for years, been the sending of his sons to work in European towns
and elsewhere. With the discovery of the Barberton and Johannesburg
gold-fields, considerable inducements were offered in the higher wages
there obtainable. It, therefore, followed that many accustomed up
till then to find employment in Natal, went off to the new centres of
industry. The more these centres developed, the greater became their
attractions. The result was that, before long, many thousands repaired
thither year after year. So large did the number of Natal and Zululand
labourers become, that it became necessary to establish a Government
Agent at Johannesburg, whose principal duty was to receive and remit to
their respective homes the earnings of the workers. Had there been no
such considerate provision, much of the money, urgently required as it
was by the parents, must have been squandered, stolen or lost.[78]
At these gold-mining centres, however, especially Johannesburg, youths
of Natal came into contact with thousands of Natives from all parts of
South Africa. They there became acquainted with that insidious American
Negro propaganda called Ethiopianism, as well as with unscrupulous,
low-class Europeans of various nationalities. In such environment,
it is not surprising that the already growing spirit of independence
was developed, as well as vice of the worst possible types. These
retrograde tendencies were not long in reacting on Natives in the
locations and farms of Natal. Indeed, in conjunction with the local
influences referred to above, they speedily became the most potent
agents for setting at naught that wonderful tribalism of some of whose
features an account has already been given. A deeply-rooted antagonism
towards the white man on the part of some began to manifest itself,
accompanied by a spirit of defiance that found expression in many ways.
Hardly less subversive and disintegrating were the effects of coming
into contact with thousands of British soldiers, and the ludicrously
familiar attitude of the latter towards Natives during the Boer War.
Alive to the necessity of assisting parents in a matter of this kind,
the Government--the Prime Minister then being the Hon. C.J. Smythe--had
its own predicament to consider. The wave of great financial
depression, brought on by the protracted War, had told severely on
the Colony. The Treasury was empty. The credit of the Colony was
falling. As much as 6% was being paid on temporary loans, instead of
the average rate of 3-1/2% for years paid on public loans. A necessity
for instituting new taxing measures was urgent. Already, whilst the
preceding Sutton Ministry was in power, had the need for taxation made
itself felt. Among the bills of that ministry was one that proposed the
imposition of a poll tax, but beyond publication in the _Gazette_, no
further steps had been taken in regard thereto.
When the Smythe Ministry came to look into the financial position,
it decided to adopt some of its predecessor's taxing measures and to
discard others. Among those discarded, was a Poll Tax Bill. Certain
other bills, among them one dealing with unoccupied lands, were passed
by the Legislative Assembly, only to be rejected by the Legislative
Council. With the end of the session in view and no provision made for
equalising revenue and expenditure, it became imperative to impose
some other form of taxation. There was, however, no time to prepare
a fresh bill. The most obvious forms of taxation had been attempted
but had failed. In these circumstances, it was resolved to fall back
on the Poll Tax Bill on account of its having already been gazetted
as required by law. The Treasurer (Mr., now Sir, Thomas Hyslop,
K.C.M.G.), having failed, owing to the adverse action of a nominated
upper chamber, to pass measures that appeared to him suitable, it was
decided the Prime Minister should take charge of the bill. It succeeded
in passing through both Houses with comparatively little discussion.
In August, 1905, it became law. It would not have become law but for
the rejection of the other taxing measures that had been passed by the
representatives of the people.
There are, it has been held, but two forms of direct taxation
applicable to all sections of the community without discriminating
between classes, namely a poll tax and a house tax. A house tax had
been attempted, but, owing to loud and universal protest by the
European community, it was not introduced.
Though difficult to justify a poll tax as an equitable mode of taxation
among civilized people, it is not inappropriate when applied to
Native races. If imposed on all sections of the community, it would,
if standing alone, be an unfair tax; accompanied, however, by an
income tax, which the Government proposed to bring forward during the
following session, the unfairness would have ceased to exist.
