Hlubi – Timeline

isiZulu version

The Making of the Hlubi Archive: a work-in-progress timeline

This timeline provides a guide to the available materials that speak to the Hlubi past. These materials include recorded oral accounts, colonial documents and items of material culture, as well as published and unpublished written accounts. Some of these materials are already available in the Hlubi archive on EMANDULO, can be accessed elsewhere online via a link in the timeline, or are available in a publication. The timeline also features major events pertinent to Hlubi history.

Others are materials that EMANDULO seeks to locate or be given. To contribute material to the Hlubi archive and the work-in-progress timeline please contact 500YearArchive@gmail.com.

1873

29 November 1873

Pine informed the Colonial Office in London that “we intend to clear the two locations… and to repeople them entirely by white settlers.” (C.1025 p 19)

11 December 1873

Arrest of Langalibalele in Leribe following military conflict on 4 November 1873.

His personal possessions taken from him ended up in 3 different museum collections.

15 December 1873

Pine gave instructions for the Hlubi and Ngwe locations to be surveyed into farms. Priority for the purchase of which would be given to applications from settlers who volunteered to join the expedition against Langalibalele.

Cattle, horses, sheep, grain, hides and other property taken from Hlubi and amaNgwe was auctioned off, raising £25 000 that was used to defray the costs of the government’s military operations.

1874

Hermannsburger Missionsblatt (vol 21: 1874, no.5 pages 73-80) noted that after more than 20 years of living along the upper uMsuluzi and uMtshezi rivers, Hlubi people were beginning to live in a degree of prosperity.

January 1874

Westlake, J. (1874). The [K-word] Revolt of 1873. Fortnightly Review, 16(96), 701-713.

15 January 1874

The Natal Legislative Council passed Law 18 of 1874, which empowered the Lt. Gov. to assign convicts to work for private individuals and companies for the duration of their sentences (C.1119 p 5-6).

late January 1874

The Natal Witness remarked that “The labour (problem) will progress remarkably, after the great importation of ‘slaves’, Langalibalelians and Putinians.

6 July 1874

Cape Act 3 of 1874 passed: To Provide for the Imprisonment in the Colony of certain Criminals sentenced in the Colony of Natal (C.1121 p 61).

4 August 1874

Langalibalele and his son Malambule transported to Cape Town and imprisoned on Robben Island. (C.1121 p 62-63)

1875

12 April 1875

The matter of Langalibalele’s imprisonment at the Cape debated in the House of Lords, London.

25 May 1875

Draft of proposed Rules and Regulations to be observed in connection with the location of Langalibalele and Malambule at Uitvlugt on the Cape Downs, about four miles from Cape Town. (C.1342-1 part 2 p 34)

3 June 1875

Cape Bill passed: To Repeal the Act No. 3 of 1874, and to make other provisions in lieu thereof (C.1342-1 part 2 pp 32-34)

27 August 1875

Langalibalele moved from Robben Island to Uitvlugt Manor on the Cape Downs.

CREDITS

FHYA would like to acknowledge the commitment of Iziko Museums of South Africa, Killie Campbell Africana Library of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the KwaZulu-Natal Museum to making their holdings openly accessible and the generosity of their staff in making this presentation possible. Presentation prepared by FHYA in 2023, using materials collected by Steven Kotze in partnership with Lailah Hisham (Iziko), Senzosenkosi Mkhize (Killie Campbell Africana Library of the University of KwaZulu-Natal), Justine Wintjes and Dimakatso Tlhoaele (KwaZulu-Natal Museum), Zukisa Madyibi (Walter Sisulu University), Thozama April and Sinazo Mtshemla (University of Fort Hare) and Robert Hart (Duggan-Cronin Gallery, McGregor Museum). Archival curation prepared by Benathi Marufu with assistance from Debra Pryor. Visual curation, page design, and development by Vanessa Chen with assistance from Makhosi Mkhize and Studio de Greef. Technical support provided by Hussein Suleman. Written content produced by Steven Kotze and Carolyn Hamilton, drawing on, amongst other things, recent research by John Wright and Carolyn Hamilton. Editorial and conceptual support by Carolyn Hamilton. The FHYA is especially grateful for the ongoing research support of Muziwandile Hadebe and the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Archives, and would further like to thank Mwelela Cele, Patricia Davison, Nessa Leibhammer, John Wright and Gavin Whitelaw for their assistance and advice during the preparation of this curation. Our presentations are archived here. If you wish to make a contribution, use this link.

EMANDULO

EMANDULO is an experimental digital platform, in ongoing development, for engaging with resources pertinent to southern African history before colonialism across what is today eSwatini, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, and the Eastern Cape.

Online from: 13 November 2023