Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George | |
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1st Mandatory Administrator of South West Africa (now Namibia) | |
In office 1 October 1920 – 1 April 1926 | |
Monarch | George V |
Governors‑General | |
Preceded by | Sir Edmond Howard Lacam Gorges |
Succeeded by | Albertus Johannes Werth |
Personal details | |
Born | Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr 12 February 1871 Riversdale, Cape Colony |
Died | 12 March 1943 Lakeside, Cape, Union of South Africa | (aged 72)
Spouse | Ydie Louis Dankwertz Nel |
Children | 4 |
Alma mater | Victoria College, Stellenbosch |
Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr, CMG (1871-1942) was a South African civil servant and the first Administrator of South West Africa (now Namibia) under the League of Nations Mandate.[1]
As secretary for the Transvaal delegation to the National Convention in 1908-1909, Hofmeyr had a ring-side seat on the unification of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River colonies.[1] The new Union of South Africa became a self-governing dominion of the British Empire in 1910.
Hofmeyr continued close to power as clerk of the new Union government's House of Assembly from 1910 to 1920.[1] He published numerous political writings calling for greater unity between the English and Dutch inhabitants of South Africa.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
In 1920 Hofmeyr was appointed by Jan Smuts (then Prime Minister of South Africa) as the first Administrator of South West Africa under the League of Nations Mandate.[7] As Administrator Hofmeyr strongly encouraged white settlers from the Union and introduced numerous measures designed to ensure that the local Black and Coloured inhabitants would work for the white settlers.[7]
Professor Wellington's view is that in doing so Hofmeyr failed to “promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and social progress of the inhabitants of the territory” as required under the League of Nations Mandate.[8] For Wellington, Hofmeyr's administration "used the natural resources of the territory to give white children the best possible education, while neglecting to educate in any sense adequately the children of the people who were their sacred trust. Policies of the whites ... had the effect of necessitating that large numbers of the indigenous people had to work for whites. And whites did these things in the name of Western Christian civilisation which outrightly rejects such attitudes and policies".[9]
Hofmeyr's actions during the Bondelswarts Rebellion in 1922, described by Ruth First as "the Sharpeville of the 1920s",[10] were controversial, especially the use of warplanes, aerial bombs and strafing against lightly armed Blacks.[11] [12]
Hofmeyr was criticized by the Permanent Mandates Commission report into the Bondelswarts affair. Although the report held that Hofmeyr had "acted wisely in taking prompt steps to uphold government authority", it found that the repression of the uprising was "carried out with excessive severity".[13]
In an annex to the report, the chairman of the Permanent Mandates Commission, Marquess Theodoli of Italy, declared that Hofmeyr's actions ought to have been in line with the purpose of the Mandate system, namely the "well-being and development of less-advanced peoples", and that the Administration "has pursued a policy of force rather than of persuasion, and further that this policy has always been conceived and applied in the interests of the colonists rather than of the Natives".[13]
Nonetheless, what Hofmeyr implemented in South West Africa and his action in the Bondelswarts Rebellion was not only what Smuts required[14] and was similar to what South Africa was doing elsewhere at the time [15] but was also in many respects in line with what the British expected [16] and what the British were doing elsewhere at the time.[17] [18]
Hofmeyr stood for election to the Parliament of South Africa for the Riversdale constituency in 1929 but lost to a nationalist opponent who taunted him about his Bondelswarts misjudgements.[19] Hofmeyr sued the opponent for libel and ultiimately won the case,[20] but the loss at the election effectively ended Hofmeyr's political career.
While Hofmeyr rose above the narrow nationalism of many Afrikaners, English and Germans of his time, he, like General Smuts and other more centrist thinkers, did not match the far-sighted thinking of JW Sauer, Olive Schreiner and some other contemporaries who wanted Blacks, Coloureds, Indians, Europeans and women to all have the same rights and to be treated equally.[21]
Sources
- Crawford, Neta (2002). Argument and Change in World Politics: Ethics, Decolonization and Humanitarian Intervention. Cambridge University Press.
- Debretts (1922). Peerage. Debrett's.
- Debrett's (1928). Peerage. Debrett's.
- de Bruijn, Mirjam (2007). Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa. Koninklijke Brill.
- Dewaldt, Franz (1976). Native Uprisings in Southwest Africa. Documentary Publications Salisbury, NC, USA.
- De Wet, N.J. (1921). Final Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the question of the future form of Government in the South-West Protectorate (Report). Union of South Africa Government Printers.
- Elkins, Caroline (2022). Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. The Bodley Head.
- Emmett, Anthony B. (1987). The Rise of African Nationalism in South West Africa/ Namibia 1915-1966. University of Witwatersrand doctoral dissertation, Johannesburg.
- Empire Parliamentary Association, UK Branch (23 July 1924). The Mandated Territory of South-West Africa. Empire Parliamentary Association (UK Branch).
- First, Ruth (1963). South West Africa. Penguin.
- Freislich, Richard (1964). The Last Tribal War. C. Struik, Cape Town.
- Goldblatt, I (1971). History of South West Africa. Juta & Company.
- Gregorowski, The Hon. Mr Justice (1914). Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances leading up to and attending upon the deaths of Senator General the Honourable J.H. de la Rey and Dr. G. Grace. Cape Times Limited, University of California Libraries.
- Hancock, W.K. (1962). Smuts: The Sanguine Years 1870-1919. Cambridge University Press.
- Hancock, W.K. (1968). "5 – Bulhoek and Bondelswarts". Smuts: The Fields of Force 1919-1950. Cambridge University Press.
- Hofmeyr, G.R. (1916). An Undivided White South Africa: The Ideal Union and how it may be achieved. T Maskew Miller, Cape Town.
