphasis this time – to an ancestor who died in 741. was more on sites with historical However, the ordinary farm-labourers, significance than on family histories. servants, artisans, etc., who were most Killie Campbell launched a third likely illiterate, probably could not competition in 1949, assisted by Mr trace their forbears back more than D. McKenzie Malcolm, then lecturing two or three generations. Fortunately, in isiZulu at Natal University, parish registers of births and marriages Durban. A notice ‘To all Zulus’ was did record these details. As an aside – published, requesting information on today we do not realise how backward tribes, however small. Replies were the English working classes were 150 to include data on origins, present or so years ago – to quote Bishop locality, tribal history, genealogy Colenso’s wife, Sarah, describing the of the chiefs, the izibongo of the villagers of her husband’s parish in chiefs and other prominent men, and Norfolk: ‘The dense ignorance and incidents of special interest. It was stupidity of the English rustic … was emphasised that the facts should not enough to drive the teacher to the be from books, but the testimonies rising generation as the only hopeful of elderly men and women. Entrants soil.’ were ‘earnestly’ begged to provide as In African genealogy, family much information as possible because descent was recorded orally down of the rapid detribalisation which was the generations, while the izibongo taking place, and the imperative need of prominent people would highlight for these records to be preserved for their achievements. In the early 1900s all time. the Revd John Langalibalele Dube’s Wide publicity resulted in about 200 newspaper Ilanga lase Natal published entries. First prize went to an essay on the histories of all the more important the Mathenjwa tribe. Altogether 96 tribes in Natal and Zululand, which prizes were awarded, ranging in value had been collected by Father A.T. from £25 to two shillings and sixpence Bryant of Mariannhill. By March 1912 for the many consolation prizes. In these were being repeated in Izindaba the 1950s five meat pies could have zaBantu, of which Bryant was editor. been bought for that 2/6d – the kind At this time, Marshall Campbell – the for which we now pay about R10.00 Mashu from whom Kwa Mashu takes each – so, in today’s values, the prizes its name – instituted a competition would have ranged from R50.00 to the with prizes for essays on early Zulu handsome sum of R10 000! history. Others involved were Dube The Killie Campbell Africana and Campbell’s young daughter Killie. Library has continued the Campbell Ilanga advertised the competition and involvement in African genealogy 25 responses were received, nine on and history in many ways – one being Zulu history and 16 on Sotho history. The James Stuart Archive, which is The prize winners were A. Zikalala for the Zulu entry and S.P. Phamotse for part of its Manuscript Series. Stuart the Sotho one. started interviewing Africans in the

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries late 1890s. His informants named their children of their Khoi servants, who chiefs and, where applicable, their formed the core of Natal’s Coloured regiments, and recited their ancestors population. Surnames here include and/or their chiefs’ ancestors. Taking Adams, Biggar, Cane, Fynn, King, 30 years as marking a generation, Halstead, Isaacs, Ogle and Toohey. some of these genealogies go back to Some of the hunter/traders came to the 1500s. Frequently Stuart was able be looked on as chiefs, namely Henry to evolve detailed family trees from Francis Fynn (Mbuyazi we Theku), the information received. and Henry Ogle (Wohlo), while the The editing and translating of the Inkosikazi Vundlase, wife of Henry Stuart papers was started in the early Fynn’s brother Frank (Phobane), was 1970s by the late Professor Colin a chieftainess. A deserter in the 1830s

Webb and Professor John Wright, who from the 72nd Regiment, who escaped is continuing this work. To date five of from the Cape to Natal and settled near the projected seven volumes have been today’s Umzinto, also became a chief. published. This was Robert Joyce, known as The Witness’s supplement ‘Learn Joyisi. These chiefdoms were passed with Echo’ is also promoting down until about the 1950s, when genealogy with the family histories and the Nationalist government gave the izithakazelo which appear from time to current chiefs the option of remaining time. King Shaka’s izibongo and King chiefs and being classified as African, Goodwill Zwelitini’s ancestry and or becoming ordinary Coloured izithakazelo have been featured. citizens. Now to the genealogy of Coloureds A number of the British men in Natal – among the servants in who arrived in the 1840s and 1850s Farewell’s 1824 party were Khoi also had Coloured children. Names people. The only one to whom there that come to mind are Bennee, is more than a fleeting reference is Donaldson, Clothier, Goldstone, Rachel, later the common-law wife Green, Hargreaves, Jackson, Lucas, of Farewell’s carpenter, John Cane Oakes, Reynolds and Stainbank (in (Jana). She would be left in charge this case the surnames Frankson and of Farewell’s settlement when he Joyce were assumed by different and the other whites were absent, children). Some settler sons continued and is frequently mentioned by both the trend – family names here include Nathaniel Isaacs and Charles Rawden Bazley, Bloy, Fayers, Grantham, Maclean (alias ‘John Ross’) in their Hammond, Houston, Hulley, Landers, writings about those early days. Meek, Redman, Robson, Rorke, After a time, the hunter/traders Stuart, Taylor, Tomlinson, Watson and established their own homesteads and Walker. Another second generation accumulated numerous followers, who settler, John Dunn (Jandoni), moved were mainly refugees from the Zulu to the Zulu country in 1857, where country or fragments of displaced he became a powerful chief under tribes. Most of the hunter/traders King Cetshwayo. He consolidated his also took Khoi or African concubines position by having 49 wives – who or wives (for whom they duly paid produced 117 known children. Other ilobola). It is their children, and the second generation settler men added to

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries the Swazi gene pool – some surnames given a great boost by the now retired here are Dupont, Eckersley, Henwood Father Duncan McKenzie of Durban. and Thring. As he was moved from parish to In the 1870s a number of people parish, he recorded information given from St Helena came to the Cape him by his Coloured parishioners. and Natal as servants and artisans. His work has helped me greatly with The island’s population was a mix of the Coloured branches of some of my Dutch, English, Portuguese, Asian, families. and African peoples, many of the The two subjects I have shared with latter having been freed from slave you both comprise interlinking, if ships by the Royal Navy. For centuries not inseparable, genealogies and life the island’s mainstay had been the histories. Likewise with the entries in provisioning of passing ships. Steam my biographical register. superseding sail in the mid-1800s My research has shown that meshing and the opening of the Suez Canal in goes further than this – it permeates 1869 ruined this market, resulting in all the peoples of our multi-cultural unemployment and poverty. The St country, and could bind us together Helenans who settled in Natal were into an inseparable whole. For this to recruited mainly for rich Durban happen, however, historical knowledge residents – it was expensive – their and empathy across the spectrum of fares had to be paid, and their wages our society is essential. Remember, were higher than the going rate. Some Mrs Colenso, the wife of Sobantu, did settle in Pietermaritzburg. They pointed to the rising generation as were mainly Anglican and were greatly ‘hopeful soil’. assisted by Dean James Green of St Graduands – you, with your higher Saviour’s Cathedral. They had their education, are a crucial part of this own church, St Luke’s, in Boshoff ‘hopeful soil’. Street, until the Group Areas Act forced Thank you. their removal to Woodlands. Today they are still a distinct group among Acknowledgments: the Coloured population. Names here My husband Brian include Benjamin, Crowie, Easthorpe, Dr Corinne Sandwith Everton, Ginman, Joshua, Knipe, Leo Father Duncan McKenzie, OMI and Rich. Mrs Joan Simpson The documenting of the genealogies Killie Campbell Africana Library of KZN’s Coloured families has been Professor Adrian Koopman

