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A Case of Painstaking Planning and Preparation: the reception of the 1907 deputation of Basuto Chiefs in Britain
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2022
Extract
Accounts of the 1907 deputation of Basuto chiefs to Britain have tended to focus on events in South Africa prior to the deputation's departure, and on the negotiations which took place once the deputation was in Britain. Less attention has been paid to the planning and preparation by sympathisers in Britain in anticipation of the arrival of the deputation in the metropole.
The chiefs were from the Batlokoa and Bakhulukwe chiefdoms. They travelled to Britain to pursue a grievance concerning their being dispossessed of large tracts of land which they and their followers had previously occupied in the Orange River Colony (ORC) in South Africa. When they arrived in Britain in January 1907 there was a readymade support network waiting for them. This article seeks to explain how the chiefs came to benefit from such a well organised reception in Britain.
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References
Notes
1 Mathurin, Owen Charles, Henry Sylvester Williams and the Origins of the Pan-African movement 1869-1911 (Westport, Connecticut; London, England: Greenwood Press, 1976), pp.132-6Google Scholar;Van Diemel, Raymond , In Search of Freedom Fair Play and Justice: Josiah Tshanguna Gumede 1867-1947: A biography (Belhar [South Africa]: Diemel, R. van, 2001), pp.26-34Google Scholar;Sherwood, Marika, Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and the African diaspora (London: Routledge, 2011), pp.196-201Google Scholar;Colenso, Gwilym , ‘The 1907 Deputation of Basuto Chiefs to London and the Development of British-South African Networks’, International History Review, 36 (4), 2014 pp. 619-52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Though only the Batlokoa were originally from Basutoland, they were referred to collectively as Basuto chiefs.
3 For convenience, LUB will be used in preference to the full acronym, LUBNRA, for the League of Universal Brotherhood and Native Races Association.
4 Van Diemel makes no comment on how contact was established between the deputation and Williams and the LUB. In Search of Freedom, p.32. And Marina Sherwood says of the deputation, “How the LUB came to be involved is a mystery.” Sherwood, Origins, p.197.
5 Mathurin, Sylvester Williams, p.133; Sherwood, Origins, p.197.
6 Keegan, Timothy, ‘White Settlement and Black Subjugation on the South African Highveld: the Tlokoa heartland in the North Eastern Orange Free State ca. 1850-1914’, in Beinart, William , Delius, Peter and Trapido, Stanley (ed) Putting a Plough to the Ground: accumulation and dispossession in rural South Africa, 1850-1930 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1986), pp.218-258Google Scholar;, Colenso ‘The 1907 Deputation’, pp.624-5.Google Scholar
7 Diemel, Van, In Search of Freedom, pp.2-4.Google Scholar
8 Marks, Shula, The Ambiguities of Dependence in South Africa: Class Nationalism and the State in Twentieth-Century Natal (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1986), pp.48-49Google Scholar;Etherington, Norman , Preachers, Peasants and Politics in Southeast Africa, 1835-1880: African Christian communities in Natal, Pondoland and Zululand (London: Royal Historical Society, 1978), pp.172-174.Google Scholar Odendaal, Andre, The Founders: The Origins of the ANC and the Struggle for Democracy in South Africa, (Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media, 2012), p.13.Google Scholar
9 Geiss, Imanuel, The Pan-Africanist Movement: A history of Pan-Africanism in America, Europe and Africa (London: Methuen & Co.,[1968] 1974), chap. 10, pp.176-198Google Scholar;Mathurin, , Henry Sylvester Williams, chap. 5,60-85Google Scholar;Hooker, J. R., ‘The Pan-African Conference 1900’, Transition, 46 (1974), pp.20-24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Henry Sylvester Williams, Imperial Pan-Africanist, (London: Rex Collings, 1975), chaps. 4, 5; Sherwood, Origins, chaps. 5, 6. Gwilym Colenso and Christopher Saunders, ‘New light on the Pan-African Association: Parts I & II’, African Research and Documentation (ARD), nos. 107, 108, 2008, ‘New light on the Pan-African Association of 1900: a further note’, ARD, no. 115, 2011. See also Geiss, Pan-Africanist Movement, p.192; Mathurin, Sylvester Williams, pp.68-69; Report of the Pan-African Conference held on the 23rd, 24th and 25th July, 1900, at Westminster Town Hall, PAR, Pamphlets and Periodicals, Vol. 148, C.1284/44, page facing page 1.
