1. Lucas, C.P., The History of South Africa to the Jameson Raid (Oxford, 1899), 91.Google Scholar

2. Theal, G.M., History of South Africa (11 vols. Cape Town, 1984) 7:415–20Google Scholar

3. Orpen, J.M., Reminiscences of Life in South Africa (Cape Town, 1964), 254–56.Google Scholar

4. Walker, Eric A., History of Southern Africa (London, 1957), 280–81Google Scholar; idem., History of South Africa (London, 1928), 290; Agar-Hamilton, J.A.I., The Native Policy of the Voortrekkers, 1836-1858 (Cape Town, 1928), 163–64Google Scholar; Thompson, L.M., “Cooperation and Conflict: the High Veld” in the Oxford History of South Africa, I, ed. Wilson, Monica and Thompson, L.M. (Oxford, 1969), 400.Google Scholar Thompson calls him “Makapane.”

5. Kruger, Paul, The Memoirs of Paul Kruger, (2 vols.; London, 1902) 1: 46–53.Google Scholar

6. Dictionary of South African Biography, 2: 436-37 and 478–79.Google ScholarJackson, is the author of “The History and Political Structure of the Mapele Chiefdom of the Potgietersrus District,” which was submitted but not accepted for a D. Phil, degree, University of the Witwatersrand, 1969.Google Scholar

7. DSAB, 2: 436.Google Scholar Orpen (in Reminiscences, 251) noted as early as 1909 that “the names of the two chiefs are often jumbled up and variously spelled.”

8. Theal, , History, 7: 415.Google Scholar

9. Stow, G.W., ed. G.M., Theal The Native Races of South Africa (London, 1905), 499.Google Scholar

10. Jackson, in DSAB, 2: 478.Google Scholar

11. Theal, , History, 7: 416.Google Scholar

12. Walker, , History of Southern Africa, 281Google Scholar; idem., History of South Africa, 290.

13. Theal, , History, 7: 416.Google Scholar

14. See Schapera, Isaac ed. Livingstone's missionary correspondence, 1841-1856 (London, 1961), 97–98 and 11-12Google Scholar; Orpen, , Reminiscences, 250–51Google Scholar; and de Waal, J.J., “Die verhouding tussen die Blankes, en die Hoofmanne Mokopane en Mankopane in die omgewing van Potgietersrus (1836-1869)”, M.A. thesis University of South Africa, 1978, 84–89.Google Scholar

15. Quoted in Wallis, J.P.R., ed. The Matabele journals of Robert Moffat, 1829-1860 (London, 1945), 377–87.Google Scholar

16. Transvaal Archives Depot, Pretoria, S.S.6, R633/54, declaration of H.J. van Staden and others, 14 May 1854 (actually, 1853).

17. Presumably it was this double standard of justice which made chief Khosilintse complain to Robert Moffat in this vein: “Are we only to obey the word of God because we are black” Are white people not to obey the word of God, because they are white?…You tell us that God may yet punish us and the Bakhatla more than he had done, for having rejected the Gospel. Did those tribes which the Boers have destroyed and made their slaves, reject the Gospel?' (The Matabele journals of Robert Moffat, 377–78).

18. Theal, , History, 7: 417.Google Scholar

19. See Gerdener, T., “Die grootte wat mense geëet het,” Die Brandwag, 18 July 1952.Google Scholar

20. The inscription plate on the monument outside the city hall of Potgietersrus claims that the victims were: “‘Willem Prinsloo, Nellie Prinsloo en 3 kinders. Lourens Bronkhorst. Jan Breedt, Maria Breedt en 3 kinders. Philluppus du Preez.” See Acutt, Nancy C., “Makapaan se gruweldade,” Die Huisgenoot 6 May 1938.Google Scholar

