Smuts rifles

When it looked like there would be a bit of shooting over the decision to fight with the Empire in 1914, the first thing Jannie Smuts had to deal with was the rifles he had issued to farmers when he had been worried the gold miners in Johannesburg would go on strike; they went on strike once and the government had to back off and he was not going to have that happen again. Now it looked as if those rifles would be used against those who, like him, supported the decision to take out the radio mast at Windhoek. During my research, I was impressed with how quickly and efficiently Smuts recovered most of those weapons, not only weapons but horses as well, the transport system of the Boer Commando. What I enjoyed about the research was that the information was in personal notes and about people and their thoughts, not great issues that overshadowed people. 

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Dead cats at meetings

Further research into Smuts and 1914 revealed that at the start of WW1 the Germans in Namibia, German South West Africa as it was then called, had erected an enormous radio mast at Windhoek, which, on a good day could transmit directly to Berlin. The Royal Navy were concerned that they would send details of the shipping around the Cape and the submarines would close in on the ships in that congested area. Churchill was at the Admiralty and had become friendly with Smuts and suggested approaching the South Africans for help. Smuts and the then President Louis Botha, who had become friendly with Kitchener, agreed. It split the government,some wanting to fight for the Kaiser, and acrimonious meetings were held all over the country at which dead cats were thrown at the platform. Don't ask a South African about this, it is well buried.

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Boer War legacy

In my study of the History of the Cape Corps I was surprised to find the general commanding the British (Empire) forces in East Africa was Jannie Smuts from South Africa. What intrigued me was that, WW1 started in 1914, and thirteen years previously, Jannie Smuts had been ambushing and killing Redcoats with gusto. What had happened in the meantime? It turned out that, because of the generosity of the Brits at the negotiating table, a section of the Boers felt they had been given their land back, not just their land, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republics, but the thing they had dreamed of, a united South Africa from the Limpopo to the Cape and they felt an obligation to support their benefactors.

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Soldier of the King

Linda, in Pniel, showed me a book her father, Davids, had been given, or acquired about the history of his regiment. It was called simply The History of the Cape Corps and traced the origins of the involvement of the men of mixed race in the various struggles in South Africa, up to and including WW1. I must, unfortunately, summarise but the book followed the Cape Corps from South Africa to German East Africa, Tanganyika, and from there to Palestine and finally to police duties in the Middle East when demonstrations and strikes broke out. There were pages missing but I found a copy in the Cape Town archive and copied the pages for Linda to make her copy complete. One comment I remember from the East Africa campaign after some gruelling fighting and slogging it out among the heat and insects was a senior officer commenting that the only soldiers who could sing as they marched were the Cape Corps. I'll tell of what triggered them, but the two books, King or Kaiser and Shadows in the Veldt were to lead up to the creation of the Cape Corps and their WW1 experience. It's on the list, Linda. The picture shows the Pniel church with the grave of the predicant wwho whipped the drunkards in the foreground and the slave bell they erected to remind them of their heritage.
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The man from Tobruk

During our conversations, Linda showed me a picture of her father, called Davids, in his unifrom as a member of the Cape Corps, a regiment manned by men of mixed race, officereed by white men, which was created in 1915 to fight in German East Africa, Tanzania, in WW1. Davids waas at Tobruk with the South Africans in WW2 but don't look for them in any accounts of that seige, they were lumped in with all the other South Africans. Of course after Apartheid was introduced, he was forbidden from marching in the Remembrance Day parade. Nevertheless, he put on his best suit, pinned on his medals and went to salute the parade. His family asked him why he bothered and he answered - no one is going to stop me honouring the comrades who fought and died with me.

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Grape robbers in court

The two boys who stole the grapes in Pniel, were called to appear before a magistrate. If found guilty, they would have a criminal record; a disaster for a boy of mixed race in early 20th century South Africa. It was summer time, hot and dry and one of the locals, having bought a car, offered to take the old chap who was the accuser to court. If you think it is odd that a man of mixed race should own a car, it is because you don't know the people in Pniel. But to our tale! Despite the case being only scheduled for the afternoon, the old chap was picked up early, so that he would not be late, even if there was trouble with the horseless carriage. As it grew hotter the driver stopped to refresh himself at a hostelry and the old chap, freed from the oversight of the predicant, took his mornings. As the heat grew, the car stopped more often, so that, by the time it reached the court it was lunch time and time for a decent lunch and something to wash it down, then forty winks. The court convened at 2pm but, as the witness for the prosecution was sound asleep in the car, the case was dismissed and the boys set free. That's the kind of village Pniel turned out to be. It could have been Cairndhu or anywhere else in Scotland.

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Grapes of Wrath

While we had tea, Linda told me of village life at Pniel. It's first Lutheran predicant was greatly opposed to Alcohol and made a habit of touring the village in the evening to catch any drinking. If he did, he took a sjambok to the miscreant. In general, that acted as an effective cure and preventative but two old chaps took their drink at lunchtime, slept it off in the afternoon and were bright an breezy by the time the inspection was underway. The old chaps had a vine on a structure beside the house and on the front hung a great bunch of grapes and this became more and more of a temptation for two ladds coming home from school in the heat of the afternoon. Thinking the old chaps were asleep, the lads cut down the grapes and were making off with them when one of the old chaps, who hadn't gone for his usual nap that day caught them and reported it to the police. That meant the boys would have a police record and find it difficult to get work but the village rallied round.

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