History of Rural South Africa

Along the Kat River near Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape stands a lone watchtower. To this day, it serves as a symbol of resistance to the British Empire.

During the days of empire, the British were masters of divide and rule among local populations. This policy was no different on the 19th-century Eastern Frontier, where the Khoikhoi became an integral part of the British military machine that fought the Xhosa for 100 years.

The Khoikhoi in the Cape Mounted Rifles (CMR) gained early fame as bush fighters. But during the Eighth Frontier War (1850 to 1853), many who were fighting on behalf of the British in the Kat River Valley north of Fort Beaufort rebelled against the Crown. This unexpected revolt led to a showdown at the British-built Fort Armstrong in February 1851.

war in the Valley

The central reason for the Kat River Valley becoming a theatre of war was the expulsion in the 1820s of Xhosa Chief Maqoma by the colonial government. The government then settled the valley with Khoikhoi as a reward for military services rendered. (Maqoma, of course, refused to recognise the Kat River Settlement, because he regarded the valley as ancestral land.)

In its upper reaches was the Phillipton mission station under James Read, who had married a Khoikhoi woman and became the settlement’s humanitarian champion.

The Khoikhoi went on to serve the British crown loyally against the Xhosa in the Sixth and Seventh Frontier wars.

By the late 1840s, British settlers began to view the fertile valley with envious eyes. In addition, unnecessary colonial bureaucracy was forced onto the Khoikhoi settlement. For example, peasant farmers were subjected to a quit-rent system, while squatting laws led to violent evictions. Remonstrations from Khoikhoi leaders, including Hermanus Matroos and Willem Uithaalder, were ignored by the authorities, who never anticipated a rebellion under their leadership.

Rebellion and the attack

When the Eighth Frontier War broke out in late 1850, the Kat River Valley Khoikhoi unexpectedly joined their traditional enemies, the Xhosa, against the crown. Matroos, the former interpreter to the then governor, Sir Harry Smith, began by disrupting communications in the valley, isolating Fort Armstrong on the upper Kat River. Soon he was operating beyond the settlement, attacking and looting white settler homes, and on 6 January he led 900 men against Fort Beaufort wearing a looted women’s bonnet. He was unceremoniously shot from his horse by the desperate defenders of the besieged town.

Once the attack petered out, the relieved defenders dragged Matroos’s body into the town square as a warning to others of the consequences of rebellion. But Uithaalder had set his sights on Fort Armstrong.

Fort Armstrong

On 22 January 1851, Uithaalder, a former CMR soldier, and 400 men armed with firearms and assegais surrounded Fort Armstrong. The fort fell without a shot being fired and Uithaalder, dressed in his CMR uniform, oversaw the looting of the military provisions.

The final showdown came a month later, when about 2 000 men, including loyal CMR soldiers, Mfengu levies and burgher volunteers, under the command of Major-General Henry Somerset, assembled near Fort Armstrong. After brutal fighting, the last rebels locked themselves in the watchtower and refused to surrender.

Eventually, the British forces trained a gun on the tower door and blew it to smithereens before volunteers entered and finished off the last rebels in hand-to-hand fighting. The fort, apart from its watchtower, was destroyed, the settlement dismantled and the rebels rounded up. Many homes and schools were torched and the Phillipton mission was sacked.

end of a rebel war

Although crushed in the valley, the Khoikhoi rebellion had spread across the frontier. Most devastating to Smith were mass CMR desertions, including more than 300 from King William’s Town. Despite having gained control of the Kat River Settlement, the British only managed to crush the wider rebellion by the end of 1852. The war against the Xhosa ended in March 1853, by which time Smith had been sacked as governor.

• Sources: Coetzee, C. 2015.

Forts of the Eastern Cape. Tony Westby-Nunn; Milton, J. 1983. Edges of War. Juta.

Mike burgess ABOVE: The Fort Armstrong watchtower in the Kat River Valley. Although the Kat River Khoikhoi inspired rebellious activity far beyond the picturesque valley, it was the retaking of Fort Armstrong by the British that led to the end of the rebellion in the Kat River Settlement.