Ancestry24

On the 24th of June the governor had a conference with Gaika, at which a formal agreement of friendship was entered into. The Fish River was declared to be the boundary between the two races, and the chief promised that none of his followers except official messengers should cross it. He gave an assurance that if the Kaffirs in the Zuurveld would return to their own country he would not molest them, but he declined positively to make overtures of peace to Ndlambe. He consented to expel the European renegades who were living with his people, but desired to make an exception in favour of Coenraad du Buis. That individual, however promised the governor that he would return to the colony, and a few months later he kept his word. As for the others, several were delivered to the Colonial authorities and were placed where they could be watched eight or ten fled to distant tribes, and one – Jan Botha – was murdered by Ndlambe’s people.From the Kat river, General Janssens proceeded to the northern border of the colony, to ascertain the condition of the white people and the Bushmen. At Plettenberg’s beacon on the Zeekoe River a messenger met him with a despatch announcing that on the 12th of May, less than three months after the restoration of the colony, war had broken out again between Great Britain and France. The Batavian Republic was so closely allied with the latter power a necessarily to share its fortunes. The governor therefore hastened back to Cape Town, without being able to do more than gather what information could be obtained in a very rapid journey.

It was now resolved to reduce the garrison of Fort Frederick to half the strength at first intended. Captain Lodewyk Alberti, who was about to take over the command from Major Von Gilten, was instructed to continue urging the Kosas in the Zuurveld to cross the Fish river without delay. In August that officer made a tour among them for this purpose, but was unsuccessful. In the following month Cungwa came to terms with Gaika, and promised Alberti to leave the colony as soon as his crops were gathered. Ndlambe’s people at this time were making gardens on the western side of the Bushman’s river, though the chief had undertaken not to do so. Parties of them were roaming about lifting cattle wherever they could find an unprotected herd. The war between them and Gaika’s clan was being carried on actively, and Kawuta had been applied to again for assistance, but declined to give it.

Soon after this another combination was formed. Cungwa and Jalusa joined Gaika, and together they attacked Ndlambe in the Zuurveld, but did not succeed in dislodging him. The belt of land along the coast east of the Bushman’s river was thus kept from being reoccupied by the farmers, but the remaining portion of the district of Graaff-Reinet was in a fair condition of tranquillity.

Upon learning of the renewal of hostilities in Europe General Janssens devoted all his attention to putting the Cape peninsula in a condition for defence, and to the increase of his military strength. But soon instructions were received from Holland that he must send his best regime the 23rd battalion of infantry, to Batavia, as the mother Country was unable to furnish more men, and troops were urgently needed in Java. In February 1804 this regiment left South Africa. The governor did what he could to make up for its loss, by increasing the Hottentot corps first to five hundred, and soon afterwards to six hundred men. But to the burghers he looked chiefly for the defence of the colony, if it should be attacked.

The English East India Company had a large amount of property in Capetown under charge of its agent, Mr. John Pringle. On the 29th of September 1803 this was declared confiscated, on account of war, and was seized for the government. There was a great quantity of salt provisions and 11,351 L. in money, which proved very serviceable, as the funds in the treasury were low. Mr. De Mist brought with him from Holland 8,333 L in money and 33,333 L in bills of Exchange, but that was nearly all expended, and, except for the maintenance of the troops, nothing could be expected from Europe after the renewal of the war. The yearly average of the colonial revenue from January 1803 to January 1806 was only three hundred and sixty-nine thousand six hundred and thirty eight rix-dollars equal at the estimated rate of exchange to 61,606 L.

On the 9th of October the commissioner-general left Cape Town for the purpose of making a tour through the Colony and becoming acquainted with the condition and wants of the people. He took with him a number of attendants and a military escort, so that the train had quite imposing appearance. Proceeding first in a northerly direction, he visited Saldanha and St. Helena bays; then turning inland, he passed through Pikenier’s Kloof, and kept onward to the Hantam, From the Hantam he made his way over the Roggeveld and the Bokkeveld to the land of Waveren – now the Tulbagh basin, where he remained some days to refresh his cattle. He then kept down the valley of the Breede River, and after passing the site of the present village of Worcester he turned to the south to visit the Moravian mission station in Baviaans’ Kloof.

