TheGreat Trek (Afrikaans:Die Groot Trek,Dutch:De Grote Trek) was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled bywagon trains from theCape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Cape's originalEuropean settlers, known collectively asBoers, and theBritish. It was also reflective of an increasingly common trend among individual Boer communities to pursue anisolationist and semi-nomadic lifestyle away from the developing administrative complexities inCape Town. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves asvoortrekkers, meaning "pioneers" or "pathfinders" inDutch andAfrikaans.
The Great Trek led directly to the founding of several autonomousBoer republics, namely theSouth African Republic (also known simply as the Transvaal), theOrange Free State and theNatalia Republic. It also led to conflicts that resulted in the displacement of theNorthern Ndebele people,[1] and conflicts with theZulu people that contributed to the decline and eventual collapse of theZulu Kingdom.[2]
Before the arrival of Europeans, theCape of Good Hope area was populated byKhoisan tribes.[3] The first Europeans settled in the Cape area under the auspices of theDutch East India Company (also known by its Dutch initialsVOC), which established avictualling station there in 1652 to provide its outward bound fleets with fresh provisions and a harbour of refuge during the long sea journey from Europe to Asia (Hunt, John (2005)). In a few short decades, the Cape had become home to a large population of"Glidden", also denoted as"vrijburgers" (free citizens), former Company employees who remained in Dutch territories overseas after completing their contracts. Since the primary purpose of the Cape settlement at the time was to stock provisions for passing Dutch ships, the VOC offered grants of farmland to its employees under the condition they would cultivate grain for the Company warehouses, and released them from their contracts to save on their wages.[4]Vrijburgers were granted tax-exempt status for 12 years and loaned all the necessary seeds and farming implements they requested.[5] They were married Dutch citizens, considered "of good character" by the Company, and had to commit to spending at least 20 years on the African continent.[4] Reflecting the multi-national character of the VOC's workforce, someGerman soldiers and sailors were also considered forvrijburger status as well,[4] and in 1688 the Dutch government sponsored the resettlement of over a hundred FrenchHuguenot refugees at the Cape.[6] As a result, by 1691 over a quarter of the colony's European population was not ethnically Dutch.[7] Nevertheless, there was a degree of cultural assimilation through intermarriage, and the almost universal adoption of the Dutch language.[8] Cleavages were likelier to occur along social and economic lines; broadly speaking, the Cape colonists were delineated intoBoers, poor farmers who settled directly on the frontier, and the more affluent, predominantly urbanisedCape Dutch.[9]
Following theFlanders Campaign and theBatavian Revolution in Amsterdam, France assisted in the establishment of a pro-French client state, theBatavian Republic, on Dutch soil.[10] This opened the Cape to French warships.[2] To protect her own prosperous maritime shipping routes,Great Britain occupied the fledgling colony by force until 1803.[10] From 1806 to 1814, the Cape was governed as a British military dependency, whose sole importance to theRoyal Navy was its strategic relation to Indian maritime traffic.[10] The British formally assumed permanent administrative control around 1815, as a result of theTreaty of Paris.[10]
At the onset of the British rule, the Cape Colony encompassed 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) and was populated by about 26,720 people of European descent, a relative majority of whom were of Dutch origin.[10][7] Just over a quarter were of German ancestry and about one-sixth were descended from French Huguenots,[7] although most had ceased speaking French since about 1750.[8] There were also 30,000 African and Asian slaves owned by the settlers, and about 17,000 indigenousKhoisan. Relations between the settlers – especially the Boers – and the new administration quickly soured.[11] The British authorities were adamantly opposed to the Boers' ownership of slaves and what was perceived as their unduly harsh treatment of the indigenous peoples.[11]
The British government insisted that the Cape finance its own affairs through self-taxation, an approach which was alien to both the Boers and the Dutch merchants in Cape Town.[2] In 1815, the controversial death of a white farmer, who was shot after resisting arrest for abusing his native servant, resulted in the abortiveSlachter's Nek Rebellion. The British executed five Boers for insurrection.[10] In 1828, the Cape governor declared that all native inhabitants but slaves were to have the rights of "citizens", in respect of security and property ownership, on parity with the settlers. This had the effect of further alienating the colony's white population.[10][12] Boer resentment of successive British administrators continued to grow throughout the late 1820s and early 1830s, especially with the official imposition of the English language.[1] This replaced Dutch with English as the language used in the Cape's judicial and political systems, putting the Boers at a disadvantage, as most spoke little or no English.[10][12]
