WHITE WOMAN RULES BLACKS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 12332, 22 April 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHITE WOMAN RULES BLACKS

A white woman who has never been seen by a white man rules a tribe of 6000 natives in the madjadgi Reserve of Northern Transvaal. Native priests guard her by day and night. , t The existence of this modern “She,” of whom Rider ' Hhggard might have written, was reyealedrby ■ Mr Brian Ballenden, son of Mr G. Ballenden, “chief of the Johannesburg Native Affairs Department. Young Ballenden said that the woman rules the tribe through priests. t . “I tried to draw the chieftainess from the shelter of the guarded kraal by giving a film .show, with portable cinema apparatus. “Three thousand natives gathered to watch the first film of their lives. I waited for the white chieftainess. There was a deathlike silence as three black handmaidens walked down and said the chieftainess , would see the show, but only from the dark interior of the kraal. “I stayed several days’ hoping to see her, but I saw only her .kinsman« who had European features, with nose and lips clean-cut, and some with grey eyes.

“The story is that a native chief abducted a white y,oman. f; ,;\J(hen| died there was no heir, so the white woman became the cheiftainess.”, ; , Mr Ballenden trekked through hundreds of miles of mountainous country for his objective. As he approached with presents, priests ofthe chieftainess closed round the hut and forbade his advance.