Ron McGregor's web site - Welcome to South Africa -history.htm
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In its telling of events as they happened, the resume that follows is factually accurate (and if anyone picks up an error, please ). However, different people have different ideas as to WHY things happened. The subjective opinions expressed herein are those of Ron McGregor, and readers are welcome to accept my interpretations, or form interpretations of their own.
Southern Africa has a history going back literally millions of years. Various sites have yielded evidence of man's earliest ancestors, and South African palaeontologists like Raymond Dart and Robert Broom have put South Africa firmly on the map in this field. The Sterkfontein Caves area, north west of Johannesburg, has been declared a World Heritage Site.
Australopithecus Africanus, however, was not man as we know him today. So let's skip a couple of million years, and start with the people who we are certain were the earliest human inhabitants of this part of the world.O
THE FIRST INHABITANTS - BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS
This honour goes to those whom science knows as the Khoi-San, but who are recorded in more conventional history as the Hottentots (Khoi) and Bushmen (San).
Originally stone age hunter-gatherers, the Khoi-San date back some 40,000 years that we know about, and probably further. They roamed in small bands, living a precarious but peaceful existence, dependent entirely on the bounty of nature for the animals they could hunt and the plants and roots that they could gather. They made use of small bows shooting poisoned arrows. They had no tilling of the soil, and kept no livestock. Nor did they build any structures worthy of the name. They sheltered in caves, or simply pulled a few branches together to protect themselves from the elements. O
Around two thousand years ago, a new group of people arrived on the scene. These were the Bantu people, who were black, but should not be labelled "negroes."
The Bantu literally exploded on to the map of Africa, starting somewhere in the equatorial regions, and spreading rapidly southwards. As they expanded, the weaker Khoi-San were either eliminated, assimilated, or pushed out of the lands they occupied.
Why were the Bantu able, so easily, to dispossess the Khoi-San of the land that they had lived in for so many thousands of years?
The Bantu were physically superior. The Khoi-San were no match for them. The Bantu also knew the working of metal, and their weapons were far superior. Most importantly, the Bantu had mastered agriculture- that essential science of knowing how to till the soil and plant a crop that delivered a regular food supply year after year. And they had learned the business of animal husbandry, raising herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats.
These two skills make it possible to form large permanent settlements. And large permanent settlements make it possible - indeed necessary - to form the young men of the tribe into an army.
The small, peaceful Khoi-San stood no chance. The Bantu took the land they wanted. But they did not want it all.
The extensive cattle herds of the Bantu needed grass, which thrives on the summer rains. Their crops needed rain, too, but they had only summer crops.
In the south-western corner of Africa is an area where the rain falls only in winter, or not at all. Here was little natural grass for the cattle, and the summer crops will not grow.
There is also an area, today known as the Garden Route, where the rain falls all year, and the resulting forests were also not suited to the two pronged Bantu economy of crops and cattle.
In these areas - the Western Cape, the Northern Cape, and most of what is today Namibia, the Khoi-San could survive, as their descendants do to this day.
Below, copied from the Climate page of this website, is the rainfall map. This is followed immediately by a map showing the approximate locations of the modern black tribes, as well as the areas in which the descendants of the Khoi-San are to be found.
Note how the dividing line between the summer and winter rainfall regions runs diagonally through Port Elizabeth, Upington and Windhoek. Now, scroll down, and you will see how the black tribes took over the land to the right of this line, while the Khoi-San were able to survive to the left of it, because the land was not suited to the agricultural and herding economy of the Bantu.
(It will be noted that there are Khoi-San living in Botswana, east of the rainfall line. This is because the Kalahari Desert is so inhospitable that very few Tswana live there, leaving space for the Khoi-San as well.)O
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "HOTTENTOTS" AND "BUSHMEN"
Genetically speaking, there is no difference; they are one and the same race of people. Historically, the differentiation arises because some of them learned (doubtless from the Bantu invaders) how to keep herds and work metal. They thus advanced into the Iron Age, while the rest remained locked in the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the Stone Age.
The more advanced people called themselves Khoi (meaning "people") while they called their less-advanced brethren "San". They looked upon them as a lower race.
This attitude, and the difference in lifestyles between the two, was sufficient to fool the white man, when he arrived, into believing that they were two different races. It is only in relatively recent times that it has been recognised that they are of a common race.O
THE POSITION OF THE HOTTENTOTS AND BUSHMEN TODAY
The Bushmen were a shy and solitary people, shunning contact with others. Looked down upon by all, they were hunted by black and white alike. By retreating into the most inhospitable parts of the deserts, they survive to this day in small numbers. Very few of them are able to live the traditional life of the hunter gatherer. Most are in limbo, confined to small settlements where they enjoy little help and little sympathy from the governments under whose control they fall. The young ones go to school, though there primitive background mitigates against their obtaining anything remotely like a good education.
The Hottentots, by comparison, were very social, and initially welcomed the white man with great curiosity and an eagerness to trade. From them, the white man got sheep to eat, and women to sleep with (the white man not having brought any women from Holland.) Large numbers of half-caste children were born.
From the white man, the Hottentots got copper wire and other ornaments, as well as influenza, smallpod, venereal diseases and other illnesses against which they had no resistance. There were also sporadic outbreaks of hostility between white and Hottentot, which inevitably cost them many lives.
The white man pegged out his farms on the land, until the nomadic Hottentot clans had nowhere to roam, and were forced into offering themselves as labourers to the white man.
To all intents and purposes, the Hottentots have disappeared as a purebred race, and their descendants today are the Cape Coloured people, who have the blood of Hottentot, white and Indonesian slave in their veins.
Their language and culture is almost dead. They speak mostly Afrikaans, worship mostly in the Dutch Reformed Church, and live mostly a very Western lifestyle. If the tragic fate of the Hottentots has any upside at all, it is that having been dragged so harshly into the white man's world, they do not, at least, suffer the environmental learning problems faced by the black peoples, or the surviving Bushmen.
Cape Coloured people are to be found in every walk of society, from the richest to the poorest and from the best to the least educated. Ninety per cent of them live in the Western Cape, where they outnumber the white population 2 to 1. O
The white man's involvement with Southern Africa dates from 1487, when Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese navigator, found his way around the Southern tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean. He was followed, in 1497, by Vasco da Gama, who completed the discovery of the sea route to India.
Any ideas the Portuguese had of establishing a settlement at the Cape were scuppered in 1510 when a skirmish took place between the Hottentots and a visiting party of Portuguese. The Portuguese decided to confine their colonising efforts to Angola and Mocambique.
In 1647 a Dutch ship was wrecked in Table Bay, and the survivors found that they could live quite happily in the shadow of Table Mountain. Their experience persuaded the Dutch East India Company to establish a refreshment station for their ships en route to and from the East.
In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck arrived to set up the station. Initially there was no intention of developing the hinterland, or even of stationing workers there permanently. However, when the first five year contracts were due to expire, a number of the workers wished to stay on, take up land, and start farming for their own account. These "Free Burghers" became the first white South Africans.
The settlement stuttered along until 1679 when Simon van der Stel was appointed. As the most dynamic of all the Dutch East India Company governors, he established the towns of Stellenbosch and Paarl, and (in 1688) was instrumental in importing a (relatively) large group of talented Huguenot refugees who had fled to Holland from France. This brought about a major improvement in the wine produced at the Cape, which was, until that time, well-nigh undrinkable.
The Dutch East India Company governed for the benefit of the Company, not for the benefit of the settlers. It tried to avoid warfare with the Hottentots, and discouraged the trend whereby the settlers were forever spreading further away from the developed area around Cape Town.
The settlers, however, were a law unto themselves, and expanded the colony unofficially, especially along the eastern seaboard. By 1770 they had reached the summer rainfall region beyond where Port Elizabeth stands today. In doing so, they came up against the black tribes whom they had not previously encountered.
Trouble began almost immediately. The whites wanted more land, which they could only get from the blacks (the great Xhosa tribe in this instance). Raiding for cattle was an honourable profession for the young Xhosa warriors, and the whites had plenty. Across the Great Fish River, which become the generally acknowledged border between white and black, there were many incursions by both sides.O
In 1795, the French overran Holland and laid claim to her overseas possessions. The British, in order to keep the Cape out of French hands, sent a squadron of ships to Cape Town, defeated the Dutch in a minor battle, and took control for an initial period of 7 years.
In 1800 the Dutch East India Company, old, corrupt and top-heavy, went bankrupt. When the British handed the Cape back in 1802, it was not to the Company, but to the Government of Holland.
The return to Dutch rule was short lived. With Napoleon running rampant, Britain once again sent a squadron of ships to seize the Cape to keep it from French hands. The settlers, who still thought of themselves as Dutch, were now to be British subjects in perpetuity.
In truth, they were no longer Dutch. After so many generations of separation from Holland, their language had undergone a remarkable metamorphosis, and taken aboard all manner of new words and usages from the various influences that the settlers had encountered.
The British decided that this language was a worthless patois, not worth preserving. English was decreed the only language in which education would be provided and in which official business could be conducted.
The Dutch speakers living close to Cape Town adjusted quite well. But the British proved either unwilling or unable to do anything about the troubled situation along the Eastern Frontier, where the farmers suffered greatly from Xhosa incursions.
In 1820, around 5,000 British settlers were landed at Algoa Bay, thereby establishing the city of Port Elizabeth. They were settled in a belt of small farms along the Great Fish River and told to plant wheat (the Governor reasoning that no one had ever seen the Xhosa drive off a field of wheat).
As a device to put an end to the Xhosa raiding, this scheme was a failure. However, like the Huguenots in 1688, the 1820 Settlers brought many talents to a Colony that was much in need of their abilities. It is a matter of some pride to be able to say that one is descended from the 1820 Settlers.
By 1836, the Dutch component along the Eastern Frontier had given up on the British. They decided to leave the Colony by trekking north-eastwards into the interior, where they knew there were lands for the taking.
Why, if the summer rainfall region was thickly settled with black tribal peoples, should there suddenly be lands for the taking?
For the answer to that, we must leave the whites for a while, and take a closer look at the black peoples of Southern Africa.O
THE LOCATION OF THE BLACK TRIBES
The black tribes of Southern Africa may be divided into two distinct migratory streams.
