Petition Handed to Colonial Secretary Chamberlain (c.1903)

By D. C. Boonzaier. 
Daniël Cornelis Boonzaier (11 November 1865 – 20 March 1950).

Original pen and ink sketch.

February 1903, Chamberlain met with Boer leaders and the Afrikaner Bond. Jan Smuts handed over a petition to Chamberlain which set out the Boers’ wishes, Smuts said: ‘It is said that we do not wish to cooperate. That is not so. Our interests are so firmly tied to the country that we cannot stand aside. We must work together for the country's good. It is, however, our desire that this cooperation should rest on a proper basis, that of confidence and respect.’

Characters depicted are: Sammy Marks; General Jan Smuts; Colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain; General de Wet and General de la Rey.

The artist was a South African cartoonist. He was famous for his caricatures of Cape politicians and celebrities at the turn of the century, and later for his anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist cartoons for Die Burger. He fathered the artist Gregoire Boonzaier. In 1903 Boonzaier was hired by The South Africa News, becoming South Africa's first full-time newspaper cartoonist.

280mm x 380mm

R5,000