There was strong feeling among many in the Colony that Natives were not
bearing a fair share of taxation. The choice lay between increasing the
hut tax payable by kraal-owners, or leaving the tax on them as before
and imposing a fresh one on the younger men. It is a matter of opinion
which was the better course to pursue, but, in any case, the poll tax
of £1 per head on the unmarried man, and the hut tax of 14s. on the
married man, cannot be regarded as unduly burdensome, especially when
compared with the taxes imposed in the adjoining Colonies, Transvaal
and Orange Free State. In the former, £2 was payable yearly by every
adult male Native, and a further £2 by those having more than one wife
for each additional wife;[79] in the latter, a poll tax of £1 was
payable by all Natives. In neither of these cases, however, was there a
hut tax as in Natal.
The poll tax was imposed on all sections, Europeans, Asiatics and
Natives, but, in respect of the last, those already liable for hut
tax were specially excepted. It accordingly fell on the young men, so
many of whom, as we have seen, went to work at Johannesburg and were
becoming more and more independent of their parents. Thus a class was
taxed which had, to a large extent, escaped taxation, though generally
speaking, assisting their fathers in finding money for hut tax and
other purposes. Had the tax been imposed on the Natives alone, the
bill would have had to be reserved for the King's approval. That would
have meant delay; but the country could not afford to delay. Through
adopting the course above indicated, the royal assent was unnecessary.
Before considering the manner in which the new law was received by the
Natives, reference should be made to an incident, normal in civilized
communities, but quite abnormal in those of barbarians. The Government
resolved to take the census. Up to that time, no actual enumeration of
the Natives had ever been attempted. Estimates only had been prepared
from time to time, without any intimation of such fact being given to
the Natives. These had been based primarily on the hut tax returns. The
reason for not requiring coloured races to conform to the same law as
Europeans in this respect was because of their suspicious temperament.
There is nothing a Zulu will take umbrage at more quickly than when
he, his family and belongings, are being counted. It appears to him
tantamount to placing himself entirely in the hands of another, and
of being "surrounded." This instinctive dread is deeply rooted, and
its _raison d'être_ is seen in the mode of attack practised by him
in actual warfare, whereby a force moves forward, theoretically in
half-moon formation, with the object of _encircling_ the enemy.
It is, of course, absurd to think that the Natal Government, under
which the Natives had lived peacefully for half a century, could have
had any inimical motive in taking a census, but that the Natives felt
some such motive was latent, is borne out by what happened when the
regulations were explained by a Magistrate at a gathering of Chiefs
and their followers near Greytown. A Native present put the question:
"What guarantee have we that, in being enumerated in the fashion
proposed, it is not in the mind of the Government, making use of the
information gained, to do us an injury in the future?" The reply was:
"The Government has no evil intentions whatever, the sun will sooner
fall from the heavens than any evil come upon you, as a result of this
census-taking. Europeans, including myself, will be counted along with
you." This assurance which, from a European point of view, the official
was fully justified in giving, was, however, soon made to bear an
interpretation extremely difficult to reply to, and this in the very
district where the Insurrection proper afterwards began. The census
was taken in due course in 1904, meeting with murmuring here and there
among the Natives in parts of the Colony. In the year following, the
Poll Tax Act was passed and proclaimed. What was more natural than
that they should associate that time-honoured practice of Western
Civilization with the introduction of a form of taxation which, in
their view, did them injury by imposing an additional financial burden,
and, what was worse, accentuating and even legalizing the independence
of children towards their fathers, an independence the sons themselves
(free from control as many of them had become), veering round in their
resentment, also condemned as subversive of their whole system of life.
From the parents' point of view, it appeared as if their sons, already
too independent, were being rendered still more so. And yet, in passing
the Act, the Government was of the belief that one of the correctives
above referred to was being provided, and would operate in favour of
the parents. Had liability been laid on the father rather than on the
son, the protests raised would probably not have been as loud as they
were.