Along the east coast, between the mountains and the sea, are found the Nguni group of peoples. They include the Swazi, the Zulu and the Xhosa. They are characterised by strong military traditions, and formed large nations under Paramount Chiefs (Chiefs among all the chiefs) - in other words, they can rightly be described as kings.
In the interior, on the plateau above the mountain escarpment, are found the Sotho peoples. These, perhaps because of the harsher climate, were divided into many small tribes. Consequently, their military traditions were not nearly as impressive as those of the Nguni, and they could rightly be described as a relatively peaceable lot.
In 1815, the Zulu people were rather insignificant. In that year, however, a young man called Chaka took the chieftainship. Deservedly described as the Black Napoleon, Chaka was, for his time, a military genius. He was also a tyrant with no respect for human life, be it that of his own people, or others.
Under his iron rule, he united all the tribes of the area until all called him King. They called themselves amaZulu, and their land became known as kwaZulu, or Zululand, as the white man renamed it.
Chaka's raiding parties sowed terror far and wide. One campaign, in particular, had fatal consequences for the peoples of the interior. He expelled the Ndwandwe tribe and chased them over the mountains into the interior. The Ndwandwe, looking for a new home, fell upon and dispossessed the first Sotho tribe they came upon. These people, now homeless, fell upon the next, and a domino effect took place.
This was aggravated by the depredations of the Matabele tribe, set up in the interior by one Mzilikazi, who had been Chaka's favourite general until he got tired of playing second fiddle and decided to go into the raiding business for his own account.
The Matabele based themselves roughly in the region where Pretoria stands today, and added their share of misery to the slaughter in the interior.
The period is recorded in history as the difaqane, or great killing. Whole tribes were wiped out, and the interior was left a waste of burned out kraals, bleaching bones, and blackened crop fields. Those who were not killed by war starved to death, or perished of exposure. So desperate was the situation that the practice of cannibalism - otherwise unheard of in this part of Africa - was even encountered.
Chaka, the Zulu tyrant, was assassinated by his half-brother, Dingaan, in 1828. Dingaan, however, continued sending his armies abroad, for an army had to be kept busy.O
Hunters and travellers from the Cape had seen the destruction of the interior, and noted that there was now no shortage of empty lands for settlement. (Not quite as empty as the teachers of the apartheid era would have us believe, but sufficiently empty for their purpose.)
Furthermore, the surviving Sotho tribes were in no position to be hostile. In particular, Moroka of the Barolong people saw the whites as useful allies, little dreaming that one day the whites would want all the land.
Starting in 1836 about 5,000 Dutch speaking colonists hitched up their wagons and abandoned the Cape. The first of the key leaders was an irascible fellow called Hendrik Potgieter. Potgieter's party trekked to Moroka's headquarters at Thaba Nchu, east of modern-day Bloemfontein. From there they advanced to the Vaal River, where theywere attacked by a force of Matabele. Many lives were lost. More importantly, two white girls were taken captive, which had an important bearing on the vigour with which the Voortrekkers subsequently pursued the Matabele.
Potgieter pulled his people into laager - the circle of wagons much used by pionneers in both South Africa and America when attacked by numerically superior tribes. At the Battle of Vegkop he successfully repulsed the Matabele, but was left stranded in the veld, as the warriors turned defeat into victory by driving off all his livestock and draught oxen.
Sorely embarrassed, Potgieter had to send a message back to Thaba Nchu calling for rescue. He was pulled back to Moroka's, very angry, and determined to have his vengeance on the Matabele.
In two punitive expeditions against the Matabele headquarters (west of where Pretoria stands today), he duly taught Mzilikazi's people the promised lesson. Following the second of these two actions, Mzilikazi realised that he had at last encountered a foe he could not defeat. Splitting his people into two groups, he sent the non-combatants north-east, into what is today Zimbabwe. He himself took the bulk of the army and led the pursuing Voortrekkers north-west, through what is today Botswana. After much wandering, the two groups rejoined, settling in the area of Bulawayo.
As a result, we do not find Matabele in South Africa today. Potgieter was able to lay claim to the land, and succeeding generations of white South Africans regard the Free State and much of the Transvaal as having been legitimately won by conquest from the Matabele. Black South Africans - the Sotho and Tswana of the area - argue differently. It was their land all along, they claim. It never belonged to the Matabele, so the whites had no right to liberate it for themselves. An interesting conflict of opinion, and one which gives rise to much of the dissent about land in South Africa.
Back at Thaba Nchu, the other key leader of the Great Trek had arrived. Pieter Retief was the antithesis of the surly Potgieter. He was a gentle and kindly fellow, much loved by those who followed him.
Retief was not impressed by the hard, flat plains of the interior. He favoured the land of Natal, which was green, warm and fertile.
Potgieter told Retief that he was mad. Natal lay under the influence of the mighty Zulu, headed by King Dingaan. The Zulu were even more powerful than the Matabele, and there were already a fair number of Voortrekker graves to testify to the risks involved in warfare with the major tribes.
Retief would not be convinced. Zululand was not Natal. Natal lay to the south of the Tugela River, and although it was very much within range of the Zulu, it was not actually part of Zululand. Like the interior, it was fairly empty, thanks to continual Zulu raiding. Retief intended to negotiate with the Zulu king for a treaty of friendship enabling the Voortrekkers to settle there.
There were already whites (English hunters and traders) settled at Port Natal (now Durban), and the Zulu had accepted them as friends and trading partners.
Retief duly set off with around seventy men and enjoyed a friendly reception from Dingaan, King of the Zulu. His followers, more than two thousand in number, brought their wagons over the Drakensberg escarpment and spread out in the region of modern-day Estcourt, waiting for Retief to return with his treaty.
Historians can not agree as to whether or not a treaty was actually signed. It is a bit academic, because if it was, Dingaan had no intention of keeping it. In February 1838, at Dingaan's headquarters, the unsuspecting Retief and his followers were slain. Dingaan then despatched his armies to attack the rest of the Voortrekkers. In the Blaauwkrans massacre, as the ensuing action is known, about a quarter of the Voortrekkers were slain.
At this point the Voortrekkers in Natal were left leaderless and despondent. A hero was needed, and such a man arrived in the person of one Andries Pretorius, a wealthy and educated farmer from the Eastern Cape.
Pretorius assumed the leadership, and spent the following months preparing to invade Zululand to seek vengeance. In December 1838 his force of 500 men set off.
As they progressed deeper into hostile territory, they began to incorporate into their evening prayers a vow that, if God would protect them and give them victory, they would ever after hold the day of the battle sacred.
On 16 December, 1838, the Zulu struck. The odds were approximately 12,000 against 500, but the Voortrekkers had the advantage of muskets over spears. They had chosen a good place for their laager. It lay beside a small river, into which many of the Zulu fell, until it was said that the water ran red with their blood. The action is thus known as the Battle of Blood River, and the day has been kept as a religious holiday by the Afrikaners ever since.
(Interestingly, if you should speak to a Zulu, you will not find any resentment at the defeat of Blood River. Obviously they would have been happier to have won. But the Zulu were a warrior nation. Win or lose, the important thing was valour. On the day, they fought like heroes, and no shame attaches to their name for having fallen to the firepower of the Boer muskets.)
Pretorius now appointed a new king, Mpande, to rule over Zululand. South of the Tugela, he proclaimed the Voortrekker Republic of Natalia. This was never recognised by the British, who regarded all of Southern Africa as their sphere of influence. In 1842, Britain formally annexed Natal as a Crown Colony.
The Voortrekkers, heartbroken at losing all they had fought for, abandoned Natal, and took their wagons back up the escarpment into the interior, where Potgieter's people had already spread out and begun farming.
The British were ultimately persuaded to recognise two Voortrekker republics in the interior. The Orange Free State lay north of the Orange River and stretched to the Vaal River. The Transvaal lay across the Vaal River, and its northern border was ultimately determined as the Limpopo River.
In 1853, a capital city was laid out for the Transvaal. Its founder was Martin Wessel Pretorius, and he named it Pretoria, after his father, the hero of Blood River.O
While the Orange Free State became something of a model republic, known for its stability and good government, the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek, as the Transvaal was officially known, was a Mickey Mouse country par excellence. Unable to balance its books, and unable to maintain peace with the various black tribes within its borders, and outside of them, Britain watched with dismay as the state lurched from one crisis to the next. It simply did not accord with what Britian regarded as responsible government.
In 1877 a very small party of British soldiers escorted Sir Theophilus Shepstone to Pretoria on what was ostensibly a state visit. Once there, Shepstone apologised politely to the President, and read out a proclamation whereby the Transvaal was annexed to the British Crown. The Transvaal lost its independence without a shot being fired.
The farmers in the country areas were not happy with the way their government had so meekly surrendered their independence. One of them, Paul Kruger, emerged as their leader and spokesman. After a fruitless visit to England to negotiate for the restoration of independence, Kruger called the burghers to arms at Paardekraal, near modern Krugersdorp, in December 1880.
Declaring the Transvaal independent again, British garrisons around the territory were either expelled, disarmed or placed under siege.
The only force of any size was at Lydenburg, and was ordered to march to Pretoria to restore British control. At the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit this force was humiliated, so the British ordered another army to proceed from Natal.
Under the leadership of General Sir George Colley, this force tried to make its way up the escarpment. In battles at Laing's Nek and Ingogo it was repulsed. General Colley then had a brainwave that would ensure his place in history.
Under cover of darkness (considered by the Boers to be very sneaky) he led his force to the summit of Majuba Mountain, overlooking the Laing's Nek Pass. On the morning of 27 February, 188, he could look down upon the Boer position - and the Boers could look up at him!
The Boers were very angry, and stormed the mountain. Shooting downhill, Colley's men had to show themselves against the skyline, and had a tendency to shoot high. The Boers made the crest with minimal losses, and fought the British to the far side of the flat-topped summit, where they surrendered.
Colley lay dead with a bullet through his head, but his action had given the Boers one of their greatest victories, ranking only below Blood River as a day on which the Lord had again demonstrated that He was on their side.
Back in Britain, public opinion had swung against the war. (It appears that the British public had woken up to the fact that their boys were fighting Christian whites rather than infidel savages!) Britain therefore decided against prosecuting the war further. The Transvaal was not the most desirable piece of real estate (the gold fields of Johannesburg were still an unknown secret locked within the koppies of the Witwatersrand).
