Kgosi (Chief) Luka Jantjie was a hunter, trader, diamond prospector, and farmer. He was a chief of the Batlhaping ba Manyeding group of the Batswana in

Kuruman Kuruman is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenery and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water produces an unexpected swathe of green ...

. He was born in general area of what is now

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

, South Africa in about 1835 and was the son of a Christian convert. Jantjie spent most of his life protecting the rights to land of his people and is considered a struggle hero for his battle against

British colonialism The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts establish ...

. He was the cousin of Kgosi Galeshewe.

Resistance and conflict

When diamonds were discovered in Kimberley in 1871, British

colonists A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...

from the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

swarmed onto Jantjie's land in search of diamonds and took it over. Jantjie and his people were the first local people whose ancestral land was stolen from them due to diamond prospecting by

. Jantjie was outspoken against the land invasion, however, he initially took a non-violent approach towards the British which included boycotting the rural trading stores. In addition, Jantjie fought for his people to attain equal rights to purchase diamond licenses so that they could share in the wealth that was being excavated on their land. However, the government of the Cape Colony refused to grant mining rights to native groups. Jantjie took up arms in response and orchestrated skirmishes against the British. Jantjie's confrontations with British authorities earned him the epithet of being “a wild fellow who hates the English”. Over the next decade, the Batlhaping, Tlharo and Rolong people were evicted from much of their land and confined to reserves. In 1895, the area was annexed by the

which resulted in

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu languages, Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Tswanaland, ...

groups being moved to even smaller reserves. These groups were also forced to pay taxes such as the

hut tax The hut tax was a form of taxation introduced by European colonial powers in their African colonies on a "per hut" (or other forms of household) basis. Colonised peoples paid the tax variously in money, labour, grain or stock. This benefited the ...

, to work on white farms, and as migrant mine workers for the Kimberley mine. In addition the

Rinderpest Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic water buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, African Buffalo, buffaloes, large antelope, deer, giraffes, wilde ...

regulations and the shooting of cattle owned by Africans in the

Taung Taung is a small town situated in the North West Province of South Africa. The name means ''place of the lion'' and was named after Tau, the King of the Barolong people. ''Tau'' is the Tswana word for lion. Taung skull fossil site In 1924, a sk ...

Reserves were undertaken. After Jantjie's cattle were shot, he demanded of the policeman in charge, Corporal Denyssen, to know why his cattle were shot. He was shown a policy on

and cattle roaming out of the owner's territory. He then demanded compensation from the corporal, which was refused. These events sparked the Langeberg Rebellion. The rebellion was led by Batlhaping chief Kgosi Galeshewe.

Death and Significance

In August 1897, the colonial police invaded the Langeberg Mountains where Jantjie and other rebels had orchestrated a fight against the colonial force. After the Langeberg Uprising in 1897 also known as 'Galeshewe's War or 'Ntwa ya Matlhabanelo (an uprising led by Kgosi Jantjie, Kgosi Toto and Kgosi Galeshewe), a British invader, captain of the Cape Town Highlanders (James Samuel Searle) led the mutilation of Kgosi Jantjie’s body.' In a cave on the Ga-masepa Kopje near Olifantshoek, Jantjie opened fire upon James Samuel Searle's approach with his companions, killing two Searle took this opportunity and shot Jantjie in the head with a revolver. The rebel leader (as they had described him) Luka Jantje, who had died bravely in the fight against the colonial forces, was buried where he fell. Soon afterwards Searle offered 5 pounds to anyone who would bring him Jantje’s head. 5 pounds was a lot of money and in short order he had the head. As a sign of humiliation, it was reported that, while Jantjie was dying, Searle and his troops posed to take photos with him, decapitated his corpse and took his head as a trophy. Jantjie's death is regarded as the collapse of the

resistance. In the aftermath, 4 000 men, women and children of the Bwere were taken captive and sent to the

to work as unpaid labour for local white farmers. Many of the rebels were hanged for their contribution in orchestrating the rebellion. The rebellion officially ended on 3 August 1897 following the death of over 1 500 men. Currently there is no record of where Jantjie's remains are buried, nor the fate of his skull. In 2011 the book ''Luka Jantjie: Resistance Hero of the South African Frontier'' was published. Authored by

Kevin Shillington Kevin Shillington is a teacher and a freelance historian based in Dorset, England, United Kingdom. Education He graduated from Trinity College, located in Dublin, Ireland, with a major in modern history in 1968. Shillington did his postgradua ...

, the book recounts Jantjie's legacy and contributions. In April 2016, a building on

Sol Plaatje University Sol Plaatje University is a Public university, public university located in Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley, South Africa. Established in 2014, it is the first and only university located in the Northern Cape province. History The idea of ...

campus, Kimberley, was renamed ''Luka Jantjie House'' in Jantjie's honor.

Resistance and conflict

Death and Significance

References

See also