CHAPTER XIV.
KRELI AND HIS KAFIRS.
AT the time in which I am writing this chapter Kreli and his sons suppose themselves to be at war with the Queen of England. The Governor of the Gape Colony, who has been so far troubled in his serenity as to have felt it expedient to live away from his house for the last three or four months near to the scene of action, supposes probably that he has been called upon to put down a most unpleasant Kafir disturbance. He will hardly dignify the affair with the name of a war. When in Ireland the Fenians were put down by the police without direct military interference we felt that there had been a disagreeable row,—but certainly not a civil war, because the soldiers had not been employed. And yet we should hardly have been comfortable while the row was going on had we not known that there were soldiers at hand in Ireland. For some months it was much the same with Kreli and his rebellious Kafirs. In South Africa there was comfort in feeling that there were one or two regiments near the Kei River,—at head quarters, with a General and Commissaries and Colonels at King Williamstown, where the Governor is also stationed, and that there were soldiers also at East London, on the coast, ready for an emergency should the emergency come. But the fighting up to that time had been done by policemen and volunteers,—and it was hoped that it might be so to the end. Towards the close of November 1877 the end was thought to have almost come; though there were even then those who believed that when we had subdued the Galekas who are Kreli’s peculiar people, the Gaikas would rise against us. They are Sandilli’s people and live on this, or the western, side of the Kei territory, round about King Williamstown in what we call British Kafraria. Many hundreds of them are working for wages within the boundaries of what was formerly their own territory. I cannot but think that had the Gaikas intended to take part with their Transkeian brethren they would not have waited till Kreli and his Galekas had been so nearly beaten. But now we know that an ending to this trouble so happy as that which was at first anticipated has not been quite accomplished. British troops have entered the territory on the other side of the Kei, and are at present probably engaged in putting down some remnant of the Galekas.
There is nothing more puzzling in South Africa than the genealogy and nomenclature of the Kafir tribes, and nothing, perhaps, less interesting to English readers. In the first place the authorities differ much as to what is a Kafir. In a book now before me on Kafir Laws and Customs, written by various hands and published in 1858 by Colonel Maclean who was Governor of British Kafraria, we are told that “The general designation of Kafraria has been given to the whole territory extending from the Great Fish River to Delagoa Bay.” This would include Natal and all Zululand. But if there be one native doctrine more stoutly enunciated in and about Natal than another, it is that the Zulus and Kafirs are a different people. The same passage, however, goes on to say that, properly speaking, that territory only should be included which is occupied by the Amaxosa and Abatembu tribes, the Amampondo and the Amazulu being—different. An English reader must be requested to reject as surplusage for his purpose the two first syllables in all these native names when they take the shape of Ama or Aba or Amam. They are decorous, classical, and correct as from Kafir scholars, but are simply troublesome among simple people who only want to know a little. The Amam Pondos, so called from one Pondo a former chief, are familiarly called Pondos. The Aba Tembus,—from Tembu a chief thirteen or fourteen chiefs back from the present head of the tribe,—are Tembus. They have been also nick-named Tambookies, an appellation which they themselves do not acknowledge, but which has become common in all Kafir dissertations. The Amaxosas, who among the Kafirs are certainly the great people of all, in the same way are Xosas, from Xosa a chief eleven chiefs back from Kreli. But these Xosas, having been divided, have taken other names,—among which the two principal are the Galekas of which Kreli is king, from Galeka Kreli’s great-grandfather; and the Gaikas, of which Sandilli is chief,—from Gaika, Sandilli’s father. But the student may encounter further difficulty here as he will find this latter name learnedly written as Ngqika, and not uncommonly spelt as Ghika. The spelling I have adopted is perhaps a little more classical than the latter and certainly less pernicious than the former.
But though, as above stated, one of the authors of the book from which I have quoted has eliminated the Pondos as well as the Zulus from the Kafirs, thus leaving the descendants of Xosa and of Tembu to claim the name between them, I find in the same book a genealogical table, compiled by another author who includes the Pondos among the Kafirs, and derives the Galekas, Ghikas, Pondos, and Tembus from one common ancestor whom he calls Zwidi, who was fifteen chiefs back from Kreli, and whom we may be justified in regarding as the very Adam of the Kafir race since we have no information of any Kafir before him.