Negotiations resulted in the official restoration of independence to the Transvaal, and Paul Kruger was elected President.
The Boers regarded the outcome of the war as a defeat for the British. On paper, this would appear to be so. They did not appreciate the fact that if Britain really wanted to commit itself to the war, she need not have given way.
This is probably why the Boers believed, two decades later, that they had beaten Britain once, and could do so again.O
Mpande, the Zulu king, had managed to keep the peace between white and black, but at considerable cost, for the Zulu were warriors, and were aimless and unemployed in the absence of an army. Mpande's son, Cetewayo (Ketch-wye-oh) set about rebuilding Zulu morale by rebuilding the army.
By 1879, for a number of reasons, Britain was desirous of extending its control to Zululand. Cetewayo's rebuilding of his army was made the excuse for an invasion. This began disastrously when the encampment at Isandhlwana was overrun at the cost of over a thousand British lives.
British pride was restored when the Zulu moved on to the trading post at Rorke's Drift. In this battle, a small British force fought bravely, holding the position and winning the greatest number of Victoria Crosses (11) ever awarded in a single action.
The British then moved on to Cetewato's headquarters, where the farcical Battle of Ulundi took place. Better described as a demonstration for the benefit of General Lord Chelmsford's reputation, the Zulu army made token attacks on the British square because they knew that the British wouldn't go away until they could claim a victory.
Cetewayo had sent repeated messages stating that he did not desire war, but to no avail. The British needed the war and were determined to have it.
Having captured Cetewayo, Zululand was annexed. It was subsequently incorporated into the Colony of Natal. Large parts of Zulu territory were made available to white farmers, leaving the Zulu, one of Souther Africa's most numerous people, critically short of land.O
The presence of diamonds in South Africa was signalled by a few isolated finds in the 1850's, but the main strike took place in 1867 on the farm of the De Beer brothers, where Kimberley stands today. This was technically in the Orange Free State, but a bit of British chicanery enabled it to pass into British hands as an extension of the Cape Colony. (The Free State was subsequently paid compensation.)
Minor gold strikes occurred in the Transvaal, especially in the Eastern Transvaal during the 1870's. Gold was found in the alluvial form, which could easily be worked by single prospectors or small syndicates.
The really big strike came in 1886, when one George Harrison, an itinerant Australian, chipped a sample from the rocky Ridge of White Waters, or Witwatersrand. This lay 36 miles south of the capital at Pretoria.
Harrison was awarded the first two free "Finders Claims." He sold them for ten pounds and disappeared from history.
The gold of the Witwatersrand is not alluvial. It was laid down, millions of years ago, in the sedimentary rocks forming on the bed of an ancient inland sea. The yield varied from ten ounces per ton obtained in the early days, to one ounce per three or more tons, which is obtained today.
Being encased in solid rock, at ever increasing depths, the small worker could not operate, and the optimists who swarmed to the Witwatersrand soon ran out of money, sold their claims to more organised and better financed companies, and became humble employees of the great mining houses that came into existence.
The city that arose was called Johannesburg, though no one can be sure just which Johannes it was named after.
The discovery caused huge problems for the Transvaal Republic, as the number of immigrants it attracted (mostly British) soon outgrew the number of Boer citizens. Within five years, these Uitlanders, as they were known, would qualify to vote, and the Boers would lose their hard won independence yet again.O
THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR - CAUSES
In 1891, President Kruger announced that ten years of residence, rather than five, would be required before an Uitlander would qualify to vote. In 1895, he announced a further extension in the period required.
At this stage, the dissatisfied Uitlanders, urged on by the imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, began to plan the armed overthrow of the Kruger government.
Cecil John Rhodes, who had arrived in South Africa in 1870, had built a huge fortune on the diamond fields at Kimberley. He had made further fortunes in industry, and controlled one of the Johannesburg mining houses. He had entered politics, and had become Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. He had persuaded Britain to place Bechuanaland (Botswana) under the Imperial flag. Using this "road to the North", His British South Africa Company had established, and literally owned, the colony of Rhodesia, of which the administrator was Dr Leander Starr Jameson, Rhodes' best and most trusted friend.
Rhodes ordered Jameson to "borrow" the British South Africa Police, the paramilitary force operated by the BSA Company in Rhodesia. With these five hundred men, Jameson camped at Pitsani, on Botswana's border with the Transvaal. When the Uitlanders started their rebellion, he would ride in to make sure that it did not fail.
On the last day of 1895, Jameson had word that the Uitlanders' courage had failed them. Against all orders and advice, he decided to ride in to the Transvaal, in the hope that, if there was no rebellion for him to assist in, he could precipitate it, and then the Uitlanders could assist him.
The Jameson Raid was a farce. The Uitlanders did not rise. Kruger's Transvaal commandos tracked Jameson all the way, and brought him to bay within sight of Johannesburg. After a day long battle, the Raiders surrendered. Jameson and the Uitlander ringleaders were dragged off to Pretoria for trial. The death sentences handed down were commuted by Kruger and the raiders allowed to serve their sentences in Britain.
Although Britain can not be blamed for the raid, the tension that it engendered between the two countries was one of the major factors in causing the war that followed. Kruger now enjoyed the moral support of most of the non-British world, which gave the Boers much confidence that they would be assisted in the event of war. (In the event, this hope proved groundless.)
Britain's world prestige had taken a severe knock, and a show of strength was needed. Britain therefore took on the Uitlander cause and demanded that Kruger "do the decent thing" by granting them the franchise. Kruger knew that to give way would spell the end of Boer government in the Transvaal, and negotiations deadlocked.
Britain, meanwhile, was transferring troops to Southern Africa, especially to Natal, where they were stationed along the Transvaal border. What Kruger needed was an iron nerve, and sufficient grasp of the situation to realise that Britain - with the eyes of the world upon her - would not actually attack.
Kruger had nerves steelier than most, but in this case he blinked. He drafted an ultimatum to the British giving them 48 hours to get their troops off his border, and demanding an undertaking that no further reinforcements would be sent to Southern Africa. Failing these, a state of war would exist.
Britain, as we have said, could not risk declaring war on the Transvaal. However, Kruger could not make demands about the disposition of troops in British territory. It was easy for Britain to reject the terms of the ultimatum, and so accept a war that Kruger had declared.
Conventional history has suggested that Britain was the architect of war, and that she wanted the war in order to gain control over the goldfields. In reality, the British government wanted a united South Africa, but did not want to achieve this by warfare. In the end, the war was accepted with reluctance, in the realisation that it was probably inevitable in the long run, so they might as well get it over with.
Two Britons, however, can fairly stand accused of actually wanting the war. One was Cecil John Rhodes, who would stop at nothing to secure British rule, because he believed it was best for all concerned. The other was Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner at Cape Town. With Rhodes he shared the dream of a united South Africa under the British flag. This required the defeat of Kruger and his people, not just their acquiescence.
History is full of "Ifs", and if these two had been absent from the equation, the Second Anglo Boer War might well have been avoided.O
THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR - FIRST PHASE
The war, which from now on will be described simply as the Boer War, started on Kruger's birthday - 10 October 1899.
Dragged unwillingly into the conflict was the Orange Free State, which had no quarrel with the British, but as a sister republic of the Transvaal, was bound to it by treaty.
The Boer Republics had no armies, and its military establishment was informal to the point of non-existence. A number of men with fighting experience carried the rank of general, which made them - for the moment - professional soldiers. The troops were known as "burghers" - citizens. They formed themselves by diistrict into commandos, and elected a commanding officer known as a Field Cornet. A Field Cornet linked himself and his commando to a General, or possibly went off raiding on his own, in which case he himself came to be regarded as a General anyway.
The Boers had been anticipating war, and were well-ready to pour into British territory. The British, on the other hand, were not ready. They had professional soldiers, but the soldiers did not know the country, and were not prepared for the type of combat that the Boers would offer.
On three fronts - the Natal border, the Bechuanaland border, and the Northern Cape border, the Boers beat the British back. Early defeats for the British saw their South African forces forced into siege in Ladysmith (under General White), Kimberley (under General Kekewich, saddled with Cecil John Rhodes as a supercargo) and Mafeking (under Major Baden-Powell).
The Boers failed to take advantage of these successes. Instead of invading further, they encamped themselves around the besieged towns and waited for the British to surrender.
The supreme commander of British forces was General Sir Redvers Buller. He appointed Lord Methuen to advance up the railway line from Cape Town to relieve Kimberley, General Gatacre to advance up the line from East London to attack the Free State, and appointed himself to take charge of the operations in Natal to relieve Ladysmith.
During Black Week (December 1899) all of these forces were humiliated with heavy losses. Methuen's force was routed at Magersfontein, south of Kimberley. Gatacre was repulsed at Stormberg Junction, while Buller suffered the worst defeat of all at Colenso.O
THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR - SECOND PHASE
The British responded by appointing Field Marshal Lord Roberts, with General Kitchener as his deputy, to supersede the apparently incompetent Buller. (I say "apparently incompetent" because analysis shows that although his decisions were not of the wisest, the bitter lessons that he learned would probably have come the way of any other supposedly more competent commander. In the final analysis, Buller was not an incompetent general, as his record both before and after the Natal debacle shows.)
Roberts and Kitchener assembled a juggernaut of an army, which they rolled up the railway line in the direction of Kimberley, and then hauled across the semi-desert wastes of the Karroo towards Bloemfontein.
General French with his cavalry was detached to relieve Kimberley. The besieging forces, under General Cronje, retreated towards Bloemfontein, but were brought to a halt by a combination of too much baggage, heavy rain, and dogged British pursuit. General Cronje's surrender at Paardeberg, with over 4,000 men, was a devastating blow for the Boers.
The Roberts and Kitchener juggernaut rolled on, pausing at Bloemfontein to overcome an epidemic of dysentery (which took far more British lives than bullets ever did). A minor battle for Johannesburg was fought, and won. The Boers could not bear to see their beloved capital at Pretoria destroyed by cannon fire, and the city was given up without a shot.
President Paul Kruger departed eastwards along the railway to Delagoa Bay in Portuguese Mocambique, while the senior General, Louis Botha, attempted to turn back the British tide.
In the meantime, General Buller had at long last relieved Ladysmith and entered the Transvaal, where he joined forces with Roberts to face Botha in the last set piece battle of the War.
