Chief Malaboch

82 x 120 mm. Showing the aged Chief Malaboch wearing a European overcoat and hat and seated in front of a thatched hut. A woman, possibly a wife, is seated beside him. A note on the reverse of the print, in Mrs. de Kock's hand reads in part: 'Chief Malaboch (over 86? [in fact, about 92 in 1936]) Blauwerg Mts near Zoutpansberg/Louis Trichardt. Transvaal ... Still flew the Union Jack in 1936 on the Kopje on which he has his Kraal. Withstood a long siege against the Dutch. His taunting reply to 'who lived there' was 'Jacob, drie vrav ma saiter hinder.' Loyal to the British through Matabele and Boer Wars. Knew members of Pioneer Column.'
Kgalusi Sakete Malaboch (1844-1939) was Chief of the Gananwa, a position he assumed in 1879. He is most noted for his opposition to the Transvaal Republic in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In the 1890s he opposed the collection of hut tax by the authorities and when a force was sent against him, retreated to the mountains. He was captured in 1894 and transferred to prison in Pretoria where he remained until released by the British in 1900.

E. Beale was an amateur photographer. He served as the Chief Magistrate and Native Commissioner of north-east Transvaal in 1936.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Presented to the Royal Commonwealth Society by Mrs. Valerie M. de Kock in November 1975.

Includes index.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

This file is available on microfiche: Africa, fiche number 179.

Good condition apart from slight yellowing.

For an account of the story of the 1984 campaign against the chief see: Rae, Colin (1898), 'Malaboch, or, Notes from my diary on the Boer Campaign of 1894 against the Chief Malaboch of Blaauwberg, District Zoutpansberg, South African Republic, to which is appended a synopsis of the Johannesburg crisis of 1896', London: S. Low, Marston; Cape Town: Juta.

This description was entered by WS and MJC using information from the original typescript catalogue.

Beale, E, fl 1930-1939, colonial administrator