Italians in the History of South Africa

La Gazzetta del Sud Africa

Martedì, 28 Marzo 2006

Italians in the History of South Africa

Guido Raffaele Monzali

At fourteen a coalminer in the American Midwest, then a construction worker in Siberia and Switzerland, soldier in Sudan and builder of railways, bridges and dams in Kwa Zulu-Natal

Born in the small mountain village of Zocca di Modena, near Bologna, on the 14^th March 1877, of poor parentage, Guido Raffaele Monzali was to arise as a giant self made man in South Africa, the stature of which we will probably never see again.

At the age of 14 years old, with a very poor education, he decided to emigrate to the United States of America to seek his future and provide for his family back home in Italy. Those were very difficult times in Italy and there was no time to be a teenager. Children went straight from being fostered children to men and women. Gifted with only the talents thought to them by their parents, these young men and women ventured into the wide world and into an unknown future, hoping to make a decent living and to elevate their stakes in society.

Arriving in America’s Midwest, Guido was forced to take on work as a coalminer for a few years, returning to Italy for e brief stay before becoming involved in the Trans Siberian Railway Line project in Vladivostok, Russia. From there he then traveled to the Sudan, in Africa, where he was to learn about dam building in a project taking place in that country.

In 1898, already with a full life behind him and only 21, while working in Europe, he was called to do military service with the Italian Army, and dispatched again to Sudan, because of the was against the Dervishes, which was taking place on the border with Eritrea. Here he was to distinguish himself again. For his bravery he was decorated after a battle against the enemy in which he saved the life of a comrade in arms under fire.

Covering the war as a journalist was none other than the future Commander of the Italian Legion in the South African Boer Was (1899-1902), Camillo Ricchiardi.

After the war Guido went back to railway contracting in Switzerland and thereafter worked in Paris, before leaving again for the distant Australian continent, all the time accumulating and improving his knowledge in the construction business. But after continually falling ill in Madagascar Island, in the Indian Ocean, he traveled by ship to Durban, landing there at the end of the Anglo-Boer War. Here he was able to receive a contract to collect firewood for the civilian interned inmates of a British Prisoner of War Camp.

Guido’s dream was however always to have his own construction company. The chance came when he successfully won the contract with the firm “Middelton Brothers” in Durban, wanting railway construction work done on the project on the Kwa Zulu-Natal coastline. This successfully completed to the satisfaction of his employers, he again received the tender for the railway section between Pietermaritzburg and Franklin (East Griqualand) and after that the Cape to Kwa Zulu-Natal line in 1907, going on in 1908 to complete the Newcastle-Utrecht line. Sections of the Port Shepstone Northern Railway line and the Estcourt-Mooi River track were completed thereafter.

In 1912-13 he completed the Bandolier Kop-Musina line in Mpumalanga, returning to complete the Maritzburg-Rietspruit line.

In 1913-14 he was extracting gypsum plaster in Greytown for the “Pretoria Cement Company”. After completing a contract on the Pentrich-Cato Ridge deviation, in Kwa Zulu-Natal in 1917, during World War I, he completed the Cato Ridge-Clairwood line, on which ad Delville Wood and at Shongweni he built two of the longest tunnels that existed in South Africa at the time. Fulfilling many contracts for the “Durban Corporation”, including the construction of the detour Nottingham Road-Cedara line, in 1928 he built a nine-arches viaduct, the longest in the country, at Chaka’s Kraal. At Umgeni he was also to buy a quarry, where, on the river of the same name, he built a two-track railway bridge, constructed using the Italian cylinder method. The structure was 360 metres long, had eleven lights and the foundation, at 59 metres, was the deepest existing in the world at the time.

The bridge, officially inaugurated in 1925, had first been built by an English local contractor, but after 18 months collapsed with the first flood in the area, causing the local authorities to reconsider Monzali’s tender, which was awarded to him for the construction of the new bridge. Unfortunately Mozali did not have the satisfaction of an opening ceremony taking place after the project was completed, as the opening ceremony had already taken place after the first bridge had been built. The bridge still stands today, as firm as a rock.