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ANNAMAH VATHER – A UNIQUE WOMAN Contributed by Dr T.R. Moodley The recording of family marital partnerships or histories of Indians who associations. came to South Africa as One such woman indentured labourers or was my grandmother, who had paid their way Annamah, who was (known as passenger born in the village of Indians) is difficult, as Pandoor near Madras. most of the history is She could not read or oral or anecdotal and has write English but was been passed on from one very adequately literate generation to the next. in Tamil. There was a high Annamah arrived in illiteracy rate and a fight South Africa in May for survival, and so the Annamah Vather 1893 aboard the SS recording of family events or success Pongola with her husband Aroonagiry was a luxury. This trend continued until Moodley. He had already served his the 1960s, despite the phenomenal indenture in South Africa and had progress made by Indians In South returned to India to marry. She was 16 Africa. There were the everlasting years old and Moodley, who was also battles against prejudice, the threat of her grand-uncle, was 50. repatriation, designated ‘group areas’ Annamah was industrious, soon to live in, the obstacles in business adapted to her new environment and and education, and the general non- started planting vegetables and flowers acceptance of Indian people as citizens to sell. Her venture developed rapidly of South Africa other than descendants and she became a vegetable hawker of of respectable slaves. note. People still remember her rose The women who came to South Af- garden, which was on a site adjoining rica came either with their husbands, the present Eddels shoe factory in in search of their husbands who had Victoria Road, Pietermaritzburg. She left India for South Africa or as sin- was frugal and only the vegetables that gle women in search of a ‘brave new could not be sold to the public were world’. They were severely disadvan- used in the family kitchen. If festival taged in many ways, but some of them days, e.g. Deepavali, fell on a good threw off the shackles of conservative day for business she and her family Indian society that bound them – espe- would celebrate on the next day. cially those governing the relationship Market gardening had become very between husbands and wives. To quote popular with those Indians who had Richard Lannoy, ‘though destitute of opted to stay in the country, because virtue or seeking pleasure elsewhere trading licences were difficult to or devoid of good qualities, yet a hus- obtain. Market gardeners and hawkers band must be worshipped as a god by supplied fresh fruit and vegetable a faithful wife’, women became the to the local markets and public at dominant partner and driving force in competitive prices.

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Annamah acquired a wagon and second highest ratepayer in the city of horses and drove the wagon herself Pietermaritzburg. She dealt with the to the market. This was unusual for a firm of Ireland, Van Aardt and Forsyth, young Indian woman, as most hawkers an auction house which also did estate had little push carts. Later in life she agency work. The head of the firm was driven around in a Ford motor car would inform her of any property that with the registration NP1, a number was coming up for sale and she would subsequently the preserve of the buy it and instruct her lawyers Cecil Provincial Secretary of the day. Nathan and Co to proceed with the In the late 19th and early 20th transfer, and she would pay in cash. century banks were reluctant to give She also became a property developer Indians loans. Money lenders or ‘local and had several houses built in Mayors bankers’ brought some relief. Loans Walk near the Botanical Gardens. were made against bonds, title deeds In 1905 she struck up a relationship and other securities such as jewellery. with a Mr Vather, an Indian sweetmeat It is also to be noted that post indenture maker from the Gujerati sect, and by there were many unskilled Indians, all accounts a very handsome man. earning capacity was low and it was She was strong minded and made almost impossible to obtain trading the controversial decision to separate licences, skilled jobs and, indeed, from her husband. The association employment. There was no shortage of was frowned upon by the community, borrowers. firstly because she had left her Annamah saw an opportunity and, husband, a respected member of the being astute, developed a considerable religious fraternity and, secondly, she business as a ‘local banker’. Most was a south Indian Tamil-speaking arrangements were verbal and if items woman who formed an association of jewellery were not collected on the with a north Indian Gujerati-speaking date of redemption they were forfeited. man. In any case, infidelities were On her death she was found to have five fairly common due to the paucity of bags of jewellery in her possession. women. She seemed unfazed by this This could not be distributed to her controversy and it would appear that sons by value, so a respectable jeweller, the union prospered, because they Mr Raghavajee used a scale from his subsequently developed a general shop and distributed the jewellery by dealership and a petrol station in Retief weight. Street, and she became an enormously After 1905 there was an economic wealthy woman. depression and many white people She was a matriarch in the true sense experienced severe hardship and of the word and expected her family would borrow money from her, some to toe the line. Wealth had given her of them even bonding their properties an arrogance that would make her to her. Some of the Afrikaners moved selective about her relationships with to the Transvaal where economic people and in the selection of the prospects seemed better. She bought wives for her sons. The front door to their properties for cash and in this her house in Retief Street had a stained way acquired an enormous amount glass window with the inscription of property and in time became the ‘Vathers Lodge’.

