Natives return from the Reef
A little known pre-cursor to the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902 was the mass emigration of native mine workers from the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, to Natal. It has been estimated that 7000 native minors walked the 640 kilometres to escape from the warring Boers, a journey that started on 6th October 1899 in Johannesburg and finished at Ingogo station, Natal, on the 15th!
Before enlarging on the ‘trek’ of these unfortunates, the reasons for them being so far from their homes must be understood.
After the Anglo Zulu War during 1879, the Zulu kingdom was broken up into thirteen separate chiefdoms and became the British colony of Zululand. As the new ruler, the British imposed a hut tax of fourteen shillings per annum on every hut in the Zululand colony and, anyone who could not pay this tax, would have to sell their cattle to do so. There were other major events that contributed to the financial plight of the natives. A severe drought occurred from 1888 to 1893, locusts arrived in massive swarms the following years and, in 1897, rindepest broke out. All in all a ruinous period for the new colony! The only way of raising enough money to pay the bills and survive meant employment had to be found and there were only three options open to the Zulu, all working for the white man. The farms, railways and the new goldfield mines on the Witwatersrand, the latter mean’t double the wages of the other two. A large number decided on the latter course, the headmen and chiefs choosing the fit, younger men, without family ties.
Johannesburg at that time was part of the ZAR or Zuid Afrikaasche Republiek, the poorest of the four white territories in Southern Africa, the Orange ge Free State, Cape and Natal Colonies. The white population of Johannesburg was a mix of Uitlanders and Boers, the latter being citizens of the ZAR but in the minority by about 7-1, the Uitlanders had no voting rights or say in the running of the state. So, when war became inevitable, the first to get out were the Uitlanders, most of whom, went down to Natal, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, some did stay and allied themselves with the Boers.
The choice for the natives, to stay or go was not quite that simple. Not that they needed to choose as, without the Uitlanders, who were also the mine owners, they would have no job therefore no income. Each non white living in the Witwatersrand was required to be registered and that required a referee, easy when employed on the mines as the mine-owner was the referee and sponsored the native to live and work in the area. The natives were also required to get an authorised Pass to leave the Witwatersrand which included, returning home once a year. Now that the mine-owners had left the number of people that would agree to ‘sponsor’ these natives, in order that they could go home, was limited. The Afrikaner in general was not that interested because they were too preoccupied with the imminent war. The natives therefore found themselves in a cleft stick situation where they could neither stay nor leave, the law ‘said‘ that he could stay subject to being employed, however he could not leave because no one would sponsor his Pass.
There was one man however that was not part of the initial rush to leave, not that he could if he wanted to because John Sydney Marwick was the representative of the Department of the Secretary for native Affairs in Natal. Marwick, born in Richmond Natal on 17 June 1875 had been in Johannesburg for almost four years when war was being muted in 1899. His function in representing the Natal natives on the Witwatersrand was to act as an agent between the natives and the ZAR. Marwick’s own description of his duties were, “… to bank and, if desired, to remit natives’ earnings to Natal, to give advise and assistance to natives subjected to injustice, to assist natives that were destitute or sick or had been injured in the mines.” In the few years that Marwick was employed as the native’s representative, 134 000 English pounds was banked and remitted to Natal, hundreds of cases of injustice had been dealt with and many grants were obtained from the Gold Mining Companies. It was not unusual for unscrupulous mine owners to cheat workers out of their wages and again Marwick’s office was there to help the men get their rights, such as they were. Cases of officials defrauding natives were investigated by Marwick and, if found to be valid, the offending white official would be prosecuted and quite often jailed.
The staff compliment in Johannesburg was Marwick, his two assistants Weaver and Wheelwright and four black assistants; the latter were there to facilitate the smooth flow of the agency and not necessarily to translate as Marwick was fluent in Zulu.
As early as June 1899 Marwick had reported to the Under-Secretary that the political tension in the Transvaal was being felt by the natives who were seeking advise on what to do because the Europeans were beginning to leave the Reef. By the beginning of October things had reached the point where many mines had closed, white mine workers and managers had left for Natal or the east coast leaving the black miners without wages and therefore without food.