More people were residing at that station than at any other place in the colony except Cape Town, but it had still no distinctive name, for there were several Baviaans’ Kloofs in the country. It was only on the 1st of January 1806 that General Janssens confirmed the name Genadendal – Vale of Grace – which the missionaries at his request had just previously given to it. At the time of Mr. De Mist’s visit, there were nearly eleven hundred people attached to the mission. They occupied about two hundred wattle-and-daub cottages, small and scantily furnished, but a great advance upon Hottentot huts. Each little cottage stood in a garden, in which vegetables and fruit trees of various kinds were growing. There was an air of order and neatness over the whole place, and marks of industry were apparent on all sides. The most thriving of the residents were naturally the halfbreeds, many of whom had really comfortable homes; but even the pure Hottentots had made advances towards civilisation. Some of the men belonging to the station were away in service with farmers, but at stated intervals they returned to their families with their earnings. There were five missionaries, two – Rose and Korhammer by name – having come from Europe in 1799 to assist the three who founded the station. They were living in plain, but comfortable houses. They and their wives were all engaged during stated hours of the day in teaching industrial occupations, and in the evening the whole community assembled in a large and neat building to join in the worship of God. The missionaries, having power to expel unruly persons from the place, maintained strict discipline among the Hottentots; but it was the kind of discipline that parents enforce upon children, tempered by love and interest in their welfare. Nothing more admirable than this excellent institution could be imagined, and Mr. De Mist and the officers of his train had a difficulty in finding words to express their pleasure and satisfaction with what they saw.

From the Moravian village the commissioner-general went eastward through Swellendam to Fort Frederick at Algoa Bay. Here he was visited by the reverend Dr. Van der kemp, with whom he had been acquainted in Holland thirty five years before. Dr. Van der kemp was dressed in coat, trousers, and sandals; but was without shirt, neck-cloth, socks, or hat. In a burning sun he travelled about bareheaded and thus strangely attired. Yet his conversation was rational, and his memory was perfectly sound.. He had formed an opinion that to convert the Hottentots to Christianity it was necessary to descend in style of living nearly to their level, to be their companion as well as their teacher and being thoroughly in earnest he was putting his views into practice Mr. De Mist and his party visited the London society’s station of Bethelsdorp, where Dr. Van der kemp and the Reverend Mr. Read were residing. They found no indication of industry of any kind, no garden – though it was then the planting season, – nothing but a number of wretched huts on a bare plain, with people lying about in filth and indolence. The Hottentots having settled there so recently, it was not to be expected that the place would present the- appearance of Genadendal, and Mr. De Mist was well aware that the London missionaries were not in as favourable a position as the Moravian brethren. They had to deal with a wild people, who had been less than a quarter of a century in contact with Europeans, and to whom expulsion from the station would be no punishment The Moravians, on the other hand, were working with people who had own up among farmers who could appreciate the advantage of a fixed residence, and who were accustomed to the use of such food as could be derived from gardens and orchards. It was not therefore the absence of improvement that gave Mr De Mist and those who were with him an unfavourable impression of Bethelsdorp but the absence of any effort to induce the Hottentots to adopt industrious habits, and the profession of principles that tended to degrade one race without raising the other. The missionaries themselves were living in the same manner as the Hottentots, and were so much occupied with teaching religious truths that they entirely neglected temporal matters. Dr. Vanderkemp was loud in complaints against the colonists in the neighbourhood, because they gave nothing towards the maintenance of the station, as he held it was their duty to do, and because they often tried to induce some of the people to leave the school and enter into service. More with a view of keeping the Hottentots out of mischief than with any expectation of this institution becoming useful, the commissioner-general made a small grant of money from the colonial treasury towards the funds of the place, and added to the gift some sensible advice.