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Her youngest son from the first area of the present Liberty Midlands marriage defied her and chose a wife Mall and several Hindu festivals were for himself and because of this she celebrated there under her patronage. decided to discipline and destroy him. One such festival, the Angalesperi She had given him a property Prayer to honour the Mother Shakti, is to start up a brick-making factory. still celebrated and sponsored annually There was a verbal agreement that he by members of the family in the would supply her with bricks for her Siva Soobramoniar and Mariammen many developments to the value of Temple in Pietermaritzburg and is well the brickyard property and eventually attended by the general public. take ownership of it. All went well After her death and due to population until he married. He had already paid shift the original temple was for the property in bricks supplied but demolished and the Murthis (symbolic had not taken transfer of it. By now representations of the various gods relations between mother and son had and goddesses) were housed in the deteriorated to such an extent that Siva Soobramoniar and Mariammen she sold the property to the Nizamia Temple. She died in 1950 at the age Muslim Society. He successfully of 73 and her ashes were placed in the sued his mother but, unfortunately for family plot that she had purchased at him, the judgment in his favour was the Mountain Rise Cemetery. posthumous. What of the progeny of this While still unmarried, the son had remarkable woman, who rose to made a will in favour of his mother become a property baroness in a in 1929. He died suddenly at the age difficult environment and against all of 39 in 1943 and by now had five odds? Her grandchildren have excelled children, the eldest only five years old. in the professions, including law and She made a claim against his estate, medicine, and some as powerful claiming that a later will in favour of business executives. his widow and children was forged, and REFERENCES the one made in her favour was valid. 1 Lannoy, Richard. The Speaking Tree. A study This led to a prolonged legal battle and of Indian social structure and society. p 103. eventually the court ruled in favour of 2 Khan, Moosa Hyder. Pietermaritzburg Indian the widow and minor children. She Centenary Brochure 1960 p 47. achieved a partial success, however, as 3 Desai, Ashwin and Vahed, Goolam. Inside Indian Indenture: A South African Story she had financially crippled her son’s 1860–1914. pp 323–326. estate due to the enormous legal costs 4 Hiralal, Kalpana. Natalia 38 Indian family involved. But she lost favour and the businesses in Natal, 1870 to 1950, pp 27–37. 5 Ibid. respect of the community, including 6 Raghavjee, Vaghjee. Personal communica- her daughters, who believed that the tion. action was unwarranted. The record of 7 Forsyth, D. Personal communication. both cases can be found in the library 8 Meer, Y.S. et. al. Documents of Indian indentured labourers in Natal 1851–1917. p of the Natal Law Society. 25. Annamah was a deeply religious 9 Annama v Moodley 1943 Citation AD 543. person. She built a Hindu temple in the 10 Annama v Chetty and others Citation 1946 AD 142.

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Applause for Mrs Isabella Giles: the young wife of a Natal midlands farmer in the 1860s Contributed by Val Ward

Homestead overlooking the Blaaukrantz River, possibly where the Giles family lived. Photo (taken 1996): Shelagh Spencer

‘Very tired’ is how Isabella Giles washing, clearing paths and pitching frequently ended her daily journal. I bricks and rubbish out of the way’. am not surprised. Her life as a colonial Here it was that her white servant Ann Natal midlands farmer’s wife in the left her and she employed Julia Lloyd 1860s was hard. and Topsy as well as Nomacela, who Isabella was the wife of James Giles, came twice a week to bake and iron. a former major in the 17th Hussars Family member Peter Giles took a who served in the Indian Mutiny in nearby cottage on the farm. And not the 1850s. They married in England long afterwards brother Edward Giles and emigrated to the Colony of Natal. arrived from England to join Peter. They arrived at Port Natal (Durban or James Giles, having looked at prop- Thekweni) on 22 November 1862 with erties in the Bushman’s River region a 20-month-old daughter Cicely and as well as Greytown, eventually set- a month-old son Frank, born on the tled on the farm Blaauwkrantz. He voyage. chose this farm, in the neighbourhood The only railway was that of Bushman’s River (Estcourt) in the between Durban and the Point so County of Weenen, because it had a the family travelled from Durban to ‘Dutch’ house on it which was rent Pietermaritzburg by ox-wagon. While free. Another reason for selecting this ‘Pettie’ (husband James) was visiting farm may have been because a neigh- parts of the Natal midlands looking bouring farmer, Frederick William for a suitable property, Isabella was Moor on Brakfontein, was the son of busy getting a house on the Colenso a ‘fellow officer and friend’, Colonel mission at Bishopstowe ready for John Moor. Other neighbours were the their temporary occupation – ‘lime- Ralfes, Mrs Moor Junior being a Ralfe.

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The Giles family and servants left out and the floors repaired. It was a Pietermaritzburg on about 2 July ‘Dutch’ house, which probably meant 1863 in three wagons and on some it was thatched and had an earth or horses. The journey was not without dung floor. Isabella later described it as incident. Oxen panicked, wagons ran an ‘ugly Dutch’ house. Travellers and backwards and bits of wagon were visitors came to dinner (mid-day meal) removed for repair. Partway up Town and some stayed overnight, often Hill they stopped overnight at Britton’s on the sofa. Pettie was often away – ‘Boarding House’, the second night around the farm, to other farms, to the they slept at the Umgeni Falls Hotel (at Post, to Colenso, Bushman’s River and Howick). They travelled via Curry’s Mooi River for military drills and to (Curry’s Post) to ‘KarKloof’ for their buy and sell produce, leaving Isabella third night. On Sunday, the fourth day, to attend to the farm, sometimes with they reached Mooi River, where they help from Peter who lived across the stayed at Whipp’s (Accommodation river. The neighbouring Moors and House). The wagons continued with Ralfes were very helpful and there Peter, Julia, baby Frankie and the was much traffic by horse or wagon servants while James and Isabella between the two farms, since there Giles, with toddler Cicely riding in were no telephones. Sometimes they front of her, continued on horses went on horseback and when goods to Bushman’s River. They went or people were to be transported, by straight to the magistrate Mr (John) wagon. Often the message-taker was Macfarlane’s house. Here they rested a farmhand. Isabella made butter, on the following day while the wagons brawn from ‘pig’s feet’, lard from continued to Blaauwkrantz. From Mr animal fat; she roasted coffee beans Macfarlane’s they went on horseback and she fixed boots and shoes with to the Moors at Brakfontein, where gum, A frequent houseguest was ‘old they stayed a week. Meanwhile Pettie Mrs Moor’ who helped enormously rode over to Blaauwkrantz daily, a with the family, ‘sewing curtains distance of about 16 kilometres, to for the bed’, baby clothes, altering unpack the wagons and to set up the men’s trousers, making table cloths, home. Two weeks passed between frocks and bonnets and bibs for the leaving Pietermaritzburg and moving children. They made cap covers for into their home at Blaauwkrantz in the ammunition and candles. In the mid-July 1863. evenings they dampened and folded It was winter. The days were short the laundry, ironed, and ‘greased eggs and there was plenty to do. Isabella for keeping’. They salted meat, made was a working wife and mother with sausages, bread, scones, rock cakes a two-year-old daughter Cicely and and jam. On one occasion Julia had nine-month-old Frankie. Fortunately forgotten to ‘do the overnight rising she had Julia Lloyd, a home help. for the bread’ so they had scones They employed local servants and for breakfast and dinner. Mrs Moor farmhands. All the same, Isabella was Senior was very helpful with the Giles very active in the house and on the children and when they were ill, she farm. often took over the houseful chores Life in 1863 to 1866 was full. allowing Isabella to nurse the fractious The house needed constant cleaning children.

