Bubonic Plague and a South African 'Township'

Yersinia pestis or: the dyschromatopsic flea Adam Yamey, PhD, BDS, LDS, RCS (Eng) Invisible invaders When the Boer forces, provoked by the British, started invading the Cape Colony in 1899, another invasion, covert in nature, was also beginning to threaten the area. The hidden enemy, a bacterium, lives in the blood of fleas and the rats (and other rodents) whose blood they ingest. These fleas are also partial to feeding off the blood of humans. When an infected flea feeds off the blood of a susceptible human, that person runs the risk of developing an often fatal1 illness known as ‘bubonic plague’. When my great-grandfather Councillor Franz Ginsberg (1862-1933) was serving on the Borough Council of King William’s Town in 1899, little was known about the transmission of the plague, even in the scientific world, except that its causative agent was the bacterium Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis). This ‘bug’ is named after one of its discoverers Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943).2 The main thing that Ginsberg and his fellow councillors knew was that their town should be put on alert, as the plague was quite likely to make an unwelcome visitation there. This article describes the reactions of the town councillors to the threat of plague, the precautions that they deemed to be important in preventing its arrival, and some of the consequences of their actions. Pestilent fleas Today, much is known about the mechanism of transmission of Y. pestis.3 Bubonic plague is an example of a zoonosis: a disease that normally exists in other animals, but also infects humans.4 The danger to humans is that the bacterium is carried in the blood of certain kinds of rat, and that these rats often live in close proximity to humans. The rats serve as a mobile reservoir for this pest, but they are susceptible to its ill-effects. When a flea bites an infected rat, it ingests the blood of the rat and some of the bacteria living in it and the bacteria multiply within the flea’s digestive tract, causing considerable harm to the flea itself. If this same flea should bite a human, the human victim will receive some of the bacteria from the flea because the flea, while feeding, regurgitates some of its Yersinia-infected stomach contents into its human victim, who may then begin to exhibit the symptoms of bubonic plague. The plague can produce numbers of victims in epidemic or pandemic proportions. The Black Death, also known as ‘The Second Pandemic’, killed between one third and one half of the population of Europe and Asia between 1347 and 1351. It is thought by some to have been a pandemic of (bacterial) bubonic plague but others feel that it was a viral infection.5 The ‘Third Pandemic’6 began in China’s Yunnan Province in 1855, and is known to have been caused by Y.pestis. Its dissemination around the world in the decades that followed was facilitated by global shipping. Rats and their fleas were frequent stowaways on ships, and as infected rats moved from port to port so did the bubonic plague. An unwelcome import In September 1896, the bubonic plague reached India (most probably from Hong Kong) and had claimed its first of many victims in the port of Bombay.7 News of the plague spread faster that the plague itself. In 1896, the Natal Medical Council discussed the bubonic plague – by then well-established in India – and its relevance to Natal. The Council decided that the whole of India should be regarded as an infected area, and that all ships entering the ports on the coast of Natal should be quarantined.8 In January 1897, an anti-Indian demonstration was held in Durban to protest against the landing of ‘asiatics’ on board two Indian-owned ships which arrived there in mid-December 1896. The ships had been held in quarantine for 25 days.9 A group of Indians in Durban, including Mohanlal K Ghandi (later to be known as ‘Mahatma Gandhi’) who had just arrived in Durban on one of these two ships, the ‘Courland’, sent a long ‘memorial’ protesting against this to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London. Its authors shrewdly noted: ‘ … that the quarantine was more a political move against the Indians than a safeguard against the introduction of the bubonic plague into the Colony’, and they provided evidence that the measures taken to effect quarantine were done ineffectively and too late to have been of any practical use.10 Despite measures such as these, bubonic plague reached South Africa sometime between 189911 and 1901.12 The Natal medical community had some grounds for its fears that the plague might arrive from