Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T05:08:42.622Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WAR, RACISM, AND THE TAKING OF HEADS: REVISITING MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE CAPE COLONY AND WESTERN XHOSALAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2015

DENVER A. WEBB
DENVER A. WEBB*
Affiliation:
University of Fort Hare
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The emergence of scientific racism and the taking of heads and skulls in the nineteenth-century colonial wars in Southern Africa have received limited attention from historians. Closer examination of head-taking in colonial wars fought in the western parts of Xhosaland and the Cape Colony suggests that the rise of scientific racism alone does not explain the complex interplay between military discourse on Africans, atrocities committed, and commonplace racial attitudes. A detailed examination of the incidents of head-taking in the colonial conflicts against the Xhosa indicates the practice evolved over time, had several causes, and became an increasingly common part of the construction and re-enforcement of a racial identity and culture of domination by British and colonial soldiers. It also suggests that for the Xhosa, the taking of heads was a behaviour acquired from the British.

Keywords

South Africaracismviolencewarmilitary
Type
Conflict and Power in South Africa
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 37 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to extend a word of appreciation to Gary Minkley and Jeff Peires for encouragement, guidance, and support in the preparation of this article. Financial assistance for this research from the NRF (SARChI) through the University of Fort Hare is also gratefully acknowledged. The comments by anonymous readers of The Journal of African History are also appreciated. Author's email: [email protected]

References

1 See, for example, Bundy, C., ‘Lesson on the frontier: aspects of Eastern Cape history’, Kronos, 30 (2004), 12Google Scholar. For discussion of the influence of the Cape's eastern frontier in the evolution of racial attitudes, see Crais, C., The Making of the Colonial Order:White Supremacy and Black Resistance in the Eastern Cape, 1770–1865 (Johannesburg, 1992)Google Scholar; Crais, C., The Politics of Evil: Magic, State Power and the Political Imagination in South Africa (Cambridge, 2002)Google Scholar; Elphick, R. and Giliomee, H., ‘The origins and entrenchment of European dominance at the Cape, 1652–c. 1840’, in Elphick, R. and Giliomee, H. (eds.), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652–1840 (2nd edn, Cape Town, 1989), 521–66Google Scholar; Legassick, M., ‘The frontier tradition in South African historiography’, in Marks, S. and Atmore, A. (eds.), Economy and Society in Pre-industrial South Africa (London, 1980), 44–79Google Scholar; Keegan, T., Colonial South Africa and the Origins of the Racial Order (Charlottesville, VA, 1996)Google Scholar; Switzer, L., Power and Resistance in an African Society: The Ciskei Xhosa and the Making of South Africa (Madison, WI, 1993)Google Scholar.

2 Saunders, C., ‘The Hundred Years War: some reflections on African resistance on the Cape-Xhosa frontier’, in Chanaiwa, D. (ed.), Profiles in Self-Determination: African Responses to European Colonialism in Southern Africa, 1652–Present (Northridge, IL, 1976), 55–77Google Scholar.

3 ‘Rude not to inform traditional leaders of Charles’s visit', Daily Dispatch (East London), 4 Nov. 2011.

4 ‘Holomisa is angry at royal snub’, Daily Dispatch, 7 Nov. 2011; ‘Britain called on to say sorry’, Daily Dispatch, 15 Dec. 2011.

5 Lalu, P., The Deaths of Hintsa: Postapartheid South Africa and the Shape of Recurring Pasts (Cape Town, 2009), 1–7Google Scholar; Mkhize, N., ‘Nicholas Gcaleka and the search for Hintsa's skull’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 35:1 (2009), 211–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See, for example, R. S. Ehlers, ‘“This land is ours!” the shaping of Xhosa resistance to European expansion along the Cape Colony's eastern frontier, 1770–1820’ (unpublished MA thesis, University of Florida, 1992); J. A. Hopper, ‘Xhosa-Colonial relations, 1770–1803’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Yale University, 1980); Maclennan, B., A Proper Degree of Terror: John Graham and the Cape's Eastern Frontier (Johannesburg, 1986)Google Scholar; Milton, J., The Edges of War: A History of the Frontier Wars 1702–1878 (Cape Town, 1983)Google Scholar; Mostert, N., Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People (London, 1993)Google Scholar; Peires, J. B., The House of Phalo: A History of the Xhosa People in the Days of their Independence (Johannesburg, 1981)Google Scholar; Peires, J. B., The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement 1856–7 (Johannesburg, 1989)Google Scholar; Smith, K., Harry Smith's Last Throw: The Eighth Frontier War 1850–1853 (London, 2012)Google Scholar; Smith, K., The Wedding Feast War: The Final Tragedy of the Xhosa People (London, 2012)Google Scholar; Smithers, A. J., The Kaffir Wars 1779–1877 (London, 1973)Google Scholar. M. W. Spicer, ‘The war of Ngcayecibi 1877–8’ (unpublished MA thesis, Rhodes University, 1978); Stapleton, T., Maqoma: Xhosa Resistance to Colonial Advance (Johannesburg, 1994)Google Scholar; T. J. Stapleton, ‘Maqoma: Xhosa resistance to the advance of colonial hegemony (1798–1873)’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Dalhousie University, 1993). As a starting point, it is valuable to note that the term ‘Eastern Frontier’ or ‘Cape's eastern frontier’ as used by some writers is problematic when seen from the Xhosa perspective. See, for example, Giliomee, H., ‘The Eastern Frontier, 1770–1812’, in Elphick, and Giliomee, (eds.), Shaping of South African Society, 421–71Google Scholar. The conflict was obviously in the westerly parts of Xhosaland (emaXhoseni).

