TOPIC:

Need some help with the following.
I bought some 8 years ago a file with ABW documents which included the note depicted below. The note was sent late in the war from what looks like Witsieshoek by the Paramount Chief Ntsane (?) to a British Intelligence officer by the name of (Edm) Richter. The names of the native scouts mentioned, Inkimzi? Intzimzi ?and Chakide?/Chakiele?, sound Zulu. With the reference to Boers going over into Natal and with “Witsieshoek” being located on the border between the former Orange Free State and Natal, Zulu would make sense. From the note it is clear that the Paramount Chief helped the British forces by spying on the Boers.




My queries relating to this note:

What is the underlined word? "He"?
Who signed the note? (doesn’t look like the name of the Paramount Chief)
What are the correct names of the Native Scouts?
Is the Paramount Chief named Ntsane? What is known about him? (Ntsane is an area in what is now Lesotho)
Who was this Field Intelligence Officer by the name of Richter? Which Unit did he serve with?
Is there any document/Book I can refer to that describes Zulu’s spying for the British during the ABW?
Any help is appreciated.

A very interesting letter, which sheds some light on a neglected aspect of the war. My thoughts :

~ the underlined word is 'lie', i.e. "There is lie here saying the boers are preparing again ..."

~ the scouts' names look like Inkimzi and Chakide

~ the attached extract from an official report (2014) on the lawful succession to the Bakwena baMopeli chieftaincy in Witsieshoek, identifies Ntsane as the paramount chief 1898-1918, and his son Ramatshediso Charles Mopeli as his heir*

~ the signature is thus probably 'Charles R. Mopeli', which would also match the initials on the postscript

~ perhaps the FID officer was Edmund Julius Richter (d 1921), whose name appears in the National Archives online inventory.



*The full report can be read here : www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_docu...peli-paramountcy.pdf

I found this chap?

I agree with Arthur - he is "lie".

Before reading Arthur's response I had come to the conclusion the letter was written by somebody whose first language was not English, so I definitely go for his identification of C.R.M. although his English is good.

A search for "Ntsane" in the newspapers of 1902 yielded nothing but "Mopeli" received a direct hit - a long report in the Darlington North Star of 17th March 1902. Below I have pasted the headline and the two most relevant parts:







Happy to email the full article to anybody interested.

Finally I tried searching for "Itsani" but that only found the same article in the Cork Weekly.

Arthur, Dave and Smethwick, thank you for the research and very illuminating feedback which has finally given the note its proper context. Richter in his capacity as local spy master must have had a network of (Zulu) scouts who travelled to native tribes to gather information on the enemy. I read through the report referenced by Arthur and, combined with Smethwick’s article, surmise that although the Bakwena were technically OVS subjects and had not been treated all too harshly by the conquering Boers, they had good reason to side with the British during the ABW.