10 Fryer, peter, Staying Power, The History of Black People in Britain (London: Pluto Press, 1984), p.287.Google Scholar
11 Fryer says that Williams was an LUB member from 1906 but cites Mathurin who says it was “probably” in 1906 that he became involved with the LUB. Fryer, Staying Power, p.287; Mathurin, Sylvester Williams, p.132. For Williams’ membership of LUB committee, see LUB headed notepaper, e.g. Charles Garnett to Elgin, 19 Feb. 1907, [The National Archives of the UK: Public Record Office], [Colonial Office] (CO), 224/25/6419, p. 283. LUB headed notepaper before this date did not list committee members. In his letters to the Colonial Office and to Gumede, Williams gives as his address 5 Essex Court, Temple, EC, the same address as that of Daniel Warde who, from at least 1910, appears as the Treasurer on LUB headed notepaper where he is described as “Barrister-at-Law”. It may be in this connection that he made the acquaintance of Williams who qualified as a barrister at Gray’s Inn in London in 1902. Garnett to Sophie Colenso, 11th August, 1910, [Oxford, The Bodleian Library of. Commonwealth and African Studies,] R[hodes] H[ouse], Mss Afr. s. 1285/16 e) fo.59; Mathurin, Sylvester Williams, p.110.
12 The following expands on a section of my, ‘The 1907 deputation’. However, the argument is now developed further on the basis of new evidence that has subsequently come to light.
13 Harriette was the eldest daughter of Bishop John William Colenso.Guy, Jeff, The View Across the River: Harriette Colenso and the Zulu Struggle against Imperialism (Oxford: James Currey, 2002)Google Scholar; Colenso, Gwilym , ‘The Colenso Papers: Documenting “An Extensive Chain of Influence” From Zululand to Britain’, African Research and Documentation, 115, 2011 pp. 3-23.Google Scholar
14 Colenso, ‘The 1907 Deputation’, pp.623-624. They had also worked together in Natal in the late 1880s and early 1890s concerning Zulu affairs (while Gumede was Induna to Dinuzulu), and also, subsequently, in the late 1890s on the setting up of the Natal Native Congress. Van Diemel, In Search of Freedom, pp.15-16.
15 Gumede to Harriette Colenso (translated from Zulu by the University of Cape Town), 11 Oct. 1906, [Pietermaritzburg, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa,] P[ietermaritzburg] A[rchives] Repository], A204.
16 The letters from Williams to Gumede were dated 14, 21, 28 September 1906. We only have copies of the last two of these letters. The first is referred to in Sylvester Williams to Josiah Gumede, 21 Sep 1906, copied by Harriette Colenso in Harriette to Frank Colenso, 30 Nov 1906, RH, MSS. Afr. s.l286/lb, fos. 470, 487-488. Williams to Gumede, 28 Sep 1906, is copied by Agnes Colenso, Harriette’s younger sister, PAR, A204, Vol. 43. The telegram is referred to in Harriette to Frank Colenso, 30 Nov 1906, in which, after quoting from the telegram, Harriette says, “Gumede had not got the cable with him but the above he said was the gist of it… I enclose a copy of the letter to Gumede from H Sylvester Williams of 5 Essex Court”.
17 Harriette to Frank Colenso, 30 Nov 1906, RH, MSS. Afr. s.1286/lb, fos.470, 487-488.
18 See below for details of the petition.
19 Diemel, Van, In Search of Freedom, pp.15-16, 26.Google Scholar
20 One of the LUB secretaries, Charles Garnett, did subsequently travel to South Africa in 1908 to offer his continued support to the Basuto chiefs. On his arrival in Natal he was warmly welcomed by Gumede and attended a meeting with the governor of the ORC along with Gumede and the chiefs. Gumede to Harriette Colenso, 15 Sep 1908, (translated from Zulu by Bridget McBean), PAR, A204. In Harriette Colenso to Frank Colenso, 30 Nov 1906, RH, MSS. Afr. s.1286/lb, fos. 470,487-488, Harriette had alerted her brother to the forthcoming deputation, but he appears not to have been involved in their approach to the Colonial Office. See Colenso, ‘The 1907 Deputation’, pp.631-632.
21 Williams to Elgin, 28 Nov 1906, CO 224/22/44143. That this letter from Williams is the first document in the Colonial Office files concerning the Basuto deputation can be seen by the fact that, in the file note covering the letter, the box entitled ‘Last previous Paper’ is left empty, in contrast to all subsequent files on the matter. The Colonial Office reply is quoted from the draft in this file.
