A different view on current affairs & history
Unlike many Settlers to South Africa, upon arrival James Brister did a tour of inspection and was favourably impressed with the country to make it his home. As Port Elizabeth was likely to become a large commercial town, he commenced business there in a small way as an importer and manufacturer of furniture.
Today many pieces of antique furniture extant in Port Elizabeth bear the tag James Brister on them.
Main picture: James Brister
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Like many mariners, settlers and visitors before him, JM could not suppress his dismay when Port Elizabeth came into focus. Instead of the anticipated forest of trees and lush vegetation, all that JM could discern was a stony hill without greenery of any sort rising sharply from the shoreline. As he sat down to record his experiences that night, the word uninviting came to his mind.
On the morrow when he would explore the town, any misapprehensions about this town would be dispelled. Any and all misconceptions would also be cast aside.
This blog is a brief extract of JM’s journal who, for personal reasons, desired anonymity. Hence the use of the initials JM. The period covered was late 1881 up to March 188.
Main picture: Market Square in 1896
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Systems, towns, people and religions do not operate in a vacuum. Rivalries and competing visions form the cornerstone of civilisation, and so it was for the infant town of Port Elizabeth. Competing interests without the best interests of this struggling Bay at heart, sought to create an environment advantageous to themselves. One of these competing visions was the most suitable location of the proposed harbour on the Eastern Province coast.
This contestation, which forms the focus of this blog, could rather have been titled “The Tale of Two Harbours” but as I have already dealt extensively with development of PE’s harbour, the focus now will predominantly be on the Kowie Harbour..
Main picture: Kowie River with sailing boats of yore
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Port Elizabeth has experienced phenomenal population growth spurts on a two occasions: first the Afrikaner influx and relocation from the platteland and then there was the migration of the Blacks. The consequences of unbridled migration for both communities were catastrophic in terms of nutrition, accommodation and general living conditions. Being English speaking and white to boot, I was blissfully unaware of the devastation, havoc and suffering that this enormous influx created until much later in life.
In 1904, immediately after the Anglo Boer War, the Afrikaner was a scare commodity in Port Elizabeth. Representing roughly 3.9% of the white population, they were virtually a ghost community lacking Afrikaans schools and churches. By 1960, this situation had been reversed with the Afrikaans schools and churches – numbering 13 NG churches – being operational.
The focus of this blog is white poverty as a consequence of over-rapid population growth, lack of education and marginalisation.
Main picture: Demolishing slum dwelling in Korsten in 1903
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This blog is a verbatim extract from the publication: The Port Elizabeth Directory and Guide to the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope for 1877
It provides a contemporary view of the town in a sometimes overly honest manner such as the words describing the town as “pleasingly disappointing” and bemoaning the paucity of trees.
Main picture: BIrd Street highligting the paucity of trees
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For the majority of the 143 years from 1652 to 1795 during which the Dutch occupied the Cape, Algoa Bay and its potential use as a Harbour can be likened to a black hole. Nothing was known about it and the Government authorities were ignorant of its existence. The raison d’etre of the use of Cape Town was that it served as a replenishment station en route to the Dutch East Indies. Nothing more and nothing less.
It took more than a century after 1652 before the Dutch authorities displayed a modicum of interest in this Bay. This blog deals with that unhurried awakening of interest and its gradual adoption as a harbour. If the truth be told, without the British occupation of the colony, the recognition and adoption of Port Elizabeth would possibly not have arisen and some other river mouths such as the Zwartkops, Buffalo or Kowie would have snatched the prize.
Let it be crystal clear: It was not a foregone conclusion that the harbour in Algoa Bay would be situated at the mouth of a paltry stream such as the Baaken’s River.
Main picture: Blockhouse on the Baakens River in 1803
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The rating of the state of the economy is subjective. It is a function of the observer’s personal status and wealth at that moment in time. Even if poverty is visibly evident, many wealthy people cannot internalise or comprehend what impact the state of the economy has on impoverished people. This situation can be likened to the current divide in South Africa.
In this blog, I will utilise a letter written in 1884 by hides and skin merchant, Peter Titheranton who bemoans the ostentatious displays of wealth, to underscore my contention. Titheranton’s views can be juxtaposed with what Harradine emphatically states in her singular book, The Social Chronicle in which she states that ‘this was a period of drought and deep economic recession causing great hardship from retrenchments, insolvencies and general unemployment’. This will provided balance in the debate but will not justify the wealth and societal imbalances.
Main picture: Sketch of Wesleyan Methodist Church in Russell Road. Commenced erection in 1870, opened in 1872 and closed on 7 Dec 1969 to be demolished in order to widen Russell Road
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The most extensive and productive farm in the Port Elizabeth area over the first two decades of the nineteenth century was that of Frederick’s Korsten’s Cradock Place. It covered the area from today’s Korsten, taking in swathes of today’s Algoa Park and swept down to the mouth of the Papenkuils River. Like most farms, it also experienced the twin depredations of vagrancy and trespassing.
In early 1833, probably after a spate of incidents, Korsten decided to take action.
Main picture: View of Cradock Place by Walford Arbouin Harries in 1860
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Normally the Baakens River is a placid stream but is extremely deadly when provoked by flood waters abusing its avuncular nature. It might be endearing when untroubled by raging water but caution always needs to be taken.
On the last Tuesday of January 1834, the Baakens River showed that even a seemingly placid stream can be deadly.
Main picture: Bridge over untroubed waters
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Like a magnet, a murder or any barbaric act always draws the media’s attention. In the case of the “manless head” [the opposite of headless man] discovered on the Fishwater Flats in 1840, it certainly did. This case could have acquired the sobriquet “The Case of the Missing Corpse”
Main picture: View of Fishwater Flats
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