David, do you know anything about the Tswana chief Luka Jantje, who was beheaded by the Cape Town Highlanders in 1896?
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Lukas Jantje Mothibi met his fate in 1896. The surnames Jantje and Mothibi is very common in the northern parts of the Northern Cape Province and the south western parts of the North West Province. The Tlaping people lived just North of the Orange River. Tlaping translates into people of the fish, the fish being the totem animal of this group.
The Tlhaping, being the southern most Tswana grouping were the first to come into contact with the white colonists at the Cape. Dr William Somerville led the first official expedition of colonists accross the Ghariep (Orange) River in 1804/05. The purpose of this expedition was to make contact with the Tlhaping people at Dithakong, near present day Kuruman.
There was an acute shortage of meat at the Cape at the time due to increased shipping as a result of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. The ships stopped over at the cape for provisions including fresh meat. Naturally this increased demand let to an escalation of meat prices. In addition the Cape suffered as a result of drought and locusts, further depleting beef supplies.
Somerville and his party had to make contact and if possible trade cattle. They were misinformed in that they were made to believe that the Tswana would exchange cattle for all sorts of trinkets and beads. The Tswana refused because they did not consider cattle a tradeable commodity, and Somerville returned to the Cape empty handed.
The drought referred to above was known in Zulu oral traditions as the Great Madlatule drought, and some historians argue that this drought triggered the Difaqane/Mfecane associated with the vrise of Shaka.
In 1815 the head of the London Mission Society the Reverend John Campbell udertook to meet with the Tswana at Dithakong (Lattakoo) to learn more about members of this tribe further to the North and the North West. Between 1815 and 1825 Robert Moffat established a mission station at Kuruman.
In 1820, John Campbell passed Dithakong on his way to Kaditshwene (Kurechane) with the purpose of determing whether it would be feasible to establish a mission station at Kaditshwene. Campbell found that the Tswana lived in large urban concentrations, 20 000 people in Khaditshwene in 1820 making it equal in size to Cape Town at the time. Campbell and later Moffat also found that the Tswana traded as far as the Indian Ocean, that they mined several minerals such as iron, copper and specularite, and that they had extensive fields under crop and huge herds of cattle.
In Mhudi, So Plaatje tells of the destruction of Tswana independence as a result of the impact of the Ndebele under Mzilikazi. Plaatje fails to mention the weakening impact of ‘coloured’ and white cattle raiders such as Jan Blom and Coenraad de Buys. He also fails to mention the impact of the raids for Tswana children to be used as semi slaves on white farms – the notorious ‘inboekselin’ system, and finally the divisive impact of the discovery of diamonds at Kimberly.
1896 represented a difficult time for most Tswana communities, the Boer Republicsa of Stelland and Goshen were a threat to the Tswana in the areas of Vryburg where the baTaung stayed and those in Mafikeng the Barolong. The discovery of gold at Ottoshoop between Mafikeng and Zeerust also impacted on the Tswana added to this the failure of the Jameson Raid, and the Shona upriosing in Mashonaland and you get a very nervous colonial administration at the Cape. Cecil Rhodes was not only the richest man in the country, he was also the most powerful politician being the Prime Minister and owner of the diamond mines.
Independent black groups represented a threat to his interests which were cheap labour for the mines and the need to turn agricultural land into commercial farming to supply produce and meat to mining towns. Rhodes had an imperial and capitalistic mission and peasant and pre-capitalist farming communities such as the Tlhaping had to be turned into cheap labour.
Not to be forgotten was the nefarious policy of divide and rule, involving Chief Montshioa of the Barolong in the hunt for Jantje who had taken the opportunity of the politically unstable situation in the run up to the Anglo Boer War to rebel against British rule. For his effort he was executed in the Langeberg by the British army, His head was chopped off, the flesh was boiled off the skull and a British officer, upstanding representative of western civilisation, took the skull home as a trophy.