This took place at Bergendal, near Belfast. The overwhelming British strength told, and the Boers retreated to the Portuguese border. However, instead of surrendering, they melted away into what is now the Kruger National Park, and re-emerged as guerilla units, determined to continue the War.
Kruger went into exile in Europe. After fruitless attempts to garner support, military or financial, he ended up in Switzerland. Although invited to return after the War, he swore he would never live under the British flag, and died in 1904.
Although no Boer surrender had been obtained, Roberts considered the war to be won. The British flag flew over the capitals of both republics, and garrisons occupied most towns. He declared both the Transvaal and the Orange Free State to be annexed to the Crown, and returned to England to acclaim, another title, and a handsome gratuity from the government.
Kitchener was left to "tie up the loose ends."O
THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR - THIRD PHASE
This proved to be the longest and hardest phase. The Boers would not surrender. The British held the towns, but the Boers roamed the country, harassing the British with hit and run tactics. Famous guerilla generals, such as Jan Smuts, Louis Botha, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey, wrote their names into the history books with their daring exploits. General Smuts, in particular, mounted a truly audacious commando invasion of the Cape Colony, which brought his men to within sight of Cape Town, and then all the way into distant Namaqualand.
The period was also characterised by the introduction by Britain of a scorched-earth policy. Miles of barbed wire fences were erected, connecting chains of small forts known as blockhouses. Farms and farm buildings were torched, and the inhabitants taken off to concentration camps, where poor conditions resulted in the deaths of many thousands through illnesses. The blame for this is generally laid at the door of Kitchener, which is partially fair, as he was the officer in charge. However, in his defence it can be said that the scorched-eaarth policy was actually Robert's idea. Furthermore, the internment of the non-combatants was actually preferable to leaving them destitute on the open veld. The conditions in the camps were not known to Kitchener, and when he was made aware, he did indeed take steps to have them improved.
Despite these measures designed to deny the Boers food, shelter and freedom of movement, they still managed to keep going. Those who served during this period are known as "bittereinders" - the bitter-enders. Those who surrendered are regarded with scorn, and known as "hensoppers" from the English term, "hands up."
The Boers could not win, the British could not lose. Standing in the way of any settlement was Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner at Cape Town, who wanted nothing less than a total surrender by the Boers.
Credit for the ending of the war should go to the much-maligned Kitchener, who realised that Milner's insistence on unconditional surrender was blocking a negotiated peace. Kitchener also seemed to realise, better than most, that Boer Generals wore two hats. They were soldiers, but they were also, by default, the political leaders of the Boer people.
He invited them to meet him at Vereeniging in April 1902, to discuss terms whereby the Boers could surrender with honour. Despite Milner's objections, an agreement was reached. The Treaty of Vereeniging was signed at Melrose House, Pretoria, on 31 May, 1902.O
THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR - THE ROLE OF THE BLACK PEOPLES
It was a white man's war, with both sides striving to ensure that blacks were not involved except insofar as they were employed in the normal course of daily life. On both sides, therefore, blacks filled their customary role as servants. However, as there was a war on, they ran the risk of being killed or captured along with those they served.
To a very small extent, blacks were armed by the British, although this was to enable them to defend themselves and their positions, rather than to take the field in pursuit of the Boers.
The real involvement of blacks was as victims of the scorched-earth policy. Thousands of blacks worked on the farms, and when the farms were burned and the non-combatants removed, the blacks were removed too. The conditions in their camps were even worse than those in the "white" camps, and the death toll no less tragic.
There are recorded instances of Boer atrocities against both blacks and coloureds who took the British side - notably the murder of Abraham Esau at Calvinia and the massacre at Leliefontein in Namaqualand.
An aspect that no one likes to talk about too much was that of marauding bandits. In a time of warfare, arms are easy to come by, and a number of atrocities were committed against non-combatant Boers by black tribesmen who had acquired firearms. These atrocities had an influence on the peace talks, with a number of the delegates wanting to fight on, but concerned about the lot of those who were still on the land in a time when the black population was becoming increasingly armed and dangerous.
In this time of political correctness, historians are criticised for ignoring the black role in the Boer War. It should not be ignored. However, in the sense that they were not involved in the quarrel, were not involved in the fighting, and not involved in the peace, the role that they played was limited indeed. Historians can therefore be forgiven for not dwelling too much upon them, any more than we dwell too much on the individuals who perished in the London blitz, the Firebombing of Dresden, or the nuclear inferno of Hiroshima.
The purpose of history is to examine what happened with a view to understanding it, and if the Boer War was caused by a dispute between two white nations, the best way to protect the black peoples from being caught in the crossfire is to understand why the whites acted as they did, and make sure that it never happens again.O
THE SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR - AFTERMATH
The Boer population of the republics was impoverished by the war, and huge numbers lost their farming livelihood. They drifted to the cities, there forming an underclass known as "poor whites", whose influence on the future South Africa was to be great and fatal.
The way was now clear to unite the territories of Southern Africa into one state. The Union of South Africa came into being on 31 May 1910, as a self-governing colony subject to the Parliament at Westminster.
Its capitals were Pretoria (seat of the Executive), Cape Town (seat of Parliament), and Bloemfontein (seat of the Judiciary).
Excluded from the new country were the three tribal territories of Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana. These were technically Protectorates, rather than Colonies, and fell under a different branch of British authority. It was felt desirable that at some future date they be incorporated into the new country, but no timetable was set.O
From this time on we speak of Afrikaners rather than Boers. The Afrikaans speakers outnumbered the English speakers by 2 to 1, and inevitably it was the Afrikaners who came to power in the resulting elections. However, the English vote ensured that it was the more moderate Afrikaners who triumphed, and Generals Louis Botha and Jan Smuts led the South African Party to victory. Botha died young, to be succeeded by Smuts, who played a prominent role in South African politics until 1948.
South Africa joined with Great Britain and her allies in fighting against Germany during the First World War. This was not a universally popular decision, and some of the old die-hards from the Boer War days rebelled, giving Smuts and Botha the painful task of taking the field against their former brother generals. The rebellion was successfully put down.
By 1932, Britain felt that South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada were mature enough to enjoy full independence. Hitherto they had been practicaly independent, but the legal position was that Westminster could override laws of the colonial parliaments if it wished. By the Statute of Westminster, Britain now renounced that right, and South Africa, along with the other three dominions, became truly independent.
South Africa had continued to rely on mineral exports for many years, purchasing whatever manufactured goods it needed from overseas.
The Second World War interrupted production in Europe, and disrupted shipping. South Africa was thus forced to start manufacturing for itself, and a mini industrial revolution took place.
It was just at this time that many of South Africa's young white men had gone to North Africa to fight with the Allies. And also, at this time, the number of blacks in the tribal homelands had increased to the point where journeying to see the cities of the white men was no longer just an adventure - it had become a necessity.
The new migrants to the cities found employment in the new industries arising. Wages were low, and no provision was made for housing the new arrivals. They lived in squalor, squatting on whatever empty bit of land was closest to the places where they found work. Huge shanty towns arose, particularly in the area south west of Johannesburg. All the social diseases resulting from this type of environment prevailed - crime, filth, disease, violence. Above all the sheer numbers of the migrants scared the white inhabitants of the towns.
General Smuts was deservedly regarded as South Africa's greatest statesman (pre-Mandela, of course, whose claims are equally good). However, Smuts may stand accused of not having formulated or implemented any cogent policy to cope with either the numbers or the needs of the burgeoning black population. Nor did his United Party (originally, the South African Party) have any political answer to allay the fears of the whites.
Smuts and the United Party drew their support from moderate Afrikaans and English-speakers. The National Party was unashamedly a right-wing Afrikaner party. With the growth in black numbers, and the drift of blacks to the cities, it appealed to the fears of whites, especially poor and lower class whites, promising to ensure that they were not swamped by blacks who worked for less and might harm white employment prospects.
The policy that would ensure this was called "apartheid", meaning "separateness", and initially it amounted to little more than racial segregation. Subsequently it evolved into a rather more sophisticated plan to create independent mini-states for each black tribal grouping in its traditional homeland. Blacks would then have political rights in their homelands, and lose all claims to political rights in the white areas.
The National Party also appealed to Afrikaner patriotism, and to a discontented factor who resented the Smuts government for taking South Africa into the Second World War.
A final crucial factor in the National Party's favour was a frankly ridiculous imbalance in the constituency system. Rural constituencies had just a few thousand voters, whereas urban constituencies had many thousands of voters. Yet each could choose only one Member of Parliament. The effect was that (for example) fifteen thousand farmers, spread over five constituencies, could send five National Party members to Parliament, while fifteen thousand more liberal voters, sandwiched into one urban constituency, might still vote for good ol' Jannie Smuts, but could only send one member to Parliament.
In the 1948 election, Smuts and the United Party polled the most votes overall, but the constituency factor resulted in the National Party winning a majority of seats, even though it was not to win a majority of votes until the general election of 1958.
General Smuts died in 1950, and the United Party was never to win power again.O
THE APARTHEID ERA - PEACEFUL RESISTANCE (MOSTLY)
The apartheid era began fairly tamely, and such protest as there was was not convincing. The number of blacks unaffected by apartheid exceeded those urbanised blacks who felt thwarted enough, or angry enough, to protest. The ANC, of whom Nelson Mandela was a young member coming to the fore, mounted the "Defiance Campaign" of the early 1950's. This was a series of peaceful demonstrations that petered out after a while.
In 1956, a gathering was held, which resulted in the publication of a document called the Freedom Charter. Communism and socialism were seen as cure-alls in those days, and the Freedom Charter reads like a dose of standard Marxist claptrap, full of ringing phrases like, "There shall be houses - " without addressing the question of who would build them, or who would pay for them.
Nevertheless, the Freedom Charter served the unintended purpose of scaring even more whites into the National Party camp.
It was not until the coming to power of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (1958) that the policy of apartheid really began to bite. Verwoerd was not one to allow practicalities to stand in the way of political policy. If the policy called for the removal of blacks from one place to another, they were removed, regardless of whether or not there were any facilities for them at the journey's end. If they died, they died, and apartheid graveyards date from this time.
Resistance amongst whites to the injustices of apartheid were vocal but peaceful. Most whites spoke of a "natural apartheid" whereby people voluntarily stuck to their own racial groups, but segregation was not written into the law. More liberal minded whites believed that educated blacks should be given the vote.
