Olive Schreiner in Rhodesia: An Episode in a Biography1

• Published in: English in Africa 2007-10, Vol.34 (2), p.93
• Main Authors: Walters, Paul, Fogg, Jeremy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Schreiner, Olive (1855-1920); South African literature
• ISSN: 0376-8902

Arguably, it does nothing to alter the by now well-established outlines of Olive Schreiner's life; yet, as we shall see, the visit itself might have meant the premature end of that life. [...]it documents Schreiner's visit to two sites of immense importance to her: the 'Hanging Tree' in Bulawayo which features in the (deliberately shocking) photographic frontispiece to the first edition of Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897), and, secondly, Cecil Rhodes's grave in the Matopos. Rhodes used these uprisings as a pretext for ignoring the summons to appear before the Select Committee of the Cape Parliament charged with enquiring into the Jameson Raid.18 In August 1896 - about the same time as Olive Schreiner, holidaying at Port Alfred, woke with the allegory story of Trooper Peter fully formed in her head - Rhodes, in a display of considerable personal bravery, led a series of 'indabas' in Matabeleland which brought about a more lasting settlement in 'Rhodesia.'19 Living in Kimberley, Schreiner was well placed to monitor events further north, and to talk to survivors of and returnees from the Matabeleland campaigns.20 Writing to Betty Molteno from Kimberley in July 1896, Schreiner says: "The way they are hounding the Mashonas for what they call murders - i.e. for killing people in time of war - is to me far more terrible than anything that is happening in the [Cape] Colony [as the aftermath of the Jameson Raid]" (Rive 1987, 287). Cronwright-Schreiner's Letters allows us to date the duration of the train trip with some precision: leaving Cape Town on 1 June 1911, the party arrived at the Falls on 5 June, spent four days there (Gregg 1957, 49), and, presumably, took a further five days to get back to Cape Town. [...]the sailing date for the Edinburgh Castle could not have been earlier than the afternoon of Friday, 16 June 1911 (the regular sailing time for Union-Castle liners). According to M. van Wyk Smith (1978, 127-30), Stead, while not being antiimperialist, was the main propagandist of the pro-Boer movement. 17.