The differing experiences between black and Boer civilians had its roots in the compound systems developed in Kimberley. From rationing to shelter and medical care, right through to the life and death struggle inside the camps the experience was fundamentally different based on race.
Different values of life were attached to race and different policies developed and applied by both capital and the military along this principle.
Most commemorative events during the centenary though focussed around the military actions of combatants and Boer civilians interned in the Boer concentration camps.130 Kessler advocated since the 1990s, that the paradigm to the black and Boer refugee camps should shift from one of sole martyrdom (the Boers) to that of mutual suffering and that the experience of both the black and Boer refugees and internees should be seen as a shared experience at the hands of a common
129 L.M. Weiss, Exceptional Space, 27.
130 L. Witz, G. Minkley and C. Rassool, ‘No End of a [History] Lesson: Preparations for the Anglo Boer War Centenary Commemoration’, South African Historical Journal. Vol. 41, (1999), 371.
77
enemy.131 While accurate that it was the British forces that applied Total War, the experiences were
different and therefore certainly not a shared one.
The definitions of the term ‘participation’ have blacks performing the action of taking part in something and making a contribution. In the centenary context and subsequent scholarly writing
‘participation’ implies an addition of blacks to the main event. The categories of the ‘participants’
remain racialized and gendered and, unless destabilised and questioned, the conflict will always remain a white man’s war, while seeking to find in the margins, those who remain defined as
‘other’ to a ‘central struggle’.132
So it was in this power struggle the blacks ‘participated’ and were required to be integrated into the historiography, one that remains dominated by the Boers and the Empire. Participation is an add-on and this is true for works produced over the last 15 years about the ‘black cadd-oncentratiadd-on camps’.
This thesis argues against this entire notion of participation. The roots of segregation are anchored in the Kimberley mines and compounds which set the template for the camps which followed during the war. The experience of blacks in the native refugee and forced labour camps was fundamentally different to that of the Boers. Theirs was not a participatory role. Theirs was a standalone experience of land, labour, war and displacement.
131 S. Kessler, Shifting the paradigm, 110-147.
132 L. Witz, G. Minkley and C. Rassool, ‘No End’, 384.
78 Chapter three. The Kimberley Native Refugee Camps.
This aim of this chapter is to narrate a history of two of the three camps at Kimberley while
offering an insight on the experience of the internees inside these two camps. The focus falls on the Native Refugee Camps at Blankenbergvlei farm and on New Klippiespan farm. During its
existence the camp at Blankenbergvlei was called the Native Refugee Camp at Blankenbergvlei.
The camp at Klippiespan had no official name, hence it is referred to as Klippiespan Camp.
The chapter is divided into two sections. Section A will describe the formation of and existence of the Native Refugee Camp at Blankenbergvlei and introduce the Klippiespan Camp. Klippiespan Camp is described in Section B and its history is primarily constructed from the archaeological evidence and the few archive sources that refer to it. The camp in Kimberley which interned Boer civilians, then known as the Burgher Refugee Camp and in current discourse as the Boer
Concentration Camp is not part of this study, other than when references to black refugees were found in its archive.
The research methodology used archival records, terrain examinations and archaeological surveys to construct this narrative. To date no archaeological excavations have ever been undertaken in South Africa on Native Refugee camp terrains, so this material forms an original archive. No secondary literature exists that could be consulted as no written history about these two camps exist. The only publications to date about the Kimberley and Dry Harts camps are my own published work, namely one book chapter in 2016 and one seminar presentation in 2014, both delivered and published in France, a media release in 2001 on the BBC, and a publication on SA History Online in 2006.133
133 G. Benneyworth, Le camp comme archive. Les populations civiles noires dans les camps de travail forcé de Kimberley et de Dry Harts pendant la guerre d’Afrique du Sud, 1899-1902.(Actes Sud, Berberova, April 2016); G.
Benneyworth, Traces of enslavement - a forgotten history of indigenous civilians in British concentration camps during the South African War, 1899-1902,(International symposium The archaeology of violence: wartime violence, mass violence, (Lens Louvre, 2014),
http://amenageurs.inrap.fr/preventive-archaeology/Events/The-archaeology-of-
79 3.1. Notes on the archives consulted.