From Bethelsdorp Mr. Be Mist and his train travelled north-eastward through the Zuurveld. They found parties of Kosas wandering about the country begging and making themselves a nuisance to such colonists as had returned to the devastated farms, but not committing any open hostilities. Messengers were sent to Ndlambe, Cungwa, and Jalusa, to invite them to a conference on the Bushman’s river; but they did not appear, and it was not found possible to meet them. A messenger was also sent to Gaika, who appointed a place for an interview, but on Mr. De Mist’s arrival he was not there. One of his councillors appeared instead, and requested the commissioner-general to proceed still farther, as the chief was anxious to see the great captain of the white people. He stated that Gaika was then preparing to attack Ndlambe, and therefore could not leave his kraal. Mr. De Mist, however, did not choose to put himself to any more trouble, so from the Fish river the party turned homeward.

The route now followed was by the way of Bruintjes Hoogte to the village of Graaff-Reinet. Here a detention of several days was made, for the purpose of arranging the affairs of the eastern part of the colony. When this was completed the party moved on, and after suffering greatly from heat on the Karoo passed again through the land of Wayeren and arrived at the castle on the 23rd of March 1804.

Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus

Born in Lübeck, Germany on 1st December 1845 and died in Cape Town on 11th October 1946, commercial pioneer, was the second child of Christian Ludwig Karl Spilhaus, a Lubeck merchant and government official, and his wife, Caroline Henriette Wassner. Educated at a private school, he was apprenticed, on completing his education, to a local wholesale firm. He served a four-year apprenticeship and then worked as a clerk for a year before obtaining a position with Messrs Lippert Brothers, the well-known German-South African trading concern. It was as an employee of the Lippert Brothers that he came to South Africa in 1869.

After spending an adventurous two years exploring the Zambezi and the possibilities of trading on the East Coast, Arnold was appointed (September 1871) manager of the Lippert Brothers’ Cape Town office. He retained this position until December 1876 when he founded his own firm in partnership with Herbert Wilman of Beaufort West. This partnership, known as Wilman, Spilhaus and Company, lasted until the end of 1895 when Herbert Wilman retired. Spilhaus took over the entire business at the beginning of 1896 and renamed it Wm. Spilhaus & Co.

In 1873 he married Lydia Mary Sedgwick, daughter of Captain James Sedgwick. They had three sons and four daughters. In 1891 he became a British subject. When the firm of Wm. Spilhaus and Company was made a limited liability company in 1915, two of his sons and a son-in-law joined him as the first directors. Originally trading in wool, hides, skins, and imported produce, the firm acquired a variety of interests (also diamonds) as it developed. A significant stage in this development was reached in the early 1900s with the importation of South Africa ’s first reaper/binder. From the late 1920s, as tractors became popular, agricultural machinery gradually became the mainstay of the business, which grew into a major South African concern.

Over the years Arnold gradually relinquished his interests in the firm until, at the end of his life, he was concerned only with the declining produce department. This department was finally closed a month after his death. The firm, however, continued to prosper on the foundations he had laid.

A man of wide cultural interests, Spilhaus spoke most European languages fluently and was an early patron of South African art. His flair for philosophical speculation is entertainingly reflected in the pamphlets Thoughts over the coffee cups, over the coffee and cigars, and Random thoughts, which were published during the later years of his life. Despite deafness and failing eyesight, Arnold remained remarkably active in old age. By the time of his death, aged 100 years and ten months, his life-long integrity and fiercely independent spirit had earned him the title of ‘the grand old man of Cape Town’. He died at his home ‘Hohenort’ in Cape Town which he acquired in 1906 and his ashes were buried in his wife’s grave at Christ Church, Constantia.

Photographs of Spilhaus appear in Men of the times (Cape Town, 1906); Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus: Reminiscences and family records (Cape Town, 1950), and Cape Times (supplement), 1.12.1976. Other portraits are in the possession of the Spilhaus family.

Image source: Men of The Times 1913.

