Petition to King George V, from the South African Native National Congress, 16 December,
1918.

Memorial

To His Most Gracious Majesty King George V of Great Britain and Ireland including the Dominions and
Colonies, and Emperor of India.

May It Please Your Majesty --

1. We, the Chiefs and delegates assembled at Johannesburg, this 16th day of December, 1918, in the
Special Session of the South African Native National Congress, a political body representing the
various tribes of the Bantu people in South Africa, record the expression of our satisfaction and
thankfulness in the triumph of righteousness in this great war by the victory of the forces of Great
Britain, her noble Allies, and the United States of America.

2. We beg to convey to Your Majesty our affectionate loyalty and devotion to Your Majesty's person
and Throne and the sincerity of our desire that Divine Blessing and prosperity may attend Your
Majesty and all Your Majesty's Dominions in the dawn of a better age.

3. We further express the hope and wish that during Your Majesty's Reign all races and Nations will be
treated fairly and with justice, and that there will be no discrimination on account of colour or creed;
and will enjoy the right of citizenship, freedom and liberty under your flag.

4. It would scarcely be necessary to recite the active part played by ourselves -- Your Majesty's
subjects -- in the prosecution of the Great War, but the occasion and the purposes of this Memorial
justify such a recital: --

(a) It will be remembered that up till August 1914 the National Congress had a Deputation of its men
in London to petition Your Majesty to exercise the right of veto against the Natives Land Act 1913, and
at the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, Congress prompted by a sense of loyalty to Your Majesty's
Throne and the British Empire made representations to the Governor-General of the Union of South
Africa informing His Excellency that the Bantu people were prepared to render every assistance in the
defence of Your Majesty's Throne and Empire, which pledge was greatly appreciated by His Excellency,
the Governor-General and High Commissioner of South Africa.

(b) We offered 5,000 strong men to go and fight the Germans in South-West Africa, but we regret to
say that the offer was refused by His Excellency the Governor-General's Ministers of the Union of
South Africa on the ground that this war was waged between white people only, whereas we were as
vitally affected by the results of the war as any white subjects of Your Majesty.

(c) Thousands of our men went to German South West Africa as drivers and to assist in the Railway
construction into that Territory for military purposes.

(d) It will be significant to every one that during the trying and provocative times of the Rebellion in
this country, we remained perfectly quiet and passive, without causing the slightest embarrassment to
the Union Government, when difficult circumstances offered dangerous and ill-advised temptations to
an oppressed people.

(e) 17,000 of our men took part in the campaign in German East Africa under the Right Honourable
Lieutenant-General J. C. Smuts, Minister of Defence of the Union, and there participated in fighting
and transport capacities -- many of which died with malaria fever and suffered severe hardships and
privations.

(f) We heartily responded to the call of your Majesty's Imperial Government and the Army Council, for
25,000 men to do manual work in the French docks, and behind the trenches in Flanders. Our men
braved the oceans and endured the hardships of European cold weather, all under new and rough war
conditions; 615 of our men sank in the S. S. Mendi while in the service of Your Majesty and the
Empire. Owing to circumstances beyond our control, but we believe them to be due to the Union
Government's political prejudices, the South African Native Labour Overseas Contingent was
demobilised against our wish and much to our despairing regret, while we were still prepared to send
more men to assist in the World-wide war of Justice, Freedom and Liberty.

(g) For a period of four years and since the commencement of hostilities our countrymen steadfastly
maintained the supply of labour in the Gold Mines on the Rand, thus affording a continued output of
gold and the availability of cyanide for purposes of war: coal Mines and Harbours and all other
industries necessary for the prosecution of the war were adequately supplied with the labour of our
people, which was indispensable.

(h) While our men were engaged in the various theatres of war, in non-combatant capacities as
already shown, those of us remaining at home gave contributions in money and kind according to our
means, towards the support of the various War Funds. Chiefs gave cattle, mealies and curios -- all of
which have been gratefully acknowledged by Your Majesty's representatives in this country.

