24-Carat Safari: Queen Elizabeth II’s first southern African tour

On their first evening in southern Africa, the Royal Family attended a State Banquet hosted by General Smuts. Unlike earlier in the day (See ‘Planning Queen Elizabeth II’s First Tour of Africa’), Afrikaner Nationalist politicians did decide to attend the event. They heard the King make a gentle reference to the political tensions within South Africa during in his speech:

‘Like all nations, you have hard problems to solve in the aftermath of war; but statesmanship has not failed you in the past 100 years, and I am confident it will guide you steadily towards a just and contented relationship between all dwellers in your many-people land. By achieving such a relationship you can show to the troubled world how peoples of different race and colour may live and work together for the common good.’

The following day witnessed the first of two lavish balls attended by the Royal Family in the City Hall. Reflecting the racial divisions in South African society, the first of these was for the city’s white dignitaries and the second for black Capetonians. On both evenings, approximately 50,000 people gathered outside the City Hall on the Grand Parade to catch a glimpse of the guests.

On the morning of the third day of the Royal Tour, Cape Town’s notorious South-easterly wind appeared, creating blustering conditions in the city and sending the famous, picturesque ‘tablecloth’ cloud over the top of Table Mountain. The Royal Family travelled to Simon’s Town, a naval port to the south of Cape Town and home to the British South Atlantic Command. Groups of flag-waving school children lined almost the entire twenty mile route to Simon’s Town. However, here again, reminders of the country’s racial divisions were never far from the surface. A journalist accompanying the Royal Family pointed out that ‘[y]ou could not but notice here and there how white and coloured schools were ranged on opposite sides of the road’. The South African authorities were, of course, aware of the negative impression this created and, in what would remain a common theme throughout the tour, attempted conspicuously to include representatives of all of South Africa’s ethnic groups. For example, at a ceremony on the seafront at Simon’s Town, the Royal Family were presented with bouquets of flowers by nine schoolgirls ‘drawn from English, Dutch, Indian, Bantu, and Cape Coloured races’.

Commenting on initial public and press reaction to the arrival of the Royal Family, the British High Commissioner expressed his pleasure at the positive coverage from the English press, but complained that Die Burger had relegated the visit to second place and focused on the cost of the tour, while Die Transvaler was steadfastly avoiding any references to the Royal Family at all. The Nationalist Party, Kruithoring (literally ‘Powder Horn’) had, he noted, adopted a mocking tone, saying ‘with a tarantara and some boom-booms the 24-carat royal safari has departed on its tour of the Union’.

On the Royal Family’s last day in Cape Town, the King attended the State Opening of Parliament. His speech — an Afrikaans version of which was delivered by the President of the Senate, PJ Wessels — thanked South Africa for its contribution in the Second World War and acknowledged the serious problems of demobilization, social welfare provision, food procurement, and industrial and economic development that lay ahead for the country. The debate over whether parliamentarians should pass a motion giving the King a loyal welcome had been resolved in favour of conveying a sincere welcome.

Later the same day, the Royal Train left Cape Town with British officials declaring that the visit to the city a ‘roaring success’. It was soon apparent, however, that the mood beyond this avowedly Anglophone city would take on a different and perhaps more complex character. Journalists noticed that South African flags quickly began to outnumber the Union Jacks once the train left the city.

The Royal Train stopped for the night amongst vineyards on the Breede river and the following morning began at a leisurely pace as the Royal Family walked to the vineyard owner’s farmhouse for coffee. The train later continued the journey on to Worcester where the Royal Family disembarked for a short visit to the town, the centre of the fruit-growing region of the Cape. Before leaving Worcester, the Royal Family stopped to speak with a group of eleven small boys and girls who had been evacuated from Britain to South Africa during the war. Passing through the district town of Swellendam, the Royal party continued to George, where they enjoyed a quiet Sunday without any official engagements.

