Rural Resistance in South Africa This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV Afrika-Studiecentrum Series Series Editor Dr. Harry Wels (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Editorial Board Prof. Bill Freund (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) Prof. Lungisile Ntsebeza (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Prof. John Sender (School for Oriental and African Studies, U.K.) Prof. Eddy van der Borght (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Dr. Marja Spierenburg (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands) VOLUME 22 Th e titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/asc This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV Rural Resistance in South Africa Th e Mpondo Revolts aft er Fift y Years Edited by Th embela Kepe Lungisile Ntsebeza LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV Cover illustration: Th e banner for the 50th commemoration of the Ngquza Massacre, sponsored by the government of South Africa. Photo: Th embela Kepe Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rural resistance in South Africa : the Mpondo revolts aft er fi ft y years / edited by Th embela Kepe, Lungisile Ntsebeza. p. cm. -- (Afrika-Studiecentrum series ; v. 22) Includes index. ISBN 978-90-04-21446-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Pondo Revolt, South Africa, 1960-1963. 2. South Africa--Race relations. 3. South Africa--History--20th century. 4. South Africa-- Politics and government--20th century. 5. Apartheid--South Africa. 6. South Africa--Rural conditions. I. Kepe, Th embela. II. Ntsebeza, Lungisile. III. Series: Afrika-Studiecentrum series ; v. 22. DT1768.P66R87 2011 968.05’8--dc23 2011034524 ISSN 1570-9310 ISBN 978 90 04 21446 0 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................................vii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................1 Th embela Kepe & Lungisile Ntsebeza PART I ON THE REVOLTS 2. Resistance in the Countryside: Th e Mpondo Revolts Contextualized ......................................................................................21 Lungisile Ntsebeza (University of Cape Town, South Africa) 3. Reading and Writing the Mpondo Revolts .......................................43 Jimmy Pieterse (University of Pretoria, South Africa) 4. Govan Mbeki’s Th e Peasants’ Revolt: a Critical Examination .........67 Allison Drew (University of York, England) 5. Th e Mpondo Revolt through the Eyes of Leonard Mdingi and Anderson Ganyile .........................................................................91 William Beinart (University of Oxford, England) 6. All Quiet on the Western Front: Nyandeni Acquiescence in the Mpondoland Revolt ................................................................115 Fred Hendricks and Jeff Peires (Rhodes University, South Africa) PART II INFLUENCE OF THE REVOLTS 7. Hoyce Phundulu, the Mpondo Revolt, and the Rise of the National Union of Mineworkers ...........................................143 T. Dunbar Moodie (Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York, USA) (with Hoyce Phundulu) 8. Th e Moving Black Forest of Africa: Th e Mpondo Rebellion, Migrancy and Black Worker Consciousness in KwaZulu-Natal ....................................................165 Ari Sitas (University of Cape Town, South Africa) This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV vi contents PART III MEANINGS AND SIGNIFICANCE 9. Th e Shock of the New: Ngquza Hill 1960 .....................................191 Diana Wylie (Boston University, USA) 10. Tangible and Intangible Ngquza Hill: A Study of Landscape and Memory ..................................................................209 Liana Müller (University of Cape Town, South Africa) 11. A Bag of Soil, a Bullet from Up High: Some Meanings of the Mpondo Revolts Today ........................................................231 Jonny Steinberg (University of Oxford, England) 12. Discontent and Apathy: Post-apartheid Rural Land Reform in the Context of the Mpondo Revolts ............................243 Th embela Kepe (University of Toronto, Canada) 13. ‘We don’t want your development!’: Resistance to Imposed Development in Northeastern Pondoland ...................259 Jacques P. de Wet (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Index .........................................................................................................279 This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Th is edited volume would not have been possible without the excite- ment and commitment of the chapter authors; so they deserve the big- gest praise for its completion. Virtually all of them did not hesitate to participate when they were invited, and were very understanding dur- ing the many reminders and requests from the editors. Th ere are many other colleagues and friends whose conversations with the editors gave birth and shape to the idea of a volume on the Mpondo Revolts. Th ese include, but not limited to, William Beinart, Gillian Hart, Mark Hunter, Sukude Matoti, Luvuyo Wotshela and Fred Hendricks, who introduced the idea of including a chapter on Western Pondoland. Th e editorial staff s at SAVUSA and Brill deserve thanks for their professionalism, patience and understanding. All of these virtues are probably more important in a project that has many authors, such as in an edited vol- ume. Comments from the anonymous reviewers of the individual chapters, as well as those of the two anonymous reviewers of the entire volume, were helpful. Th e fi nancial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada allowed Th embela Kepe to participate in this project. So too is the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, through the Research Chair in Land Reform and Democracy in South Africa, which made it possible for Lungisile Ntsebeza, as Chair holder, to participate. Many of the chapters in this volume contain stories of pain and resilience of the Mpondo people. So the Mpondo people deserve praise for making this project possible. This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Th embela Kepe and Lungisile Ntsebeza1 Th e year 2010 marked the fi ft ieth anniversary of major protests that took place in many parts of South Africa, followed by a major cleanup and the banning by the state of the major political organizations, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), as well as the declaration of a State of Emergency. Th e best known of these are the Sharpeville and Langa marches that took place in March 1960, where protesters were massacred and arrested by the state. Th ese protests were a culmination of resistance by the marginal- ized prior to 1960, ranging from passive to violent resistance, with some overt and others ‘hidden’. Th ey resembled the resistance by the marginalized – sustained or brief, and successful or not – against the hegemony of autocratic and repressive regimes that is found throughout history. Although the two marches referred to above took place in the urban areas of South Africa, others, as will be seen in this book, took place in rural areas. Th ere is little doubt that with regard to rural struggles, the Mpondo revolts rank among the most signifi cant and best known in South Africa. Th e highlight of these revolts was the 6th of June 1960, when security forces of the apartheid government massacred, injured and arrested scores of defenseless rural people who had gathered on the Ngquza Hill, Eastern Pondoland, in the Eastern Cape. Th ey were pro- testing against the government’s policies on rural administration and governance. Eleven people were killed on the day, others badly injured; while more were arrested (TRC 2003). In the days and weeks that fol- lowed the day of the massacre, more arrests, beatings and harassments followed (Kayser 2002). At least 30 people were later sentenced to death (CGTA 2010). As indicated, these events represented the height of the 1 Th e arrangement of editors (in the book and this introduction) is alphabetical and does not in any way refl ect any hierarchy in terms of contribution. Th e contribution of the editors is based on equal authorship. This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV 2 thembela kepe and lungisile ntsebeza Mpondo Revolts, which were a culmination of struggles that began in the 1950s. Th