Mutating Memories and the Making of a Myth: Remembering The SS Mendi Disaster, 1917–2007

Abstract

The SS Mendi, carrying the last detachment of the South African Native Labour Contingent to work as non-combatants in France during the First World War, sank just off the Isle of Wight on 21 February 1917. The death toll was high: of the 882 men on board, 615 died and 267 were saved. The grim details are easily verifiable; the subsequent afterlife of the incident is more complex. This article addresses the way in which the Mendi disaster has been recalled over decades and contextualised in terms of public memory at different historical junctures, and how a heroic narrative was constructed with certain elements more pertinently being foregrounded recently to serve a useful purpose in the present.

Keywords:

• Mendi disaster
• heritage
• politics of memory

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Bill Nasson, Hermann Giliomee, Charles van Onselen, Sandra Swart and two anonymous referees for constructive criticisms. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

¹On South African black participation and the First World War, see A. Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War: South African Blacks and the First World War (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1987); N. Clothier, Black Valour: The South African Native Labour Contingent, 1916–1918 and the Sinking of the ‘Mendi’ (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1987); B.P. Willan, ‘The South African Native Labour Contingent, 1916–1918’, Journal of African History, xix, 1 (1978), 61–86; B. Nasson, Springboks on the Somme: South Africa in the Great War, 1914–1918 (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2007), 157–170.

²Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War, 96.

³ Abantu-Batho, ‘Wail of the Native Widows’, 14 January 1918.

⁴Imvo Zabantsundu, ‘The Mendi Disaster’, 27 March 1917.

⁵Central Archives Depot (CAD) GG (Governor-General) 1169/50/771, S.M. Bennet Ncwana – Buxton, 12 March 1919.

⁶On Ncwana, see A.G. Cobley, Class and Consciousness: The Black Petty Bourgeoisie in South Africa, 1924 to 1950 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990), 215, n9.

⁷CAD (Central Archives Depot) KJB (Johannesburg Commissioner) 409/1/14/3 HG Mpitso, Notes on the Mendi anniversary, 1946.

⁸CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3 HG Mpitso, Notes on the Mendi anniversary, 1946.

⁹T. Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985), 8; P. Limb, The ANC's Early Years: Nation, Class and Place in South Africa before 1940 (Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2010), 332–333.

¹⁰CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3 Mendi Memorial brochure containing the names and vocations of the various members, 1952.

¹¹Compare Cobley, Class and Consciousness, 75, 81.

¹²CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3, HG Mpitso, Notes on the Mendi anniversary, 1946.

¹³The majority of the recruits came from from the Northern Transvaal and were from peasant stock. For the composition of the South African Native Labour Contingent, see Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War, 74–77.

¹⁴CAD, KJB 409/1/14/13, Report by H.G. Mpitso, 1948 (emphasis in original).

¹⁵CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3, Secretary Shimwell – Native Commissioner Johannesburg, 13 Februrary 1948: Secretary Geen and Richard – Native Commissioner, 18 February 1949.

¹⁶CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3, Mendi Memorial Day brochure, 1951.

¹⁷Examples of these requests are to be found in CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3.

¹⁸CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3 FET Krause – Native Commissioner, 25 February 1946.

²¹Cobley, Class and Consciousness, 61.

¹⁹CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3 HG Mpitso Notes on the Mendi anniversary, 1946; CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3, V Baloye – Secretary Mendi Fund, 14 February 1948; KD Morgan – Mayor Johannesburg, 11 February 1947; Secretary Mendi Fund – Chairman, 7 March 1951.

²⁰ Umteteli wa Bantu, ‘The Mendi Memorial’, 19 March 1932.

²²For example, CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3, Mendi Memorial Day brochures, 1946–1949; Umteteli wa Bantu, 20 February 1932.

²³CAD, NTS (Native Affairs Department) 9112/36/363, Mendi Memorial Day brochure, 1951.

²⁴CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3 Mendi Memorial Day brochure, 1949; Umteteli wa Bantu, Mendi Memorial Anniversary, 3 March 1945.

²⁵Compare J.W. Cell, The Highest Stage of White Supremacy: The Origins of Segregation in South Africa and the American South (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 219–220. See also, S. Dubow, Racial Segregation and the Origins of Apartheid in South Africa, 1919–36 (Oxford: Macmillan, 1989), 37–38.

²⁶Quoted in S.D. Gish, Alfred B Xuma, African, American, South African (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 101.