Britain's alienation of the Boers was particularly amplified by the decision to abolish slavery in all its colonies in 1834.[10][2] All 35,000 slaves registered with the Cape governor were to be freed and given rights on par with other citizens, although in most cases their masters could retain them as apprentices until 1838.[12][13] Many Boers, especially those involved with grain and wine production, were dependent on slave labour; for example, 94% of all white farmers in the vicinity ofStellenbosch owned slaves at the time, and the size of their slave holdings correlated greatly to their production output.[13] Compensation was offered by the British government, but payment had to be received inLondon, and few Boers possessed the funds to make the trip.[2]
Bridling at what they considered an unwarranted intrusion into their way of life, some in the Boer community considered selling their farms and venturing deep into South Africa's unmapped interior to preempt further disputes and live completely independent from British rule.[2] Others, especiallytrekboers, a class of Boers who pursued semi-nomadic pastoral activities, were frustrated by the apparent unwillingness or inability of the British government to extend the borders of the Cape Colony eastward and provide them with access to more prime pasture and economic opportunities. They resolved to trek beyond the colony's borders on their own.[1]
Although it did nothing to impede the Great Trek, Great Britain viewed the movement with pronounced trepidation.[9] The British government initially suggested that conflict in the far interior of Southern Africa between the migrating Boers and the Bantu peoples they encountered would require an expensive military intervention.[9] However, authorities at the Cape also judged that the human and material cost of pursuing the settlers and attempting to re-impose an unpopular system of governance on those who had deliberately spurned it was not worth the immediate risk.[9] Some officials were concerned for the tribes the Boers were certain to encounter, and whether these tribes would be enslaved or otherwise reduced to a state ofpenury.[14]
The Great Trek was not universally popular among the settlers either. Around 12,000 of them took part in the migration, about a fifth of the colony's Dutch-speaking white population at the time.[2][15] TheDutch Reformed Church, to which most of the Boers belonged, explicitly refused to endorse the Great Trek.[2] Despite their hostility towards the British, there were Boers who chose to remain in the Cape of their own accord.[11]
For its part, the distinct Cape Dutch community had accepted British rule; many of its members even considered themselves loyal British subjects with a special affection for English culture.[16] The Cape Dutch were also much more heavily urbanised and therefore less likely to be susceptible to the same rural grievances and considerations as those held by the Boers.[9]
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In January 1832, Andrew Smith (an Englishman) and William Berg (a Boer farmer) scoutedNatal as a potential colony. On their return to the Cape, Smith waxed very enthusiastic, and the impact of discussions Berg had with the Boers proved crucial. Berg portrayed Natal as a land of exceptional farming quality, well watered, and nearly devoid of inhabitants.
In June 1834, the Boer leaders ofUitenhage andGrahamstown discussed aKommissietrek ('Commission Trek') to visit Natal and to assess its potential as a new homeland for the Cape Boers who were disenchanted with British rule at the Cape.Petrus Lafras Uys was chosen as trek leader. At the same time atGraaff-Reinet,Jan Gerritze Bantjes heard about the exploratory trek toPort Natal and, encouraged by his father Bernard Louis Bantjes, sent word to Uys of his interest in participating. Bantjes wanted to help re-establish Dutch independence over the Boers and to get away from British law at the Cape. In early August 1834, he set off with some travellers headed for Grahamstown 220 kilometres (140 mi) away, a three-week journey fromGraaff-Reinet. Sometime around late August 1834 he arrived in Grahamstown, contacted Uys and made his introductions. Bantjes was already well known in the area as an educated young man fluent both in spoken and written Dutch and in English. Because of these skills, Uys invited Bantjes to join him. Bantjes's writing skills would prove invaluable in recording events as the journey unfolded.
