National Resistance and Liberation Heritage Route

Mr. Mandela was taken to the City Hall in Cape Town on his release from prison on 11 February 1990, where he was to address a rally. On the day of Mr Mandela’s public address at the City Hall following his release from prison, nearly 60,000 people gathered on the Grand Parade public square in front of the City Hall in witness of the event.

The Rivonia Treason Trial Foundation of Liberation – Mandela “I am Accused Number one” Speech 

Freedom Charter, role of youths, Multi-racial fight for human rights

Created to symbolise the Union of South Africa in 1910 which marked the exclusion of Africans; Seat of power for repressive colonial regimes including the Nationalists Apartheid regime; Target of protest and resistance to apartheid including the 1956 multi-racial Women’s March; became symbol of democratic Reconciliation as Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation as new post-apartheid government executive retained the Buildings as seat of the executive; Memory of class struggles. 

The museum will seek to preserve the very rich living if intangible heritage of the liberation struggle linked to Johnny Makhathini. A sizeable amount of such heritage remains embedded in the annals of oral history and is not recorded adequately for preservation and bequeathal to posterity as an integral part of the national estate. The museum will be used to house that heritage which connects the liberation struggle of the people of South Africa, with the international community which worked in solidarity with the oppressed through the liberation movement. The museum will also provide a critical nodal point in attempts made by the local municipality and by implication the Ilembe District Municipality aimed at developing the economy of the area through creation of relevant infrastructure. Furthermore, the museum will also provide a relevant stimulus in creating social cohesion within a poor rural community, with the possibility of enhancing the much desired social capital among previously neglected communities. 

The killing of people by the apartheid forces started with the killing of a student named Mandla Lekhuleni during a student protest. As people around the community gathered at Lekhuleni’s home for his funeral, teargas and rubber bullets were fired at the mourners killing one mourner named Connie Sibiya. Scores of people were injured, arrested, and charged with public violence. 

The Lowveld massacre occurred on the 11 March 1986. Thousands of young people had gathered outside the Kabokweni magistrate court to protest during the trial of their fellow students. This led to South African security forces opening fire on the masses, killing two more people named Mandla Shabangu and Saul Mkhabela and injuring many more.

Early in 1985, class boycotts at Paballelo High School in Upington commenced. Students complained about poorly qualified teachers. During the latter half of 1985, these students established the Upington Youth Organisation which arranged public meetings to complain about issues such as overcrowded houses, poor sanitation, crime, rent increases, inadequate roads and lighting.

On 11 November 1985, tensions between residents and the police started to build after police shot and killed a 15 year old pregnant woman (Beulin Isaaks) who was from Paballelo. On 13 November, approximately 3000 residents gathered on the soccer field in Paballelo. When police arrived the crowd was ordered to disperse and the police fired tear-gas into the crowd.

Later about 300 residents gathered in front of the house of a municipal policeman, Lucas Sethwala, throwing stones at his house. Sethwala fired shots into the crowd, seriously wounding a young boy, Dawid Visagie. When Sethwala fled from his house a group chased him. He was attacked and his body set alight. Twenty-six people were charged with his murder. The charges alleged that the accused came together with the common purpose to “violently disturb the public safety and peace and/or to infringe the rights of other members of the community and/or defy or prejudice in other ways the authority of the sate …”

This unjust legal principle of common purpose meant that although the accused may not have taken part in the actual killing, any person actively associated with the crowd could be charged with murder. Twenty-five of the accused were found guilty of murder and 14 were sentenced to death.

This legal ruling was condemned by the international community as a travesty of justice. On 29 May 1991, it  was a bittersweet victory for the Upington 26 and the community of Pabellelo when the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein overturned the death sentence of 14 of the Upington 26. Eleven were released while the murder convictions of three were upheld. In total 21 of the 25 convictions were overturned.

The Langeberg War, also known as Galeshewe’s War or Ntwa ya Matlhabanelo, is one of several important African uprisings that occurred in the southern subcontinent during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The uprising was triggered by competition for land and objections rising from increased white authority and their rinderpest control measures.

Land was the first aspect of African life that was affected by white colonists moving deeper into the interior of South Africa. In 1882 the Batlhaping possessed an area of 6.500 sq miles but by 1884 due to increased white expansion, three-quarters of their land were lost. The 1895 annexation of British Bechuanaland by the Cape Colony further intensified the Batswana’s hostility and distrust. Batswana leaders feared that Cape rule would lead to further land loss as well as the loss of their tribal law and jurisdiction. Finally rinderpest swept through the territory during the second half of 1896, killing a very high proportion of Batswana cattle. To combat the spread of the disease, the Cape Government issued a decree that all infected cattle were to be shot. This was a grave blow to the Batswana both culturally and economically. Cattle were a very important cultural and economic commodity for the Batswana and they reacted strongly to this government decree.

In the mountainous, semi-arid Langeberg, the Batswana under kgosis Galeshewe, Toto and Luka Jantje held out against a large government force for nearly 6 months. During this period they frequently clashed with the large colonial force. Twice, the succeeded in driving back the expeditionary force. On another occassion they even attacked their main camp while continually making daring forays in search of cattle and horses. In an attempt to end the drawn-out conflict the colonial forces initiated a systematic burning of crops. This earth scorching policy forced thousands of people to starvation. In the process, thousands of huts were destroyed and many innocent inhabitants killed.

When the government force finally succeeded in suppressing the uprising, Kgosi Mongale and Luka Jantje were killed together with 1200 -1500 Batswana men. A further 3 800 men, women and children were imprisoned. The old and infirm were ‘let off’ by being contracted to local farmers while the remainder (a little over 2000) were given the choice of accepting indentured employment among the western Cape farmers or standing trial for treason. Altogether 1896 were indentured to farmers for five years. Those prisoners believed to have incited the uprising in Phokwane were brought to trial in Kimberley in February 1898. Of the 15 charged, six were found guilty of murder and were executed, among them Galeshewe’s cousin, Petlhu, and six were found guilty of sedition and received sentences totalling 28 years imprisonment. Galeshewe was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in Cape Town.

All the Batswana that were classed as ‘rebels’ forfeited their land and most of the Batswana’s tribal land were confiscated. According to Saker and Aldridge the Langeberg uprising represents the final subjugation of the Southern Batswana.

During apartheid, the Kroonstad Prison served the whole country. During apartheid, this priosn was one of the main prisons for black female political prisoners who played active roles during the liberation struggle. It was the female equivalent of Robben Island. The womens priosn cell was separated and isolated from other cells which housed inmates. In the 1960s, political activists were tourtured by the implementation of solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, standing for long periods of time and repeated assaults. By the 1970s, forms of torture became more violent. Famous female politicians incarcerated at this priosn included Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Dorothy Nyembe and Thandi Modise. Dorothy and Winnie were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. In 1970, after initially being found guilty in the famous "Trial of 22", Winnie was discharged on appeal. Winnie and Dorothy were imprisoned in Kroonstad until September 1975.

The government moved Nelson Mandela from the Constantiaberg private clinic in Cape Town, where he had been recovering from tubercolosis, to a house on the grounds of Victor Verster Prison, near Paarl, East of Cape Town, where he was given a large warder’s house to live in. Mandela was transferred to the Paarl prison, now called the Drakenstein Correctional Centre, from the maximum security prison on Robben Island in 1988 in preparation for his release on February 11, 1990. The house that was built for Mandela in the village of Qunu near his hometown, Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape, is a replica of his prison house – at his request.

The house is situated in Phathakahle location in Brandfort. It is a three roomed municipality house roofed with asbestos. Adjacent to the house there is a corrugated iron structure which Mrs Madikizela-Mandela had built as a creche. The structure was burnt and destroyed by apartheid police in 1979. Madikizela-Mandela was banished to Brandfort in 1977 after Soweto uprising of 1976. She banished to Brandfort for 8 years until 1986. 

She was not allowed to leave that small house without a permit because she was house arrested. The house is widely regarded as significance because of Madikizela-Mandela’s house arrest in the same house for 8 years. The house signifies the role women played in the liberation struggle and their sufferings. 

The house is provisionally declared as Provincial Heritage Site. 

The historical and social significance of Langa must be seen in terms of the greater context of the political history of South Africa as a whole. It is the physical manifestation of the control of an oppressive political regime (and the resistance of “the other”) of the movement of (black) people between rural and urban contexts. Although Langa literally means "sun" in Xhosa, the name of the township is derived from the name of Langalibalele – a chief and renowned rainmaker who in 1873 was imprisoned on Robben Island for rebelling against the Natal government.[6] Various prominent people fought for his release and he was subsequently confined to a farm called "Uitvlugt", which is on the site of present-day Pinelands. Langa, which adjoins Pinelands, commemorates this folk hero as it was developed in 1898 on the land known as "Langalibalele's Location". Hence Langa is often called "Kwa-Langa" meaning "place of Langa".

The outbreak of Bubonic Plague in Cape Town in 1901 and the ensuing panic amongst the general populous lead to the first slum clearances within the City. The worse outbreaks occurred near the harbour and Dock Road as well as District 6 and Woodstock. Black people living in these areas were relocated to the Uitvlugt Plantation. This action was the forerunner of the Forced Removals of the latter half of the 20th century, which characterised the Nationalist Party’s Apartheid planning. Langa (Figure 3) originated as one of the ‘garden villages’ designed in the early 20th century:
Maitland Garden village was the first to be built, followed by Pinelands and Langa. Both Pinelands and Langa were designed by architect Albert John Thompson. The garden village design was adapted to suit what was referred to as the “African” requirements and focused on Black urban workers and
temporary migrants rather than permanent residents. Constructed during the depression years after the First World War, Langa was built using white labour as a means of poverty relief.

The central feature of the design of Langa was the so-called Migrant Passage: the route from the railway station through the Administration Block to the Main Barracks. The railway siding was completed in 1924 and the tender for the construction of the Main Barracks was advertised in 1925. The Main Barracks has a unique cruciform shape which could be converted from compound to prison through the simple closure of the four entrances. The barracks were designed specifically for single men and emphasised the transitory nature of their employment in the City. Additional accommodation, referred to as the Special Quarters were constructed to the north west of the Main Barracks. These too were designed specifically for single people. In 1926 the Second Phase of development of Langa was implemented. This phase saw the expansion of the Administration Block as well as the construction of “Married Quarters” – these were simple 2 roomed houses. Of the 300 houses that were built, only 16 were occupied by 1930. Additional barracks-styled accommodation was constructed in 1927. These barracks were called the North Barracks. The Third and Fourth Phase expansion of Langa during 1932-1934 saw the expansion of the
residential area to the east of Lerotholi (then known as Station) Street. Known as Bongweni, the area between Mendi Street and Jungle Walk included a 48 two roomed houses and 16 three roomed houses.

Between 1939 and 1945 census records show that the number of (Black) people living/working in the City had more than tripled and had nearly doubled again by 1955. In 1941 7436 people were recorded living in Langa. The Old Flats (named the “New flats” at the time of construction) were built between 1945 and 1948. These too were constructed as accommodation for single men. With the exception of the Married Quarters no provision was being made for family units and the emphasis was still on single migratory workers who would return to their families in the rural areas.

On 30 March 1960 Langa was the starting point for a march of between 30,000 and 50,000 protesters to Caledon Square police station in Cape Town led by Philip Kgosana and the Pan Africanist Congress to protest the apartheid-era pass laws.

Where they moved to in 1953 after the closure in the previous year of the African section of the Stakesby Lewis Hostels. The home is also where Tabata and Gool received visits from young members of the movement – who often came in pairs – such as Zulei Christopher and Enver Hassim, Elma Carollisen and Karrim Essack, Neville Alexander and Gwen Wilcox.

The University of Fort Hare was established in 1916 when Prime Minister Louis Botha opened the South African Native College, with 20 students (2 of whom were white). Whatever Botha’s expectations might have been when he opened Fort Hare, over the years the institution grew and evolved, taking on a unique and significant character. But this was no means plain sailing. The take-over of the university from 1959 to 1991 – the ‘period of captivity’ – by the Nationalist Party government in pursuit of its grand apartheid policies brought profound challenges. But, this notwithstanding, or perhaps to an extent even because of this, it became, in the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘a beacon for African scholars from all over Southern, Central and Eastern Africa. For young black South Africans like myself, it was Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, all rolled into one.’ The rise of student protests and their link with the broader struggle against apartheid has been well documented. Fort Hare was a nursery for the Christian elite co-operating with paternalistic White; an ethnic college producing functionaries for a Xhosa republic; a bastion of resistance and a school for freedom; and a pan-African academy. Popular accounts of the university frequently point to the many prominent people associated with the university: Nelson Mandela, O.R. Tambo, Duma Nokwe, Godfrey Pitye, Robert Sobukwe, Yusuf Lele (Uganda), Seretse Khama (Botswana), Ntsu Mokehle (Lesotho), Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Dennis Brutus, Can Themba. They also point to the important and pioneering contribution of African intellectuals like Prof. Z.K. Mathews and D.D.T. Jabavu. Whist it is true that the University and Federal seminary (and hence Alice) can claim to have been home to no less than two Nobel Peace Prise laureates, the history of the institution is not only a list of great men and women. It was perhaps this broad formative role that the Presidency had in mind when, on 26 April 2005, the Supreme Order of the Baobab (Gold) was conferred on the University of Fort Hare in recognition of the role it played in academic training and leadership development of legions of men and women from South and Southern Africa.

Onkgopotse Abram Tiro (1945-1974) was a student activist and black consciousness militant.

He was born in Dinokana, a small village near Zeerust. He started his schooling at Ikalafeng Primary. The school was closed during the anti-pass revolt that engulfed Lehurutshe in the late 1950s. Tiro’s early life story is indicative of the continued impact of the Hurutshe resistance on the formation of political consciousness for younger generations of political activists After a short spell at Naledi High School in Soweto, Tiro matriculated from Barolong High in Mafikeng.

