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Samuel Masabalala

Samuel Masabalala - referred to as Masabela by Schreiner - was a black political and labour leader in South Africa, and prominent in the Cape Provincial Native Congress. In 1920 he led a series of municipal workers’ strikes at Port Elizabeth and was imprisoned as a result. When a group of black protestors gathered to demand his release, twenty-four of them were killed by the police and by white civilians. Schreiner described this killing as a “sort of Amritzar” in a November 1920 letter to Cronwright-Schreiner, and in the same month she explained to Betty Molteno, “We are collecting money for Mas-abela’s defense. The poor natives!”

 Recipient Of
no letters

 Mentioned In

 SCCS Edited Extracts: Four groups of edited extracts from Olive Schreiner's letters can be accessed from here, made by her estranged husband Cronwr... Show/Hide Collection Letters

 Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/532:…Masabala’s trial will come on on the second. It was a sort of Amritzar in Port Elizabeth, without the excuse for...

 University of Cape Town, Historical Manuscripts: Manuscripts & Archives at the University of Cape Town is a leading location for accessing archival papers across many per... Show/Hide Collection Letters

 Olive Schreiner BC16/Box7/Fold4/Mar-Dec1920/36:My darling Betty, No line from you this week. But it is good of you to write as often as you do., You don’t know how pr...