India. At a meeting of the Borough Council of King William’s Town in February 1899,13 it was announced that the bubonic plague had arrived in Port Louis on the island of Mauritius (a place that ships sailing from India to South Africa may have visited occasionally), and the Council had received a letter from the Town Office of Port Elizabeth, asking for the support of King William’s Town in their request for the government to enforce quarantine regulations (the Transvaal and Orange Free State prohibited entry to Indians in early 1899).14 My great-grandfather, Franz Ginsberg, moved that the Council of his town should cooperate with that of Port Elizabeth. Although fear of importing the dreaded plague was the cause of an anti-Indian demonstration in this port as early as about 1897, the disease only began to occur in the town in April 190115 – soon after its arrival in grand style in Cape Town in March 1900 (having possibly arrived on board a ship from plague infested Rosario in Argentina).16 As early as November 1900, a doctor in King William’s Town reported eight cases of bubonic plague amongst Africans, three of these leading to death.17 By early 1901, the inhabitants of King William’s Town had good reason to worry about the plague. Rats and rates In February of 1901, the Borough Council received a letter from the Colonial Secretary. It suggested that an outbreak of disease at Izinyoka, near the town, was not bubonic plague. In a Council meeting,18 Franz Ginsberg pointed out that there was a peculiar sentence in the letter in which its writer said that he would make further investigation and send someone else to the area. Ginsberg asked how was that further investigation was necessary if there was no question that the disease was plague. He was confused by the letter. As if they did not have enough worries about the plague threatening the town as well as the war going on nearby, Ginsberg pointed out in the same meeting that there was an infestation of locusts in the Orange Free State, and that this was likely to lead to an infestation in the district. Life was not easy in early 20th century South Africa! Two weeks later, at the Borough Council meeting, Ginsberg asked whether it would not be desirable for the Council to consider the extermination of rats in the town, in view of the outbreak of bubonic plague in Cape Town. He reported that other municipalities were beginning to deal with rats.19 My great-grandfather correctly associated rats with bubonic plague, but did not know that his proposal might have had dire consequences, as the disease had already reached the town. The proposed extermination could have been counter-productive and even quite hazardous; it is now known that reducing the rat population deprives the bacterium carrying fleas of one of its hosts and makes the human a relatively more attractive source of food to the hungry, infected fleas.20 Nevertheless, the Council proceeded to plan the extermination of the rats. In early March 1901, the Sanitary Committee of the town suggested that the Council should offer 3 pence for every rat destroyed. Councillor Yates pointed out that destruction of rats should not be left to individuals, but should be organised by the Council. He suggested that if they paid 3 pence per rat, they might even find people breeding them! Ginsberg said that he agreed with Mr Yates to a certain extent but he felt that the chief work of rat destruction should be carried out by individuals. How, he asked, were they (i.e. agents of the Borough Council) going to enter private houses? My great-grandfather said: ‘Let us do that, but even with the danger of people breeding rats, offer 3d. a piece for them. Who would bring them to the Council? Only very poor people. The majority would catch rats, or endeavour to do so and would not trouble about the 3d. per head’.21 His suggestion was designed to save the town from unnecessary extra expenditure as well as from the risk of plague. Sanitary separation Catching rats was one approach to limiting the spread of the disease. The segregation of the ‘native’ population from the European was another procedure that was considered necessary. It was even less relevant to disease control than killing rats – and was a symptom of other rather sinister intentions. Many public health administrators believed then that not only were poorer people more susceptible to the disease, but also that they were more likely to cause its spread. In many places, the poorer inhabitants, often non-European in ethnicity, were isolated from the rest of the population either by means of a cordon sanitaire as in Porto (Portugal) in 1899,22 or by means of moving them, and/or those who had been in contact with victims, to a new, often insalubrious location as was attempted in Honolulu.23 The latter approach was that adopted in South Africa. On 16 May 1901, the Sanitary Committee of the King Borough Council met the town’s medical practitioners to discuss methods of limiting the bubonic plague.24 During a discussion of the ‘natives’ and their overcrowding in town, the Sanitary Inspector noted that there had been several convictions obtained for overcrowding. Dr Brownlee asked: ‘ … are you empowered to prevent any Natives from sleeping in town?’ The Chairman of the Committee (Councillor Behr) answered: ‘Not at present but Dr Smartt assured us that there would be no difficulty getting the power when the huts were completed’. The huts to which Councillor Behr referred were those in a new ‘location’ being built near King. The term ‘location’ was used to denote an area of a town, rather like a ghetto, where ‘blacks’ and other non-Europeans could live separated from the European community. The building of ‘locations’ was an early stage in the evolution of racial segregation in South Africa that culminated in its ultimate refinement – apartheid. Although the prevention of bubonic plague was not the only reason for building locations, it provided yet another justification for encouraging segregation in the minds of the white administrators. Keith Tankard points out that the original idea of segregated locations originated in the Eastern Cape in towns such as East London and King William’s Town, both of which had been building them even before bubonic plague had reached the shores of South Africa. He describes the effect of the bubonic plague on encouraging segregation as part of the ‘sanitation syndrome’. He wrote: ‘The “sanitation syndrome” was indeed important in galvanising towns like Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and King Williamstown into establishing segregated “locations” far outside the urban limits’.25 Franz Ginsberg was in accord with the concept of locations, but was concerned that the natives who lived there should do so in comfort and with dignity. Of the new location, mentioned above, he said: ‘… We are going to make it so comfortable for the Natives in the locations and so cheap that I am sure that in a very short time every native will be glad to go to the location. I understand that at present the general price is 2s. 6d. per week per man, that is 10s. per month. It is an enormous rent when you consider that 10 or 20 people sleep in one little shanty. We propose to charge 10s. per month per hut including a plot of ground with the proviso that only a limited number, say six, will be allowed to sleep in the huts. That would mean only 1s. 6d. or 1s. 7d. per man per month, which is naturally a great inducement for Natives to go out of town’. At that same meeting, Dr Gutsche then asked: ‘Would it be possible to separate white and black passengers on the railway platforms on arrival of the trains?’ Did he know, or suspect that the railway was an important mode of transmission of the plague from town to town in South Africa, or were his motives less honourable? Karl S Kruszelnicki, writing in 2003, pointed out that the bubonic plague in South Africa ‘ … travelled at only 20 kilometres per year, and that was with the help of steam trains’,26 and thus provides a medical basis for Gutsche’s query. And King is only sixty kilometres from the nearest port, East London where the plague broke out in 1903.27 The Chairman said that they would ask the stationmaster to see if anything could be done about the matter. Councillor Eirwood pointed out that there was already a platform for ‘natives’ and that they should go there. Thus, fear of illness was another weapon in the hands of the proponents of segregation. A township called Ginsberg Twelve days after the meeting of the medical practitioners, my great-grandfather Franz Ginsberg reported to the Borough Council meeting that a dazed rat had been found in the town’s Catherine Street.28 The appearance of diseased or dead rats was often prescient of the outbreak of bubonic plague.29 Fortunately, Ginsberg was able to report that following dissection by Dr Montgomery, the rat was found to be free of disease. Six months later, the local newspaper produced a description of the newly opened native location.30 After confirming the desirability of separating the dwellings of ‘white’ people from those of ‘coloured’ people, the paper continues: ‘For some considerable time past there have been resident within the town itself a large number of coloured31 people, and the advent of Bubonic