Around Africa, the cry "One Man, one Vote" was gaining momentum. Amongst whites, the slogan drew negligible support.
In 1959, independence was granted to the former Belgian Congo, which erupted in a bloodbath. Many of the white refugees arrived in South Africa with all they had been able to salvage, telling horror stories of the barbarity of the newly independent blacks.
Subsequent atrocities in other territories - Southern and Northern Rhodesia, Tanzania and elsewhere, convinced white South Africans that white rule should be maintained at all costs, and if the National Party was the only party committed to this policy, then regardless of the injustices of the apartheid policy, it was the party to support.
There are two other factors that should be mentioned to explain how whites were converted to their eventual wholesale support of the National Party and its apartheid policy. One was the threat of Communism - the majority of newly independent African nations seemed to leap immediately into the arms of either Moscow or Beijing. The other was simple race prejudice. The whites liked the blacks as long as they "kept their places."
Consequently, as the rest of the world moved towards a position of greater equality between white and black, South Africa was increasingly entrenching age old inequalities. At the same time it was trying to sell the world the fairy tale that making the tribal homelands independent was no different from what Britain and France were doing elsewhere in Africa.
A slightly more impressive round of black protest took place in 1960. This included the tragedy at Sharpeville, and fuelled growing opposition to the apartheid government on the part of the world community. Nevertheless, the protests were comfortably contained by the police, with a little moral support from the army.O
THE APARTHEID ERA - VIOLENT RESISTANCE
At this stage the ANC took a decision to break from its policy of non-violent protest, and Nelson Mandela was authorised by the organisation's leadership to mount attacks on government installations and personnel.
In 1960, white South Africans voted by a slender majority to become a republic. The change to republican status was made on 31 May 1961. At the same time, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd withdrew South Africa's application for continued membership of the Commonwealth.
In 1963 Nelson Mandela was arrested and tried for sabotage. In 1964 he was sentenced, along with others, to life imprisonment. In his mitigation hearing, he delivered what is known as his "Speech from the dock." This little known speech should have been of vital importance to South Africa's future. However, it appears that no one was listening at the time, least of all the trial judge.
In 1964, South Africa entered its darkest period when Justice Minister John Vorster successfully introduced legislation to permit house arrests, bannings, censorship and detention without trial. The freedom to hold people incommunicado without charge paved the way for the torture and/or murder of anti-apartheid activists - all of which were denied by the apartheid state. White South Africans, moreover, had moved into the denial stage with which Nazi Germany was associated. By pretending that they didn't know, they could continue to support the government. One of the easiest ways to ensure that one genuinely did not know was to avoid asking questions or discussing politics.
In 1966 Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated. The assassination was not political in nature, but it had the important consequence of bringing John Vorster to the office of Prime Minister.
Under Vorster, the body of repressive legislation grew endlessly, although he did make one or two cosmetic changes, like repealing the laws barring sex and marriage across the colour line.
From Vorster's period, it can be said that South Africa had two different sets of repressive legislation. There was the apartheid legislation itself, and then there was the legislation to ensure the security of the state, which had nothing whatsoever to do with race, but was designed to protect the state against challenges to its authority.
During Vorster's tenure there occurred the stupid and unnecessary Soweto Student's Revolt, occasioned by the insistence of government that 50 per cent of black high school students receive their tuition in Afrikaans.
In retrospect, the government did the black liberation cause a great favour, because at the time all the recognised leaders were in detention or under close house arrest. The liberation movement had practically ground to a halt.
The Soweto uprising was spontaneous and therefore uncontainable. Hugely valuable publicity was created for the liberation movements, while the South African government sank still lower in the esteem of all civilised nations, and uncivilised ones too.
Although order was restored, and the next serious outbreak of violence was some years away, 1976 can be regarded as the real beginning of black resistance to apartheid. No longer did it depend on political leaders having to incite people to rebel and keep rebelling. The spontaneity of 1976 demonstrated that there were now sufficient blacks who were bumping their heads against the ceiling of apartheid, and they were prepared to take to the streets without having to be aroused by a recognised leader or organisation.
Vorster resigned as a result of a political scandal involving the channelling of monies to be used for pro-government propaganda. He was succeeded by P W Botha, who started out rather hopefully as a Prime Minister committed to genuine reforms.
Very rapidly, however, he seems to have looked over his right shoulder and realised that his electorate might not follow his lead. Other right wing parties were springing up, accusing the National Party of no longer being committed to its original policy of keeping the whites safe and the blacks under control.
P W Botha did a rapid U-turn. Although he did not introduce any significant new apartheid laws - there was little left to segregate - his place as a villain in our history is assured because of his response to what he called the "total onslaught" policy. The black resistance, aided by the world nations, was engaged in a total onslaught against white South Africa and its government, and he intended to defend this my means of total resistance.
This entailed a free for all amongst the government security services, who enjoyed carte blanche to arrest, detain, torture and kill anyone for any reason.
In the midst of this, P W Botha produced a new constitution for South Africa. It amounted to a rather elaborate, and transparent, to persuade the outside world that apartheid was succeeding. Four of the tribal homelands had been persuaded to take "independence". The implication was that others would follow. The new constitution created separate parliaments for Whites, Coloureds and Indians, each to be responsible for their own affairs. Thus, argued the Botha government, all South Africans of all colours were on their way to equal political rights.
The constitution also abolished the office of Prime Minister and provided for an executive president instead.
Black opposition to the new constitution was both vocal and violent. Bishop Desmond Tutu emerged as the patron of an organisation known as the United Democratic Front, whose specific objective was to ensure that the new constitution was not allowed to work. This organisation was an umbrella for any and all anti-government organisations, some of which were so violent that Bishop Tutu threatened to resign if blacks did not stop murdering other blacks by means of the "necklace" method.
The government security forces were quite unable to contain the resulting violence, which was now unfocused, being directed as much against other black organisations and civilians as well as the government. The ANC had threatened to make the country ungovernable, and this threat had become reality, although it was anarchy, rather than the ANC, that had brought this situation about.
From the time of the new constitution, South Africa was to know no peace until the end of the apartheid era.
South Africa was now faced with all manner of economic sanctions, most of which served to encourage local production. Sport and cultural boycotts drew the whites closer together, despite the claims of those who like to believe that they fought apartheid by being beastly to teenage girls and disabled athletes.
Bombs in shopping centres and a growing lawlessness were a more important factor in persuading whites that an accommodation had to be reached with black South Africans.
Above all, there was the sheer cost of the police and defence budgets to contain the violence in the streets.
P W Botha had made anti-communism a cornerstone of his political career. Nelson Mandela, and others like him, were regarded as communists, too dangerous to be allowed to walk free. Nevertheless, P W Botha understood that Mandela had to be freed, in order to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. The one time part-time lawyer had been turned, by the apartheid government itself, into the world's most famous prisoner.
He made an offer to Mandela, whereby, if Mandela would renounce the armed struggle, he would be freed. Mandela refused to be used. He shrugged his shoulders and declined the offer. He had been in jail for 26 years, and could hardly be held responsible for what was happening in the outside world.
P W Botha could not release Mandela without losing all his political credibility. The stalemate dragged on.
In 1989, two crucial events occurred. P W Botha suffered a stroke, which ultimately forced him to resign. And the Communist system in the Soviet Union finally collapsed under the weight of its own inadequacies. No longer would African leaders be able to play East off against West. Henceforth, all assistance would have to come from the West, which would be in a position to cut off aid if African governments did anything too stupid or too evil.
P W Botha was replaced by President F W de Klerk, a younger man who did not have quite as much apartheid baggage around his neck, and whose political credibility did not depend on keeping Nelson Mandela in prison.
Within weeks, F W de Klerk broke the logjam in South Africa politics. The ANC and other black organisations were unbanned. Nelson Mandela and other leaders were released. The Codesa Talks were arranged (Congress for a Democratic South Africa.) These aimed to produce an interim constitution which would enable the holding of all race elections and the installation of the government thus chosen.
De Klerk offered white South Africans the opportunity to back-track. In a referendum, whites voted that De Klerk should continue with his initiatives.
Violence continued, although the nature of it changed considerably. The ANC no longer launched terror attacks and bombings on the general populace, but became embroiled in a civil war in Zululand, where it sought to ensure that the IFP supporting Zulu be persuaded to switch their allegiances. The IFP fought back, armed by renegade elements within the white establishment.
The PAC, perceiving that it would fare badly against the ANC in the coming elections, stepped up its campaign of murdering and bombing of white civilians.
White right wingers, once loyal supporters of the government, began bombing campaigns of their own, in an effort to derail the elections.
The Codesa talks were dominated by the National Party government, which enjoyed the support of the vast majority of whites, and the ANC, which enjoyed the support of the overwhelming majority of blacks. These two stuck to their task, and the elections went ahead in April 1994.
Predictably, the ANC won handsomely, the National Party came in second, and the only "surprise" was the performance of the IFP, whose Zulu support base stuck by them.
Nelson Mandela was inaugaurated as president. The troubles in Zululand continued for a while, but by and large it can be said that political violence is no longer endemic in the Republic of South Africa.O
THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF BLACK RULE
We have had some successes, and some abysmal failures. Greatest amongst these must be the failure of the new government to bring law and order back to the country they swore to make ungovernable. Crime is rampant, and civil disobedience endemic.
The key areas of Health and Education are both in a shambles.
Economically, we have performed well, and much of the credit must go to Mr Trevor Manuel, the Minister of Finance, who has no financial qualifications, but has the gift of being able to choose good brains and listen to them.
President Mandela stuck to his promise of serving just one five year term as President. In doing so, he has set an example that other African leaders have yet to follow.
As the "founder" of the New South Africa, President Mandela will go down in history as one of the greatest South Africans of all time.
As the actual president for the first five years, history will be very naive if it does not point to his shortcomings. For reasons best known to himself, he failed to get rid of any of the disastrous Ministers appointed to key portfolios.
President Mbeki, who has taken over, has no previous reputation upon which he can coast. His reputation will be made in the here and now, and he will be judged by the job that his government does. And it is significant that he has replaced all five of the key ministers who performed so badly in President Mandela's government: health, education, police, justice and prisons.
Significantly, Trevor Manuel was retained as Minister of Finance.
