João Albasini in the sources
João Albasini (1813 to 1888) was a Portuguese-born trader and hunter who settled in the Soutpansberg in the 1850s, became Portuguese vice-consul and the Transvaal Republic’s Superintendent of Natives there, and built a large Tsonga settlement on his farm Goedewensch at Luonde. In Venda memory and in Nemudzivhadi’s history of Makhado he is the man who protected Davhana, collected tribute from Venda rulers, brought Gaza and Swazi help against them, and so helped bring on the wars of the 1860s.
What the sources say
The man. South African History Online gives his birth as 1813 in Lisbon and the start of his life in Africa as 1831, when he took charge of a trading post at Delagoa Bay; it says he moved to Zoutpansbergdorp (later Schoemansdal) in 1853, was appointed Portuguese vice-consul for the Transvaal in 1858, was made Native Superintendent in the Zoutpansberg in 1859, held out in his fort at Goedewensch when Schoemansdal was abandoned in 1867, and died there on 10 July 1888. Wikipedia instead says that, according to tradition, he was born at sea on a ship bound for Africa, to an Italian family; we cannot settle the place of birth. For the 1859 appointment, Nemudzivhadi says that Stephanus Schoeman appointed him tribute collector, with the Dutch title Superintendent van kafferstammen, on 9 June 1859 (p. 63), and A. O. Jackson’s The Ndebele of Langa (Ethnological Publications No. 54, p. 18) dates his appointment as Native Commissioner to August 1859, the first of its kind; we give both.
Luonde and the Tsonga. Nemudzivhadi writes that Albasini made Luonde (Goedewensch) a Tsonga settlement by taking in fugitives from Mozambique who had fled after Soshangane (Manukosi) founded the Gaza state; the Boers regarded the Tsonga as government people, and his subjects “regarded him as their Moses” (pp. 60 to 62). One Venda informant says Albasini’s Tsonga warriors terrorised villagers, demanding tribute and porridge as “sons of Mulungu”, the Tsonga word for a White man (p. 90). Junod, who knew the Tsonga country of the Spelonken, records that Albasini acted throughout the events of the Gaza succession war as a chief of the Thonga of the Spelonken and played a considerable part in them (see Mzila).
Tribute. As tribute collector he was responsible for Vhuronga, Vhulovhedzi, Mashau, Vari, Luonde, Tshakhuma, Vhuphani and Vhutavhatsindi (p. 63); Tshivhase, Rambuda, Mphaphuli, Nelwamondo, Netsianda, Tshikundamalema and Nethengwe were among the rulers counted as tributaries (p. 63). Nemudzivhadi argues that he sent his Tsonga from place to place to seize cattle, goats, ivory and hoes against local wishes, and that intimidation, killing and slave-taking were part of the method (pp. 63 to 66); the Venda, he says, objected because paying tribute to a foreign collector implied subjection, and held Albasini and his messengers “much hated and disliked”, even calling him something closer to a witchdoctor than an official (p. 66). He also reports that Albasini could single out a khosi as a rebel to the government (p. 66).
Davhana. After Ramabulana died, Davhana took refuge at Luonde under Albasini’s protection, with accounts differing on how: Davhana’s descendants say Ramabulana had asked Albasini and Ranwedzi Mphaphuli to look after him; Dzivhani heard from the Mphaphuli people that Ranwedzi brought him to Mbilwi and negotiated asylum (p. 59). Albasini recognised Davhana as Ramabulana’s heir, “a Thovhele outside the royal residence”, and in a letter claimed Ramabulana had told Davhana to listen to Albasini; M. M. Motenda says the opposite, that Ramabulana told Davhana he would not succeed (pp. 53 to 60). Makhado sent messengers with a veiled request; J. Albasini III’s biography, as Nemudzivhadi cites it, gives the message as a hunting image (hunters follow the blood spoor, so do not let dogs barking at night disturb your sleep), and Albasini’s answer as reported was that he would shoot strange dogs worrying his cattle, while homesteads marked with white cloth, his Tsonga women and children, must be spared; oral accounts report his reply differently (p. 55). On 3 June 1864 Makhado’s army surrounded Davhana’s kraal at Luonde and attacked the next day, but Davhana’s men and Albasini’s Tsonga counter-attacked and the Venda withdrew with heavy losses (p. 57; see Funyufunyu, who led the army).
