Heroes and martyrs remebered

Striking miners, union leaders and rich Randlords end up sharing common ground in death at Brixton Cemetery, which holds their graves of the city founders.
WITH its mix of many religions, colours and elegant tombstones, the Brixton Cemetery in Brixton is arguably one of Johannesburg’s more intriguing burial grounds.

Old age cemetery: Brixton CemeteryA mix of many religions: Brixton CemeteryJohannesburg City Parks, the custodians of parks, cemeteries, open spaces and conservation areas, describes it as “an old world cemetery” with its religious mix, large leafy trees and interesting stories of the famous and infamous buried there.

When the population of early Joburg tripled in size over six short years, the existing cemetery quickly filled and new space was needed. For a brief period the Brixton Cemetery was known as the “New Cemetery” until its first burial in 1912.

Bordered by Krause Street, Caroline Street Extension and Brixton Drive, it is a historically significant site and the final resting place for people such as Mary Fitzgerald, the union leader and previous deputy mayor; Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma, the former president-general of the ANC; the victims of Daisy de Melker, the convicted murderess and the second woman to have been hanged in South Africa; and many more.

Randlord Lionel Phillips was buried in Brixton in the early 1900s, as was his wife, Lady Florence, who established the art collection that became the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The couple was known for an extravagant lifestyle and generosity, notes City Parks in its “Cemeteries and Crematoria” handbook.

It states: “Lionel Phillips served on the committee of the Rand Regiments Memorial, which built and paid for the Angel of Peace sculpture standing above the South African Military Museum at the Johannesburg Zoo.”

They are not the only Randlords lying here. Sir George Albu, who established the mining house that became Billiton, is also buried at the Brixton Cemetery.

Union
One of the older graves at the cemeteryOne of the older graves at the cemeterySharing the space are warriors for the working class. Fitzgerald, after whom the square in Newtown is named, was a union leader and Joburg’s deputy mayor in 1915. Known as “Pickhandle Mary”, she was an avid union organiser during the strikes of the early 20th century.

She was the first woman to hold public office in the city, taking up her duties at the time when women did not have the vote in South Africa. Her grave lies on Mayor’s Row.

After he was executed on 17 November 1922, more than 10 000 people attended the funeral of miner Samuel “Taffy” Long in Brixton, notes City Parks. He was hanged for killing a shopkeeper who blew the whistle on the Fordsburg strikers during the bloody Miners’ Strike of 1922, and many believe he was wrongfully charged with the crime.

“His death was symbolic of the tensions between Afrikaners and English at the time,” says City Parks.

The inscription on his stone reads: “On the way to the gallows, he sang with his comrades, then raise the scarlet standard high, within its shade we’ll live or die, though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we’ll keep the red flag flying here, buried with honour and affection, by his fellow workers. My conscience shall never convict me, he said with his dying breath. May God in his heaven speed the freedom, for which I am sentenced to death.”

Indeed, at one time, Brixton was the site of May Day communist rallies, where workers would gather to pay their respects to the strike martyrs of 1922.

War memorial
A war memorialA war memorialThere are other memorials here: near the main entrance, there is a war monument that commemorates South Africans who died in the First World War. There is also a First World War monument in memory of the South African Scottish Regiment. This cemetery also holds many war graves from throughout South African’s history.

Politics, too, has left its mark on Brixton Cemetery. There is a section of the graveyard that holds the remains of many passive resistance fighters.

Xuma, who ran a surgery named Empilweni, meaning “health” in Toby Street in Sophiatown in 1927, is known for his contribution to the ANC during his presidency, from 1939 to 1949. He even served as an unofficial delegate to the United Nations in 1946.

He was buried at the Brixton Cemetery in 1962. The hand of Mahatma Gandhi can be seen here too.

Regarding the crematorium, City Parks states: “Gandhi played a role in the building of the first Hindu crematorium in Johannesburg, and the first in Africa … In 1908, Gandhi was approached to help find a suitable plot for a crematorium. He negotiated with the town council and land in the Brixton Cemetery was allocated for the purpose.”

Yet it was only after he had left the country that the wood-burning crematorium was built in 1918. It still stands today, although a brick gas-fire crematorium was built in 1956 to take over its duties. It is still used today.

The Brixton Cemetery is one of the three cemeteries in the city to have crematoria. The others are Braamfontein and Lenasia.

City Parks explains: “The list grows longer, the stories continue. Brixton is the resting place for many beloved, and some unknown. While the cemetery is mostly full, there remain spaces reserved for family graves, and room for more history to be made in Johannesburg.”