He then enrolled at the University of the North (Turfloop) in what was then the Northern Transvaal and was elected President of the Student Representative Council in 1970- 71. In 1972, he made a famous speech at the university graduation ceremony for which he was expelled. In his speech Tiro openly attacked the system of Bantu Education and the university authorities in particular, and concluded by exhorting his fellow black graduates ‘to bear greater responsibilities in the liberation of our people’. 100 Tiro’s expulsion from Turfloop triggered a series of strikes in solidarity across black campuses in the country. After he left Turfloop, in 1973, Tiro was recruited as a history teacher at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, which was to play a prominent role in the Soweto uprising of 1976. Tsietsi Mashinini, who was an integral part of the uprising, was one of Tiro's students. He was also involved in the formation of the South African Student Movement (SASM) in 1972 and of the Black People’s Convention (BPC) in 1973.

He also travelled throughout South Africa, as well as Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, to speak to students about Black Consciousness. The apartheid authorities, however, were keeping a close watch on all of these activities. First they had Tiro fired from Morris Isaacson, and then decided to arrest him. Tiro, however, managed to escape arrest by going to Botswana in late 1973, where he found employment as a teacher at a school in Kgale, near Gaborone. From Botswana he continued to play a prominent role in the activities of SASO, SASM and the BCP. He was, however, in discussion with the ANC in exile and some sources suggest he had switched his alliance to the ANC.

On 1 February 1974, Tiro was killed by a parcel bomb allegedly coming from the International University Exchange Fund. His death was executed by the Apartheid spy Craig Williamson and others who had infiltrated the IUEF. In 1998, Tiro’s remains were exhumed from Botswana and reburied in his home village of Dinokana. His influence on the youth of Soweto and the rising of 1976 was considerable.

Mandela made a surprise appearance at the Plessislaer Arya Samai Manaye Hall where he made his last public speech before being arrested just outside Howick in 1962. The initial venue for the conference, the Local Health Commission Hall in Edendale was changed at an eleventh hour after it was alleged that the Special Branch had wired the hall in order to listen to the proceedings and that the conference proceedings were likely to be taped as well.

The 1400 delegates who attended the function came from different social and political organizations. During this last public speech, Mandela stressed that “one man, one vote” was the only solution towards a liberated South Africa. He also called for economic sanctions to be imposed on the apartheid state. He also warned on the impending disaster against the regime should the government remain headstrong on the demands of the ANC. Mandela also requested all South Africans to unite and fight the apartheid regime jointly.

It was also at the conference that the participants demanded a convention no later than May 31, 1961, the day in which the apartheid regime planned to declare South Africa as a republic. This convention, it was thought could make a decision on a new and non-racial constitutions for South Africans. The conference resolved that should their demand not be met, the regime should expect a countrywide demonstration on the eve of the proclamation of the South African republic. The new republic, thought Mandela, would bring about the intensification of the racial laws. Mandela returned to the hall on April 25, 1997, when the Freedom of Pietermaritzburg was awarded to Mandela and the late Mahatma Gandhi.
*Today the site is generally referred to as Manaye Hall.

Another prominent leader in Natal at the time was Mohandas Gandhi, who arrived in Durban in 1893. Soon after arriving in South Africa he left for Pretoria by train. He purchased a first-class ticket, boarded the train and was soon confronted by a white passenger who complained about sharing a compartment with a ‘coolie’. Gandhi was asked to move to a third-class carriage. On his refusal he was forcibly removed from the train at Pietermaritzburg Station. The right to self-government had been granted to Natal in 1893 and two bills were passed in the following two years restricting the freedom of Indians severely. The Immigration Law Amendment Bill stated that any Indian had to return to India at the end of a five-year indenture period or had to be re-indentured for a further two years. If he refused an amount of £3 annual tax had to be paid. A Franchise Amendment Bill of 1894 was designed to limit the franchise to Indians who had the vote. Although there were only 300 of them, in comparison to 10,000 white voters, the Bill caused outrage among Indian leaders. They decided to contest the measure by any means available to them. Mohandas Gandhi played a prominent role in their planned campaign, and was assigned the task of compiling all petitions, arranging meetings with politicians and addressing letters to newspapers. He also campaigned in India and made an initially successful appeal to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Ripon. The formation of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) on 22 August 1894 marked the birth of the first permanent political organisation to strive to maintain and protect the rights of Indians in South Africa. In 1896 Gandhi undertook a journey to India to launch a protest campaign on behalf of Indians in South Africa. It took the form of letters written to newspapers, interviews with leading nationalist leaders and a number of public meetings. His mission caused great uproar in India and consternation among British authorities in England and Natal. Gandhi embarrassed the British Government enough to cause it to block the Franchise Bill in an unprecedented move, which resulted in anti-Indian feelings in Natal reaching dangerous new levels. On his return to South Africa Gandhi and 800 fellow passengers were kept from disembarking for nearly a month as a result of daily dockside demonstrations and government quarantine regulations. White hostility against Indians was turning violent and on leaving the ship Gandhi was assaulted by a group of protesters. The British government, alarmed at the uproar, allowed the passing of the Franchise Bill on condition that Indians were not specifically mentioned in the provisions. The Bill was rushed through parliament in 1896, followed by two more bills aimed at ‘Passenger’ Indians. The Immigration Restriction Bill and the Dealers’ Licences Bill stated that prospective immigrants had to possess £25, and had to speak and write English, and also empowered municipal authorities to refuse trading licences on the ground of ‘insanitation’. Authorities began refusing any Indian applicants licenses and many merchants accused Gandhi of pushing the authorities too far. In 1903 Gandhi founded the ‘Indian Opinion‘ newspaper. The publication played a prominent role in the spreading of the philosophy that resulted in the passive resistance campaign.
Gandhi was also responsible for the opening of the Phoenix self-help settlement scheme near Durban. The political campaign Gandhi embarked on was the British Indian Association (BIA). The movement was to prevent proposed evictions of Indians in the Transvaal under British leadership. In 1906 the Transvaal Government passed a law making it compulsory for Indians over eight years of age to carry a Pass bearing their thumbprint. This caused outrage among the Indian population and it was decided at a mass meeting attended by more than 3,000 people that no Indian would apply for registration and that attempts to enforce the law would be met with passive resistance. Gandhi travelled to London to further his protest and Lord Elgin, the Colonial Secretary, agreed to withdraw the Act. Unfortunately the Transvaal was granted self-government in 1907 and the Pass Law (Act 2 of 1907) was re-introduced. On 28 December 1907 the first arrests of Asians refusing to register was made, and by the end of January 1908 2,000 Asians had been jailed. Eventually Gandhi and the leader of the Chinese population in South Africa, Leung Quin, reached agreement with Jan Smuts, Transvaal Colonial Secretary, whereby the Act would be repealed if everyone registered voluntarily. He was severely criticised for the compromise and even offered to be the first to register. Smuts denied any promises made to Gandhi and on his way to the registration office he was assaulted. In June 1909 left for London after having defended his position as leader of the Transvaal merchant community. Gandhi returned to South Africa in December 1909 to find that his fellow members of the NIC were openly plotting against him. He was fighting for his political survival and withdrew to Tolstoy, a farm he had purchased to support the families of jailed resisters.

Head was the daughter of a white woman and black man. After her mother’s parents found she was pregnant she was sent to a mental asylum, where Head was born on 6 July 1937. She was brought up by foster parents and then by the Anglican mission orphanage. Head trained as a primary school teacher and taught for a few years but in 1959 she began a career as a journalist. She wrote short stories for Johannesburg’s Golden City Post a weekly supplement that was related to the more famous Drum magazine. Her work for Drum magazine won her a reputation as writer.