Many outsiders enquired darkly as to our future "when Mandela goes." Perhaps the fame of President Mandela was such that people began to believe that in all of South Africa's 47 odd million people, there is no other individual who can run the country.
This is not at all so. President Mandela had his great qualities, and gave of them when needed. President Mbeki has his own qualities, and they appear to be eminently suitable now.
It can be argued that we might have done better with a reformed white government that would have greater skills and more integrity. This may be true. But in all the last forty years of white rule, the white electorate spurned skill, integrity and reform, and voted instead for the apartheid government and the monster it created.
Under the circumstances, we haven't done too badly at all.
For a good, and mostly fair, interpretation of South Africa's history in its entirety, try the Reader's Digest Illustrated History of South Africa.
For more, go to READING
IN THE BEGINNING
As in South Africa, the original indigenous inhabitants of the country were the Bushmen, who pre-dated the Bantu by many thousands of years. They are now entirely absent, having been assimilated, exterminated, or driven out. Nevertheless, they have left a rich legacy in the form of some of the finest examples of rock art.
THE BANTU PEOPLES - THE SHONA
Zimbabwe lies entirely within the summer rainfall region, and thus the whole area was suited to the cattle and cropping economy of the Bantu.
Over the years, there has been a great deal of tribal movement, and the Bantu tribes who dominate Zimbabwe today are not necessarily those who originally moved into the area.
We can nevertheless say that the Bantu people of the first centuries of the Christian era are, by and large, the forefathers of the Shona-speaking peoples who make up the majority today.
The term "Shona" needs some explanation. Strictly speaking, there is no Shona tribe. The name appears to have been bestowed upon them by the Matabele, who arrived during the 1800's. It is a term used to describe a number of different but related tribes, who speak similar languages and observe similar customs.
The history of the various Shona speaking peoples goes back many centuries, and they produced, at various times, some of the most powerful states to be found in the sub-continent.
Best known of these was the state centred at Great Zimbabwe (now known as the Zimbabwe Ruins, or by the politically correct term, "Zimbabwe Monuments.")
This appears to have arisen as a result of its position between the Indian Ocean coast, and the gold rich city of Mapungubwe, situated further west where the borders of Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa now meet.
Gold had little value for the Bantu, but it could be traded for beads and cloth, both of which were supplied by Arab traders. The Arabs had learned to sail with the monsoons to reach the East Coast of Africa, where they established important trading cities such as Mombasa, Kilwa, Dar es Salaam, and Sofala. Of these, Sofala (close to modern Beira) was the city that gave access to the hinterland of Zimbabwe.
The Arabs were major purchasers of slaves, but it should be emphasised that the slave trade did not extend as far south as Zimbabwe. It was thus gold that interested the Arabs.
The Arabs appear not to have travelled inland to any great extent. The cloth and beads were taken inland, and the gold brought out, by African middlemen. Great Zimbabwe appears to have grown to prominence as a staging post along the way.
Great Zimbabwe is impressive by African standards, showing a high degree of skill in building with rough stones. Nevertheless, it is really a fortification of walls within which the inhabitants lived in traditional huts of mud, poles and thatch.
It was abandoned before European explorers ever reached the area, probably because too many people were trying to live in too confined an area. Eventually, they would have run out of grazing for their extensive herds. Conditions would have been extremely insanitary, and fire or an epidemic may have played a role.
Around the time that Great Zimbabwe was abandoned, another powerful kingdom was rising to power in the north east. These people, who we know as Karanga, were ruled by a potentate known as the Mwene Mutapa, which was rendered as "Monomotapa" by European writers.
To English-speaking travellers and writers, the Kingdom of Monomotapa remained but a legend. Had they bothered, or been able, to read Portuguese, they might have discovered that the Kingdom was a reality, and that the Portuguese were in regular contact with it.
The Portuguese, who pioneered the sea route to India, sailed into Sofala in 1506 and expelled the Arabs. From Sofala ran a trade route that followed the Zambesi and then turned southwards into the area, roughly speaking, where the settlement of Mount Darwin now stands. Mount Darwin appears to have been something of a sacred mountain to the people of Mwene Mutapa.
Unlike Great Zimbabwe, the Mutapa state was a producer of gold, not merely a middleman. However, it did not produce anything to compare with the architectural grandeur of Great Zimbabwe. This could be due to the priorities of the rulers, or simply because of an absence of the right type of stones that enabled the building of Great Zimbabwe.
Over the years during which the kingdom was powerful, a number of capitals were built, the ruins of which may still be seen today. However, they are very much off the beaten track, and to all but the keenest student, they are mostly just jumbles of rocks, so they are seldom visited.
The Portuguese traded with the Mutapa state for many years. These trading operations were often interrupted by outbreaks of war, but the state lay too far inland for the Portuguese to subdue.
The Portuguese colonising and trading efforts were carried out on behalf of the Portuguese state, not by a private company. There was thus little incentive amongst the Portuguese servants of the crown, many of whom were "degredados" - prisoners who were sent to work in the colonies instead of being executed.
Many deserted, took African wives, and set themselves up as barons along the Zambezi River, where they controlled huge estates known as "prazos". These were, worked and protected by vaNyai - stateless and destitute men from small tribes, many of them survivors of slave raids further north. They bound themselves in fealty to the prazo-holder in return for security and a place to live.
While gold was forthcoming, the Portuguese maintained close relations with the state, and some of the Mutapas were even (nominally) converted to Christianity. However, as the gold began to run out, the Portuguese lost interest in the area.
Having run out of gold, and become riven by dissension, the Mutapas became successively less powerful. One may say that the kingdom eroded away over a period of time. By the time the Matabele arrived in the late 1830's, there were no Shona states of any consequence. No great tribes dominated, so peace rather than war was the preferred state, and the various peoples lived simple lives in isolated communities.
THE BANTU PEOPLES - THE MATABELE
The Matabele (also known as the Ndebele) were an offshoot of the Zulu, and came into being when Mzilikazi, a brilliant general, absconded with his entire army to go raiding for his own account.
As is described in the section on South Africa, the Matabele set themselves up in the present day Mafikeng area, until they fell foul of the Voortrekkers under Hendrik Potgieter. Being soundly defeated, they set out to find a new home, and came to settle in the area that is today known as Matabeleland, with its capital at Bulawayo.
The Matabele, a mighty military nation, looked down upon the scattered Shona tribes, and regarded them as vassals, to be raided and/or taxed at will. Although they were based in what had become Matabeleland, they considered themselves to be the rulers of Mashonaland.
ENTER THE WHITES - CECIL JOHN RHODES AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY
In South Africa, Cecil John Rhodes was keen that Britain should take control of as much of Africa as possible. Britain was not keen to expand her empire, so Rhodes offered to carry out the task of colonising himself. He had the money; he simply needed the authority.
Britain would not grant him permission to invade and conquer, so he sent his friend, Charles Rudd, to visit Lobengula, the Matabele king, to secure a treaty, which purported to give him permission to settle in Mashonaland.
The British knew too little about Africa to understand that Lobengula, of the Matabele, was signing the land of the Shona peoples over to Rhodes. Queen Victoria's government swallowed the Rudd Concession hook, line and sinker, and on the strength of it granted Rhodes a royal charter to go colonising in the name of the Queen.
Rhodes formed the British South Africa Company, and recruited his "Pioneer Column" which journeyed in 1890 to occupy Mashonaland. The column halted and disbanded at Harare Hill, where the town of Salisbury was proclaimed.
The arrival of the British prompted renewed Portuguese interest in the area, and the Portuguese Crown made an attempt to claim the north east as part of Mocambique, on the strength of the prazo-holders who lived there.
An international arbitrator ruled that the prazo holders, who had gone completely native, did not constitute a legitimate Portuguese presence, and the Mocambican border was set further down the Zambezi.
However, an audacious attempt by Rhodes' men to seize part of Mocambique and so gain the port of Beira was also ruled out of line by an inernational arbitrator, so the territory remained landlocked.
The settlers were convinced that gold was to be found in Mashonaland, and were very disappointed to discover that the deposits had been mostly worked out by years of Shona mining. While some turned to farming, the eyes of many turned to Matabeleland, in the hope that gold might be found there.
Technically, Rhodes was Lobengula's friend and ally, but an excuse was made when a Matabele force conducted on of its periodic and customary raids on a Shona settlement. In 1893, BSA Company forces invaded Matabeleland and torched Bulawayo. Lobengula was old and sick; he fled northwards, died somewhere in the wilderness, and no one knows where he lies buried.
The new "white" town of Bulawayo was proclaimed, and all of what would become known as Rhodesia was now under white control.
The administration was harsh on the Africans, pushing them off some of the best land to make way for white farms, and imposing taxes to oblige them to seek work as labourers.
The lot of the Africans was exacerbated by natural disasters - drought, followed by floods, followed by locusts, and finally by the devastating rinderpest which wiped out their cattle herds.
These hardships led to the Shona and Matabele - old enemies - coming together with the common purpose of expelling the whites, who they felt had brought a curse on the land.
In late 1895, almost the whole of the BSA Company's police force was "borrowed" by Cecil John Rhodes for his ill-fated invasion of the Transvaal. The absence of these gave the tribes the opportunity to rise against the white settlers. Approximately ten per cent of them were slain.
The settlers, once they had regrouped and brought in additional forces, retaliated viciously, and the revolution was defeated.
As the number of settlers grew, they resented the fact that their colony was technically owned by a commercial company. Agitation began to have Company rule replaced by a government that would govern for the benefit of the settlers.
A SELF-GOVERNING COUNTRY STILL SUBJECT TO BRITAIN
In 1923, a referendum was held, wherein white Rhodesians could choose between self-government or joining the Union of South Africa as a fifth province. The self-government faction won.
Rhodesia (which was then known as Southern Rhodesia) was not included in the Statute of Westminster, the British Act of 1932 which conferred full sovereign status on South Africa and the other "white" dominions of the British Commonwealth.
The colony prospered in a steady but unspectacular way. Some gold was found, as well as fairly important deposits of iron ore, nickel-chromium, coal and copper. However, farming emerged as the mainstay. In Mashonaland, the world's best quality tobacco was grown, as well as maize and cotton. In Matabeleland, some of the finest beef in the world was produced. Sugar, citrus and sub-tropical fruits were grown in the low-lying regions of the south east.
Economic activity was further boosted after World War II by the scheme which made land available to British ex-servicemen.
