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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
This paper examines the reasons why the small African state of Thaba Nchu was annexed by the Orange Free State after more than a decade of nominal independence within Free State borders. For some years before 1884 Thaba Nchu had existed in a situation not unlike that of a modern ‘Bantustan’; this was disrupted when a coup was staged against the ruler, Tshipinare, who had relied on Free State support. Fearing instability if the new ruler, Samuel Moroka, became firmly established, Free State forces invaded Thaba Nchu, captured Samuel Moroka, and incorporated the land in the Free State.
1 For example, Thompson, Leonard, Survival in Two Worlds (Oxford, 1975), 189Google Scholar. Barlow, T. B., in President Brand and His Times (Cape Town, 1972), 224–6,Google Scholar treats the annexation in more detail, though entirely from the point of view of the Free State.
2 These estimates are based on figures recorded both by unofficial observers and by the Orange Free State. See Trollope, A., South Africa (London, 1878), 11, 276Google Scholar; Broadbent, S., Narrative of the First Introduction of Christianity amongst the Barolong Tribe of Bechuanas, South Africa (London, 1865), 201Google Scholar; Mitchell, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (henceforth SPG), 30 Sept. 1870Google Scholar, Archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London (henceforth USPG), Missionary Reports, 1869–1870, pp. 1437–8Google Scholar; Free State Archives Depot, Bloemfontein, Goewerment sekretaris, Baralong Census, 1884, G.S. 1408.Google Scholar
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18 Mitchell, to SPG, 30 Sept. 1880Google Scholar, USPG, Missionary Reports, 1880, 1447Google Scholar. Also Crisp's report, Quarterly Paper of the Bloemfontein Mission, li (Jan. 1881). 23.Google Scholar
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31 Daniel, to WMS, 31 Oct. 1882Google Scholar, MMS, box xxviii. Barton, to WMS, 21 Feb. 1884Google Scholar, ibid.
32 Daniel, to WMS, 29 August 1881Google Scholar, ibid.
33 Ibid. Mitchell to SPG, 30 Sept. 1880, 1450.
34 The Bishop's Report, 9 Sept. 1880Google Scholar, The Mission Field, 1880, 400.Google Scholar
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38 Daniel, to WMS, 29 Aug. 1881Google Scholar, MMS, box xxviii.
39 Schapera, , The Tswana, 21.Google Scholar
40 Daniel, to WMS, 31 Oct. 1882Google Scholar, MMS, box xxviii.
41 Molema, , Montshiwa (Cape Town, 1966), 192.Google Scholar
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47 Quoted in Aswegen, van, ‘Verhouding tussen Blank en Nie-Blank,’ i, 254.Google Scholar
48 Quoted in ibid. 256.
49 Ibid. 258. The Free State census after annexation listed 554 ‘Basutos’ living at Thaba Nchu.
50 See Galbraith, J., Reluctant Empire (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963), 62–97Google Scholar, for a discussion of this phenomenon.
51 Free State Archives Depot, ‘Samuel Moroka: Petition to be Allowed to Return to Thaba Nchu’, 1906Google Scholar, Native Affairs Branch of the Colonial Secretary's Office, Orange River Colony, vol. 5, file no. N. 360/06, p. 2.
52 In the case of the Moorosi rebellion, the only apparent action by London was a protest against the beheading and mutilating of Moorosi's body by Cape troops. See Atmore, A., ‘The Moorosi Rebellion’, in Rotberg, R. and Mazrui, A. (eds.), Protest and Power in Black Africa (New York, 1970), 32.Google Scholar
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55 The role of labour in South African history has received much attention recently. See the argument of S. Marks and A. Atmore that securing a stable labour supply for industry and commercial agriculture was a key reason for British imperial intervention in South Africa, in ‘The Imperial factor in South Africa in the nineteenth century: towards a reassessment’, Journal of Imperial and Commomuealth History, iii (1974), 105–39Google Scholar; and, more recently, Keegan, T., ‘The restructuring of agrarian class relations in a colonial economy: the Orange River Colony, 1902–1910’, Journal of Southern African Studies, v (Apr. 1979), 234–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
56 Barlow, , President Brand, 224,Google Scholar suggests the possibility of this interpretation but does not follow it up or elaborate.
57 Free State Archives, ‘Samuel Moroka's Petition’, 3.Google Scholar
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59 The most complete account of the battle is Crisp's, who resided at Thaba Nchu town at the time. Crisp, to SPG, 31 Dec. 1884, 1428–30Google Scholar. See also Slade, to WMS, 24 July 1884Google Scholar, MMS, box xxviii; Molema, , Moroka, 155–6Google Scholar; Brand's account in the Volksraad minutes, 11 Sept. 1884, in Gouvernements Courant (addition), 22, (Oct. 1884), 482,Google Scholar and the Statement of Privates Khoto and Dibupuoa, , P.P., Colonies: Africa, 17, 497–8.Google Scholar
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