22 Williams to Elgin, 20 Dec 1906, draft of Colonial Office to Williams, 25 Dec 1907, CO 224/22/46982.
23 Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Guardian, 5 Jan 1907. The chiefs arrived in London either on the 3rd or 4th of January, the newspapers on the 5th variously reporting them as arriving ‘yesterday’ (Express, Daily Mirror) or on Thursday which was the 3rd (Guardian). All these papers reported that “The deputation will wait upon Lord Elgin and will probably be received by the King”.
24 Guardian, 8 Jan 1907. The meeting at Exeter Hall took place on 7 January. It was clearly intended to place pressure on the Colonial Office by rousing public opinion, but is mentioned only once and without any comment in the otherwise extensive notes by Colonial Office officials on other aspects of the deputation. CO/417/439/1312. It may be that this meeting was looked on by the officials as an old-style form of humanitarian protest which by then had lost its force. Pickersgill was amongst those who were later to accompany the Basuto chiefs at an interview with Lord Elgin at the Colonial Office. See below.
25 This may have been optimistic press briefing by Williams who was possibly “talking up” the prospects of the deputation. The Express report had begun, ‘The Basuto chiefs [have come] to lay their grievances before the King and are awaiting an audience at Buckingham Place.’ Daily Express, 8 Jan 1907. The photo in the Mirror of Gumede and three chiefs carries a caption with their full names (see Fig 2). The heading above the photo, no doubt also the fruit of Williams’ press briefing, is somewhat premature. The invitation from the Colonial Office for the deputation to meet the Colonial Secretary was not forthcoming until over two weeks later (it was sent on 25 January - see below). Daily Mirror, 8 Jan 1907.
26 LUB to Elgin, 11 Jan 1907, CO 417/449/1622. The letter is signed jointly by Charles Garnett, Ernest Scully, and Evans Darby as joint secretaries of the LUB but is in the hand writing of Scully.
27 A point which there is not room to develop here and which I intend to explore elsewhere.
28 Elgin to LUB, 14 Jan 1907, CO 417/449/1622. This is the first letter from the Colonial Office to the LUB. The meticulous sequencing of file numbers mentioned above (see n 21 above) shows that the Colonial Office could not have written to t he LUB on 7th January as suggested by Sherwood. The author may have intended to refer to the letter of 7 March from the Colonial Office which ends with the words quoted by her and is indeed (in draft) in CO 224/23/7024 referred to in the relevant footnote. Sherwood, ‘Origins’, pp.200, 326, n.77.
29 Scully to Elgin, 18 Jan 1907, The Humble Petition of His Majesty’s Subjects the Batlokoa and Bakulukwe Tribes …’, 29 Jan 1907, CO 417/449/2287. In contrast to their previous letter (see n. 26 above), the LUB letter of 18 Jan is typed, and is signed only by Scully. The LUB letters of January 1907 and the petition have come to light since the publication of my article, ‘The 1907 deputation’ which did not benefit from sight of the original document.
30 Guardian, Times, 19 Jan 1907.
31 ‘The Humble Petition of His Majesty’s Subjects the Batlokoa and Bakulukwe Tribes …’, 29 Jan 1907, pp.10-11.
32 For example, that ‘Sub-chief Mapenene Moloi served with the Zulu Police as Scout with the Drakensburg Defence Force under O C. Zulu Police, Mr Leslie’, ‘The Humble Petition …’, p. 97.
33 ‘The Humble Petition …’, p.96, photos facing p.93. The testimonials as to Gumede’s military service may have been provided in response to William’s request that Gumede should send him ‘any papers showing [that Gumede and the Basuto] were engaged & did serve as Scouts in the late war’ (see above). For a fuller consideration of this petition see Colenso, Gwilym , “A plea ‘to settle peacefully in the lands of our forefathers .. .’:The petition of the 1907 deputation of Basuto chiefs to Britain”, Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, Vol 68 (1), 1 July 2014, pp.82-88.Google Scholar
34 These include: 1) in 1898, a four page memorial on behalf of the African Association (AA), CO/318/293/7321; 2) In 1905, a twenty five page memorial on behalf of “The inhabitants of Cape Coast Castle’ of the Gold Coast, CO/96/439/23207; 3) In 1906, a 56 page document on behalf of ‘The Kings and Chiefs … of the Gold Coast Colony’, CO/96/454/14467. All were printed documents presented to the Colonial Office by Sylvester Williams. The first was signed jointly by Williams and H. M. Joseph, President of the AA. The second states prominently on the title page that it is ‘Presented by H. S. Williams, Esq., Barrister-at-Law’. This most closely resembles the Basuto petition in its language and composition. The third is a compilation of statements and memorials with attached reports and correspondence, including several letters from Williams, and bears the hallmark of his composition.
