By Tabisa Mntengwana
25 February 2009

BUFFALO City has a rich history. While it is steeped in the struggle against apartheid, its cultural legacy extends much further back in time, seen in its many heritage sites and memorials.

There are over 100 heritage sites in the city; these include the Sunday Times Heritage Project, the graves of anti-apartheid stalwart Steve Tshwete and human rights lawyers Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge, the Bhisho Massacre, the Xhosa Cattle Killing, and Lock Street Gaol.

A national initiative implemented by the Sunday Times newspaper, a number of memorial sites and statues have been erected across the country as part of the Sunday Times Heritage Project.

There are five in Buffalo City: the coelacanth, Happyboy Mgxaji and the story of boxing in East London, the Battle of Eastern Beach, the Nontetha Nkwenkwe statue, and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu statue.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered the coelacanth in 1938; up until then it was believed to have been extinct for 70 million years. She spotted an unusual fish on the deck of the trawler, Nerine, and had it stuffed to preserve it until it could be identified.

The fish was 1,5 metres in length and weighed a hefty 57,5 kilograms. It was identified as a coelacanth by Rhodes University chemistry lecturer and keen ichthyologist JLB Smith, who made it his mission to find another one.

The stuffed fish is at the East London Museum, Oxford Street.

Nkosana Happyboy Mgxaji became the first local boxing hero when he beat Durban fighter Moses Mthembu in a non-title fight. In 1973, Mgxaji won the South African Junior lightweight title.

Since then, boxing has been a popular sport in East London, which boasts at least 14 world champions and 46 South African champions. The story is written on a wall next to Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane.

Located at the ablution block at Eastern Beach, the Battle of Eastern Beach memorial tells the story of black people who, on New Year’s Day in 1986 came in numbers to the “whites only” Eastern Beach.

They swam, picnicked, played and occasionally toyi toyied.

This influenced other coastal cities and segregated beaches, an apartheid law, were scrapped in 1989.

The statue is situated at the King William’s Town magistrate’s court. Nkwenkwe was a prophetess who began having visions and preaching temperance after surviving the 1918 ‘flu epidemic.

She was committed to Fort Beaufort Mental Hospital for “medical observation”, but was moved to Weskoppies Hospital in Pretoria when the authorities feared that her behaviour would threaten white rule and the established churches.

Nkwenkwe died in Weskoppies in 1935; in 1998 her body was exhumed and returned to her home. The Church of Prophetess Nontetha still exists.

The statue is located in front of the East London City Hall. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), while he was listening to testimony from victims of apartheid atrocities, Tutu dropped his head in his hands and wept.

It was day two of the TRC hearings and former Robben Islander Singqokwana Malgas was describing his torture by security police.

Steve Tshwete, in his school days the head boy of Welsh High School in East London, was a well-known activist during the struggle.

He was imprisoned on Robben Island for some years, and went into exile after being released. He returned to South Africa after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

In post-apartheid South Africa, Tshwete worked in various government departments. He died while he was minister of safety and security.

His grave is at Peelton Mission in Peelton Location.

In Rhayi Location lies the grave of the well-known human rights lawyers Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge.

Griffiths Mxenge was banned and jailed on Robben Island. He died in 1981 after he was abducted by the Special Branch and stabbed to death.

His wife, Victoria Mxenge, was shot and hacked to death in front of her children in Umlazi, in Durban in 1985.

One of the most notorious massacres in the history of the South African liberation struggle, the Bhisho Massacre took place in 1992, when at least 60 000 members of the African National Congress confronted 500 black troops of the Ciskei homeland.

The Ciskei government had warned them not to cross the demarcated border but the throng, led by senior members of the South African Communist Party, walked straight into confrontation with the Ciskei army.

In all, 28 people were killed and hundreds were injured. The purpose of the march was to force Brigadier Oupa Gqozo to step down from power and abolish the Ciskei homeland, a self-rule product of apartheid.

The memorial is situated next to the Bhisho Stadium in Bhisho.

There is a mass grave, the final resting place of the victims of the cattle killing, at Edward Cemetery in King William’s Town.

In 1867, a young girl called Nongqawuse had a vision of a messenger from the realm of the ancestors at a waterhole, which she told to her uncle Mhlakaza. As Mhlakaza was an important Xhosa priest, his social rank gave great emphasis to the prophecy.

He announced that soldiers who were incarnations of the souls of dead Xhosa warriors would arrive from over the sea and come on to the land through the Hole in the Wall. They would defeat the hated British.

He advised the Xhosas to sacrifice all their cattle and cereal because after the victory there would be food in abundance for everyone. The catastrophe took its course and thousands of Xhosa people starved to death.

The British had an easy time conquering the remaining people.

Situated in Fleet Street in Quigney, the Lock Street Gaol was a women’s prison during the apartheid era and a number of activist women were incarcerated there.

The stone building, built in 1880, has a Georgian design and a high wall surrounding the complex. After serving the city for 100 years, the prison was closed in 1980. It was renovated in 1981.