GERMAN FARMERS MURDERED
OUTRAGES BY WITBOIS. [press association.! (Received December 6, 8.7 a.m.) CAPETOWN, sth December. It is reported at Capetown that the Witbois (Hottentots) have murdered many German farmers and children and outraged women in South-West Africa. In connection with the above cable message, a report made in October by Colonel Leutwein, the Governor of German South-West Africa, throws some interesting light on the situation. The Witbois, who inhabit Gibeon, an important German post in the south of the colony, had, it was stated, left the town, and it wa-s presumed that they intended to take the field against .the Germans. They are the mixed offspring of Boers and Hottentot women, but their descent appears hitherto to have secured them fioni the suspicion of disloyalty to the ■white ra-ce. As a matter of fact, they have consistently rendered good service to the German authorities in the colony. The Witbois, however, seem to have risen in earnest. They form a numerous and important clan of the Hottentot tribe, and they derive their name from the Witboi family, whose followers they have been for many years. The present chief or ca.ptain of the clan, Hendrik Witboi, is the son of Moses Witboi, who was a tribal hero in the middle of the last century. The Cologne Gazette oi 9th October stated that Hendrik Witboi once occupied the position of a village schoolmaster, and that he speaks Dutch pretty well. However that may be, he headed an insurrection in 1893 and 1894, during the course of which many white settlers were murdered, and which the Germans found it extremely difficult to suppress. Colonel Leutwein at last compelled him to come to terms in the autumn of 1894. Since that time Hendrik Witboi has proved himself to be a loyal subject, although there are not wanting grounds for the assumption that he has been the spoiled child and the chartered libertine of the German administration ■under Colonel Leutwein's regime. He and his followers materially assisted the Germans in their campaigns against the Khavas Hottentots in 1897 and 1898, and his services to the colonial Government during this year's campaign against the Hereros was recently recognised by the Emperor William, who conferred a decoration upon him. How far the old bandit is responsible for the defection of ia part, at any rate, of his followers cannot at present be ascertained, but it was noted with suspicion that a number of his men who accompanied the German forces into the field had deserted and had surreptitiously returned to their homes.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1904, Page 5
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425GERMAN FARMERS MURDERED Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1904, Page 5
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