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The Giles expected the Moors for and toys for the children. One box most Sunday dinners. On occasion contained a sewing machine. There they could not come but always sent was much anticipation and great a message. Isabella’s Sunday journal excitement when the box eventually entry would start, ‘Expected the Moors arrived by wagon at Blaauwkrantz. but they did not come.’ In a rare ‘quiet’ On a visit to Pietermaritzburg, Isabella period Isabella would mend socks could not contain her curiosity and and sort drawers and cupboards. And opened a box waiting to be delivered she read magazines and books sent to Blaauwkrantz. She examined the from England. Isabella was a great contents, repacked everything and letter-writer to the family in Somerset, nailed the box down for delivery to her England. And she looked forward to home. When it arrived at Blaauwkrantz the arrival of ‘boxes’ and their newsy she was just as excited as before. With letters and the copies of ‘Punch’ and Mrs Moor’s help, Isabella soon cut the ‘Illustrated’, presumably the out the fabrics and sewed clothes, Illustrated London News. She and including ‘trowsers’, for the whole Mrs Moor often made scrapbooks family. using pictures from these publications ‘Old’ Mrs Moor was not beyond to amuse the sick children. Besides helping Isabella on the farm. In a teething, the children frequently had late cold snap Mrs Moor saw to the coughs, whooping cough, constipation ‘rubbing of the cold shorn sheep’ that and worms, and all the children on the had been brought into the kitchen. On farm had chickenpox. Isabella seemed another occasion they were planting to be always dosing the children for seedlings in the kitchen garden in the one ailment or another. Treatments pouring rain – ‘… old Mrs Moor out often included castor oil, enemas, in the wet and mud’. Isabella helped Senna tea, emetics, liquorice (which plant tobacco, syringas, potatoes, gum Frankie did not like), figs, Belladonna tree seeds, herbs, shallots, mealies, ‘plaisters’ (plasters). Cicely at one radish, lettuce and parsley, onion, time was dosed frequently with a turnips, ‘spinage’ (spinach). She was homeopathic cocoa which she called thrilled to receive in one of her boxes ‘chocolate’, and even when well again from England, seeds for mignonette, Cicely asked for it. At the end of 1865 stocks, nasturtiums, white petunias and Dr Edie stayed more than a week to balsam which Isabella happily planted see Isabella through a difficult time around the house. She was very proud when she had fits, fevers, paralysis and of her hens and ducks and would check ‘agues’. He treated her with rhubarb, the sitting birds regularly – eggs often quinine and iron. numbered 13 to 15. Often she would The ships from England arrived put a duck egg under a hen. in Port Natal (Durban) about once a When Pettie had killed a pig and month, bringing passengers as well cut it up, Isabella would cure it. She as the post and occasional boxes for helped with webbing the new bedstead the Giles family. The eagerly awaited made by Pettie. She made fly-poison. boxes from England contained useful Flies were a problem as they are on household things as well as fabrics farms today. Three-year-old Cicely at for clothes, preserves, vases and dolls dinner exclaimed ‘Bother the flies,’ an

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries adult expression she must have heard. right. I am not suited to colonial life Besides caring for shorn sheep – do what I may – the work is not in Isabella often counted the sheep and me – for I have not been brought up cattle into their enclosures when Pettie in it.’ Six weeks later, on 27 December was away. She at times went to the 1863 she wrote ‘A quiet morning – no river to drive the ducks back home. early rising – not well – Julia better - She would make the sheep-wash with Frankie cross all day – no home letters tobacco, she made basket fencing and yet. Peter all right again – Went to she rode to the Post when others could the garden in the afternoon – I took a not. She dealt with the farmhands and warm bath on going to bed – Pettie late their families. in coming to bed – & then talked to What did farmer Giles do? Pettie, me for a long time & made me better besides travelling to neighbouring – the Lover again’. Five days later, farms to select sheep, horses and cattle, on midsummer’s New Year’s Day and to look for lost animals, made the 1864, Isabella wrote ‘Very unhappy baby’s cot and a bedstead, went on and very weak – irritable & horrible – military drills, made stock enclosures, everybody & everything offends me – rode to neighbours for advice, dug a dear Pettie especially. Laid down on the hole to bury his dead horse ‘Vivian’, bed whilst the children slept & Pettie went hunting, practised target talked to me.’ No further mentions of shooting, played chess with guests and intimacy until June, six months later helped Isabella when the children were (Sunday 5 June 1864), ‘Had a nap in ill. In mid-1865 he started building the afternoon on Pettie’s shoulder.’ Six their new home on the farm Slievyre, weeks later (18 July 1864) Isabella two hours wagon-ride away. He was wrote ‘Made myself happy again with often away until they moved across Pettie – he says he loves me all over – in February 1866. Isabella obviously every bit of me – & I am not to brood missed Pettie when he was away. She over it when he speaks crossly & not would watch out for him, she would to let him do it – so little irritates him worry if he was not home by dark, she he says’. Nine months later (10 April was nervous especially when there 1865) she wrote, ‘The children (now were rumours of a Basuto ‘raid’ and three of them), Pettie and I went out to when the weather was particularly wet lay down on the grass.’ and rivers flooded. Pettie doted on her Isabella arrived in Natal with two – he never left her side, day or night, children. She had a miscarriage on 10 during her late 1865 illness. February 1864. Other children were There seemed always to be born late 1864 or early 1865 (Douglas) houseguests. In three years’ journal- and 28 December 1865 (Evelyn). In writing Isabella seldom remarked five years she had five pregnancies and about a ‘quiet day’ and even less often reared four children, Cicely, Frank, was there any mention of intimacy. Douglas and Evelyn. This in itself is Life seemed to get her down at times. enough to keep a woman busy. Four months after settling in to her new I came to write this story after life, Isabella wrote on Thursday 12th speed-reading through parts of two November 1863, ‘Pettie very angry handwritten journals in foolscap with me. [Brother in England] Henry’s notebooks in the possession of Mrs

