REMEMBERING ALBASJNI Teresa Ann van Ryneveld Submitted in fiilfiJment of the requirements for the M.A. degree in History at the University of Cape Town. University of Cape TownFebruary 1998 I -----·--.. -· =-·--·-.... ------~--- - 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 ABSTRACT This dissertation uses the historical figure of Joao Albasini to explore some historiographical issues related to how people commemorate their past. Joao Albasini was a Portuguese trader who operated through the port of Delagoa Bay for a large part of the 19th Century. He was based in Portuguese East Africa in the l 830's and early l 840's, and moved into what would become the Transvaal in the late 1840's, becoming a powerful political force in the region. This thesis looks at the strikingly different ways in which Albasini has been remembered by different individuals and groups. Part 1 deals with his South African family's memories of him, focusing in particular on the portrayal of Albasini in a celebration held in 1988 to commemorate the centenary of his death. This is compared with fragments of earlier family memories, in particular, with the testimony of his second daughter recorded in newspaper articles, letters and notes. This comparison is used to argue that the memories of Albasini are being shaped both by a changing social context, and by the influence of different literary genres. Part 2 looks at a doctoral thesis on Albasini written by J.B. de Vaal in the 1940's. This is placed in the context of a tradition of professional Afrikaner academic writing, that combined the conventions and claims of Rankean scientific history with the concerns of an Afrikaner Volksgeskiedenis, and which became powerful in a number of South African Universities in the early decades of this century. The text of de V aal's thesis is examined in detail with a view to focusing on the extent to which it was shaped by this tradition. Part 3 looks at a group of oral histories collected from the former Gazankulu Homeland between 1979 and 1991, and focuses on the way in which a memory of Albasini has been used in the construction of the idea of a Tsonga/Shangaan ethnic group. One oral tradition is examined in detail, and used to argue for an approach to oral history that attempts to focus on the structure and commentary of oral history, instead of simply using it as a source of empirical fact. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due to a number of people who assisted with this thesis. My s~pervisor, Professor Patrick Harries, gave direction to the thesis, and remained interested for far longer than he might have expected to have to. Alan Kirkaldy found and translated. all the German mission references, translated or checked my translations of the Afrikaans quotations, engaged in an extended bout of child­ minding in the last months of the thesis, and took responsibility for all applications of computer technology in the final weeks. Vuketi Maboko interpreted for me with interest and enthusiasm in my initial interviews, while Onica Dederen translated the Siweya tradition directly from tape, and 'provided an ongoing commentary on details of translation and interpretation. A number of people helped me solve the problem of obtaining secondary sources in Louis Trichardt, amongst whom Professor Fanie Olivier particularly deserves mention for spending a recent Saturday morning chasing obscure references in Pretoria. Thanks are also due to Mr Felix Malunga for help in this regard. A number of people assisted by enabling me to spend time on the thesis. My parents offered financial assistance when the cost of writing a thesis instead of earning a living threatened to become overwhelming. Both they and my parents­ in-law assisted with baby-sitting in Cape Town. Finally, thanks are due to Mrs Lettie Nengudza, on whose ongoing ability to distract small children the eventual completion of this thesis directly rests. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSION OF SOURCE MATERIAL 1 ALBASINI, THE REGION AND HIS TIMES 16 PARTl CHAPTER 1: THE SOUTH AFRICAN FAMILY'S IMAGES OF ALBASINI 42 PART2 CHAPTER 2: J.B. DEVAALAND THE NATIONALIST TRADITION 72 CHAPTER 3: DIE ROL VAN JOAO ALBASINI IN DIE GESKIEDENIS VAN DIE TRANSVAAL : A DISCUSSION 106 PART3 CHAPTER 4: THE GAZANKULU IMAGE OF ALBASINI 129 CHAPTER 5: JUWAWA AND N'WA-MANUNGU: DISCUSSION OF AN ORAL TRADITION 157 CONCLUSION 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY 178 MAPS PAGE MAP 1: The Eastern Transvaal, Swaziland and Mozambique 18 MAP 2: Joao Albasini's sphere of influence 26 MAP 3: Zoutpansberg, 1848-75 32 FIGURES FIGURE l: Albasini's family: the Mozambican side 43 FIGURE 2: Albasini's