The primary source material for constructing a history of the Kimberley Native Refugee Camp at Blankenbergvlei are records housed in the De Beers Consolidated Mines archives in Kimberley.
This material included the General Managers Collection, a collection titled Native Camps and Natives Generally, the Board of Directors Meeting Minute Books, correspondence between the General Manager and the military, and the estate files for Blankenbergvlei estate.
It should be noted that in relation to work by Kessler and those citing his research is that Kessler claimed that he consulted, “within the domain of the mining companies during the war, every document in the record that describes the operations of the mining companies during the war was collected”.134 Kessler’s work, according to his sources, made no use of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives which contain a wealth of information and insight into the experience of black refugees in Kimberley and the operations of this mining company during the war. Their archive would prove invaluable as a mining house record. Yet according to Kessler he consulted every document, yet again according to Kessler he was not allowed access to De Beer’s Consolidated Mines archive.135 One wonders why not, amidst his discrepancies.
In 2008 I received permission to access these archives and again 2014. Were this access to specific records not enabled then the location and history of the Kimberley Native Refugee Camp at
Blankenbergvlei would have been impossible to identify, as no other sources refer to the farm’s name. I acknowledge this crucial support from De Beers Consolidated Mines to enable my
violence-wartime-violence-mass-violence/p-17863-lg1-Traces-of-enslavement-a-forgotten-history-of-indigenous-civilians-in-British-concentration-camps-during-the-South-African-War-1899-1902.htm, As accessed on 27 March 2016; Barnaby Phillips, The place that time forgot, (BBC, 29 November 2001),
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1682972.stm, As assessed on 27 March 2016; G. Benneyworth, THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIVE REFUGEE CAMPS, SA History Online, http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/department-native-refugee-camps, as assessed on 25 March 2016.
134S. Kessler, The Black Concentration Camps, 2012, 15-16.
135 S. Kessler, The Black Concentration Camps, 2012, 13.
80 research for this thesis. Permission to access their records was not based on any prior bias in their favour on my part.
Additional material was also located in the Africana Library Kimberley, which included the Beaconsfield Municipality Minute Books 1900-1904, the Kimberley Medical Board of Health records, and the newspapers Diamond Fields Advertiser and Weekly Free Press. Other information was located in the archives of the Superintendent Refugee Camps (SRC) and Colonial Office (CO) held in the Free State Archives, the Military Governor Pretoria (MGP) collection housed at the National Archives of South Africa, and the Resident Magistrate Kimberley collection in the Western Cape Archives and Records Service.
The written archive for the Klippiespan Camp is virtually non-existent. The archive comprises of one map in the Colonial Office archives, a few references in the Superintendent Refugee Camps records and one media report in the Weekly Free Press. These combined sources point to a camp in the Orange River Colony, just beyond the border with the Cape Colony. The rest of the evidence formed an appraisal and interpretation of the archaeological evidence that was identified on the terrain during 2001-2008 and evidence uncovered during archaeological excavations undertaken during 2006-2008.
This again underwrites the point that the utilisation of written archival records alone, as is the case with all the authors consulted in the literature and, especially the work of Kessler that relying only on archival documents is limiting.
As mentioned previously the research for this thesis did not focus on the Kimberley Burgher Refugee Camp. During an archival audit in 2002, information about the Burgher camp was located in the Free State archives and copied. This in turn led to information about the Native Refugee camp because prior to the formalisation of the Native Refugee Camp at Blankenbergvlei, many of the Phase One Native Refugee Camps were managed by the Boer camp superintendents in terms of
81 control, rationing and medical arrangements. This research direction proved correct, as some references to the Native Refugee Camp were found in the Kimberley Burgher Refugee Camp archive.
3.2. Section A. The formation of the Kimberley Native Refugee Camps at Blankenbergvlei, November 1900 – September 1901.
This camp falls within the period of Phase One camps, which are broadly referred to in the literature reviewed for this thesis as ‘concentration camps’ and in the archives of the wartime period as Native Refugee Camps. The Kimberley Native Refugee Camp at Blankenbergvlei was not a forced labour camp, whereupon the Klippiespan Camp may have started as one.