7 For scientific racism in South Africa, see Dubow, S., Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa (Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar; Z. Magubane, ‘From noble savage to native problem: images of South African blacks in British colonial discourse, 1806–1910’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1997); and Magubane, Z., Bringing the Empire Home: Race, Class, and Gender in Britain and Colonial South Africa (Chicago, 2004)Google Scholar.

8 Bank, A., ‘Of “native skulls” and “noble Caucasians”: phrenology in colonial South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 22:3 (1996), 387–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bunn, D., ‘Morbid curiosities: mutilation, exhumation, and the fate of colonial painting’, Transforming Anthropology, 8:1/2 (1999), 39–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harrison, S. J., ‘Skulls and scientific collecting in the Victorian military: keeping the enemy dead in British frontier warfare’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50:1 (2008), 285–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Morris, A. G., ‘Trophy skulls, museums and the San’, in Skotnes, P. (ed.), Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Bushmen (Cape Town, 1996), 67–79Google Scholar.

9 Harrison, S., ‘Skull trophies in the Pacific War: transgressive objects of remembrance’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 12:4 (2006), 817–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 ‘Hegemony’, for the purposes of this article, follows the work of Jean and John Comaroff and Jennifer Cooper as a stage where many of the colonised accept the structures and knowledge systems of the coloniser. In this sense, establishing domination is a precursor to hegemony. See Comaroff, J. L. and Comaroff, J., Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa, Volume I (Chicago, 1991), 21–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cooper, J., ‘The invasion of personal religious experiences: London Missionary Society missionaries, imperialism, and the written word in early nineteenth-century southern Africa’, Kleio, 34 (2002), 50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Forester, T., Everard Tunstall: A Tale of the Kaffir Wars, Volume I (London, 1851), xi–xiiGoogle Scholar.

12 Lester, A., Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain (London, 2001), ixGoogle Scholar.

13 Arndt, J., ‘Treacherous savages & merciless barbarians: knowledge, discourse and violence during the Cape frontier wars’, Journal of Military History, 74:3 (2010), 710–11Google Scholar.

14 Ibid. 734–5.

15 ‘Instructions given to Landdrost Bresler by Governor Macartney’, 20 June 1797 in Theal, G. M., Records of the Cape Colony from December 1799 to December 1799, Volume II (henceforth, RCC II) (London, 1898)Google Scholar, 98.

16 Barrow, J., Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, Volume I (London, 1806), 415Google Scholar; Letter by Brigadier General T. P. Vandeleur to Acting Governor F. Dundas, 3 Aug. 1799 in RCC II, 456; letter by Major General F. Dundas to Governor Sir George Yonge, 20 Feb. 1800 in G. M. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony from December 1799 to May 1801, Volume III (London, 1898), 50 and 56.

17 Maclennan, Proper Degree, 80, 97, 112, and 124–5.

18 Keegan, Colonial South Africa, 149.

19 Maclennan, Proper Degree, 97 and 109; Letter by Lieutenant Colonel J. Graham, 2 Jan. 1812, letter by Lieutentant Colonel J. Graham to Military Secretary Reynell, 8 Jan. 1812; and letter by Lieutenant Colonel Graham, 26 Feb. 1812 in G. M. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony from March 1811 to October 1812, Volume VIII (London, 1901), 237, 239–41, and 286.