²⁸T. Karis and G.M. Carter, eds, ‘Dr A.B. Xuma, An Address at the Mendi Memorial Day Celebration, 23 February, 1941’, in From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1964, Volume 2, Hope and Challenge, 1939–1952 (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1987), 165–166.

²⁷Lodge, Black Politics, 11, 15.

²⁹Compare Lodge, Black Politics, 27; Gish, Alfred B Xuma ,141–143; R. Edgar, ‘Changing the Old Guard: AP Mda and the ANC Youth League, 1944–1949’, in S. Dubow, ed., South Africa's 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities (Cape Town: Double Storey, 2005), 149–169.

³⁰R. Edgar, ‘AP Mda: The Making of an African Nationalist, 1935–1944’, History Workshop Paper (University of the Witwatersrand, 1990), 16.

³¹CAD, NA (Native Affairs Department) 9111/36/363, Native Commissioner Pretoria – Secretary Native Affairs, 27 February 1945 and G. Mears to S.A. Rogers, 7 March 1947.

³²University of Witwatersrand Historical Papers, ANC Papers, AD 2186 Fb, SM Molema, Mendi Day speech, 24 February 1952. I am indebted to Hilary Sapire for this reference.

³³CAD, KJB 409/1/14/3, F. Rodseth, Mendi Day speech, 24 February 1952.

³⁴CAD, NA 9111/36/363, Memorandum on Mendi Day, 6 March 1959.

³⁵CAD, NA 9112/36/363, T. Koller – Native Commissioner, 10 December 1958.

³⁶CAD, DBA (Departement Bantoesake) 10/3/2/236, General Secretary Bantu Affairs Department – Commissioner, 24 February 1965.

³⁷Compare, for instance, CAD, NA 9112/36/363, T.D. Young – Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner, 18 March 1959.

³⁸Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War, 140.

³⁹ The Star, ‘Bitterness of our Forgotten War Veterans’, 27 February 1986.

⁴⁰ History Today, 2 February 2007, ‘The Sinking of the SS Mendi’, 57. For the discourse on Delville Wood in this context, see B. Nasson, ‘Delville Wood and South African Great War Commemorations’, English Historical Review, cxix, 480 (February 2004), 85–86.

⁴¹ This Day, ‘Death Drill on the Mendi’, 16 February 2004.

⁴² Mail and Guardian, ‘Ninety Years On, South Africa Salutes 600 Men Left to Drown in Channel’, 21 July 2007.

⁴³ ANC Daily News Briefing, http://70.84.171.10/etools/newsbrief/2002/news0625.txt., 25 June 2002 [accessed 21 April 2009].

⁴⁴For recruitment, see Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War, 57–85.

⁴⁵See Wessex Archaeological Desk-based Assessment, English Heritage, April 2007 and Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ‘Let us Die like Brothers’ (DVD).

⁴⁶ http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2007/07080810451001.htm [accessed 19 May 2008].

⁴⁷ http://www.navy.mil.za/newnavy/syrface/mendi040918-mendi-home-article.htm [accessed 19 May 2008].

⁴⁸ http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2007/07080810451001.htm [accessed 19 May 2008].

⁴⁹This quote is from Clothier, Black Valour, preface.

⁵⁰An African survivor later recalled that he heard ‘a terrific bang which shook the ship, putting lights out and had everybody scrambling about. There was great panic and confusion. Below there was a sea of darkness – the men plunged into the rough, cold water, singing, praying and crying’ (The Star, ‘Mendi Disaster Survivor’, 27 February 1967).

⁵¹Clothier, Black Valour, 96, 185, n1.

⁵²S.M. Bennet Ncwana, Souvenir of the Mendi Disaster, 20 (Evidence of Capt. L.E. Hertslet).

⁵³Willan, ‘SANLC’, 85 makes this very clear. Similarly, in my trawling through a vast amount of material in researching Fighting Their Own War, no contemporary material surfaced which could lend any credibility to the claim.

⁵⁴Clothier, Black Valour, 98.

⁵⁵Clothier tries to build an argument on the following: (1) He claims that oral tradition in Africa must have some foundation, even if it is embroidered upon. Although this may be a plausible supposition on a general level, it still needs to be buttressed on the specifics of the event in question. Otherwise it just remains a vague suggestion as he does not discuss the dynamics of oral tradition in any way, nor does he provide evidence of why the Mendi story took a particular turn. (2) He argues that visibility was poor and that the incident could have taken place without any of the survivors witnessing it. This is a non sequitur: If nobody could have seen it, how could it have been transmitted it? (3) He speculates that the event could have taken place in a section of the ship where the door was jammed and men trapped inside, but that some could have escaped and survived to tell the tale. There is no convincing evidence for this and even he has to admit that this is perhaps ‘a little far-fetched’ (Clothier, Black Valour, 97–98). Another author, M.A. Nyamende, follows Clothier quite closely and is even more insistent that the event did take place but he does not provide additional conclusive proof (M.A. Nyamende, ‘The Life and Works of Isaac William(s) Wauchope’ (DPhil, University of Cape Town, 2000), 350–354).

