by Peires, Jeff
The colonial press and public enthusiastically supported the government’s version of true charity. The King William’s Town Gazette continued to urge that ‘the healthy and strong – whether men, women and children – should obtain a living by the sweat of their brow and not from the resources of pseudo-philanthropy’. The notorious laziness of the Xhosa ‘would induce him to walk 20 miles for the mere chance of a laborless living’, and relief was certain to attract ‘the whole of Kaffirland’ to King William’s Town. The Grahamstown Journal followed up its earlier exhortations to ‘guide the flow’ of charity by bravely declaring that it was its public duty ‘however unthankful the task’ to support the Governor.
All will admit, considering that the lives of our children, and our own, that the property and civilisation of the country are all at stake, as well as the lives of the [Xhosa], that this Government plan … should meet with no obstacle in the opinions and feelings of individuals. Here alone can we hope for the exercise of the largest benvolence; a benevolence which will include the Colonist as well as the [Xhosa].
Mr JJ Meintjes, speaking at a Kaffir Relief meeting in Graaff-Reinet, felt obliged to assure his charitable audience ‘that there could be no intention to feed [Xhosa] in idleness’. He believed that they would be fed no longer than was absolutely required to ‘bring them to the Colony and employ them for their benefit’. Newspapers further westward were more concerned with the utilisation of Xhosa labourers once they arrived than with the means employed to get them there. The Zuid Afrikaan, most notably, reminded its readership that female labour in the fields was a ‘national institution’ among the Xhosa, and urged that Xhosa women be employed as agricultural labourers as well as domestic servants. Even the liberal South African Commercial Advertiser expressed fear of the ‘barbarous and savage millions of the interior’ and urged that ‘of benevolence, as of courage, the best part is discretion’.32
The other sort of charity, the sort so blasted and condemned by worthy citizens and officials, was defended only very occasionally, mainly in the form of letters to the press. One of the few to assert unequivocally that humane charity should take priority over political considerations was John Richards, a Methodist minister from Grahamstown.
We have nothing to do with the policy of emptying [Xhosaland] into the Colony, be it right or wrong. We have a right to be charitable, and it is our duty to be so when helpless destitution is before us, and no man has a right to interfere with the exercise of that charity in a way such as best commends itself to our judgement. I neither advocate nor oppose any political schemes with reference to [Xhosaland]. I simply let them alone, and say that as a Committee for relieving [Xhosa] destitution we have nothing to do with them.33
The great weakness of the Kaffir Relief Committee was that it never dared to assert the primacy of humane and moral action over the political decisions of government. On the contrary, it emphasised from the first ‘that the succour be so directed as in no wise to interfere with that system of support of which government has assumed the responsibility’.34 It devised a relief scheme which served, in its own words, as ‘an Immigration Depot which keeps people together till the Magistrate be ready to send them on’.35 Even after Grey had launched his merciless and unprovoked public attack, the Relief Committee persisted in interpreting the Governor’s attitude as one of misunderstanding.36 In a final attempt to assuage Grey’s anger, it pledged itself to ‘a line of conduct which shall be supplementary to the Government Scheme for inducing [Xhosa] to migrate to the Colony for service’.37 Having thus failed to assert the right of private individuals to give whatever charity their consciences demanded, the Kaffir Relief Committee could not withstand repudiation by the very authorities whose approval it so ardently sought.
The most puzzling aspect of the affair is why exactly Grey and Maclean were so determined to break the Committee, a naturally obedient body ‘responsive to the slightest hint from headquarters’.38 The reason most often publicly urged, that it was drawing thousands of starving Xhosa to King William’s Town, was as patently false as it was ridiculous. Even if this had been the case, it would have accorded perfectly with Grey’s declared policies. At the same time that Grey was condemning Stair Douglas for bringing a ‘ruthless and pitiless flood’ on the Colony, he was sending John Crouch to the transKei to recruit even more39 The 302 Xhosa relieved by the Committee hardly posed a threat to his master plan. Of these, 116 were handed over to the magistrate and another 52 died, thus demonstrating beyond all shadow of a doubt that they were fit candidates for relief.93 It was true, as Grey did not fail to point out, that 40 inmates escaped from the Relief House, but desertions of up to 60 per cent of travelling parties were not uncommon at the time.40
The theme that emerges most strongly from both the official and the private correspondence of Grey and Maclean is the fear that the efforts of the Committee were bringing discredit on the government. Some advocates of relief were indeed outspoken in their criticisms – J Williams of Grahamstown, for example, who informed a meeting that ‘the government or the officials had been very remiss in the performance of their duty’, or ABC, who exposed conditions at Middledrift.41 But even the mild comments (‘imputing blame to the Government is far from my thoughts’)42 of Stair Douglas were an implicit criticism of official relief.