The following day, as they would in most towns they visited, the Royal Family met with veterans of the Second World War, and the next day the Royal Family arrived in Oudsthoorn where they visited an ostrich farm which produced the feathers for which the town was renowned. On Tuesday, 25th February the Royal Family stopped briefly in Graaf-Reinet, where the reception by the town’s ‘Boer’ population was described as reserved, before continuing their journey east towards Port Elizabeth. This part of the tour proceeded at a relaxed pace and the royal party stopped for picnics and swimming, and the King and the Princesses rode in the veld before having breakfast on some days.

On 26 February, the Royal Family arrived in Port Elizabeth, with the Royal Train stopping briefly before entering the city to allow the Royal Family a short dip in the Indian Ocean. Newspapers gleefully reported that Princess Elizabeth wore a yellow swimming costume and cap and had a ‘strong overarm stroke’, while Princess Margaret was taught to surf by the King.

The King was presumably unaware that Port Elizabeth had witnessed significant opposition to the Royal Tour from the city’s black inhabitants. Attempts by the Port Elizabeth City Council to include the city’s black citizens in events were largely undermined by opposition from the well-organized local branch of the African National Congress (ANC). Raymond Mhlaba was Chairman of the local ANC branch in the black township of New Brighton that lay on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. He recalled his reaction to the visit by the Royal Family:

‘As the leaders of the Party’s New Brighton branch, we viewed the royal visit negatively. We criticised the privileges that the Royal Family enjoyed in England. We referred to the unfair class divisions in England. We also protested that the South African government together with the City Councils were presenting a false picture to the Royal Family regarding race relations in South Africa. We decided to boycott the Royal Visit.’

The editors of the Xhosa-language newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu later claimed the ANC leaders had in fact broken their boycott and were seen enjoying the food at the ceremony organized by the City Council, an accusation which Mhlaba vehemently denied, threatening to sue the paper for defamation. Port Elizabeth’s black population was, however, clearly divided over the visit, and while many did stay away from events, an estimated 25,000 New Brighton residents turned out to greet the Royal Family when their car passed through a part of the township.

Gandhi chose this day to issue a further statement in support of the boycott of the Royal Tour, saying:

‘I have received a cablegram from the Natal Indian Congress which says that the Congress, the Transvaal Indian Congress, the Coloured People’s Organisation and the African National Congress have decided on their part to refrain from taking part in or in any manner assisting in the celebrations in honour of the Royal visit to the Union of South Africa. They feel that in view of the disabilities imposed upon the Asiatics and Africans and other Coloured people it would be improper on their part to share in the rejoicings of the white people of South Africa. The cablegram asked me to endorse the abstention which they describe by the name of “boycott”. I take this opportunity of publicly endorsing the abstention as a natural and dignified step by any self-respecting body of people.’

Gandhi’s statement belied a serious rift within the Indian community over this issue and it had already become clear that a significant number of Indian South Africans intended to participate in events surrounding the tour.

From Port Elizabeth the Royal Family travelled by train to Alicedale, then on by car to Grahamstown where they attended a civic reception and a garden party in the botanic gardens. On 1 March they travelled to Lovedale where they were welcomed by a gathering of students from the different colleges and teaching institutions of the Ciskei and visited the Lovedale Missionary Institute, which had been founded by Scottish missionaries in 1824 and had become an elite educational institution, producing many of the region’s leaders.

Later that day the Royal Family travelled to East London where the King took a day off from official engagements while the Queen visited the East London Hospital and Princess Elizabeth opened a new graving dock in the city. At the opening of the dock, Princess Elizabeth was presented with five diamonds from the Orange River. A microphone nearby picked up and broadcast her ‘unaffected exclamations of delight’, much to the amusement of the audience.

