SANS NEWSLETTER –JULY 2012
NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING
THE DATE: TUESDAY 10th JULY 2012
VENUE: KwaMUHLE MUSEUM
Bram Fischer Road [Ordnance Road] Durban.
TIME: Meeting commences at 17h30; Refreshments will be served from 16h45.
PARKING: Off Ordnance/ Bram Fischer road [next to the Museum]; security person is present who will raise the boom; please wait for him.
FEATURE: This month we have the pleasure of welcoming THOBILE MKHIZE who will
speak about the PRIORITY ZONE PROJECT and the ‘secret garden’ on the roof of a building right here in central Durban! This is an urban regeneration programme run by Drake & Scull for eThekwini Municipality and is showing people what can be done in unexpected urban spaces. They are even doing their bit for the bees by hosting a roof-hive. This will be a most interesting talk.
LAST MONTH: David Bennett was our Speaker on “The origin of the Mummy at the Natural
Science Museum”. Sadly we were plagued by gremlins! The fact that KwaMuhle’s o/h projector had been stolen was bad enough but the borrowed projector refused to ‘talk’ to the computer!!!
David has kindly said “I would be happy to do it again, once we can get things to work properly, as it is MUCH BETTER and MUCH more interesting when viewed with the full size screen and good, clear colour pictures.” So that is something to look forward to – in due course!
ODDS & ENDS:
It was June 1842, some 170 years ago, that Dick King arrived in Grahamstown in a dreadful physical condition. He had travelled, on horseback, over 950km in 10 days, through some of the wildest parts of the South Coast and Eastern Cape, crossing rivers [crocodiles?] and through ‘bush’, avoiding predators - never mind avoiding unfriendly people! The British garrison, short of food and probably armaments, and completely isolated, were besieged in the fort; their only hope of survival was relief from the Cape. The commander of the garrison commissioned King to ride to Grahamstown to request Colonel Hare raise a relief party. This King achieved, accompanied partway by Ndongeni who, by the fifth day, was exhausted from riding without stirrups. Ndongeni eventually made his way back to Port Natal and, in 1911, Ethel Campbell - Killie Campbell’s cousin - interviewed him about his gruelling journey.
Killie Campbell joined Ethel, towards the end of 1913, raising funds for a statue to commemorate this heroic ride. The statue was unveiled on 14th August, 1915, on the north shore of Durban baywhere King and Ndongeni were presumed to have entered to start their epic journey. Killie’s Mother, Ellen Blamey [later Lady Campbell] recalls arriving at the entrance of Durban - the town - and passing Dick King’s butcher shop ‘shaded by the overhang of a large [Erythrina] tree’.
Margaret Roach (“Killie” as she was known) was born on 9th September, 1881, at Mount Edgecombe, the second of four children. Her father, Marshall Campbell, had sailed, with his parents, from the Clyde and landed in Port Natal in 1850; her mother, Ellen, was the daughter of John and Margaret Blamey; John was a friend of William Marshall’s and a sugar pioneer. Marshall’s parents, William and Agnes, settled on their farm (William named it “Muckle Neuk – Scots for “great bend”) on the Umdhloti River – and became a prominent sugar cane farmer and miller. Marshall also turned to sugar cane farming and in 1895 foundedNatal Estates Limited, and two years later South Africa's first sugar refinery.
Killie Campbell was educated at St. Anne's Diocesan College in Natal and at St. Leonard's School in Scotland where, in her own words, she acquired, "an enthusiasm for History, and a love of historical places." She was an avid book collector and antiquarian who built up a private collection of Africana, particularly pertaining to Natal and the Zulu people. The collection was started by her father, a friend of the Mahatma, Mohandas Gandhi and John Dube; in 1914 her father built an imposing neo-Cape Dutch style house, also called 'Muckleneuk', and this was to be Killie's home until her death in 1965. Killie believed that records should be collected and maintained, "dealing with every aspect of our Nation, without prejudice to race, religion or colour, which should be available to every earnest student seeking knowledge". As early as 1912, she had assisted her father in organising an essay competition for Zulu and Sotho speakers who were invited to record the history of their families. In 1942 and 1950, she sponsored similar competitions.
When Killie’s widower brother, William Campbell moved to ‘Muckleneuk’ he provided much of the furniture which is now seen in the museum as he added pieces formerly kept in his home at Umhlanga; the Campbell family had over the years acquired furniture uniquely southern African and ‘Muckleneuk’ contains beautifully crafted 17th & 18th century Cape Dutch furniture, most made of indigenous woods such as stinkwood and yellowwood. The Campbell Collections were established by Marshall's son William (1880 - 1962) and his daughter Killie.
It was at Muckleneuk that Killie built up her valuable and unique collection of manuscripts, books, photographs, maps and government publications, which covered a broad sweep of information about southern Africa, with particular emphasis on the KwaZulu Natal region.
1981 was the centenary of Killie’s birth and on 6th August, the South African National Society commemorated her birth (and the 75th anniversary of its own inception) by holding a dinner at the Country Club to raise money for the Killie Campbell Bursary which was then awarded for the first time in 1982. (See Natalia 6).
How encouraging to think that this remarkable woman was a member of our Society!
See you on the 10th!
Naureen Craig
Chairperson 25th June 2012