In 1960 Head moved to Cape Town where she became part of a group of anti-apartheid activists and married fellow activist Harold Head in 1962. Together they lived in District Six and Head worked for a monthly magazine, The New African where she found general support for her Africanist politics. During this period in District Six, Head wrote her first novel, The Cardinals but this was only published after her death. In 1963, she moved to Port Elizabeth with her husband, where he was to work as the first Black reporter for the Evening Post. In 1964 her husband, Harold, fled to England and Head was given a one-way exit to Botswana. By this time their marriage had fallen apart.

In Botswana, Head taught for a while and then started to work on the Swaneng Hill project dealing with community farming education in Serowe, but had a difficult time as she experienced rejection from the Africans of Botswana. After losing her job as a teacher she worked on a farm and then for a construction company. She turned to writing, and in her writing draws from her experiences in South Africa. She talks about her vision for the future and the problems she experienced with identity. In Botswana, Head wrote a short novel, When Rain Clouds Gather followed by Maru, a novel that dealt with the oppression against the Masarwa people. After Maru, Head wrote A Question of Power which is a reflection of her experience of a mental breakdown that she suffered as a result of living in fear and poverty as a refugee.

In 1977 she published the first collection of short stories (The Collector of Treasures) to be published by a black South African woman. The Botswana government finally granted Head citizenship in 1979, which allowed her to travel overseas. Her reputation as a writer grew and she often met academics and students who wished to make her work the subject of their thesis and even South African publishers eventually published her work.

Head died of hepatitis at the age of 49 in 1986 while still working on some books.

The D.C.O. Matiwane Youth League served as nucleus from which the ANC underground structures re-emerged in Pietermaritzburg’s black townships in the early 1980s. Among the other members of his network were Edendale Hospital-based doctors Mvuyo Ernest Tom, Modise Faith Matlaopane, Norman Bantwini (alias Norman Ngciphe), as well as the Durban-based ANC underground operatives, Ben Langa and Simphiwe Mgoduso. The site and the project located in it, intend to commemorate the contribution of a struggle veteran Mr David Cecil Matiwane, popularly known as DCO Matiwane. It seeks to preserve the history and the contribution of Willowfontein community to the struggle for liberation in South Africa and its relevance for the global community. It has critical nodal points linked to its trail known as the DCO Matiwane Liberation Heritage Trails, and provides an anchor for their interpretation and the preservation of respective living heritage attached to them. These sites include the famous Manayi Hall at Imbali Township, where Nelson Mandela made his last speech in KZN and the actual sitz im leben where the war cry Amandla, is said to have its provenance, if one takes one’s cue from popular living heritage in the area. It also includes the world renowned Mandela Capture Site in Howick; and the Lay Ecumenical Centre, the centre which epitomises the symbiotic link between the struggle for liberation and the contribution of the Church. These and other similar sites linked to the said matrix, tell the story which is anchored to an extent to DCO Matiwane of Willowfontein.

The Camissa River, 'place of sweet waters', is also known as //ammi i ssa.The oldest marker of spirituality, rootedness and belonging for Indigenous people (Khoena) is the freshwater river system and the Camissa River which still flows underneath the city of Cape Town from the Hoerikwaggo Mountain (Table Mountain) to the Sea. The River mouth connecting to the sea would have been somewhere in front of the Castle in the vicinity of lower Strand Street around the entrance to Cape Town Station where the Grand Parade adjoins the Golden Acre Centre. The Camissa River Mouth was the place of the founding of Cape Town by the maroon Khoena clan known as the Goringhaikona, led at the time of Dutch settlement by Chief Autshumato. The Camissa Settlement was established some time during the 200 year period prior to the establishment of the Dutch Settlement as a trading/service point by
local Khoena (Khoi) to service passing ships. It was also the place of hospitality offered to Jan van Riebeeck’s party during the 7 months that it took for the Dutch to build the first Fort. The Camissa waters were diverted into the moat around the Castle de Goede Hoop. In the Golden Acre Centre one can also see an aqueduct which was uncovered during construction. The Camissa River and the Camissa Settlement is of utmost importance to the Camissa descendants today as it was a site of pride which then became a site of struggle as it was the first place taken over by the Dutch settlers. Van Riebeeck’s diary notes that the Goringhaikona did not voluntarily forsake their Camissa settlement, and for some time continued to remain alongside the Camissa River and on the embankments of the Fort. They are recorded as telling Van Riebeeck that they would not have been able to simply take over the land of the Dutch in their country so why should the Dutch feel that they could take over the Khoena land. The Camissa River mouth was also where the earliest shipments of slaves were landed at the Cape. In 1658 two shiploads of over 400 slaves from West Africa arrived in the Cape. Most were very young children.

Doman was a leader of the Goringhaiqua Khoi-Khoi, who in 1657 was also sent to Batavia to train as an interpreter. "Whilst there he learnt first-hand the capacity of the Dutch to reduce indigenous people to positions of servitude. This turned him into a freedom fighter. It is said that he deceived the Dutch by appearing to be loyal by converting to Christianity. However, as soon as he landed at the Cape he championed resistance against Van Riebeeck and the Dutch government’s colonial policies. He regarded Krotoa with suspicion and was critical of her perceived selling out of her own people to the Dutch. It is reported that whenever he saw her he would tell his countrymen: ‘See, there comes the advocate of the Dutch; she will tell her people some stories and lies and will finally betray them all.’ And whenever Krotoa tried to pass on information to the Dutch, Doman tried to stop her. When the Dutch planned trips into the hinterland, he tried to stop them. From his hut near the fort he tried to intercept all inland visitors. All these are indicative of his commitment and drive to resist the Dutch colonial settlers by any means necessary. He eventually led the first of the two Khoi wars of resistance against the Dutch. Doman made use of his knowledge of Dutch military science and tactics to the advantage of his Khoi countrymen. Thus, on a cold and drizzling 19 May 1659, he led a group of Khoikhoi in a raid on the cattle of the free burghers. Doman had waited for rainy weather, knowing that the Dutch matchlock muskets could not be fired in the rain with damp powder. Unfortunately for Doman, his earlier attempts to make Khoikhoi trade with the Dutch the exclusive preserve of the Peninsula groups left him dangerously short of allies. Thus, his attempts to persuade local chief Gogosoa to attack the Dutch were bluntly refused. Without the help of the inland Cochoqua, an attack on the fort was doomed to fail. Doman, however, was able to persuade some of the younger leaders to join him in what he regarded as a war of liberation. Commander Van Riebeeck responded with defensive tactics, withdrawing the free burghers to the fort, temporarily arming the slaves (an extraordinarily risky measure), and building a strong kraal to protect the colony’s remaining livestock. Lacking firearms and unwilling to storm the central fort, the Khoikhoi eventually signalled their willingness to parley. A peace was negotiated; the war had ended in stalemate. The Khoikhoi did not return any of the livestock seized in the war and paid no reparations. Yet they did accept the continued European occupation of the Cape peninsula, a threat to their perseverance as an independent people. The Dutch erected fortified posts and planted almond hedges (some of which still survive) to prevent cattle being driven off again. The Khoikhoi were obliged to use specified routes and paths, and to enter the settlement only at certain guarded gaps in the hedge. Horses which arrived from Batavia gave the colonists the mobility they had lacked in the war, and expeditions from the fort became longer and more frequent. As trading contacts were established with more Khoikhoi groups, the settlement gradually became independent of the Peninsular Khoikhoi, whose wealth and importance waned rapidly. The failure of the Khoikhoi to drive out the Dutch shattered Doman’s position as a leader, and he was tolerated only because his people needed him as an interpreter. When he died in December 1663, the Company diarist recorded: ‘For [his] death none of us will have cause to grieve, as he has been, in many respects, a mischievous and malicious man towards the Company'." (SAHistory, 2020).