In the afternoon the Royal Family attended a garden party hosted by the East London City Council, and in the evening were the guests of honour at a ball in the City Hall. Before leaving East London the following day, the King took the salute of veterans of the two world wars. Journeying on to King William’s town, the Royal Family attended a garden party and then went to an event at which they were welcomed by Paramount Chief of the Gaika, Archibald Sandile. A party of approximately 5,000 Gaika had gathered at the event and sang Nkosi Sikilile I’Africa, and a song composed specially for the Royal Tour by HJ Masiza, ‘A! Sozizwe’, which welcomed the King ‘on whom the sun never sets’, ‘visiting his family in Africa’. Intriguingly newspapers reported that the King’s speech to the Gaika contained a ‘paternal admonition’ which was received with only ‘respectful applause’.

The Royal Family arrived at the Transkei capital, Umtata the next morning where they were welcomed at a huge gathering of approximately 35,000 Xhosa. The composer Benjamin Tyamzashe had written an anthem in honour of the King’s visit, Zweliyaduduma and conducted a choir of 3,000 school children at the welcoming ceremony. Incorporating elements of traditional IsiXhosa praise poetry, the song evoked a nation ‘thundering’ to welcome the King, the Queen, ‘And the beautiful princesses’. The song continued:

Let us ponder over this

We Africans

We salute our King

Salute, O please salute

You are our true hope

The King to the King

We salute in song

God bless our King

God bless Africa

The gift has come to Africa

In this country in this country

It has come with the great King

The large crowds of Africans that attended these occasions in the Ciskei and Transkei were portrayed by South African officials as a clear indication that the boycott of the tour had failed, but British officials found the gatherings tense and saw cracks in the façade of racial harmony the South African authorities were trying to present.

In Bloemfontein the local ANC leadership had also urged people to stay away from events associated with the Royal Tour. At a meeting in February, an ANC spokesman had said:

‘The only natives who see the King will be those who will be working and those who will be in handcuffs. That will be good as the King will see the Natives in their usual surroundings — the slaves of this land.’

Journalists were also anxious to see how the city’s Afrikaner population was going to react. Bloemfontein was immersed in Boer history, having been the former capital of the independent Boer republic of the Free State and the site of the Bloemfontein Conference in 1899, the last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent war between Britain and the Boer republics. There was a sense of trepidation among the English media, who thought that the city’s republicanism would find open expression.

The Times reported that in Bloemfontein, ‘one perceives the nature of the great question confronting South Africa — whether the two cultures are to be fused or to survive in amity side by side’. The quiet refusal of the Nationalists to be involved in the Tour was, however, not pursued by the Nationalist mayor of Bloemfontein, JG Bernade who was reported to have ‘laid [the city’s] homage at the feet of their Majesties in the courtliest manner’. But it was nonetheless clear that the reception of the Royal Family in Bloemfontein was not as warm as elsewhere. Even The Times which was usually gushing in its coverage noted that ‘the people received the royal party less heartily than some other towns’. But film footage of the day shows that there were still many thousands of people straining for a glimpse of the Royal Family and the streets were lined with waving, cheering residents. The Royal Family were also received warmly when they travelled through Mangaung township on the outskirts of Bloemfontein.

The next day the Royal Family flew to the Sommerville Game Reserve near Winburg where they spent some time viewing game and relaxed with their hosts at a traditional South African braai. In this most Afrikaner of settings, journalists were keen to focus on anything that highlighted the differences between the Royal Family and their Afrikaner hosts. One newspaper observed jubilantly that when the Royal Family were served corn on the cob, Princess Elizabeth ‘took a cob daintily in one hand in contrast with the Afrikanders’ [sic] enthusiastic two-handed approach’. The family also paid a personal visit to Mrs Steyn, the widow of the late President Martinus Steyn, the last president of an independent Orange Free State. Notably absent from the itinerary in the Free State, however, was a visit to the National Women’s Memorial on the outskirts of Bloemfontein which commemorated the thousands of women and children who had died in British concentration camps during the South African War.

The train left Bloemfontein that evening and travelled to Modderpoort, the site of a significant battle during the South African Anglo Boer War. The next morning, the Royal Family attended a tea party before leaving Bloemfontein by train for Basutoland, stopping briefly at Kroonstad, Bethlehem and Ladybrand on the way.

