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Dr Fani Ncapayi

Small European Settlement In An African-Dominated Territory

Updated: Aug 15

The development of the Slang River Settlement from the mid-19 th century


While reflecting on the development of the Slang River Settlement, this paper argues that the settlement emerged from the dispossession of land of the African landholders for Europeans to engage in commercial agriculture.

While reflecting on the development of the Slang River Settlement, this paper argues that the settlement emerged from the dispossession of land of the African landholders for Europeans to engage in commercial agriculture. African landholders experienced two removals at the hands of colonial rulers for the establishment of the Slang River Settlement. Although the establishment of the Settlement is stated as 1885, a north-easterly movement of some Europeans ended at the upper sections of the Slang River by 1862  (Silva, 1978; Campbell, 1897). The Europeans’ arrival in the area was four years after the forceful removal of Chief Sarhili in 1858 from the area between the Indwe River and the Mbashe River. The Europeans were part of 4000 Europeans who left Britain and arrived in Port Elizabeth in 1819. Some spread out from Port Elizabeth northwards in search of agricultural lands. Some Europeans got interested in the upper sections of the Slang River due to its suitability for agricultural development (Ross, 1986; Campbell, 1897).


After Chief Sarhili’s forced removal, the land was subdivided into Thembuland Proper and Emigrant Thembuland (Ntsebeza, 2006), with the Slang River being part of Chief Ngangelizwe’s Thembuland Proper. Twelve years (1876) later, Chief Ngangelizwe granted 16 Europeans land along the upper section of the Slang River[1]; adding to Europeans already in the area.


Recommendations of the Thembuland Commission of 1883, which, in determining new boundaries, marked the second process of land dispossession. Two years later (1885), the settlement formally became the Slang River Settlement Farms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

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Braun, L. 2. (2008). The Colonial Archive and Maps of the Western Transkei 1857-1898. Retrieved from https://history.icaci.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Braun.pdf.

Campbel, C. (1897). British South Africa. A history of the Cape of Good Hope from its conquest 1795 to the settlement of Albany by the British Emigration of 1819 [A.D.1795-A.D.1825]. Cape Town: Juta and Co.

Griffin, D. (2006). Frontier Heartland: Analyising the Impact of Forestry and Tourism on 'White' Identity in Maclear. . Grahamstown: Rhodes University.

Ntsebeza, L. (2006). Democracy compromised. Chiefs and the politics of land in South Africa. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council.

Ross, R. (1986). The origins of capitalist agriculture in the Cape Colony. In e. a. Beinart, Putting a plough to the ground. Accumulation and Dispossession in Rural South Africa, 1850-1930. (pp. 56-100). Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

 Silva, P. (1978). The 1820 settlement - some aspects of its influence on the vocabulary of South African English. Retrieved from https://journals.co.za>doci>pdf>AJA03768902_717


[1]  See article Die ontstaan van die dorp en distrik in the document titled Elliot 1885 – 1985. Khowa Public Library.

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