Early in the summer of the same year a curious phenomenon was observed
in connection with the Kaffir corn or _mabele_ crops, particularly in
those portions of the Colony that abutted on Zululand. The ears of corn
were attacked by the aphis insect in such way as to give an impression
of having been oiled. Whole fields glittered in the sun. Although
the phenomenon was capable of complete explanation by scientists, it
appeared mysterious to European laymen and still more so to Natives,
who could recall nothing of the kind in previous years. As a result
of inability to explain, the idea got about that Dinuzulu was the
cause. The phenomenon was, therefore, taken as a sign that that Chief
had something in mind which called for co-operation on their part.
This impression became current also among a number of Natal tribes,
notwithstanding that two generations had elapsed since the severance
of their connection with the Zulu royal house. The crops in question
are universally regarded by Natives as the most important, for it is
of this grain that the national beverage and food _tshwala_ is made.
As the corn-fields were attacked over wide areas in a manner at once
mysterious and harmless, the characteristics accorded well with the
supposition that Dinuzulu was the cause, for it was believed he had
potent drugs of which he alone, assisted by various witch-doctors
from afar, understood the use. The disease, for such it was, was
widely talked of, and Dinuzulu was said to have brought it on for some
inscrutable purpose to be revealed or not in the near future as he
might choose.
Here again, we have an incident of no significance whatever among
Europeans and yet regarded by numberless Natives as a sign of something
important to come. The disease existed until after the Rebellion, when,
strange to say, it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
There was yet another phenomenon which attracted widespread attention,
and became invested by the Natives with special significance, namely, a
hailstorm of unusual severity on the 31st May, 1905. It swept violently
through the whole Colony, including large areas adjacent thereto. Not
for more than a generation had there been anything so furious and
destructive. At first the incident seemed to pass without any special
comment, but towards the end of the year, about September or October,
and just before the provisions of the Poll Tax Act were explained by
the Magistrates, certain strange rumours, directly connected with the
storm, began to make themselves heard. So curious were these, that one
could not help pricking up his ears to listen, only, however, to laugh
at their utter absurdity.
Owing to the fact that, ridiculous as they appeared to Europeans to be,
the rumours were believed, and what is more, began to be acted on, by
Natives in many parts, it is necessary to consider them seriously, and
in so doing, it is possible that some light may be thrown on the inner
workings of the black man's mind, and that some of the mystery which
still enshrouds the underlying causes of the Rebellion may be removed.
The rumours were in the form of a fiat or command, and associated with
a personality whose name was never revealed. Neither place nor time
was given. All that was known was that the command existed, purported
to have come from some one in supreme authority, and peremptorily
demanded obedience. The following is the message, given as nearly as
possible in the form in which it circulated among the Natives: "_All
pigs must be destroyed, as also all white fowls. Every European utensil
hitherto used for holding food or eating out of must be discarded and
thrown away. Anyone failing to comply will have his kraal struck by a
thunderbolt when, at some date in the near future, he sends a storm
more terrible than the last, which was brought on by the Basuto king in
his wrath against the white race for having carried a railway to the
immediate vicinity of his ancestral stronghold._"
In some places, it was believed white goats and white cattle were also
to be destroyed. Pigs, although kept by many Natives to sell or barter
to Europeans, were not eaten by them. They had been introduced by the
white race, and were regarded by Natives as creatures whose flesh
"smells." The same prejudice did not exist in regard to fowls, for
whose presence in the country Europeans, for all the Natives knew, were
not responsible. To discriminate, therefore, between white ones and
others, as well as between utensils of European manufacture and those
of their own, could carry but one meaning to any intelligent mind, and
that was that drastic aggressive measures of some kind against the
white race were intended. What these were to be every Native knew quite
well. He knew it was proposed to rise simultaneously and massacre the
whites, although the time the butchery was to take place had still to
be fixed. The word "thunderbolt," too, bore metonymic interpretation.
