Afrikaners fighting injustice in South Africa
HNP | 03.12.2002 15:10
RESISTANCE OF AFRIKANERS AGAINST THE INJUSTICE OF THE BLACK REGIME (PART 1)
(Note by the translator: The English word "people" used in SINGULAR context in this document is used to translate the Afrikaans word "volk", for which a proper English translation is not known. As such it is used to identify a group of persons that have a common language, religious and cultural values, and, more important, common racial heritage, irrespective of where they actually live.)
In the country where their people was born, Afrikaners are now treated as a misprized and outcast "minority". By deceit and fraud they were spiritually gradually disarmed, so that they could be robbed bloodlessly of their birthright. This is the central fact of the present situation in South Africa.
The Afrikaner soldiers and policemen who defended their fatherland against British-inspired and Communist-driven gangs of terrorists, are mocked, ridiculed and persecuted as criminals. And by slander and lies the Afrikaner people is placed "in the dock" of history to admit guilt before the enemies that want to destroy him.
The Afrikaner is the one community that for the "sake of peace" had to consent and concede and give in and give up until there was nothing left to preserve and his "leaders" could without honour, hands-up to the enemy.
The English speaking part of South Africa did not sacrifice anything. In terms of political and cultural influence they gained immeasurably. South Africa became an English country in the name of "African nationalism", with the English language predominant, with English representatives in influential positions to which they were not elected, and with Britain (and America) in colonial "remote control" of South Africa.
Also, no other community -- Coloured, Indian, or Black -- sacrificed anything. Their social influence was increased enormously, and their representation in Parliament, the provincial legislators and local authorities, the administration of the government, the justice system, education, journalism and economics advanced in gigantic strides.
Pushed aside
However, the Afrikaners, which formed the middle class in South Africa due to their position in agriculture, the small and medium enterprises, the public service, the State and semi-state corporations, have been progressively pushed to the side of the economic stream through a purposeful policy. "Middle class blown out of the economic water", the Sunday Star reported (8 Sept 1991). And this middle class were the Afrikaners.
That was the result of a socio-economic policy followed over years to redistribute wealth by taking the possessions of the Afrikaners away from them. Dr Frans Cronjé, President of Nedbank, said, "the living standards of Whites must drop, but those of the others cannot be allowed to drop" ('The Star' 4 April 1976).
Thus, this spokesman of the organised moneyed interests either prescribed to the Vorster government that the Whites' (Afrikaners) standards of living had to be forced downwards, or he expressed what was already known to the moneyed interests as being government policy.
In agreement with what Cronj‚ said, the newspaper 'Rapport' reported on 3 April 1977,"Whites are becoming all the poorer". And 'The Star' reported on 11 January 1978, "The living standards of whites have been falling during the past five years and those of the Blacks have been rising sharply" -- exactly what Cronjé pleaded for on behalf of the organised moneyed interests. The Official Year Book for 1981 quantified this robbery of the Whites/Afrikaners. "The real income of Whites, it is stated, dropped by 5,6%, in compared to those of the Blacks, which rose by 7,4%", obviously as intended policy to weaken Afrikaners socially and economically.
In this way thousands of home owners and farm owners were forced into insolvency.
"South African families are being hit by summonses for debt at the record rate of more than 64 000 per month" ('The Star', 31 January 1984)
"700 farmers liquidated every month" ('Beeld, 24 January 1992).
This is how Afrikaners were economically disempowered in preparation for the military and political capitulation to a gang of terrorists that could never win a war against the Afrikaner people.
Economic war continued
From this weakened position of the Afrikaners the economic war is being continued against them by the current Black regime. Education for Whites is becoming progressively more expensive. University training for Afrikaners becomes progressively more unaffordable, while Blacks owe millions to universities. Land taxation and tariffs for services in cities and towns are progressively raised to compensate for the nonpayment of tariffs in Black areas. The prices of fuels are raised time and again to provide among others, an income for the extravagant remuneration of ever increasing more persons that are increasingly less capable to control the affairs of the State. Imagine a "consultant" receiving R500 per hour (which is extremely expensive even in South Africa today). And presumably he works for 10 hours per day, even over weekends, which amounts to R300 000 per month (compared for example to R26 500 per month before taxation for a professional -- translator). Of course he will work at a rate that will stretch his "services" over months.
In the meantime a large impoverished Afrikanerdom has come into being, families being forced to find accommodation in even Black squatter camps or in tents on open spaces. And then they have to beg in the streets to find a living. THIS is the "New South Africa" in which Afrikaners are targeted by the Black regime for exploitation. THIS is the injustice that Afrikaners suffer.