Plague in the Colony made better housing of these people a matter of graver importance than even before. The Borough Council considered the matter in this light – hence the New Location’. It was adjacent to the Tsolo Location, on its northern side. The paper continued: ‘It has 50 huts, wattle and daub with thatched roofs, but with a striking improvement in the matter of doors and windows, each hut being furnished with a door 5 ft. by 2ft. 6 in. and two glazed windows 2 ft. square. The huts are 17 ft. in diameter with 6-ft. walls, the height to the centre of the roof being 10 ft. …’ The description continues in this vein, and ends by saying: ‘There is only one thing wanting to complete the establishment of the location and that is its name’. This was decided at a Council meeting less than two months later, when Councillor McIntyre moved that in view of the active part taken by Mr Ginsberg in the planning and building of the location, it should be named ‘Ginsberg’s Location’. This suggestion was greeted with applause, and the motion was agreed.32 To this day ‘Ginsberg’ has remained the name of this African township (the name ‘township’ has replaced the older term ‘location’) just across the Buffalo River, not far from the site of my great-grandfather’s soap and candle factory. Plague in King William’s Town The campaign against rats continued to be pursued in 1902. The ‘natives’ were not as happy with their new ‘location’ as my great-grandfather and his fellow councillors would have hoped – the tenants found that the kitchens were too small, and they objected to having to pay an additional fee to use them.33 Another case of bubonic plague was detected in March 1903, but did not create much of a stir in the local newspaper.34 The old Market Building was closed down the following month because of the bubonic plague. Indeed, 1903 saw the town’s highest incidence of plague sufferers. Of the 33 people who contracted the disease that year, 45% of them did not survive.35 Hearing the news that bubonic plague had reached Johannesburg in the Transvaal in 1904,36 Councillor Ginsberg, having recently returned from a long trip to Germany, emphasised the need for the inhabitants to keep their places clean. Some places were being cleared and rats were being found. He emphasised the importance of cleanliness to avoid giving shelter to rats. He now believed that they were more important in the spread of the infection than humans.37 In May 1905, the plague was still claiming victims, and Councillor Salamon, a brother-in-law of Franz Ginsberg, asked at a Council meeting for information about the quarantining of Europeans who had come into contact with patients.38 As with many of the other precautions taken to prevent plague during the Third Pandemic, the use of quarantine was of little or no value, as humans are not vectors of bubonic plague.39 In May 1907, the Mercury reported two more ‘black’ victims were discovered in the town, and a few days following this, a small ‘white’ girl was also stricken with the plague.40 Between 1903 and 1907, of the 66 people known to have contracted the plague, 27 of them were ‘white’.41 This shows that the bubonic plague was not confined to non-Europeans, as seems to have been the concern of many of the city’s elders – it did not only cause ‘black’ deaths. The infected fleas were colour-blind, unlike the town’s councillors! A martyr’s home Although the idea of building ‘locations’ predated the arrival of bubonic plague in the Cape Colony, it certainly provided yet another justification for racial segregation in the minds of those who were in favour of it. Ginsberg Township, named in honour of my great-grandfather, Franz Ginsberg, is today remembered not for the medical condition that may have spurred on its formation but for a student of medicine who became a martyr in the fight against apartheid – Steve Biko.42 Today, Ginsberg Township is a place of pilgrimage as it was Biko’s home for many years,43 and the place where he was kept under house-arrest in 1973. Biko died in the custody of the South African police in 1977. We visited the township of Ginsberg as guests of the Steve Biko Foundation, and were taken to see the house where Biko was held under a banning order. We were privileged to be shown around Biko’s home by his older brother Khaya who told us that he had caddied for one of Councillor Franz Ginsberg’s grandsons when he used to play golf. When, later, we visited Biko’s grave in Ginsberg’s Cemetery, on the edge of the township, we were surprised to see that his grave stone was covered with small pebbles, just as is the case of graves in Jewish cemeteries. We were told