Kakapusa (amnesia) Khronicles- The Leliefontein Massacre of 1902
On January 31st 120 years ago a massacre occurred at Leliesfontein in the Namakwa District, Northern Cape. Today the provincial government commemorates the fallen KhoiKhoi community as part of its 2022 Human Rights Day celebrations. It is a sombre and a ghoulish thought to think it took this long to openly acknowledge. It has been dubbed as the biggest massacre in the history of Namaqualand.
Over two days during the anglo boer war, a boer leader killer over 35 KhoiKhoi folk and wounded over 100. “Historical” reports say this was in retaliation for the KhoiKhoi attacking them. The Leliefontein KhoiKhoi folk took refuge in a nearby mission church while being attacked. Lelifontein was completely destroyed and those “left” alive were enslaved and forced to work for the boer army.
The government’s theme for Human Rights Month is : “The Year of Unity and Renewal: Protecting and Preserving our Human Rights Gains”. Forgive me for asking this, but what utter misaligned kak is this? Protecting and Preserving human rights gains has got to include the basic rights afforded to us in the constitution. Lebert and Rhode in their 2007 study literally said nothing has changed since Apartheid days.
“a detailed case study of the land reform process in Leliefontein examines how the interests of a local elite, many of whom belong to the same class of businessmen and decision-makers who functioned under the Apartheid management institutions, have gained exclusive access to the new commonage farms. This has come about despite the government’s commonage policy which privileges access by poorer, disadvantaged communal farmers. This case study uncovers the dynamic complexity of community driven land reform especially in relation to the roles of rural elites and their relationship to government institutions”
The paper ends like this:
“The elite can play the game, but the fact that the voices of the majority of poorer communal farmers remain unheard or unheeded by those in positions of power suggests that present policies will merely reproduce the many of the mistakes of the past in a new context.”
So many people ask “ok so if not a commemorative plaque/community hall/statue/airport being renamed/place being renamed then what?
REDRESS (actual redress, not constant roundtable talks and case studies to mull over to apply for more case studies. The outcomes stay the same- nothing has changed).
EQUITY
As a democracy, an African democracy we cannot keep applying western solutions to African problems. I am sorry to say this and be so katterag but a keynote address, dialogues, educational, information sessions and half marathon is lazy, half-assed and insulting.
Katie Beukes and Shirley Links are direct descendants of some of the slain Leliefontein folk. They spoke of their pain back in 2018.
This year’s Human rights commemoration is supposed to coincide with the 26th anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution. The same Constitution that enshrines the rights of all people in South Africa and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom, THEN BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT IT AND DO SO WITH POLITICAL WILL. This Kakapusa (amnesia) is no longer lekker and quite frankly we are gatvol of monologuing commemorating people’s pain instead of helping them directly and equitably.