Of course, Grey could have come out into the open and frankly admitted that his relief scheme necessarily entailed death and starvation: Maclean came quite close to it, when he wrote, ‘however painful the sight of such distress … any general relief would be neither politic nor true charity’.43 But that was not Grey’s style. In all his 40 years of colonial service he never admitted to a worse fault than misplaced trust in treacherous colleagues. His whole reputation as a great administrator rested on his ability to hide his indifference towards the sufferings of individuals behind an extravagant display of concern for the Maori or the Xhosa as a people.44 Far easier to blame the Kaffir Relief Committee.
Whatever personal reasons Grey and Maclean may have had for acting against the Relief Committee, the Cape press and public had none. Their objections to the Kaffir Relief Committee were in fact objections to the ‘indiscriminate benevolence’ which they mistakenly thought the Committee represented. Less inhibited than Governor Grey in their public expressions, they were forthright in asserting the priority of settler interest.
We have no right whatever to neglect our duty to the Colony in endeavouring to perform what we think is our duty to the [Xhosa], on the contrary, we humbly deem that our first duty is to our country and our race.45
1 GH 8/32 J Maclean-S Douglas, 6 Aug. 1857. A more detailed account of the proceedings summarised in this section may be found in Peires (1984).
2 CO 694 H Cotterill-G Grey, 17 Aug. 1857; CO 694 G Grey-H Cotterill, 22 Aug. 1857; GH 22/9 H Cotterill-G Grey, 1 Sept. 1857.
3 GH 8/32 R Roberts-S Douglas, 17 Aug. 1857.
4 South African Commercial Advertiser, 18 Aug. 1857.
5 S Douglas-R Roberts, 14 [sic] Aug. 1857, Grahamstown Journal, 1 Sept. 1857.
6 GH 8/32 Kaffir Relief Committee-J Maclean, 21 Aug. 1857.
7 GH 8/32 J Maclean-J Douglas, 24 Aug. 1857.
8 Grahamstown Journal, 25 Aug. 1857.
9 GH 8/32 J Douglas-J Maclean, 31 Aug. 1857.
10 GH 8/32 J Fitzgerald-J Maclean, 30 Aug. 1857.
11 Grahamstown Journal, 8 Sept. 1857.
12 Grahamstown Journal, 12 Sept. 1857.
13 GH 8/32 Schedule 499, 28 Sept. 1857, contained the original of this letter. It was returned to Stair Douglas for reasons to be explained below. I have not been able to find a copy of it.
14 GH 8/32 J Fitzgerald-J Maclean, 15 Sept. 1857.
15 Grahamstown Journal, 19 Sept. 1857.
16 South African Comm
ercial Advertiser, 12 Sept. 1857.
17 Cotterill saw a copy of Grey’s letter to the Lieutenant-Governor before it was published. He wrote to Grey asking Grey to refrain from casting such aspersions on himself and the rest of the Committee. Not only did Grey go ahead regardless, but – in typical Grey fashion – lifted a phrase in Cotterill’s letter out of its context and twisted it to suit his own purposes. By way of rebutting Grey’s charge that the Committee was drawing a flood of unwanted black immigrants into the Colony, Cotterill pointed out that the government itself had encouraged immigration by opening the drifts across the rivers. Grey caused a reply to be published saying that the river drifts were planned a long time before the Cattle-Killing, and that the opening of them had nothing to do with the relief question. Anyone who had not read Cotterill’s original letter (which Grey did not publish) would have concluded that the Bishop was a complete fool. GH 22/9 H Cotterill-G Grey, 1 Sept. 1857; CO 694 H Cotterill-G Grey, 3 Sept. 1857; CO 5106 R Rawson-H Cotterill, 9 Sept. 1857.
