I recently joined an outing arranged by a Facebook contact, posting heritage messages under the title of 'Springs – History of a Gold Town', to this historical and well-maintained military cemetery, named Palmietkuil, after the gold mine previously operating nearby. This cemetery is the final resting place of 217 members of the South African Native Military Corps (NMC). Incidentally, translated ‘Palmietkuil’ means clump of bulrush pool.
It was interesting to hear most of the mainly White locals who attended, admitting to not having previously visited, or even being aware of this historic military cemetery.
Perhaps it was because of two reasons – Firstly, situated on farmland on the western outskirts of Springs, the cemetery is not easily accessible or visible unless one is familiar with the area. Secondly, because of this country’s controversial history, the contributions of the Cape Corps (CC) and NMC during the World Wars, were either ignored or downplayed.
Until the 1994 publication of The Unknown Force – Black, Indian and Coloured Soldiers Through Two World Wars, by General Ian Gleeson, there was little reporting in the popular South African military publications of the contribution to Allied victory by the approximately 80 000 Black South Africans, who served in a wide variety of mainly non-combatant roles during the Second World War.
The recruitment of Black soldiers upon the outbreak of this war, was deferred because of political dissension and fears articulated by the business sector that this would negatively impact the availability of Black workers for...