He was imprisoned on Robben Island for leading resistance against the Dutch and the British and is one of the few prisoners to have escaped successfully from the prison. At the time of writing, attempts were under way to find and repatriate his remains in Australia back home to South Africa.

The DEIC slave ship Meerman anchored with the slave mutineers on board (some claim the site was in Struisbaai).

Located at the foot of the Koue Bokkeveld Mountains where the second slave uprising of 1825 began. In 1825, at the farm Houdenbek near Ceres in the Kouebokkeveld, there was a slave uprising led by Galant van der Caab, who was a slave of WN van der Merwe, and other slaves and Khoekhoen labourers. They killed four people, destroyed crops and then fled. The group threatened to take over other farms in the area as they believed that the government had promised them their freedom and that their owners were preventing their release.
They were caught, found guilty of high treason, murder and armed robbery, and were sentenced and executed in 1826. The place of the gruesome execution of the slaves – where the heads were put on pikes to dissuade the other slaves – is on either side of the road at Koppieslaagte (hence the name) – slaughtered heads. Author Andre Brink captures this uprising and subsequent trial in his novel 'A Chain of Voices'.

The Hurling Pump is also referred to as the Old Swing Pump and Prince Street Pump.
In the past, there was no piped water available in Cape Town, so slaves were sent on a daily basis to fetch water from public fountains or wells.
In the 1790s, the pump was erected for the owner of the farm Zorgvliet, JF Hurling. In 1812, as part of the improvement to Cape Town's water supply, the structure, as seen today, was erected. Above each well was a pump house with its swinging pump. It was fed by water from the Platteklip Stream (thus the association with the Camissa River). This pump was designed by a French architect, Louis Michel Thibault. The masked gargoyle is attributed to Anton Anreith, who was a german sculptor who made numerous sculptural embellishments for buildings in the Cape. The slaves worked the pump by swinging the long wooden handle, weighted to one side, side to side thus producing water from a pipe. In the case of this site, it meant water would be released through the mouth of the gargoyle.

The Justitie Plaats (Justice square) and the Strafpaal at the corner of Darling Street and Buitekant Street was a place of punishment and execution of slaves, Khoena, and others. People were brought here for torture and execution, following their trial at the Castle. There was a post to which the convicted slaves and persons were tied while the were punished in public. Whipping, hanging, crucifixion and a host of other cruelties took place at this site, which is unmarked. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was situated to the south of the Castle, on De Buitenkant outside the Dutch East India Company’s settlement. According to historic maps this area had been an open piece of land on the Table Bay shoreline. In the 1760s it also appeared to have been the site of gallows. For most of the 18th century the area had been used as a site for execution (Justitie plaats). Authorities hoped that public executions would deter crime and resistance by slaves.
Today it is a spiritual centre.

There is a story that involves slaves being sold under a tree that grew in Church Square. This tree had marked the location where a large number of slaves were auctioned off to buyers. Most of the slaves had been transported from regions of Africa and Asia to the Cape. The slave tree was located near the Slave Lodge. It is believed that the tree also functioned as a gathering place for slaves who were not alloed to enter churches. In 1916, the old fir tree was cut down. In 1951, the stump of the tree was removed in oder for Spin and Mostert Streets to be widened.

The Company's Garden is the oldest garden in South Africa. The origin of the site can be traced back to 1644 when the Dutch ship ("Haarlem") ran ashore at Bloubergstrand. The Company’s Garden was first built as a refreshment station for the trade route that rounded the tip of Africa between Europe and the east. Ships sent by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) would stop at the Cape after months at sea and stock up on fresh produce grown in the garden—hence, “The Company’s Garden”. The Company Gardens and the site of Parliament is the site of the first plantation worked by Company Slaves. The VOC was the largest slave- owner at the Cape, owning up to 1,000 slaves at the peak of its power. An old Slave Bell memorial still stands in the VOC Company Gardens.

The Slave Church is noted as being the first place of worship for slaves and Free Blacks. It was also a meeting place of the anti-slavery abolitionist movement.
In 1799, the church was founded by the African Missionary Society. The building was mainly used as a space to teach slaves how to read and write, as well as Bible classes. In 1802, approximately 280 slaves were being taught at the church. The majority of the congregation were Company slaves, who resided at the Lodge, that had been baptised and confirmed.
By 1971, due to the poor condition of the building, the church was sold and a new church was established in Belhar. In 1977, the Cape Provincial Administration restored the building and it attaned heritage status.

Camps Bay (Clifton) beach is the site of burial of 200 washed up slaves who perished in the sinking of the San Jose in 1794 nearby off Oudekraal.
The Portugese captain, crew and approximaetly half of the slaves survived. The ship had hugged the shoreline in an attempt to protect itself from strong winds but unfortunately crashed into rocks and was wedged on two reefs in the turbulent ocean. The ship began to break up and although a barge was sent ashore with some of the slaves, the rough sea prevented the barge from returning to the ship. Those aboard attempted to save more of the men and slaves but some 212 slaves died. The surviving slaves were sold in Cape Town.
The South African government has since declared the site a national monument.
No skeletons or even partial remians have been found in the ship wreck.

A tavern, next to the Old Town House, in the vicinity of Strand Street was the place where Louis and the other slave uprising leaders met to plan the uprising. Louis had met two Irishmen, James Hooper and Michael Kelly, in what used to be a waterfront seamen's tavern. Strand Street marked the original waterfront or first street area alongside the beach of Cape Town (most of the other land going towards the docks is landfill reclaimed from the sea). Strand Street thus marks the place of arrival by ship of many of the slaves. Luois had worked in this tavern for his brother-in-law and through conversations with the Irishmen, learnt about freedom struggles in Ireland, France, Haiti and the British abolition of the slave trade.

Emancipated slaves originating from Batavia, Java and Malaysia settled in Kalk Bay. In addition, as early as 1840, a shipwreck at Cape Point led to Filipino (Manillas) sailors settling in Kalk Bay. Futhermore, between 1860 and 1880, refugees from the Spanish repression in the Philippines slowly traveled to the Cape and settled into the Kalk Bay fishing and whaling community. By 1882, 68 Manilla families (Spanish-speaking Roman Catholics) were living in area. These settlers were integral in establishing the St James Parish as well as being expert fishermen.

The cave and mountain at Hangklip along the Kogelberg coastline was the place of escape for run-away slaves who set up a small free maroon community. The name maroons or drosters was given to run-away slaves. The maroons lived there for more than a hundred years, from the 1720s up until the 1830s (time of slave emancipation). They ate seafood, veldkos or obtained food from slaves who worked on neighbouring farms or from other maroons who lived on Table Mountain. Hangklip was the ideal hiding location as it was close to the coast and had a good view point. Furthermore, due to their location in an area that had few access routes, when the commandos were searching for them, the maroons had enough time to hide in nearby caves. Robert Ross captures the story of this community in his novel 'Cape of Torments: Slavery and Resistance'.