35 Lord Elgin and Winston Churchill, then Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office.
36 “But”, the comment continued, “it is clearly not in t he power of t he ORC Government to grant either of t he prayers of t he petition [i.e. for a location or the right to buy land in the colony]. There is no crown land on which a location could be established and the law of the ORC does not allow natives to own land.” The point argued by Sylvester Williams was that these legal impediments could be overcome with suitable drafting of the new constitution. See the discussion in my ‘The 1907 deputation’.
37 Selbourne to Elgin, Telegram, 28 Jan 1907, CO 224/23/3564, p.107. Selbourne subsequently claimed unconvincingly, that the matter was not raised when he met a deputation from the same tribes with Gumede in October 1905. Selbourne to Elgin, Telegram, 19 Feb 1907. Printed in conf. print CO 879/106, 874,p.46, no.117.
38 One official suggested that “we can get another copy from the writers” for the purpose. File note by H. W. Just, 22 Jan 1907, CO 417/449/2287.
39 Note dated ‘12/1’, CO 417/449/2287. Unfortunately, the two names after that of Dilke are not clearly decipherable. It seems likely that that the last word in this quotation, although it has a capital ‘B’, is not a surname but is “banner” as in “placard” or “standard”. This makes sense of the “the” before Dilke. In this case it would mean that it was expected that the three named persons will act as a ‘front’ to enable the Africans to gain access to [“invade“] the Colonial Office. To this note, Lord Elgin added his hand written comment, dated the following day, “We have a month before this can happen”.
40 Sir Charles Dilke was a prominent liberal and radical politician who had long supported humanitarian causes including those relating to colonised peoples. From the comment quoted above, it appears that he was among the political radicals and MPs who the Colonial Office expected might be called on to lend their support to causes such as this.
41 See below.
42 Elgin to LUB, 25 Jan 1907, CO 417/449/2287. We note the non committal nature of the meeting offered to the chiefs “to make their acquaintance”. The notion of a “private interview”, possibly an invention of Elgin’s, was presumably intended as a compromise between refusing to see the deputation at all and granting them a formal interview. Elgin later commented in a file note, perhaps rather defensively, “I told the deputation that I was stretching a point in seeing them.” (CO 224/25/4955)
43 Elgin to Selbourne, Telegram, 25 Jan 1907, CO 417/449/2287.
44 See Colonial Office notes of meeting of 29 Jan. 1907 and attendance list, CO 224/23/3564, pp. 106, 112. Elgin’s condition on communication with the press was broadly complied with. The Times named those attending and, with the Guardian, outlined the case put forward but otherwise did not report the content of the discussion. All news reports say that the chiefs “were received in private by Lord Eglin” [my emphasis]. And all reported that Williams explained the case to Lord Elgin, suggesting, again, that it was Williams, rather than the LUB secretaries, who briefed the press on this occasion. Daily Mirror, Guardian, Times, 30 Jan 1907.
45 For reasons to be discussed elsewhere, I suggest that Sylvester Williams did not consider himself to be a member of the “Committee of Englishmen”.
46 Philip Whitwell Wilson was elected MP for St Pancras South in 1906. The report of the Colonial Office meeting in The Times identifies as present, “Mr. Wilson MP (St Pancras)” (The Times, 30 Jan 1907). There were several MPs with the surname Wilson in the 1906 intake but, of the four St Pancras Parliamentary seats, only St Pancras South had an MP with the surname Wilson.
47 We must be cautious in attributing significance to the signatures of witnesses on the petition, as it was dated (by hand) ‘29/1/07’. See Fig 6a. This was the date of the Colonial Office meeting, whereas the petition had been sent or delivered to the Colonial Office ten days prior to this. The petition might have been signed at the meeting. But this is unlikely as two of those signing as witnesses did not attend the meeting and two of those attending (Pickersgill and Barnes) did not witness the document. Furthermore, Chief Lequila, who put his mark to the petition, was not at the meeting. It is more likely that a copy was signed earlier in the day on 29 January and brought to the meeting or, alternatively, the original copy had been signed before it was sent to the Colonial Office and the date was added at the meeting, possibly by a Colonial Office official.
48 See notes 39 and 40 and the related discussion above.
49 See my ‘The 1907 deputation’ for a discussion of how the Colonial Office reaction to the 1907 deputation was influenced by the forthcoming issuing of the new constitution for the ORC.
50 Colenso, Gwilym, ‘Africans meet Queen Victoria’, Quarterly Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, 67 (3), 2013, pp.127-142.Google Scholar