The Galekas, the Pondos, and Tembus will be found in the map in their proper places on the eastern side of the Kei River; and, as being on the eastern side of the Kei River, they were not British subjects when this chapter was written. When the reader shall have this book in his hand they may probably have been annexed. The Gaikas, I am afraid he will not find on the map. As they have been British subjects for the last twenty-five years the spaces in the map of the country in which they live have been wanted for such European names as Frankfort and King Williamstown. Those however whom I have named are the real Kafirs,—living near the Kei whether on one side of the river or the other. The sharp-eyed investigating reader will also find a people called Bomvana, on the sea coast, north of the Galekas. They are a sub-tribe, under Kreli, who have a sub-chief, one Moni, and Moni and the Bomvanas seem to have been troubled in their mind, not wishing to wage war against the Queen of England, and yet fearing to disobey the behests of their Great Chief Kreli.
It will thus be seen that the Kafirs do not occupy very much land in South Africa, though their name has become better known than that of any South African tribe,—and though every black Native is in familiar language called a Kafir. The reason has been that the two tribes, the Gaikas and the Galekas, have given us infinitely more trouble than any other. Sandilli with his Gaikas have long been subjected, though they have never been regarded as quiet subjects, such as are the Basutos and the Fingos. There has ever been a dread, as there was notably in 1876, that they would rise and rebel. The alarmists since this present affair of Kreli commenced have never ceased to declare that the Gaikas would surely be up in arms against us. But, as a tribe, they have not done so yet,—partly perhaps because their Chief Sandilli is usually drunk. The Galekas, however, have never been made subject to us.
But the Galekas and Kreli were conquered in the last Kafir war, and the tribe had been more than decimated by the madness of the people who in 1857 had destroyed their own cattle and their own corn in obedience to a wonderful prophecy. I have told the story before in one of the early chapters of my first volume. Kreli had then been driven with his people across the river Bashee to the North,—where those Bomvanas now are; and his own territory had remained for a period vacant. Then arose a question as to what should be done with the land, and Sir Philip Wodehouse, who was then Governor of the Cape Colony, proposed that it should be given out in farms to Europeans. But at that moment economy and protection for the Natives were the two virtues shining most brightly at the Colonial Office, and, as such occupation was thought to require the presence of troops for its security, the Secretary of the day ordered that Kreli should be allowed to return. Kreli was badly off for land and for means of living across the Bashee, and was very urgent in requesting permission to come back. If he might come back and reign in a portion of his old land he would be a good neighbour. He was allowed to come back;—and as a Savage has not kept his word badly till this unfortunate affair occurred.
Among the printed papers which I have at hand as to this rebellion one of the last is the following government notice;—
“KING WILLIAMSTOWN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
“13TH NOVEMBER, 1877.
“Applications will be received by the Honourable the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works for grants of Land in the Westernmost portion of Galekaland, formerly known as Kreli’s country, between the Cogha and Kei Rivers, from those willing to settle in that country. The condition of the grants,—which will be limited in size to 300 acres,—include immediate settlement and bonâ fide occupation, and may be ascertained——&c. &c.”
Thus, in 1877, we are again attempting to do that which was recommended twenty years before. On this occasion I presume that no sanction from the Colonial Office at home was needed, as at the date of the notice such sanction could hardly have been received. This is a matter which I do not profess to understand, but the present Governor of the Cape Colony,—who in this war acts as High Commissioner and in that capacity is not responsible to his Ministers,—is certainly not the man to take such a step without proper authority. I hope we are not counting our chickens before they are hatched. I feel little doubt myself but that the hatching will at last be complete.