NANA  SIR OFORI ATTA, Natural Ruler of the Gold Coast, West Africa, is the Paramount Chief, and has a number of chiefs under him. He is well educated and is a good and eloquent speaker. Nana Sir Ofori Atta is an advocate of progress, but he is anxious that his people should progress along the right lines. Yet he is opposed to breaking contact with the past. He has no wish to cut himself and his people away from the traditions of his country. He is anxious to prove to the world that before the advent of European administration Africans had their own civilisations. It is his firm belief that the customs and institutions of Africa should not be impaired in any way, save only that some will require to be polished and improved as time goes on. Nana Sir Ofori Atta takes a very active part in the politics of his country. He is highly respected by the Government officials of West Africa and the Colonial Office in England. His people and chiefs look upon him as a father, they love him and they respect him. He is, in fact, popular with all sections.

King Oba Alaiyeuwa Ademola II. is the natural ruler of the Egbas in Nigeria in West Africa. These people are well known for their home industries, cocoa growing and other valuable commodities. They are very industrious. King Ademola has great power, wisdom and a keen sense of justice. He, like many other African Kings, fought hard to retain the liberty and independence of his subjects. When the world war broke out black men from all corners of Africa and other parts of the world, including the Egbas and Yurubas, were invited by the Great Powers to assist in fighting the enemy and thus make the world safe for democracy, and for the protection of small nations. Africans answered the call by the thousands and died by the hundreds on the battlefields and the seas. The war is over; the enemy is beaten, but the promise was never fulfilled-the Egbas suffered the same fate as their brothers in other parts of Africa-they lost their independence, at precisely the same time (1914) as their sons were dying in Flanders and other war zones to make the world free.

Treaties made by European Powers with the West Africans, like those made with South Africans, were not honoured. The only difference between the lot of the Africans in the West and those in the South, is that the Africans in the West have not as yet been restricted in the same degree as those in the South from acquiring land.

This glaring injustice; this breach of faith is allowed, no doubt, because the natives are helpless, and because they are helpless they must be a child race, who must be treated, without consent, as somebody else thinks fit whether right or wrong. Indeed, others contend that even our mental capacity is inferior to that of the European, yet the facts are:-When Alexander the Great was adding victory upon victory, and sweeping through Babylon, Cabul, Chaeronia and Gaza, and learning the rudiments of government at the feet of Aristotle the philosopher; when the western world was only beginning to find its feet and commencing to mould a civilisation for the first time, Ethiopia was in its glory, and had reached such perfection in its civilisation that its culture flourished and dominated the world four hundred and fifty years before. The question is, is Ethiopia or Africa of .to-day mentally inferior than the Ethopia of yesterday? Is it not rather just the same old story of-Empires come, and Empires go. At any rate the Egbas of Nigeria, like other races, have proved themselves on the battlefields of Europe; and with other tribes of Africa they have distinguished themselves in the leading universities of Europe and graduated in arts and sciences with honours. The question of inferiority of the Africans therefore is to be doubted.

Oba Alaiyeluwa Ademiluyi is the traditional High Priest King of the Yoruba Country, which has one of the most ancient dynasties in Africa. In the mediaval times there was much trade in Yoruba States, most of the business being done with Timbuctoo. A lot of the people of this country adopted the Islamic faith about the seventh century. The chief industries were iron works, agriculture, pepper, ivory, cloth weaving, leather making, carving and bead-work. From iron several articles were being manufactured, both for local use and for export purposes, such as agricultural implements, iron ornaments, weapons of war, utensils and such. The two great mining areas were in Nupe territory and in the Kakanda district at Ile Ife in Yorubaland. Another mining field was near Ilorin. Glass industry was chiefly carried on in Nupe.

The art of sculpture seems to have reached its zenith of development at this period. The chief industries at Ashanti and Gold Coast and Dahomey were gold, diamonds, precious stones, ivory, pepper, agriculture, bead making and carving. Corals were obtained from the sea, and of these all West African royal crowns, beaded thrones, beaded staves, and all other works of beads were usually manufactured. The rights of mining belonged to each and every individual inhabitant of West Africa, although it might seem that some portion of any precious metal mined or dug out used to be offered by the owner as a present to the King. Before the advent of Europeans or Arabs the people of West Africa worshipped God whom they called ” Olorun ” meaning ” One Supreme Being.”

