Alice Kinloch was a South African human rights activist, a public speaker, and a writer who co-founded the African Association in London in 1897, and was the inspiration for the Pan-African Conference in London in 1900. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Alice Victoria Alexander Kinloch was born in Cape Town, Cape Colony in 1863. Her family moved to Kimberley around the 1870s. In the month of June 1885, she married Edmund Ndosa Kinloch at St Cyprian's Church in Kimberley. [1] [3]
She travelled to the United Kingdom in 1895 and allied herself with the Aborigines Protection Society (APS), a leading abolitionist and human rights organization. As a representative of the APS, she spoke to large audiences in London, Newcastle, York, and Manchester. On platforms in Britain, she discussed conditions in South Africa. Her topic was the "ill treatment of the indigenous people throughout South Africa, particularly the Compound System found throughout the mining districts". [2] [3] [5]
Later, she published a pamphlet called "Are South African Diamonds Worth Their Cost?". As part of that report, she described conditions of life on mining compounds as "slave-like" and argued against pass laws in Natal. [1] [5] [6]
Kinloch formed the African Association in 1897 with aspirant lawyers Henry Sylvester Williams and Thomas John Thompson from Trinidad and Sierra Leone. As treasurer of the African Association, Kinloch returned to South Africa in February 1898 and, with the African Association, organized the first Pan-African Conference in 1900. [1] [2] [4] [6]
The very first modern humans are believed to have inhabited South Africa more than 100,000 years ago. In 1999, Unesco designated the region the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. South Africa's first known inhabitants have been referred to as the Khoisan, the Khwe and the San. Starting in about 1,000 BCE, these groups were then joined by the Bantu tribes who migrated from Western and Central Africa during what is known as the Bantu expansion.
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. Plaatje was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress (ANC). The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley, is named after him, as is the Sol Plaatje University in that city, which opened its doors in 2014.
Cecil John Rhodes was an English mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.
John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, known as the Lord Wodehouse from 1846 to 1866, was a British Liberal politician. He held office in every Liberal administration from 1852 to 1895, notably as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Foreign Secretary.
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town.
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization.
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe.
Barney Barnato, born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord and diamond magnate, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gold mining in South Africa from the 1870s up to World War I. He was known as a rival of Cecil Rhodes.
Sir Charles Patrick John Coghlan,, was a lawyer and politician who served as Premier of Southern Rhodesia from 1 October 1923 to his death. Having led the responsible government movement in the territory during the latter days of Company rule, he was Southern Rhodesia's first head of government after it became a self-governing colony within the British Empire.
The Kimberley Mine or Tim Kuilmine is an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the deepest hole excavated by hand, although this claim is disputed to Jagersfontein.
Henry Sylvester-Williams was a Trinidadian lawyer, activist, councillor and writer who was among the founders of the Pan-African movement.
The Mineral Revolution is a term used by historians to refer to the rapid industrialisation and economic changes which occurred in South Africa from the 1860s onwards. The Mineral Revolution was largely driven by the need to create a permanent workforce to work in the mining industry, and saw South Africa transformed from a patchwork of agrarian states to a unified, industrial nation. In political terms, the Mineral Revolution had a significant impact on diplomacy and military affairs. Finally, the policies and events of the Mineral Revolution had an increasingly negative impact on race relations in South Africa, and formed the basis of the apartheid system, which dominated South African society for a century. The Mineral Revolution was caused by the discovery of diamonds in Kimberly in 1867 and also by the discovery of gold in Witwatersrand in 1886. The mineral mining revolution laid the foundations of racial segregation and the control of white South Africans over black South Africans. The Mineral Revolution changed South Africa from being an agricultural society to becoming the largest gold producing country in the world.
Koffiefontein Mine is a diamond mine situated in the Free State province, about 80 km from Kimberley, South Africa. It is one of the many Kimberley mines of which Kimberley mine, de Beers mine, Dutoitspan, Bultfontein and Wesselton are its more famous neighbours.
Amy Ashwood Garvey was a Jamaican Pan-Africanist activist. She was a director of the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation, and along with her former husband Marcus Garvey she founded the Negro World newspaper.
Sister Henrietta, CSM and AA was a British nursing pioneer and Anglican religious sister. Through her influence and pressure the first state registration of nurses and midwives in the world was brought about when the Cape of Good Hope Medical and Pharmacy Act of 1891 passed into law. She was a member of the Anglican Community of St Michael and All Angels.
The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910.
Alice, Lady Harris was an English missionary and an early documentary photographer. Her photography helped to expose the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State under the regime of King Leopold II of the Belgians.
Francis Oats was a Cornish miner who became chairman of De Beers diamond company. He made extensive investments in the Cornish tin mining industry, which collapsed after he had died. He is known for Porthledden, a mansion he built at the tip of Cornwall.
The African Association, known as the Pan-African Association after 1900, was an organization formed by leaders of African descent to "promote and protect the interests of all subjects claiming African descent, wholly or in part, in British colonies and other place, especially Africa, by circulating accurate information on all subjects affecting their rights and privileges as subjects of the British Empire, by direct appeals to the Imperial and local Governments." Henry Sylvester Williams initiated the creation of the African Association, which was formalized on September 14, 1897, at its headquarters in London. The Association is best known for organizing the First Pan-African Conference, which took place in London in July 1900.
Henry Charles Hull was the first South African Minister of Finance when the Union of South Africa was formed in March 1910. He served in the first Louis Botha cabinet. He assisted in drafting of South Africa's first constitution. He was a lawyer, politician, and mining financier. He assisted in the formation of Anglo American plc.