Though the disturbance has hardly been a war,—if a war, it would have to be reckoned as the sixth Kafir war,—it may be well to say a few words as to its commencement. To do so it will be necessary to bring another tribe under the reader’s notice. These are the Fingos, who among South African natives are the special friends of the Britisher,—having precedence in this respect even of the Basutos. They appear to have been originally,—as originally, at least, as we can trace them back,—inhabitants of some portion of the country now called Natal, and to have been driven by Chaka, the great King of the Zulus, down among the Galekas. Here they were absolutely enslaved, and in the time of Hintsa, the father of Kreli, were called the Kafirs’ dogs. Their original name I do not know, but Fingo means a dog. After one of the Kafir wars, in 1834, they were taken out from among the Galekas by British authority, relieved from the condition of slavery, and settled on locations which were given to them. They were first placed near the coast between the Great Fish River and the Keiskamma; but many were subsequently moved up to a district which they still occupy, across the Kei, and close to their old masters the Galekas,—but on land which was under British government and which became part of British Kafraria. Here they have been as good as their old masters,—and as being special occupants of British favour perhaps something better. They have been a money-making people, possessing oxen and waggons, and going much ahead of other Kafirs in the way of trade. And as they grew in prosperity, so probably they grew in pride. They were still Fingos;—but not a Fingo was any longer a Galeka’s dog,—which was a state of things not agreeable to the Galekas. This too must have been the more intolerable as the area given up to the Fingos in this locality comprised about 2,000 square miles, while that left to the Galekas was no more than 1,600: The Galekas living on this curtailed territory were about 66,600 souls, whereas only 50,000 Fingos drew their easier bread from the larger region. In August last the row began by a quarrel between the Galekas and the Fingos. There was a beer-drinking together on the occasion of a Fingo wedding to which certain Galekas had been invited. The guests misbehaved themselves, and the Fingos drove them away. Upon that a body of armed Galekas returned, and a tribal war was started. But the Fingos as being British subjects were not empowered to conduct a war on their own account. It was necessary that we should fight for them or that there should be no fighting. The Galekas were armed,—as they might choose to arm themselves, or might be able; while the Fingos could only possess such arms as we permitted them to use. It thus became necessary that we should defend them.
When it came to this pass Kreli, the old Chief, is supposed to have been urgent against any further fighting. Throughout his long life whatever of misfortune he had suffered, had come from fighting with the English, whatever of peace he had enjoyed had come from the good will of the English. Nor do I think that the Galekas as a body were anxious for a war with the English though they may have been ready enough to bully the Fingos. They too had much to lose and nothing to gain. Ambition probably sat lightly with them, and even hatred for the Fingos by that time must nearly have worn itself out among the people. But the Chief had sons, and there were other Princes of the blood royal. With such as they ambition and revenge linger longer than with the mass. Quicquid delirunt reges plectuntur Achivi. The Kafirs had to fight because royal blood boiled high. The old King in his declining years was too weak to restrain his own sons,—as have been other old Kings. Arms having been taken up against the Fingos were maintained against the protectors of the Fingos. It might be that after all the long prophesied day had now come for driving the white men out of South Africa. Instead of that the day has probably at last come for subjugating the hitherto unsubjugated Kafirs.
I have before me all the details of the “war” as it has been carried on, showing how in the first battle our one gun came to grief after having been fired seven times, and how the Fingos ran away because the gun had come to grief;—how in consequence of this five of our mounted policemen and one officer were killed by the Galekas; how in the next engagement the Fingos behaved much better,—so much better as to have been thanked for their gallantry; and how from that time to this we have driven poor old Kreli about, taking from him his cattle and his country,—determined if possible to catch him but not having caught him as yet. Colonial history will no doubt some day tell all this at length; but in a work so light as mine my readers perhaps would not thank me for more detailed circumstances.
On the 5th of October, when the affair was becoming serious, the Governor of the Gape, who is also High Commissioner for the management of the natives, issued a proclamation in which he sets forth Kreli’s weakness or fault. “Kreli,” he says, “either had not the will or the power to make his people keep the peace,” and again—“The Chief Kreli having distinctly expressed his inability to punish his people, or to prevent such outrages for the future, Commandant Griffith has been directed to advance into Kreli’s country, to put down by force, if necessary, all attempts to resist the authority of the British Government or to molest its subjects, and to exact full reparation for the injuries inflicted on British subjects by Kreli’s people.”