I have visited most of the ruins of these old stonewalled towns of the Tswana, and have a collection of missionary, explorer, hunter etc. diaries in my private collection of books – the central theme of our history? Skop, skiet en donner! Very civilised bunch we are.
Hello David
I have been corresponding with Dusty for a while now and have disclosed a little about my family tree. I have hit a wall with regards to the wives of the Tswana males that have been mentioned. Mothibi would have been my g/g/g/grandfather and his eldest son was Gasiboni who was beheaded in 1856+- by a bushman employed by the boers. What interests me is to find out who or which of Gasiboni’s wives was the mother of my g/g/grandmother. Do you have any mentioned in your private collection of diaries about Gasiboni? He and this wife was married by Dr. Robert Moffat.
My aim is to prove an assumption I have about my family being a link between Mzilikatzi and the BaTlhaping nation.
You are indeed an organic Google!
Dear Coinlover, My sources tell me that the first Tlaphing chiefs were I Phuduhutswana and Mmile, who lived on the southern banks of the Ghyariep river. They had good relations with the Khoisan. This was roughly between 1650 and 1700, but could have been earlier. The oldest known Tlhaping Motse (town) is Phuduhutshwe, located to the south of the Langeberg, and Phokwane south of Taung. The Phuduhudu are ritually the senior clan, its seniority is still being observed in the bogwera (initiation).
Jantje was a descendant of Mothibi. Mothibi had four desndants, Mahuto, Kegokilwe, Molale and Mahura. Kegokilwe had three descendants Jantje, Molema and Setlhogome (between 1780/95). Luka was Jantje’s second son, the others were Mpolokang, and Quabile.
I think that is a brief summary of what I am able to trace at short notice. Please feel free to contact me on d.vanwyk58@gmail.com for further discussions and investigations.
Thanks Dusty for letting me know.
David: Your diaries, etc. Can you recall if there is any mention of a James Joseph Cooke?
Dear Dusty I am skimming through Sir James Innes Selected Correspondence (1884 – 1902). An instructive letter was written by one Richard Solomon on 4 September 1897 and it refers to what happened to Jante’s followers. Solomon is complaining about the actions of the Cape government vis-a-vis the Tswana, “The confiscation of lands in Bechuanaland has been followed up by indenturing the half starved rebels to farmers in Western Province. The whole thing is illegal and practically slavery. And yet what is one to do?” (Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town, 1972:215).
I will try and research Mr Cooke quickly.
Kevin Shillington in his book, The Colonisation of the Southern Tswana, 1870-1900 refers to the Tswana Uprising led by Luka Jantje, he concludes that the Tswana were finally defeated after five months of fighting, he notes that “the crowning atrocity of the whole campaign was the mutilation of Luka’s body. For the sum of Five Pounds a Captain of the Cape Town Highlanders got a surgeon to cut off Luka’s head and had it boiled in the officers’ mess. He kept the head in a sack and claimed that he intended presenting it to the South Africa Museum ‘for the benefit of students of Physiology’ (Ravan Press, 1985:239-240).
David, do you know Garth Benneyworth?
Dusty please give me a bit of background concerning Cooke and Benneyworth.
Dusty, Garth Benneyworth seems to be an expert on the Anglo Boer War and gives lectures at various museums and as a guest of the South African Military History Society. Mr Cooke I do not know.
Phew. Talk about exposing yourself.
OK. Here goes.
JJ Cooke is my great-grandfather. A good guy, if what I am told is true. He was one of the few chaps to survive Islandwana, only to be a victim of dysentry just after the battle.
Garth Benneyworth is a historian, who was doing research on Islandwana a few years ago. His father, Dennis, is socially connected with my family, and put us in touch with Garth.
Garth found JJ’s grave in Natal, which we (the Cooke’s) had been searching for, for a long time. Garth also unearthed some info about JJ and Luka Jantje, which I have been trying to verify for some time. As this is a sensitive subject for many, I have been reluctant to put my feelers out too far.