This, in the country which in the days of "apartheid", under an Afrikaner government, had the second highest growth rate in the world, and in which job opportunities were so abundant that immigrants from Europe flocked to South Africa, and almost 75 percent of the new labour of all young people in South Africa found employment in the formal sector.
Willem De Klerk infects Afrikaners
In addition to the premeditated impoverishment of Afrikaners, their national consciousness is under attack. History as subject is phased from the syllabi of schools, so that new generations of Afrikaners and others shall be ignorant of the great role that Afrikaners played in the development of the country. And Afrikaners who took part in the treacherous surrender to the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), such as Prof Willem de Klerk, advance this campaign. At a congress staged by the ATKV (see below for the meaning of the acronym) he said (reported by 'Beeld' 28 August 1999),"Race, religion and history... must not count in any way".
So, the Afrikaners must deny their entire heritage: their White racial generation, which is their greatest distinction from other racial groups, their Protestant Christian religion, that distinquishes them from all other racial and cultural groups in South Africa, and their history of war and struggle for their freedom and their fatherland. These things, according to De Klerk, "must not count". And they must not count, because De Klerk wants to take their distinction and national pride from the Afrikaners. His insistence that "history shall not count" is meaningful in the extreme, because the history is a people's memory which tells a people who it is and where it comes from. Without it a people is like a person suffering from amnesia. This is why Alfred Milner said after the English War ( the Second Anglo Boer War -- translator), "I attach especial importance to history books". Of course, history books that do not tell the history of the Afrikaners.
In echoing Milner, De Klerk also said, "The notions 'Afrikaner' and 'Afrikaner people' are too contaminated... These notions must be got rid of". So, according to him Afrikaners must feel 'contaminated' to be called Afrikaners, they must be ashamed of their 'contaminated' people, and consequently of themselves. This is the extreme of national contempt and self humiliation. In this way De Klerk makes himself to a contamination of the Afrikaner people.
Thus the injustice against the Afrikaner people is continued by a Afrikaans-named individual that cringingly curries favour with the Black regime and feels more closely related to Blacks with whom he treacherously collaborated in the 1980's in London, than to his own father, the late Senator Jan de Klerk.
Afrikaners: Who and What?
Who and what is the Afrikaner people that Willem de Klerk wants to wish away and to alienate from his (the Afrikaner's) race, religion and history, and to leave him with a guilty feeling of 'contamination', to be ridiculed and trodden upon?
The foremost fact is that it is the ancestors of this Afrikaner people that wrestled this country from the wilderness: the "Skiereiland" (Peninsula), the Boland, the Swartland (lit "Blackland", does not relate in any way to the Black populations translator), Namakwaland, Boesmanland, "Suid- Kaap" (the Southern Cape), "Oos-Kaap"(the Eastern Cape), the "Karoo"; the Hantam and from there, northwards and eastwards, "Vrystaat" (the Free State), "Noord-Natal" (Northern Natal), "Oos-Transvaal" (Eastern Transvaal), Noord-Transvaal" (Northern Transvaal), "Bosveld" (the Bushveld) and "Wes-Transvaal" (the Western Transvaal) were populated and cultivated by Afrikaners as the soil of their fatherland. The names of farms, "Dwaalboom", "Armoedsvlakte"; of towns, "Steynsburg", "Ermelo" and "Steydtlerville"; of cities, "Bloemfontein", "Pietermaritzburg", "Pretoria" testify to that effect: This country is the country of the Afrikaner people. (Note by translator: The English names of territories given in this passage are translations of the original Afrikaans names taken by English speaking persons AFTER the arrival of the first Afrikaans inhabitants.)
Mountains and rivers, fishes and animals, reptiles and birds, bushes and trees indelibly bear the mark of the language of this people: "Langeberg" and "Drakensberg", "Paardeberg" and "Waterberg", "Bre‰rivier" and "Vaalrivier", "Olifantsrivier" and "Vetrivier", "kabeljou" and "dageraad", "stompneus", "steenbras" and "snoek", "luislang", "trapsoetjies" and "koggelmander", "kiewiet" and "tarentaal", "kelkiewyn", "gompou" and "tinktinkie", "taaibos" and "raasblaar", "hardekool" and "kiepersol", "huilbos" and "haak-en-steek". The people (individuals) of this nation grew into this country, and the country anchored them onto its earth. For them the country was not a territory of which the mineral wealth could be and was to be exploited, but was a fatherland. A fatherland in which they were physically removed thousands of miles from those they were related to in spirit and blood, and physically close to those from whom they were removed thousands of miles in spirit and blood. They found their soul apart as a people in this country. And in an intuitive bonding to the country, they took their name from the name of the country: Afrikaners. This is the people that now, as a misprized and ostracised "minority" has to see how in gross injustice this fatherland that was developed by them, is being ransacked and degraded to what the English author Paul Johnson described as "an industrial rubble dump, beastly, bloody and bankrupt".
