Having previously spoken to the Society about Fort Napier and the interned Germans held there in WWI, in December 2024 Johann Ahlers turned his attention to Kalahari Shenanigans - Legends, Lore and War 1901-1917.
After a diversion caused by the discovery of diamonds and how the British moved beacons to remove Kimberley from the Orange Free State and a background briefingabout German South West Africa from 1888, he posted nearly a dozen photographs of people involved in his story. These included German, Nama, South African and British personalities who featured later in the talk.
Johann highlighted five books which he had found valuable in his research for this lecture.
He touched on Gen. Smuts' long ride into the Cape Colony towards the end of the South African war; also the recently acknowledged genocide committed from 1903 to 1908 by the Germans of the Herero and Nama tribes as revenge for the murders of 130 farmers. The unsuccesful Ferreira rebellion of 1906 when rebels tried to persuade people in the northern Cape and even into SWA to throw out the British rulers of the Cape colony was mentioned.
Much of his material concentrated on the Maritz rebellion of 9 October 1914-1915 which effectively delayed Gen Botha's campaign by a good four months. The UK had asked the Union at the start of the war (August 1914) to enter German South West Africa to silence the German radio transmitters, which played a part in organising the submarines in the South Atlantic. The German forces surrendered on 9 July 1915.
Johann touched on the Ovambo uprising of 1914-1917, the primary cause of which could be regarded as the border line drawn by Portugal and German when the two countries colonised the area, completely disregarding the fact that the Ovambo's tribal lands straddled their arbitrary border.
Finally he spoke about Scotty Smith, probably a British spy, certainly a horse thief and involved in illicit diamond dealing, a renowned escaper from custody and generally regarded as a type of 'Robin Hood' character.
Johann's lecture has been added to the Video Library.
FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS -
ZOOMINARS
- in date order -
Eastern Cape Branch (SAMHSEC) Zoominars
Monday 13th January 2025 at 19h30 and then at 20h15:
Speaker Dylan Fourie
Subject Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of
World War II.
Johannesburg
Thursday 16th January 2025 at 19h30 and then 20h15
Speaker: Andriza Liebenberg
Subject: "Every dog has its day"
The talk will be about the Dickin Medal which is awarded to
animals for "conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty"
SAMHSEC RPC
The next RPC (Request the Pleasure of your Company) Zoominar will be on Monday 27th January.
Members of all Branches are always
welcome to Attend all ZOOM Meetings
Time to join the Zoominars
For those members still anxious about Zoom lectures, please give them a try! Go onto the internet and open your web browser at www.zoom.us . If using a cellphone, visit the app store. Once you have the app on your device - computer or cellphone - choose to join a meeting. Either use the link which is provided in the invitation or type in the meeting code and then the password, also from the invitation, as requested. There are usually two Zoom sessions per evening.
You do NOT need to have a camera - unless you are the speaker or a chairman- although it is always interesting to match faces to voices. As in the auditorium, you do not HAVE to ask the speaker any questions, but there are ways in which you can draw the chair's attention so you can do so.
KwaZulu-Natal Branch Meetings
Branch lecture meetings are usually held on a Saturday afternoon. The venue remains the St Cyprians Church Hall off Umbilo Rd, with secure parking and liquid refreshments available for cash. The starting time is 1.30 for 2.00pm.
Entry is free and open to all. A donation of R10 for the raffle and R10 for the car guard are requested from all attendees. Snacks will be served as is usual for the December meeting.
Details of their January meeting can be obtained from the branch chairman, Prof Phil Everitt - 084-437-1636 or everitt@iafrica.com
Invoicing apology
The invoices sent out on 4th January suffered from a software error. Fictitious amounts carried forward - created by the software - were shown. These, when added to last year's subscription amount, still totalled the correct amount owed by the member.
As mentioned in the December newsletter subscriptions have had to be increased for
2025
Subscriptions are thus Single R320 Family R340
Overseas $37 by PayPal or R500 if paid in SA Rand from an SA account.
Please do not pay in the difference if you have already paid. The amount of R20 will be carried forward - genuinely - to 2026 subscription invoices.
A new set of invoices will be sent out in February.
Please accept our apologies for any confusion!
Book recommendation
Society member Kevin Hodge emailed:
I would like to recommend a new Boer War book which may be of interest to some of the SAMHS
members. Yes, yet another book on the subject, but this one is slightly different to the usual ones. You
may have already heard about it as it was listed in the SAAACA newsletter. It is privately published
and not readily available in bookstores.
The author is Pieter G Cloete (pgcloete@lantic.net), who lives in Johannesburg and copies can be collected from him personally. I paid R760 for a copy. It is in two volumes and is titled "The Anglo- Boer War 963 Days" and, as its name implies, it is a chronological day by day account of the war in each area of operations, truly a magisterial work that must have taken an enormous amount of time and research to compile. As such it is a fabulous reference work covering the prologue to the war, the war itself and its aftermath. The second volume contains maps and other interesting information. This work is based on, and expands upon his 2000 book "The Anglo-Boer War. A Chronology".
I appreciate that it is probably not the policy of the SAMHS to promote any particular product but in this instance I feel that it would be a service to aficionados of The Boer War to at least let them know that the book exists.
Help requested for research
Dean Orange (dean.orange@ymail.com) e-mailed:
I am researching on Johann Paulus Schmidt who joined the RAAF unit in South Africa in between the
years 1850 - 1910. Originally from Obergumsbach, Nuremburg, Germany arrived in SA via Namibia.
Some background:
Johan (Johann) Paul (Paulus) Schmidt is my great grandfather on my mothers side, had children with
one of Lobengula's daughters (?) from an inferior wife. I am trying to get some sort of documentation
that will confirm his place in our family tree. He at the time owned gold, chrome rights and a farm in
a place called Nyamandhlovu, Southern Rhodesia
BRANCH CONTACT DETAILS
Eastern Cape details contact Malcolm Kinghorn 041-373-4469 culturev@lantic.net
Gauteng details contact Joan Marsh 010-237-0676 joan@rfidradar.com
KwaZulu-Natal details contact Prof Phil Everitt 084-437-1636 everitt@iafrica.com
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