The profile of the Native Refugee Camp at Blankenbergvlei is similar to that of the Vryburg Native Refugee Camp. They both started as unofficial camps in late 1900. Many of the initial refugees trekked into Kimberley and Vryburg voluntarily to avoid the fighting that threatened their assets and brought with them livestock which meant they could initially sustain themselves. They also received support from residents in nearby ‘locations’; in the case of Kimberley from
Mankurwane’s Location and Vlenters Location, and at Vryburg from the location there for which there is no identified name at the time in the archives. The area today is known as Huhudi.
On 24 November 1900, the De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives record the first arrival of black refugees from the Boshof Magisterial District in Kimberley. These refugees were directed to Kimberley by the military who were clearing out the farms in the Boshof district, or fled to Kimberley on their own accord to avoid the combat between the British forces and the Boshof Commando.136
The De Beers estates inspector recorded:
136 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, GM Collection, F & E 1/1/1, 24 November 1900.
82 I find 9 native huts east of the old Anglo-Africaine heap, on the road to Ritchie’s, occupied by natives who state, that they had been living on the farm Lowkop, (District of Boshof) but left about a week ago, being afraid of the Boers. They further state that they reported themselves, at some place in Kimberley and were told to put up their huts on this spot.
A further batch of 9 huts is near Amsterdam (Theunissen’s) near Ritchie’s homestead these natives came from farm Voruitzigt Piet Geldenhuys also in the district of Boshof,
they…left for the same reason as the other. One of the natives being an old servant of Theunisson’s.137
On 26 November 1900, a notation added to this report instructed. “Clear them out – they will find some other place”.138
However, De Beers Consolidated Mineswere not going to be able to institute this nor prevent any new arrivals from settling on Blankenbergvlei farm. Martial law overruled all civilian process and the refugees had military permission to outspan within the protective cordon offered by the
Kimberley garrisons’ defence perimeter. These first arrivals from farms Lowkop and Voruitzigt in the Boshof Magisterial District formed the beginning of black refugees settling in Kimberley in a military designated area and which was formalised in March 1901, under military control as the Kimberley Native Refugee Camp.
On 5 December 1900, the De Beers inspector reported back after meeting with these refugees:
I visited these natives’ huts again this morning. Those near Blankenbergsvlei, have a note addressed to the Commissioner of Police, and signed by Capt. Fergusson, the Provost Marshal, stating that 16 natives (names given) have permission to stay near
Blankenbergvlei. I told the holder of this note, to report himself to me on Tuesday
afternoon for further orders. In reference to these near Theunissen’s, the latter informs me that 2 huts will be removed as the natives occupying are going to Kimberley. 2 huts will be lifted over to Mr Hull’s, the remainder he proposes to put on the plot registered in Marais’s name, the rent for March he is paying.139
De Beers sought clarity from the military as to why this settlement was permitted on their property.
After numerous requests for an explanation, on 20 December 1900, Captain Fergusson, the Provost
137 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, Record No: 9054 Native Camps and Natives Generally [Box 2/1/36 Ref E], 24 November 1900.
138 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, Record No: 9054 Native Camps and Natives Generally [Box 2/1/36 Ref E].
139 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, Record No: 9054 Native Camps and Natives Generally [Box 2/1/36 Ref E]; De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, GM Collection, F & E 1/1/1.
83 Marshal reported to the Officer Commanding, Kimberley Garrison Major General Pretyman and to De Beers Consolidated Mines that the refugees settled at Blankenbergvlei were 18 in number and from the Boshof District.
They brought in their stock and were allowed to sell most of them to a Beaconsfield dealer.
I then gave them a permit to reside on the Blankenberg location until it was safe in this [illegible] return to the farm…the natives found that they were living on the
Blankenbergvlei and not in the location, as should I ordered them to move in at once to the best of my belief they have done so – the Secretary De Beers Consolidated Mines was notified to this effect.140
This is the first reference to a location which was Mankurwane’s Location, located a short distance away and bordering Blankenbergvlei farm. By 19 December 1900, more refugees arrived. De Beers requested that their estate manager ensure that these refugees be sent to ‘Vlenter’s Location’
where 30 huts be built for them. The ratio applied in Kimberley at the time regards people and huts was approximately five to a hut, which indicates that these approximately 150 new arrivals were diverted to Vlenters Location.141 From an initial core of approximately 50 refugees earlier in the month these 150 new arrivals is indicative of the escalating intensity of the guerrilla war being fought out in the Boshof magisterial district.