Those responsible are not they who governed the country under a policy of apartheid, but those of other races and languages that came afterwards, and with the aid of "hands-uppers" and traitors of this century allowed the country to be debased to a multi-criminal state dumping ground-in-the- making. All this, while a small group of Blacks live off the fat of the land and a small group of White money gluttons become stinking rich and are taking their wealth out of the country.
Stamp of the Afrikaner people
The country that is now being so pillaged, was made the strongest in Africa, thanks to the Afrikaner people's will to nationhood and dedication to its fatherland. In every sphere developments and achievements bear the stamp of the Afrikaner people.
In agriculture generally, and in particular in wine cultivation, grain cultivation, fruit cultivation and the breeding of large and small farm stock, it was mostly Afrikaner farmers that led the development and achieved great feats.
It was Afrikaners that with the ox wagons of the previous century provided the transport service on which the mining and industry was developed. The tracks of the ox wagons of the Afrikaners are imprinted indelibly in the development of this country.
On the cultural domain this people achieved what few others would have been able to in similar circumstances. It developed an own language as its greatest distinction. On its own this is a remarkable achievement. But what makes it more noteworthy, is that the language had to maintain itself against two powerfully established languages: Dutch and English. Not only did the Afrikaner people succeed, but gradually developed the language into a medium in which poetry was written that can stand up to with the most beautiful in other languages. On the domain of drama and theatre arts great work was done, from the early theatre groups that travelled the countryside with great trouble, but inextinguishable enthusiasm, and the erstwhile dramatic plays for radio, to the creation of great work by NP Van Wyk Louw and Dirk Opperman. Even "Die Stem van Suid- Afrika" (national anthem, was translated into "The Call of South Africa", the translation retained the melody of the original Afrikaans version -- translator) is in itself an Afrikaans creation and the melody for it as well. No other group in South Africa has anything to place beside it.
This people also founded and developed its own churches from whence the Gospel was taken in an own way. Other White groups in South Africa did not have this urge. They were content to retain the forms from overseas here.
On the domain of education from the founding and maintaining of farm schools, to the founding and development of Afrikaans universities and the publication of scientific handbooks and later the founding of universities for other races and peoples it was the Afrikaners who by sacrifice and dedication and vision created an educational system that was in harmony with the multiracial nature of South African community.
On the industrial domain the great development was pioneered by the Afrikaans political leaders: General JBM Hertzog with "Yskor" (Iscor, the Iron and Steel Corporation) in the 1920's, and Sasol, "Krygkor" (Armscor), the "Raad op Atoomkrag" (Atomic Energy Board), "Foskor" (the Phosphate Development Corporation) by the National Party of 1948 - 1966. This laid the foundation for the development of South Africa as the industrial giant of Africa. The "Nywerheidsontwikkelingskorporasie" (Industrial Development Council) was also turned into a power by this government (National Party of 1948 - 1966).
On the commercial domain Volkskas was founded and developed by Afrikaners to a great factor in the banking sector before it disappeared into the monopolizing trend that led to ABSA. Other successful enterprises such as "SANLAM", "SANTAM", "Nasionale Pers" (literally "National Press" -- translator) were pioneered by the Afrikaner people and developed to great dimensions, but were alienated from their roots through their greater association with the organised moneyed interests than with the cultural value of their people. Numerous other Afrikaner enterprises of smaller size and with limited resources successfully grew against strong resistance due to the competent leadership and management of Afrikaners, in which the name of mr WT Marais of "Omnia-kunsmis" (could be translated as "Omnia Fetilizers" -- translator) is of importance in the company of Afrikaner Nationalists.
Political Leaders: from Paul Kruger to Hendrik Verwoerd
It was on the political domain in particular that the Afrikaner stood out. The erstwhile "Kaapkolonie" (Cape Colony) brought forth a JH Hofmeyr, an SJ and a DF du Toit and a DF Malan, who all played decisive roles.