20 Examples of the former category include Alexander, J. E., Excursions in Western Africa and Narrative of a Campaign in Kaffir-Land on the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Volumes I and II (London, 1840)Google Scholar; King, W. R., Campaigning in Kaffirland or Scenes and Adventures in the Kaffir War of 1851–2 (London, 1855)Google Scholar; Munro, W., Records of Service and Campaigning in Many Lands, Volume I (London, 1887)Google Scholar; Napier, E. E., Excursions in Southern Africa, Including a History of the Cape Colony, Volumes I and II (London, 1849 & 1850)Google Scholar. Amongst the regulars who became colonists were J. McKay, Reminiscences of the Last Kafir War (facsimile reprint, Cape Town, 1970 [orig. pub. 1871]); and le Cordeur, B. (ed.), The Journal of Charles Lennox Stretch (Cape Town, 1988)Google Scholar. The latter category includes career soldier Bisset, J., Sport and War or Recollections of Fighting and Hunting in South Africa from the Years 1843 to 1867 (London, 1875)Google Scholar; the burgher P. P. J. Coetser, Gebeurtenisse uit di Kaffer-Oorloge fan 1834–1835–1846–1850–1853 (facsimile reprint, Cape Town, 1963 [orig. pub. 1897]); and numerous irregulars like Thomas Stubbs in Maxwell, W. A. and McGeogh, R. M. (eds.), The Reminiscences of Thomas Stubbs Including Men That I Have Known (Cape Town, 1978)Google Scholar.

21 Ward, H., Five Years in Kaffirland: with Sketches of the Late War in that Country to the Conclusion of Peace, Volumes I and II (London, 1848)Google Scholar; Ward, H., The Cape and the Kaffirs: a Diary of Five Years’ Residence in Kaffirland; … and Most Recent Information Regarding the Colony (3rd edn, London, 1851)Google Scholar. For some of Ward's significance, see F. H. Fourie, ‘Responses to imperialism of four women writers at the Cape eastern frontier in the nineteenth century’ (unpublished MA thesis, University of Witwatersrand, 1995); Letcher, V., ‘Harriet Ward: trespassing beyond the borders’, English in Africa, 26:1 (1999), 1–16Google Scholar; Letcher, V., ‘Five Years in Kaffirland: Harriet Ward, ‘Frederick I'Ons and nineteenth-century ways of looking at South Africa’, English in Africa, 29:1 (2002), 5–25Google Scholar.

22 See, for example, Shipp, J., Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp, Written by Himself (London, 1829)Google Scholar; Ex-C. M. R. [Granville, A.], With the Cape Mounted Rifles: Four Years Service in South Africa (London, 1881)Google Scholar; Gordon-Brown, A. (ed.), The Narrative of Private Buck Adams … on the Eastern Frontier of the Cape of Good Hope 1843–1848 (Cape Town, 1941)Google Scholar.

23 Rose, C., Four Years in Southern Africa (London, 1829), viGoogle Scholar, 70.

24 Boyden, P. B. (ed.), The British Army in Cape Colony: Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries, 1806–58 (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

25 Bank, A., ‘The return of the noble savage: the changing image of Africans in Cape colonial art, 1800–1850’, South African Historical Journal, 39:1 (1998), 25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Bisset, Sport and War, 66.

27 McKay, Reminiscences, 150.

28 Ibid. 101, 106–8; King, Campaigning, 92–6.

29 Dickens, C. (ed.), The Household Narrative of Current Events, 28 Apr.–27 May 1852 (London, 1852), 114Google Scholar.

30 Gordon-Brown, Narrative of Buck Adams, 239; Lucas, T. J., Camp Life and Sport in South Africa: Experiences of Kaffir Warfare with the Cape Mounted Rifles (facsimile reprint, Johannesburg, 1975 [orig. pub. 1878])Google Scholar, 177; Wood, E., From Midshipman to Field Marshal, Volume I (London, 1906), 314Google Scholar.

31 Editorial, Graham's Town Journal, 18 Jan. 1851.

32 Napier, Excursions, II, 228.

33 G. Everson (ed.), ‘The Whitle letters, 1847–49’ (unpublished typescript copy of the letters of Ensign Robert Whitle of the 91st Regiment in author’s possession), letter by Ensign Whitle to his parents, Sept. 1847. Copy of typescript given to author by Gordon Everson; copy also deposited by Everson at National Army Museum, London under accession number NAM 1988-03-04.

34 Bank, ‘Of “native skulls”’, 387–403. See also Magubane, ‘From noble savage to native problem’, 192–244 for a general discussion of the influence of phrenology.

35 Bank, ‘Of “native skulls”’, 388.

36 Ibid. 401–2.

37 Ibid. 402.

38 Knox, R., The Races of Men: A Fragment (Philadelphia, PA, 1850), 158CrossRefGoogle Scholar and 181.

39 Cited by Callanan, L., Deciphering Race: White Anxiety, Racial Conflict and the Turn to Fiction in Mid-Victorian English Prose (Columbus, OH, 2006), 161Google Scholar.

