By taking on the might of the British Empire and the white settler regime in Natal a century ago, the people of Maphumulo inspired successive generations of freedom fighters, writes Mandla Nkomfe.
During the 1970s, Marxist and Neo-Marxist scholars challenged the dominance of liberal scholarship in studies of political economy, history, the state and work-place organisation. From the belly of liberal institutions emerged progressive historians like Jeff Peires, Martin Legassick, Shula Marks and Jeff Guy. Guy has written as a progressive on the history of KwaZulu Natal.
His books include The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom (1979), The Heretic (1983) and The View across the River (2002).
This year marks the centenary of the Bambata Rebellion of 1906. The uprising marked the end of the phase of armed resistance and the beginning of new forms of organisation. Commemorations of this historic event have taken place in different forums and in other provinces. In KwaZulu Natal, government has posthumously reinstalled Inkosi Bambata ka Mancinza of the Zondi tribe as the Inkosi of his people. His authority and leadership was usurped by the Natal Colonial Administration. In this event, a decision was taken to undertake a comprehensive rewriting of the history of our communities. In his new book, Jeff Guy discusses the impact and influence of the Bambata uprising on the areas around the Thukela River. The book shifts the focus to the Maphumulo community in particular.
The Maphumulo Uprising was inspired by the brevity, tenacity and sacrifice of the people who were led by Inkosi Bambata ka Mancinza in fighting the imposition of poll tax in the Enkandla Forest. The Natal Colonial Government thought that they have finally extinguished the spirit of resistance of the fighters of Enkandla. In many ways the people of Maphumulo took the struggle further by organising themselves to resist the imposition of poll tax on young men. The book focuses on the role of two resistance leaders who, having understood the plight and aspirations of their people, organised and mobilised villagers to defend their dignity and freedom.
Meseni ka Musi of the Qwabe and Ndlovu ka Thimuni of the Nodunga section of the Zulu commanded the forces against the Natal Colonial System. These two leaders were to suffer similar fates as other leaders elsewhere in South Africa who dared to resist the colonial system. They were arrested, sent to jail, and taken to the island of St Helena. On their return, they removed from their traditional lands thus cutting them off from their own people.
In this book, Guy paints a confluence of factors that conspired to create fertile grounds for the poll tax uprising. He looks at the consolidation of the capitalist political economy (with the demands of gold and diamond mining), the needs of the white farming communities in Natal, the effects of drought and the rinderpest. The formation of a modern capitalist South Africa was predicated on the break-up and dispersal of indigenous people. To underline the context of the situation, Guy makes the point that: 'It was in these tense times that the Natal authorities sought to remedy fiscal shortfall by adding another burden - a poll tax, a tax on heads - on all men who did not already pay the hut tax. The new tax not only added material burden, but a social provocation because it taxed young men, or more accurately, men who had yet to marry, build homestead of their own, and became liable for hut tax. It was therefore a direct challenge to the customary rights of fathers over their families. Responsibility of payment of this poll tax lay with young men on whom it was levied - and not on their fathers who, in the Natal system of patriarchal authority held that it was their right to redistribute their sons' earnings. Taxing sons independently hastened the breaking up of the patriarchal rural homestead, the rupture of kinship links, and the further fragmentation of African communal life.' It is against this stark backdrop that the communities of Maphumulo took up arms to defend their dignity. The fact that the Zulu Kingdom fought a major battle at Isandlwana in 1879; that in the eyes of the colonial government the status of King Dinizulu was that of any other Inkosi (with all the attendant humiliation); that the Bambata resistance was brutally put down; and the deteriorating social and economic conditions, did not intimidate the Maphumulo people under the leadership of Meseni ka Musi and Ndlovu ka Thimuni from carrying on with the struggle.
The book reveals the leadership qualities of the two leaders. The conduct and dignity with which they carried themselves once they were arrested and tried demonstrated a firm commitment to the aspirations and visions of their people. They made use of the justice system that was inherently not in their favour to communicate the grievances of their communities. After the war took place between June and July 1906, it was decided that the men accused of the murders in the Maphumulo and Lower Thukela divisions should be tried in Pietermaritzburg in May 1907 in a special criminal session of the Natal Supreme Court. Up to 19 men were accused of the murders in the Mvoti valley, the killing of Oliver Veal, and murders in Otimati and Thring's Post. All the men were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was subsequently commuted to that of exile. However, five men did not escape the gallows. These were Macabacaba, Nkosi, Ndabazezwe, Sibeko and Mabalengwe. On 1 June, twenty-five chiefs began their journey into exile on St Helena in the Atlantic.
According to Guy, 'The Natal authorities now turned their malevolent eye on Dinizulu. After intense investigation, the office of the Attorney-General persuaded itself that it had sufficient evidence to show that Dinizulu was deeply implicated in the 1906 rebellion. He was brought to trial in 1908, and in 1909 found guilty on a few of the minor charges. He was released from detention in 1910 by the new government of the Union of South Africa, but confined to a farm in the Transvaal.' In the meantime the government of the Union of South Africa gave an order for the repatriation of the fighters who were exiled in St Helena to Natal, but they were not allowed to return to their homes.
By their actions, the Maphumulo people took on the might of the British Empire and the local white settler regime in Natal. Their conviction and commitment to the cause of their people earned them respect among the freedom fighters of our country. The strategy and tactics they used in the uprising informed the thinking of subsequent generations in Umkhonto we Sizwe. Their efforts need to be celebrated and their heroic deeds commemorated by all South Africans.
On the 6 June 1907, the Governor of Natal, Sir Henry McCallum, ending his term as a governor and returning to England, felt confident that he was leaving the colony with 'native matters' fairly flattened out. To the contrary, the people of KwaZulu Natal were not flattened out. Together with the rest of the oppressed people of South Africa, they fought the battles on the terrain of political organisations, petitions, armed struggles, in the underground and above board. This year must inspire more generations to work hard to protect our freedom, dignity and democracy as the Maphumulo people did.
Mandla Nkomfe is the ANC Gauteng Deputy Provincial Secretary and a member of the Umrabulo editorial collective.
The Maphumulo Uprising: War, Law and Ritual in the Zulu Rebellion
By Jeff Guy
University of KwaZulu Natal Press
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