- Hofmeyr, G.R. (1906). Het Zuid-Afrikaanse Jaarboek en Algemeene Gids.
- Hofmeyr, G.R. (12 April 1923). Memorandum in response to the Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the Rebellion of the Bondelswarts. Cape Times.
- Hofmeyr, G.R. (1921). Memorandum of the Administrator of the Territory of South West Africa (Report). Aministrator's Office.
- Hofmeyr, G.R. (1922). Union of South Africa: Territory of South-West Africa: Report of the Administrator for the year 1921. Union of South Africa Government Printing and Stationery Office.
- Hofmeyr, G.R. (1923). Union of South Africa: Report of the Administrator of South West Africa for the year 1922. Cape Times Limited, Government Printers.
- Hofmeyr, Jan Hendrik and Marsheille (2019). Hofmeyr: A Family History. J.H. Hofmeyr.
- Katjavivi, Peter H. (1988). "3 – The South African Takeover & the League of Nations Mandate". A History of Resistance in Namibia. Africa World Press, Inc.
- Lewis, Gavin L.M. (1977). The Bondelswarts Rebellion of 1922. Thesis for MA, Rhodes University.
- Minutes of the Fourth Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission held at Geneva from June 24th to July 8th, 1924, dated 16 July 1924.
- Newsinger, John (2006). The Blood Never Dried. Bookmarks.
- Official Report of the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa of his visit to the South West Territory in October 1919.
- Pedersen, Susan (2014). Internationalism and Empire: British Dilemmas 1919-1939. Ford Lectures, Oxford.
- Segal, Ronald; First, Ruth (1967). South West Africa: Travesty of Trust. Andre Deutsch.
- Soggott, David (1986). "3 – Sacred Trust". Namibia: the Violent Heritage. St Martin's Press, New York.
- Smuts, J.C. (1952). Jan Christian Smuts. Cassell & Co, Cape Town.
- Special Commission (1923). Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the Rebellion of the Bondelzwarts. Union of South Africa.
- Strachan, Hew (2003). The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Report on the Work of the Fourth Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission dated 16 July 1924, in South African National Archives, GR Hofmeyr Collection.
- Walker, Eric A. (1959). A History of Southern Africa. Longmans.
- Walker, Eric A. (1968). Review of Smuts Volume 1 and II by WK Hancock. The Historical Journal (Vol 11, No 3 (1968, pp565-581 ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Wallace, Marion (2014). "8 – South African Rule 1915-46". History of Namibia: From the Beginning to 1990. Oxford University Press.
- Walton, Edgar H. (1912). The Inner History of the National Convention of South Africa. T. Maskew Miller, Cape Town.
- Wellington, John H. (1967). South West Africa and its Human Issues. Oxford Clarendon Press.
- Werner, Wolfgang (1998). No One will become Rich: Economy and Society in the Herero Reserves in Namibia. P Schlettwein Publishing.
- White, Jon Manchip (1969). The Land God Made in Anger. Rand McNally & Company.
References
- ^ a b c Debrett's (1922). Peerage.
- ^ Newspaper report Rand Daily Mail 30 March 1908
- ^ Hofmeyr, G.R. (1906). Het Zuid-Afrikaanse Jaarboek en Algemeene Gids.
- ^ Hofmeyr, Gysbert Reitz (1916). An Undivided White South Africa: The Ideal Union and how it may be achieved. T Maskew Miller, Cape Town.
- ^ Hancock, W.K. (1968). "12 – Reunion". Smuts: The Fields of Force 1919-1950. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Hofmeyr, GR (6 January 1928). "A new Spirit in our Lingering Racial Atmosphere: Geneva: the Nazareth of the New World". The Cape Times.
- ^ a b Wellington, John H. (1967). "13 Administering the Mandate: the First Stage". South West Africa and its Human Issues. Oxford Clarendon Press.
- ^ Wellington, John H. (1967). "11 Black and White Relationships". South West Africa and its Human Issues. Oxford Clarendon Press.
- ^ Wellington, John H. (1967). "18 The Real Issues". South West Africa and its Human Issues. Oxford Clarendon Press.
- ^ First, Ruth (1963). "3 The Lean Years of the Mandate". South West Africa. Penguin.
- ^ Dewaldt, Franz (1976). "10 – League of Nations Mandates Commission's Criticism of South African administration in South West Africa". Native Uprisings in Southwest Africa. Documentary Publications Salisbury, NC, USA.
- ^ Crawford, Neta (2002). "6 - Sacred Trust". Argument and Change in World Politics: Ethics, Decolonization and Humanitarian Intervention. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b Dewaldt, Franz (1976). "11 – Mandates Commissions Report". Native Uprisings in Southwest Africa. Documentary Publications Salisbury, NC, USA.
- ^ Letter to GR Hofmeyr from General Smuts dated 20 May 1924, in South African National Archives, GR Hofmeyr Collection
- ^ Hancock, W.K. (1968). "5 – Bulhoek and Bondelzwarts". Smuts: The Fields of Force 1919-1950. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Annex to Official Report of the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa of his visit to the South West Territory in October 1919
- ^ Elkins, Caroline (2022). "2 – Wars small and great". Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. The Bodley Head.
- ^ Elkins, Caroline (2022). "4 – "I'm merely pro-British"". Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. The Bodley Head.
- ^ Affidavit by GR Hofmeyr in Hofmeyr v Badenhorst, Cape Supreme Court 1932
- ^ Judgement in Hofmeyr v Badenhorst, Cape Supreme Court 1932
- ^ Wellington, John H. (1967). "Introduction". South West Africa and its Human Issues. Oxford Clarendon Press.
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