Read by the assistance of South African commentaries this means that Kreli’s country is to be annexed, and for such reading the later proclamation as to 300-acre farms adds an assured light. That it will be much better so, no one doubts. Let the reader look at the map and he cannot doubt. Can it be well that a corner, one little corner should be kept for independent Kafirs,—not that Kafirs unable to live with the British might run into it as do the American Indians into the Indian Territory or the Maories of New Zealand into the King-County there;—but that a single tribe may entertain dreams of independence and dreams of hostility? Whether we have done well or ill by occupying South Africa, I will not now stop to ask. But if ill, we can hardly salve our consciences by that little corner. And yet that little corner has always been the supposed focus of rebellion from which the scared colonist has feared that war would come upon him. Of what real service can it be to leave to the unchecked dominion of Kafir habits a tract of 1,600 square miles when we have absorbed from the Natives a territory larger than all British India. We have taken to ourselves in South Africa within this century an extent of land which in area is the largest of all Her Majesty’s dominions, and have been wont to tell ourselves that as regards the Natives it is all right because we have left them their own lands in Kafraria Proper. Let the Briton who consoles himself with this thought,—and who would still so console himself,—look at the strip on the map along the coast, an inch long perhaps and an inch deep; and then let him measure across the continent from the mouth of the Orange River to the mouth of the Tugela. It makes a Briton feel like the American who would not swear to the two hundredth duck.
We have not caught Kreli yet. When we have, if we should catch him, I do not in the least know what we shall do with him. There is a report which I do not believe that the Governor has threatened him with Robben Island. Robben Island is a forlorn isle lying off Capetown which has been utilized for malefactors and lunatics. Langalibalele has a comfortable farm house on the Gape Flats where he has a bottle of wine and a bottle of beer allowed him a day,—and where he lives like a second Napoleon at a second St. Helena. I trust that nothing of the kind will be done with Kreli. There is an absurdity about it which is irritating. It is as though we were playing at Indian princes among the African black races. The man himself has not risen in life beyond the taste for squatting in his hut with a dozen black wives around him and a red blanket over his shoulders. Then we put him into a house where he squats on a chair instead, and give him wine and beer and good clothes. When we take the children of such a one and do something in the way of educating them, then the expenditure of money is justified. Many Kafirs,—many thousand Kafirs have risen above squatting in huts and red blankets; but they are the men who have learned to work, as at the Kimberley mine, and not the Chiefs. The only excuse for such treatment as that which Langalibalele receives, which Kreli if caught would probably receive, is that no one knows what else to propose. I am almost inclined to think it better that Kreli should not be caught. Prisoners of that nature are troublesome. What a blessing it was to France when Marshal Bazaine escaped.
I was told before leaving the Cape that the trouble would probably not cost above £50,000. So cheap a disturbance certainly should not be called a war. The cattle taken would probably be worth the money;—and then the 300-acre farms, if they are ever allotted, will it is presumed be of some value. But now I fear that £50,000 will not pay half the bill. There is no luxury on earth more expensive than the British soldier.
It is well that we should annex Kreli’s country;—but there is something for the lovers of the picturesque to regret in that the Kafir should no longer have a spot on which he can live quite in accordance with his own habits, in which there shall be no one to bid him cover his nakedness. Though by degrees the really independent part of Kafraria Proper has dwindled down to so small dimensions, there has always been the feeling that the unharassed unharnessed Kafir had still his own native wilds in which to disport himself as he pleased, in which the Chief might rule over his subjects, and in which the subjects might venerate their Chiefs without the necessity of obeying any white man. On behalf of such lovers of the picturesque it should be explained that in making the Kafirs subject to Great Britain, Great Britain interferes but very little with their habits of life. There is hardly any interference unless as an introduction of wages among them may affect them. The Gaika who has been subjugated has been allowed to marry as many wives as he could get as freely as the hitherto unsubjugated Galeka. Unless he come into the European towns breeches have not been imposed upon him, and indeed not then with any rigorous hand. The subject Kafirs are indeed made to pay hut tax,—10s. a hut in the Cape Colony and 14s. in Natal; but this is collected with such ease as to justify me in saying that they are a people not impatient of taxation. The popular idea seems to be that the 10s. demanded has to be got as soon as possible from some European source,—by a week’s work, by the sale of a few fowls, or perhaps in some less authorized manner. A sheep or two taken out of the nearest white man’s flock will thoroughly indemnify the native for his tax.
