5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

 

Book: Boerestaat, by Robert van TonderFirst English Edition [1977]

Contents

Chapter 5

The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

Individual migration had already started in the 1820's but serious, organised migration startedwith the Uys trek in December of 1835. The Free State land on which the Republic of 1854 wasestablished had been bought from Adam Kok's half-castes and the nomadic Koranas. Thegreater part of the Free State, however, was unoccupied. Firstly because of climatic reasons theblack tribes settled in the warmer parts of the country where they are to this day – although inmuch expanded territories.Secondly the Mfecane destroyed those tribes that had settled in the warmer parts of the interior.E. A. Ritter, in his book 'Shaka Zulu', published by Panther in 1976, describes the Mfecane asfollows:

“Zwide, the Ndwande king, swept down on the Ngwanes and drove them in panic before him,killing all in his path. 'With the Ngwanes already deprived of their wealth, and now driven fromtheir homes and country, Matiwane decided their and then to seek a new home.'“It was, therefor, Zwide, and not Shaka, who inaugurated the terrible tribal migrations about tobe related.“With his army in the van, and all the women and children of the tribe at his heels, Matiwane fellwithout warning on the Hlubi capital, and razed the whole place, annihilating everyone in it,including Mtimkulu. Before the tribe could organise any resistance he burned and butcheredeveryone within his reach, driving the cattle he could get before him, including his own, whichhe had recovered. However, a large proportion of the Hlubis did escape westwards and,gathered into a formidable horde of refugees by Mpangazita, the slain chief's brother, theycrossed the Drakensberg and their turn telescoped violently into the Sutu domain – [part of] thepresent-day Orange Free State. Here they came into murderous conflict with the Batlokwa tribe,the under the regency of Mantatisi, mother of Sekonyela, who was then a minor.“This Mantatisi became one of the most renowned military leaders of the time – a veritable

1 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

Boadicea. After her collision with Mpangazita and his Hlubis, she struck south-westward downthe Caledon river, spreading death and destruction over the whole western Basutoland and thegreater part of the Orange Free State.“So successful was the ferocious Mantatisi, that within a year or two she had scattered theBa-Fukeng, frightened the Bakwena out of her way, plundered the MaKhwakhwa, and evenbeaten Mshweshwe (Moshesh) himself, at Butabute in the war of the pots – so called becausein the fight Mantatisi got all her tribal crockery broken.“Throughout these widespread depredations, without their knowing it, Mantatisi and Mpangazitawere gravitating towards each other in two semicircles, and at Mabolela they ran up againsteach other again. After a savage battle Mantatisi was able to retire over the Caledon, belowKolonyama, and there she kept Mpangazita at bay. Through all the following grim years thedoughty chieftainess managed to preserve her tribe from destruction, but a fearful cost to othertribes. The ruses and stratagems she employed, allied with her deathless courage, would aloneform a complete narrative.“Mpangazita, on the other hand, after successfully fighting innumerable battles and ruining anuntold number of clans, ultimately clashed once more with Matiwane in 1825 near Mabolela,when the latter was putting all the distance he could between himself and Shaka. For five daysMatiwane and his Ngwanes fought a battle of annihilation with Mpangazita and his Hlubis.“After Matiwane's first clash with the Hlubis in their original homeland he did not follow themwhen they crossed the Drakensberg mountains. Instead, he ravaged the whole of the northern,central and western portion of the present-day Klipriver county in Natal. He annihilated the Beletribe, who were first cousins of the Hlubis, and mercilessly hacked his way south, burning andbutchering infants and females, aged and sick alike. Whenever a fallen chief could be found heplucked the gallbladder from the corpse and greedily drank its contents, believing, thereby, thathe would add his fallen enemy's courage and ferocity to his own. After crossing the UpperTugela river he settled in the present-day Bergville district under the shadow of theDrakensberg, where it rises to its greatest hight of nearly 12,000 feet. Here he found peace, butfor four years only, when Mdlaka, Shaka's general, drove him and his tribe helter-skelter overthe Berg and into the Free State with the loss of his cattle.“A second wave of devastation now swept over north-western Basutoland and the eastern FreeState, and the remnants of tribes which were trying to re-establish themselves after theblood-tide of Mpangazita and Mantatisi had submerged them, were now broken up anddispersed, their granaries pillaged, and their remaining cattle driven off by the hungry Ngwanehorde.“The pitiless cruelty and unspeakable brutality of these intertribal wars of annihilation baffledescription, and whether they were perpetrated by the followers of Matiwane, Mpangazita orMantatisi they all bore the same pattern [11].“Matiwane's defeat by Colonel Somerset at the head of 1,000 Europeans, supported by 18,000Xhosas and Tembus, took place on 26 August 1828, near Mount Baziya, in the EasternProvince of the Cape Colony. Actually the expedition was directed against Shaka, whosearmies had penetrated to that neighbourhood but by clever manoeuvres had got away withmuch booty. Counting the more or less direct distance from point to point along Matiwane'sroute, and excluding the countless zigzag perambulations, he had covered the best part of1,000 miles through new territory, since he left his ancestral home, and converted his tribe intoNomads of Wrath, whom he skilfully guided through countless dangers and appallingvicissitudes, only to broken at last by the White man's guns and horses, allied to an

2 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

overwhelming horde of Nguni warriors. By constantly absorbing fugitives from everywhere, thisable captain had gathered a striking force far more formidable than anything with which he hadstarted. These Nomads of Wrath were guilty of the most atrocious barbarities, but ultimatelythey died with reckless bravery even in the face of the new terror of thunder, smoke and death.

“With a handful of followers Matiwane escaped from the [...] [extermination. Ed], with theintention of throwing himself on the mercy of Shaka...“Matiwane finally reached Zululand to find that Shaka was no more, and Dingane on the throne.The latter accommodated him at his Royal kraal for a time, and then summoned him to appear.Suspecting the worst, Matiwane solemnly removed his brass armring and handed it to hisfourteen-year-old son, Zikali, whom he instructed to remain at home.“'Where are your people?' asked Dingane. 'Here they are, all that are left of them,' was thereply. 'Then take them all away,' Dingane ordered. Thereupon they were led away and eachNgwane had his neck broken by a violent twist of the head; but Matiwane they tortured todeath...“... The direction he chose was unlucky; had he gone north-west instead of south-west he wouldhave anticipated Mzilikazi by four years, and had the free run of Africa without coming intocollision with the Whites or other Inguni tribesmen.”

Before the remnants of these interior tribes could recover from devastation, Mzilikazi appeared.The following quotation is taken from 'The Washing of the Spears' by Donald R. Morris aspublished by Jonathan Cape in 1966.

“By 1824 it was all over. Not a single clan remained in a belt a hundred miles wide south of theTugela River; in an area that had teemed with bustling clans only thousands of deserted kraalsremained, most of them in ashes. A few thousands terrified inhabitants remained, hiding out inthe bush or forest in pitiful bands, and cannibalism flourished. No one dared to till crops or buildkraals.“The clan structure in the far south held, although strained to the limit. Two major tribes wereformed by the debris: the Fingoes of British Kaffraria [12] – reduced almost to helots – whosevery name had been taken from their cries of want as they entered the area, and the Bacas,who led a precarious existence in the hunted corners of Natal until the coming of the white manprovided them shelter from the Zulu wrath [13].“Other Zulu expeditions harried the north, where some scattered Sutu clans had spilled overfrom the Transvaal. Shaka placed Mzilikazi in charge of one of these raids, and, in Ndwandwecountry, he stopped off at the kraal where his father had once ruled before Zwide killed him. Hisreception was heartfelt, and, his raiding mission successfully accomplished, he settled at hisfather's kraal with the cattle he had brought off – and two regiments entrusted to his care.“Shaka, noting the discrepancy between reports of the cattle taken and the token numbersMzilikazi had sent him, requested the balance, but Mzilikazi made no reply. Such defiance wasmore than sufficient to call for heavy retaliation, but Shaka sent only a light impi to collect thecattle, and Mzilikazi defeated it. Even the Shaka was inclined to let the matter drop – Mzilikazihad been a favourite – but the Zulu elders would not condone such resistance from a youngforeigner. Shaka regretfully sent a second impi in force, and Mzilikazi decamped for the interior.

3 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

“He had with him only some three hundred warriors, but they were Zulus and they added theirmeasure of ruin to that caused by the baTlokwa, the emaNgwaneni and the amaHlubi. Mzilikazihammered a tribe – the Matabele – out of his original band and such Sutu clans as he couldswallow. Where Mshweshwe had been based on an impregnable fortress, working with peoplespeaking a single tongue, Mzilikazi was adrift on an open plain and forced to cope with alanguage barrier. The nation he forged, however, was even more powerful than the Basuto, andafter cutting a wide swath of destruction...”

The Transvaal was virtually completely unoccupied. The renegade Zulu chief, Mzilikazi, infleeing Shaka's wrath had erected temporary kraals in the Marico area, on the Botswanaborder, from where he continued to pillage the surviving clans for his own account eventuallydriving everybody out of the Transvaal. By the time the emigrant Boere arrived in the northernFree State, from where they scouted out the Transvaal, Mzilikatse was raiding deep intoBotswana.

On October the 16th 1836 Mzilikatse sent 5,000 of his warriors to attack the Boere laager atVegkop. Under Potgieter's leadership the 38 Boere riflemen warded off the attack with the lossof one man killing 400 Matabele. This was the first of a series of brilliant victories that this Boereleader, who never lost a battle and never made mistakes, would chalk up. Mzilikazi's force hadbeen warded off but not beaten, Potgieter's force begin too small to achieve as much. Howeveron January the 17th 1837 Potgieter and Gerrit Maritz joined forces and did battle withMzilikatsi's Impi at Mosega in the vicinity of Zeerust achieving a resounding success.

Mzilikatse fled and erected new kraals to the north. In spite of his victory over the Matabele atMosega Potgieter realised that he had not yet broken Mzilikazi's might. From November the 4thto November the 12th Potgieter and Pieter Uys joined forces and attacked the Matabele atKapain with 330 men. In an epic battle lasting nine days they succeeded in driving the Matabeleacross the Limpopo as far north as Bulowayo in Zimbabwe where they live to this day. With thisglorious battle Potgieter cleared and secured the entire Transvaal for Boere settlement,something that was not achieved by the Blood River punitive expedition because the Zuluwere never driven from Natal.

It should be mentioned here that Mzilikazi allowed himself to be influenced by the Britishmissionaries Moffat and Livingstone who smuggled weapons through to him and agitatedagainst the Boere, similar to the seditious role Owen played in Dingane's kraal . The ongoingBritish Boere-hating missionaries that pertinaciously fulfil the same role this day. Think of theFrench-Beytaghs, the Reevess's, the Huddlestons, and the Tutus of today.

In 1852, after Our Boere gave Sir Harry Smith a good run for his money during the battle ofBoomplaats, Britain recognised the independence of the Transvaal with the Sand RiverConvention in which the name 'Emigrante-boere' was used. Through this convention the mostpowerful of our Boere Republicscame into being. The Free Statewas founded in 1854 and from the start the two Republics

4 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

wished to amalgamate but the British refused to accede.

For a mere 25 years the Boere were allowed to develop and establish their own states. In 1874gold was discovered at Pelgrimsrust and in 1877 the British interfered again and annexed theTransvaal. Our Boere faulk now produced its greatest leader: PAUL KRUGER .

Under Paul Kruger's brilliant leadership our faulk organised a formidable resistance and with thegreat battle of Majuba the British colonial force in South Africa was dealt a crippling blow andwe regained our freedom. But again our Boere faulk only had peace for a mere nineteenyears....

Our magnificent Republics, that were regarded as model states, achieved world fame overnightwith the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in the Transvaal in 1886.

And guess who was back on the scene?

In 1899 Britain again attacked our Boere Republics and what followed was the most heroicbattle for freedom the world has ever known.

The total Boere population numbered only 180,000 souls; men, women and children. Our forceswere made up of 60,000 men ranging in age from boys of nine to octogenarians. Against thismodest army Great Britain fielded 440,000 troops recruited from England, Scotland, Ireland,Wales, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Cape Colony and Natal.

Our Boere faulk had to wage total war. They fought with every fibre of the faulk's begin. Theyfought for their very survival as faulk and as human beings. During the great battles ofMagersfontein, Colenso, Spioenkop, Paardeberg, Dalmanutha, Sannaspos, Ysterspruit,Tweebosch, Nooitgedacht and many others, they dealt the mighty Great Britain one devastatingblow after another... 180,000 against 15 million!

Britain was humiliated before the entire world and we Boere hammered the first nail into theEmpire's coffin. Germany took courage and built up a mighty army and navy and fought twoWorld Wars against Britain reducing her to a secondary power in spite of the fact that she hadfree access to South Africa's gold [14]. Only 70 years after our battle for freedom would a majorpower again be humiliated in this fashion when little Vietnam overpowered the U.S.A. and senther packing.The so-called 'Boer War' was ended by the humiliating and criminal Treaty of Vereeniging whichhad one mitigating provision in clause 7. “MILITARY ADMINISTRATION in the TRANSVAALand ORANGE RIVER COLONY will at the earliest possible date be succeeded by CIVILGOVERNEMENT and, as soon as circumstances permit, Representative Institutions, leading upto self-Government, will be introduced.” This is followed by clause 8 which reads: “The questionof granting the Franchise to Natives will not be decided until after the introduction of

5 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

Self-Government.”

To this day the Transvaal and the Orange Free State have not been granted self-government.And the South African government automatically inherited Britan's outstanding obligations underthe treaty when Union was proclaimed by an act of the British Parliament .

No matter how hard the British tried they could not achieve a military victory over our Boerefaulk. Then the greatest genocide of modern history was initiated – 35,000 Boere homes inTransvaal and Free State were arsonised, all our women and children were incarcerated inconcentration camps. The first concentration camps in the world where the Britishsystematically murdered 27,000 innocents! One sixth of our Boere faulk was annihilated. In thehell-camps of Turffontein, Kroonstad, Irene, Potchefstroom, Kimberley, Klerksdorp,Bloemfontein, Nylstroom, Bethulie, Winburg and many more – for the full list refer to the introductory of this book– our Boere faulk were nearly wiped off the face of the earth.

11. 'There must have been some basic cause of these movements. People practisingagriculture by essartage and stock-raising are often driven into movement by temporary soilexhaustion. This is a possible cause.' - Footnote by E. A. Ritter.12. On the eastern border of the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony.13. Far from oppressing the black people for 300 years as the A.N.C. and the S.A.C.P. wouldhave everybody believe, we Boere freed them from generations of black tyranny!14. See quotation from Winston's Churchill's memories of W. W. II on page 56.

Small boys – Prisoners of war taken by the British and ferried thousands of kilometres to Ceylonand Bermuda.

6 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

 

Woman and children being loaded onto open coal trucks to be ferried to the concentrationcamps in midwinter. Many kiddies caught pneumonia that first night and died soon on arrival atthe camps.

 

7 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

Women and children being herded to the concentration camps with their home burning in thebackground. For this cruel task the British were wont to employ blacks.

8 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

An emaciated Boere baby in the concentration camp.  

9 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

Like little Lizzie van Zyl at the top and emaciated child at the bottom 27 000 Boere women andchildren were murdered by the British in their infamous concentration camps.

 

All the Boere churches in the Republics were destroyed.  

10 / 11

5. The Republics of the Transvaal and Free State

A Boer family photographed shortly after their arrival in the concentration camp. Of thisparticular family only the mother survived a three month sojourn.  

SUSSIE IS SIEK(Little sister is ill)That is the pathetic caption to this photograph in the original book. There is no bed for the dyingchild. Chairs have been improvised into a bed. Chapter 4 - Contents - Chapter 6

11 / 11