Originally called Burgershoek, Goedverwacht is a town rich in historical history.
The Moravian mission station of Goedverwacht ("High Expectations"), which was established in 1881, is associated with both slaves and the Khoe.
The land originally belonged to Hendrik Schalk Burger, a widowed farmer. When the emancipation of the slaves was close to being achieved, he asked his slave and their family to stay on the farm with him and care for him until his death. Maniesa was originally from Bengal (India), she had five children and son-in-law. In Hendrik Schalk Burger's will, he left the farm to Maniesa with the instructions that when all her children had passed on that their descendants should sell the farm and divide the proceeds. The will was challenged twice in court by his own children, but the agreement was upheld. The property remained in Maniesa's family's hands until 1888 when her last child, Hester, died. The grave of Maniesa can be seen in the graveyard. Subsequently, the descendants decided to sell the propoerty to the Moravian Missionaries for 750 Pounds.

The mission station at Pacaltsdorp was initially called Hooge Kraal, as the land was under control of the Khoe chief Dikkop. He had requested that a missionary be sent to his kraal to teach his tribe western tradition and skills. Subsequently in 1813, a small mission station was founded by the London Missionary Society (LMS) who had previously visited the area the previous year. Reverend J Campbell promised chief Dikkop that a missionary would come and stay among them. Chief Dikkop went personally with his ox-wagon to fetch Reverend Charles Pacalt and brought him to Hoogekraal.
In 1819, Hooge Kraal was renamed Pacaltsdorp after the death of Reverend Pacalt who had served at the mission and built up a congregation of about 300 Khoekhoen, slaves and free labourers.

More slaves settled in Pacaltsdorp after emancipation.

The oldest Muslim burial ground in Cape Town,Tana Baru ('New Ground'), is located on the slopes of Signal Hill in Bokaap. It is here that some of the earliest and most respected Muslim settlers (pioneers of Islam) in South Africa lie buried as well as many slaves who were Muslim. Three prominent early Cape Muslim Imams, namely Tuan Nuruman, Tuan Sayeed Alawse and Tuan Guru lie buried on the Tana Baru grounds and shrines have been erected to honour them.

Religious freedom was granted to Muslims in 1804. On 2 October 1805, the Batavian government granted the first piece of land for a Muslim cemetery to Frans van Bengalen. This decision was made in an effort to retain Muslim loyalty in the event of British invasion. In 1886, the cemetery was officially closed by the government.
Today the Bo-Kaap is mainly inhabited by descendants of slaves who were brought to the Cape by the VOC.

One of the significant sites which emerged from the 1799-1803 war was Bethelsdorp Mission. In 1803, the mission settlement was established for Khoikhoi people on the Cape’s Eastern frontier by the London Missionary Society. Missionaries Dr Johannes Theodorus Van der Kemp and Rev James Read built alms houses once they had convinced the colonial government that they needed to establish a settlement to educate and provide religious and social instruction to the indigenous people. Several historic structures, including the Van der Kemp Memorial Church, alms houses, and David Livingstone Cottage, can be seen today. The Van Der Kemp memorial church may have been the earliest congregational church in built in southern Africa.

During the 1811-12 war, the British established several lines of fortifications, with a centrally-located depot for supplies and from which troops could be sent as reinforcements. Two lines of fortifications were established, with a few more scattered in the rear.
Trumpetter's Drift was discovered to be a convenient crossing point between Grahamstown and Fort Peddie. In 1817, Lord Charles Somerset who was the Governor of the Cape Colony, built a rudimentary fort after a group of indigenous people crossed the drift to attack Grahamstown. Both Trompetter’s Drift Post and Committee’s Drift Post represent this period of military confrontation and symbolise attempts to enforce the Fish River as a rigid boundary, separating people. Trompetter's Drift fort was named after the Khoikhoi Captain Hans Trompetter who had a settlement near this fort. The fortification was built to protect the ford as well as being a base for patrols operating in the region. In 1843, the fort was reinforced and formed part of the Lewis Line of Forts, which consisted of a total of 6 forts.

Today the Trumpeters Drift Game Lodge has been built around the historical stone fort.

The Egazini Memorial is a township-based heritage site that was constructed in memory of the Xhosa (amaNdlambe) warriors who fell during the Battle of Egazini in Grahamstown. The battle occurred in 1819 between Xhosa warriors and the British settlers how had been residing in Grahamstown.

The first battle in the War of the Axe was the Battle of Burnshill (17 May, 1846), which was a significant victory for the Xhosa. In the tension prior to the outbreak of the 1846-47 war, the British decided to launch a pre-emptive strike against Sandile’s great place near the Burnshill mission. They despatched a massive convoy of 125 ox-wagons, laden with stores and munitions. They wanted to establish a military headquarters near Sandile's Great Place. They marched for three days and on the fourth day, they were attacked at Burnshill and heavily defeated by the Xhosa. It was one of the greatest Xhosa victories of the nine Frontier Wars.

Fort Fordyce and the general area of the Waterkloof (Mtontsi) represent one of the most bitterly contested areas of the frontier wars. It was a violent battle ground during the 8th Frontier War (1850-1853).

For three years during the war of Mlanjeni the Xhosa and Khoikhoi under the leadership of Maqoma fought a bitter guerrilla war against the British and colonial forces. The Infantry under Colonel Thomas Fordyce had marched before daylight to the head of the Waterkloof and the cavalry had followed suit at dawn. A large number of Xhosa under Maqoma's personal command were concealed among inaccessible rocks which gave them the advantage to attack the British troops. The present Fort Fordyce is named after Colonel Fordyce who was killed there in November 1851; the British troops called it ‘Mount Misery.’

Today, the Fort Fordyce Nature Reserve is home to a large number of historical sites exist in the area, including the remains of a fort, graves, a military road and the cliffs and forests from which the Xhosa and Khoikhoi fought which are all located within a compact area. These sites provide a convenient platform for telling the story of the longest and bitterest of all the wars.

After the Sixth Xhosa War (1834—1835) Sir Benjamin D’Urban annexed all the land between the Keiskamma and the Kei Rivers as part of the Cape Colony and called it the Province of Queen Adelaide. To protect this territory he started to build a network of forts; along the Buffalo River they almost formed a line.
One of these forts, known as Fort Murray, was situated about 18 kilometres south of King William’s Town in a bend of the Buffalo River, near Mount Coke Mission Station. When the British Government refused to ratify the annexation, the Province was abolished and in September, 1836, Fort Murray was vacated, whereupon it fell into disrepair.

