Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → South Africa → Bambatha Rebellion, 1906

From the West Coast [New Zealand] Times:

A Police Party Ambushed.
Several Killed in a Fight.

Capetown, . A revolt of a band of Zulus has just begun in Natal. The natives, who are those living near the town of Richmond, lately announced that they would not pay the poll tax imposed on them.

Two of the natives were then arrested. But a band of forty of the Zulus, who were armed, next ambushed a party of the Natal Mounted Police. The ringleader of the natives contemptuously struck Inspector Hunt, head of the troops, in the face with the flat of his assegai. Hunt at once shot his assailant dead.

Then ensued a melee. In it the inspector and a trooper were killed. The natives ultimately compelled the troops to retire. One trooper had to ride for miles with an assegai in his back.

Martial law has now been proclaimed.

A force of carbineers and artillery is being mobilised, and the volunteers have been summoned.

The Transvaal authorities are guarding the borders of Swaziland, owing to the Richmond outbreak.

Today: some news about the Bambatha Rebellion in . First, from the Clarence and Richmond Examiner:

Native Rising in Natal.

London,  — “The Times’ ” Johannesburg correspondent, who has visited Natal, reports that the situation is rather more disquieting than officially represented. The natives have been defying the magistrates and meeting the collection of taxes with passive resistance.

Owing to the extra expense the Natal Government refrains from dealing with the situation as a whole. “The Times” says the Government ought to collect the taxes by backing up the magistrates with an Imperial mobile column.

A considerable number of Zulus employed on the Rand are starting for Natal, and some say that their king is summoning them.

The Government of Natal has accepted the offer of the Chief Umveli to supply natives to assist in capturing the rebels who are of his tribe, and who are 50 in number. All other natives are quiet.

The hut tax of 14s. a dwelling will be unfailingly paid as heretofore. Those paying it will not pay the poll tax, which is apart from the hut tax, and similar to an impost on European and other unmarried adults. The poll tax chiefly affects young bloods who do not own kraals.

Lieutenant-General Sir H.J.T. Hilyard, General Commanding-in-Chief in South Africa offers an unlimited number of troops to quell the revolt.

London,  — Three chiefs and 500 natives of Natal have thanked the Secretary for Native Affairs for the visit paid to them, and have promised to pay the poll tax. The tension regarding the probable native rising is now relieved.

London,  — Two natives who were found guilty of the attack on the police in the Richmond district have been court-martialled and shot in the presence of their tribe. The authorities have ordered the tribe to arrest the others, and the kraals and crops of the natives implicated have been destroyed. All is now quiet.

Next, from the Hobart, Tasmania Mercury:

Natal Native Trouble.

Colonel Mackensie’s force has arrested the principal agitator in connection with the resistance shown to the payment of the poll tax in Natal.

The man arrested is an educated native.

Ironically, perhaps, Mohandas Gandhi, later famous as a pacifist and a tax resister, served as a volunteer with the British army (as a medic) in the suppression of the Bambatha rebellion.

Here’s how the press back home covered the Bambatha Rebellion. From the Spectator:

The Native Peril in South Africa

We do not think that too much importance should be attached to the present native trouble in Natal. So far as the facts appear, the disturbances would seem to be isolated and inconsiderable. A Poll-tax has been recently introduced into that Colony to supplement the Hut-tax, and is levied upon the young bloods of a tribe who have no kraals of their own. About fourteen miles from Pietermaritzburg there is a small settlement of Christianised Kaffirs belonging to the Mvelis tribe, who announced their intention of resisting the new levy. Accordingly, when on a detachment of the Natal Police was sent to collect it, some forty natives ambushed the party, and in the fight which followed an inspector and a trooper were killed and another inspector wounded. The rest made their escape, martial law was proclaimed, and the following day a strong force of Natal Carabineers went out to find the murderers, who had fled to the difficult bush country around the source of the Umkomaas River. Imperial troops were offered from the Transvaal to supplement the resources of the local authorities. The other native tribes have remained quiet, and the Mvelis chief has volunteered to assist in the capture of the offenders, who are said not to exceed fifty in number. So far the trouble seems nothing more than a violent breach of the peace by a few unruly natives. The only sinister facts in the case are that the Mvelis are Christianised, and apparently under the influence of the Ethiopian movement. Hitherto it has been believed that Natal was almost exempt from that ill-omened propaganda, but if rumour speaks true, it shows that it has wider ramifications than was supposed, and is capable of stirring its votaries to active rebellion.

The article goes on to do some crystal ball reading and speculation and unashamed open plotting for how best to keep black Africans under the thumb of their foreign white “Paramount.” There are no further details about the tax rebellion, however. The second paragraph closes with this remarkable sentence: “If there should arise a leader among this vast people, or if some common grievance against their white masters should coerce them into unity, it is hard to see what could save South African civilisation except a long and terrible war and the extermination of the malcontents.” Civilization has never sounded so worth saving!