But their habits of life remain the same, unless they be openly renounced and changed by the adoption of Christianity; or until work performed in the service of the white man gradually induces the workman to imitate his employer. I think that the latter cause is by far the more operative of the two. But even that must be slow, as a population to be counted by millions can not be taught to work all at once.
A short catalogue of some of the most noticeable of the Kafir habits may be interesting. I have taken my account of them from the papers published under Colonel Maclean’s name. As polygamy is known to be the habit of Kafirs, usages as to Kafir marriages come first in interest. A Kafir always buys his wife, giving a certain number of cattle for her as may be agreed upon between him and the lady’s father. These cattle go to the father, or guardian, who has the privilege of selling the young lady. A man therefore to have many wives must have many cattle,—or in other words much wealth, the riches of a Kafir being always vested in herds of oxen. Should a man have to repudiate his wife, and should he show that he does so on good ground, he can recover the cattle he has paid for her. Should a man die without children by a wife, the cattle given for her may be recovered by his heirs. But should a woman leave her husband before she had had a child, he may keep the cattle. Should only one child have been born when the husband dies, and the woman be still young and marriageable, a part of the cattle can be recovered. I have known it to be stated,—in the House of Commons and elsewhere,—that wives are bought and sold among the Kafirs. Such an assertion gives a wrong idea of the custom. Wives are bought, but are never sold. The girl is sold, that she may become a wife; but the husband cannot sell her. The custom as it exists is sufficiently repulsive. As the women are made to work,—made to do all the hard work where European habits have not been partially introduced,—a wife of course is valuable as a servant. To call them slaves is to give a false representation of their position. A wife in England has to obey her husband, but she is not his slave. The Kafir wife though she may hoe the land while the husband only fights or searches for game, does not hold a mean position in her husband’s hut. But the old are more wealthy than the young, and therefore the old and rich buy up the wives, leaving no wives for the young men,—with results which may easily be understood. The practice is abominable,—but we shall not alter it by conceiving or spreading false accounts of it. In regard to work it should be understood that the men even in their own locations are learning to become labourers and to spare the women. The earth used to be turned only by the hoe, and the hoe was used by the women. Ploughs are now quite common among the Kafirs, and the ploughing is done by men.
There is no system of divorce; but a man may repudiate his wife with or without reason, getting back the cattle or a part of them. A wife often leaves her husband, through ill-usage or from jealousy,—in which case the cattle remain with the husband and, if not as yet paid in full, can be recovered. According to law not only the cattle agreed upon but the progeny of the cattle can be recovered;—but it seldom happens that more than the original number are obtained. When there is a separation the children belong to the father.
When a man has many wives he elects one as his “great wife,”—who may not improbably be the youngest and last married. The selection is generally made in accordance with the rank of the woman. Her eldest son is the heir. Then he makes a second choice of a “right hand wife,”—whose eldest son is again the heir of some portion of the property which during the father’s life has been set apart for the right hand house. If he be rich he may provide for other children, but the customs of his tribe do not expect him to do so. If he die without having made such selections, his brothers or other relatives do it for him.
A husband may beat his wife,—but not to death. If he do that he is punished for murder,—by a fine. If he knock out her eye, or even her tooth, he is fined by the Chief. The same law prevails between parents and children as long as the child remains domiciled in the parents’ family. A father is responsible for all that his child does, and must pay the fines inflicted for the child’s misdeeds;—unless he has procured the outlawing of his child, which he can do if the child has implicated him in many crimes and caused him to pay many fines. Near relations of criminals must pay, when the criminals are unable to do so.
Kafir lands are not sold or permanently alienated. Any man may occupy unoccupied land and no one but the Chief can disturb him. Should he quit the land he has occupied, and another come upon it, he can recover the use of the land he has once cultivated.