The acts or characteristics of a Zulu monarch were frequently, in
ordinary parlance, compared with the fury of the elements. On the other
hand, in accordance with naïve and deeply-rooted belief, the King, to
whom the sky was said to _belong_, was supposed to be able to cause
the heavens to pour down or withhold rain at his pleasure, though,
to do this, he might be obliged to invoke the assistance of Native
kings of other countries. It was, for instance, believed that gentle,
copious rains could be induced by the Swazi kings, whilst the kings
of Basutoland possessed drugs for bringing on violent thunderstorms,
accompanied by lightning, wind and hail. Whenever any of these natural
phenomena was specially required in Zululand,--ordinary rains, of
course, were greatly in demand in times of drought,--it devolved on
the King to furnish the oxen, as a rule about ten, necessary for
presentation at the foreign court, before the "lord of the elements"
would consent to exercise his skill. Hence, "thunderbolt," in such
context as the above, means either the King's own army (which never
went through a country but its devastations resembled those of a
hurricane), or a storm brought about through the King interceding with
such other king as _could_ bring it on.
It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that, on hearing the command
noised abroad, Natal Chiefs should have at once concluded it emanated
from Dinuzulu who, though not a King, was the recognised representative
of the Zulu royal house. Chiefs like Mveli near Pietermaritzburg,
Mtambo and Ndunge near Durban, Tilonko and Sikukuku near Mid Illovo,
and Mtele and Nondubela of Umsinga, and others, accordingly thought
it right to dispatch messengers direct to Dinuzulu to ascertain if
such order had or had not originated from him. Tilonko went further
and asked Dinuzulu if he was to pay the poll tax or not. Dinuzulu
promptly denied having issued any such "word." He added that if the
people wished to conform to the supposed order it was no affair of his;
they could please themselves. This denial, however, did not amount to
much, for admission, assuming him to have been the originator, would
have been tantamount to saying he was guilty of sedition. No assertion
is here made that it did emanate from him. The reader must be left to
draw his own inference. It is not a little remarkable that the Chiefs
named should have associated Dinuzulu with the order and gone to the
trouble of communicating with him at a distance of 200 miles without
reference to the Government. That they should have done so is, perhaps,
accounted for by Dinuzulu's having posed as agent-in-chief of the Zulu
people. In connection with the locust invasion, for instance, partly
civilized though he was, he is alleged to have sent ten oxen all the
way to the notorious witch Mabelemade in the Transvaal to implore her
to remove the plague. The plague afterwards vanished. If Dinuzulu did
act in this way, to whom are ignorant Natives likely to have ascribed
the relief they then got? And to whom would they look for deliverance
on subsequent occasions of general misfortune?
Under the Zulu regime, no king would have dreamt of issuing so vague
and mysterious an order. Had he wished anything to be done, he would
have communicated his instructions to his _indunas_, who would have
transmitted them by recognized messengers to the Chiefs, these to the
headmen who, in their turn, would have advised the heads of families
immediately under their respective supervision. Everything would have
taken place openly, speedily, definitely. The precise meaning of the
royal intentions would have become known from the outset to every soul.
In 1905, however, something had to be done against, and under the very
eyes and nose of, a power to whom Dinuzulu and all his former followers
were, and had for long been, subject. Hence the necessity for issue
of an anonymous type of order, and, as no Native of Natal or Zululand
had ever had experience of such message, it followed that communication
with Dinuzulu was necessary to ascertain if he had issued it, and, if
so, what his plans were.
In the district of Weenen, inhabited by two of the largest tribes in
Natal or Zululand, viz. those of Silwana and Ngqambuzana,[80] the
Magistrate was successful in tracing the rumours to a definite source.
