Nations and Nationalism 5 (3), 1999, 397-417.

0 ASEN 1999

The ideology of a chosen people:

Afrikaner nationalism and the
Ossewa Trek, 1938
J. ALTON TEMPLIN
The Il&!!School of Theology, 2201 So. University Blvd., Denver, Colorado
80210, USA

ABSTRACT. Perhaps the most important happening in South African history was
the Great Trek, the massive movement of people, goods, wagons, north from the
eastern Cape Colony into what became the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.
These Voortrekkers migrated between 1834 and the end of the decade. On the way
they developed distinctive beliefs concerning their destiny, their relation to God and
their relation to the African groups with whom they had serious conflicts. A,major
battle between better-armed Afrikaner forces and Zulu warriors ended in triumph for
the Afrikaners on 16 December 1838. This formed the basis of a national holiday for
the Afrikaners, and for the nation of South Africa.
Various Afrikaner organisations conceived of a great celebration surrounding the
centennial of this major battle in Natal when a great monument to the Voortrekkers
would be constructed near Pretoria. The comer-stone laying was planned for 16
December 1938. In preparation for this celebration, Ox wagon caravans from many
parts of the Cape Province made their way north, holding worship services, giving
speeches and otherwise building enthusiasm in countless towns along the way. Some
of the wagon caravans travelled for four months. The culmination near Pretoria
resulted in perhaps as many as 200,000 Afrikaners camping there for the corner-stone
laying on the appointed day.
Two major complaints had been voiced continually for decades. First, the
Afrikaners wanted total freedom from the British Empire; second, they feared the
increasing numbers and influence of African groups for jobs, commodities and land.
Scholars and political leaders are convinced that this show of emotion for the
Afrikaner cause went a long way to unifying Afrikaner people, resulting in victory for
the Purified Nationalist Party at the polls in 1948. This study shows how the
reiteration of past historical events, in the context of emotional and sometimes tense
situations, helped to produce a self-confidence among the disunited Afrikaner
factions. From this there resulted a reinforcement of their ideology, or myth, which
contributed to their success as a people at the middle of this century. They were
confident that their highest nationalist dreams were the result of Gods help in their
struggles, and resulted also from their loyalty to their cause.
398 J. Alton Templin

Introduction: establishing European culture in South Africa

The first permanent European settlement in South Africa developed from

the visit to what became Table Bay and Cape Town, by three ships of the
Dutch East India Company. The beginning date was 6 April 1652, with
the founding hero Jan van Riebeeck, the leader of the expedition. They
hoped to establish a refreshment station to provide fresh meat, vegetables
and water to ships sailing around South Africa from Amsterdam to what
is now Indonesia. The settlement grew as sailors on the ships, not only
Dutch but German as well, decided to become farmers and over the next
century or more they extended their settlement as far as 400 miles east of
Cape Town.
In 1688 several French settlers came, fleeing persecution at home in the
aftermath of the rescinding of the Edict of Nantes (1685) which reestab-
lished Roman Catholic persecution against those of the French Protestant
Reformed faith. The various groups coalesced into a congenial culture
centring around both the Dutch Reformed Church, and the economic gain
they hoped they could achieve from extending their land and cattle holdings.
During the eighteenth century the settlers began to think of themselves as
superior to the Africans among whom they lived, and whom they treated
sometimes as slaves, but more often as indentured servants. The colour
consciousness was very clear. Those who were of European background
were the privileged, the Christians. Those of African descent, including
those whose blood was mixed with the European, were heathen, and were
to be servants of, and controlled for the benefit of, the dominant society.
During the eighteenth century the settlers ceased to think of themselves as
European and called themselves, rather, Afrikaners.
In 1795, although the Afrikaners had but minimal continuing contact
with Europe, their world was shaken. The Napoleonic wars were engulfing
Europe and the dictatorial forces over-ran the Netherlands. Rather than
risk having Napoleons forces control the southern tip of Africa, the Dutch
leaders, in exile in England, urged the British to protect South Africa from
the common enemy.
The British occupied the territory in 1795 and they settled there
permanently in 1806. Another phase of South African development began.
British law courts were established which gave equal rights to grievances on
the part of Africans. The English language was soon required in the law
courts. The British empire outlawed slavery - even forcing this on South
African Boers (farmers). They attempted to curtail continuing Boer
expansion into areas heavily populated with various African groups. This
rapid change caused the Afrikaners to develop self-conscious attitudes and
actions against the encroachments on their earlier freedom to treat the
African majority harshly if they wished.
BY the 1830s large numbers of Afrikaner Boers decided to trek (migrate)
northward beyond the control of Pharaoh (British authority). they
The ideology of a chosen people 399

carved new nations from thc land and gradually conquered and subjugated
the African inhabitants, they solidified their nationalism around the
Afrikaner Cause both anti-British and anti-African. This became not a
nationalism of the white population, but more narrowly an ethnic
nationalism of the Afrikaners only.
A decisive battle took place during the Great Trek at what they named
the Blood River in Natal, 16 December 1838. Supposedly, a few days
earlier, they had made a covenant to God, so they assumed God gave the
victory. In later years this became Dinganes Day - the day they defeated
the Zulu warrior Dingane, thus avenging earlier Zulu attacks on the
Afrikaner settlers. Now they thought of themselves as Gods Chosen
people. Still later the day was celebrated as The Day of the Covenant.
This became a national holiday celebrated regularly from the 1880s to the
present. Hence the dates 16 December 1838 and the centenary, 16 December
1938 became significant points for remembrance and for constructing their
nationalist mythology.

Conceiving a celebration of remembrance in 1938

Between 8 August and 16 December 1938 a massive celebration of Afrikaner

Nationalism took place in South Africa. This trek consisted of major
movements of people through towns and countryside, led by nine ox wagon
(Ossewa) teams as they moved from south to north, symbolic of the
Afrikaner Voortrekkers a century before, in the 1830s and 1840s. Six
wagons converged on Pretoria for the 16 December celebrations. Two
wagons went east and crossed the Drakensberg to northern Natal to
congregate at the site of the Blood River battle in 1838. The last wagon
travelled in the vicinity of Cape Town, and participated in the celebration
there. The six wagon processions, accompanied by many horses and
patriotic supports moved toward Pretoria and followed many of the trails of
the previous century. They ended their journeys at a hill, Monumentkoppie,
in the vicinity of Pretoria (nearly 1,000 miles from Cape Town), where they
proposed to lay the cornerstone of a great monument - the Voortrekker
Monument - on Dinganes Day, or The Day of the Covenant, 16 December
1938. The monument was actually completed in 1949. All aspects of the
movement of people were related to certain places and persons of the
century before. They visited sites of various battles, they meditated at grave
markers, they visited the home towns of the major Voortrekker leaders.
Even the ox-drawn wagons, some of which were newly constructed for this
celebration, and some of which had been used in decisive battles a century
before, were named after earlier pioneers. In many ways the people were
asked to recall - even symbolically to re-live - significant turning points or
crucial situations of their own history.
A very thorough collection of sources for these various Treks was
400 J. Alton Templin

compiled in the Ossewa Gedenkboek (1940), published only two years after
the celebrations took place in December 1938. This is a record of each of
the Treks in turn, giving speeches, newspaper clippings, names of committee
members in each town along the way, and individual and group photos at
the various stops. At many points the narrative and the speeches drew upon
the heroic happenings of a century before, and reiterated the assumption
that the participants were continuing the same social and cultural reality.
Evidently, the book was meant to be a memento and keepsake for families
who participated in the celebrations, to be handed down to the next
generations. The book continues for over 800 pages, and concludes with a
genealogy chart in which each family can record marriage, parents, grand-
parents and other details as one would in an old family Bible. On one of the
last pages is a drawing of the proposed Voortrekker Monument near
Pretoria, with the caption The Altar of Afrikanerdom. Thus the book
functioned almost like a Bible of the Afrikaner cause.
As we analyse this series of celebrations and all the references to past
happenings as reminders of present challenges, we note the function of the
ideology in the culture not only of the last century, but for the period of the
1930s as well. In this study ideology will be used to denote a social, a
political or a religious story or interpretation which incorporate a symbolic
understanding of the larger reality. These stories are told and retold in order
to bring meaning, hope, significance or to encourage perseverance in a
present, seemingly tense or frustrating, situation.
The four sub-topics of the ideological construction which Geertz
summarises (Geertz 1973: 205) have their place in Afrikaner developments.
First, the cathartic explanation - emotional tension is drained off by being
displaced onto symbolic enemies (British imperialism or African chal-
lenges); second, the morale explanation - the ability of an ideology to
sustain individuals (or groups) in the face of chronic strain, either by
denying it outright or by legitimising it in terms of higher values; third, the
solidarity explanation - the power of ideology to knit a social group or
class together ... the existence of popular symbols charged with the
emotions of a pervasive social predicament; fourth, the advocacy explana-
tion - the action of ideologies . . . in articulating . . . the strains that impel
them, thus forcing them into the public notice.
Ideology, therefore, is not assumed to be negative or positive, but first of
all descriptive: how did these people view themselves in their larger world:
political, social and religious? Where did they sense inequalities or injustices,
and how did they propose to deal with them? According to Clifford Geertz,
in a chapter entitled Ideology as a cultural system (Geertz 1973: 193-233)
ideology functions in one of two ways in society, either relating to an
interest theory or a strain theory (p. 201). The two can sometimes be
incorporated in the same ideology, but for the South African culture the
strain theory seems more appropriate. This ideology functions: (1) as a
symptom and a remedy; (2) against the background of a chronic effort to
The ideology of a chosen people 40 1

correct sociopsychological disequilibrium; and (3) as it helps the society flee

anxiety.
In this sense, the ideology speaks to a situation of either real or perceived
tension, such as fear of British domination or fear of losing cultural
advantages of the white race to the non-white. The ideology thus provided a
context of self-confidence for the Afrikaners because the point of reference
is not the present reality, but the seemingly transcendent or idealised
reality of Afrikanerdom still being created, or as the Kingdom of God here
in this land still to be achieved. It is not the events as they happened which
fuel the development of the Afrikaner ideology, but rather, how the
Afrikaner leaders were able to reinterpret these events for the enhancement
of the Afrikaners image of themselves as a special or chosen people in the
sight of God. For the Afrikaner, their ideology provides a symbolic
outlet for emotional disturbances generated by social disequilibrium
(Geertz 1973: 204).
This study of how a constructed story or reinterpretation of historical
reality was used to elicit pride and group loyalty among a people,
especially in this case the Afrikaner culture, has been referred to as
mythology or myth making by Leonard Thompson (1985). In fact,
Thompson analyses the ideology of the two treks - of the 1830s and of
1938 - and surveys these developments along with several other mytholo-
gies in Afrikaner history. Likewise, T. Dunbar Moodie (1975) has
summarised the place of the 1938 trek in the larger development of civil
religion in South Africa through the first half of the present century. He
has translated some of the significant speeches of the 1930s, some of which
are quoted in this study. More translations are included in this study to
give further documentation of the same developing ideology, or mythology
or civil religion.
The study by du Toit (1983) seems to take a much more restricted
understanding of these intellectual and cultural analyses. That there were
deep Calvinist strains in South African society has been thoroughly
documented in Gerstner (1991) especially for the eighteenth century. While
the influences in South Africa cannot be thought of as systematic, in any
Calvinist sense, the terminology which works its way into the ideology or
the civil religion is certainly more Calvinistic than, for example, Roman
Catholic. The claim that the ideology was based on the work of David
Livingstone, who first came to South Africa only in the 1840s would need
to be the subject of a study totally different from the one here presented.
This whole Centennial Celebration provides a very clear example of
myth-building, or ideological construction, part history and part embel-
lishment, all for the sake of eliciting national self-consciousness and
strengthening civil religion in the face of certain real or perceived crises in
their culture. They gave their organised movement the aura of a religious/
spiritual revival, all done with the confidence that they were following the
will of God and trusting that their God would look with favour on them.
402 J. Alton Templin

The Great Trek and some well-known heroes of the 1830s

In many ways the Great Trek (1834-8) can be considered the most
significant movement of South African culture, especially for those who are
white and whose main language is Afrikaans.* This is the story of their
heroes, the founders of their nation. It is obvious, however, that other
segments of the population view these happenings with quite different
interpretations.
The population on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony - 400 miles or
more east and northeast of their urban centre, Cape Town - felt themselves
to be under two types of almost irresistible challenges or threats. First, the
British government had been administering this colony for almost thirty
years. During this period the English language was becoming ever more
prominent, even required in the law courts. The British had, in 1809,
abolished slavery in all its possessions, and while there was not a large
group of slaves in South Africa, the way of life of the Afrikaner Boers
(farmers or cattle men) was being threatened.
The second threat seemed at least as serious, and concerned the African
population and the ways in which the Afrikaners must relate to them.
Afrikaners thought the British law courts gave more support to plaintiffs
who happened to be non-white than the farmers thought proper. Afrikaners
wanted to move father east, but the farther they migrated the more
numerous the African settlers. The British law courts insisted that the
determined Afrikaners were at least as much to blame as the African victims
when the various border wars broke out. A class consciousness was well
developed and this paralleled this colour difference. The Afrikaners were
Christian while the Africans probably were not, therefore, the indigenous
people were often referred to as heathen. One listing of grievances was
published in the Grahamstown newspaper, 2 February 1837, after the
movement had been going on for two years. It included this interesting
summary. Africans were:
being placed on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the laws of God and
the natural distinction of race and religion, so that it was intolerable for any decent
Christian to bow down beneath such a yoke; wherefore we rather withdrew in order
to preserve our doctrines in purity. (Steenkamp 1888, 11: 459-68)

Gradually the tensions grew so great that people began to seek a way of
escape. They interpreted the British government as Pharaoh, and they saw
themselves as the latter-day Hebrews hoping to escape to a promised land.
They assumed that if they went north and crossed the Orange River they
would be free of British influence. While this proved not to be true, their
dearth of detailed information about the territories to the north was more
serious. They had heard from a few scouts or explorers who had ventured
thither, but much was still to be discovered.
One of the earliest groups of Trekkers included the leader Louis Trigardt.
The ideology of a chosen.people 403

He migrated into what was to become the northern part of the South
African Republic or the Transvaal. The first year proved difficult, if not
impossible for his party of about sixty-three persons. The next year they
decided to move farther east. In April 1838 their decimated group of
twenty-six finally arrived at the coast near Delagoa Bay (now Maputo).
Trigardt and his wife both died in 1838 in the Portuguese territory.
Another famous hero was Hendrik Potgieter who began to move north
in 1835 with about 200 people. He was soon joined by another group led
by Sarel Cilliers. They stopped at Thaba Nchu, in the eastern Orange Free
State and engaged in a battle at a place they named Veg Kop (Battle
Mountain). They were soon joined by another group led by Gerrit Maritz
with approximately 100 wagons, including many supplies. Other battles
were fought, and after one skirmish in which the Afrikaners superior
weapons gave them victory, they named the spot after their Win,
Winburg.
While still in East Orangia, the later Orange Free State, another group of
approximately 100 wagons arrived, led by Pieter Retief. Gradually he
became a leader of the large gathering, and in a solemn setting made a
promise, before Almighty God, that he would adhere to the catechism and
the liturgies of the Netherlands Reformed Church and ensure that all
officials of the government would be members of the same church (Templin
1984: 106-7). The last major group of trekkers was led by Jacobus Uys and
Pieter Uys, father and son, and they brought a 12-year-old grandson, Dirkie
uys.
The large group of trekkers gathered in East Orangia divided when Piet
Retief decided to lead a group to the coast in Natal. He was not fully aware
of the situation there. The African tribes were covetous of their own land,
and the British had plans to occupy the coast. Retief tried to negotiate with
the Zulu chief, Dingane, and thought they understood each other. On 5
February 1838 the Zulus attacked and killed all seventy people in the
negotiating body. Some of the families camped several miles away were also
killed. The place was called Weenen (weeping). When word of the massacre
reached the trekkers still in Orangia, the three in the Uys family and others
quickly went to Natal to help. Alas, Piet Uys and his son, 12-year-old
Dirkie Uys, were killed in a skirmish. Hendrik Potgieter decided, in 1838, to
return to his people to what became the Transvaal, where they established
the city of Potchefstroom. Gerrit Maritz died in 1838. Taking the first name
of Pieter Retief and the last name of Gerrit Maritz, the Boers in Natal
established the city they called Pietermaritzburg.
Many of the leaders had perished and others had left by 1838. That
November a new leader from Graaff-Reinet came to their rescue. He was
Andries Pretorius, who arrived in November 1838. He was interested in
inflicting vengeance on the Zulu tribe which had murdered the Voortrek-
kers. They began their offensive very soon, and were within striking distance
early in December when one of their leaders, Sarel Cilliers - who also
404 J. Alton Templin

functioned as a lay preacher - decided to make a vow to God. He had

confidence that if they recognised God, that power would be on their side.
On 7 December 1838, he proposed a covenant.
The covenant of 1838
Sarel Cilliers is quoted as having said
My brethren and fellow countrymen, at this moment we stand before the holy God
of heaven and earth, to make a promise, if He be with us and protect us, and deliver
the enemy into our hands so that we may triumph over him, that we shall observe
the day and the date as an anniversary in each year, and a day of thanksgiving like
the Sabbath, in his honor; and that we will build a temple to His honor where we
may worship him; and that we shall enjoin our children that they must take part
with us in this, for a remembrance even for our posterity. (Sarel Cilliers, in Bird
1888: I, 243)3
On 16 December 1838 they went to battle and defeated the Zulus.
Consequently, this day was set aside as Dinganes day. The nearby river,
they said, had so much blood in it that they named the river, and the site,
Blood River. They believed that their victory was because of their vow,
even though Dingane would be finally defeated only by a rival African
group a short time later. Leonard Thompson (1985: 144-88) has analysed
the various understandings of the Covenant, including the probability that
it is a compilation, and of later composition. Whatever the facts of the case,
its emotional appeal in later nationalist history is well established.
During the next decade the British established control of the coast and
named their settlement after a recent Cape governor, Benjamin dUrban.
While many Boers made their peace with the British, Pretorius could not do
so. In 1848 he returned inland to what became the Transvaal, and where the
capital city is named after him.
While the Boers did not celebrate Dinganes day regularly for more than
forty years, in time they did build a church in Pietermaritzburg, and on one
wall this covenant (vow) is carved. This story of the Great Pilgrimage
(Great Trek) has continually provided heroes and situations which would be
used by the Afrikaner leaders for the next century. When the day was
effectively reinstituted later in the century it became a time for great
patriotism, great speeches about the glories of the past, and great building
blocks for the myth of Gods help as the Afrikaners spread their culture to
each occupied area.

Afrikaner nationalism after 1910

From the 1830s through the end of the century, Afrikaner nationalism was
on the defensive against British pressure and control. Diamonds were
discovered at Kimberley in 1867 and the British promptly redrew the
boundaries of the colony so as to control the diamonds. Gold was
The ideology of a chosen people 405

discovered in the Transvaal (South African Republic) in the 1880s and the
Afrikaners thought they were secure because the gold was in their territory.
The antagonism between the two groups, however, led to various
skirmishes, in 1880-1, 1895 and, finally, the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902.
In the latter date the Afrikaners were defeated, but after the war were soon
allowed to develop political parties again. In 1910 the Union of South
Africa was proclaimed, with Afrikaner parties leading the two northern
colonies: the Transvaal (South African Republic) and the Orange Free
State. British sympathisers controlled Natal and the Cape Colony.
From the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 one of the
major questions concerned the relation between the English-speaking
citizens and the Afrikaners! The first two prime ministers, who had been
Boer generals (Louis Botha, 1910-19; and Jan Christiaan Smuts, 1919-24),
thought they could maintain balance between the two groups. They
represented the United Party. James Barry Munnik Hertzog, however,
another Boer general, was more concerned to make the Afrikaner cause
dominant. He had been excluded from Bothas cabinet in 1912, but became
prime minister in 1924 leading the opposition National Party. In his very
first term he led in at least two major pro-Nationalist ideas. In 1925
Afrikaans was recognised as a language separate from Dutch, after having
developed its unique characteristics for more than a century. In 1928 a new
flag was adopted to replace the British Union Jack. The new flag was a
compromise. There were three small flags, those of the South African
Republic, and of the Orange Free State, recognising the two northern
republics, and the British Union Jack, representing the two southern
colonies. These were superimposed over the orange, white and blue stripes
representing the Dutch House of Orange.
In the election of 1929 Hertzogs National Party won after forming a
pact agreement with the Labour Party. By the election of 1933 Hertzogs
party thought the South African Party of Smuts was not as pro-British as it
had been in the past. Hertzogs party won the election but with Smuts they
arranged a fusion or coalition government. Those who were still strongly
nationalist suspected not only that Smuts, but now Hertzog, had seemingly
defected from the Afrikaner cause. As a reaction, a Purified (gesuiwered)
National Party was formed by Daniel FranCois Malan, formerly a minister
of the Dutch Reformed Church.
The compromise was continued after the election of 1938. When Britain
and France declared war on Germany in 1939, however, the South African
government was faced with a crisis. General Hertzog argued for neutrality
while General Smuts argued for involvement on the side of the British.
Parliament voted with Smuts, and Hertzog resigned. He died four years
later (November 1942). While the South African forces fought in Somalia
against Italy, and in North Africa, the Purified Nationalist Party grew in
strength. In the election of 1943 Smuts won a comfortable majority, and at
the end of the war in 1945 had a very strong influence. He was conversant
406 J, Alton Templin

with developments in many parts of the world, and led the South African
delegation at the organisation of the United Nations in San Francisco in
1945. At the same time, however, back home there were increasing numbers
of people and several organisations leading in an opposite direction,
towards Afrikaner nationalism and towards a Republican government
severed from the British Commonwealth. The nationalist celebrations
surrounding the Centenary Trek of 1938 played a major part in unifying
nationalist opinion, and were a continual reminder of the century-long
Afrikaner struggle against the British.

The centenary trek, 1938

The idea of another Trek a century after the last one was conceived on a
small scale and several years before 1938. One of the major figures in the
plan was Henning Klopper, a young railroad maintenance worker who had
been involved first in the establishment of the Afrikaner Broederbond.
The Broederbond was a secret Afrikaner organisation established in
1920. Klopper was a major leader, and summarised the objectives at a later
date:

We formed the Broederbond as a kind of counterpart to societies and clubs which,

in those days, were exclusively English-speaking. Those were hard days for the
Afrikaner. Everything was English and Afrikaans-speaking people found it hard to
make out. We decided the Broederbond would be for Afrikaners only - any
Afrikaner - and it would be a sort of cultural society. (Wilkins and Strydom
1979:46)

Soon after its organisation it became a secret group and was a very strong
underground force within Afrikaner society. Although secret, in 1977 much
information was leaked out by a man who had been a Broederbond member
for almost sixty years. This collection of materials included many documents
and the names of most members. Immediately after his material began to be
published in a South African newspaper, the Broederbond became very
defensive. They organised a thorough search and tried t o locate the source
of the leaked knowledge, and the newspaper arranged for special guards for
the newspaper men involved in the publishing. By the time of the Ossewa
Trek the organisation had grown to 1,395 members in 1935 and 1,980 by
1940 (Wilkins and Strydom 1979:47).
The railroad workers, in 1930 led by Henning Klopper, formed a cultural
organisation to further Afrikaner objectives. It was known as The Afrikaans
Language and Cultural Union of the South African Railroads and Harbors
(Afrikaans Taal en Kultuurverenigings - SAS en H, - or in shortened form,
the ATKV) and they gradually gained strength as they emphasised
Afrikaner nationalist themes. The function of this organisation was to
The ideology of a chosen people 407

coordinate social, literary, artistic and economic objectives of the Afrikaner

population.
In the interest of strong nationalist emphases, strengthening of Afrikaner
power, controlling development of non-whites, and rejecting any continuing
pro-British elements, the Ossewa movement fulfilled the objectives of both
the Broederbond and the ATKV with great emotional force.
The first reactions to the idea of another Trek were luke-warm or feeble
(pou) at best. Elaborate plans were developed with hundreds of towns along
the way. In each, a committee was formed, usually including the Dutch
Reformed minister. As the date drew nearer, enthusiasm grew, and an
increasing number of routes had to be planned, allowing the various wagons
to visit many additional communities and sites to accommodate the growing
interest in the project.
The first two wagons, the Andries Pretorius and the Piet Retief, were
poised for their departure on 8 August, at the foot of the Jan van Riebeeck
statue in Cape Town. Henning Hopper, the major organiser, sent them on
their way with his interpretation of the whole movement.
On this solemn occasion, at this spot where almost three centuries ago Jan van
Riebeeck stepped ashore, it is fitting, in view of the great ethnic deed which we now
begin to celebrate, that we should remember the vow of Sarel Cilliers.
Then the Covenant of the previous century was recited. He continued:
We place our trek in the service of the People of South Africa, so that we may
celebrate this festival as suits a worthy and grateful posterity. We bring praise to
those who won for us a land and a future and we give honor to the Almighty, in the
firm belief that he will make us a powerful People before His countenance. (Ossewa
Cedenkboek 1940:112; trans. in Moodie 1975179)
E. C. Pienaar, another speaker, gave an over-view of the meaning of this
new Trek in the development of their whole culture:
The year 1938 will undoubtedly be observed not only as the great Voortrekker
memorial year, but especially as the year of the symbolic Ox Wagon Trek along the
Path of South Africa [de Pad van Suid-Afriku], a trek which from its beginning
provided powerful interest, in like manner may this celebration become an abundant
demonstration.
Never before in our history, I believe, have so many heard about the Path of
South Africa as are related to this trek. This is the theme which I will shortly call to
your attention: The Path of South Africa. (Ossewa Cedenkboek 1940:239, trans.
J. Alton Templin)
Then the author spent several pages summarising much of South African
history from 1652 through the colonial developments, to the British occupa-
tion, to the problems of pro-English schools, to the Great Trek. Much of the
path he admitted was frequently a v i a dolorosu (a way of suffering) (Ossewu
Gedenkboek 1940:241). He elaborated considerably on the Great Trek,
asserting that this was a solid proof that the Boers were seeking true freedom:
408 J. Alton Templin

You may think that I have over-rated the Great Trek, and that I under-rate the
persons behind in the Cape Colony who did not make the Great Trek with us. Let
me, for a moment, pose the question: How would South Africa today be viewed
without the Great Trek and its influence on our history? Would an unswerving
Afrikanerdom exist somewhere? What if the departure out of British Egyptland
found no place a hundred years ago, would there be for our descendants, for our
children, a Promised Land?
No, God in his wise foresight has brought a portion of the Afrikaner people along
the path of the Trek, led them into the desert, to be refined and purified for the task
of building up a people in the future, so that in the end they may be able to enter
into the promised land.
May this not only remain an enthusiasm which is like a shooting star which lights
up the heavens and then disappears without a trace, but may the God of our fathers
grant that this centennial celebration indeed shall unite our people as never before in
our history, into a single-minded and unified Boer people who know no other
endeavor except to pay honor to the Voortrekker ideal, and with the action of each
day so to live in order that next to each other and together we may stand on the
future path of South Africa. (Ossewa Cedenkboek 1940:244, trans. J. Alton Templin)

The wagons and the treks which they undertook were given names of the
major heroes of the original Great Trek of the 1830s. As they trekked north
they visited countless villages along the way. At each stop various speakers
reflected on the 100-year tradition, and the devotion and the determination
of the earlier pioneers was reiterated on a regular basis. Grave-sites and
monuments of the colourful history were visited as well. Thus it is obvious
that the most direct routes were not often followed, but committees
organising the treks in each town or village ensured that there would be a
crowd of people to meet the wagons on their way into their town. In most
cases special worship programmes were held, speeches were made, and
participants were dressed in clothing of the nineteenth century.
The first two wagons left the Jan van Riebeeck statue in downtown Cape
Town on 8 August 1938. The Andries Pretorius was named after the leader
of the Blood River battle, 16 December 1838. He is also the person for
whom the city of Pretoria was named. The second wagon was the Hendrik
Potgieter, named after an early leader in the Transvaal, and the person for
whom the city of Potchefstroom is named. The two groups travelled in the
same general area, east along the coast to the eastern Cape. When they
turned north they took slightly different routes, one going through Graaff
Reinet, the original home of the nineteenth-century Pretorius and north to
cross the Orange River at Colesburg. They went through Bloemfontein and
finally to Pretoria. The Potgieter travelled farther east, crossing the Orange
River at Aliwal North, and visited towns in the eastern section of the
Orange Free State.
A third wagon, the Louis Trigardt, left from Graaf Reinet on 21
September. Louis Trigardt was the early trekker in northern Transvaal who
migrated into Portuguese territory, where he died. The twentieth-century
The ideology of a chosen people 409

Trigardt group travelled through the eastern part of the Free State, through
Thaba Nchu and Winburg, well known for serious battles of the 1830s.
A fourth wagon left Grahamstown on 28 September. It was named the
Sarel Cilliers, after the supposed author of the famous covenant which is
quoted above. Cilliers was originally from Grahamstown. They trekked
through the Eastern Orange Free State, through small settlements such as
Veg Kop, and visited the eastern section of the Transvaal before
approaching Pretoria from the east.
A fifth wagon, known as Piet Retief, travelled through the southern
Cape province, crossed the Orange River at Aliwal North, and went into the
eastern Orange Free State. As they were in the Free State, they turned east
through the mountains to arrive at Blood River in northern Natal for the
celebration there on 16 December. Piet Retief was the leader of the group of
about seventy persons killed by the Zulus in 1838, to form the historical
basis of the covenant, and perhaps of this whole Ossewa Trek celebration.
A sixth wagon, Vrou en Moeder (wife and mother), reminded the trekkers
of the sacrifices the women had made throughout the whole pioneering
period. This group travelled with Andries Pretorius through the eastern
Free State and then they took turned east to meet others at Blood River.
The seventh wagon, the Margarita Prinsloo, left the coast in the eastern
Cape, made their way through Oudshoorn, and then north. The seventh and
eighth wagons were named after girls who miraculously survived the battles
of 1838. The eighth wagon, the Johanna van der Merwe, departed
Moorreesberg, a few miles north of Cape Town, on 15 September and
travelled north, turning east along the Orange River, through Namaqualand,
visiting some of the northernmost towns and villages of the Cape Province.
Thus far we have noted the six wagons or caravans, which converged on
the Monumentkoppie near Pretoria for the celebration. In addition, two
wagons converged at Blood River in northern Natal for a celebration on the
same date. This leaves a ninth wagon, the Dirkie Uys, named after a boy
who was on the trek in 1838 who tried in vain to defend his faiher in a
battle. The wagon named for a small boy undertook a small trek. They
began this trek less than a hundred miles east of Cape Town and visited
towns and villages inland and on the coast as they drew near to Cape Town
where they participated in a celebration, also on 16 December. When they
stopped at Fransche Hoek they had an occasion to depart from their
Afrikaner emphasis on freedom, to remember that it was exactly 250 years
ago that the first French Huguenot settlers came to that part of South
Africa. They were fleeing for religious freedom after the Edict of Nantes
had been rescinded (in 1685), when persecution against Huguenots could
resume in France.
As the Trekkers visited many towns along their routes, their arrival was a
high spiritual moment for the people. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of
people would come out to meet the caravan as it neared the town. Worship
services were held, prayers beside the wagons were for good luck, and for
410 J. Alton Templin

continued perseverance towards nationalist ideals. With religious devotion,

townspeople came to touch the wagons. Baptisms were held. One small
child from Pretoria was baptised by her grandfather, using water from
Blood River, and using a bowl which was 100 years old and had been at the
Blood River battle. The child was dressed in clothing also 100 years old.
Many weddings were held on or near the wagons and this became a
heightened spiritual experience.
C. J. W. de Wet, a minister of the Gereformeerde Kerk, asserted that the
Calvinist faith was being lived out in the Trek. The Afrikaners must be free,
and to make freedom certain they must be united.
There must be segregation between Afrikaners and all persons of other blood. We
will not carry any other blood. We must be free and to obtain freedom we must be
united.
The constitutional ideal of the Voortrekkers was Christian republicanism, and
economic freedom. (Ossewa Gedenkboek 1940: 623, trans. J. Alton Templin)
There was a strong emphasis on the use of the Bible, and symbolic copies
were carried along on the Trek. On one occasion, a radio broadcaster
emphasised the importance of the Bible in their culture, using an interesting
comparison. He addressed this message to C. J. Klopper, who was not there.
You have rendered our people a great service by your organizing the Ox wagon
Trek.
You have brought together what belongs together.
Just as Josiah, King of Judah, allowed the law of God to be recovered from under
the ruins of the Temple, and again had placed it in the midst of the people - so have
you recovered the Voortrekker Bible from under the rubble and polish of modern
criticism and again placed it in the midst of our people. There is the desired and
wished for inclination to unity, cooperation and underlying love.
You have taught us that the place for our people, as it was for the Voortrekkers,
is to be drawn near to the word of God, and to be obedient to the word of God.
Our prayer is that when these wagons shall have come to Pretoria and Blood River,
our people shall know that no power in the world can separate us and we as a
people shall readily recognize and be obedient to the Almighty authority, the
crucified son of the Almighty, whenever He says not only to us the beloved people,
but to the whole of humankind you must love the Lord your God, love with your
whole heart, and your neighbor as yourself. (Ossewa Gedenkboek 1940: 197, trans.
J. Alton Templin)
During many of the worship gatherings in many towns as the trek
proceeded east and north, a very common unifying song was Die Stem van
Suid Afrika [The Voice of South Africa]. This reflected all the nationalistic
attitudes, and the anti-British feelings of the Trekkers. Whereas at the
establishment of the Union of South Africa, under the British flag, the
national anthem which was sung at official occasions was God Save the
King. In 1918 an Afrikaner poet wrote an alternative song, attempting to
capture the Afrikaner consciousness, and their deep loyalty to their own
country. After it was set to music a few years later, it began to rival the
The ideology of a chosen people 41 1

official national anthem for the Afrikaners. Thereafter, Afrikaners disliked

being required to hear the British national anthem, and avoided it wherever
possible. This new Afrikaans national anthem was used quite regularly on
the Trek. The author of the anthem was C. J. Langenhoven, who died in
1932. This new anthem was accepted along with the official anthem in 1938,
and was allowed to be sung as the only anthem as the date of establishing
the Republic in 1961, drew near. A very literal version portrays the stark
emotional tone of the work:
Out of the blue of our heaven, out of the depth of our sea,
Over the Eternal mountains where the ledges give answer,
Throughout our remote plains, with the creaking of ox wagons
Rustles the voice of our beloved, of our land, South Africa.
We will answer your call, we will offer what you ask:
We will live, we will die, all of us for you, South Africa.
In the marrow of our bones, in our heart and soul and spirit,
In our praise of what is past, in our hope of what will be,
In our will and work and walking [wandel],from our cradle to our grave,
We share our love with no other land, we divert our fidelity to no other.
Fatherland! We will bear the nobility of your name with honor
True and faithful as Afrikaners - Children of South Africa.
In the suns glow of our summer, in the cold of our winters night,
In the spring of our love, in the black crepe of our mourning,
At the sound of wedding bells, at the sharp blow on the casket,
Your voice caresses us never in vain, know that we truly are your children.
At your call we never say no, we always say yes.
Whether to live or to die, yes, we come, South Africa.
Firmly trusting in your omnipotence, on which our fathers did build
Send also to us the power, 0 Lord! that we may maintain and persevere
So that the inheritance from our forefathers will remain for our children:
Servants of the Most High, free against the whole world.
As our fathers trusted, teach us also to trust, 0 Lord
With our land and with our nation, this will be well known: God reigns.
(Die Stem van Suid Afrika, [The Voice of South Africa], C. J. Langenhoven,
trans. J. Alton T e m ~ l i n ) ~
During the Ox Wagon Trek one group visited the grave of the author of
this poem in the eastern part of the Cape Colony. On that occasion a
speaker summarised the thoughts of many.
May this Stem [voice] yet one day so charm and caress the whole people that it
shall be in position to do great things; and may the people of South Africa choose
the stem and may it please God that the stem of Langenhoven may bring unity
even out of his grave to the people which he loved.
These voortrekker wagons are the symbol of our bondage to God, they are Ark of
the Covenant for unity. Let the storms rage. As we adhere to our God, so will He
protect us. (Ossewa Gedenkboek 1940: 221, trans. J. Alton Templin)
412 J. Alton Templin

When the wagons arrived in Pretoria in December, thousands thronged

to the site of the new monument. Estimates run as high as 200,000 for those
camped for several days in the vicinity (Wilkins and Strydom 1979: 106).
The mythology and the symbolism of the moment was reiterated, discussed
or sung by every one present. The cornerstone of the new monument was
laid, significantly enough, by three descendants of the Voortrekkers of the
past century: A great-granddaughter of Pieter Retief, a granddaughter of
Andries Pretorius, and a great-granddaughter of Andries Hendrik Potgieter
(Voortrekker Monument Official Guide, no date: 64). Significantly, the Stem
van Suid Afrika was enthusiastically sung while the British God Save the
King was quietly omitted.

The Blood River celebration in Natal

At the celebration held at Blood River, in northern Natal, one of the main
speakers was Daniel FranCois Malan, leader of the newly formed Purified
(Gesuiwered) National Party.6 He titled his speech: The New Great Trek:
South Africas Emergency Call and the Answer thereto, portions of this are
translated in Moodie (1975: 198-201). Malan reflected some of the same
emotional appeal of the Great Trek a century before, but he made a
significant shift of emphasis. He referred not only to the century that was
past, but suggested what would be the challenges of the present and the next
century up to the year 2038:
Here at [the] Blood River [battlefield] you stand on holy ground. Here was made the
great decision about the future of South Africa, about Christian civilization in our
land, and about the continued existence and responsible power of the white race . . .
[Also] you stand here upon the boundary of two centuries. Behind you, you rest
your eyes upon the year 1838 as upon a high, outstanding mountain-top, dominating
everything in the blue distance. Before you, upon the yet untrodden Path of South
Africa, lies the year 2038, equally far off and hazy. Behind you lie the tracks of the
Voortrekker wagons, deeply and ineradicably etched upon the wide, outstretched
plains and across the grinning dragon-tooth mountain ranges of our countrys
history. (Pienaar 1964: 121; trans. and quoted in Moodie 1975: 199)
The thought continues in sentences which Moodie did not include.
Over those unknown regions which stretch broadly before you, there also will be
treks of Ox Wagons. They will be your Ox Wagons, symbolic as you will note, but
nevertheless real. You and your children will make history.
Will South Africa still be a white mans land? Will there then still be a question of
poor whites in this rich land which we with fatigued eyes will stare at as an eternal
reproach? Will South Afrikanerdom be one and free? Will your people still know God?
This century ahead will provide you an answer. In its balance it will weigh your
offering. The year 2038 will judge you. I cannot presume to answer these questions
profoundly in vain predictions. When any answers are given, these must come from
a united Afrikanerdom which will set foot on the beaten paths of South Africa, of
The ideology of a chosen people 413

the Voortrekkers purposefully and steadfastly, or [on the other hand] which will
digress from this path spiritless and purposeless.
Your yes can be given only by the powerful deed. My task today is only to say to
you that while you are standing here these questions are already being answered, and
they will be answered in your name. (Trans. from Ossewa Gedenkboek (p. 625), by J.
Alton Templin)
During the past century God had answered their pleas, and the principles
of Afrikaner hopes remain. Moodie translates:
There is still a white race. There is a new People. There is a unique language. There
is an imperishable drive to freedom. There is an irrecusable ethnic destiny.
Their task is completed. ...
The struggle with weapons has passed. . ..
Your Blood River is not here. Your Blood River lies in the city. (Pienaar 1964: 199,
quoted in Moodie 1975: 199)
The elaboration of this idea, which we continue, is not translated by
Moodie:
The trek to the cities increases very evidently and quickly, and nothing can change
this. Thirty years ago the number of whites in the city and in the rural areas was
about equal. With the establishment of the Union [1910] the relation in favor of the
rural areas was apparently even improved. With the last census, however, that of
1936, it appears that the white population of the cities was 66% of the whole, that is
to say that they are twice as numerous as those in the rural areas. The pace is
evidently continuing to increase. .. .
This means that today there are approximately 540,000 who live in cities, which is
to say about half of the Afrikaans-speaking white population of our country.
You ask: is not the basis laid for an economic independence which will require
more force than the establishment of the earlier free independent Voortrekker states?
My answer is: this can be so, and may God grant that this will be so. Also this: if
this comes to pass, then this will happen only if the Blood River of today becomes as
resolute and becomes rapidly enough as decisive as the Blood River of Andries
Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers.
I have said that the battle for the outposts of this new Great Trek of
Afrikanerdom will be more vehement and more deadly than the battle with weapons
which you remember today. Let the facts make this explicit.
First, the most grave fact is that near the limited territory of the cities where the
population crowds together, it is not only the Afrikaners who trek, but also the non-
white [Africans, Asians, Colored], by hundreds of thousands. The livelihood which
can be achieved there must be shared with the whites, and as numbers alone can
indicate, there is the chance of a conflict at once with the whites. This is so
everywhere, but nowhere can it be Seen so well as in the greatest cities.
A few examples will convince you. Take Cape Town. In the 15 years between 1921
and 1936 the white population increased 56,000 but the non-whites by 67,000. Take
Port Elizabeth. This city grew by 27,000 whites as opposed to 31,000 non-whites.
Take Kimberley. There was a loss of 1,700 whites and an increase of 3,000 non-
whites. Take Bloemfontein with 10,000 more whites but 14,000 more non-whites.
Take the Witwatersrand with 171,000 more whites, but on the other hand with
3 1 1,000 more non-whites.
414 J. Alton Templin

Take all urban areas together and you find that in these 15 years whites increased
460,000 and the number of non-whites increased by 812,000. If you think that
because of the new Great Trek of the Afrikaners to the cities, to the center of our
industrial and economic life, they will become whiter; then sadly you make a
mistake. They will become blacker. (Ossewu Gedenkboek (p. 627), trans. J. Alton
Templin)
Moodie translates from Malans summary: Today black and white jostle
[verdring] together in the same market place (Moodie 1975: 199).
At this point the Pienaar edition has omitted some of the speech which
the Ossewu Gedenkboek includes (p. 627). Moodie translated sections
concerning Malans fears that black and white must work in much closer
contact, than was true 100 years ago (Moodie 1975: 199; Pienaar 1964: 125).
Malan then summarised similar statistics about the changes in the
schools - the non-white numbers are growing much faster than the numbers
of the white pupils (Pienaar 1964: 125). For example, from 1910 to 1935 in
the Transvaal, the school population for whites rose 200 per cent while for
the non-whites it was 614 per cent. The chance of conflict has heightened,
and the whites are the losers (Pienaar 1964: 125). We quote Moodies
translation:
The groaning of the ox wagon evokes clearly again the stars which held your
forefathers on course through the darkest night. Their star of freedom shines
brighter on your path as well . . .
Their freedom was . . . the freedom to preserve themselves as a white race. As you
could never otherwise have realized, you realize today their task to make South
African a white mans land is ten times more your task.
There is a power which is strong enough to lead us to our destination along the
Path of South Africa - the power above, which creates nations and fixes their lot.
(Moodie, 1975: 200-1; Pienaar 1964: 128-9)
This is also the power which is given, and which slumbers in the heart of each
Afrikaner. (Pienaar 1964: 129, trans. J. Alton Templin)
This is the power which can go out, and was intended to go out from that sixty
percent of South Africas white population who are flesh and blood of the exhausted
trekkers struggling in the city. Unite that power purposefully in a mighty salvation-
deed [reddingsduud] and then the future of Afrikanerdom will be assured and white
civilization will be saved. (Moodie 1975: 200 Pienaar 1964: 129)
Malan continues:
In this Centennial year Afrikanerdom discovers itself again. Rising up out of the dust
of humility and scorn, it chooses full recognition for itself, for its noble ancestors and
for its descendants. You claim this by means of your new awakening call of our Ox
Wagons and your monuments. You claim it by means of determination to bring to
an end each misunderstanding of your rights. As a sign of our new national pride
and your self-confidence, take the name of your Voortrekker leaders to yourself and
choose the Stem van Suid Afrika as your own acknowledged song of your people.
...
I ask each of you here today, and each Afrikaner: Praise Andries Pretorius with your
The ideology of a chosen people 415

words; but praise him the more highly by means of your deeds, and follow his
example. (End of speech, Pienaar 1964: 130, trans. J. Alton Templin)
One wonders how much these ideas expressed by Malan in 1938 formed
the basis of his new government after 1948. The probabilities are that these
same ideas had been germinating for quite some time, and this 1938 speech
afforded a chance to express them publicly. It was, indeed, a new Blood River
experience which Malan was organising to lead in barely one decade when he
would become the head of the new Nationalist Government in 1948.

Conclusion

The Ossewa Trek was well organised, and proved to be successful in

capturing and enhancing the spirit of Afrikaner nationalism. Several
scholars believe that this celebration and the enthusiasm it engendered was
one of the most significant influences leading to the victory of the
Gesuiwered Party, now simply the National Party, in 1948. The emphasis
on Unity among Afrikaners resulted in more cooperation between the
followers of Hertzog and Malan. The ideology, or mythology, or civil
religion surrounding the Great Trek - both of the 1830s and of 1938 -
served their purposes well. They kept the dreams of Afrikanerdom alive.
In 1948 the National Party, led by D. F. Malan, won 70 seats in the
assembly and these representatives were joined by 9 representatives of the
Afrikaner Party. The opposition United Party (Smuts) had 65 seats. In
addition, there were 6 Labour seats, 1 Communist seat (banned in 1950),
and 2 Independent seats. When Smuts was defeated he was 78 years of age.
He died at age 80 in 1950. The Nationalist victory of 79 to 74, although
narrow, now allowed the Afrikaners to implement some of their major
emphases of the past century. The continuing pro-Afrikaner emphasis on
Republic, the deep uncertainty of future relations with the majority black
population, and the new economic strengths of the Afrikaner middle class
over the previous three or more decades, coalesced to make the year 1948 a
major turning point in their culture. Wilkins and Strydom (1979: 97),
attribute this victory of 1948 to the emotional binding force of the symbolic
trek. The Afrikaner attitude concerning race relations was quickly
developed into the system of apartheid. The Afrikaner dream of a Republic,
severed from the British empire, finally was realised in 1961.

Appendix I

The Voice of South Africa, with rhyming lines and singable meter
Ringing out from our blue heavens,
from our deep seas breaking round;
Over everlasting mountains where
416 J. Alton Templin

the echoing crags resound;

From our plains where creaking wagons
cut their trails into the earth -
Calls the spirit of our Country,
of the land that gave us birth.
At thy call we shall not falter,
firm and steadfast we shall stand,
At thy will to live or perish,
0 South Africa, dear land.

In our body and our spirit,

in our inmost heart held fast,
In the promise of our future
and the glory of the past;
In our will, our work, our striving,
from the cradle to the grave -
Theres no land that shares our loving,
and no bond that can enslave.
Thou hast borne us and we know thee.
May our deeds to all proclaim
Our enduring love and service
to thy honour and thy name.

In the golden warmth of summer

in the chill of winters air,
In the surging life of springtime,
In the autumn of despair;
When the wedding bells are chiming
or when those we love depart,
Thou dost know us for thy children
and dost take us to thy heart.
Loudly peals the answering chorus:
We are thine, and we shall stand,
Be it life or death,
to answer to thy call, beloved land.

In Thy power, Almighty trusting,

did our fathers build of old;
Strengthen then, 0 Lord,
their children to defend, to love, to hold -
that the heritage they gave us
for our children yet may be:
Bondsmen only to the Highest
before the whole world free.
As our fathers trusted humbly,
teach us, Lord, to trust Thee still:
and Guard our land and guide our people
in Thy way to do Thy will. (Heymans 1986: 40)
The ideology of a chosen people 417

Notes

1 For a study of the earliest colonial developments in South Africa, see Gerstner (1991).
2 The details concerning the Great Trek are thoroughly documented in Templin (1984: chs. 3
and 4).
3 This has been compared with the version in Gerdener (1925).
4 For a thorough analysis of the political developments from 1910 to the middle of the century,
see Kruger (1981). A thorough study of nationalist thought, or the development of the
Afrikaner ideology, see Moodie (I 975).
5 This translation, from the version printed in Ossewa Gehnkboek (1940. 223), is quite literal,
so that we may be able to sense the emotional tone of the poem. A more poetic translation,
rearranged so as to have a definite and singable meter with rhyming lines, is added to this study
as Appendix I.
6 A relevant collection of documents is du Toit and Steenkamp (1939). This collection of
references concerning the Blood River celebration was not available for this study. The major
speech by D. F. Malan, however, was available both in Pienaar (1964: 121-30), and Ossewa
Gedenkboek (1940: 625-30).

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du Toit, Andre. 1983. No Chosen People: the myth of the Calvinist origins of Afrikaner
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