A British High Commission Territory since 1884, Basutoland was distinct in character and politics from its neighbour, South Africa. Journalists remarked on how they immediately noticed a change in atmosphere when crossing the border into Basutoland:

‘Here there is no competition between European and Bantu for possession of land… Basutoland is conspicuously a black man’s country, where a tiny white community is present only to help him make the best of it.’

The road to the Residency in Maseru was lined by thousands of Basuto men on horseback, wrapped in their traditional blankets. As the Royal Family travelled along the road, the horsemen fell in behind the car, following it the rest of its journey in an apparently impromptu outpouring of affection and loyalty. The different setting also changed the nature of interactions between the Royal Family and the people they were meeting. An Australian newspaper reporting on the visit to Maseru noted that the King shook hands with the Paramount Chieftainess of the Basuto and that this was the first time he had been able to do so, despite meeting thirty or so black leaders on South African soil since the beginning of his visit.

There had, in fact, been a great deal of discussion among officials when and whether the King should shake the hands of African leaders. South African officials did not want the King to shake hands with Africans in South Africa and they pressured British officials to adopt the same approach in the neighbouring High Commission territories. However, Colonial Office officials took a firm stance on this issue, telling the South Africans that the King ‘should certainly’ shake hands with the Paramount Chief and that ‘His Majesty should do what will be considered fitting by the Basuto even though this might cause offense in the Union.’

That evening after a dinner, the Royal Family was driven a short distance to watch some fireworks. The Resident Commissioner described the scene later:

‘The scene that night round Maseru was most picturesque and gave an impression of an encampment of a medieval army. For several days the Basuto had been coming in from all over the country. Usually there came along the road or across the hills a dense block of men riding with a Chief and one or two of his immediate retainers a short way behind, shouting as they entered Maseru and singing the Chief’s praises. … That night Maseru was surrounded by camp fires and everywhere there seemed to be horses, both tethered and loose….’

The next day marked the 79th anniversary of Basutoland becoming a British Protectorate, and an estimated 100,000 people congregated at the pitso — meeting ground — to hear speeches from the King and Mantsebo Seeiso, the Regent for the Paramount Chief. The sight of so many thousands of people, many on horseback was described by one journalist as ‘one of the most spectacular events of the Royal Tour of South Africa so far’. While some of the senior chiefs wore traditional leopard skin carroses, the Regent wore a patterned ‘European’ dress — the Resident Commissioner complaining that it had been ‘impossible to persuade her to wear Basuto dress’. The Resident Commissioner was equally disappointed that many of the thousands of people attending the pitso favoured European clothes in place of traditional Basuto blankets.

Two themes dominated the speeches that morning — the gratitude of the King for the loyalty of the Basuto during the war, and Basutoland’s future as a British Protectorate. As was the case for all the High Commission territories, the British Resident Commissioner had been asked to draft the King’s speech. He had been given instructions that the speech should be ‘short and simple and that long words and sentences should be avoided’, reflecting a desire among officials to make things as easy as possible for a monarch who was known to dislike public speaking. For similar reasons, officials had also been warned that translations should begin only after the King had finished speaking to avoid him being interrupted. In his speech to the Basuto, the King thanked the Basuto people for their actions during the war:

‘During the recent war you came to my assistance when I was beset by many and powerful enemies. I thank your soldiers for their services and sacrifices and for their help in that time of great danger. I thank you also for the help you all rendered in so many directions during that difficult time. Your answer to the call, when the whole future of the British Empire was at stake, will never be forgotten’.’

In reply, Mantsebo Seeiso, welcomed the King on behalf of her people, saying the visit ‘afforded me the opportunity of re-affirming, on behalf of myself, Chiefs and the Basuto Nation, our loyalty to you and your throne, which has ever been the pledge of our ancestors’. She went on to say:

‘My King and Your Majesty, by God’s grace, the Basuto under the protection of Your Majesty’s Government, have always felt proud to be a distinct section under your rule and protection and do not wish to be separated in any manner from you and your just Government.’