In the "Vrystaat" (Free State) former "Kaaplanders" ( a term describing someone who previously lived in the Cape Province, or from Cape decent -- translator) like president Jan Brand and Frank Reitz, had important political effect. But it was Marthinus Theunis Steyn who rose to be a timeless symbol of political resistance against conquest. His ability to say 'no' to capitulation and surrender when Transvaal leaders in the absence of the great Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger were willing to bow the neck, was the deed of a man who would be great in the international company of any era.
In Transvaal the Boer people brought a man to the fore who in his spiritual depth, his comprehension of the truth of his time, the power of his personality, the force of his character and his faith to his fatherland was an extension to his people that contributed immeasurably to courage, nerve, faith and drive. The British-Jewish supported Cecil John Rhodes and Alfred Milner were faced by him. He accepted the challenge to the honour of his people and directed the ultimatum which led to the Boer War (Second Anglo-Boer War). His people did not win the war, but the fighters that perservered for their freedom, the "Bittereinders" (Bitter Enders) maintained the honour of the Afrikaner people. Kruger emerged from every war as the symbol of the Afrikaner people's will to life. He knew in his wisdom that war was the highest expression of a people's resistance to conquest and passion for life and freedom.
As the leader of his people Kruger was succeeded by JBM Hertzog, Hertzog in his turn was succeeded by DF Malan and Malan by JG Strijdom. These men kept the spirit of resistance against the injustice of the Boer War alive and strengthened it. All three of them, each on his own domain and in is own way, contributed greatly to evoke the self-esteem of the Afrikaners in preparedness and militancy.
However, it was JG Strijdom who with drive and eloquence touched the hearts of Afrikaners and urged them to make South Africa a republic, to be free from the humiliation of having a British monarch as South African head of state. He died in harness on the verge of the fulfillment of his republican ideal.
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd succeeded Strijdom -- a man who dominated the political scene to the extent that what would ordinarily pass as merit seemed slender and next to him pale. Like Kruger, Verwoerd was a gift to the Afrikaner people.
In a mere eight years as Prime Minister he did not only make South Africa a republic outside the Commonwealth, but also put the Black homelands on their way to self determination and independence, such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana were to receive from Britain.
Concurrently he united the Afrikaner people as never before, and gained the confidence of Englishmen in South Africa to an extent that was unknown in the history of South Africa. Even more importantly, he expanded the economic and military capabilities to the extent that South Africa had the entire Southern Africa under Afrikaner influence and that against the entire English speaking world, the Communist empire and the Afro-Asian bloc, which were unified in struggle against South Africa. This is a political achievement probably without parallel in the history of the world. Like Kruger, he had to be removed by force to open the wealth of South Africa to the financial exploiters of nations.
Just as Kruger ripped the mask off the face of British imperialism by his ultimatum, Verwoerd ripped the mask off the face of the new imperialism by his withdrawal from the Commonwealth, and during the first five years outside the Commonwealth enabling South Africa to experience its golden epoch. "The fabulous years: 1961 - 1966", it was trumpeted by Financial Mail.
In broad terms, this is the role of Afrikaners on the political domain. What came after Verwoerd, is the old biblical story of bad kings. A people always has in its midst the weaklings who rationalise their cowardice and treason and do what the enemy wants done, be it in instalments as with the Afrikaners after Verwoerd. The English had a sir Roger Hollis as the head of the Intelligence Service who was an agent for the Russian KGB, just as Burgess and Maclean, Klaus Fuchs, Alan Nunn May and Anthony Blunt were, and just as Canaris on the German side was an agent for the Russian KGB. Time and again traitors are born from the spiritually weaker elements of a people.
Even with this decline considered, other groups in South Africa do not possess anything to match the achievements of the Afrikaners on the political domain. The entire constitutional development of South Africa up to the assassination of Dr Verwoerd depended on the roles of Afrikaner leaders.
War: From Vegkop to Majuba
Between the political and the military struggle the dividing line is very thin, as Clauswitz said,"War is the continuation of policy by other means", and Lenin twisted it to,"Policy is the continuation of war by other means".
A noteworthy fact of history is that the Afrikaners never initiated any aggressive war, be it against Blacks within South Africa, or Whites from outside. But when they were attacked or had to fight for their independence, they accounted very well of themselves.