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Gay Wedderburn of Howick. In Natal midlands very interesting and 2009, I read the Isabella Giles’ diary especially that of a farmer’s young to abstract mentions, between 1863 wife. and early 1866, of the families Moor Isabella Giles was not only home- and Ralfe for Dr Robert Moor of keeper and hostess; wife, mother, Cambridge. Robert, a great grandson nurse, vet and friend but a stop-gap of Frederick Robert Moor, the Prime farmer as well. No wonder she often Minister of the Colony of Natal 1906- completed her daily journal with ‘Very 1910, is researching his family history. tired’. I applaud her. I found the life of the people of the HEATH RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION Contributed by Moray Comrie Through the latter months of 2009 and early in 2010, Pietermaritzburg’s Tatham Art Gallery mounted a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Jack, Jane and Jinny Heath. Born in England, both Jack (John Charles Wood) Heath and Jane (born Jane Tully Parminter) both showed exceptional ability as scholarship students first at the Birmingham School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art in London. They met at Birmingham and married in January 1940 as World War II took hold. Demobilised in 1946, Jack accepted a lectureship in painting and drawing at Rhodes University College and a year later was appointed Head of the Art School at the Port Elizabeth Technical College. In her preface to the exhibition catalogue, Juliette Leeb-du Toit writes of him thus: ‘As a vital part of the English modernist diaspora who left home and country in the aftermath of World War II, his invaluable presence in South Africa This picture on the Heath Retrospective made an indelible mark on both art Exhibition was catalogued: ‘John teaching, appreciation and practice.’ Charles Wood (Jack) Heath, Lazarus In 1953 Jack Heath took up the Chair Come Forth, wax and oil with sand on of Fine Art at the University of Natal board, 1962, 2485 × 1265mm’.

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries in Pietermaritzburg, where he and Jane through to Jinny’s current work and injected fresh life into a neglected encompassed the full diversity of and even moribund department. Their drawings, etchings, theatrical notices daughter Jinny (Bronwen Jane) Heath and caricatures, cartoons, book had come to South Africa and then to illustrations and paintings which Natal as a child, and after graduating the Heaths have produced, all with she, too, lectured in the Department the same thoroughly professional from 1967 until she retired at the end commitment to technical excellence, of 2004. was therefore of major significance. The senior Heaths divorced in 1964, This note cannot attempt to be a review and Jack died suddenly in 1969. The of it, but to quote Juliette Leeb-du Toit gallery at what is now the Centre once more: for Visual Arts at the University of … Jack Heath’s entire academic KwaZulu-Natal – for the construction career was spent in South Africa, and development of which he was a and it was in Natal that he came prime mover – is rightly named for him. of age as an artist of considerable Jane had retired from the university a force. He upheld the merits of his year previously, and she continued to prestigious art college training as well teach privately until shortly before her as nurturing a strong personal interest own death in 1995. in contemporary art and African art The Heaths have all approached and culture, these facets transcribed in powerful renderings of South African their work with the same rigour that vistas and peoples. their own academic training had had, and throughout their professional Rather than colonising indigenous careers gave priority to their teaching expression in the region and country above their personal output. Nor has to which they emigrated, the Heaths the work of any one of them been much chose rather to implant their presence exhibited. Because of this, while their in developing a rigorous teaching students have respected them greatly ethic located in English modernism and their influence on the teaching and and classical art training. Their making of art has been considerable, work reflected a masterful control of medium, metaphorical use of content the public has been less aware of their and ultimately a modernist classicism own work than might have been the that is unique in South African art. case. In fact, many of the paintings exhibited, particularly Jack’s larger There has been a move to mount the works, had to be rescued from near exhibition, or parts of it, in other centres oblivion and carefully cleaned and in the country and it is hoped that it has restored, with Jinny leading this effort. generated fresh and deserved interest in The Tatham Retrospective the work of the Heath family, both in exhibition, which assembled pieces KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere. from Jack and Jane’s student days

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THE NAMING OF KING SHAKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Contributed by Adrian Koopman and Elwyn Jenkins

The new airport Shaka’s Kraal is a colonial relict, a In May 2010 the old Durban reference to KwaDukuza. Shaka’s International Airport closed and Rock is the name of a small seaside the new King Shaka International development, originally a place where Airport was opened at La Mercy, Shaka was believed to spend much approximately 35 km north of Durban. time in contemplation of the waves of It will form part of the Dube Tradeport. the Indian Ocean. The name of the airport, King Shaka International Airport, became official The choice of the name when it was gazetted on 5 February King Shaka has been a much contested 2010 (Government Gazette No. 32916, character in KwaZulu-Natal history, Department of Arts and Culture Notice but without any doubt he was a leading No. 24). The notice was gazetted as character: possibly the most important ‘Change of name from La Mercy single figure in the history of the KZN Airport’. region for all time. The following, The existing aerodrome on the site culled from recent historical works, had been gazetted as La Mercy Airport shows both the contested nature of on 31 May 1989. As recently as Shaka’s rule and his significance. November 2009, the Mail & Guardian Early commentators like Nathaniel was still writing as a matter of course Isaacs and Lieutenant King – both about the new airport as La Mercy among the earliest of the Port Natal Airport: ‘The construction of La Mercy settlers – referred to Shaka as ‘a Airport in Durban is at the centre of monster, a compound of vice and the recent turbulence in South Africa’s ferocity’ (Isaacs) and ‘a most cruel air transport sector.’ and savage and despotic king’ (King). It is thought that the new name was Laband (1995: 22) quotes Charles first mooted by Chief Mangosuthu Maclean (famous as ‘John Ross’), Buthelezi. who spent three full years at Shaka’s residence and wrote of him much later: Siting of the airport ‘Shaka was a man of great natural La Mercy lies halfway between Durban ability, but he was cruel and capricious; and KwaDukuza (formerly Stanger). nevertheless it is possible that he left Although Shaka had a number of royal behind something more than the terror homesteads, KwaDukuza (‘the place of his name.’ where one gets lost’) was his last and Later historians and other greatest, and where he spent most of commentators, not least among them the latter part of his life. On the main Zulu politicians, have had no doubts highway leading north from Durban, about the significance of King Shaka’s which links Durban to King Shaka achievements. Carolyn Hamilton, in International, travellers find signs Terrific Majesty, quotes a number of to Shaka’s Kraal and Shaka’s Rock. these (1998:11):