18 GH 8/32 Schedule 495, 21 Sept. 1857, note by Maclean; GH 8/50 J Maclean-G Grey, 21 Sept. 1857.
19 GH 8/32 Schedule 488, 3 Sept. 1857; GH 8/50 J Maclean-G Grey, 21 Sept. 1857; GH 8/32 Schedule 499, 28 Sept. 1857, marginal note by Grey; GH 8/32 GH 8/32 Schedule 511, 15 Oct. 1857, note from Maclean enclosing letter from Fitzgerald, 12 Oct. 1857.
20 CH 8/50 J Maclean-G Grey, 27 Aug. 1857. See also GH 8/50 J Maclean-G Grey, 21 Sept. 1857, in which Maclean complains that ‘Their [the Committee’s] appeals to you [Grey] look rather like an attempt to prove me the culprit.’
21 GH 20/2/1 J Maclean-G Grey, 24 Sept. 1857.
22 GH 8/32 J Maclean-S Douglas, 26 Sept. 1857.
23 Grahamstown Journal, 3 Oct. 1857; King William’s Town Gazette, 3 Oct. 1857.
24 GH 8/33 Schedule 512, 15 Oct. 1857.
25 GH 8/50 J Maclean-G Grey, 29 Oct. 1857; GH 20/2/1 Memo by Grey, 21 Sept. 1857.
26 GH 8/33 S Douglas-R Taylor, 15 Oct. 1857; GH 8/33 Schedule 513, 19 Oct. 1857.
27 BK 114 J Maclean-Magistrates, 9, 10 June 1857.
28 GH 8/32 Schedule 493, 14 Sept. 1857.
29 BK 85 F Reeve-J Maclean, 30 Sept. 1857.
30 GH 8/32 H Lucas-J Maclean, 13 June 1857.
31 GH 8/32 J Maclean-J Douglas, 10 Sept. 1857.
32 King William’s Town Gazette, 4, 18 July 1857; Grahamstown Journal, 1 Sept. 1857; Graaff-Reinet Herald, 5 Sept. 1857; South African Commercial Advertiser, 12 Sept. 1857.
33 Grahamstown Journal, 19 Sept. 1857. See also letter by ‘Fair Play’ in Grahamstown Journal, 25 July 1857.
34 King William’s Town Gazette, 18 July 1857; GH 8/32 Kaffir Relief Committee-J Maclean, 3 Aug. 1857.
35 Grahamstown Journal, 1 Sept. 1857.
36 South African Commercial Advertiser, 12 Sept. 1857.
37 GH 8/32 S Douglas-J Maclean, 13 Sept. 1857.
38 King William’s Town Gazette, 12 Sept. 1857.
39 King William’s Town Gazette, 3 Oct. 1857.
40 On one occasion, only 50 out of 150 Xhosa who left Elands Post arrived at Fort Beaufort, less than 50 kilometres away, South African Commercial Advertiser, 3 Oct. 1857. Another party lost 222 out of 255 over a similar distance, and a third lost 105 out of 122. CO 1950 R Southey-R Rawson, 13 Aug. 1857; CO 1950 W Surmon-W Currie, 27 July 1857.
41 Grahamstown Journal, 15 Aug., 19 Sept. 1857.
42 Ibid., 1 Sept. 1857.
43 GH 8/32 J Maclean-F Travers, 5 July 1857.
44 Consider, for example, Grey’s reproach to R Taylor, the magistrate of King William’s Town, who had told the Relief Committee that his instructions did not permit him to issue appropriate food to starvation victims: ‘With my known desire for the welfare of the [Xhosa], after the expenses I had incurred, and after the efforts I had made for the relief of even ordinary cases of sickness amongst them, [how could any government officer believe that] he would have been justified in letting them die in the streets from want of the proper articles of food?’ GH 20/2/1 Memo by G Grey, 21 Sept. 1857.
45 Grahamstown Journal, 1 Sept. 1857.
5. THE TRUE CHARITY OF GOVERNOR GREY
The starving believers had few alternatives to the ‘true charity’ of Governor Grey. Some hundreds of the fit and the strong reached the comfort and safety of Mpondoland and Lesotho.1 Many more headed for neighbouring Thembuland, where several of the waverers had hidden their cattle during the height of the movement.2 The Thembu Regent, Joyi, was initially inclined to be sympathetic, but his sympathy declined as he found his own authority undermined by Fadana, the leader of the Thembu believers. Fierce fighting broke out in June 1857, and from that time on it was no longer safe for Xhosa to take refuge in Thembuland.