On 8 September 1834, theKommissietrek of 40 men and one woman, as well as a retinue of coloured servants, set off from Grahamstown for Natal with 14 wagons. Moving through theEastern Cape, they were welcomed by theXhosa who were in dispute with the neighbouring Zulu KingDingane ka Senzangakhona, and they passed unharmed into Natal. They travelled more or less the same route that Smith and Berg had taken two years earlier.
The trek avoided the coastal route, keeping to the flatter inland terrain. TheKommissietrek approached Port Natal fromEast Griqualand andIxopo, crossing the upper regions of theMtamvuna andUmkomazi rivers. Travel was slow due to the rugged terrain, and since it was the summer, the rainy season had swollen many of the rivers to their maximum. Progress required days of scouting to locate the most suitable tracks to negotiate. Eventually, after weeks of extraordinary toil, the small party arrived at Port Natal, crossing theCongela River and weaving their way through the coastal forest into the bay area. They had travelled a distance of about 650 kilometres (400 mi) from Grahamstown. This trip would have taken about 5 to 6 months with their slow moving wagons. TheDrakensberg route viaKerkenberg into Natal had not yet been discovered.
They arrived at the sweltering hot bay of Port Natal in February 1835, exhausted after their long journey. There, the trek was soon welcomed with open arms by the few British hunters and ivory traders there such as James Collis, including ReverendAllen Francis Gardiner, an ex-commander of theRoyal Navy shipClinker, who had decided to start a mission station there. After congenial exchanges between the Boers and British sides, the party joined them and invitedDick King to become their guide.
The Boers set up theirlaager ('wagon fort') camp in the area of the present-dayGreyville Racecourse inDurban, chosen because it had suitable grazing for the oxen and horses and was far from the foraging hippos in the bay. Several small streams running off theBerea ridge provided fresh water.Alexander Biggar was also at the bay as aprofessionalelephant-hunter and provided the trekkers with information regarding conditions at Port Natal. Bantjes made notes suggested by Uys, which later formed the basis of his more comprehensive report on the positive aspects of Natal. Bantjes also made rough maps of the bay - although this journal is now missing - showing the potential for a harbour which could supply the Boers in their new homeland.
At Port Natal, Uys sent Dick King, who could speak Zulu, touMgungundlovu to investigate with King Dingane the possibility of granting them land. When Dick King returned to Port Natal some weeks later, he reported that King Dingane insisted they visit him in person.Johannes Uys, brother of Piet Uys, and a number of comrades with a few wagons travelled toward King Dingane's capital at uMgungundlovu, and after making alaager camp at the mouth of theMvoti River, they proceeded on horseback, but were halted by a floodedTugela River and forced to return to thelaager.
TheKommissietrek left Port Natal for Grahamstown with a stash of ivory in early June 1835, following more or less the same route back to the Cape, and arrived at Grahamstown in October 1835. On Piet Uys's recommendation, Bantjes set to work on the first draft of the Natalialand Report. Meetings and talks took place in the main church to much approval, and the first sparks of Trek Fever began to take hold. From all the information accumulated at Port Natal, Bantjes drew up the final report on "Natalia or Natal Land" that acted as the catalyst which inspired the Boers at the Cape to set in motion the Great Trek.
| Largest first wave trek parties[14]: 162–163 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leader | Date of departure | Point of departure | Size | |
| Louis Tregardt | September 1835 | Nine families including the Tregardt family | ||
| Hans van Rensburg | September 1835 | 49 | ||
| Hendrik Potgieter | late 1835 or early 1836 | Over 200 once united with the parties ofSarel Cilliers and Casper Kruger. | ||
| Gerrit Maritz | September 1836 | Graaff-Reinet | Over 700 people including roughly 100 white men | |
| Piet Retief | February 1837 | Albany | Roughly 100 men, women, and children. | |
| Piet Uys | April 1837 | Uitenhage | Over 100 members of the Uys family. | |
The first wave of Voortrekkers lasted from 1835 to 1840, during which an estimated 6,000 people (roughly 10% of the Cape Colony's white population or 20% of the white population in the eastern district in 1830s) trekked.[14]
The first two parties of Voortrekkers left in September 1835, led byLouis Tregardt andHans van Rensburg. These two parties crossed theVaal river atRobert's Drift in January 1836, but in April 1836 the two parties split up, just 110 kilometres (70 mi) from theSoutpansberg mountains, following differences between Tregardt and van Rensburg.[17]
In late July 1836 van Rensburg's entire party of 49, except two children who were saved by a Zulu warrior, were massacred atInhambane by animpi (a force of warriors) ofManukosi.[18] Those of Tregardt's party that had set up around Soutpansberg moved on to coloniseDelagoa Bay, with most of the party, including Tregardt, perishing from fever.[14]: 163
A party led byHendrik Potgieter trekked out of the Tarka area in either late 1835 or early 1836, and in September 1836 a party led byGerrit Maritz began their trek from Graaff-Reinet. There was no clear consensus amongst the trekkers on where they were going to settle, but they all had the goal of settling near an outlet to the sea.[14]: 162, 163
In August 1836, despite pre-existing peace agreements with local black leaders, aNdebele (Matebele) patrol attacked the Liebenberg family part of Potgieter's party, killing six men, two women and six children. It is thought that their primary aim was to plunder the Voortrekkers' cattle. On 20 October 1836, Potgieter's party was attacked by an army of 4,600 Ndebele warriors at theBattle of Vegkop. Thirty-five armed trekkers repulsed the Ndebele assault on theirlaager with the loss of two men and almost all the trekkers' cattle. Potgieter, Uys and Maritz mounted two punitive commando raids. The first resulted in the sacking of the Ndebele colony atMosega, the death of 400 Ndebele, and the taking of 7,000 cattle. The second commando forcedMzilikazi and his followers to flee to what is now modern dayZimbabwe.[14]: 163
By spring 1837, five to six large Voortrekker colonies had been established between theVaal andOrange Rivers with a total population of around 2,000 trekkers.
In October 1837Retief met withZuluKing Dingane to negotiate a treaty for land in what is nowKwa-Zulu Natal. King Dingane, suspicious and untrusting because of previous Voortrekker influxes from across the Drakensberg,had Retief and seventy of his followers killed.[14]: 164
Various interpretations of what transpired exist, as only the missionaryFrancis Owen's written eye-witness account survived.[19] Retief's written request for land contained veiled threats by referring to the Voortrekker's defeat of indigenous groups encountered along their journey. The Voortrekker demand for a written contract guaranteeing private property ownership was incompatible with the contemporaneous Zulu oral culture which prescribed that a chief could only temporarily dispense land as it was communally owned.[20]
Most versions agree that the following happened: King Dingane's authority extended over some of the land in which the Boers wanted to settle. As prerequisite to granting the Voortrekker request, he demanded that the Voortrekkers return some cattle stolen bySekonyela, a rival chief. After the Boers retrieved the cattle, King Dingane invited Retief to his residence at uMgungundlovu to finalise the treaty, having either planned the massacre in advance, or deciding to do so after Retief and his men arrived.
King Dingane's reputed instruction to his warriors, "Bulalani abathakathi!" (Zulu for "kill the witches") may indicate that he considered the Boers to wield evil supernatural powers. After killing Retief's delegation, a Zulu army of 7,000 impis were sent out and immediately attacked Voortrekker encampments in the Drakensberg foothills at what later was calledBlaauwkrans andWeenen, leading to theWeenen massacre in which 532 people were killed, including 282 Voortrekkers, of whom 185 were children, and 250Khoikhoi andBasuto accompanying them.[21] In contrast to earlier conflicts with theXhosa on the eastern Cape frontier, the Zulus killed women and children along with men, wiping out half of the Natal contingent of Voortrekkers.
The Voortrekkers retaliated with a 347-strong punitive raid against the Zulu (later known as the Flight Commando), supported by new arrivals from theOrange Free State. The Voortrekkers were roundly defeated by about 7,000 warriors atIthaleni, southwest of uMgungundlovu. The well-known reluctance of Afrikaner leaders to submit to one another's leadership, which later hindered sustained success in theAnglo-Boer Wars, was largely to blame.