The number of Christians in Yoruba is increasing. Many young people are sent to Europe and America for higher education. Like the rest of Africa, Yoruba and, indeed, the whole of West Africa except Liberia, has been made a colony of some European country. The people are no longer masters in their own land; their Kings having sought protection of European Kings. With such laws as the Crown Land Bill of 1894 (Gold Coast), the Land Ordinance of 1897 (Gold Coast), and the Forest Bill of 1911 (Gold Coast), the Foreshore Case of 1911, Lagos, and the Ikoyi Land Ordinance of 1908, Africans like the late Hon. Casely-Hayford, the late Hon. J. Sarbali, the late Hon. Safara Williams, Mr. Herbert Macauley, and others had a severe and unavailing fight in their efforts to retain some of the rights of their people.

Mr. Paul Xiniwe went to Lovedale in 1881 as an advanced student on the recommendation of Rev. Edward Solomon, of Bedford, from whence he came. He had worked previously on the railway as timekeeper and later as telegraph operator. At Lovedale he entered the students’ classes in January, 1881. In the second year he obtained the seventy-fourth certificate of competency at the Elementary Teachers’ Examination. He became teacher in the Edwards Memorial School, Port Elizabeth. His school was said to stand high in the classification of schools of the district in efficiency. After some years he tired of the teaching profession, and having saved some money, resigned in order to become a business man. He bought property at East London, Port Elizabeth and Kingwilliamstown, and opened stores as merchant and hotel proprietor. At Kingwilliamstown his property was conspicuous, being a double storey building and known as the Temperance Hotel. In a very short time the Temperance Hotel was known through the Cape Province. Paul Xiniwe took a very keen interest in the welfare of his people. An upright man, honest gentleman, and a thorough Christian and a staunch temperance apostle.

He married a Miss Ndwanya, sister of Mr. Ndwanya, a law agent who was respected by Europeans and natives at Middle-drift. Mr. Xiniwe was the father of five children. The eldest son, Mr. B. B. Xiniwe, was a law agent at Stutterheim for a number .of years; the second son is in Johannesburg; the third, a daughter, Frances Mabel Maud, is the wife of the editor of this book; the fourth, another daughter, Mercy, is the wife of Mr. Ben. Tyamzashe, a schoolmaster and an author; and the youngest son, Mr. G. Xiniwe, is a clerk in a solicitor’s office, Kingwilliamstown. Mr. Paul Xiniwe died at an early age leaving a widow and five children to look after themselves. Mrs. Xiniwe who, with her husband, had been to Europe as a member of a native choir, was a lady of .experience, tact, character and business acumen. Difficult though it was, she maintained her late husband’s property, and carried on the business and educated her children. This lady indeed commanded the respect of all who knew her, white and black. Paul Xiniwe was a man of his word. He swore he would never touch liquor. When he became very ill his doctor advised him to take a little brandy, but he made up his mind that he would not do so, although it was said brandy was the only thing that would save his life.

Mr. BEN TELE, who was born and educated in the Cape Province, was a successful law agent at Peddie. He was one of the leading men of his time. Was much respected by Europeans and Africans alike. He took a leading part in religious, social, educational and political affairs of his people. He was a great advocate for higher education for native children. He had been chairman of many important meetings and a member of many deputations to the Government. The chiefs of the Cape Province ‘recognised him as a loyal subject and a powerful leader.
1877 In 1879 he became teacher at Uitenhage. In 1883 he • was a clerk and interpreter in the Magistrate’s Court, Port Elizabeth. After some years Mr. Wauchope resigned the Civil Service to join the ministry. In this calling he made wonderful success. He was very popular and had great influence over his people. He paid special attention to their education and took keen interest in their welfare. He was very kind, a real gentleman and a true Christian. During the Great War, 1914-1918, he enlisted as chaplain to the Native Labour Battalion, and sailed with hundreds of Africans to France in the Mandi. The steamer was not destined to reach its destination, for it was sunk and few were saved. Rev. Isaac Williams Wauchope went down with a great many and his grave is in the deep blue sea.