(i) Your Majesty will no doubt recognise that all the assistance given by us in this Great War was
entirely voluntary and made without any coercion or inducements. There was no promise of pension or
bonus to our men and no provision made for their dependents out of the Governor-General's Fund or
any other War Funds.

Compensation for those injured or killed in war during employment was extremely inadequate, and yet
the Chiefs and our Leaders continued to hold meetings throughout the country, exhorting people to
remain quiet and loyal during the war, and also encouraging the recruiting of our men for labour, and
expressing the insistent desire to be allowed to bear arms and fight as soldiers of Your Majesty.

All these acts were performed and rendered by Your Majesty's subjects who - except in the Cape
Province -- have no voice in the disposition of the affairs of the country of which they are the
aboriginal inhabitants, and your subjects who are admittedly loyal and law-abiding, are without any
recognition or safeguard under the constitution of the Union of South Africa.

5. In the appreciation of the service and loyalty of Your Majesty's subjects recited in the preceding
paragraph 4, we are reminded by Your Majesty's message to our Chiefs and people delivered to the
representatives of the South African Native Labour Contingent at Abberville in France on the 10th July
1917, saying: -

"This work of yours (meaning ourselves) is second only in importance to that performed by the Sailors
and Soldiers who are bearing the brunt of the battle. But you also form part of my great Armies, which
are fighting for the liberty, and freedom of my subjects of all races and creeds throughout my Empire.
Without Munition of War my Armies cannot fight: without food they cannot live. You are helping to
send these things to them each day, and in doing so you are hurling your spears at the enemy, and
hastening the destruction that awaits him".

"A large Corps such as yours requires drafts and reinforcements. I am sure your Chiefs will take upon
themselves this duty of supporting your Battalions by ever increasing numbers. I wish them and their
people to share with all my loyal subjects that great and final victory which will bring peace
throughout the world".

 

"I desire you to make these words of mine known to your people here, and to convey them to your
Chiefs in South Africa."

And also the message of His Excellency Lord Buxton, the Governor-General of the Union, before a
Mass Meeting of the Bantu people representing many of our tribes assembled at Johannesburg on the
8th Dec. 1918, on the occasion of the Peace Thanksgiving Service, as follows: --

" ....My second duty
which gives me much pleasure, is to thank you, on behalf of His Majesty the King, for the assistance
and loyalty which you and the natives you represent throughout South Africa, have shown to him and
to the Empire, during these four years of strain and stress. To thank you also for the help that you
have in various ways given to him against his enemies. I was especially glad to be received today by
the Members of the Native Labour Contingent, who have done such good work in Europe ......... But in
spite of all these difficulties and temptations, the natives have remained steadfastly loyal. The war has
proved to you that your loyalty was well placed, and I can assure you it will not be forgotten."

Again we are encouraged to mention the appreciation expressed in the Parliament of the Union of
South Africa on the occasion of the Mendi disaster when the Right Honourable General Louis Botha,
Prime Minister of the Union said: -

"If we ever lived in times when native-people of South Africa have shown great and true loyalty, it is
in time like the present. Ever since the War broke out the Natives have done everything possible to
help where such was possible, in the struggle, without ever doing that which was in conflict to their
loyalty to the flag and the King. Nearly all my life long I have had to deal with Native questions, but I
have never experienced a time when the Natives have displayed greater tact and greater loyalty than
they have done in the difficult and the dark days through which we are now going. It has never
happened in the history of South Africa that in one moment by one fell swoop such a lot of people
have perished, and I think that where people have died as they have done, it is our duty to remember
that they have come forward on their own accord, of their free will, and that they have said -- 'If we
can help, we'll do so, even if we have to show our loyalty with our hands.' They insisted on going, and
I think, they deserve every credit for the good work they have done. These people said, 'this war is
waging and we want to help'. In doing so they have shown their loyalty to their King, their Flag, and
their Country, and what they have done will redound to their everlasting credit."