The Sixth Xhosa War was followed in 1846 by the Seventh, known as the War of the Axe. When this ended, Governor Sir Harry Smith once again proclaimed the land between the Keiskamma and the Kei as British territory and called it British Kaffraria. Lieut.-Col. George Mackinnon, headquartered at King William’s Town, was appointed as Commandant and Chief Commissioner of the area. A central defensive line of forts was constructed, along Buffalo River, including a new Fort Murray on the west bank of the river, 10 km south of King William’s Town. It was an extensive stone structure with barracks for infantry and cavalry. It was the headquarters of Capt. John Maclean, the Commissioner for the Ndlambi tribe. A house was built for him near the fort. The fort is described as a well-built military station, the residence of the British Commissioner, Capt. Maclean . . . the fort is pleasantly situated in an open grassy valley, but it stands too low to be a military position of any importance except as a communications post. The fort was manned by the Second Division of the Kaffrarian Police under Super intendent Fielding.

In 1850 the first rumours that the witchdoctor Mlangeni had incited the Xhosa to war reached Maclean at Fort Murray, so he called the Ndlambi Chiefs together there and warned them seriously against any rebellion. In spite of this, war broke out. Maclean played a prominent role in it. From Fort Murray a detachment was sent to beat off the Hottentot rebels who attacked the mission station at Mount Coke. It was at Fort Murray, too, that Chief Seyolo surrendered to Maclean, thus hastening the end of the war.
The well-known suicide of the Xhosa took place in 1837 as a result of the dream visions of the prophetess Nonquasi. In the next year she and Noxosi who accompanied her were captured and kept under observation for a consider able time in Fort Murray in an effort to discover the motives that gave rise to the disaster.

During the years that followed, many well known Imperial regiments occupied the old fort. During and after the Ninth Xhosa War (1877—78) it was used as a training centre for the Frontier Armed Mounted Police, also known as the Currie Police, and in the 1880’s it was used by the Cape Police.
Gradually the fort was deprived of its military status. At one time it was used as a depot for sick mules. In the 1890’s an unsuccessful attempt was made to convert it into an institution for leprosy patients, and during the Anglo Boer War there was talk of using it as a concentration camp. After that it fell into disrepair. Many of the stones and bricks were taken away, and for a time it even served as a cattle kraal. To put an end to such vandalism, notices were erected in 1909 forbidding further destruction of the fort.

Gwadana is the name of a hill where a battle between the Gcaleka and the Colony took place. At the time, the area between Butterworth and Idutywa was known as Galekaland. The war between the Colony and the Gcaleka opened with a humiliating defeat for the Colony.
On 26 September 1877, a colonial patrol, led by Inspector Chalmers, came across Gcaleka raiding Mfengu homesteads at Gwadana. The force of troopers from the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police (FAMP) and Mfengu intervened in support of the Mfengu. However, the colonial force was forced to retreat after the gun carriage of their artillery piece broke and they were overwhelmed by a determined force of the Gcaleka. Six police troopers were killed in the battle.

S.E.K. Mqhayi is generally recognised as the greatest figure in isiXhosa literature, inspiring many, including the young Nelson Mandela. 18 He was educated at Lovedale, but could not hold down a job because he refused to toe the missionary line. He eventually found a patron in Chief Silimela Makinana of the amaNdlambe, who provided him with a piece of land he called Ntab’ozuko. He died there in 1945, where a memorial was unveiled on 29 September 2011.

Healdtown was founded in 1855 as a Methodist industrial school to rival the Presbyterian Lovedale. Many of the first literate African intellectuals were trained there, including J.T. Jabavu and Rev. Nehemiah Tile, the pioneer of the Ethiopian church. In later years, many prominent leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Raymond Mhlaba, schooled there before going on to complete their education at Fort Hare.

In the early hours of the morning of 16 December 1838, a battle was fought between the Voortrekkers, under the leadership of Andries Pretorius, and the AmaZulu warriors near the Ncome (Buffalo) River. Dingane was the King of the Zulu's at the time and most historians site that his army was led by King Dingane’s generals Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi. The AmaZulu suffered heavy fatalities, losing more than 3000 men, while the Voortrekkers reportedly suffered only three non-fatal injuries. The Ncome River became red with the blood of the slain. Hence the river became known as "Blood River".

The Battle of Talana Hill, also known as the Battle of Glencoe, was the first major clash of the Second Boer War. A frontal attack by British infantry supported by artillery drove Boers from a hilltop position, but the British suffered heavy casualties in the process, including their commanding general Sir William Penn Symons. The Zulu name "Talana" meaning "the shelf where precious items are stored" is a most appropriate name for this large and varied museum.

Established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1904, is situated on the north-western edge of Inanda, some 20 kilometres north of Durban. It was on this Settlemnet that he started his journey of transforming from a successful Lawyer to a simple man with a passion for liberation, nonviolence and spirituality. The Settlement, devoted to Gandhi’s principles of Satyagraha (passive resistance), has played an important spiritual and political role throughout its long history, promoting justice, peace and equality. Gandhi established the settlement, comprised of 100 acres of land, as a communal experimental farm with the view of giving each family two acres of land which they could develop. He believed that communities like Phoenix which advocated communal living would form a sound basis for the struggle against social injustice. Market gardens were established, their diary supplied milk to all the homesteads on the settlement as well as the neighbourhood, and they produced their own butter and ghee for domestic use. Everybody on the settlement had to participate in communal activities, such as the daily prayers and singing of hymns which Gandhi himself had instituted.

Currie's Fountain sports ground is one of the major sites of protest in Durban, and its history is intertwined with the neighborhood. It is located in the Warwick Junction/Grey Street area (see below). It has always been a largely open space that served as a gathering space for large numbers of people. What appears to have started as a neighborhood gathering space, primarily for sport, became much more in the history of South Africa's recent past. The numerous sporting, cultural and political events over an eighty year period have shaped the iconic status Currie's enjoys in the minds of many. Because of this rich history, ‘Currie's’ can become the pivot and catalyst around which the story of the interrelated spatial history of the precinct, known as Warwick Junction is told and integrated. The sports ground became part of the sporting and resistance life of the City. In the 1970s the sports ground was the venue of the Black Consciusness Movement’s ‘Viva Frelimo’ rallies.

The City Hall and the Francis Farewell Gardens forms an important cultural and historical unit. Due to its central location within Durban, it has been the site of countless demonstrations and protests.

The City Hall has been witness to the history of the city and of the country, as South Africa moved from four distinct British colonies to the Union of South Africa before finally becoming the present day state of the Republic of South Africa. The building was designed in 1903, as an exact replica of the City Hall of Belfast (Ireland) and the construction of the structure was completed in 1910. In the past, the City Hall has been the venue for political speeches given by the apartheid government but today, the mayor and City Manager's offices (municipal chambers) remain firmly established in the City Hall. It is also used as a meeting venue for Council commitees and of the full Council.

The Francis Farewell square stands on the site of the first European settlement which had been established in Natal in the early 19th Century. In 1824, a small trading station and settlement of hunters and traders was set up by Francis Farewell and Henry Fynn as a means to purchase ivory from the Zulus.

