Heritage Cases

1. BACKGROUND TO THE MENDI On 21 February 1917, the Liverpool-registered steamship Mendi sank after being involved in a collision in the English Channel, roughly 11 nautical miles south-west of the Isle of Wight. The collision occurred in thick fog, shortly before 5 am, when the Mendi was accidentally rammed by another British vessel, the Darro. At the time of her loss the Mendi was under charter to the British Ministry of Transport for government service as a troop transport and was carrying 823 black enlisted men and white officers of the 5th Battalion, South African Native Labour Corps (SANLC).The men were travelling from Cape Town to France, where they were to serve behind the lines on the Western Front as non-combatant labourers Such was the damage sustained by the Mendi that she sank in 20 minutes and within an hour of the collision 607 black servicemen, nine of their white countrymen and 30 members of the Mendi’s crew were dead. Although it is likely that some of the men died in the damaged forward hold of the Mendi, the majority of the deaths were the result of drowning and hypothermia in the mid-winter waters of the English Channel. Eye-witness accounts suggest that many men refused to leave the sinking vessel, and oral tradition describes an interpreter with the Battalion, the Reverend Isaac Wauchope Dyobha rallying those on the deck saying: ‘Be quiet and calm, my countrymen, for what is taking place is exactly what you came to do. You are going to die, but that is what you came to do. Brothers, we are drilling the death drill. I, a Xhosa, say you are my brothers. Swazis, Pondos, Basutos, we die like brothers. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war cries, brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais in the kraal, our voices are left with our bodies’ According to the story, the men then danced a Death Dance as the Mendi slipped beneath the waves, taking them with it . The loss of life on the Mendi is still South Africa’s single largest catastrophic loss of life and, in terms of World War I casualties, is only eclipsed by the losses (2536 men killed, wounded or missing) suffered by the South African Brigade during their engagement at Delville Wood on the Somme in July 1916 . In 2009 the wreck of the Mendi was designated as a Protected Place under the United Kingdom’s Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986. The importance of this protection lies not only in the recognition that the Mendi was on military service at the time of its loss, also in the recognition it implies that the men on board were ‘troops’. Although the story of the Mendi was, until relatively recently, largely unknown and forgotten in the UK, the men who died are commemorated at the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton . 2. COMMEMORATION IN SOUTH AFRICA In South Africa, commemorations of the loss of the Mendi became a rallying point in the black political struggle for freedom and equality both before and under the apartheid regime. Although remembrance of the event and its commemoration dwindled during the latter half of the twentieth century, since South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 the story of the Mendi has again come to feature strongly in public life and it is seen as a reflection or embodiment of the sacrifices made by black South Africans in their long fight for justice and political freedom and as a national symbol of unity, solidarity and bravery. Official annual commemorations of the event take place at Mendi memorials in different parts of South Africa. The event is also commemorated by a plaque installed at South Africa’s war memorial at Delville Wood in France in 1986 and in the more recent naming of two South African Navy vessels, the corvette SAS Mendi and the strike craft SAS Isaac Dyobha. South Africa's highest award for bravery is now named the Order of Mendi and is awarded by the President to South Africans who have performed extraordinary acts of bravery. Part of the commemoration of the Mendi in South Africa has also seen the naming of at least eleven streets for the ship across three provinces. The Mendi memorials in South Africa are relatively modern with none dating to the early years of commemoration of the sinking in South Africa. The lack of early memorials to the event is a reflection of the politics of post-World War I South Africa when the contribution of black South Africans to the war effort was consciously and actively ignored and downplayed by the white minority government of the time. The commemoration of the event centred instead on survivors of the Mendi and veterans of the SANLC, with whom there was a real and direct connection. The loss of this direct link with the event as the last survivors and veterans passed away, the dimming of the oral tradition associate with the Mendi with the passage of time, and the new post-1994 political dispensation in South Africa have seen a change in, and renaissance of the commemoration of the event, centred on physical memorials that have been erected around South Africa in the last two decades. These memorials may be viewed as physical embodiments of the oral traditions formerly associated with the commemoration of the Mendi. SAHRA has identified six memorials to the sinking of the Mendi in South Africa: • The Avalon Cemetery Memorial, Soweto; • The Ga-Mothakga Memorial, Atteridgeville; • The Libode Memorial, Mthatha; • The Mendi Road Memorial, New Brighton, Port Elizabeth; The Simon's Town Memorial, Simonstown; and • The University of Cape Town Memorial, Rosebank (Cape). South Africa’s Mendi memorials commemorate a particularly tragic event in South Africa's maritime and military history, but are also tangible links with a little known aspect of our 20th century history and of our involvement in World War I. In preparing to commemorate the 2107 Centenary of the loss of the Mendi, SAHRA wants to ensure that the men who died and also the larger contribution made by black South Africans in World War I are remembered. The declaration of one of the Mendi memorials, will provide a focus for such remembrance and commemoration, and highlight the importance of this event and what was associated with it into the future. These sites are each assessed below against the significance criteria set in section 3 (3) of the National Heritage Resource Act (No. 25 of 1999) (NHRA), to determine their heritage significance and propose a grading, with a view to identifying one of the memorials for declaration as a national heritage site as part of the commemoration of the centenary of the loss of the Mendi in February 2017. 3. LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK Section 3 (3) of the NHRA provides that a place is part of the national estate and thus eligible for declaration as a national heritage site if it has cultural significance or special value because of: • its importance in the community, or pattern of South Africa's history; • its possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of South Africa's natural or cultural heritage; • its potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of South Africa's natural or cultural heritage; • its importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of South Africa's natural or cultural places or objects; • its importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group; • its importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period; • its strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons; • its strong or special association with the life or work of a person, group or organisation of importance in the history of South Africa; or • it is a site of significance relating to the history of slavery in South Africa. • Section 27 (1) of the NHRA enjoins SAHRA to: • identify those places with qualities so exceptional that they are of special national significance; and • investigate the desirability of their declaration as national heritage sites. • Section 7 (1) of the NHRA states that Grade I heritage resources must possess qualities so exceptional that they are of special national significance. The grading criteria in Regulation 43 (May 2003) (Gazette No. 24893), further define a Grade I heritage resource as being “authentic in terms [of] design, worksmanship or setting; and [of] such universal value and symbolic importance that it can promote human understanding and contribute to nation building, and its loss would significantly diminish the national heritage”. In determining the grading of a heritage resource, section 7 (1) of the Act also requires that heritage authorities “assess the intrinsic, comparative and contextual significance of a heritage resource and the relative benefits and costs of its protection, so that the appropriate level of grading of the resource and the consequent responsibility for its management may be allocated”. 4. DESCRIPTION AND ASSESSMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MENDI MEMORIALS The Mendi memorials as a collective are significant as heritage resources because they are symbolic reminders of the lives lost on the Mendi in 1917, of the long ignored and forgotten history of the SANLC and the role played by black South Africans in World War I, and of the links of these events have to the Liberation Struggle in South Africa. As heritage resources they can thus promote nation building through a greater understanding among and between South Africans of some of the defining events and processes which shaped the modern history of our nation. The memorials also speak to the following themes identified by SAHRA in its Thematic Chart for national heritage sites: • Military sites – World War I; • Liberation Struggle – 20th century; • Sites associated with 20th century labour issues; • Sites and objects important to the maritime history of South Africa; • Sites associated with intangible or living heritage; and • Sites of importance for the 21st century. • The following is the description and assessment of the heritage significance of the Mendi memorial in Rosebank: The memorial at the University of Cape Town was designed by artist Madi Phala as part of a national completion sponsored by the Sunday Times and was erected in 2006. The memorial itself consists of ship's hull cast in steel, sinking into the ground. In front of it are bronze-cast helmets, hats, and discs, symbolising the Mendi's troops, officers, and crew. A plaque reads "SS Mendi, S. African troopship, sank next to the Isle of Wight 1917 02 21." In 2015, a wall of remembrance inscribed with the names of those lost on the Mendi was erected behind the sculpture and the memorial was rededicated at a ceremony on the anniversary of the sinking. The memorial is located at the southeast corner of the University of Cape Town’s soccer fields, which were formerly the Rosebank Showgrounds. In 1916 the showgrounds were turned into the national assembly camp and depot for the SANLC. It was at this camp that all the men enlisted in the corps from all over South Africa (and Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho) assembled, were kitted out and received their basic training, and from which they departed to Cape Town harbour to take ship to France. This site therefore not only has links to the men of the SANLC from the former Cape Province, but has a tangible connection to the SANLC, to all the men who served in the corps and to all the South Africans who died on the Mendi. In this respect it is unique among South Africa’s Mendi memorials. The memorial is used on an annual basis for parades to mark the anniversary of the loss of the Mendi. It will host the national centenary commemoration and parade in February 2017.