Understanding the plight of the black miners on the Reef better than most, Marwick decided he would assist as many as he could to leave and return to their homes in Natal and Zululand. Marwick, with Weaver and Wheelwright, went around visiting all black people, be they miners, railway workers or domestics, to encourage them to leave while they had a chance for, once war came as it inevitably would, there would be no escape. It became obvious to Marwick that the thousands of workers wishing to leave would not get the required Pass in time before the war was upon them so he decided to help.
On asking for advice from his head office in Pietermaritzburg, Marwick was sent three hundred pounds and he was to inform the black miners they should either buy train tickets or stay where they were. By now the railways were beginning to close down, their rolling stock put onto a war footing, in fact from the end of September commando units were being sent to the Natal border. Marwick’s office had in its possession a large number of train tickets marked ‘Natal Agent’ which, after receiving Commandant General Joubert’s permission, he put aside for ‘his’ natives.
Marwick approached General Joubert for permission to take all ‘his’ black workers by road to Natal and Joubert replied in the affirmative. Joubert’s secretary Louis De Souza telegraphed Marwick, “In compliance with your request, I herewith enclose a Pass for yourself and about 5000 Natal Zulus from Johannesburg to the Natal border, as well as telegraphing Commandant van Dam to send six policemen to accompany you, their expenses calculated at one pound per day per man, to be borne by you.” De Souza went on to say that Joubert had been informed and that this permission and Pass are issued on the understanding that it was Marwick’s responsibility to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the natives to the border, unarmed. Marwick now required the permission from his own boss and send a telegram outlining his intentions. Little support was forthcoming from the Under-Secretary for Native Affairs in Pietermaritzburg, OS Samuels, that is, until Marwick’s third telegram when he pointed out that if the natives did not leave the Reef they would starve. Samuelson reluctantly agreed warning Marwick not to spend too much money and only Natal natives were to be brought into Natal; no ‘good luck for the journey’ was given however.
A Zulu, Hlobeni Buthelezi who was living in Johannesburg at the time, requested that Marwick take him on as chief Marshall to keep order on the journey. He went on to explain that he, Hlobeni, was a direct descendent of Masingula Buthelezi, Prime Minister to King Mpande and was therefore well known to the Zulus. The morning prior to the departure on 5th October, a lark flew over and Hlobeni remarked that in Zulu folklore this was a good omen and that no one ever hears such a greeting without being confident his day will be a joyous one.
Another problem that Marwick had to resolve before leaving was the money that the natives wanted to take home with them. He pointed out that this would have to be banked as thieves and rogues on route would steal from them. Wheelwright, Marwick’s assistant took on the enormous task and managed to transfer almost 10,000 pounds to Natal during the three days prior to the party leaving.
On the morning of the departure, 6th October 1899, Marwick was given a Cape Cart and a pair of horse, plus a wheeled trap and horses, donated by the owner of the New Heriot Mine. In addition the owner asked that his manager WA Connorton be allowed to go with them. Marwick addressed his ‘Gang’, as he chose to call his charges, informing them of the rules for the journey, what he expected of them, estimating that they should arrive in Natal within ten days. Their journey begun!
Their first stop was Klipriviersberg, about eleven kilometres out on the Natal road where Marwick left the ‘gang’ and returned to Johannesburg for the remainder of the group. The following morning, 7 October, Marwick again moved out with his natives, now with the Transvaal Police escort, and met up with the first group at Klipriviersberg; there were now around 7000 natives ready to begin the journey to Natal.
Heidelburg was their next destination and one of the police Corporals was sent on ahead to warn the town of their impending arrival. When they reached Rietvlei they stopped to wait for Wheelwright and Connorton to catch up because they had stayed behind to close all bank accounts.
