History of Estcourt – Bushman Chief talks
Peacefully, our forefathers lived here and in and around Estcourt. The Bushmen, known as the San people, made their mark and walked on this Estcourt soil barefooted.
Everyone, when speaking about history, leaves out the main people, the people that own this land. The first thing to recognise is their writings and paintings on the rocks and this is well over 20 000 years before anyone came here.
If you are promoting British and Zulu history, then you need to learn something. That is that the first people were here until attacks were made on them.
Early in the 1400’s, the Nguni tribes were arriving in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. In the early 1800’s the British made their way towards Estcourt. The Bushmen people now had visitors.
It was the British that brought the Amahlubi tribe to Estcourt to stop the Bushmen people from troubling them, because the British now wanted to farm. So, the Amahlubi tribe was to assist to destroy and drive away the Bushmen from this area and the first eviction of our forefathers here in Estcourt took place.
These attacks go along with genocide and assassination and the cutting off of the Bushman’s head and placing it on a stick. Estcourt’s soil is soaked with the blood of our forefathers. It was later that the Zulus made their attacks on Zaailaager and it was a huge massacre.
This was now the second forceful removal of the Bushmen. Some escaped to the mountains, others to the Eastern Cape and Kalahari and others to the Free State. So who forced who? The big question is were the whites forced out of Zaailaager or were the blacks forced out?
The answer is NO. Only the Bushmen people were forced out of Zaailaager. Then later when they classified the Bushmen to coloured, they forced them out of Zaailaager.
The law is clear, if you were not forced out, you don’t have a claim over that place or land. Please let us have Zaailaager and stop selling our land. Our graves are here.
Our claim is for the whole of Estcourt but we are not greedy, we just say leave Zaailaager and our history. This is our historical landmark, we identify with our history here and no one can change that.
Our claim is in the High Court. Let me say that both blacks and whites don’t have a right to the Zaailaager Trust or soil. The municipality and Rural Development had no right to take our land and no one should be selling our land.
Estcourt has no history without the Bushmen and it will stay like that. So, stop creating a new history, it will bite you. If you need to know more, contact me.
Khoisan Chief Raymond Trollip
