NATIVE EVIDENCE AT THE NATIVE LAND COMMITTEE, NATAL PROVINCE, SITTING AT UMZINTO, SEPTEMBER 1917 AARON JALI (representing Chief JACK).—We find it a big question that you come to talk about—the separating of natives from white people. We do not understand it at all, because we have grown up with the whites and lived amongst them all our lives. So we find it very hard to understand why we should be separated. Our chief grievance is that there are some chiefs who have not enough locations to place their people on. That is what we chiefly want the government to sort out for us—more Iocations. There are some chiefs who have very poor ground — mostly stones — and we look to the heads to .see if they cannot give us better ground where we can get crops. This demarcation of the land and separation makes us very afraid. It makes us think that perhaps something is going to happen which we do not know or understand. Chief TSHONKWENI : We do not quite understand this, as the white people seem to have bought up a good deal of the land. If a native happens to live on a white mans farm he cannot go on to Crown Lands without paying £2, and even if willing they are not allowed; this we cannot understand. It would be much better if the Government did not separate us from the white people. We cannot understand it, because the natives are gradually being pushed off these farms and they have nowhere to go. Those are the people we look to protect us and they are the ones who are pushing us off. I have practically lost all my tribe through the land being bought up all around me. I do not understand where the natives will be able to get farms, because the white people seem to have bought them all up. Cattle we have, but we have no grazing grounds for them. The farm fences cut right through the grazing grounds we used to have and are near to the kraals. JAMES MBELA : We do not understand. We are quite in the dark about this question of separation. We do not know where it has sprung from. We would like the land pointed out and explained to us that we are to have, so that we may understand it properly. The Mission Reserves, Locations and Crown Lands are right in amongst farms. As regards cattle, we have no grazing, and the kraals are very thick now, because the natives are gradually leaving the farms and crowding on to the Reserves and Iocations. We have nowhere to put those who are gradually leaving the farms. MPOTSHANA, Chief of the Amahlongwa Mission Reserve: The Government knows of our grievances; we have expressed them today. We are the Governments children, but there are some who are a little above us now because they have bought land of their own. We leave it to the Government to decide for us, because they know better than we do. We would like the Government to decide and then point out what they have done for us. We would then thank the Government, whose children we are. How can we children come and dictate a policy? Government has to decide whether we are to be separated from the whites. Chief Tshonkweni: The important thing, to my mind, is that Chiefs should each be given a distinct area within which they could receive natives who are dispossessed of tenure on European farms. If that were done it would conduce to a much more satisfactory order of settlement. The most unsatisfactory feature today is that I am not in a position to receive a man. In regard to natives who are dispossessed of tenure, it has become a serious matter to provide places for them. We know that the Government is slow and we would not venture to ask them to hurry, but we do urge that the matter has become a very serious one.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 21:27:12 +0000
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