PARTNERSHIP - THE FEDERATION OF RHODESIA AND NYASALAND
In 1952, the British decided to unite Southern Rhodesia with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in a Federation. The intention, described as "opartnership" was to make available the capital and expertise of Southern Rhodesia, plus the labour of poverty stricken Nyasaland, to develop the rich copper deposits of Northern Rhodesia.
Federation was an excellent idea in terms of pure economics. However, in the post war era, the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies were anticipating independence, and did not want what amounted to simply a new form of colonial government. Nevertheless, the British went ahead, and the Central African Federation came into being in 1953.
Federation did indeed produce many economic benefits - although the two northern territories felt, with some justification, that the lion's share of the benefits went to Southern Rhodesia.
The most important project undertaken by the Federation, backed by the Commonwealth Development Corporation, was the building of the giant Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River, along with its associated hydro-electric power plant. The lake thus created was the second largest in the world.
By the 1960's, opposition to white rule was growing, and African nationalist leaders emerged. Most prominent was Joshua Nkomo.
White Rhodesians, at this time, were altogether more liberal than their South African counterparts. They also wanted full independence from Great Britain - which they had never officially been granted. They knew that Britain would never grant independence if they followed the South African example and maintained an apartheid regime. Consequently, the early 1960's saw some cosmetic reforms of the laws, to demonstrate that Africans would, over time, be allowed to progress to a stage of equality.
However, most whites were nervous about too-rapid black progress, and feared also that Britain might grant independence on the basis of One Man, One Vote. As they were outnumbered 20 to 1 by the blacks, this would spell the end of white rule.
In 1962 they voted the moderately liberal administration out of power, and chose instead the right wing Rhodesian Front under its leader, Winston Field.
In Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, both of which had very few whites, there was considerable agitation for majority rule and the scrapping of the Federation. Britain ultimately conceded that no one should be forced to remain in the Federation. A conference was held at Victoria Falls. Southern Rhodesia was represented by its new Premier, Winston Field.
Northern Rhodesia, represented by Kenneth Kaunda, and Nyasaland, represented by Dr Kamuzu Hastings Banda, both came away from the conference with what they wanted - the promise of full independence.
Field, however, was expected to secure an undertaking from Britain to grant independence to the existing white government. He came away empty handed, as a result of which his party dumped him in favour of Ian Smith.
The Federation was dissolved at the end of 1963. The following year, Northern Rhodesia became independent Zambia, with Kaunda as Prime Minister, while Nyasaland became independent Malawi, under Banda.
A REBEL COLONY - THE UNILATERAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Southern Rhodesia continued to ask Britain for independence on the understanding that the white government would guarantee continued black progress towards social and political equality. This was a demand to which Britain could simply not accede, as both the Commonwealth and the United Nations now had majorities of non-white states who expected nothing less than full independence under majority rule.
In 1965, Ian Smith lost his patience with the British, and issued his famous Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). He believed that Britain would be forced to accept the fact that Rhodesia was already, to all intents and purposes, an independent country.
After failed attempts to solve the crisis by negotiation, the British opened the Rhodesia question up to the world community, and the territory became subjected to a range of trade embargoes. Nevertheless, it coped very well, not least because the whites were extremely resourceful, and both Portugal and South Africa refused to impose any sanctions.
Joshua Nkomo - a Matabele based in Bulawayo - had remained all along the "father figure" of the black quest for political rights. His organisation was known as ZAPU - the Zimbabwe African People's Union. It was committed to non-violent tactics.
In the late sixties, a Shona led breakaway took place, resulting in the formation of ZANU - the Zimbabwe African National Union. This organisation was committed to liberation by armed struggle. It's existence also obliged ZAPU to accept the need to resort to arms.
Robert Mugabe rose to command ZANU. As a Shona organisation, it rapidly outgrew ZAPU (the Shona make up about 75 per cent of the population, against only 20 per cent for the Matabele).
Backed by Russia, China, and their surrogates, the two organisations established guerrilla armies and began to attack farms and installations in the country areas. Widespread intimidation was employed to force unwilling blacks to support the struggle.
ZANU allied itself with FRELIMO, the organisation fighting against Portuguese rule in neighbouring Mocambique. This provided it with a valuable base along a land border which the Rhodesian security forces could not secure.
The Rhodesian security forces reacted viciously, further alienating the black civilian population. Rhodesian forces, both black and white, were very competent in their fighting of the civil war which followed, and on the basis of paper tallies, they inflicted far more damage than they themselves suffered. They were never beaten in the field.
Nevertheless, they could not win what was described as the "battle for the hearts and minds" of the population.
The cost of maintaining the war, and trying to run an economy much constrained by economic sanctions, was vast.
To add to white Rhodesia's troubles, the Portuguese government in Lisbon was overthrown by a coup in 1974, and the new regime moved immediately to abandon Mocambique. FRELIMO took power, and overnight Mocambique was turned from an important ally into an implacable enemy.
South Africa, too, realised that no solution could be found, and that it was simply damaging its own international prestige by continuing to support Rhodesia. Smith was therefore told that he would have to accept majority rule.
The parties eventually met at Lancaster House in London to discuss terms. Smith could only get guarantees that property rights would be respected. For the rest, he had to accept that a new government would be chosen on the basis of an unqualified universal franchise.
ZAPU won the subsequent election by a landslide, with ZANU coming in second by virtue of its solid support in Matabeleland. Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister.
FROM RHODESIA TO ZIMBABWE - THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS
The independence era began with a return to warfare. This time, however, it was not blacks opposing a white government, it was blacks opposing a black government.
Many Matabele could not accept that ZANU had been defeated, and that Joshua Nkomo, the father figure of inependence, would be denied his just reward of the Premiership. They therefore took up arms again.
In retaliation, Mugabe, who had strong alliances in the communist bloc, called on the North Korean 5th Brigade, who went into Matabeleland and conducted a series of massacres of which evidence is still being turned up.
Political correctness, however, precluded any criticism of Mugabe. By use of diplomacy, Britian persuaded Mugabe to call of the North Koreans, and sent British troops to patrol the area.
Mugabe subsequently brought about a constitutional change whereby he became executive president, and the office of Prime Minister was abolished. He provided for two vice-presidents, and offered one of these posts to Nkomo, who agreed to a merger between ZANU and ZAPU. However, the two factions still retain their separate identities.
Mugabe started off quite well, and the world community turned out in force to assist the new Republic of Zimbabwe, as it became.
After the initial headiness, however, it became clear that he had no economic abilities. The imposition of a minimum wage sent inflation soaring and the currency crashing. Fully fifty per cent of the white population quit the country, wiping out much of the tax base and reducing by half the potential for job creation.
Mugabe and his political clique became an elite, while the lot of the average Zimbawean deteriorated considerably. Serious droughts only added to the country's woes.
Nevertheless, politics in Zimbabwe is still very much based on tribal allegiances. No other viable Shona political party has emerged to take on ZANU at the polls.
Consequently, it is not so amazing that Mugabe and ZANU have been returned comfortably to power at every election held since the first one in 1980.
Namibia is a mostly desert territory lying north of South Africa and west of Botswana. The indigenous inhabitants of the larger portion are the khoisan (Hottentots and Bushmen). However, towards the north, the region falls into the summer rainfall region, and the desert gives way to grassland. This suits the herding and hoeing economy of the Bantu peoples.
There is also a significant number of "Bastervolk" - half castes originating from the Cape Colony. These fitted in neither with their Hottentot mothers nor their Dutch fathers, and formed tribes of their own, who drifted northwards to find land of their own.
The first white involvement with the territory took place in 1462, when Diogo Cao, the Portuguese navigator, planted a marker at what is today known as Cape Cross, some 120 km north of present day Swakopmund. However, as a desert coastline, the mariners who passed it en route to the Cape were keen to pass it as swiftly as possible.
The north-wester gales that prevail in winter are fierce, and many a ship has been driven ashore. On that barrent coastline, the chances of survival were negligible, and it became known, deservedly, as the Skeleton Coast.
During the 1800's, missionaries, some of them German, penetrated north from the Cape Colony, and began to work among the Khoi.
The pre-colonial period was characterised by considerable warfare between the Bantu and the Khoi and Baster peoples.
In 1876, the British established a foothold at Walvis Bay, but expanded no further from there.
Around 1883, Adolf Luderitz, a German, established a trading post at the bay which today bears his name. At the time, a newly unified Germany was keen to claim overseas colonies and so "catch up" with the other colonial powers of Europe.
Luderitz' presence was utilised by Germany to claim "settlement", and so the entire area between the Orange River (northern boundary of the Cape Colony) and the Kunene River (southern boundary of Portuguese Angola) was proclaimed a German territory! The small area around Walvis Bay, however, was left in the hands of the British.
The logical capital was Windhoek, headquarters of a half caste group led by Jonker Afrikaner. The Germans established control by use of force bordering on the genocidal.
Having established themselves at Windhoek, they then turned their attention to resistance by the Herero, which was, at the time, the most numerous of the Bantu groups. The Herero were almost exterminated in the war that followed, an event that has since caused Germany considerable embarrassment.
The Germans were keen to have a corridor connecting them to the Zambezi River, which they believed to be a navigable waterway. By agreement with the other colonial powers, German South West Africa was granted the Caprivi Strip (Caprivi Zipfel) - a long finger of land that reaches out from the north-easternmost tip to reach a common meeting point on the Zambezi at Kasane.
In 1907 a start was made with the farming of karakul sheep, which would grow, along with mining, to be one of the mainstays of the economy.
The German settlers had always enjoyed friendly relations with the neighbouring Cape Colony, and especially with the Boer element. Nevertheless, the outbreak of the First World War put the two territories on opposite sides. Generals Louis Botha and Jan Smuts decided that the Union of South Africa would have to put its allegiance to the British Empire first. Against the wishes of many South Africans, the Union Defence Force invaded South West Africa and secured the surrender of the German forces.
In 1919, the newly formed League of Nations gave South Africa a mandate to administer the territory. Many Afrikaners settled there, and the territory was increasingly administered as a fifth province of South Africa. Until the 1960's, it was generally expected that, sooner or later, it would be officially incorporated into South Africa.
South African rule also meant that the policy of apartheid came to be applied in South West Africa.