As the Resident Commissioner noted, this was a ‘very strong hint that the Basuto were opposed to the transfer of their country to the [South African] Union.’ He also observed that she got a ‘got fairly cool reception’, while two other chiefs, Bereng Griffith and Theko Makhaola were received warmly by the crowds, a sign, he thought, that there was a conspiracy being hatched against her.

One speech struck a different tone to the rest, that by the spokesman for Lekhotla la Bafo, the Council of Commoners, an anti-colonial organization that complained routinely about the declining role of chiefs in Basuto society. This address traced the history of the British rule in the Protectorate, complaining that the authority of the chiefs had been broken, that they now worked in the interests of the government rather than the people, and the speaker appealed to the King to ‘renounce all measures depriving the people of their rights’. The King, of course, was not asked to express a view on this matter publicly.

In the afternoon the Queen met around 50 women from the Native Women’s Home Improvement Association. AD Forsyth Thompson, Resident Commissioner in Maseru had recommended that the Queen meet the Homemakers because ‘they have exerted a good influence on home life and I gather are almost entirely self-organized’. He said the aims of the association were ‘to keep homes clean and hygienic, improve standards of living; fight malnutrition; help Africans to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings and to strive to enhance it’. Princess Elizabeth meanwhile reviewed the Basuto Girl Guides, on whose behalf Laurentina Meletsane had written all those months ago, and which included a small contingent of Guides from the Botsabelo Leper Settlement.

There had been concerns among Whitehall officials about the cost of arranging a pitso on this scale in Maseru, with initial estimates for the cattle alone thought to be around £1,500. In fact, the Colonial Office expenditure for the Royal Visit to Maseru was around £19,000, including improvements to roads, £6,187 for cattle to feed attendees, £1,952 for maize meal; £500 for firewood and £400 for fireworks. Staff from the Department of Agriculture were put in charge of transporting, slaughtering and distributing the meat from the hundreds of cattle. The fact that this was paid for out of state coffers attested to the changing nature of Basuto society and to the new political strength of ex-servicemen. Traditionally, it would have been the chiefs who provided food for people attending pitsos such as this, however, as the High Commissioner noted with a degree of exasperation, on this occasion, ‘ex-soldiers loudly and successfully demanded food and cooking pots from the Admin!’

In South Africa, meanwhile, Dr Naicker and Dr Dadoo, Presidents of the Natal and Transvaal Indian Congresses issued a statement aimed at bolstering support for the tour boycott. They accused General Smuts of ‘attempting to cover up the criminal failure of his Government to deal with the colour and post-war problems by riveting the attention of the people on the pomp and glamour of the Royal Tour.’ And they urged Indian South Africans to:

‘stand fast. Do not heed the counsel of despair. Render full support to the Passive Resistance Movement. Join up as volunteers. Help financially. History has entrusted you with the important task of being in the vanguard of the battle for democracy in South Africa.’

The following day the Royal Family crossed the border back into South Africa. General Smuts met the Royal Family on the platform of the train station at Harrismith. The town’s role at the centre of fighting during the South African war was vividly represented by emblems of the Black Watch and other British Regiments cut into the surrounding mountains. As they did in most towns they visited, the Royal Family received a mayoral address and took the salute of a parade of ex-servicemen. Just before midday, they attended a tea and spoke for a time with Countess von Moltke, the widow of Helmuth Count von Moltke, a German jurist who had been hanged for his opposition to Hitler in 1944. In the afternoon, the Royal Party continued by train to Ladysmith, the site of an infamous siege during the South African War. A journalist commented on the significance of General Smuts entering this city, which he had once tried so long to bring into submission:

‘That this distinguished soldier and statesman should now drive into the undefeated city as the chief servant and friend in South Africa of the sovereign of the victorious Empire was an episode redolent of high chivalry, and it seemed to be so taken by the veterans of the ex-service parade, who crowded round the Prime Minister and cheered him again and again.’