Monzali then went on to build the Athlone Bridge, named in honour of the Governor of South Africa, Lord Athlone, at a cost of 69.000 English Pounds. This was followed by the Gouritz Bridge, also situated in Durban.

Also busying himself in Durban at the time was Adolfo Ascoli, from Carrara, an importer of Apuan marble, later going into bronze with statues like that of Dick King, completed in 1912 in Durban.

Monzali’s greatest achievement in South Africa was however the construction of the Shongweni Dam, Durban’s main supply of water. A visiting Italian journalist, who had arrived with the ship “Sistiana” from Italy to Durban, was to visit the site where the gigantic dam was being built, wrote the following commentary: “Mr. Raffaele Monzali, from Zocca di Modena, one of the richest businessmen in Durban, insisted that I visit the imposing construction works of the dam at Shongweni. This colossal work was begun by him (Monzali) and several other Italians, who worked to the completion of this daring project. It is a reservoir under construction from 1922 and will be terminated in 1927. It will supply drinking water to Durban some 30 kilometres away, and will be able to supply 90 million litres daily during drought periods. The completion of the reservoir will eventually cost 750.000 Pounds and the water collected will suffice for a population of 200.000 inhabitants. The barrage dam, made completely of reinforced concrete, will have a height, from the river bed, of 30 metres, resting on a granite foundation. There will be 4 tunnels for a total length of 6 kilometres and a diameter from 2 to 5 metres, to channel the water from the reservoir to the iron conduits. The work on the barrage tunnels is mainly carried out by the Italians. Thanks to these Italians, soon the residents of the City of Durban will have a large quantity of water flowing to them for commercial and household purposes”.

In 1930 Monzali decided to build a huge mansion, or rather it was a castle, “Monzalis’s Castle” as known to all, erected in the Town Bush Valley, near Hilton, Pietermaritzburg, still to be seen today (but with other owner, now using it as a private residence). Through the brave efforts of Maria Grazia Martinengo, who gate-crashed the premise of Monzali’s Castle and was nearly arrested for trespassing by the new owners, for the first time photos of this beautiful mansion can be shown to you by La Gazzetta del Sud Africa.

Monzali was a great supporter of the “Railway Contractors Handicap”, held at Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, a horse race which was to continue for many years.

During World War II many Italian Prisoners were to be part of the Monzali household staff, as well as working on their two farms. It was in Pietermaritzburg during this period that a small chapel was built by the Italian prisoners of war, still to be seen today. In this chapel the great Gregorio Fiasconaro, the “father of opera” in South Africa, was to begin a new career in music after the war, becoming a professor in this field after continuing his studies at the University of Cape Town. Fiasconaro was an Italian Air Force pilot during the war and was shot by English fighter planes during World War II. Badly wounded, he was treated by his captors in Cairo before being transported in reasonable health to the prisoner of war camp in Pietermaritzburg, later becoming the Director of Music and Entertainment, eventually performing with his Italian Orchestra at the City Hall and also in Durban. Fiasconaro was to write his own biography in a book entitled “I’d do it again”. His son Marcello was to become a well known South African and Italian athlete, obtaining national colours and winning many important competitions and setting new national and world records.

During the war Monzali was to complete yet another great project, starting in 1938 with the building of “Miklo Pass”, which was completed on the 28^th May, 1949. It was the must difficult pass ever built in South Africa. And it was here, at the beginning of the project, where tragedy struck. Monzali, driving a truck up a very steep incline, lost control of the vehicle, which overturned, breaking his back, which was to aggravate him until his death in 1953. He was survived by his wife, Michelina Ricci, from Bologna, whom he married in 1909, and his four childen Gastone, Niel, Nola and Marcella.

The self-made man with his wonderful sense of humour is no longer with us, but his memory lives on, with his great accomplishments still to be viewed, especially in Kwa Zulu-Natal, where he became a giant among men.

Viva l’Afritalia.

André G. Martinaglia

Photos: Montali’s Castle; the chapel built by the Italian Pow in Pietermaritzburg and a votive painting made by a prisoner.