The war at Vegkop in 1838 was started by the Matabeles against the Voortrekkers, and the following war of nine days against Mzilikatsi was a punitive expedition. In both cases a high standard of warfare was set, against which any English battle operation with superior arms of war against Blacks compares poorly. The Battle of "Bloedrivier" (Blood River) was the direct result of the murder of Piet Retief and his men and the atrocities at Weenen and Blaauwkrans. This battle, as an extremely important feat of arms, is overshadowed by the Covenant of 9 December 1838. These battles were time and again the result of aggression against the Trekkers of the 1830's, and not due to aggression by the Trekkers.
The test of the war capabilities of the Boers, however, was the later confrontation with the Britons, as after the annexation of Transvaal by Shepstone in 1877. In succeeding battles at Bronkhorstspruit, Laingsnek, Ingogo and eventually at Amajuba in February 1881, the Britons were humiliatingly defeated in a matter of weeks.
Lady Bellairs, the wife of the British commander in Pretoria, wrote,"The victories gained by the Boers over the English troops were such as any young nation might well be proud of. That of Majuba Hill was brilliant in the extreme, and will rightly be handed down to succeeding generations of South Africans as a grand achievement performed by their ancestors."
That was the work of the small "Boerevolk" (Boer people) against the largest military force of those times. Of course it is a military achievement of which Afrikaners are rightfully very proud.
Dr Oliver Ransford wrote about the battle of Majuba Hill with great admiration. "The battle", he said, "was at once recognised to be the most humiliating defeat ever inflicted on British arms. Judged by its effects it almost deserves to be called one of the greatest battles of England. Of all the battles in the world I judge this one the most compelling. No place is more haunted by its memories. Although it was fought less than a lifetime ago this battle has already taken on the aura of a legend."
Few peoples ever qualified for such military praise. This is what the Boers were capable of under leaders who had courage, drive and national pride.
The Britons did not want to leave the Boer republics in peace, however. And unavoidably the war of 1899 - 1902 was "to round off the empire" and "to secure the paramount of Great Britain", as Joseph Chamberlain wrote on 19 October 1899.
RESISTANCE OF THE AFRIKANERS AGAINST THE INJUSTICE OF THE BLACK REGIME
(PART 2)
English War
In the first battles where the Britons attacked the Boers in full force, they came off badly. Colenso and Spioenkop on the Eastern front were Boer victories that testified to the superior military craft of the Boers. The same on the West Front; Stormberg and Magersfontein were an unbelievable humiliation for the Britons.
The defeat of the Boers at Paardeberg after a battle lasting nine days was a turning point in the war. And the invasion of Pretoria and Bloemfontein by the British forces took place without resistance.
The British commanders were convinced that they had won the war. But as Prof DW Kruger wrote in the chapter entitled "Die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog" ("The Second Anglo Boer War") in "Die Geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika" ("The History of South Africa"), "Seldom in the history of warfare from apparent total defeat and demoralisation did such an unexpected revival and resistance come as toward the end of 1900... The revival occurred first in the Free State. There at the end of August De Wet had already called the burghers to arms yet again."
This was the beginning of a heroic epoch in the history of South Africa. Cecil Headlam wrote in "The Milner Papers", "... these sturdy Dutch farmers, brilliantly led, fought gallantly on, undeterred by infinite hardships, unshaken by innumerable hairbreadth escapes, in a passion of patriotism and hate of British interference, dour, desperate, irreconcilable."
In this new war the military craft of the Boers astounded the Britons. John McCord wrote in "The South African Struggle", "The British were baffled and frantic with rage because of a war that had gone so awry. All their calculations had been wrong. They had grossly underrated South Africans."
It was not the first time that Britons underestimated the Afrikaners, and it would not be the last time.
The new war on the Boer side consisted in particular of breaking the British lines of communication and transport and attacks on isolated troop divisions by small units, with sporadic gatherings for larger operations.
On the 28th of October, 1900, Milner wrote to Chamberlain, "I am fairly taken aback at the vitality and ubiquity of the enemy... The Boers slip round you and get back again, and with this eternal see-saw everything in the country is totally ruined."
In reaction to the tactics of the Boers the Britons applied drives against the Boers at tremendous cost and effort. But a year after the new war had started (31 October 1901), Chamberlain wrote to Milner,"The drives continue in many cases with disproportionate results. And we still employ 200 000 troops and 500 guns to deal wit 10 000 men without guns." This was an admission to military shame.
War against women and children
Because the Britons could, even with the aid of the entire Commonwealth, consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India not defeat the Boers on the battle field, they started a war against the women and children. Farm houses with everything inside were burned down, all food reserves were destroyed, large and small farm stock were brutally killed to deprive the country of all means of livelihood.