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‘King Shaka rose like a colossus in ‘Shaka symbolises tyranny and the his day and age to make KwaZulu a “rule of fear” ’. Powerful names do place of Zulus.’ not necessarily need to have positive ‘He made one people out of many ‘vibes’: the names Hitler, Stalin and people.’ Genghis Khan are all powerful names, ‘King Shaka was the greatest visionary although one may baulk today in of his time.’ naming an airport or other facility after She quotes the historian R.W. Johnson them. as describing Shaka as ‘the inescapable The name ‘Shaka’ is not only central figure of Zulu history, perhaps powerful; it has legendary, even even black history, [who] welded mythical aspects. Some writers have a disparate series of groups into a talked about the metaphorical power of single unit by dint of ruthless wars of the name, others again of its symbolic conquest [using] the awesome power value. Laband says (1995: 21): ‘Shaka of Zulu impis – a force without parallel the man has long since become a myth in Africa in their fearsome discipline … he remains a potent symbol of Zulu and utter determination.’ national pride.’ Waetjen and Maré use Hamilton (1998:11) reminds us of the same reference as a metaphor for something little known about Shaka: Zulu nationalistic politics, in their ‘King Shaka was ahead of his time. He chapter for the recent book Zulu had a vision of the future nobody could Identities (Carton et al. 2009), when understand. He himself was mystified they entitle it ‘Shaka’s aeroplane: by his vision of great iron birds flying the take-off and landing of Inkatha, through the air.’ modern Zulu nationalism and royal politics’. The power of the name ‘Shaka’ Naming airports after important The name and the person are two statesmen distinct entities. As we have seen above, the person named Shaka has Airports are, if not characteristically, at been perceived by history as a highly least frequently named after important influential and leading character. But it historical characters, particularly is the debate about him, the ongoing statesmen, for example Charles de contesting of him as a character, that Gaulle Airport in Paris and JF Kennedy has made the name itself so powerful. Airport in New York. Even the Countless articles, historical books, international airport in Johannesburg, works of fiction, debates, symposia, the most important gateway into South conferences, and power struggles Africa from abroad, was once Jan among politicians as to who ‘owns’ Smuts Airport, named after the Boer the heritage of Shaka – all these have general turned revered South African contributed over the years, until, even Prime Minister and statesman in the th world-wide, there can be few names as first half of the 20 century. After a well-known as that of Shaka. brief stint as the neutral Johannesburg It does not matter if the historian International Airport, it is now Oliver Daphna Golan (1994) is correct in Tambo International, named after a asserting that for [many] whites major stalwart of the ANC ‘Struggle’.

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For the naming of the new airport at Africans) would find it hard to get La Mercy, Shaka can reasonably be their tongue around this word. This is claimed to be the quintessential KZN the sort of information that should be statesman, even literally so, as the one made freely available to visitors to the who created a state and a nation out of airport, in the form of free brochures, a minor lineage grouping. pamphlets and leaflets, as well as in Airports are tourist gateways, and wall-mounted information boards and the King Shaka International Airport plaques. will naturally be a major gateway for tourists visiting KwaZulu-Natal. Informative plaques and theme This province, in recent years, has naming successfully marketed itself as ‘The No Zulu male ever goes through Kingdom of the Zulu’ and more life with one name. Someone of the recently as ‘The Zulu Kingdom’ (Bass stature and career of Shaka would 2002), so what more fitting name for accumulate praise names, and these the gateway than the name of the man would become ‘focus points’ in his who created the kingdom in the first izibongo (‘praises’). For example, he place? was known as uNodumehlezi (‘he who is famous even when seated’), The form of the name uNdlondlo (‘the horned viper’) and The preceding sections have described iLembe (‘The Axe’), a name expanded the person, the name, and the stature in the well-known praise-phrase of King Shaka. There is, however, ‘ILembe eleq’amany’amalembe far more to the naming of this king ngokukhalipha’ (‘axe that surpassed than merely the word ‘Shaka’. For all other axes in sharpness’). Today example, it is correct Zulu usage to iLembe is the name of the district give the names of important men, municipality in which the town of especially chiefs and kings together KwaDukuza lies, the town which every September is host to the annual with their patronym (the name of Shaka’s Day rally. These praise names the father). King Shaka should never (and there are more than two dozen of simply be referred to as ‘Shaka’ them) could be listed and explained but as ‘Shaka kaSenzangakhona’, in wall plaques and other information just as Senzangakhona should be ‘nodes’ throughout the airport. ‘Senzangakhona kaJama’ and Jama Shaka kaSenzangakhona is also should be ‘Jama kaNdaba’. The name associated with the names of his can be used without the patronym ‘palaces’ or principal residences, when attached to honorific titles such each of which was also a military as ‘King Shaka’ or (as Mazisi Kunene’s barracks. Some were inherited from epic poem is entitled) ‘Emperor Shaka his father, such as the KwaKhangela the Great’. It would be preferable establishment on the Ulundi heights. from a Zulu cultural point of view to Some he built himself, such as name the new airport ‘King Shaka kwaBulawayo (‘the place of the kaSenzangakhona International one being killed’) and kwaDukuza. Airport’, but many foreigners (not to The name of his ‘hunting box’ – mention non-Zulu-speaking South kwaGingindlovu – (‘where one traps

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries elephant’) has given rise to the name References of the small town nearby. Bass, Orli. 2002. Adventure, paradise, These praise names for Shaka, and indigenous culture: ‘The Kingdom of the Zulu’ campaign. Current Writing 14(1): 82- the names of his military and other 105. establishments, could also serve as Carton, B., Laband J. and Sithole, J., eds. theme names throughout the airport. 2009. Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and The airport itself, a named entity, Present. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu- Natal Press. contains within it a great number of Golan, Daphna. 1994. Inventing Shaka: smaller entities: shops, restaurants, Using History in the Construction of Zulu checking-in concourses, baggage Nationalism. Boulder, Colo.: Rienner. carousel halls, customs points, VIP Hamilton, Carolyn A. 1998. Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits lounges, waiting areas, viewing decks of Historical Invention. Cape Town: David and more. There is no reason why Philip. these cannot also be named, each Laband, J. 1995. Rope of Sand: The Rise and with a nearby plaque explaining just Fall of the Zulu Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. why this is the ‘Senzangakhona VIP Lounge’, the ‘KwaDukuza exit gate’, the ‘Nodumehlezi Restaurant’, and the ‘uLembe Baggage Hall’.  STAMFORD HILL AERODROME Contributed by John Deane Preparations for holding the Soccer various construction projects to World Cup competition in South improve facilities and infrastructure, Africa in June and July 2010 included none of which was more noticeable

This photograph, taken in the 1930s, shows a Junkers being refuelled, with the aerodrome building in the background, and in the distance on the far left the Durban Country Club.

