This is one of the most fascinating South African History Books 10/10/13
The book starts at about the time of the Mfacane describing the movement of the African families who originated in the Calodon River area and moved into the Southern Transvaal in the area between the London diamond field, Klerksdorp, Walmeranstad and as far as Lichtenberg which we call the Triangle..
Except for the crowded reserves all land was allocated to whites and blacks lived as squatters and made contracts with farmers to be sharecroppers or paid for the use of the farmers veld to pasture there cattle and sheep.
1826 After Shaka destruction of the tribes around Zululand and they formation of the Zulu people The mfacane (the scattering) Mzilakatze broke away from the Zulu tribe and drove through the Transvaal destroying the Sotho and Twana tribe leaving the area vacant.
1836 The Great Trek, Dutch speaking farmers only knew extensive farming, their population had enlarged so greatly that they trekked from the Cape to find new farming area. Initially the white farmers had made a living from hunting the wildlife in the area and keeping cattle. They had no experience in agriculture. Even Paul Kruger the President of the Zuid Afrikaans Republic realized that land had to be preserved for wildlife and he preserved what later became the Krugerpark.
Kas kept every receipt, note, account or document that was ever given to him and on this the book was written each receipt is the story of a cow ,ox ,wagon, plough that was bought. There are descriptions of surviving the droughts, followed by rainy seasons and floods that brought locusts. He had records of how many bags of produce he had sold each year.
1892 Rindapest wiped out a high percentage of cattle, buffalo, giraffe etc. blacks blamed white and whites blamed blacks for it , vaccine against it came later. Cattle from Northern Rhodesia were not affected and there, Jewish traders set up in Northern Rhodesia to buy up cattle and drive them south.
Southern blacks all had an oral history that was handed down and for example we know that certain tribes moved southwards and crossed the Zambezi the year of the big stars which was Haileys Comet. This virus wiped out a large % of ungulates and when you consider that all goods were transported by oxen you can imagine how badly it hit the economy
The Rindepest is discussed and the fact that some black farmers had cattle that survived. The authorities did not know how to deal with this which was a respiratory virus and dipping the cattle made it even worse. This memory is also one of the many reasons why the ANC government wanted an African solution to AIDS.
1900 How that area was affected by the Boer war where whites left their farms and black were conscripted to be transport riders, cooks etc.
In this period Kas had an Afrikaans partner Swanapoel and they were transport riders taking bags of grain to the minefields on ox-wagon, this was a good partnership and Swanapoel helped him in many ways and it was a solid friendshop. This type of transporting before the days of the trains is documented in Jock of the Bushveld by Fitzpatrick. In summer the wagon would sink into the muddy roads and in winter there was not grass on the side of the road to feed the oxen.
Then WW1 which put up the price of wool so many farmers moved into sheep. He also discusses the fact that there were rebels in this area who were against SA supporting the British. Botha and Smuts drove the Germans out of South West Africa which became a SA mandate. Interestingly that Afrikaans became the most important language in what is today Namibia
1919 The flu epidemic which affected Europe and American troops returning from the war is well known, a lot of people in the Triangle died. Today we know it got to SA by migrating birds.
1922 He mentions the miner strikes and the shootings, mostly in Fordsburg but my grandmother talked about it affecting Dornfontein, Johannesburg. Smuts put it down. White miners didn't want blacks to be employed in the mines.
1930s After the war there was booms and recessions in the price of agricultural goods. But the worst period was the drought and depression and starvation. You had poor whites who turned to blacks for help. Kas spoke Afrikaans and could read basic Afrikaans. Some whites spoke Sotho.
From the 30s the Native Laws started making life difficult for blacks. He mentions that the Stern family owned land in Scheitser Reynicka and their daughter was Irma Stern.Famous artist) The influence of the Communist Party and Labour Party and members to Parliament that represented natives is discussed.
Whites had access to credit later at the Land Bank but blacks had to look to English, Indian or Jewish traders for credit and carry them till the harvest.
Interesting that while you had the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma etc. the same time of dust storms affected the Transvaal, and people had to take shelter in the huts during a dust storm.
One year he bought a plow on credit from an English shopkeeper and as a result of the drought there was no money to pay at the end of the season. When he was subpoenaed he brought his 6 plow donkeys to the store. All the debtors were at the store at the same time and the owner said he is the only man of honour. He told Kas to keep his donkeys but the store went bankrupt and closed. 2 years later. After a good harvest Kas found out which farm the man had moved to and went to pay money owing. The ex-merchant was amazed and gave him back 30 shillings. Had Kas paid at the time the money would have gone to the Englishman's creditors.
1939 Tractors started arriving in the late 30s but with the beginning of the WW2 new ones or spare parts were not available and petrol was rationed. The government encouraged farmers to used draught animals. So farmers found both livestock and crops received better prices, this was the case for a good few years. At this stage he learned the tecnique of double plowing to reduce the weeds. Sunflower seed and beans were also in great demand.
Post war tractors started taking the role of the tenant farmer and the Afrikaner nationalism started affecting the relationship between whites and blacks. One thing that surprises me is that Kas knew the value of reading and writing and yet did not encourage his children and give them a chance to go to school. It was mostly the wives who saved up money by breeding pigs and chickens and collecting dry cow pats for sale as fuel to pay for clothes and for the children's school.
1947 the Afrikaners with government help started setting up stores to replace the others traders, these were not successful but they were encouraged to boycott the Indian traders. Poor whites would trade with these shops through the back door. Blacks were hardly aware of this and it was dropped soon afterwards.