Lastly we cannot refrain from mentioning the expression of appreciation by Field Marshall Sir Douglas
Haig, Commander of the British Forces in France, of the splendid services rendered by the members of
the South African Native Labour Contingent on the occasion of their return from France through the
message to Lt. Col. Sir S. M. Pritchard, the officer commanding the Native Labour Contingent in
France.

6. We are mindful of the great main fact that Great Britain and her Allies as well as the United States
of America went into war (inter alia) for the protection of small and weak nations: for the enforcement
of international treaties and agreements; to liberate oppressed nations; to grant every nation, great or
small, the right to determine its sovereign destiny and the free choice of its own government and flag;
and to allow subject races to express their voice in the final control and disposal of their territories and
to choose the flag under which they desire to be protected; to make the world fit and safe for every
man to live in with freedom to choose his own destiny.

7. The Bantu people of South Africa have ever been impressed with the high ideals permeating the
British Constitution, and in this connection have always held the memory of the late Queen Victoria,
The Good, with reverence and devotion. It was in her illustrious reign that the black people were
emancipated from slavery in 1834.

In Her late Majesty's Proclamation of Natal in 1843, any discrimination in the eyes of the law on
account of race, colour, or creed, as well as slavery in any shape or form, were distinctly repudiated.
Even under the two Conventions in the Transvaal in 1881 and 1884, the late Queen Victoria
discountenanced slavery in any shape or form. All these Proclamations and Conventions contain
principles, which are still regarded by Your Majesty's subjects as their Magna Charter [sic].

It is with painful regret that we remind Your Majesty that these Victorian principles with which our
people associate with the high ideals of the British Constitution have been departed from and in the
main dishonoured and ignored by Your Majesty's representative Governments in South Africa.

We humbly submit to Your Most Gracious Majesty that the black inhabitants of this land who are Your
Majesty's subjects, on account of their race, colour, language and creed, live under a veiled form of
slavery. The subject's inherent right of freedom and the right to move at liberty is unwarrantably
restricted, and the individual cannot bargain, under existing laws with his labour as he chooses. Equal
opportunities for trading are denied and the avenues of civilized advancement are limited.

8. We wish to inform your Majesty that the policy proposed by the successive Governments in South
Africa have from time to time been detrimental to the original rights of your subjects in land
ownership and occupation followed by calculated encroachments on their inherent rights to acquire
land, as also the projected administrator of Native Affairs. -- All of which have confirmed previous
apprehensions and misgivings and have created serious alarm and mistrust accordingly.

(a) Your Majesty's humble subjects pray that the Territory of Zululand should remain integral for the
use and occupation of the original inhabitants in terms of Her Late Majesty's Annexation Proclamation
in 1897, and that in any event no delimitation or other encroachment on the remaining portion of the
land delimited in 1902 should be allowed and that such attempt is considered by Your Majesty's
subjects as a breach then given to the people of Zululand that the delimitation then made would be
final. The Union Government's projected land Legislation threatens a further encroachment as against
that undertaking.

(b) Your Majesty's subjects further pray for a review of Her Late Majesty's Proclamation of 1848 in
conjunction with the Convention of 1854 relative to certain lands in the Orange Free State belonging
to and claimed by the Batlokoa and the Bagolokoe tribes. These claims afford a just case for review
and readjustment in the Orange Free State because the undertakings then given under the said
Proclamation and Convention have been departed from without any compensation or other relief being
granted to the original owners of the land. The recognition of the Orange Free State Independence as
a Republic was never intended to violate or sacrifice any inherent rights of the inhabitants therein nor
did Her Late Majesty concede to forego Great Britain's responsibility in connection therewith.

(c) Your Majesty's subjects further pray for a review of the Conventions of 1881 and 1884 relating to
the Transvaal, wherein under Article 19, Freedom to acquire land and the setting aside of tribal land or
locations were, amongst other things, assured to the Native inhabitants. These assurances have
scarcely ever been carried out and today Your Majesty's subjects in the Northern Transvaal find
themselves dispossessed of land and their original holdings encroached upon.