In 1873 Cetshwayo succeeded his father as King of the Zulus. Theophilus Shepstone, now Administrator of the British Colony of Transvaal, advised the British government to wage war on the Zulu kingdom. Only when the king’s power was broken would British rule be secure. The annexation of Zululand was advocated from April to July 1877 by both the press in Natal and the missionaries, and was justified on the grounds of humanity. Reports began to be received from March onwards of attacks on mission stations and the murder of converts. It was also said that King Cetshwayo was killing his subjects at the rate of fifty people a day. The colonial office in England instructed Shepstone to annex the Transvaal on 11 April 1877. With this act, Britain and colonial Natal conspired to annex Zululand, an action which was effected soon thereafter. The Zululand-Transvaal boundary dispute served as a pretext for Shepstone’s proposed annexation of Zululand. The Battle of Isandlwana, on January 22, 1879, was a major defeat for the British army. Coming as it did at the very beginning of the Anglo-Zulu War, the defeat sent shudders of apprehension through the corridors of Whitehall and ultimately cost Lord Chelmsford his command. Chelmsford was in charge of one of three invasion columns that were supposed to sweep into Zululand and converge on Cetshwayo’s capital at Ulundi. On 20 January, Chelmsford crossed the Buffalo River into Zululand, leaving behind a small force at Rorke’s Drift to guard the column’s supplies. Unknown to Chelmsford, the heart of the Zulu army – 20,000 men – had taken up a position just 5 kilometres away. Using Shaka’s classic chest-and-horns formation, the Zulus swept toward the British positions. The battle hung in the balance until the Zulus’ left horn outflanked the British. The fighting continued for two hours before the British fled the field, with the Zulus in triumphant pursuit. About 1,000 Zulus perished in the attack, as did 1,329 British troops. The British emerged victorious at Ulundi a few months later.

The defence of Rorke’s Drift is one of the most famous battles of the Anglo Zulu War and followed directly after the greatest Zulu victory of the war, at Isandlwana. The Zulu reserves along with one regiment of the right horn, about 4000 warriors in total, crossed the Buffalo River and attacked the British Commissariat and Hospital at the Mission station at Rorke's Drift. From the British perspective this was the most glorious battle of the Zulu War, the more so because it took place just hours after the disaster at Isandlwana. Approximately 140 British soldiers fought for 11 hours to repel the attack earning 11 Victoria Crosses in the process.

Tshitangadzimeni is a place situated at Bileni Village along the Mutale river forests in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province where a significant event took place in the 1980’s at the height of the armed struggle and infiltration by liberation movements’ military forces into South Africa to fight the Apartheid regime. It is known to be an Island of fire kindled by the apartheid security forces to smoke out Liberation fighters - resulting into a battle.

Constitution Hill is a living museum that tells the story of South Africa’s journey to democracy. The site is a former prison and military fort that bears testament to South Africa’s turbulent past and, today, is home to the country’s Constitutional Court, which endorses the rights of all citizens.

There is perhaps no other site of incarceration in South Africa that imprisoned the sheer number of world-renowned men and women as those held within the walls of Constitution Hill’s Old Fort, Women's Jail and Number Four. Nelson Mandela. Mahatma Gandhi. Joe Slovo. Albertina Sisulu. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Fatima Meer. They all served time here. But the precinct also confined tens of thousands of ordinary people during its 100-year history: men and women of all races, creeds, ages and political agendas; children too; the everyman and the elite. In this way, the history of every South African lives here.

The Hector Pieterson Museum is a large museum located in Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa, two blocks away from where Hector Pieterson was shot and killed. The museum is named in his honour. It became one of the first museums in Soweto when it opened on 16 June 2002. In Soweto, on 16 June, 1976, when students at Naledi and Thomas Mofolo High Schools started a march in protest against Afrikaans. They moved through Soweto, with the aim of holding a mass meeting at Orlando Stadium. About 10,000 marchers converged outside Orlando West High School, where police confronted them and fired tear-gas canisters to disperse them. The students retaliated with stones and the police opened fire, immediately killing two – seventeen-year old Hastings Ndlovu and thirteen-year old Hector Pietersen – thus sparking fierce rioting that soon spread throughout Soweto.

The Statue commemorates a true hero of the armed struggle against apartheid. The execution of Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu on 6 April 1979 resulted in an unprecedented international condemnation of the then South African Government. Solomon Mahlangu paid for his beliefs with his life. The Statue contributes to an understanding of this. At the same time the Statue is a tangible reminder of one of the darkest chapters in the history of South Africa, i.e. the struggle against racial oppression and the fight for a free and democratic South Africa. The Statue is consequently of notable historic and symbolic importance as it celebrates both an icon and an iconic struggle.

It is a site of remembrance where South Africa honours those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for a free and democratic South Africa and pays tribute to all the deserving South Africans who played a meaningful role in shaping this nation. Although no remains are kept at Freedom Park, it is full of symbolic monuments and landscaped gardens that represent the heroes of South Africa’s past struggles.

Chief Bhambatha (sometimes spelled Bhambada) was born in Mpanza near the town of Greytown, Natal Colony. He was the son of Chief Macinga of the abakwa Zondi chieftaincy, and his mother, principal wife of Macinga, was the daughter of Chief Pakade of an important Zulu chieftaincy, the Cunu.

From early childhood, chief Bhambatha became renowned for his athletic skills, the use of assegais, and running. He was nicknamed Magadu meaning “one who took a duiker for his model”. His other names were kaMancinza, kaJangeni, kaMangenge, kaNomashumi, kaNondaba, and kaTetane, KaGasa.

He is famous for his role in an armed rebellion in 1906 when the poll tax was raised from a tax per hut to per head (£1 tax on all native men older than 18 - infamously called ukhandampondo) increasing hardship during a severe economic depression. Bhambatha claims that he was told to lead an armed rebellion by the de facto Zulu King Dinizulu. Dinizulu disputed this account and no convincing evidence for either story is available. The Natal Police believed Bhambatha was going to resist the tax with force and sent about 150 men to arrest him. Instead the police were ambushed and four policemen killed. Thousands of colonial troops were then sent after him, including cavalry and heavy artillery, leading to 3,500 dead. Bhambatha himself reportedly was killed in the Battle of Mome Gorge. He is often credited as an inspiration to native South African resistance and as a precursor of the anti-apartheid movement.[

The Apartheid Museum, close to downtown Johannesburg, focuses on the notorious system of racial discrimination that became synonymous with South Africa from 1948 (when the white-minority National Party was voted into power) until 1994, the year in which the country held its first fully democratic elections.

n 1968 the South African government built in an open field a township called Mpophomeni to relocate the black people living in the surroundings of Howick, a picturesque little town in the Natal Midlands. Mpophomeni (which means the place of the waterfall in isiZulu) derives its name from the well known Howick waterfall.

In 1985 the management of SARMCOL (South African Rubber Manufacturing Company Limited) summarily dismissed a thousand workers, many of them Mpophomeni residents, after a strike. This plunged hundreds of families into poverty.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a fight between the people of Mpophomeni and the people living in the rural areas of Kwa Shifu, Haza and Mahlangeni. The community of Mpophomeni were ANC (African National Congress) supporters and the rural areas were strongly behind the opposing IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party). The death of Nokulunga Gumede, a five-year-old girl who was run down by a military vehicle (Casper) during the violence taking place in the township at the time was a catalyst for change – no-one stopped the violence when they had the chance.

Reconciliation only truly started between the township and the rural occupants in 1993 and 1994. A memorial was built in remembrance of this and named after Nokulunga Gumede - the youngest victim of the violence as well as commemorating the 120 people that died.

In 1824, Elim was a Moravian mission station where local Khoe and freed slaves were taught various trades and skills such as thatching.