The Mfengu allies of the Cape Colony had ignored the prophecies of Nongqawuse and grown rich on cattle bought cheap from Xhosa believers. They had planted extensively when the believers had refused to cultivate, and had sold the produce of their labour to needy Xhosa at exorbitant prices.3 But they also provided homes and shelter in exchange for labour and guard duties. They slaughtered cattle for the amafaca (‘emaciated ones’), feeding them with the contents of the stomach until they were strong enough to eat the meat.4 The colonial authorities were not, however, prepared to tolerate such humanity in their allies and forced the Mfengu to expel the Xhosa who had found refuge among them. Three hundred Xhosa who had taken shelter among the Oxkraal Mfengu were compelled to leave their hosts, and, in the Crown Reserve, two Xhosa committed suicide after repeated hounding by the ‘native police’. In Kama’s district, no fewer than 2 000 refugees were handed over to the colonial labour machine on the direct orders of Magistrate Reeve.5
Those who entered the Colony did not lose hope. Many of them carried large milk sacks in readiness for the great day which they still awaited.6 It took only the smallest hint to re-ignite the millenarian expectations for which they had already suffered so much. A Methodist missionary, who somewhat tactlessly chose to preach on the topic of the Flood, inspired the remaining believers in Kama’s country to collect huge piles of wood in preparation for the building of an ark.7 The Indian Mutiny of 1857 sustained Mhala’s last desperate efforts to evade his enemies and convinced many believers that the Indians, who were known to be black men like themselves, were the ‘new people’ predicted by Nongqawuse.8 As late as 1859, many of the believers labouring on the farms around Cradock were still exchanging tales of the wonders and miracles which were coming to pass. The army of the uHlanga had destroyed the Governor in Cape Town, they said, and freed the Xhosa chiefs on Robben Island. Maqoma was gone to London to plead the Xhosa case directly to the Queen. Mlanjeni himself had appeared in Cradock, complete with a long beard of green slime. When the terrified whites had tried to bribe him, he had contemptuously thrown their money into the air where it had vanished. Twenty years after the Great Disappointment, there were still true believers who maintained that the fault was not with the prophecies but with the failure of the Xhosa to obey Nongqawuse’s orders.9
Alas for the believers! The Brave New World was the fruit, not of their imagination, but of Governor Grey’s. With the Kaffir Relief Committee safely out of the way, Grey and Maclean could proceed unchecked with their own system of relief. Dr Fitzgerald and the Native Hospital took over the Relief House and the soup kitchen, but steps were taken to ensure that benevolence did not get out of hand.10 Maclean keenly scrutinised the relief lists submitted by the magistrates, and made many helpful suggestions for cutting these down.11 Gawler, for example, was still feeding the family of Fusani, the man murdered for passing on information to the police. ‘Is it necessary?’ asked the Chief Commissioner. ‘Might not the men be taken in the
police, or sent to the works or service?’ Vigne was reprimanded for his indulgence towards females. ‘Too much seems to be afforded to women,’ he was told. ‘The women ought to be sent for service in the western districts if deserted.’ As for Brownlee, he was much too generous to children under eight. ‘Why not indenture deserted children at mission stations, or into respectable families?’ Maclean suggested.12 The select few deemed worthy of relief were to be located in huts at the magistrate’s own place in order to stop them secretly feeding their idle neighbours and relations. A circular reminded the magistrates ‘to lose no opportunity of sending into the Western Districts of the Colony the destitute wives and families of any men who have been transported’.13 The government’s relief plan was a great success. By the end of February 1858, a total of 25 362 Xhosa had been relieved. Of these, 87 per cent (22 150) were sent into the Colony as homeless labourers.14
The missions in Xhosaland, which Grey had initially conceived as the vanguard of the ‘civilising’ process, played no part whatsoever in his schemes for reconstructing British Kaffraria after the Cattle-Killing. Most of the mission residents had relatives and friends among the believers, whom they helped to find food and accommodation on the mission stations. Hundreds of parents, unable to support their children, gave them up to the missionaries rather than expose them to a horrible death.15 Even those chiefs who had formerly resisted the establishment of missions in their territories now looked to them as a valuable resource. ‘Look after my country,’ Sarhili asked the missionary Waters, ‘Keep as many men as you can – drive away all strangers.’16