⁵⁶ The Weekly Mail, ‘Reclaiming the lost warriors of SS Mendi’, 19–25 February 1993.

⁵⁷ http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2007/11080810451001.htm [accessed 19 May 2008].

⁵⁸ http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/200707080810451001.htm [accessed 19 May 2008].

⁵⁹ http://www.kaganof.com/kagablog/2007/10/03/sek-mqhayi-a-call-to-arms? [accessed 31 March 2010].

⁶⁰M. Gevisser, The Dream Deferred: Thabo Mbeki (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2007), 283.

⁶¹ http://www.kaganof.com/kagablog/2007/10/03/sek-mqhayi-a-call-to-arms/ [accessed 31 March 2010].

⁶²Compare R. Suttner, The ANC Underground in South Africa (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2008), 164.

⁶³This notion is neatly encapsulated in Z. Mda, Black Diamond (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2009), 66. I am indebted to Bill Nasson for this reference.

⁶⁴ Star , ‘SS Mendi: ship of brave warriors’, 26 July 2007. See also Cape Times, ‘The Brave Men of the Mendi Bring their Message of Courage across the Decades’, 25 July 2007.

⁶⁵R. Samuel and P. Thompson, ‘Introduction’, in R. Samuel and P. Thompson, eds, The Myths we Live By (London: Routledge, 1990), 5 (emphasis in the original)

⁶⁶M. Qangule, ‘Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi’, in M. Ndletyana, ed., African Intellectuals in 19 ^th and Early 20 ^th century South Africa (Pretoria: HSRC Press, 2008), 64.

⁶⁷J. Peires, ‘Preface’, in J. Opland, ed., Abantu Besizwe: Historical and Biographical Writings, 1902–1944: SEK Mqhayi (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2009), x.

⁶⁸J. Opland, ‘Introduction’, in Opland, Abantu Besizwe, 8.

⁶⁹J. Opland, ‘Introduction’, in J. Opland and A. Nyamende, eds, Isaac Williams Wauchope: Selected Writings, 1874–1916 (Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society Publications, 2008) 39, xxx.

⁷⁰ http://www.kaganof.com/kagablog/2007/10/03/sek-mqhayi-a-call-to-arms/ [accessed 31 March 2010]. This poem also appears in J. Cope and U. Krige, eds, The Penguin Book of South African Verse (London: Penguin, 1968), 276–278.

⁷¹A reprint of these articles appears in Opland and Nyamende, Isaac Williams Wauchope, 405–411.

⁷²A reprint of these articles appears in Opland and Nyamende, Isaac Williams Wauchope, 408.

⁷³Opland, ‘Introduction’, in Opland, Abantu Besizwe, 11. 

⁷⁴D. Henige, ‘Impossible to Disprove yet Impossible to Believe: The Unforgiving Epistemology of Deep-time Oral Tradition’, History in Africa, 36 (2009), 133.

⁷⁵Compare J. Opland, ‘Praise Poems as Historical Sources’, in C. Saunders and R. Derricourt, eds, Beyond the Cape Frontier: Studies in the History of the Transkei and Ciskei (Cape Town: Longman, 1974), 6–7, 26.

⁷⁶Clothier, Black Valour, 99.

⁷⁷G.L. Mosse Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990) 3. There is a considerable literature on memorialisation. See, for example, J. Winter and A. Prost, The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); J. Meyer, ed., British Popular Culture and the First World War (Leiden: Brill, 2008); J. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); A. Gregory, The Silence of Memory, Armistice Day, 1919–1946 (Oxford: Berg, 1994); J. Winter and E. Sivan, War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

⁷⁸K. Ben-Zeev, ‘Public Encounters: The Negotiation of Ritual. Risk and Relevance in the Performance of Johannesburg's National Remembrance Sunday Ceremonies’ (MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 2008), 45.

⁷⁹Mosse, Fallen Soldiers, 7–8.

⁸⁰Nasson, Springboks on the Somme, 237.

⁸¹Nasson, ‘Delville Wood and South African Great War Commemoration’, 82–83.