page_title: Joseph Orpen
section_title: Politics in the Cape Colony
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Orpen / Politics in the Cape Colony
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of Southern Africa in 1878
context_page_description: Joseph Millerd Orpen was an influential colonial administrator for the British empire in southern Africa, as well as a local member of the Cape Parliament and the Orange Free State Volksraad. In addition, he was a self-taught anthropologist and a student of indigenous southern African cultures.
context_section_description: Orpen moved to the Cape Colony in the early 1860s. He worked again as a surveyor in the region of Aliwal North, and was commissioned by the British Imperial Government to travel to the seat of government of the Basotho King, Moshesh, in 1862. As Resident Magistrate he facilitated the annexation of Basutoland to the British Empire soon afterwards. 
  In 1872 he was elected to the Cape Parliament to represent the district of Queenstown. 
  Under its new system of "Responsible Government", the Cape had just wrested a degree of independence from the British Empire. The first Cape Prime Minister John Molteno, having brought all three branches of government under local control, embarked on a policy of slowing territorial expansion, so as to concentrate on internal development of the country.
  However Orpen was commissioned by the British Imperial Colonial Office, which still maintained a degree of control over the Cape, to oversee the expansion of British territory in southern Africa. British policy conflicted somewhat with that of the Cape Colony, and Orpen managed the focal point of that disagreement. The British policy at the time was to annexe the remaining independent African states, and persuade a reluctant Cape Colony to take them on, with the idea of eventually bringing the whole region into a British ruled Confederation. This put great pressure on the Cape government.
  Orpen was an enthusiastic expansionist. He focused his attention on annexing to the British Empire, by peaceful means, the territories that lay between the Cape and Natal, extensive Xhosa tribal lands that comprise most of what was later to be known as the Transkei. While he disavowed violence as a means, favouring treaties, he nonetheless believed that British rule was in the best interests of all inhabitants of southern Africa. He was appointed British Resident and Chief Magistrate. 
  He served as British Civil Commissioner for Griqualand West (1871–1873) and as British Resident for Nomansland (in Kokstad), Griqualand East (1873–1875). 
  As the "Agent" of the British Governor, he was sent to raise and lead an army into Basutoland (then a part of the Cape Colony) in 1873, to apprehend and capture the rebellious Chief Langalibalele who had fled there from Natal.
  In 1878 the Cape Colony government came into conflict with the British Governor, who overthrew its elected government to take direct control and force the Confederation plan onto the sub-continent. At around this time, Orpen left the service of the British Governor, and returned to the Cape Parliament to serve as an MP. He also reverted to his work as a surveyor. 
  The Confederation scheme collapsed, as had been predicted, leaving a trail of destructive wars across southern Africa, that culminated in the first Anglo-Boer War.
  In 1897 he retired and moved to Rhodesia as Surveyor General and became the territory's Minister of Lands and Agriculture.
  In later life he was a strong opponent of the Union of South Africa, claiming it would be immensely damaging. He was also a strong opponent of the moves to restrict the political rights of Black South Africans.
caption: Southern Africa in 1878, on the eve of the Confederation Wars.
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