21. Transvaal Archives Depot, S.S.7. 733/54 (hereafter cited as “Pretorius' Report”). Pinnaar, C. (in De Volkstem, 6 January 1980)Google Scholar, who claimed to have visited Moorddrif or Mahalakwena fourteen days after the killings, declared in 1890 (that is to say, some forty-six years after the event) that the heads of the children were smashed against the waggon wheels, and that the men and women were cut to pieces. This is also the version of Acutt, , Die Huisgenoot, 6 May 1938.Google ScholarNel, D., “Die drama van die Makapansgrot (Soos deur die Naturelle vertel),” Die Huisgenoot, 24 March 1933Google Scholar, who obtained his information from Africans living in the area of the killings (in the 1930s), claimed that some parts of the victims were removed for medicinal purposes. The African witness (in Orpen, , Reminiscences, 225) claimed that some of the slain were scalped.Google Scholar

22. Pretorius' Report.

23. Before accepting this account literally, perhaps one should consult, e.g., Ponsonby, A., Falsehood in War-Time (London, 1928), 13-14, 67–70.Google Scholar

24. Nel “Drama,” in his version of the killings differs slightly from that of the African witness' in Orpen, Reminiscences claiming that the meeting between the tribes lasted all day, and that during the meeting Mankopane had said: “The white people are not after the people, but after the captains, and it was time that they killed one of the white leaders.”

25. See Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 3–8.Google Scholar

26. Ibid, vii.

27. The Wesleyan missionary Boyce, W.B. (no enemy of the settlers) in reference to the Cape noted: “The real cause of the Kaffer as well as of other wars, between colonists and aborigines, may be traced to the unjust system of European colonization …or territorial aggression” (Notes on South African affairs [Grahamstown, 1838]), 26, 28.Google Scholar The observation was just as pertinent for the Transvaal.

28. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 27–28.Google Scholar

29. “The Boers, well knowing that they had very little chance of success in dealing with the Meetibele returned homewards: bur unwilling to face their wives without some proof of their prowess, actually fell upon a tribe which had furnished its quota of men for the expedition. The chief secured most of his cattle but a large seizure was made of goats and children, and the latter were separated from their mothers in the same way calves are taken from their dams in the country. The name of the chief is Mankopane, and there was not even the shadow of a pretext for attacking him. Some of these children were sold … almost in sight of the Colony” (Livingstone's Missionary Correspondence, 11-12). An editorial footnote substantiates Livingstone's charge.

30. See Delius, P., “Migrant Labour and the Pedi, 1840-80”, in Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa ed., Marks, Shula and Atmore, Anthony (London, 1980), 297Google Scholar, who claims that one of the factors of “critical importance” inducing the Northern Transvaal tribes to labor migration was a “desire to accumulate guns.” He also has a passage reading: “One of the most detailed descriptions of a returning group is of Transvaal Ndebele, subjects of Mapela [Mankopane]: There were 130 men. They all carried guns over their shoulders” and had besides,‘fifteen horses’.”

31. Livingstone's missionary correspondence, 97.

32. Transvaal Archives Depot, S.S.5, 562e/53, H.J. Potgieter to P.J. Potgieter, 8 September 1853.

33. Breytenbach, J.H., ed., Notule van die Volksraad van die Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek, 1844-1868, numbers 1-6 (Cape Town, 1949–1956), part 2, 153.Google Scholar

34. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 27.Google Scholar

35. Preller, G.S., “Baanbrekers” in Oorlogsoormag en ander sketse en verhale (Cape Town, 1923), 153–54.Google Scholar

36. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 105Google Scholar

37. Ibid, 109.

38. How news reached the other settlers, and how the commandos were formed are succinctly covered by Potgieter, H., “Moord in Makapansvalle,” Vie Brandwag, 3 September 1954Google Scholar, and in detail in Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 100–03.Google Scholar

39. Ibid, 106

40. A good description of the Cave is found S. V. ”Makapansgat” in The Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa, (12 vols.: Cape Town, 1970–1976), 7:124–27Google Scholar

