Acts of severity

Seminar: '"Acts of severity": massacre in pastoral colonial settler societies on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony and on the Australian Victorian frontier, 1826-1852'

Dr Susan Blackbeard

University of Cape Town

Colonial settler massacre of the amaXhosa on the Eastern frontier of the Cape Colony appears to be a neglected field, with the focus having been on the extermination of the Khoikhoi. Furthermore, revisionist histories of the Eastern Cape frontier, most of which are sited within the indigenous-resistance framework, tend to concentrate on Xhosa resistance to settler expansion, with less attention being paid to settler response. This paper is an attempt to address this lacuna by examining some incidents on the Eastern frontier between 1826 and 1852, arguing that, according to the definitions and typology of historical sociologist Jacques Semelin and leading Australian massacrologists, they should be reclassified as massacre. And where apposite, I compare these to similar incidents on the (Australian) Victorian front.

On the Eastern frontier I find that most of the massacres between 1826 and 1836 occurred under the Reprisal System. Though its abolition in 1836 may have temporarily restricted commando atrocities, massacre seemed to spike again in 1846-7 and 1851-2 under the guise of military operations dubbed as 'reprisal raids', 'dispersals', 'skirmishes', and 'mopping up-operations'. In conclusion, I consider the role played by the Select Committee on Aborigines of 1835 and 1836 in exposing massacre on the Eastern frontier, and ask whether it had a similar effect in Australia.

Cultural Collections at Auchmuty Library (ground floor, through AIC), followed by morning tea.

Hosted by Faculty Education and Arts,
The Centre for The History of Violence