Hell, I wish I had listened to my dad’s stories while he was still alive. Now that I’m interested, it’s too late.
Well we always think that the old people are dotty and have nothing to teach us. The arrogance of youth. I think that you should help fill in the silences in our history with what you have, it helps us to discover ourselves and to heal our country. Did your father leave any papers or books behind? All people are good basically – we just sometimes do silly things for king and country. When we win the war we write the history and we make ourselves look good. When we loose, we continue fighting until we win and then we rewrite the history to make the other guys look bad and so on.
Real history is what you are relating to me now. with regards to Mr Luka, you will note that Bhambatha was also decapitated in 1897 in KZN. So it would seem as if the British army made a habit of this sort of thing.
People do the most atrocious things during war, but we should never visit the sins of the father on the generations to come. To end war we must break the cycle of violence.
I am very honoured that you shared this bit of family history with me as a stranger. Perhaps you could write a short piece on it, I could assist technically.
Dusty, I have recounted my own personal history in great detail since I have become part of this blog site. I have done so because I feel that if I expect people to read my blog and to take what I have to say seriously, I must be completely honest and open – exposing myself.
You have placed pictures of naked cyclists on your blog – talk about people exposing themselves – yet the world did not come to an end – and I am sure that after the first expression of shock many people have lost a bit of their inhibitions as a result.
I really think that it took a lot of courage on your part to start this conversation. I wish that some of the others would be equally prepared to delve into their own histories. It is such multiplicities of ordinary stories that will liberate history and set people free.
David, your recounting of your time in the army has really touched me. I think, because at that time, when I was a teenager, all it meant to me was that I had a ‘boyfriend on the border’; without any inkling of the implications.
Fortunately, no-one I know was killed at the time (though I suspect that a few deaths afterwards might have been as an indirect consequence – will we ever know?)
Only now do I understand what these guys had to go through. And even then I know that I have no idea of the truth. All the real men who have been at the front have never really spoken of their experiences, except in general terms. Even now, there is a blatant refusal to expose what really happened. And I respect that.
Tot siens. I really must go to bed now. ‘night.
Night
I have become intrigued with the sparse information I have been able to discover regarding Coenraad de Buys – a larger-than-life figure in our history. What do you know of him, and where could I be able to do proper research? Thanx
Hi Martin
Google returns 65 entries, from varied sources, some not as serious as others. Suggest you start there, particularly the JSTOR ones. David van Wyk will probably know a lot more, but he is busy preparing sociology paper, and won’t be here much, until the end of the month. He pops in every now and then, so you may get lucky sooner!
Coenraad De Buys was/is my grandfather’s father. I have collected much information and am still collecting much information about him and our family tree.
There are many “Buys” people in South Africa, many of which are “coloured”, or “black”. Some of Coenraad’s children left his “bastard-family” and married white. I am “white” or “European” as some people would call it… But I would rather think that I am South African.
Tony, I think it’s wonderful that you are researching the De Buys family, and such a colourful part of our history.
Would you mind if I gave your email address to Martin, to assist him in his research?
Yes, please pass on my e-mail address.
I would really like to pass on/expand my research.
Regards
Good afternoon Sir
I would also like you to help me with knowing about the Segopa’s where do they come from I only have the information that is from Cecilia Segopa who was an elder in telling the history of some of the Batswana leaders and some Batswan who went to some of African states that were neear by Botswana and I really want to know because I am from that family that do not have an elder who can tell us as children our where abouts, what i know is that I am from the Rapulana clan and i have tried to follow it up but it does not give me what I wanted because I want to be familiar with my tradition and know my culture as well, I was told that my grandmother, my father’s mother is a Modise and she got married to Segopa, which from there I cannot say a thing about whereabouts. Please if maybe there’s something that can lead me to at least know something about this I will be happy, and a puzzle I have been having or a mistery will be solved. Segopa Poppy.
Dear Poppy, I am sorry, I am able to trace Modise but not Segopa.