The following morning Marwick went into town and found that Louis de Souza had wired as promised and that most of the shopkeepers were open for business. He also discovered that trains were still running to Natal so he left about 70 sickly natives to make use of the service. Having purchased what they required for their next leg of the journey they set off once again, Marwick at this point ‘weeded’ out all of the non-Zulus as he promised he would. That second day of their journey they managed to travel over 50 kilometres and made camp alongside a little river.
The third day started fine with the front ranks marching thirty abreast, playing concertinas and singing tribal songs however the rear of the ‘gang’, where the elderly, lame and injured were, was a different story. Here it was impossible for them to reach the next stopover until well after dark, by which time the first to arrive had washed, eaten and were settling down for the night.
Early Tuesday 10 October, the day started with a local farmer selling mealies to the marchers which helped to extend the meagre rations they had brought with them. Some marchers had stolen chickens and eggs from a cart but were soon caught and punished, in order to maintain a tight discipline. At midday they arrived at Bushman’s Spruit where local farmers turned out and done excellent business where, their entire stocks of mealie meal, sugar, eggs, corned beef, jam were soon sold out. It was here that the party heard that the Ultimatum had been ignored and that the Boer republics and British governments were now at war. The question uppermost in Marwick’s mind was would the Boers let them cross the border?
Wednesday, Marwick sent Wheelwright and Connorton into Standerton with one of the police officers to warn the town of the approach of 7000 Zulus. When the ‘gang’ arrived they found everything had been organised for restocking them and the railways even agreed to transport 150 of the sick to the border, ten of whom without money were allowed to go free. Late that night the ‘gang’ arrived at Paardekop. Sandspruit was reach the following day and, after an altercation with the telegraph officer, Marwick was allowed to send a message advising his superiors of their position. Their camp was about a kilometre outside of Sandspruit in an area almost devoid of vegetation and in addition they had to endure a heavy thunderstorm without any shelter. In the morning their plight was seen as most serious as they were in danger of being trapped by the Boer army so, before breakfast, the marchers were once more on the move, Wheelwright up front with the main body and Marwick bringing up the rear with the stragglers. At Sandspruit Marwick managed to get some very sick men on to a train for the Border and by mid morning he was ahead of the column and in Volksrust. Here he met a fellow Natalian, a one time captain with the Umvoti Mounted Rifles fighting with the Boers, who gave him a meal and something to drink. By midday the whole column of 7000 people, had arrived in Volksrust and Marwick presented his credentials to General Joubert. All rail transport into Natal had been stopped and the Boer army was ahead at Charlestown, marching on Newcastle. Promising the general that no looting would be carried out, the column walked out of Volksrust towards Charlestown, saluting the General and his wife as they passed. Having no food or horses the ‘gang’ were in a very sorry state. Marwick went into Charlestown where he managed to purchase fifty bags of mealies, enough to satisfy their immediate needs.
The marchers left Charlestown and followed a Boer Artillery column down the road to Newcastle. When at the bottom they were told they would not be allowed to precede the Boer army and, they had to turn back. Whilst discussing what their next move, Marwick’s acquaintance from the UMR arrived, listened to the problem and together they went to Mount Prospect, where the Artillery were camped, and the captain spoke to Commandant Trichardt on Marwick’s behalf. Trichardt agreed the marchers could pass and issued safe-conduct papers to this effect.
The following morning, Saturday 14 October, the marchers set out without food, down the mountains through Laingsnek to Newcastle, where they heard that by nightfall the town would be occupied by the Boers. They continued, through Ingagane station, stopping for the night at Garden’s Mission station, in no-man’s land between the two enemy lines. At daylight the following morning they were on the march again and would be doing so for the next twelve hours. During this period the ‘gang’ split up, three thousand turned off to Zululand, two thousand went to Ladysmith and by evening the thousand or so that were left were at Hattingh’s Spruit station. Here there were trains available to take them to Pietermaritzburg; for those wishing to pay of course!
Marwick was widely praised for his efforts and humane attitude toward the Zulus, the hero of the day as it were.
This article is based on the book:1899: THE LONG MARCH HOME
by Elsabe Brink