Griqua Government

African Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 1, 1974, Pages 25-42

  Ross, Robert ^a  

^a ST JOHN S COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84871348083     PISSN: 00020184     EISSN: 14692872     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00020187408707420     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. An earlier version of this paper was presented to a Seminar the School of African Studies at the University of Cape Town. I owe much to comments made on that occasion, and subsequently by Martin Legassick and Graham Harding.
2. M. Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard, eds, African Political Systems (Oxford, 1940).
3. See, for example, ibid., p. 1, and B. Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (London, 1923), 466'.
4. Shula Marks, ‘ African and Afrikaner historiography’, Journal of African History 11, 1970, p. 443, citing Monica Wilson, “The Hunters and Herders‘’ in, M. Wilson and L. Thompson, eds, Oxford History of South Africa I (Oxford, 1969), pp. 58–59.
5. See, for example, Keith Thomas, ‘History and anthropology’, Past and Present 24, 1963, and also such works as his Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost (London, 1965), and Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England; A Regional and Comparative Survey (London, 1970).
6. William Dower, “History of the 40 Years Money Claim” in, Cape Archives (hereafter C.A.) C.M.K. 1/140.
7. These are to be found in the Cape Archives Griqualand Oost (hereafter simply G.O.) files.
8. G.O. 10.
9. William Dower, The Early Annals of Kokstad and Griqualand East (Port Elizabeth, 1902), p. 50.
10. See D. Arnot and F. H. Orpen, The Land Question in Griqualand West (Cape Town, 1875), pp. 191–94, 270. The original of the 1835 treaty is in G.O. 2.
11. This is in C.A. G.W.L.C. 34.
12. Among the most important of these are Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805 and 1806 2 ed. (Cape Town, 1930–1), William Burchell, Travels in Southern Africa ed. by I. Schapera, (London, 1953), James Backhouse, A Narrative of a Visit to Mauritius and South Africa (London, 1844), R. G. Cumming, Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior of Southern Africa 2 vols, (London, 1856), N. J. Merriman, The Kaffir, the Hottentot and the Frontier Farmer (London, 1853), and J. J. Freeman, A Tour in South Africa (London, 1853).
13. P. R. Kirby, ed., The Diary of Dr. Andrew Smith 2 vols (Cape Town, 1939–40).
14. The Rev. John Campbell, Travels in South Africa (London, 1815).
15. For a more detailed exposition of these themes, see Robert Ross, “Griqua Power and Wealth; An Analysis of the Paradoxes of Their Interrelationship”, Paper presented to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, South African Seminar, 1972.
16. For instance, Kok claimed that, in 1862, the Griquas had 200 000 sheep. (Kok to Wodehouse, 28 March 1862, Cape Parliamentary Paper (hereafter C.P.P.) G53'62, 18.) In the 1878 census, published in C.P.P. G17'78, the Griquas were credited with 6 210 sheep.
17. This information has been gleaned from the Land Grants in East Griqualand in G.O. 10 and 11.
18. C.P.P. G5879, 50.
19. Dower, Early Annals, pp. 17, 19.
20. G.O. 3, 6 June 1872.
21. G.O. 10 June 1872, C.P.P. G3776, 63–4.
22. 22By far the best general history of the Griquas is to be found in J. S. Marais, The Cape Coloured People, 1652–1937 ; repr. (Johannesburg, 1968), Ch. 2. For the period up to 1840 see M. C. Legassick, The Griqua, the Sotho-Tswana and the Missionaries; The Politics of a Frontier Zone (Ann Arbor, Microfilms, 1969). (U.C.L.A. Ph.D. thesis)
23. On Le Fleur, see J. J. Leeuwenburg, “The Griqua Reformation Movement”, Paper presented to the South African Seminar, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, 1971.
24. Dower, Early Annals, p. 73, Marais, Cape Coloured People, p. 37, and G. W. Stow in, Cape Monthly Magazine, August 1872.
25. Published in C.P.P. G58'79. The original is in G.O. 2.
26. This is not to say, of course, that they actually possess such characteristics. Schapera, for instance, uses “tribe” in the southern African context purely as a locally used synonym for “political community”. See I. Schapera, Government and Politics in Tribal Societies (London, 1956), Ch. 1.
27. See, for instance, David Easton, “Political Anthropology” in, Bernard Siegel, ed., Biennial Peview of Anthropology (Stanford, 1957), or Morton H. Fried, “Anthropology and the Study of Politics” in, Sol Tax, ed., Horizons in Anthropology (Chicago, 1964).
28. On these groups, see Marais, Cape Coloured People, Ch. 3, J. A. Engelbrecht, The Korana (Cape Town, 1936), and Heinrich Vedder, South West Africa in Early Times (London, 1938).