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Notes and Queries

The Moses Mabhida Stadium than the building of new sports verandas to watch shipping, now had stadia in the main cities. The Moses the added pleasure of watching the Mabhida Stadium in Durban is among arrival and departure of the largest the most impressive of these, with its planes to use the aerodrome, the three- huge overarching structure. Visitors engined Junkers Ju-52s of the South wanting to see panoramic views of the African Airways. These German city and the Indian Ocean can climb aeroplanes were in use until 1943, the hundreds of steps to the top or be by which time they were providing a conveyed there in a cable car. shuttle service for the military between In the year when Durban South Africa and Egypt. They were International Airport south of Durban finally replaced by the first Douglas was closed and the new King Shaka DC-47 Dakotas. International Airport north of the city Reunion Airport (later renamed came into operation, it is interesting Louis Botha and finally Durban to note that the new stadium occupies International) was officially opened an area where Durban’s very first in November 1955. The South African aerodrome used to be. Stamford Hill Air Force used Stamford Hill until Aerodrome was on part of the flat the following year before moving to land between the North Beach and the Reunion. Smaller planes began using rising ground of the residential area of the Virginia Airport in Durban North, Stamford Hill, and its time of greatest which opened in 1959, and Stamford activity was in the 1930s and early Hill was closed. The control tower 1940s. building remained, but other buildings The regular Flying Boat service sprang up round it as land use changed. used Durban Bay, but other aircraft It is now the regimental headquarters used Stamford Hill. Elderly gentlemen of the Natal Mounted Rifles. on the Berea with telescopes on their

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FLYING BOATS ON DURBAN BAY Discussion in the Natalia Editorial Committee of the old Stamford Hill Aerodrome put Adrian Koopman into reminiscent mood:

When I was about five or six years A low droning noise would herald old, in the mid-1950s, I lived with my the proximity of the plane, and then father, mother, and two sisters (one a a silver speck in the sky would grow year older, another a year younger) in larger and larger, until the plane Montclair, a suburb on the southern side landed in a giant plume of spray.In of Durban. At that time ‘flying boats’ those days flamingos and pelicans were still landing in Durban Bay, and were still plentiful in Durban Bay and as a special treat, my mother would as the flying boat landed, the birds drive us down to the bay in our old would fly up in a great pink and white green Morris Minor to watch the planes cloud. land. We would park on the very edge The combination of plane, spray of Maydon Wharf, in a gap between and birds made for the kind of docked ships, and between bollards that memory that lasts forever. seemed bigger even than the car.

A Sunderland flying boat takes off from Durban Bay. Note the extensive mangroves and the absence of development on the southern shore.

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UGILIMITHI Contributed by Adrian Koopman The recent press reports about the so clearly (so ran my thinking) the first 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Indian labourers must somehow have first indentured Indian labourers in the been identified with the gulping down then Colony of Natal reminds me of a of medicines, perhaps a reference to mystery word that I first came across in inoculating them on their arrival against the pages of Doke and Vilakazi’s 1958 potential dreaded diseases brought from Zulu-English Dictionary – the word India. ugilimithi. The word was glossed as It was only when the late ‘system of indenture of Indian labour Professor C.L.S. Nyembezi brought in Natal’. Clear enough, but where did out his monolingual dictionary – this word come from? It obviously Isichazimazwi Sanamuhla Nangomuso could not be a very old Zulu word; (the Dictionary of Today and indeed it had to have entered the Zulu Tomorrow) – in 1992, that the mystery lexicon some time after the 1860s. was cleared up. Nyembezi glosses My first thought was that it must be the word as isivumulwano esenziwa a compound noun, almost certainly a sokuba kuze amaNdiya kuleli zwe compound of the common verb + noun azosebenza ezimobeni eNatali (‘an structure, where the verb was gil(a) and agreement made so Indians could the noun imithi (‘trees’, ‘medicines’). come to this country to work in the The first meaning of gila is ‘perform sugar-cane fields of Natal’). And after tricks, play pranks’, which doesn’t that he indicates, in brackets, that this make much sense. The second mean- is a ‘Zuluisation’ of the – wait for it – ing, however – ‘swallow, gulp down’ English word ‘agreement’… . – makes perfect sense with ‘medicines’, BLASTING ITS WAY INTO ENGLISH Contributed by Adrian Koopman The Zulu language has given a record a new word in their dictionaries considerable number of words unless they are sure it has come to to English, and in mainstream stay. But ‘vuvuzela’, until the start of dictionaries like the Oxford English the Fifa Soccer World Cup in South Dictionary one can find examples like Africa, a word known only among mamba, indaba, nyala and impala. South Africans, and then only mostly Seldom, though, has a Zulu word soccer fans, within one month became entered the English language with a word used internationally. such speed as the word ‘vuvuzela’. Even in contexts totally unrelated Normally for a new word to be to soccer, the word was used, as in the accepted by lexicographers it needs to following opening paragraph from the serve a long and solid apprenticeship British magazine Private Eye of 23 among speakers. Lexicographers are July 2010 (p. 4): by nature cautious: they do not want to

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With an ear-splitting fanfare of vuvu other hand, has indeed made it into the zelas, the Indie announced last month Oxford English Dictionary. The website that it had signed up Julie Burchell … Mail and Guardian Online1 reported to write a weekly column. on 19 August 2010, under the headline The Pietermaritzburg newspaper ‘Vuvuzela Trumpeted by Oxford dic- The Witness announced on 13 July tionary’, that that ‘vuvuzela’ had been voted the … the vuvuzela, which became the ‘word of the World Cup’ by 75 per sound of the 2010 Soccer World Cup cent of 320 linguists from around the in South Africa, has won an entry world. The managing director of the in the latest edition of the Oxford London-based firm Today Translations Dictionary of English, due to be said, ‘Long after individual matches published on Thursday. and goals are forgotten, this will be The monotone drone could be heard remembered as the Vuvuzela World throughout matches during the Cup.’ Shortly after this announcement, tournament, and came in for criticism regular Witness correspondent from both players and spectators. McGillicuddy of the Reeks wrote The dictionary, which is based on how (16.7.2010), suggesting that now the language is really used, defines the word ‘vuvuzela’ had been assigned horn as a long plastic instrument, in lexicographical respectability, perhaps the shape of a trumpet, which makes dictionary makers should also consider a very loud noise when you blow it and is popular with football fans in the verb ‘to blatter’, with the meaning South Africa. ‘to offer financial and moral incentive to get things done on time’. According The South African National Bio to McGillicuddy, ‘Once in the Oxford diversity Institute (Sanbi), however, English Dictionary, [Fifa President] beat the Oxford Dictionary to it, and Sepp Blatter will have achieved the the newspaper The Weekend Witness immortality frequently vested upon announced on 19 July 2010, less than a South African heroes.’ week after the World Cup had finished, McGillicuddy’s hopes for ‘blatter’ to that a newly-discovered member of the be recognised in this way are unlikely iris family had been named Moraea to be recognised, but ‘vuvuzela’, on the vuvuzela, the name alluding to the flared