They had been disseminated there by three Natives, who, under the rôle
of messengers from Dinuzulu, had also traversed Newcastle, Dundee and
Klip River divisions. They visited the kraals of Chiefs and others
along their route. "They led the Natives," says the Magistrate, "to
believe that war would shortly be declared by Dinuzulu, and those
who failed to carry out his instructions as to the killing of pigs
and destruction of utensils of European manufacture, and a reversion
in general to their primitive mode of living, would be swept away by
him. Reference was also made to a Basuto woman who had risen from
the dead and was in communication with Dinuzulu. They alleged that
500 emissaries of Dinuzulu were canvassing South Africa." One of the
'messengers' "alleged that he and nine others had been dispatched by
the Paramount Chief of [Basutoland] to Dinuzulu, from whom they now
bore instructions which were similar in effect to those circulated by
the other two men."[81] The Magistrate was unable to find that any of
the three 'messengers' had been in communication with Dinuzulu. After
trial and conviction, they were severely punished for spreading the
false rumours.
These rumours were circulated in Weenen division before the Natives
were officially notified of their obligation to pay the poll tax. In
view of the mystery that still attaches to this extraordinary incident,
it may be of interest, as showing the working of a Native's mind, to
compare it with a somewhat similar one in Kaffraria, Cape Colony, which
reached its climax in February, 1857. It will be remembered that many
thousands of cattle of those parts had recently been swept away by
disease; that a Native fanatic, Mhlakaza, thereafter came forward and
urged the people to destroy their cattle, desist from cultivation,
etc.; and that, after complying with the insane order, some 25,000
Natives are estimated to have perished from starvation, whilst 100,000
went out of the Colony in search of food. An official statement was
made in April, 1858, by a prophetess, niece of this man Mhlakaza (then
deceased). This is so cleverly descriptive of the stuff in which Native
superstition has its roots, and has such obvious affinity with the Zulu
propaganda of 1905, that it is inserted hereunder in some detail.[82]
An article dealing, _inter alia_, with superstitions connected with the
Matabele Rebellion, 1896, will be found in Appendix X.
It may be argued that the command to kill off pigs and fowls arose
in a way similar to that made public by Mhlakaza. But in that case
the origin was traced to strangers who communicated their messages
to a particular girl, who, in her turn, referred to Mhlakaza, a
well-known man. In the pig-and-white-fowl-killing affair, the order
seems to have originated with emissaries, careful not to sow the seed
in places from which its origin could be traced by the white race.
Only by employing secret agents, and making a thorough investigation
extending over six weeks, could those who toured Weenen division be
traced and apprehended. It is the easiest thing in the world for a
stranger, especially if a Native, to utter an alarming rumour to other
Natives,--who are an extremely credulous people,--and give out at,
say, each of half-a-dozen places that he had heard it in some manner
which, in fact, is entirely fictitious. For instance, in the year
1900, a rumour was started in the Lower Tugela division that all pigs
were to be killed. An official meeting of Chiefs was promptly called
to investigate, but whilst the originator's whereabouts could not be
traced, the fact that attention had been publicly directed to the
rumour at once put a stop to its further circulation.
There is no doubt but that the underlying intention of the order to
kill pigs and white fowls and discard European utensils was that the
Natives of Natal and Zululand should rise against the white man. Its
purpose was to warn, as well as to unite, by the use of a threat. In
the absence of positive evidence, which may yet be forthcoming, it
would be wrong to draw any precise inference as to its origination.
On the whole, it seems to us more likely to have sprung from the
imagination of some Native obsessed with the idea that the conditions
of life under European rule were intolerable, than from that of
Dinuzulu.
By this time, the temper of the people had undergone a considerable
change. A sullen demeanour was assumed by them as soon as the poll tax
was proclaimed. To use a Zulu metaphor (without equivalent in English),
and one that exactly expresses the position, the new tax had caused
them to _qunga_.[83] This sullenness is, indeed, characteristic of the
people under abnormal conditions. Until satisfied that any action in
regard to them is oppressive or betrays neglect of their interests,
they are, however, slow to take offence. They prefer to wait and
observe the effect on others. If these, too, become morose, the tide of
sullenness rises to resentment, and then to anger and open defiance.
That the whole community was more or less charged with this ugly
spirit, will presently be seen from the contemptuous manner in which
Magistrates and other officials were treated in various parts of the
country.