13/02/2021
TODAY IN KIMBERLEY’S HISTORY
11 FEBRUARY
Kgosi Galeshewe (pictured) sentenced to ten years gaol for his part in the 1896 uprising, 1898
3000 women and children lowered into the Kimberley and De Beers Mines to escape the shelling of the Boer Long Tom gun, 1900
DID YOU KNOW
Galeshewe, the large satellite suburb (also known as a township), which began as Number 2 Location and now includes many various smaller settlements, was named after this hitherto little known Batswana kgosi and warrior in May 1952. As the leader of the last great popular uprising against colonial settlement and encroachment in the 19th century, it is perhaps fitting that he be honoured in a predominantly Batswana region. Undoubtedly a great soldier who was merely defending his land, he was sentenced to a total of 22 years in jail, several of which were spent on the “breakwater” in Cape Town.
To understand Kgosi Galeshewe a little, one has to go back to his paternal grandfather, Gasebonwe, of the Thlaping totem of the Batswana people. Gasebonwe had lived in the Barkly West region in the years 1839 and 1840, and then at Borigelong (near Phokwane) from 1841 until 1858 when he was captured and executed by a commando raid under Paul Kruger from the then Transvaal. The punitive raid had come about due to alleged stock theft and other myriad actions in the Vaal river/Boshof/Benfontein triangle – but the Thlaping had lost 4000 sheep and goats, 2800 cattle, 65 horses, 23 wagons and at least 100 children.
Botsalitse, Galeshewe’s father, died in 1890 at Phokwane, the seat of power for the region, and Galeshewe then became Kgosi. Galeshewe himself had been brought up in a hostile environment, with what would have been to him, extremely intimidating acts towards his people by a white expansionist regime bent on total domination through force.
In 1878, three years after Lanyon’s government had introduced the policy of “native locations” there was tremendous strain on traditional leaders as they had been advised they had no power. Coupled to this was the fact that their immediate source of wealth – the sale of wood to the mining companies in Kimberley – had been curtailed and given to white traders, and a hut tax had been introduced. An uprising was virtually immediate with Luka Jantjies and Galeshewe attacking isolated traders and farmers, although Charles Warren and his better-armed troops from Kimberley soon put down the “rebellion”. Galeshewe was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for his part in the action (which could not be proved).
Nearly two decades later – in 1896/7 – there would be another uprising, known as the Phokwane Uprising (Rebellion) - this time against excessive force used by police destroying cattle because of the rinderpest scourge. Tremendous mis-understanding and of course, some major politicking by certain politicians who were looking upon the Vaal/Harts valleys for white settlement, saw Galeshewe and Jantjies lead their men into action. There were several small actions between Phokwane and the Langeberg near Kuruman, before the Batswana people were besieged and starved out in the Langeberg itself. Jantjies was killed, and eventually Galeshewe was captured. Again, he received a further 10 years jail sentence, but he was released in 1903 and shortly thereafter lived in Greenpoint for a time before settling with his followers in the Magogong region under Kgosi Molale. (Indeed, at Modutung, now known as Galeshewestad)
The Thlaping lost their land as punishment, and several were executed for their part in the uprising. One must remember the many hundreds of civilians and Batswana soldiers who lost their lives during the last of the large colonial wars in South Africa. Nearly 2000 Batswana people were deported to work as indentured labourers on wine farms in the western Cape.
Since Union in 1910 the Government planned to give Kgosi Galeshewe another farm to settle upon, but in 1927 his son refused to accept the farms offered. In 1938 the government offered the family Roodepoort (presumably the name of the farm), and again in 1942 they were offered land in the Kuruman region. The sons turned down all offers and remained at Modutung. Botlhasitse, Galeshewe’s son, died in 1960.
Kgosi Galeshewe must go down in history as one of the great soldiers of southern Africa, and certainly as a genuine freedom fighter.
He died in 1927.
