Antonio Albasini in the sources
Antonio Albasini was the son of João Albasini and, from at least January 1883 until his death in 1889, the Transvaal Republic’s Commissioner for Natives in the Spelonken, who also took over from his father as head of the “Knobneuzen”, the Tsonga living there. In Nemudzivhadi’s history of Makhado’s reign he is the official who sent the reports that fed the Boers’ fear of Makhado and who fought with him over tax until the government sent the Location Commission in 1887.
What the sources say
Who he was. Nemudzivhadi calls him “Antonio A. Albasini, the Commissioner for the Spelonken area, who was in the process of gradually taking over the reigns of the Tsonga from his father, João” (p. 153). In the archive notes the name is given as A. A. Albasini, once in full as “Anthonia Augusto Albasini, Comm. N. Spelonken” (1887; p. 238). The thesis calls him a family member of Portuguese origin whom the Boers could not do without because he was in charge of the Tsonga fugitives, who regarded him as their chief (p. 248). See João Albasini. We have no birth date or mother for him.
1883. Albasini’s reports on Makhado in that year are among the main documents that Nemudzivhadi challenges. At the Klipdam meeting of 20 February 1883 “Albasini” reported, in Nemudzivhadi’s words, that on 15 February Makhado had sent a commando into the Spelonken to occupy kraals of Nthabalala’s followers, and Nthabalala had asked for protection (pp. 150 to 152); the footnote cites the meeting minutes and does not name the speaker, but the Commissioner for the Spelonken is the natural reading. On 5 March he warned that if Makhado were left unchecked he would bring 3,000 to 4,000 loyal Tsonga under his control (p. 153); on 5 and 7 April he reported that Makhado had mobilised men from Vuvha, Luonde and Mauluma and passed on a private letter said to be by the missionary Schwellnus (p. 161); and he reported that Madzivhandila of Tshakhuma had refused to bring his commando (p. 162; see Madzivhandila). The same “Albasini” said at Klipdam that Makhado’s army had wrought havoc at Lwamondo, which Nemudzivhadi says is contrary to the account of Phophi’s niece (p. 180; see Lwamondo succession dispute, 1883). Nemudzivhadi says Albasini’s intention was to make Special Commissioner Joubert keep a Tsonga commando at his place, possibly with government money, and that his accusations did not influence Joubert (p. 162).
Dzimauli. On 9 January 1883 the Rambuda prince Bele made a statement before Albasini, as Commissioner, that he was the lawful successor and wanted the government to reinstate him against Ligegise; Albasini forwarded it to the Superintendent of Natives, but the government did nothing (pp. 204 to 205; see Ligegise and Rambuda).
Tax, 1884 to 1886. In October 1884 he wrote to the Superintendent of Natives that Commissioner Oscar Dahl of Klipdam was unwilling to collect Makhado’s tax, and insisted that Makhado’s country lay in the Spelonken, not in Klipdam, and was his to tax; Makhado, he said, would pay if his land were under one commissioner (pp. 232 to 233). The Superintendent, P. J. Joubert, with Albasini, Dahl and others, visited Makhado on 10 December 1884; Makhado agreed that Albasini should be responsible, but wanted to collect the money himself, which Joubert said was against the law (pp. 234 to 235). On 21 January 1886 Albasini demanded outstanding tax, and Makhado replied that his people were at the Diamond Fields earning little; in June and July 1886 Makhado showed him 50 and then 40 small cattle, some sick, which Albasini refused as a joke and, to Pretoria, as undermining his office; Makhado would not let him count the huts, saying he was master of his people (pp. 235 to 237). Albasini reported that Makhado had told Knobneuzen indunas, among them Maswanganyi and Shigamane, not to pay tax to him because they lived in his land (p. 236).
The affidavits and the Location Commission. In January 1887 Albasini sent the government affidavits from a headman called Matjewelle, a policeman “Charlie” and Maswanganyi that Masindi Ratombo, a khosi under Makhado, had told them to obey Makhado and not pay tax to the Republic. Nemudzivhadi notes that all three were “Knobneuzen” and loyal to Albasini and says no source can show whether the affidavits were theirs or written under their names (pp. 237 to 239). Albasini, he writes, persuaded the government to send the Native Location Commission, led by P. J. Joubert, with Albasini, Captain Zboril and others as members, which met Makhado at Luatame on 23 February 1887; Makhado told Joubert to ask Albasini and Snyman what the earlier Special Commissioner had meant about land and tax (pp. 239 to 242). Albasini passed messages between the commission and Makhado in 1889 (p. 247).
Death and succession. Commissioner A. A. Albasini died in 1889 during the military arrangements of that year; Nemudzivhadi calls his death an event of historical significance, since he had “spear-headed the offensive against Makhado for decades” (pp. 248 to 249). The government did not want the office to become hereditary, so it appointed Captain Adolf Schiel as Commissioner for the Klein Spelonken and restricted the Albasini power base to the chieftainship of the Knobneuzen; a Lucas Albasini arrived with a telegram instructing Schiel to call the Knobneuzen together and appoint him their chief, which Schiel did (pp. 249 to 250). Nemudzivhadi describes the office as having started with João, “who was also the Chief of the Knobneuzen”, and passed to A. A. Albasini and Schiel (p. 260). The thesis does not give Lucas Albasini’s relationship to Antonio.
Overview articles
His tax dispute with Makhado and the 1887 Location Commission are set in context in Tribute, land and the Boer state in the Soutpansberg, 1855 to 1898.
Cautions
Nemudzivhadi is hostile to Antonio Albasini, whom he sees as Makhado’s main enemy among the officials; we have not seen the reports he cites (the Transvaal Archives files SS 787, 789, 790, 989, 1014, 1167, 1232, 1364, 1851 and others), which are in Dutch, nor the Albasini family’s own papers. “Knobneuzen” (“knob-noses”) is the old Boer name for these Tsonga-speaking people, as the thesis uses it; we put it in quotation marks and treat it as a period term. The year of his death is the thesis’s; the day is not given. Nemudzivhadi is a Venda historian whose subject is Makhado’s reign; he built on oral interviews done between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s and on colonial archive papers, and he often says where his informants and the written sources disagree, as do we.
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Sources and further reading
See also Antonio Albasini, João Albasini, Cornelis Lottering, Goedgedacht, Kranspoort and Makhado.
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