The Leliefontein massacre occurred on 31 January 1902 during the

South African War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

at the Leliefontein Methodist mission station in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Leliefontein

Leliefontein is a small community in the Kamiesberg range of

Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

, near

Garies Garies is a small agricultural centre situated in South Africa's Northern Cape province about 110 km south of Springbok, the chief town of the Namaqualand district. Current population approximately 1500. The Letterklip provincial heritag ...

in the

. It is probably named after the many white lilies found in the area. Leliefontein was originally the

kraal Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of th ...

of a Nama chief named ''Wildschut'' by the colonialists. By October 1771, the land had been granted to Hermanus Engelbrecht, a white colonial farmer, but Governor

Joachim van Plettenberg Baron Joachim Ammena van Plettenberg (8 March 1739, Leeuwarden, Netherlands – 18 August 1793, Zwolle, Netherlands) was the governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 11 August 1771 to 14 February 1785. Plettenberg was presiding governor after ...

ordered Engelbrecht to vacate the land in 1772 after he was informed that the Nama Khoi already occupied the land. Missionary work began under the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

in 1809, but an attack by competing settlers caused the station to be abandoned in 1811. In 1816, Chief Wildschut asked for another station to be established. This request was fulfilled by the Wesleyan Methodist Reverend Barnabas Shaw of the

Wesleyan Missionary Society Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminianism, Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a Christian theology, theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the Christian ministry, ministry of the 18th-century eva ...

. Leliefontein was the first Methodist mission in South Africa. Several church buildings were built thereafter.

Attack

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...

leader Manie Maritz killed 35 indigenous inhabitants of the settlement, in retaliation for attacking his party when he went to interview the European missionaries in the town. Maritz served under General

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

. The attack took place over two days. On the first day Maritz and his men rode into Leliefontein, detained the chief missionary, and handed out proclamations threatening death to residents and the missionaries as a punishment for being British sympathisers in the Second Boer War. The

Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama Peo ...

, who were residents of Leliefontein along with the missionaries, were angered by the threats and a scuffle ensued. egassick, M. “The Battle of Naroegas: Context, Historiography, Sources and Significance.” Kronos, no. 21, 1994, Jstor/ref> The residents of Leliefontein inflicted serious casualties on the Boers on the first day when they killed 30 Boers and lost only seven

in the fight. Maritz summoned reinforcements and invaded Leliefontein the following day leading to a battle in which 43

were killed and an estimated 100 wounded. The residents of Leliefontein were massacred while taking shelter in the mission church. Leliefontein was one of the first massacres of the 20th century in South Africa.Smith, J. "The bloody smell and ugly sight of Marikana" IOL, Business Report, 2012
/ref> The Leliefontein mission had livestock and it also produced corn and vegetables. The outpost was completely destroyed by Maritz's troops and indiscriminate violence was meted out to the residents.Ash, C. "Kruger, Kommandos & Kak: Debunking the Myths of The Boer War", South Publishers, 2014, Google Books
/ref> The refugees left by the massacre were hunted down by Boer forces and killed. Others were captured and forced to work as slave labourers cooking and cleaning for the troops. Maritz was never punished for his actions at Leliefontein. The Leliefontein Methodist Church and Parsonage is a national heritage site to commemorate the losses of the massacre.

Reactions

On 31 January 1902, a

guerrilla commander

Deneys Reitz Deneys Reitz (1882—1944), son of Francis William Reitz, was a Boer warrior who fought in the Second Boer War for the South African Republic against the British Empire. After a period of exile in French Madagascar he returned to South Af ...

, part of General

force, arrived in Leliefontein en route to

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

. Deneys Reitz described the scene as follows:

"We found the place sacked and gutted and among the rocks beyond the buried houses lay 20 or 30 dead Hottentots, still clutching their antiquated
muzzleloader A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) design ...
s. This was Maritz’s handiwork. He had ridden into the station with a few men to interview the European missionaries, when he was set upon by armed Hottentots, he and his escorts narrowly escaping with their lives. To avenge the insult, he returned the next morning with a stronger force and wiped out the settlement, which seemed to many of us a ruthless and unjustifiable act. General Smuts said nothing but I saw him walk past the boulders where the dead lay, and on his return he was moody and curt."

Maritz took issue with Reitz's interpretation of the situation:

“According to Reitz, General Smuts would have rather approved if he had seen our own bodies there. I can assure them that we had to fight hard for our lives that day in front of the church, and if the Hotnots had got the upper hand, they would have treated us cruelly.”

Leliefontein

Attack

Reactions

See also

References

Further reading