The war. Nemudzivhadi’s argument is that Albasini’s presence at Luonde, with his armed Tsonga, was one of the causes of the Zoutpansberg war, alongside the Monene affair, forced labour on Boer farms, and the beating of Mmboi, a younger brother of Funyufunyu (pp. 75 to 90). He records an attack on Rambuda on 16 to 19 September 1863 and on Lwamondo on 22 September 1863 by a commando under Albasini and F. H. Geyser (p. 67), the combined Albasini–Venter commando into Phahwe in April 1865 and the attack on Tshakhuma on 8 May 1865 (pp. 79 to 80; see Tshakhuma), and Albasini’s schans at Luonde as the refuge of Whites in time of Makhado’s attacks (p. 106). The accusation that eight rulers, Makhado, Tshivhase, Madzhie, Maphaha, Neluvhola, Matidze, Nelwamondo and Madzivhandila, had conspired to murder the Whites came, in Nemudzivhadi’s reading, from Albasini, who twisted Makhado’s tribute tour to suit his plans (pp. 46 to 47).
The Gaza and Swazi armies. In June 1867, Nemudzivhadi says, Paul Kruger ordered Albasini to approach groups including the Ngoni and Swazi for military help against the Venda (p. 109); in 1869 Albasini, according to the same account, directed a Swazi impi to Tshakhuma and another to Dzanani, and obstructed Schoeman’s own talks with Mzila by saying a Portuguese subject should not be approached without him (pp. 110, 113; see Battle of Mangwele (1869) and Mzila). In July 1868 President Pretorius announced at Welgevonden that Albasini was no longer in the government’s service, because he had been identified as a cause of dissatisfaction between Boers and Blacks, and Schoeman replaced him (p. 108). In 1869 Albasini sent four agents to Pretoria, one said to represent Nelwamondo, accusing Schoeman of inviting the Swazi (p. 119).
His son. The “Commissioner Albasini” of the 1880s in Nemudzivhadi’s account is not João but his son: the thesis calls him Antonio A. Albasini, Commissioner for the Spelonken, “in the process of gradually taking over the reins of the Tsonga from his father, João” (p. 153). It is this Albasini whose reports appear in the footnotes under the initials A. A.: the “Albasini” report on Lwamondo at the Klipdam meeting of 20 February 1883 (p. 180; the minutes are not quoted), the report that Madzivhandila refused to bring his commando in 1883 (p. 162), the 1883 warning that Makhado, after attacking Nthabalala, would bring 3,000 to 4,000 loyal Tsonga under his control (p. 153), the accusation in 1884 that Commissioner Oscar Dahl would not collect Makhado’s tax, and the demand for tax on 21 January 1886 (pp. 232 to 235). SAHO has João Albasini alive until 1888.
His son Antonio
Antonio A. Albasini, Commissioner for the Spelonken from at least 1883 until his death in 1889, took over the Tsonga leadership from João in these years; see Antonio Albasini.
Overview articles
His part in the war is summarised in The Soutpansberg war, 1863 to 1869.
His appointment as tribute collector in 1859 is set in context in Tribute, land and the Boer state in the Soutpansberg, 1855 to 1898.
Cautions
Almost everything above is from one historian, a Venda, working from Venda oral history and Boer papers, and his thesis is openly sceptical of Albasini; the Boer side (Albasini’s own memoranda and his descendant J. Albasini III’s book, which Nemudzivhadi cites) was different, and we have not read it. The Wikipedia article makes strong claims about Albasini’s fighting strength and his standing among the Tsonga that we have not verified and do not repeat. We found no Albasini praise or totem. Where the thesis speaks of the “Tsonga” settled at Luonde we have not tried to say what clans they came from; see our Shangana-Tsonga pages. 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.
Izithakazelo and totem
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Sources and further reading
- Mphaya Henry Nemudzivhadi, “The attempts by Makhado to revive the Venda kingdom, 1864-1895”, PhD thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (1998); open access at the North-West University repository (a scanned copy; we read it by OCR, and page numbers cited are the thesis’s printed numbers)
- South African History Online: João Albasini (we read this page through a summarising tool, so the dates below are as it reported them)
- Wikipedia: João Albasini (tagged for rewriting; unevenly sourced, and we use it only for the one date and the one place it adds)
- Henri A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe, vol. 1, The Social Life (Neuchâtel, 1912), read in the Internet Archive scan; the passage on the Ba-Ngoni and the succession of Muzila
See also João Albasini, Mzila, Monene affair, Makhado, Davhana and Nxumalo.
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