Native Life in South Africa [168]
thunder, which shake the earth in a manner that is known only to persons who have spent a summer in the interior of South Africa.
It is said that the late General insured his life so heavily before the outbreak that representatives of the several insurance companies concerned had to meet after his death and consider the matter of their liability.
The remainder of the story of the "Five Shilling Rebellion" is soon told. After the proclamation of martial law the Premier assumed the supreme command of the Union forces and called out all the citizens -- the whites to arms and the blacks as drivers and manual labourers at the front. Some Boers who could not give a satisfactory excuse disobeyed the call, and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment with hard labour under the Defence Act. Thus backed by the overwhelming support of the various peoples of the Union of all creeds and colours, the Prime Minister made a clean sweep of the rising, and in less than two months the Rt. Hon. Louis Botha was once again master of the situation from the shores of the Indian Ocean in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west. And when the rebel leaders were cogitating over the situation in durance vile, the Prime Minister was sending a message from German South West Africa, on February 26, asking Parliament to deal leniently with the rebels.
Keise qusa Tipereri, Kgam'se gaqu ha; Keise qusa Tipereri Artie ti gxawo si mu. Hamnci gqo Pikadili. Hamnci Gqo Lester Skuer Keise qusa, qusa Tipereri Mar, ti xawo nxeba ha. "Tipperary" in Qoranna.*
-- * This language is also spoken by the Namaquas and some of the tribes in German South West Africa. --
Chapter XXIV Piet Grobler
Lecture delivered by Mr. Sol T. Plaatje before the "Marsh Street Men's Own" Literary Society in the Lecture Room of their Institute, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, on February 26, 1915.
Keep me in chains? I defy you. That is a pow'r I deny you! I will sing! I will rise! Up! To the lurid skies -- With the smoke of my soul, With my last breath, Tar-feathered, I shall cry: Ethiopia shall not die! And hand in hand with Death, Pass on.
I shall not curse you. But singing -- My singing fatefully ringing Till startled and dumb You falter, the sum Of your crime shall reveal -- This do I prophesy . . . O Heart wrung dry, Awake! Startle the world with thy cry: Ethiopia shall not die! Otto L. Bohanan.*
-- * In the Kalahari language, BOHANAN means: `Be combined'. --
The gentleman whose name forms the title of my lecture is a lawyer, a grand-nephew of the late President Kruger and, till lately, a member of the Union Parliament. He represented the Dutch constituency of Rustenburg, a district whose Burghers were responsible for a kind of administrative native land arrangement in the Transvaal Republic. This arrangement, the result of a petition from Rustenburg, made it compulsory for native landowners in the Republic to register their farms in the names of white people. In accordance with it, Natives who bought land had to register it in the name of the Minister of Native Affairs. But as such Ministers did not always command the trust of the Natives they resorted to the expedient of registering their farms in the names of some European friends, missionaries or otherwise. Some European gentlemen thus became the registered owners of land belonging to Natives, giving the Natives receipts for the money and documents explaining the nature of the transaction. Other Europeans, including missionaries, were not so scrupulous. They gave the Natives no receipt, so that after their death the properties of these Natives passed into the estates of the deceased. The following case is an example.
The native peasants on a Transvaal farm found themselves in such a dilemma after the death of General Joubert, late Superintendent of
It is said that the late General insured his life so heavily before the outbreak that representatives of the several insurance companies concerned had to meet after his death and consider the matter of their liability.
The remainder of the story of the "Five Shilling Rebellion" is soon told. After the proclamation of martial law the Premier assumed the supreme command of the Union forces and called out all the citizens -- the whites to arms and the blacks as drivers and manual labourers at the front. Some Boers who could not give a satisfactory excuse disobeyed the call, and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment with hard labour under the Defence Act. Thus backed by the overwhelming support of the various peoples of the Union of all creeds and colours, the Prime Minister made a clean sweep of the rising, and in less than two months the Rt. Hon. Louis Botha was once again master of the situation from the shores of the Indian Ocean in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west. And when the rebel leaders were cogitating over the situation in durance vile, the Prime Minister was sending a message from German South West Africa, on February 26, asking Parliament to deal leniently with the rebels.
Keise qusa Tipereri, Kgam'se gaqu ha; Keise qusa Tipereri Artie ti gxawo si mu. Hamnci gqo Pikadili. Hamnci Gqo Lester Skuer Keise qusa, qusa Tipereri Mar, ti xawo nxeba ha. "Tipperary" in Qoranna.*
-- * This language is also spoken by the Namaquas and some of the tribes in German South West Africa. --
Chapter XXIV Piet Grobler
Lecture delivered by Mr. Sol T. Plaatje before the "Marsh Street Men's Own" Literary Society in the Lecture Room of their Institute, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, on February 26, 1915.
Keep me in chains? I defy you. That is a pow'r I deny you! I will sing! I will rise! Up! To the lurid skies -- With the smoke of my soul, With my last breath, Tar-feathered, I shall cry: Ethiopia shall not die! And hand in hand with Death, Pass on.
I shall not curse you. But singing -- My singing fatefully ringing Till startled and dumb You falter, the sum Of your crime shall reveal -- This do I prophesy . . . O Heart wrung dry, Awake! Startle the world with thy cry: Ethiopia shall not die! Otto L. Bohanan.*
-- * In the Kalahari language, BOHANAN means: `Be combined'. --
The gentleman whose name forms the title of my lecture is a lawyer, a grand-nephew of the late President Kruger and, till lately, a member of the Union Parliament. He represented the Dutch constituency of Rustenburg, a district whose Burghers were responsible for a kind of administrative native land arrangement in the Transvaal Republic. This arrangement, the result of a petition from Rustenburg, made it compulsory for native landowners in the Republic to register their farms in the names of white people. In accordance with it, Natives who bought land had to register it in the name of the Minister of Native Affairs. But as such Ministers did not always command the trust of the Natives they resorted to the expedient of registering their farms in the names of some European friends, missionaries or otherwise. Some European gentlemen thus became the registered owners of land belonging to Natives, giving the Natives receipts for the money and documents explaining the nature of the transaction. Other Europeans, including missionaries, were not so scrupulous. They gave the Natives no receipt, so that after their death the properties of these Natives passed into the estates of the deceased. The following case is an example.
The native peasants on a Transvaal farm found themselves in such a dilemma after the death of General Joubert, late Superintendent of