LAND CHIEFS MINING
LAND CHIEFS MINING
SOUTH AFRICA’S NORTH WEST PROVINCE SINCE 1840
ANDREW MANSON AND BERNARD K MBENGA
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
Copyright © Andrew Manson and Bernard K Mbenga 2014
First published 2014
ISBN 978-1-86814-771-7 (print)
ISBN 978-1-86814-772-4 (digital)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978. All images reproduced in this book remain the property of the copyright holders. The publishers gratefully acknowledge the institutions and individuals referenced in the captions for the use of images.
Project managed by Monica Seeber
Cover design and layout by Hothouse South Africa
Printed and bound by Interpak
Table of contents
CHAPTER 1:‘The dog of the Boers’? Moiloa II of the baHurutshe c.1795-1875
CHAPTER 2:The South African War and its aftermath 1899-1908
CHAPTER 3:Land, leaders and dissent 1900-1940
CHAPTER 4:‘Away in the locations’: Life in the Bechuanaland Reserves 1910-1958
CHAPTER 5:Rural resistance: The baHurutshe revolt of 1957-58
CHAPTER 6:‘Blunting the prickly pear’: Bophuthatswana and its consequences 1977-1994
CHAPTER 7:Modernity in the bushveld: Mining, national parks and casinos
Acknowledgements
Many people, too numerous to mention, over the period of thirty years during which we have been studying and writing on the region’s past, have afforded us invaluable insights and encouragement. We should like to single out Professor Sue Newton-King, formerly head of the Department of History at the University of Bophuthatswana (now North-West University, Mafikeng campus), who provided the start and enthusiasm required to embark on our respective paths as historians. We should also like to thank Jane Carruthers, Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, at the University of South Africa, who took the time to read and comment on a much earlier draft of this book. Her remarks helped tremendously in the final outcome of this project. Any shortcomings are entirely ours. We should also like to thank Eugene Breytenbach, Deputy-Director, Directorate of Information and Management, Office of the Premier, North West Provinc e, and Liesl de Swardt, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom, for the production of maps. Our gratitude goes to Abe Madibo for photographs and to Paul Weinberg, Gille de Vlieg and Joe Alfers for the use of photographic material. And once again we are indebted to Elenore van der Riet of Hermanus for excellent translations of German scripts.
Terminology
We have chosen to employ the African prefixes when referring to the various communities about which we write. Thus we refer to the baHurutshe or baTswana in contrast to the academic norm which omits the prefix and retains only the stem: Hurutshe, Tswana. When used as an adjective the prefix ‘ba’ is omitted.
Glossary of Setswana and Afrikaans names
| bakgosing | royal ward |
| commando | armed, mounted party |
| difaqane | period (c.1800 to 1830s) of political turbulence, migration and social transformation accompanied by frequent destruction of life and property in southern and central Africa |
| inboekeling (pl. inboekelinge) | indentured servant, likened to a slave |
| kgosana (pl. dikgosana) | clan head, sometimes referred to as a headman |
| kgosi (pl. dikgosi) | term for king or chief among all Tswana societies |
| kgotla | public meeting, central meeting place or court |
| khuduthamaga | advisory council to the kgosi comprising family members and dikgosana |
| laager | (Dutch/Afrikaans) defensive fortified position, usually circular, with use of wagons |
| makgowa | Europeans/whites |
| mephato | age regiments |
| morafe (pl. merafe) | chiefdom |
| oorlam(se) | Africans absorbed into Dutch/Afrikaner society and culture |
| pitso | public meeting |
| veldkornet | local district official (in the South African Republic) with administrative and, especially, military duties |
| voortrekkers | Dutch pioneers (later Afrikaners) who set out on the great trek from the Cape Colony from c.1834 to the 1840s and founded the South African Republic and the Orange Free State |
| volksraad | parliament of the South African Republic |
MAP 1: North West Province: Location (2013)
MAP 2: North West Province: Bushveld Region – showing some towns, villages, roads, rivers and mountains (2013)
MAP 3: North West Province: Vryburg Region – showing some towns, villages, roads, rivers and dams (2013)
MAP 4: North West Province: current ethnic areas (2013)
MAP 5: North West Province: Rustenburg Region – Platinum mining areas (2013)