40 Curtin, P. D., The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780–1850, Volume II (Madison, WI, 1964), 377–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dubow, Scientific Racism, 27.

41 King, Campaigning in Kaffirland, 271.

42 Harrison, ‘Skull trophies in the Pacific War’, 827.

43 Le Cordeur, Journal of Charles Lennox Stretch, 96; Justus, , Wrongs of the Caffre Nation (London, 1837), 224–7Google Scholar. Evidence of how witnesses in the inquiry were suborned can be found in Cory Library, PR3563/3 R. J. Halse, autobiographical manuscript, 31–2.

44 Godlonton, R., A Narrative of the Irruption of the Kafir Hordes into the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope, 1834–35 (Grahamstown, 1836), 156Google Scholar.

45 Soga, J. H., The South-Eastern Bantu (Abe-Nguni, Aba-Mbo, Ama-Lala) (Johannesburg, 1930), 196Google Scholar.

46 Ward, Five Years, II, 333.

47 Ward, Cape and the Kaffirs, 220.

48 I am indebted to Jeff Peires for drawing my attention to this. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 41, note 66; Cory Library, PR3563, H. J. Halse, autobiographical manuscript, 20.

49 Interview with amaQwathi chiefs at Askeaton by Wandile Kuse and Denver Webb, 12 Sept. 2013. For the 1880–1 Transkei Rebellion, see Saunders, C. C., ‘The Transkei Rebellion of 1880–81: a case study of Transkeian resistance to white control’, South African Historical Journal, 8:1 (1976), 32–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Napier, E. E., ‘Suggestive remarks on the present Kaffir war’, Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, Part 2 (London, 1851), 327Google Scholar.

51 Ibid. 330.

52 Graham's Town Journal, ‘Government Notice’, 4 Jan. 1851.

53 Godlonton, R. and Irving, E., Narrative of the Kaffir War 1850–1851–1852 (facsimile reprint, Cape Town, 1969 [orig. pub. 1852]), 91–2Google Scholar.

54 Moore Smith, G. C. (ed.), The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Volume II (London, 1902), 263Google Scholar.

55 Harrison, ‘Skulls and scientific collecting’, 285.

56 Ibid. 290.

57 Lucas, Camp Life and Sport, 140.

58 Harrison, ‘Skull trophies’, 825–6.

59 Everson, ‘Whitle letters’, letter by Ensign Whitle to his father Captain R. Whitle, 9 Nov. 1847.

60 Ibid.; Everson, ‘Whitle letters’, letter by Ensign Whitle to his father Captain R. Whitle, 14 Nov. 1847.

61 Lakeman, S., What I Saw in Kaffir-Land (London, 1880), 94Google Scholar.

62 Ibid. 94–5. The mysterious Dr A--- for whom the two dozen heads were procured deserves to be named after all these years. Surgeon Thomas Alexander is the only surgeon of the regiment at the time fitting the description. See Wallace, N. W., A Regimental Chronicle and List of Officers of the 60th or the King's Own Royal Rifle Corps (London, 1879), 227–30Google Scholar.

63 Hummel, C. (ed.), The Frontier War Journal of Major John Crealock 1878 (Cape Town, 1989), 163–7Google Scholar.

64 Ibid. 164; Harrison, ‘Skulls and scientific collecting’, 289.

65 Nienaber, C., Steyn, M., and Hutter, L., ‘The grave of King Mgolombane Sandile Ngqika: revisiting the legend’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 63:187 (2008), 50Google Scholar.

66 Gawler, J. C., British Troops and Savage Warfare: with Special Reference to the Kafir Wars: a Lecture Delivered at the Royal United Service Institution (London, 1873), 1Google Scholar.

67 The number of narratives by officers of hunting and fighting in the Cape Colony is large. See, for example, Drayson, A. W., Sporting Scenes Amongst the Kaffirs of South Africa (London, 1858)Google Scholar, v; Lakeman, What I Saw, 119–32; Lucas, Camp Life and Sport, 84–5; Streatfeild, F. N., Kafirland: A Ten Months’ Campaign (London, 1879), 91–2Google Scholar; 159–60, and 277; Wood, From Midshipman, I, 104, 107, 110, 221, and 230.

68 Mitford Barberton, I., Commandant Holden Bowker (Cape Town, 1970), 49–51Google Scholar.

69 Everson, ‘Whitle letters’, letter by Ensign Whitle to his parents, Sept. 1847.

70 Peires, Dead Will Arise, 20.

71 Molyneux, W. C. F., Campaigning in South Africa and Egypt (London, 1896), 63Google Scholar; Gawler, British Troops, 4; Hummel, Journal of Crealock, 16 and 81.

72 Harrison, ‘Skull trophies’, 817–18.

73 Ibid. 818, 820, and 826.

74 Barrow, Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, I, 120; Rose, Four Years, 87; Napier, Excursions, II, 268.

75 ‘How we buried Sandile’, Cape Mercury, 12 June 1878.

76 Streatfeild, Ten Months' Campaign, 271.

77 Ibid. frontispiece.

78 Morris, ‘Trophy skulls’, 75.

79 Bunn, ‘Morbid curiosities’, 40.

80 Cunynghame, A. T., My Command in South Africa, 1874–1878: Comprising Experiences of Travel in the Colonies of South Africa and the Independent States (London, 1879), 320–1Google Scholar.

81 ‘Occasional notes’, Cape Argus, 23 July 1878; Milton, Edges of War, 281.

82 Harrison, ‘Skulls and scientific collecting’, 299.

83 Ibid. 290.

84 Smith, Harry Smith's Last Throw, 241.

85 Lester, Imperial Networks, 63–4; Keegan, Colonial South Africa, 141.

86 Godlonton, Narrative of Irruption, 1834–5.

87 Ward, Five Years, I, 213.

88 Munro, Records of Service, I, 127; Bisset, Sport and War, 61.

89 Ward, Five Years, I, 172.

90 Gordon-Brown, Narrative of Buck Adams, 121–3.

91 British Parliamentary Papers (henceforth BPP), ‘Correspondence with governor of the Cape of Good Hope relative to the state of the Kafir tribes on the Eastern frontier of the Colony’ (Feb. 1847), letter by Major J. H. Gibson to Colonel H. Somerset, 15 Apr. 1846, 119; ‘Frontier Affairs’ and ‘Despatches’, Graham’s Town Journal, 25 April 1846.

92 White, L., ‘The traffic in heads: bodies, borders, and the articulation of regional histories’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23:2 (1997), 325–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar provides an interesting analysis of the rumours of a modern trade in body parts and children's heads in Southern Africa.

93 Soga, J. H, The Ama-Xosa: Life and Customs (Lovedale, 1931), 66–7Google Scholar.

94 Peires, Dead Will Arise, 23.

95 Ibid. 40, fn. 62.

96 Ibid. 4; T. Dold and M. Cocks, ‘Mlanjeni's war charms – Ikhubalo likaMlanjeni’, Veld & Flora (Mar. 2006), 26–7.

97 Everson, ‘Whitle letters’, letter by Ensign Whitle to his father Captain R. Whitle, 6 Dec. 1847.

98 Ward, Five Years, II, 309–10.

99 Ward, Cape and the Kaffirs, 211–12 and 235–6.

100 Bisset, Sport and War, 102.

101 Coetser, Gebeurtenisse, 16–17.

102 BPP, ‘Correspondence with governor of the Cape of Good Hope relative to the State of the Kafir Tribes on the Eastern Frontier of the Colony’ (Feb. 1848), letter by General G. Berkeley to Governor H. Pottinger, 16 Nov. 1847, 149.

103 ‘Original correspondence’, Graham's Town Journal, 11 Dec. 1847.

104 Fleming, F., Kaffraria and Its Inhabitants (London, 1853), 40–1Google Scholar.

105 Brownlee, W. T., Reminiscences of a Transkeian (Pietermaritzburg, 1975), 30–1Google Scholar.

106 Ibid. 31.

107 Bisset, Sport and War, 149–50. Bisset, although present at the scene a day after the defeat of the patrol, was wounded, delirious, and being carried by his men.

108 Godlonton and Irving, Narrative of the Kaffir War, 51.

109 Ibid. 76.

110 Ibid. 153.

111 Graham's Town Journal Extra, 14 Jan. 1851.

112 Staples, I., Narrative of Eighth Frontier War of 1851 to 1853, ed. de Villiers, J. (Pretoria, 1974), 11Google Scholar.

113 Cory Library, PR 3563/3, Halse, autobiography manuscript, 20.

114 Le Cordeur, Journal Charles Lennox Stretch, 95–6. Campbell seems to have been the one who publicized the incident in the local newspaper. See evidence of Dr Campbell, A. in Copy of Minutes of Proceedings, the Court of Inquiry, Held at Fort Willshire … to Investigate and Report Upon the Circumstances Attendant on the Fate of the Caffer Chief Hintza (Cape Town, 1837), 1–2Google Scholar.

115 ‘Occasional notes’, Cape Argus, 23 July 1878.