The Afrikaner policy was "Die Kaffier in sy plek, die Koelie uit die land"(The black in his place the Indian off the land). At this time blacks started feeling the effect of Nationalist bigotry, when his kid was ill he asked the landlord to take him to the doctor, the landlord refused to help and said he could only use his cart for work purposes and would not lend it to him. He had to turn to the neighbor for help his kid almost died. An Afrikaans women who he had in the past given rides on a cart to town and would chat to him on the way, would now sit behind him.
It now reached a stage that through government policy black were no longer wanted as share cropper but as wage labourers on the farms. This was after a particularly good season where Kas earned well. So rich blacks were not liked and if they were just lazy they also were not wanted.
At one time he had an arrangement with the manager of a wealthy black who owned land. In the middle of the season the black owner plowed in his seedlings and replanted.It showed that Whites at least had a greater respect for the rules than rich blacks. It was always accepted that the status of the land would change only after the season and crop had come in.
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1950s when the Nationalist government was busy with its ideology of Apartheid and Dr. Verwoed was Minister of Native Affairs. Slowly he wanted to remove "squatters" from white farms and turn them into labourers.
Blacks had to get Passbooks showing where they were living, this also started regulating the number of blacks entering the industrial cities as unemployed blacks were not allowed to reside in cities. Even at this stage when he took bags of corn to the Government Co-op they paid him without saying a word and asked him for his address as he was paid the "voorskot" and the posted him a cheque for the "agterskot" which he never received when he never marketed directly.
When Kas said he was born before the Rindapest the government official said that meant that he no longer had to pay poll tax and was entitled to a small state pension. However if he had a team of oxen he was not entitled to the pension.
Aaron Cohan ran a trading store and black were scared to allow their daughters to work for him as he had black mistresses. Hersh was a land speculator and owned a large property Rietvlei in the area and asked Cohan to keep an eye on it.
Cohen got hold of a black manager who brought in 5 or so extended black families and later the widow Ma Hersh would be phoned every year and would count the bags of grain produced and send it to the co-op in her name. The black farmers might steal a certain amount of sweet corn at night but her share was very large and was not keen on the new Apartheid laws but eventually she had to comply especially after a bad season and the black tenants had to leave.
Kas also had skills of medicine man and a lot of people consulted him but he only took money from people when they were cured . An Afrikaans women from Caltonville had dismissed her maid in a very acrimonious situation and came for help as her house was now haunted by a tokalosh which caused the crockery to rattle. Kas gave her a mixture to spread around the house and she sent him 5 Pound in gratitude. Caltonwille was a mining town and when the mine pumped the water out it resulted in earth movement and local tremors and later the town started collapsing with sink holes.
At this period the patriarchal system was already breaking down and the children went off to work in cities where they had a better social life. Thus the rural black family had the grandparents and grandchildren farming. Many children were closer tho their grandparents than their parents. Kas had 3 wive and 8 children.
If a poor white bought a piece of land and had a mortgage if he got a good share cropper who would make the land pay without him having capital to develop it. After a few years with field having been cleared the farmer might be able buy a tractor and work it himself. Many whites worked on mines and were absentee landlords as they never had capital or the knowledge to get their farms they had inherited to pay..
Kas bought a tractor by selling cattle which he had trouble finding grazing for, but now depended on a son to drive the tractor, just at a time when the rains were poor in the 1960s
He went through stages of owning a truck or car but as he could not drive this himself and depended on his sons who battled to get drivers licences a problem being semi-literate.
The book mentions that children who had had a proper apprenticeship with him as farmers, blacksmiths or saddle and shoe repairing succeeded in the proletariat world those that left the farm too young and were unskilled labourers didn't. One granddaughter got herself a job in car spares for example.
But the Apartheid system was closing in and he ended up on small a plot allocated at Legde an area under the Chieftainess Cathorine.In reality he was a Sotho and this was a Tswana area,but he was enough of a chamelian.Blacks were not as tribal as the whits throught. He went into goat breeding as their was pasture on the mountain nearby. Blacks moved to the Homeland areas as it offered schools to their children.
1975 the government Bantustan policy came about and Bafutatswana was declared under Chief Magope. The crater where cattle was pastured was to be turned into a game-park and Sun City casino was to be build. The South African government never allowed casino's but independent black areas could. Sol Kursners project did provide employment for many in the area.
1976 the Soweto Riots began and you have some movement of blacks back into the country.
The first time he bought a tractor his sons or the person paid to drive it did not understand the mechanics. Later on he was able to hire someone who could keep this working and his 5th tractor he hired out and received a % of crops grown.
In his late 80s he was still active as a farmer but the land available was small holding that blacks in Ledig in the Bantustan of Bafutaswana never had an inclination to cultivate. When he planted corn the poor starving neighbours would take so he had to plant sunflower . Women and children were alway prepared to help in the harvest of corn or sorghum as the were food but were not so will on cash crops.
When he had been in the triangle and hurt his shoulder he went to Dr. Huddleson who had arranged for surgery in hospital but now he had no personal connections and he was going blind through cataracts. He was not prepared to undergo surgery offered.
Conclusion
Thus in the 1930s SA like Argentina was one of the G countries in the world, the Apartheid course that she took up under the Nationalist Afrikanerdom government stunted SA and by the time a black democracy came about it was too late.
Kas was over 90 when he died and the author describes that he was the only white man who stood at the back of the funeral.
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