May 15, 2007

The Boers are a Homegrown Group.



The Boer people of Southern Africa are not White colonials as the British & others who came later were but are an indigenous people who are an integral part of the African landscape. The Boers developed into a people from diverse national & ethnic origins -the main groups being Dutch / French & German during the late 17th cent from those who began trekking into the eastern Cape frontier. The people in the West often erroneously presume that all of the White people in South Africa are colonials or are not indigenous to the region or all lived in cities. Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the Boer people. These people speak a dialect of a language which was developed on African soil & have their own customs & lived in impoverished rural conditions which historians have noted were similar to the Khoisan peoples. The Boers would later go on to found a number of republics in reaction against both Dutch & British colonialism starting from 1795.

    It would be entirely wrong to regard the trekboers as members of an exotic civilisation transplanted to the South African interior: these new-comers had become as much a part of Africa as its indigenous people and as the Bantu who, all unknown to them, were at the same time migrating southwards down the continent.






    The trekboers are a product of Africa. They broke all connection with Europe and their homeland Holland. The Afrikaner and his language grew out of this movement, and this could be considered as another of the migrations of Africa but by a white African tribe this time.




Note: The Boers did not come from just Holland but from France / Belgium / Denmark / Germany / Asia & other places as well.



    Boer Family, 1886. The Boers (Afrikaans for farmers) were of Dutch descent. Recognised by many Africans as a tribe, the were a semi-nomadic cattle owning people.






    The Afrikaners are Africa's only true indigenous white tribe of Africa. They even speak their own language, Afrikaans formed over many years through the coming together of various cultures and nationalities in the Cape.


Note: The Afrikaners in actual context tends to refer to those of Western Cape descent while the term Boer tends to refer to those who are of Trekboer & Voortrekker descent.




    This tribe traces its origins to the first permanent settlement of Dutch colonists who arrived in 1652 and to the French Huguenots, Protestant refugees from catholic France who came to the country shortly thereafter.






    From 1660 onwards a new breed of Dutch settlers emerged, namely the “trekboers”, who were nomadic farmers that increasingly moved inland from the Cape Peninsula in search of new grazing land. These trekboers can justly be called the first white Africans. In 1688 French Huguenot refugees arrived in the Cape to further swell the ranks of the settler community and to increase its expansion into the interior. Poor, unemployed and landless, these people sough a future for themselves outside the confines of the Dutch East India Company. However, the Dutch East India Company, in an effort to retain control and to secure revenue, followed in the trekboers’ footsteps by expanding the outer
    boundaries of the colony. In this way the trekboers inadvertently caused the official area of the colony to expand as far as the Great Fish river by 1778. The defining characteristics of the trekboers can be encapsulated by the words “fiercely independent”, “defiance of authority”, “poor”, “nomadic”, “religious fundamentalism” and “illiterate”.

    From 1771 onwards the trekboers came up against the Xhosa-speakers who lived in the Eastern Cape. Both groups were mainly cattle farmers and it was inevitable that competition for the same grazing land would eventually give rise to conflict. The first of eight “frontier wars” between the colonialists and the Xhosa broke out in 1781. As a result of political events in Europe the Cape Colony was first occupied by the British from 1795 to 1802, and after a brief return to Dutch rule as a result of the Treaty of Amiens, the British re-occupied the Cape in 1806 following the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. The arrival of British rule proved to be a seminal event in the history of South Africa that has cast its shadow on the shaping of the country and its inhabitants to the present. Some of the most important milestones that can directly be related to the British annexation of the Cape and Natal are the following:
    (1) In 1820 British settlers arrived in present-day Port Elizabeth. These settlers were given farms on the Eastern Cape frontier with the express intention of protecting white interests against the Xhosa.






    Life as Trekboer and where they Roamed.