family: the South African side 43 FIGURE 3: Ndengeza Genealogy 176 ILLUSTRATION: Joao Albasini 73 INTRODUCTORY I DISCUSSION OF SOURCE MATERIAL Albasini first caught my attention in the Potgietersrus Museum in 1983. I was an undergraduate student, on a field trip to collect oral history in what was then the Northern .Transvaal . In amongst a display of Voortrekker history, in a museum which boasted an ox-wagon at its entrance, was a picture of Joao Albasini. It was accompanied by a short paragraph, describing him in terms which emphasised his official positions, as Portuguese vice-consul and "Superintendent of Kaffir tribes" in the Transvaal, and said little else. Patrick Harries, who was in charge of the trip, told us a bit more about the aspects that were excluded from the description, about the fact that he was a slave trader, that he had been recognised by the Transvaal government as a chief: and that he had had a black Mozambican family, who had become well-known members of the Lourenyo Marques elite. What caught my imagination was the way in which his story appeared to undermine the white, nationalist stereotypes of the official display. When, some years later, I decided to focus on Albasini as the subject of a Master's thesis, I was disappointed to discover that he was already the subject of a Doctoral thesis by J.B. de Vaal.1 However, it appeared at first glance to be confined to the same nationalist terms as the Museum display. It was written in Afrikaans in a dense, detailed style, with an emphasis on "events". The term kaffer was liberally used, Albasini's Mozambican family was not mentioned, and a large amount of attention was given to Voortrekker history. I imagined using Mozambican sources and oral traditions collected from black people in the area to produce a narrative which would challenge the version which associated Albasini almost entirely with Voortrekker political history and which presented his story as "white". I saw my imagined use of oral history in terms of listening to the voices from below to challenge the dominant, racist, official version. I also intended using a different approach to the genre of biography. De Vaal's thesis appears to emerge from a biographical tradition that focuses on the role played by individuals in providing leadership or in shaping their times.2 This 1 J.B. de Vaal, Die Roi van Joiio Albasini in die Geskiedenis van die Transvaal, Archives Yearbook for South African History, Part L 1953. 2 In fact, examination of de V aal's original thesis before publication indicated that de V aal was himself far more interested in using a study of Albasini to provide insight into the lives of ordinary Boer settlers. This is discussed in chapters 2 and 3. 2 biographical tradition played a disproportionately large role in Afrikaner historical writing about the Great Trek, with at least one biographical monograph, sometimes several, devoted to each of the Voortrekker leaders.3 I was influenced by an approach associated with the Annales school, that initially dismissed biography as a type pf narrative history that was hampered by its obsession with "great men", but later returned partially to the use of biography, developing an approach that focused on how far individuals were representative ot: and shaped by, their community and times. 4 I was particularly impressed by J. Guy's use of this approach in his study of Bishop Colenso.5 Once I started doing research, it became apparent that my imagined project was unrealistic. Firstly, enquiries about material in the Moz.ambican archives revealed that they contained little material on Albasini. While the archives in Portugal may have had more, Portugal was financially out of reach for a Masters degree. I ~id succeed in getting microfilms from the Oporto Archives, but these were fragmentary, and the Archives in Lisbon did not respond to my letters. As far as collecting oral history was concerned, I found a great-granddaughter of Albasini, still living in Louis Trichardt, who was able to tell me a great deal. However my interviews with black people in the area were less successful. While I found that there was a memory of "Juwawa", very few people had any detailed knowledge. There was one notable exception to this pattern of fragmentary memories. At Ndengeza village, the clerks at the "tribal authority" office sent us to an elderly man, D. Siweya, who, they said "knew the history". Mr Siweya's account was impressive. He provided a detailed, confident, dramatically narrated oral tradition, which he had learnt from his father. His narrative, which lasted without interruption for well over half an hour, incorporated elements that nobody else had included.