Set in southern Namibia, Great Namaqualand, ‘Bittersweet Karas Home’ is the story of three families, the Hills, Walsers & Hartungs, whose lives merge and intertwine in a semi-arid land that presents both hardship and blessings. Over the next few months, we would like to share this bittersweet saga with you from the (as yet) unpublished book.
Returning to Vryburg to wars old and new (cont . . .)
Cyrus William could have returned to civilian life but he had no sweetheart to return to like his brother who had married during the war. In a letter he stated: ‘I am proud of my adopted country and if it is God’s will that I am not to come through this campaign, I only hope that when the time comes I will [die courageously]’. During the South West Africa Campaign he had experienced the camaraderie of the British and Boers and was proud to have been part of the first Entente Forces military victory of World War I. He admired the leadership of the generals, Smuts and Botha.
In 1914, East Africa seemed to have a chance to resist the war. Schnee and Conway Belfield, the governors of German and British East Africa, adhered to the Congo Act of 1885, which prescribed that overseas states remain neutral in European wars. But when the British navy attacked, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his 260 German soldiers and 2 472 African Askaris bypassed Governor Schnee, repelled the attack and engaged in a prolonged war of evasion and ambush in order to divert soldiers from the European theatre of war. The British Africanised the war, importing soldiers from many African countries and from India and the West Indies, also eventually allowing the Belgian-Congolese ‘Force Publique’ to participate.
Jan Smuts, intent on a quick victory, threw his South African, East African and Indian forces against Lettow-Vorbeck’s Schutztruppe. Lettow-Vorbeck engaged in a hit-and-run war, avoiding pitched battles and defeat. Cyrus William saw comrades killed, injured, suffering with dysentery, tick and blackwater fever, and repatriated. By September 1916, with Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces confined to the southern part of German East Africa, Smuts replaced his troops with the King’s African Rifles and joined the war effort in Europe. Cyrus was never incapacitated by sickness or injury and was indispensable enough to be kept at the front. He was transferred to the King’s African Rifles, which kept him in the line of fire, increasing the risk to his life.
In June 1917 he was posted to 1/4 King’s African Rifles, a Ugandan Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel WT Shorthose. Instead of the camaraderie of the South African force, it was now a cooperation of white officers like Cyrus with their African auxiliaries who supplied environmental expertise. In the quest for food and ammunition, the King’s African Rifles and the Germans moved to and fro between German and Portuguese East Africa, continually crossing the border river, Rovuma, with its treacherous currents. On 2 August, Walser’s reconnoitring column came into contact with an enemy patrol on the way to Tunduru. The two enemies engaged and Cyrus was killed in the crossfire.
Julia and Leslie Wilhelmina, who had become nurses at the Bulawayo Memorial Hospital, were confronted with the continual stream of wounded and infected soldiers that were ferried there. They seemed to be safe so far from the battlefields but Julia caught a strain of ‘Spanish flu’ and died on 8 January 1918. The deadly virus was thought to have developed in 1916 in Etaples, a military staging camp in Northern France close to a pork and poultry farm.
After the South West Africa Campaign, the Walser family returned to South West Africa. Carl built a house in Gapütz, which he named Walsersbrunn (Walsers’ well), and another house was added a year later. This softened the blow of returning to a world that had been ravaged by war. The name held the promise of a future. ‘Walsersbrunn was built between two golden waves of sand. After a storm the sand formed up against the walls and had to be carted away. The trees in front of the homestead gave the only shade for miles.
Hundreds of tiny birds lived in community nests in the branches and twittered before dawn every day. Owing to the shortage of timbers the ceilings of the house were made of calico, and bulged ominously when sand collected after each storm. Floors in the border farmhouses were made of gum mixed with desert sand, which produced a smooth, hard surface which glowed when polished with linseed oil.’
In 1917, the Ukamas farm complex showed all the signs of two wars having passed over it. Carl was glad when he could welcome his wife and two daughters at Walsersbrunn. The family was, however, still scattered all over the African continent and would lose the youngest son and a daughter. When the devastating news about Cyrus and Julia arrived, the parents in their grief wondered if they could have prevented it, if they should have left for Europe or if they should have stayed in Ukamas. Questions like these can never be answered and no-one remains the wiser as to the possibility of altering or avoiding one’s destiny.
(Join us every Sunday to take a step back in time and follow the interesting, sometimes sweet, sometimes heart-wrenching tale.)
.png)
SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT