Jacob Cinamon

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THE JEWS OF MANICALAND

by John Cinamon - contributed July 2004

(corrections/additions sent by John and posted 15th July)

The modern history of Manicaland, (the area between Macheke and Villa Peri), began with the Portugese, after capturing the Port of Sofala from the Sultan of Muscat, sent explorations into the interior in 1870 to the Kingdom of the Mutasa and obtained a concession to mine and develop the area as far west as the Odzi River.

In 1888, (2 years before the BSA Company Pioneer Column), Jeffries travelled inland from Sofala into the Valley of the Mutare River where he pegged two blocks of gold claims. He named the one Penhalonga after Count Penhalonga, the chairman of the Mocambique Company in Lisbon . The other he named Rezende after the resident director in Africa , Baron de Rezende.

THE CINAMONS ARRIVE IN MATEBELELAND

In November 1893, Jacob Cinamon, a Miner and Trader, was trekking by ox-wagon from Johannesburg toward Fort Salisbury, when he got news of the two columns of BSA Company troops that had been sent into Matabeleland to attack Lobengula. After Crossing the Sashi River he turned his wagons northwards and arrived at the site of the Royal Kraal, Gubulawayo to find it in flames. He was one of the first civilians in the town which became Bulawayo .

In 1894, his wife Francis (Fanny) Victoria and their six children, Bertha, Clarice, Harry, Alec, David and Hyam, arrived in Bulawayo after a record breaking trek from Johannesburg, of six weeks. Jacob Cinamon had set up as a Trader, living in Rhodes Street near the Town Square .

In 1895 the Bulawayo Hebrew Cong was formed and the Synagogue was built at 201/202 Abercorn Street . The President was Joseph Saber and the committee comprised of T. Goldring, S Nathan, V Woolf, J Cinamon, M T Leven, C Joseph, and J Tobias. Mr E Frank was the Secretary and Treasurer. Other Jews in Bulawayo were Diamond, Blume, Salomon, L Godvis, Pollack, Aaron Jacobs, S Jacoby , Lazarus, Jacobson, Weil, Cohen, Rosenthal, Shif, Wallenstein, I Levy, Rabinowitz and J & E Tertis.

Bertha Cinamon, who married Lee Goudvis, was a journalist. She wrote articles for the Daily Telegraph. Her most famous article was ‘Bulawayo Under Seige’, during the Matebele Rebellion. She later became a well known South African Play write and Authoress. (Our daughter Sara, had to study one of her short stories when at school). She was also a founder member of WIZO in South Africa .

Before the outbreak of the Anglo Boer war, Bertha and Lee moved to Delagoa Bay , ( Lourenco Marques in Mocambique) where they ran a hotel . When President Paul Kurger had to flee the Transvaal Republic , he and his entourage stayed with the Godvis’ Lee Godvis was a Dutch Jew. The Cinamon family were split on both sides of the Anglo Boer War.

Alec and David were among the first 8 pupils at the School known as St George’s College in Bulawayo. The college started in Byo in the mid-1890's and amoung the 11 starters were 3 Cinamon boys, Harry, Alec and David. I was also at Saint's with Banet and my son Alfie was the third generation there.

CINAMONS ARRIVE IN MANICALAND

In 1898, Jacob Cinamon moved to ‘Umtali’, the Administration and Commercial Centre for the gold-boom Penhalonga where the entire Valley was pegged by over 400 miners leaving no room for a town. When the railway line from Beira was built, the town of Umtali was moved South over the Christmas Pass Range of mountains to its present site. Jacob Cinamon moved to the new town. He started a mineral –water factory making ginger beer and lemonade etc. in the main street. In 1902, he sent for his son, David, who was living with Bertha, Lee and the rest of the family in Delagoa Bay . David (13 years old) travelled by a small steamer to Beira, then by native canoe up the Pungwe River to Ponto de Pungwe, where the railway line started, and thence on to Umtali. By now there were two large Mines, the Penhalonga and the Rezende Mines and about 250 small mines working in Penhalonga. In 1904 David Cinamon (my father) ran away from his father in Umtali and started work as a Trammer, on the Penhalonga Mine. David was sixteen and in addition to supervising the cocopans of ore coming out of the two large tunnels, he was also given the job of the building of the Penhalonga Dam higher up in the mountains. He was frightened of being fired and being sent back to his father, so he ran between his two sites. The African men laughed at him because they had never seen a white man running at their work before, and they gave him the name of ‘Mfambanhandu) which means walk for nothing. This name has stuck to him all his life and was passed down to his son and elder grandson.