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries shape of the yellow flowers of the bulb. famous footballer Uwe Seeler.’ That Sanbi botanist Dr John Manning said appealed to them and immediately it that the naming of the plant was aimed changed their attitude to the vuvuzela. at paying homage to South Africa’s I am also greatly indebted to John hosting of the World Cup. Deane, a colleague on the Natalia Nor were flowers the only things to editorial committee, who sent me a be named after the vuvuzela. A writer copy of ‘Notes and Queries’ from to the British newspaper The Daily the 25 June – 8 July 2010 issue of the Telegraph (15 July 2010, p. 19) pointed satirical magazine Private Eye, with out that ‘the World Cup has bestowed no less than three intriguing theories hundreds of names on the newly born’ about the origin of the word. and quoting from the Durban newspaper One ‘Ethel Barenboim’ writes: The Mercury, listed Vuvuzela Mhlongo, together with Offside Mchunu, Goal- The curious name of this primitive African instrument owes its origins to keeper Sithole, Striker Hadebe and a remark made by the French composer Substitute Shandu. Claude Debussy when travelling with But where does the word ‘vuvuz- his great friend the Comtesse Silvestri. ela’ come from? It is, as is generally In a Cape Town music shop, Debussy’s well accepted, of Zulu origin, and its eye was caught by a strange trumpet- original use was as a verb, with the like instrument and he remarked to his companion Avez-vous vu cela? (‘Have meaning ‘sprinkle’, more specifically you seen this?’). Ravel later included ‘sprinkle spices on food to make it the vuvuzela in one of his orchestral more exciting’. During the later part compositions, ‘Le Mort de Babar’. of the twentieth century, the second ‘Professor Aaron G. String’ comments half of this definition, i.e. ‘make things on this letter as follows: more exciting, spice things up’, became dominant, and the word was used to Mrs Barenboim is sadly mistaken refer to football songs and chants meant betraying a typically eurocentric view to encourage one’s team, and other of African history. The vuvuzela, for her information, is a traditional war practices generally intended to spice trumpet made from the horn of the things up at soccer matches. When water buffalo or ‘vuvu’ in the local the much-loved or much-hated plastic Zela tongue. There is a reference in trumpet became ubiquitous at South Baden-Powell’s classic account of Africa soccer matches, the verb very the Vuvu wars, Through Bush and quickly became a noun. Veldt (1883): ‘You can hear the Zelas playing their vuvus from dawn to dusk But that is simply my theory. Natalia and a pretty terrifying sound it is. I can readers may prefer the theory of Pieter- see England losing this war and having maritzburg resident Monika Wittenberg, to go home early.’ who wrote to The Witness on 16 June For those not convinced by the 2010 that combined authority of Professor G. I received a letter from Germany that String and Lord Baden-Powell, Simon a friend, originally from South Africa, Google-Smith has this to offer: found that his boss and co-workers had problems pronouncing and generally Sadly the explanation behind the accepting the vuvuzela. So he told ubiquitous vuvuzela is rather more them: ‘The vuvuzela is named after the prosaic than your correspondents have

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so far suggested. The instrument is of So there you are! Take your pick. modern origin and is made in China in the industrial province of Zhu Zhu NOTES from a composite polyresin known 1 http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-19- as zelane (CH OOCH -OOHC). 4 4 vuvuzela-trumpeted-by-oxford-dictionary. Unsurprisingly when exported to Accessed 3.9.2010 South Africa by the VanderBastard corporation of Johannesburg, the trumpets become known to the locals as ‘vuvuzelas’.  WEENEN Contributed by Shelagh Spencer On a Saturday in 1977 we drove to I later wrote to the Estcourt librarian Estcourt in order to take a trip on the enquiring about its history, and was narrow-gauge line to Weenen, dating informed it was built soon after 1838 back to 1907, but unfortunately no and was used by Andries Pretorius’s longer extant. Once in the village we son – also Andries – while he was were shown various historical sites the field cornet for the area, both as such as the town’s sluits, two Indian an office and a residence. Afterwards stores which have been declared it served at different times as the historical monuments, and the museum magistrate’s court, the residency, from the outside only (it being shut on a SA Police depot, Public Works Saturdays). It was a small building, Department offices and a library. obviously dating back many years. Other versions maintain it was

Sketch of Weenen from John Moreland’s field diary

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries the house of the Andries Wilhelmus Division magistracy until March 1859, Jacobus Pretorius (1798–1853), who when it was replaced by ‘the camp resided on Grootmielietuin, a farm at Bushman’s River’ (now Estcourt), through which the train line ran. to use Hawkins’s own words. To me, While researching in the Archives this diagram resembled the Weenen some time afterwards I came across museum, but only recently has proof a diagram in the Surveyor-General’s become available, when friends papers for the proposed Government visiting the village were able to get the office in Weenen (dimensions 33 ft 6 in. dimensions of the building. Thus, it × 17 ft), dated 1853. It was signed by could not have been used by Pretorius Dr W. Stanger, the Surveyor-General Snr, who left Natal for good in May and Gavin Pettigrew the contractor. 1852. The village was an important place Andries Pretorius Jnr (c.1826–1879) in the 1850s. The first magistrate, was certainly the local field cornet by Arthur Caesar Hawkins, had been 1865, and remained as such until about installed in September 1852, and 1872–73. it remained the seat of the Weenen As for Grootmielietuin (6 314

Plan of the old Weenen Court House

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Natalia 40 (2010) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010 Notes and Queries acres-odd), it was granted to A.W.J. was the owner of the larger portion of Pretorius and P. Kritzinger on 1 March Grootmielietuin, viz. 4 727 acres-odd, 1852. The entry for Pretorius Snr in the was the son, rather than the father. Dictionary of South African Biography Another matter – in the grounds of written by B.J. Liebenberg (who a few the museum there stood the remains years later was to write a definitive of an old mill, said to have come biography of Pretorius) mentions only from Commandant [sic] Pretorius’ two farms owned by Pretorius in Natal, Grootmielietuin. Some years ago it viz. Welverdient near Pietermaritzburg was sent for repair to the Provincial (later renamed Edendale), and Riet Museum Services. When the job was Vallei near today’s Howick. Possibly, done it was duly returned, but no-one therefore, the A.W.J. Pretorius who seems to know where it is now!

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