that it is a Xhosa custom, and mark of respect, for those who were not present at the funeral to place a pebble on the grave of someone whose grave they are visiting. But … I am deviating from the bubonic plague. Was destruction of rats really a help in fighting the spread of plague in King William’s Town? Did separation of people with differing skin colour make any difference to the colour-blind, infected fleas when they took a bite? Given what is now known about the complex nature of the transmission of the bacterium Y. pestis, supported by the evidence presented above, the answer must be ‘no’. References: 1 The risk of death from bubonic plague has been reduced since the development of antibiotics such as streptomycin and gentamycin(see:http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/healthscience/healthtopics/plague/treatment.htm ). 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Yersin and http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/archives/yer0.html . The other discover of the causative agent of bubonic plague was Kitasato Shibasaburō (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibasaburo_Kitasato ). 3 For a lucid account of the complex mode of transmission of Y. pestis, see Echenberg, M. 2007. Plague Ports. New York University Press: New York. 4 Definition from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis . 5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death#Bubonic_plague_theory. 6 See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Pandemic. 7 Echenberg. p 47 et seq. 8 Laidler, PW, Gelfand, M. 1971. South Africa its Medical History 1652-1898. C Struik: Cape Town. p 439. 9 Ghandi, A & S. 2000. The untold story of Kasturba - Wife of Mahatma Ghandi. Jaico: Mumbai. p 75. 10 Memorial to Secretary of State for the Colonies, March 15, 1897, (reproduced in http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL002.PDF ) 11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Pandemic . 12 1901 is more the more likely date. Echenberg. Chapter 10. 13 Meeting described in the Cape Mercury (referred as the Mercury) dated 23 February 1899. 14 http://www.gandhiserve.org/correspondence/1899.html . 15 http://www.madibabay.co.za/page.php?id=33&subid=48 . 16 Echenberg. pp 270, 292, 298. 17 Echenberg. p 271. 18 Mercury. 6 February, 1901. 19 Mercury. 20 February, 1901. 20 Echenberg, p 62. 21 Mercury. 6 March, 1901. 22 Echenberg. p 112. 23 Echenberg. p 195. 24 Mercury. 17 May 1901. 25 Tankard, K. 1996. The Establishment of a ‘Native Vigilance Association’ at East London (South Africa) to protect the interests of the Black Community against social manipulation by the local municipality, 1890-1923. (http://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers96/native.html). 26 http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s662193.htm. The transmission of plague by rail is also described in Molefi, RKK. 2001. Of rats, fleas, and peoples: towards a history of bubonic plague in southern Africa, 1890-1950. Botswana Journal of African Studies. 15 (2). 27 Tankard, K. Article in http://www.knowledge4africa.co.za/worldhistory/black-death01.htm . 28 Mercury. 29 May 1901. 29 Echenberg. pp 98-99. 30 Mercury. 15 November 1901. 31 The word ‘coloured’ in apartheid South Africa and before that period usually referred to ‘people of mixed descent, including a varying admixture of Khoisan, Malay, African and/or European people’. Victor, S.(2007) Segregated housing and contested identities: the case of the King William’s Town coloured community, 1895-1946. MA thesis, Rhodes University, South Africa. However, in this particular quotation, the term ‘coloured’ referred to all people of colour, including Xhosa-speakers and so-called coloured people of mixed descent. In the ‘Rainbow Nation’, description of peoples’ skin colours is fraught with semantic difficulties. 32 Mercury. 8 January 1902. 33 Mercury. 17 September 1902. 34 Mercury. 9 March 1903. 35 Figures from Caldwell, Sharon. DATE NOT KNOWN TO ME The course and results of the plague in King. Honours thesis, UNISA, details of which were kindly sent to me by Stephanie Victor in King. 36 http://wiserweb.wits.ac.za/conf2003/social.htm and Echenberg. p 298. 37 Mercury. 23 March 1904. 38 Mercury. 17 May 1905. 39 Echenberg. p 252. 40 Mercury. 2 & 6 May 1907 41 Caldwell’s figures. 42 For brief biographical details, see Woods, D. 1979. Biko. Penguin Books: London. 43 Steve Biko was born in Tylden, Eastern Cape (see: http://www.picador.co.za/authors.php#b). Stephanie Victor relates that in 1949 the family moved to King William’s Town, where his mother worked for the Superintendent of Ginsberg Township.