(d) Your Majesty's subjects pray for a review of the Proclamations affecting what is now termed the
Transkeian Territories in the Cape Province, as also an exhaustive review of the landed rights of the
peoples of Mashonaland. Each and every one of these claims are justly and reasonably subject for
reconsideration having regard to the projected land Legislation of Your Majesty's Representatives in
South Africa, of which Your Majesty's subjects are seriously apprehensive and alarmed; and a feeling
of discontent and mistrust would considerably be allayed by means of a Royal Judicial Commission to
enquire into and to make a permanent adjustment of the several land claims and to right past wrongs
and injustices.

9. In pursuance of Great Britain's war aims and her love for free institutions for all peoples under her
flag and these aims being adapted and consonant with those of Her Allies and the United States of
America, the only solution therefore is to have those principles applied to South Africa so that we may
have a voice in the affairs of the country, and have full protection so as to check reactionary
legislation and unpopular one-sided laws. To put these principles into effect it may please Your
Majesty to cause a revision of the South African Constitution in such manner as to grant
enfranchisement of natives throughout the Union; and further so as to make provision for the
protection of the aboriginal national institutions being respected and developed, and further so as to
give effect to the principle contained in the Royal Letters Patent of 1865 in Natal in regard to the
franchise.

10. Great Britain has committed wrong in the past by omitting to consult the wishes of the people
concerned. We desire to apprise Your Majesty of the fact that when the Protectorates called
Basutoland, Swaziland and Bechuanaland sought protection of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, they never
surrendered their tribal land and their sovereign rights. They remain this day integral dependent
Nations. Particularly the independence of Swaziland as recognized under the London Convention of
1884 in the Transvaal.

They were never conquered and they never at any time waived or surrendered their sovereign rights.
They have faithfully adhered to the original terms of protection in reverend memory of Queen Victoria,
under whom they sought protection. They have remained loyal. It is their wish and of us that not one
of these Protectorates should be transferred to the Union without the consent of the peoples
concerned being first obtained.

Further, it will ever be borne in mind that these Protectorates have played a part in the prosecution of
the Great War in men and money.

11. Neither Great Britain, nor the Allies and United States of America fought a war for territorial
acquisition, therefore the conquered territories in Africa should not be disposed of nor their future
destiny determined without the wishes of the inhabitants being first ascertained.

That both German South West and German South East should never be handed to the Union
Government of South Africa unless its system of rule be radically altered so as to dispel colour
prejudice; but that these territories and the Congo States be placed under the control of the United
States of America (subject to the wishes of the peoples concerned), in trust for and to be developed in
the interests of African inhabitants until they become sufficiently advanced for their own civilized
government.

That the question of the control in the Congo States be re-opened so as to divest Belgium of any right
thereto, since her atrocious crimes and misdeeds have caused de-population, proving that she is
unable to control African Colonies.

12. Having regard to the prevailing desire for independence amongst white races in South Africa under
the form of Republicanism, it is recorded that we shall never consent or tolerate such independence
without the consent of the Native inhabitants who are quite content to remain under British Rule.

In conclusion, we, Your Majesty's most loyal and humble subjects, lay this Memorial before Your
Majesty on this supreme and unique occasion of the cessation of hostilities with thankfulness and
satisfaction that Your Majesty's Memorialists have taken an active part in bringing about victory and
peace, and in full confidence that the position of Your Majesty's subjects under the sun will be
improved and be readjusted in terms of this Memorial.

We are, &c., By order of South African Native National Congress in its Special Session at Johannesburg on the 16th day of December in the year of Our Lord One thousand Nine hundred and Eighteen.

(sgd) S. A. Makgatho,

PRESIDENT.

(sgd) I. Bud-M'Belle

GENERAL SECRETARY.

Source:

Karis, T & Carter G. M. (1972). From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1964, Volume 1: Protest and Hope, 1882-1934. Stanford University: Hanover Press.

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