PRINCE GWAYI TYAMZASHE was ! born at Blinkwater in the district of Fort Beaufort on the 22nd of January, 1844. He was the eldest son of Tyam. zashe; Tyamzashe, the son of Mejana, son of Oya, of the Rudulu clan, cornmonly known as the Mangwevu. Gwayi as a boy saw all the horrors of the early Kaffir Wars, and was with his mother, Nontsi, during the terrible Nongqause cattle-killing episode, while his father Tyamzashe was a head councillor at the King’s Court. At that time Sandile was the Paramount Chief of the Xosa Tribe.

After the great armed protest of the Xosas, under Sandile and his brother Anta, Gwayi and his parents became detached from the main fighting body and eventually fell into the hands of the missionaries at Dr. Love’s mission station-now known as Lovedale. The late Mr. Goven was then in charge of the mission and he soon induced the raw native fugitives to be converted. Govan actually went so far as to pay those natives who attended infant classes. Gwayi Tyamzashe liked these classes. He was followed by many other natives. The signs of progress moved quickly. Messrs. Smith and James Stewart came to Lovedale, and Gwayi and his friends soon found themselves on the highway to civilisation and education. At all times Lovedale was open to all classes of pupils, and Gwayi found himself rubbing shoulders with European pupils, amongst whom were William Henry Solomon (late Chief Justice of the Union of South Africa), his brother, Richard Solomon, Schreiner, Grimmer and others.

Soon Gwayi qualified as a teacher and taught for some years at Gqumahashe, a village just across the Tyumie River. Just at that time Tiyo Soga was reading for theology in Scotland. This caused Gwayi to leave teaching and return to Lovedale for theology. Before doing so, however, he went in for a University examination in which Latin, Greek and Hebrew were essential subjects. This examination was above the ordinary matriculation. It was a red-letter day at Lovedale when Gwayi Tyamzashe passed this examination; flags were hoisted and the day was proclaimed a exam holiday.

Gwayi completed his Theological Course in 1874 and was immediately called to the Diamond Fields. In 1884 Gwayi and his family, consisting of his wife and three children, James, Henry and Catherine, left Kimberley for the wild north-Zoutpansberg. His journey to that part of the country was a heart-breaking one; the story of which would fill a volume. Leaving Kimberley with two ox-wagons, several milch cows and a pair of horses, he slowly made his way north. There were no roads to speak of; the country was unexploed as yet; the drifts across the rivers were mere sluits and no bridges existed anywhere; the country was still wild, and, worst of all, the Dutchmen, who occupied the Transvaal, were hostile towards the black races. When Gwayi and his caravan arrived on the Witwatersrand-as Johannesburg was then called-he was arrested for having no ” pass.” He was handcuffed behind his back and hurried off to Pretoria in front of four fiery horses of the “Zarps” (Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek Poliese). His wife, however, hurried over to Pretoria and personally interviewed Oom Paul (President Paul Kruger) whereupon Gwayi was not only released, but also given a free pass to his destination.

At Zoutpansberg Gwayi Tyamzashe opened a number of mission stations which exist to this day. He lived at Zoutpansberg for six years, and on being called back to Kimberley, he returned to the Diamond Fields. It was, however, a different Gwayi that arrived at Kimberley. He was physically a mere shadow of the former Gwayi, owing to a relentless attack of asthma which he contracted in the damp and marshy country of the Zoutpansberg. He lingered for six years in Kimberley and died on the 25th October, 1896. Prior to his death he had a serious case against the European Church Union which culminated in victory for him in the Supreme Court at Capetown.

Rev. J. TWAALA was born in Natal where he received his early education. He became a teacher and after some time he studied for the ministry of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He was a very brilliant speaker, a powerful preacher and a hard worker. He was very progressive and took great interest in the welfare of his people. For a number of years he was in charge of the Wesleyan Church in Johannesburg. During his time the congregation grew very large. He was respected by both the Europeans and natives of the circuits to which he was appointed minister. He died during the influenza epidemic at Witbank on the same day that his wife died.