    Looking at the farms that we know they lived on, the area is west of the present town Victoria West and Southeast of the town Carnarvon:

    Oct 1864 on farm Klipbankfontein. It is about 20 miles south of Loxton on the road to Beaufort West on the western side of the road

    The next three farms are adjacent to one another and five miles apart on the road between Carnarvon and Loxton.

    April 1866 on farm Vlokswerwen

    Aug 1867 on farm Kalkfontein

    May 1871 on farm Klipbank

    This area had slightly more summer rains than other Karoo areas, since they lived amongst the Karree mountains. Yet they suffered severe droughts, thus being forced to trek after pastures and water for their flock. Here it was the summer drought, not winter that forced them to trek. One thing you were sure of and that was that the drought will come again. Two opposing poles; drought and rain controlled their lives. Living a life filled with hope that there will come divine intervention in the form of rain. Always hoping that tomorrow it will be better.

    One writer described these trekboers: "They are feckless, courageous folk. They dare the desert crossings in their wagons like sailors in an open boat. Indeed, ....seeing the trekking wagons with their dusty hoods: 'God - they're like tanned sails - tanned sails on a hot brown ocean."(24) The wagons were like a dessert chameleon changing its colour and taking on the dusty khaki appearance of the surrounding. Many a wagon would pierce the silence of the Karoo with its squealing and screeching greaseless axles.

    Social Interaction

    Some times you would stay at one spot for a number of years other times you had to trek every year. Those who possessed land didn't mind others farming on their land. It provided mutual protection, against attack from either man or beast, having company for social interaction and taking care of one another in times of emergency or sickness were mutually beneficial. Extra manpower also came in handy with the digging of wells or labouring at bringing the water to the surface.(25) To bring water to the surface they made big canvas bags and sowed into the bottom of the side a sleeve. The sleeve was folded and tied closed, higher than the water level. With manpower they would pull up the canvas container full of water, then releasing the sleeve the water was channelled out of the bag. It was only in the later part of the nineteenth century that the Noria (bakkiespomp came into use). This was followed by the aeromotors windmill that was imported from America by Lloyd and Co.(26) The arrival of the windmill totally changed the Karoo and its inhabitants.

    There were little difference socially between those who possessed land and those who didn't. In fact it was felt that one was better of without land, why pay for land and taxes? Becoming a slave to one piece of land, was believed to be unwise, when droughts in any case forced you to move. They had to follow the rain for the sake of survival. The person who had no land was much freer and could trek around without being tied down to a particular piece of land. They reasoned that money could run out but land was plentiful and will never run out. Some said that they would be willing to purchase land if the land was on wheels so that one is able to move it to where the rain has fallen.(27) It was customary to look at the thunder and lightning and then calculate how far away it was raining and then trek with your animals there. This method of calculating how far away the rain were, must have been past down the family since the writer was taught by his father that if the lightning flashed then one counts until you hear the thunder and then you know how many miles away it is. The drought at times could be broken by ear shattering thunder with torrents of rain. The karoo then came with its trump card with lush grass and flowers. According to van der Merwe "they trekked from one vlei, kolk and waterkuil, to another".(28) There were other challenges to the spirit of these pioneers. This was a land with the threat of Bushmen, a land of snakes, spiders, and scorpions. Good rains produced green veld and joy. However often after the fall of rain and the growth of plants, they encountered plagues of locust, these plagues when they came would leave the veld as if it was burned by a veld fire. The locusts ate the grass and crops, the caterpillars ate the bushes.

    Natures wonder of Millions of Migratory Trekbokke

    There was also still nature's wonder of the trekbokke. Millions of migrating springbok. The beautiful springbok has the capacity to jump very high, one moment they are part of the veld and the next moment they are part of the sky. These springbok herds that numbered in their hundreds of thousands; what they did not eat up, they would trample to dust. In the stampede any domestic animals were carried along with the mass. There was a massive trek in 1860. Between 1887 and 1895 there were still four big treks. Another interesting behaviour of the wild animals, during times of extreme droughts, is that they would become 'tame thirst'. They then would venture right to man in search of water, then the greatest enemy was not man but thirst.

    Wagon and Tent serving as Home

    They lived in stone houses or in their wagons. For some the wagon was where they had to live, cook, sleep and have children and they were successful at the latter. Those who were better off also possessed a tent, twelve feet by twelve feet square, at the sides it was four and a halve feet high and in the center ten feet high. The children would sleep in one big bed, under 'karosse' animal skin blankets in or under the wagon. It was cold at night but hot during the day. Many of these farmers didn't want a 'walled' house. With a walled house you could not hear your animals nor feel close to nature. They became like pilgrims, with regular 'oppakkery en afpakkery' packing up or unpacking, 'inspan en uitspan' harness and unharness. This led to a spirit of restlessness and adventure. 'Trekgees' adventure spirit and 'drang om te trek', the urge to want to trek, became part of their psyche. Even an ache in the back would be taken as a sign that somewhere it had rained and one must trek, following the rain. The only other comparative race could be the nomadic Arab. The environment made them self-reliant and no one was their boss, if there were a disagreement they could just pack their wagon and move on. Time was not a problem since tomorrow was another day. They were the gypsy of the desert, some have referred to the karoo as dehydrated land. Often these thirstland trekker's possessions consisted of: one bed, two chests, riempies fold up chairs, fold up table, little food cupboard, and wagon chest. These folks did not wear socks either, and the children would get around bear feet. The women folk would sit with their feet on a little komfoor, a little wooden box that would be filled with coals to keep their feet warm. Below is a drawing by Charles Bell from 1835 of the inside of a Trekboer tent.

    Adapting and Adopting the Native Lifestyle

    For these ancestors in this harsh world, it was a matter of adapt or die. Their food included biltong (jerky), boerbeskuit (dried rusks). Jams with a lot of sugar - it helps to preserve. Sour and butter milk was enjoyed, rather practical since they had no fridge's. Melkkos was made out of milk. They even baked the old bread in order to preserve it. The animals they had were the native fat tail sheep, in the better vegetation areas they acquired the native Nguni cattle, which later breeds like the Afrikander came from. The donkey were ideal for this harsh type of climate, everyone had some of them.

    The other forms of dwelling were constructed from the environment, they had to use what was available. Some houses were constructed of stone, see photo of poor white and their home (23k). Other houses were constructed of mud and dung like the natives see photo of house similar to blacks (12k). Here is a photo of a white herder's home (13k). Little hartebees homes were used where reeds and sticks would be covered by mud and dung, see photo of a house (13k). The wagon and tent were the permanent home for some and for all on trek. The housing was at times a cross between all the mentioned and one would find it hard to classify under which category the dwelling did fall, see photo of wagon and conglomerate shelter (9k). Further west in the Namaqualand they had matjies huts, see photo of poor whites matjies house (12k), here is another photo of father and child at their Namaqua matjies home (13k) (these photos come from the Carnegie Report on the Poor Whites from the early twentieth Century which gives an account of the types of housing, which would have existed.). The later thus adopted the Hottentot's form of dwelling, see painting of Hottentot assembling their matjies house (24k). These huts were easy to transport and provided excellent ventilation in the heat. Lastly it is not often recognized that the making of biltong was first practised by the Hottentot, refer to Sparrman. The trekboer's also followed the practise of the Khoikhoi in storing their milk in skin sacks. Both in their manners and appearance they resembled more the Hottentots.

    They made their own leather shoes, and leather thongs were used instead of ropes. Karos blankets consisting of sown together animal skins, were part of their bedding. No wonder some outsiders expressed the concern that these people were going native. They even would wear leather clothes. The floor was their bed until some big game was killed and its skin was then fasten to a couple of bars on posts which was driven into the floor. Where there was a lack of feathers they would use club-rushes which was then scraped off and their mattresses were stuffed with it, this was good for two years. With lack of fire wood dried dung was used for fire. A hollowed out termite mound became their oven. All these circumstances contributed to that characterestic of being very independent: " 'n Boer maak 'n plan", thus they were their own carpenter, their own smith, they made their own furniture, making their own clothes and shoes, essentially being self sufficient. They had little and needed little. Their economy was one mainly of, bartering and living of the land. It is interesting to compare these nomads with other nomadic peoples.(29) They became so much part of Africa that they wanted to be called Afrikaners, thus distinguishing themselves from the townspeople of Cape Town. Self reliance became a virtue and they did not want laws imposed on them.

    The trekboer society also were rather fluid and people of mix blood were incorporated by some of these folks. The Karoo allowed mixed marriages, to find a haven of isolation. The barren are were a sanctuary for the Bastards, Griquas, Korana's and for other individual families which would have been marginalized.

    Account of Victoria West

    Edward John Dunn(30) comments upon the farmers who would come to Victoria West "during nachtmaal (communion service) farmers and their heavy halves ... throng the street". He also comments about these farmers "when they leave for their distant and isolated homes their wagons heavier but their purses lighter". When these farmers shopped they also had the habit of pocketing small items. Apparently this was not a case of kleptomania rather a cultural phenomenon. J MacKensie in Ten Years North of the Orange River, tells how the shopowners would handle the situation, rather than confronting the farmer and causing an embarrassment all that they would do is to add to the list of purchased items, the small item that disappeared.

    Willem left the western Cape, where the family lived for nearly one hundred and fifty years, which is beautiful and green, with a reliable rainfall, more like Europe. Trekking to live in the barren Karoo. Living life, materially at a minimum. It is very hard to fully comprehend this major relocation. Willem must have still been alive after 6 May 1871 since he gave consent on that date for his daughter to get married.






    Dutch farmers expand north and east from Cape Town after the 1680s. The Dutch East India Company, which ran Cape Town as a resupply base for their ships on the long voyages to the spice islands in southeast Asia, was not interested in expansion in Africa. These settlers, called trekboers ("nomad-farmers"), lived under no government control, much like the Portuguese bandeitantes of Brazil or the American frontiersmen like Daniel Boone. The trekboers lived in small villages or isolated farms, raising large herds of cattle--in this way their way of life had many similarities with the Bantu peoples of South Africa.






    Trekboers in the 18th Century.

    The population of whites did not reach 1000 until about 100 years after the arrival of thr first settlers. A small number of burghers gegan to drift away from the close control of the company and into Africa. These were the first so called trekboers who were completely independent of all official control, self-sufficient and very isolated. They persued a semi-nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, not very different to the way the Khoikhoi lived. As they became more settled mud cottages were built, but it could weeks of travel to the next tiny European settlement. The lifestyle and isolation resulted in a courageous group, but also very backward people whose only source of information was the bible. The trekboers were completely cut off from the developments in Europe like the French Revolution and the ideas of liberalism and democracy.





    These early Dutch farmers were joined by other Europeans and their populations grew. The Dutch East India Company imported slaves from Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar and other parts of the Dutch Empire to work on large plantations close to Cape Town. The seminomadic Dutch farmers expanded their settlement further from the Cape and came into conflict over land with local African populations. Their contact with the local Dutch government became more and more tenuous and most of them lived hard rural lives, moving farmsteads frequently, and quite independent of government and education. By 1745 they were known as Trekboers, which means "wandering farmers," a term which was later shortened to Boers. They were unaware of the changing politics in Europe.






The above should suffice to demonstrate the distinctiveness & homegrown / indigenous nature of the Boer people / nation. These are a people who have been in Africa for over 350 years with a long history of which only the strongest could survive. From humble origins they ended up facing staggering odds which pitted them against neighbouring tribes & colonial powers.

posted by Ron. at 9:15 AM