Much to everyone’s surprise, large numbers of Indian South Africans were seen welcoming the Royal Family in Ladysmith. The large crowds there and in Escourt and Pietermaritzburg the following day, were taken by journalists and officials as clear evidence that the Indian boycott of the tour had failed. The Royal Family spent a short time in Ladysmith before proceeding on to the Natal National Park where they were to stay for several days as guests of General Smuts.

A visit to Eshowe a few days later to attend a gathering of Zulus was felt by the British High Commissioner to South Africa to be something of a failure and symptomatic of the differences in approach by the South African authorities and the British. He thought that the atmosphere in Zululand had been sullied by the large number of white policeman and that Zulu men had not been allowed to carry traditional spears. He also complained that white officials had interfered in the organization of even the dances performed by at the Zulu gathering, resulting in discernibly subdued atmosphere. He also pointed to an article in Bantu Welfare by Dr Moroka, a member of South Africa’s Natives’ Representative Council, which made unfavourable comparisons between the freedom with which the King mixed with his African subjects in the High Commission Territories, and the way he was kept away from Africans in South Africa. The High Commissioner was keen to point out that Dr Moroka was ‘no extremist and Bantu Welfare no Communist paper’ and that he broadly agreed with the newspapers assessment.

The Royal Family left Eshowe in the late afternoon, continuing by train from Gingihdhlovu to Durban. While in Durban they attended several public events, including a sports display by 30,000 school children, several garden parties, and a series of separate gatherings — one for Indian Durbanites at Currie’s Fountain, attended by an estimated 65,000 people, another for Coloured South Africans at Albert Park, and one for Africans at the Aerodrome. The Royal Family attended church on Sunday before traveling by train to Vryheid that evening. Arriving in Vryheid on 24 March, the royal party attended a garden party before arriving in the High Commission Territory of Swaziland the following day.

It had been decided that it would be too arduous a journey for the Royal Family to travel to the capital of Swaziland, Mbabane, so events were held instead at Goedgegun (now Nhlangano), not far from the border with South Africa. The Royal Family was met at the border-crossing by the Paramount Chief of the Swazi, Sobhuza Dlamini II and his wife. A Times journalist described them as ‘curiously contrasted dignitaries’ with the chief dressed in a European-style military uniform while his wife wore traditional Swazi dress. They traveled with the Royal Family to a parade ground for the welcome ceremony. As he had done in Maseru, the King thanked the Swazi people for their loyalty during the war and awarded several military medals, including one to Sergeant D. Mndebele of the Swazi Pioneer Corps, who had rescued two men under heavy machine gun fire during the war. After the speeches and awards, there was a parade by the Swazi Pioneers, the volunteer force that had won battle honours at Anzio where they had been in the first wave of Allied landings in 1943. The Swazi Pioneers were followed by 4,000 Swazi men in traditional dress who preformed a welcome dance for the King.

The High Commissioner to Swaziland, EB Beetham had been nervous about arrangements for the day, complaining that it ‘absolutely bristled with difficulties’. Plans had been complicated, he explained, by having to host the Royal Family at Goedgegun rather than the capital Mbabane, thereby placing a ‘severe strain’ on the administration by having to bring everything including ‘tents, furniture, poles etc. from Mbabane on indifferent roads’. He was particularly anxious about the garden party because he had been required to invite a member of the local Advisory Council whom he knew harboured grievances against the administration and whom he suspected might create an ‘incident’ and have to be removed. His administration also had to put plans in place to accommodate and feed the estimated 25,000 who would journey to Goedgegun on foot to see the King. But despite his concerns, the day went smoothly and Beetham was particularly pleased with the King’s easy charm with Chief Sobhuza.

To continue reading about the rest of the Royal Tour, see ‘Delicate Racial Matters: Queen Elizabeth’s 1947 Tour of Southern Africa’.