41. The Gold Regions of South East Africa (London, 1877), 68.Google Scholar

42. Dart, Raymond, Adventures With the Missing Link (London, 1959), 44.Google Scholar

43. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 112.Google Scholar

44. Ibid., but Potgieter, Die Brandwag, 3 September 1954, claims the number was 900.

45. Transvaal Archives Depot, S.S.7. R719/54, M.W. Pretorius to S. Schoeman, 12 November 1854.

46. Theal, , History, 7:410Google Scholar

47. Pretorius' Report.

48. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 115.Google Scholar

49. Ibid., 121; Gerdener, , Die Brandwag, 18 July 1952.Google Scholar

50. Theal, , History, 7:419.Google Scholar

51. Dart, , Adventures, 94.Google Scholar

52. Kruger, (Memoirs, 1: 52)Google Scholar stated that “a small portion of them escaped through underground passages into the mountains'; while Dart (94–95) claimed that “numbers [of the Kekana] escaped at night by scaling down the clift from the western entrance on the darkest nights and eluding the guards.”

53. The skeletons in the Cave were gradually ‘dispersed into the homes of sightseers from all over the country’. Six skulls turned up at the Royal College of Surgeon's, London; while local African doctors, for medicinal purposes, used the Cave as a bone store.

54. Dart, , Adventures, 97Google Scholar; Theal, , History, 7: 419.Google Scholar

55. Kruger, (Memoirs, 1: 52)Google Scholar stated that “the chief had disappeared,” whereas Orpen, (Reminiscences, 256)Google Scholar claimed that Mokopane” lived for many years” after the cave siege. Nel “Drama,” claimed that within days after he had survived the siege with some of his followers, “Sejwamadie” [Mokopane] committed suicide by drinking poison. Dart, , Adventures 92Google Scholar, agrees with Orpen.

56. Memoirs, 1: 53.Google Scholar Maraba was supposed to have been a friendly chief, but the attack--even to some contemporaries--appeared gratuitous, so much so that Schoeman, S.J., a commander, was forced to write the following letter to The Friend of the Free State and the Bloemfontein Gazette (28 April 1855)Google Scholar: “The Kafir Captain Maraba--during the whole campaign … against Makapaan, and the other hordes--furnished shelter to the bloodthirsty people of Makapaan and Mapele, … the said Maraba, who wears the mask of friendship, is guilty of the blood of women and children; and that by his people the defenceless children were delivered over to those devils incarnate to be most shockingly butchered, boiled in pots, and their flesh devoured by them, and that Maraba makes constant reports to our declared enemies, regarding the situation and proceedings of the commando; by all which I was led to look upon him as one of the chief murderers. All this, and much more, compelled us to march against these blood thirsty cannibals, and to drive them out of the bush, before they should have perpetrated a second deed of horror. And after effecting this, we found several articles belonging to the murdered women and children, in their town; many of them stained with blood, and full of assegai stabs: and what I have done I will make known to the world.

Let any who will, speak openly against it, and like an honest man, give his name. I am, &c.”

57. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 118.Google Scholar

58. Ibid., 126–27. In 1857 landdrost A. du Toit complained to Pretorius that there were not any volunteers coming forward for an expedition against Mankopane. some of the Farmers even went so far as to blame Mankopane's “rebelliousness” on Pretorius (Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 133).Google Scholar

59. With the Boers in the Transvaal and Orange Free State in 1880 (London, 1882), 59.Google Scholar

60. History of South Africa (1928), 290.Google ScholarTheal, , slightly more circumspect, observed that it was hoped that the punishment inflicted on Mokopane would deter his confederate “from committing any acts of violence against Europeans for a long time to come” (History, 7: 420).Google Scholar

61. Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 191.Google Scholar

62. Kruger, , Memoirs, 2: 48.Google Scholar Nel, “Drama,” claimed that everyone definitely recognized that Potgieter's skin was entirely removed.

63. “In die verhouding tussen Mankopane en die blankes kan ‘n mens nie anders as om groot agting vir Mankopane as persoon te he nie’ (In the relations between Mankopane and the whites one cannot but have great respect for Mankopane as an individual” (Waal, De, “Verhouding,” 191).Google Scholar