In November 1838Andries Pretorius arrived to assist in the defence. A few days later on 16 December 1838, the trekkers fought against Zulu impis at theBattle of Blood River. Pretorius's victory over the Zulu army led to a civil war within the Zulu nation as King Dingane's half-brother,Mpande kaSenzangakhona, aligned with the Voortrekkers to overthrow the king and impose himself. Mpande sent 10,000 impis to assist the trekkers in follow-up expeditions against Dingane.[14]: 164
After the defeat of the Zulu forces and the recovery of the treaty between Dingane and Retief from Retief's body, the Voortrekkers proclaimed theNatalia Republic.[22] After Dingane's death, Mpande was proclaimed king, and the Zulu nation allied with the short-lived Natalia Republic until its annexation by theBritish Empire in 1843.[14]: 164 [23]
The Voortrekkers' guns offered them a technological advantage over the Zulu's traditional weaponry of short stabbing spears, fighting sticks, and cattle-hide shields. The Boers attributed their victory to a vow they made to God before the battle: if victorious, they and future generations would commemorate the day as aSabbath. Thereafter, 16 December was celebrated by Boers as a public holiday, first called Dingane's Day, later changed to theDay of the Vow.Post-apartheid, the name was changed to theDay of Reconciliation by the South African government, in order to foster reconciliation between all South Africans.[23]
Conflict amongst the Voortrekkers was a problem because the trek levelled out the pre-existing class hierarchy which had previously enforced discipline, and thus social cohesion broke down. Instead the trek leaders became more reliant on patriarchal family structure and military reputation to maintain control over their parties. This had a large and lasting impact onAfrikaans culture and society.[14]: 163
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The celebration of the Great Trek in the 1930s played a major role in the growth ofAfrikaansnationalism. It is thought that the experiences of theSecond Boer War and the following period, between 1906 and 1934, of a lack of public discussion about the war within the Afrikaans community helped set the scene for a large increase in interest in Afrikaans national identity. The celebration of the centenary of the Great Trek along with a new generation of Afrikaners interested in learning about the Afrikaans experiences of the Boer War catalysed a surge of Afrikaans nationalism.[14]: 433
The centenary celebrations began with a re-enactment of the trek beginning on 8 August 1938 with nine ox wagons at the statue ofJan van Riebeeck in Cape Town and ended at the newly completedVoortrekker Monument inPretoria and attended by over 100,000 people. A second re-enactment trek starting at the same time and place ended at the scene of the Battle of Blood River.[14]: 432
The commemoration sparked mass enthusiasm amongst Afrikaners as the re-enactment trek passed through the small towns and cities of South Africa. Both participants and spectators participated by dressing in Voortrekker clothing, renaming streets, holding ceremonies, erecting monuments, and laying wreaths at the graves of Afrikaner heroes. Cooking meals over an open fire in the same way the Voortrekkers did became fashionable amongst urbanites, giving birth to the South African tradition ofbraaing.[14]: 432 AnAfrikaans languageepic calledBuilding a Nation (Die Bou van 'n Nasie) was made in 1938 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Great Trek.[24] The film tells the Afrikaans version of the history of South Africa from 1652 to 1910 with a focus on the Great Trek.[25]
A number of Afrikaans organisations such as theAfrikaner Broederbond andAfrikaanse Taal en Kultuurvereniging continued to promote the centenary's goals of furthering the Afrikaner cause and entrenching a greater sense of unity and solidarity within the community well into the 20th century.[14]: 432 [26]
The Great Trek was used byAfrikaner nationalists as a core symbol of a common Afrikaans history. It was used to promote the idea of an Afrikaans nation and a narrative that promoted the ideals of theNational Party. In 1938, celebrations of the centenary of the Battle of Blood River and the Great Trek mobilised behind an Afrikaans nationalist theses. The narrative of Afrikaner nationalism was a significant reason for the National Party's victory in the1948 elections. A year later the Voortrekker Monument was completed and opened in Pretoria by the newly elected South African Prime Minister and National Party memberDaniel Malan in 1949.
A few years later, "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" ('The Voice of South Africa'), a poem written byCornelis Jacobus Langenhoven referring to the Great Trek, was chosen to be the words of the pre-1994 South African national anthem. The post-1997national anthem of South Africa incorporates a section of "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" but it was decided to omit the section in "reference to the Great Trek ('met die kreun van ossewa'), since this was the experience of only one section of our community".[27] When apartheid in South Africa ended and the country transitioned to majority rule, PresidentF. W. de Klerk invoked the measures as a new Great Trek.[28]