In about 1910, B D Almelah, who later became the founder of the Sephardi Congregation and their Gabbah, his brother and Gershon Grodenzik (from Palestine), started stores in Penhalonga.

Marco Alhadeff, Behor Benator, Isaac and Raphael Hasson, Haim Hatchuel, Lessem, lived in Penhalonga from the 1914s.

In 1925, Jacob and Fanny Cinamon were now living with their son David in Penhalonga running a small mineral water factory . Maurice and Gina Juster, (from Romania ) stayed with them before moving to Umtali where they started a wholesale business. Mr Cohen was working on the Rezende Mine as a carpenter. His son Hymie was born Penhalonga. He moved to Salisbury and married his Hilda.

The Pollacks had a store in the village. Frankel’s, the large wholesalers from Salisbury , opened a branch in Penhalonga, managed by Mick Goldberg. Mick Goldberg and Dave Cinamon became great friends and used to go tearing around the district on huge Indian motorcycles.

Mick Goldberg bought the business and moved his mother, Esther, two sisters Sarah and Rachel and four brothers, Hymie, Maurice, Bennie and Jack to Penhalonga. Mick was granted the Mine Concession and the family built up a very successful trading store and butchery business called Penhalonga Trading Company. Because of the Concession, which meant that all the purchases by the African mine workers was deducted from their wages, the African name given to the Goldbergs was ‘Magaboza’ which literally means ‘Credit’.

In 1931 David Cinamon married Babs Starfield (ex Birmingham ) in Johannesburg. They had a son John. At this time David had become the Underground Manager of the Lonrho Group of mines, (Rezende, Penhalonga, Liverpool , and Old West Mines). Being a Rhodesian Pioneer, in 1928, he was granted a Pioner Farm and he chose 3000 acres of rich-farmland between the Odzi and Nyzruza Rivers . He called it ‘The Wilderness’. Later, when hunting on the Wilderness, the Goldberg brothers, Mick and Hymie decided to purchase the adjacent farm, Nyamatzura. When tobacco was introduced into Rhodesia , the Goldberg Brothers bought vast areas of land and developed Leigh Ranch, which became the largest single unit producing tobacco in the world.

http://dbs.bh.org.il/place/barberton

Cinamon Jacob & Victoria & fam 1880 to SA; 1885 to Barberton district.

From Lodz, Poland. Jacob Cinamon left Poland for England when he was sixteen years old. He was a smous in the Transvaal during the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-81). His wife and two daughters joined him in SA in 1881 when the family went to live in Jagersfontein. The family moved to Burghersdorp for a short period c.1883 where Jacob opened a shop. They then lived in Middelburg, Transvaal, for 9 months before moving to Barberton in 1885. [Jewish affairs 1956 p20-25] Jacob Cinamon ran a tavern, the Springbok Tavern, on the Sheba Road about 5 km outside Barberton. He also had an interest in prospecting. The Cinamon children were the first Jewish children to live in Barberton.

Cinamon Jacob & Victoria & fam. Resident 1885 – 1893. Owner of tavern; prospector. Married Victoria Moss, whom he met in Birmingham. Children: Bertha (b.1876), Clarice (b.1879), Hirschel (Harry), Alexander, David and Hymie. The family left Barberton for Durban and were in Johannesburg in 1893. They then went on to Matabeleland. Whilst in Barberton, Jacob invented a safety-ship which he presented to the British Admiralty. Nothing came of this, as he was unable to produce a working model. [Jewish Affairs Apr 1956 p25]

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