Ward 2 Development Forum

Bisani

Properties3
descriptionCommandant among the rebel burghers of Swellendam in 1795, called Bisani or Pisani. On 29 July 1795 his order drove the missionaries from Baviaanskloof. By late August he was in prison at the Cape.
tagstheme/heritage, lang/en
aliasesPisani, Commandant Bisani, Commandant Pisani

7 min read

Bisani, also written Pisani, was a commandant among the rebel burghers of Swellendam who rose against the Dutch East India Company in 1795 [MS]. On 29 July 1795 an order in his name told the missionaries at Baviaanskloof, now Genadendal, to leave within three days, and they went to Cape Town [MS]. He is part of the valley’s story because his order drove the missionaries from the mission in its first years. Almost everything known about him in the valley comes from the missionaries’ diaries, which were written by the people he drove out.

What the letters in square brackets mean

Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.

  • [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
  • [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian records, above all the missionaries’ diaries. On this page they describe a man who acted against the mission, so they are one side’s account.
  • [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.

The diary passages

The facts from the diaries come from new English translations in the Genadendal Diaries repository. They are machine translations that no person has checked yet. Each passage is cited by its Utrecht file number and line numbers. See The Genadendal Diaries.

At a glance

BornNot known
DiedNot known
Known forOrdering the missionaries to leave Baviaanskloof in July 1795 [MS]
Link to the valleyA leader of the Swellendam revolt, whose order emptied the mission of its teachers for about two weeks [MS]

The Swellendam revolt

On 17 and 18 June 1795 burghers of Swellendam drove out their Landdrost, Anthonie Faure, and began to call themselves “national burghers”, after the style of the French Revolution [IC]. The Diaries call them the Nationals [MS]. Their grievances included the company’s taxes and a ban on registering Khoekhoe children on the farms [TBV].

The Nationals were angry about the school at Baviaanskloof. In July 1795 the missionaries heard that the rebels complained that the school drew Khoekhoe workers away from their farms: “Who is to do our work for us? For we have no slaves” [MS]. A local history names Pisani, with Petrus Delport, as the two main leaders of the revolt [TBV].

Diaries: A363596, lines 1830 to 1868

The order of 29 July 1795

On the evening of 29 July 1795 two friends of the mission, Holzhäuser and Hendrik Welksel, rode to Baviaanskloof. They brought an order from Commandant Bisani: within three days the missionaries must leave and go to Cape Town or to a burgher’s farm, “otherwise you have bad consequences to expect” [MS]. A commando of eight men had brought the order to them [MS]. The missionaries heard that Bisani was moving with 800 men behind the mountains towards the Cape [MS].

That night Kühnel rode to Baas Teunis at the company post of Soetemelksvlei for advice. Teunis told him to obey, because “might goes before right”, and sent a wagon to keep the mission’s goods at his own place [MS]. On 30 July the missionaries left. They asked some of the baptised to stay in their house and look after the garden, and many of the mission’s people ran after them for an hour on the road [MS].

Diaries: A363596, lines 2050 to 2146

Disowned and imprisoned

In Cape Town on 4 August, Commissioner Abraham Josias Sluysken told the missionaries he was astonished at Bisani’s presumption, but that they had done well to obey [MS]. Officials told them that Bisani had “deserved the gallows more than once” [MS].

The next day a commander of the Nationals named Van der Wad, who had come to Cape Town to negotiate with the government, sent for the missionaries. He told them: “This Bisani we do not recognise as a commander among us”, and promised that they could go home without fear [MS]. He named the real commandant of the Nationals as La Bort, perhaps Petrus Delport [TBV]. On 7 August Sluysken told the missionaries they could go home [MS].

On 25 August the missionaries heard that Bisani was in prison at the Cape, with his secretary and adjutant [MS]. One local history says the leaders of the revolt, Delport and Pisani, were later arrested and deported to the Netherlands [TBV].

Diaries: A363596, lines 2199 to 2270 and 2371 to 2381

What he is said to have said

In October 1795 the missionaries were told what Bisani was supposed to have said when he drove them away: “These people give the right teaching of the true Jesus, and they lead the Hottentots the right way; but I am the devil’s once and for all and must be lost, so I will use every means to keep the gospel from being preached to the Hottentots” [MS]. The missionaries recorded this as a report they had heard, and it has not been confirmed. The Dutch copy of the diary words the first part differently: “The Brothers have the right teaching” [MS].

Diaries: A363596, lines 2557 to 2594; A363349, lines 11154 to 11187

How to read his story

Bisani appears in the diaries only through what the missionaries heard about him from friends, officials, and a rival rebel leader. None of them was on his side. What he wanted, and why he singled out the mission, is known only through their words. The Nationals’ wider anger at the school, that it drew Khoekhoe workers away from the farms, is recorded separately and does not name him.

His legacy in the valley

The missionaries were away from Baviaanskloof for about two weeks [MS]. After the British took the Cape in September 1795, the mission was allowed to build, and it grew quickly [IC]. See The Valley Through TIME.

What is still open

  • His full name, and when he was born and died. A genealogy website lists a Louis Almoro du Pisani (1764 to 1795), but whether he is the same man has not been checked.
  • Whether he was deported, as one local history says, and what became of him.
  • Whether the Nationals of Swellendam had given him the authority he claimed, or whether he acted on his own, as Van der Wad said.
  • What the company’s records of his arrest and trial say.

References

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