De Beers Consolidated Mines were experiencing a labour shortage which impacted heavily on their mining operations and reduced their mining output. The war had disrupted the migrant labour system and the military paid higher rates of pay to black men. In their annual report for the year ending 30 June 1901 the Directors reported that:
The native labour question has been most serious throughout the year, owing to the
unsettled state of the country. Heretofore, our compounds were kept well filled with natives without the employment of labour agents. The natives all came of their own accord, and remained in the compounds from 6 to 12 months. In many cases large numbers of natives have remained at work for four and five years. It is now with great difficulty that the boys are induced to take out passes [contracts for work] for more than three months. This arrangement has been most unsatisfactory, for just as a boy has been trained to do good work, his pass expires and he leaves the compound. Agents have been employed in
140 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, Record No: 9054 Native Camps and Natives Generally [Box 2/1/36 Ref E]
141Africana Library, Kimberley Medical Board of Health, 5 March-28 March 1901, 11.
84 collecting labour in all parts of the Cape Colony, Basutoland, Rhodesia, Bechuanaland and such parts of the Transvaal as are free of the enemy. By this method a large number of floor boys and underground shovel boys have been obtained, but not the class of labour that can be trained for drilling. The scarcity of drill boys has greatly handicapped the output and the underground development work.142
The scarcity of labour and the additional costs of having to hire labour touts to recruit, feed and transport labour to Kimberley was a concern to De Beers Consolidated Mines. Labour supply was erratic. It would have been extremely difficult and unsafe to traverse the countryside on foot to Kimberley due to the military operations underway and railway transport was problematic, as the military had first say over the use of the railway system. There was an obvious solution that could mitigate this and that was to acquire labour from the rapidly forming labour reservoir on their property by coercing all able bodied black male refugees to work on the mines.
If one analyses the language used in this report references to the refugees can be found. The report refers to the, “great difficulty that the boys are induced to take out passes [contracts for work] for more than three months. This arrangement has been most unsatisfactory, for just as a boy has been trained to do good work, his pass expires and he leaves the compound”. These men were from the rural areas and therefore, “not the class of labour that can be trained for drilling”.143
The majority of the refugees were self-supporting, with their own stock, or cash in hand, and unwilling to leave their families to work on the mines. The Company Secretary wrote to the Kimberley Borough Council and the Chamber of Commerce to:
Draw their attention to the enormous influx of natives into Kimberley and Beaconsfield and to point out that although we still want labour for the mines it was a matter of very great difficulty to get any of these men to work, who apparently were able to live without doing any – such a state of things should not be tolerated in a mining centre such as this and to urge both the Council and Chamber to bring it to the notice of Government with a view to compel them to work.144
142 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, De Beers Consolidated Mines Annual Report 1901.
143 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, De Beers Consolidated Mines Annual Report 1901.
144 De Beers Consolidated Mines Archives, Directors Minute Book No. 4, 1901.
85 This term “compel to work” is the first evidence of a link that was starting to form between mining capital and the military in relation to the camps and how forced labour would be coerced.
On 23 January 1901, the General Manager of De Beers Consolidated Mines requested Major General Pretyman to advise the company when the military brought in refugees. The implication was that the military were settling refugees on Company estates without forewarning. On 20 February 1901, the General Manager of De Beers was advised that four more refugee huts were on Blankenbergvlei, an increase from 10 to 20.145
On 8 February 1901, the Resident Magistrate Kimberley referred the question of responsibility for rationing black refugees to the Colonial Secretary, which he described as, “alien refugees from the
On 8 February 1901, the Resident Magistrate Kimberley referred the question of responsibility for rationing black refugees to the Colonial Secretary, which he described as, “alien refugees from the