29. Robert Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (London, 1842), p. 200, and Legassick, The Griqua, p. 222.
30. P. R. Kirby, ed., The Diary of Dr. Andrew Smith I (Cape Town, 1939), p. 72.
31. Minute of a Meeting at Philippolis 26 January 1836, C.A. G.R. 10/35.
32. Atkinson to Directors, 25 December 1837, London Missionary Society Archives (hereafter L.M.S) S.A. Boxes 15/4/B.
33. Cameron to Secretaries, 23 July 1840, Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society Archives, S.A. Box 17.
34. Dower, Early Annals, pp. 45, 82, and G.O. 1, 8–9 March 1871.
35. C.P.P. G58'79, 60–1.
36. Isaac Hughes in, Annual Report of the L.M.S. (London 1853), p. 28.
37. Dower, Early Annals, p. 22, Law 4 of 1838, G.O. 2.
38. Ibid., p. 77.
39. G.O. 1, 8–9 March 1871.
40. Van der Schalk to Freeman, 18 June 1850, L.M.S. 25/1/C. Solomon to Tidman, 8 June 1855, L.M.S. Philip Papers, 3/4/D.
41. Dower, Early Annals, p. 16; and G. P. Stafford and Darby and Tyrrell to Special Commissioners, 27 October 1875, in C.P.P. G37'76, 97–8.
42. Dower, Early Annals, p. 42.
43. G.O. 1, 6 September 1871, and F. W. Rawstome to Assistant Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor, 9 April 1845, C.A. L.G. 204.
44. G.O. 10, claims of his widow.
45. Kok to Governor; 27 January 1829, L.M.S. 11/3/A.
46. Evidence of G. C. Brisley, before the Commission on Native Laws and Customs, C.P.P. G4'83, 512.
47. G.O. 5, 16 August 1870 and 7 September 1870.
48. G.O. 8.
49. C.P.P. G5879, 60–1.
50. Ibid., p. 88.
51. G.O. 2, 10 November 1865.
52. Kirby, ed., The Diary of Dr. Andrew Smith I, pp. 72–73.
53. C.P.P. G58'79, 50, and C.P.P. S.C. 12–73, 111.
54. Dower, Early Annals, pp. 17–19.
55. Marais, Cape Coloured People, p. 65. The original is in G.O. 5. See also C.P.P. G1778, 73, and G21'75, 120.
56. In this analysis, I follow F. G. Bailey, “Decisions by Consensus in Councils and Committees” in, Political Systems and the Distribution of Power (London, 1965), p. 13. (A.S.A. Monographs 2) and Adam Kuper, “Council Structure and Decision Making” in, A. Kuper and A. Richards, eds, Councils in Action (Cambridge, 1971).
57. G.O. 2.
58. G.W.L.C., 28, folder C4, G.W.L.C., 29–32, passim, E. Fischer, Die Rekobotker Bastards und das Bastardierungsproblem beim Menschen (Jena, 1913), p. 232.
59. Appointment of Frederick Krotz, Veld Kornet of Ramah, G.O. 2.
60. Dirk Zwartz to Adam Kok, 8 March 1871, G.O. 5.
61. Unpublished Annexure to the Constitution of 1870, G.O. 2, and Brisley's Memorandum, 17 October 1874, C.P.P. G2175, 74.
62. C.P.P. G58'79, 50.
63. G.O. 3, 10 October 1870, G.O. 1, 7 December 1869, pp. 102–5.
64. G.O. 2, 8 December 1864.
65. G.O. 2, Unpublished Annexure to the Constitution of 1870.
66. G.O. 4, 22 August 1870, C.P.P. G58'79, 50.
67. G.O. 1, 8 December 1868.
68. G.O. 1, 19 October 1864.
69. Legassick, The Griqua, pp. 409–10.
70. Warden to Montagu, 22 October 1847, C.A. G.H. 10/1.
71. G.O. 2, Laws of 16 October 1843 and 8 August 1861, Dower, Early Annals, 67.
72. Windvogel to Kok, 18 January 1866, G.O. 5. See also Philander Gous and 29 others to Kok, 7 November 1871, ib. loc., for a similar, if apparently unsuccessful complaint.
73. Marais, Cape Coloured People, p. 65.
74. Hughes to Tidman, 6 December 1858, L.M.S. 31/1/B, the Rev. J. Mackenzie, Ten Years North of the Orange River (Edinburgh, 1871), p. 6, and C.P.P. G58'79, 51.
75. Journal of Edward Twells, Bishop of the Orange Free State, in the Archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, File E. 26. Much of this money was lost, however, as Kok's debtors for Free State lands defaulted.
76. Hughes to Thompson, 14 May 1855, L.M.S. Philip Papers, 3/4/C.
77. G. C. Brisley's Memorandum, 15 October 1874, C.P.P. G21'75, 72.
78. G.O. 5, September 1870.
79. G.O. 1, 12 July 1874. It was mentioned that this was in consequence of the Kaptyn paying off all his debts to the Government.
80. G.O. 2, for 1852.
81. G.O. 1, 7 March 1870, Strachan to Brisley, 27 June 1871, G.O. 5.
82. G.O. 3, 4 March 1874.
83. G.O. 2, Law 3 of 1838.
84. G.O. 5, folder marked Poswese. There is a facsimile of the stamp in Dower, Early Annals, facing p. 32.
85. C.P.P. G2T75, 112.
86. History I have described the relations for the East Griqualand period in much greater detail in “The Impact of the Griquas on the Politics of the Eastern Transkei”, Paper presented to the Conference on the of the Transkei and Ciskei, Grahamstown, 1973.
87. Evidence of Brisley in C.P.P. G4'83, 511.
88. W. D. Hammond-Tooke, The Tribes of the Mount Frere District (Pretoria, 1956), E. Stafford to Henrique Shepstone, 17 March 1871, enclosed in Keate to Barkly, 10 August 1871, C.A. G.H. 9/9.
89. See above.
90. See above, footnote 10.