Contemporaneously with the rise of black nationalism elsewhere in Africa, leaders began to emerge in South West Africa. Most significant was Sam Nujoma, who established SWAPO - the South West Africa People's Organisation.
Sam Nujoma is an Ovambo, who are the biggest tribe after the genocide of the Hereros around 1905. SWAPO tends to be dominated by the Ovambo, but is also much supported by the other groups who regard it as the national liberation party. Whites are very much outnumbered.
As part of the growing international resistance to the apartheid policies of South Africa, a small but growing number of nations demanded that South Africa give up its mandate to administer the territory. South Africa resisted this demand, arguing that no one had the right to terminate the League of Nations mandate, except the League itself, and this was long defunct.
South West Africa became a key target for those opposed to apartheid. Deomnstrations included the renaming of the territory as Namibia. SWAPO guerillas, aided by the Communist Bloc, began to infiltrate the territory from the north. South Africa reacted by sending troops to garrison the border.
After 1976, when the Portuguese quit Angola, that country was plunged into a civil war. The ruling MPLA party was Communist backed, and supported the SWAPO guerillas. South Africa responded by supporting the main Angolan rebel movement, known as UNITA. UNITA was avowedly anti-communist, and so enjoyed the backing of the West.
South Africa sought to portray itself as an ally of the West in the cold war. In 1976, South African troops invaded Angola, believing that the USA, and others, would endorse the move. Instead, the West stayed out, but Moscow ordered Cuban troops and fighter aircraft to enter the conflict. South Africa was obliged to retreat.
The ongoing terrorist war, plus the Angolan campaign, had cost the lives of a number of South AFrican conscripts, who were by definition all whites. This led to a loss of public support for the South African government, which realised that it would have to find a way of unloading the territory. The costs of holding on to South West Africa were also probibitively expensive.
Subsequent negotiations led to an agreement whereby South Africa gave up the territory in 1990. SWAPO won the first election, and won again in 1994 and 1999.
Sam Nujoma became president. A constitutional amendment has recently been made, enabling him to remain president for a third term.
Botswana is approximately the size of France. Much of the territory is desert, and the population is sparse.
The various Batswana tribes make up by far the greater majority of the population.
During the 1880's, Germany established its colony of South West Africa on the west coast. In the interior lay the Transvaal Republic under the leader of the fiercely anti-British Paul Kruger. In between lay the huge territory of Bechuanaland, as it was known in those days.
Cecil John Rhodes feared that the Germans might expand their colony eastwards, while the Transvaal was expanding westwards. Once the two territories met and established a common border, they would form a barrier of anti-British territory barring the route to the North which Rhodes was so keen to develop.
The British were not keen to take on additional colonial responsibilities, but Rhodes was able to persuade them. Bechuanaland was proclaimed a British protectorate in 1884.
Initially, British influence was limited, and King Khama continued to rule his people in the traditional way. Over a period of time, however, an amount of development took place, and an administrative infrastructure was created. The administration was based at Mafeking, which actually lies just outside the territory, in what was then the Northern Cape. Bechuanaland was the only country in the world whose capital was not within its borders!
It was expected that at some stage Bechuanaland would be incorporated into the Union of South Africa. However, the combination of apartheid in South Africa, plus black nationalism elsewhere in Africa, ensured that Britain would not be able to permit incorporation. In 1961, the South African prime minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, disposed of the question by renouncing all claims to the territory. This made the way clear to bring Bechuanaland to independence.
A major scandal occurred in the 1950's, when the heir-apparent, Seretse Khama, married a white woman in England. Under pressure from the South African government, Khama was forced into exile for a number of years.
The transition to independence came in 1966, relatively late in comparison to the other countries of Africa. There was no agitation and no violence. Seretse Khama, although a member of the royal family, decided that modern times require political leadership rather than traditional kingship. He thus formed the principal political party and became the elected president.
Progress has been steady, rather than exciting. On the other hand, Botswana is one of the very few African states that has actually made progress.
Seretse Khama ultimately received a knighthood and is remembered as one of the most capable leaders of independent Africa.
Lesotho, originally known as Basutoland, is a small landlocked country, entirely surrounded by South Africa territory. 85% of the land area is mountainous, making it a very harsh land for people who traditionally graze cattle and till the soil.
The Sotho people have their origin during the wars of Difaqane (see THE BLACK TRIBAL PEOPLES above.)
Moshesh, the founding father of the nation, was a young chief of a small tribe that had suffered greatly during this period of tribal warfare. He set out to find a new home where his followers would be safer. He had heard of a place in the mountains - a flat-topped hill with very few routes to the top, which could be defended against even the most powerful army.
He led his people on a great march, picking up survivors of other tribes on the way. Ultimately the goal was reached. They arrived at nightfall, and so gave the hill the name of Thaba Bosiu - Mountain of Night.
The mountain stronghold was successfully defended against all comers, and Moshesh grew great in stature. Along the way, he heard of two things that the white man had which he was desperately keen to obtain for his tribe. One was the white man's God, so missionaries were found and made welcome, and all Sotho became Roman Catholics by order of the King! The other was the horse, and some whites were found to demonstrate and give riding lessons. Today the Sotho are the only Bantu tribe with any tradition of horsemanship, and the Basuto pony, bred for the mountains, has evolved into a recognised breed.
Moshesh faced a new problem when the Voortrekkers began to settle in the Orange Free State. The trekkers were desirous of more land, while the young Sotho regarded cattle rustling as the noble pastime of a man. Inevitably, war broke out, and the superior firepower of the Boers led to occupation of most of the good agricultural land along the Caledon River.
Moshesh realised that the Boers, having no other country, would stay forever, whereas the British had a country of their own, to which they might one day return. The British, moreover, were not farmers, as the Boers were, and so did not take up the land.
He sent a message to Queen Victoria, asking her to place his kingdom under the British flag. Britain vacillated, but Moshesh's request was granted when the Boers were literally at the gates of Thaba Bosiu.
The Boers were obliged to retreat from what was now officially British territory, and Basutoland became, like Botswana and Swaziland, a British Protectorate.
A protectorate is not a colony, and consequently there was no wholesale takeover of black land by white settlers.
Lesotho has always been very poor, and very dependent on neighbouring South Africa for jobs and assistance. Incorporation with South Africa would have made sound economic sense, but the apartheid policies ruled this option out, and Basutoland became independent in 1966 under the name of Lesotho.
The hereditary king remained out of politics, and Chief Leabua Jonathan emerged as the dominant political figure. He subsequently turned against South Africa, which was not something that his country could afford. South Africa has, on more than one occasion, simply enforced a go-slow on the border posts, which has the effect of strangling the Lesotho economy within days.
The Sotho have nothing, and therefore nothing to lose. The governments have been weak, and opinion is sharply divided as to the role of the King, who is constitutionally powerless. A number of coup attempts have occurred. However, such incidents have been isolated, and Lesotho is a perfectly safe place to visit.
Swaziland lies on the eastern edge of South Africa, which surrounds it on three sides. The fourth side is the border with Mocambique, making it a landlocked country.
The Swazi are an Nguni people, related by language and custom to the Zulu and Xhosa. Their history is the history of the ruling dynasty, the Nkosi Dlamini (Nkosi meaning "Lords", and Dlamini being the family surname).
Under Ngwane III, the Swazil settled on the Mocambican coastline around Delagoa Bay, and subsequently expanded inland from there. By the time of Sobhuza I, the tribe's royal headquarters were at their present day location at Lobamba in the Ezulwini Valley.
The Swazi have a long and distinguished military tradition, which enabled them to conquer and rule a kingdom far larger than the Swaziland of today. It once incorporated the Mocambican coastline to Maputo, and stretched northwards into what is today the Kruger National Park.
Sobhuza I lived at the time of Shaka, the tyrant king of the Zulu, whose armies exterminated so many tribes. Nevertheless, by a combination of diplomacy and resolute military defence, the Swazis were able to stave off the Zulus, and Sobhuza outlived Shaka..
A Swazi tradition tells that Sobhuza was visited by his ancestors in a dream. They forecast the coming of the white man, and warned that he should always be friendly towards them. He should tell his people to accept the Bible, but reject the money that the white man would offer.
The whites began to arrive during the reign of Mswati I, and the term "Swazi" is a white corruption of his name. Initially they were few in number, and wanted only to hunt and trade, so they were not a problem. However, by the time of King Mbadzeni, an increasing number of whites was seeking farming land, and the King did not know how to refuse them.
In addition, he was under pressure from Paul Kruger's republic in the Transvaal, which was keen to take over Swaziland in order to secure access to the Indian Ocean to establish a seaport.
The grants made by Mbadzeni effectively lost two-thirds of Swaziland. When the British intervened to prevent further Boer encroachment, they determined the "practical" borders to which the Kingdom had been reduced. British protectoracy saved the Kingdom from being absorbed into the Transvaal. Even so, much of the land inside the reduced Kingdom was also owned by whites.
Sobhuza II has dominated Swaziland through this century. The Swazis have a tradition of choosing a child to become king, and the child's mother becomes Queen Mother and reigns until the chosen prince has been trained. Sobhuza II was chosen as an infant at the turn of the century, and took the throne in the early twenties. Under his leadership, Swaziland remained peaceful and stable. Swaziland made an orderly transition to resume full independence in 1968. Sobhuza was technically a constitutional monarch. In practice, he favoured a political party that was dominated by members of the Dlamini family. The Swazis voted almost unanimously for the party, giving the fledgling state an opposition of little more than nuisance value.
In 1972, Sobhuza suspended the constitution, outlawed the opposition, and resumed kingly powers. These he exercised in co-operation with the Parliament and the more traditional council of Elders. In such a way he has the ear of both modern and traditional Swazis.
Swaziland, under Sobhuza, did not risk its important economic links with South Africa by becoming involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. Consequently, it has been able to make use of South Africa as a good neighbour. Swaziland is one of the most successful and stable of African countries, even though it does not have a proper democracy in operation.
Sobhuza died in 1982, and fifteen year old Mswati III was chosen to succeed him. Mswati has continued his late father's policies, although as a young man he does not have the respect that automatically accrues with age. In addition, South Africa has had economic troubles, which have inevitably had their effect on Swaziland, and there has been a tendency to blame the King and his system of government for problems that are hardly of their own making!
There is currently some agitation, of a mostly peaceful kind, for a return to multi-party democracy.