In European history, Tshaka, King of the Zulus, is described as a cruel king. His name is sometimes written ” Chaka.” He is the king who founded the Zulu nation. Before the organisation of the Africans in Natal, Zulus were not known as a race, but were common people.  Tshaka’s qualifications were that he was a warrior of great ability; a very good fighter and as such won the favour of Chief Dingiswayo, of Mtetwa, who had more influence than any other chief. Although Tshaka did not belong to the tribe of Dingiswayo, he lived with his mother’s people, the Mhlongos, who were under Chief Dingiswayo. When Tshaka’s father, Senzangakona, died, Tshaka, who was not the rightful heir, was helped by Dingiswayo to defeat his brother. Tshaka’s impies were victorious and he became the successor to his father. Tshaka taught his warriors the stategies of war; organised strong regiments and when Chief Dingiswayo died Tshaka brought his impies to fight Dingiswayo’s tribe which he conquered. As a result of his victory he became very ambitious, looked about him and resolved to form a great empire. He did not hesitate to subdue the tribes that were around him. His warriors fought right and left, until the word ” Tshaka ” made everybody tremble. He was the first king to rule from Pongolo to the Cape. The tribes that did not want to come under Tshaka’s rule fled. The Fingoes went south where they met the Xosas, and for eighteen years Tshaka was King and Emperor of Natal and Zululand. It was one of Tshaka’s laws to his regiments that no young men and women of a hostile tribe should be killed at war. His instructions were that they should be captured alive, brought to Zululand and be made naturalised Zulus. These young naturalised Zulus were used as soldiers to fight any tribe Tshaka wished to defeat, and finally he succeeded in building a great nation. He had absolute discipline in the land. He was King, judge and administrator, also a philosopher, a poet and a musician.

When the European settlers arrived in Natal in 1823 they found Tshaka reigning. He did not illtreat them, but extended to them every hospitality. He requested .the foreigners to teach his people their language so that they could be understood. The Europeans had come to trade, fight and conquer, and it must have occurred to Tshaka that they were strong and clever since they had conquered the waves of the ocean and landed in Africa. A number of men were selected to be sent to Europe to be taught, but for reasons unknown to Tshaka, these men were never sent to Europe but were kept at the Cape where they did not learn much.

Tshaka’s reign came to an end in 1828, when he was murdered by his brothers who instructed his chief induna, Mbopa, to stab him. They had not forgotten that Tshaka was not the rightful King. Though fatally stabbed, Tshaka had the opportunity, before he died, to inform his brothers and murderer that they would never rule over the Zulus, but that the white men would rule them. Tshaka’s brothers were not as friendly to the invaders as he was, and, it seems, were also ignorant of Tshaka’s dealings with them, for it was clear that they would have killed the white nien had they known of the friendship that existed between Tshaka and these white settlers. Tshaka was a thinker–on one occasion he killed a beast and painted the floor of a hut with its blood. This he did without being seen by anybody, and then summoned all the witch doctors in the land to a great feast at his kraal. When the doctors were assembled he took them one by one to the hut with the blood on its floor, and asked them the cause of the blood. It is said many so-called doctors failed in this test.

Tshaka was a very busy man, being his own Field-Marshal, Minister of War, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister, Administrator, Political Agent, and King. He was also engaged in research work. This is indeed a big task for any man, even under the most favourable circumstances. That Tshaka, like William the Conqueror, was a great man nobody can doubt, and to state that he was a cruel King is to pay a man who broke virgin ground and founded a nation the poorest compliment. Had there been no Tshaka there might never have been a proud Zulu nation. In Tshaka’s day there was no need to have an army of detectives and a force of police. Every man and woman had perfect respect for law and order. Tshaka was well built, tall and indeed a fine specimen of a man. Strict as he was, hundreds of civilised Zulus to this day swear by Tshaka. Whatever may be said, the Zulus are indeed a fine people, well developed physically, good natured, full of humour, and as brave as. lions.