Murder is punished by a fine,—which seems to be of the same amount whatever be the circumstances of the murder. The law makes no difference between premeditated and unpremeditated murder,—the injury done being considered rather than the criminality of the doer. A husband would be fined for murder if he killed an adulteress, let the proof have been ever so plain. Even for accidental homicide a Chief will occasionally fine the perpetrator,—though in such case the law does not hold him to be guilty. For adultery there is a fine of cattle, great or small in accordance with the rank of the injured husband. Rape is fined, the cattle going to the husband, if the woman be married. If a girl be seduced, the seducer is fined,—perhaps three head of cattle. The young man probably has not got three head of cattle. Then his older friends pay for him. Among Kafir customs there are some which might find approbation with a portion of our European communities. It cannot, at any rate, be said that the Kafirs have a bloody code.
All theft is punished by a fine of cattle, the fine being moderated if the property stolen be recovered. But the fine is great or small according to the rank of the injured person. If a Chief have been robbed general confiscation of every thing is the usual result of detection. The fine is paid to the injured person. A Chief cannot be prosecuted for theft by one of his own tribe. The children of Chiefs are permitted to steal from people of their own tribe, and no action can be brought against them. Should one be taken in the fact of so stealing and be whipped, or beaten, all the property of the whipper or beater may be confiscated by the Chief. There was a tribe some years ago in which there were so many royal offshoots, that not a garden, not a goat was safe. A general appeal was made to the paramount Chief and he decided that the privilege should in future be confined to his own immediate family.
For wilful injury a man has to pay the full amount of damage; but for accidental injury he pays nothing. This seems to be unlike the general Kafir theory of law. There is no fine for trespass; the idea being that as all lands are necessarily and equally open, the absence of any recovery on account of damage is equal to all. When fencing has become common this idea will probably vanish. If cattle that are trespassing be driven off and injured in the driving, fines can be recovered to the amount of the damage done.
When illness comes a doctor is to be employed. Should death ensue without a doctor a fine is imposed,—which goes to the Chief.
There are many religious rites and ceremonies and many laws as to cleanness and uncleanness; but it would hardly interest the reader were I to describe them at length. At the age of puberty, or what is so considered among the Kafirs, both boys and girls go through certain rites by which they are supposed to be introduced to manhood and woman-hood. There is much in these ceremonies which is disgusting and immoral, and it has been the anxious endeavours of missionaries to cause their cessation. But such cessation can only come by the gradual adoption of European manners. Where the Kafirs have lived in close connexion with the Europeans many of these customs have already been either mitigated or abandoned.
When a child dies but little notice is taken of the circumstance. Among adults, the dying man or woman, when known to be dying, is taken away to die in a ditch. So at least the Rev. Mr. Dugmore says in one of the papers from which I am quoting. When death has occurred the family become unclean and unable to mix in society for a certain period. It used to be the custom to cast the dead body forth to be devoured by beasts, the privilege of burial being only accorded to the Chiefs. But now all are buried under the ground, a hole being dug not far from the hut. The funeral of a Chief is attended with many ceremonies, his arms and ornaments being buried with him. Friends are appointed to watch by the grave,—for longer or lesser periods according to the rank of the deceased. If he have been a great Chief, the period is sometimes a year, during which the watchers may do nothing but watch. These watchers, however, become sacred when the watch is done. Cattle are folded upon the grave which may never after be slaughtered;—nor can anything be done with their increase till the last of the original cattle have died. The grave of the Chief becomes a sanctuary at which an offender may take refuge. The death of the Chief is made known to all other Chiefs around,—who shave their heads and abstain for a time from the use of milk. From all which it may be seen that a Kafir Chief is considered to be a very big person.
Justice is administered by the Chief assisted by Councillors. The Chief, however, is not absolutely bound by the advice of his Councillors. He is compelled to some adhesion to justice or to the national laws by the knowledge that his tribe will dwindle and depart from him if he gives unbearable offence. Cases of gross injustice do occur;—but on the whole the Kafir Chiefs have endeavoured to rule in accordance with Kafir customs. A certain amount of arbitrary caprice the people have been willing to endure;—but they have not been as long-suffering as th