The later British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, wrote in "What I saw in South Africa", that of a million head of cattle in the Transvaal only 200 000 had remained, and of 1,5 million sheep only 400 000. His estimates of the loss of cattle, sheep and horses were even greater in the Free State than those in Transvaal. And 30 000 farms were burned down. Milner wrote after the war, "The country is quiet. Only there is nothing left. The farmhouses are all gone."
The women and children were taken to the concentration camps mostly in the roughest ways. In August of 1901 there were 105 347 captives in the camps where conditions were so desperate that during that month 1800 died, of whom 1545 were children. By October of that year the death figure in the camps was 34,4%. But for the children in the camps this percentage was considerably higher. This was what caused a later British Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, to ask, "When is a war not a war?", to which he replied himself, "When it is carried on by methods of barbarism, as in South Africa."
According to McCord 14,4 percent of the people of the Boer Republics died in this freedom fight. But what is worse, was that 25 percent of the women and children of the Boer nation sacrificed their lives. In the death camps the deaths ran to over 34 percent at one stage. After the war not a single child under three years old left the camps. Not only was a generation almost wiped out, but in addition an unborn generation was enforced to kill the Afrikaner nation.
A few years ago the matter of this extermination was raised by an Oxford professor, Richard Crompton, in the periodical "Economic Link". He wrote,"Ethnic cleansing is a dirty business, but it is not a new one. It has been practised after a number of major political upheavals. In the Boer War the British Army used precisely this tactic, giving rise to the phrase 'concentration camp'."
A more damning expression about British warfare on the Boers is unthinkable. This is the verdict of an English academic that the Britons wanted to exterminate ("cleanse") the Boer nation by means of the concentration camps. If there were talks of a "holocaust", then this British barbarism would be the telling example thereof. Genocide is what it means. So deep was British hatred of the Boers, because they could not defeat them by force of arms.
Why did the Britons want to exterminate the Boers? Because the Boers were their superiors on every domain, but in particular the military domain, where the Boers made a laughing-stock of the Britons in the eyes of the world. The craft and durability of the "Bittereinders" (Bitter Enders) made the Brits a faltering, stumbling military force against an agile, ingenious and determined small Boer force. The Britons never forgave this humiliation, in particular coming after the humiliation of Amajuba and the subsequent Jameson fiasco.
Overwhelmed, but not conquered
Ramsay MacDonald was in later life a British Prime Minister. When visiting South Africa shortly after the war, he asked,"Was he a conquered man?" His own answer was,"He takes pride in himself. He lost his independence, but he won a row of heroes... he does not admit having been defeated by better men." Many of them lost all their possessions, and often a man lost his entire family. But they retained their national pride. The destruction by the Brits was the future of the Boers. How did they react?
MacDonald wrote,"... ruined back to the land. One would see them in the streets of towns waiting for the generosity of the Repatriation Board (which had to help the Boers back onto their farms); one would encounter them miles and miles from the railways, where they lived in tents, or wandered around their destroyed houses and fields overgrown by grass, burdened by poverty and with patched clothes, but not a single one would beg from you, not a single one would threaten you. The mugging that was so commonplace in Johannesburg and two other cities, was the work for Coloureds and strangers." (Note: This passage was translated back into English from a Afrikaans translation, therefore the words may not necessarily be exactly those originally written by Mr MacDonald.)
Just as during the war the Boers, to the admiration of the world, widened their vibal qualities, after the war enjoyed the esteem of others in a demonstration of their human attributes.
After the war, in "The Great Boer War", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described the descent of the Boers from their Dutch and French ancestors, and then wrote. "The product" he said, "must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth. Take this formidable people and train them for seven generations in constant warfare against savage men and ferocious beasts, in circumstances under which no weakling could survive, place them so that they acquire exceptional skill with weapons and horsemanship, give them a country which is eminently suited to the tactics of the huntsman, the marksman, and the rider. Then, finally, put a finer temper upon their military qualities by a dour fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism. Combine all these qualities and all these impulses into one individual, and you have the modern Boer... the most formidable antagonist ever to cross the path of imperial Britain."
This is the quality of this nation against whom the Britons committed the century of wrong.
The war continues
Eventually the Boer laid down arms. Because the Britons could not defeat the Boers on the battle field and had to resort to "methods of barbarism" against women and children, yet knowing all along as MacDonald wrote,"The Boers are a noble nation. They have been overwhelmed, but not defeated", the Britons did not make peace with the Boers. Milner said after the war,"The South African War continues. It is no longer a war with bullets, but it is war still."
So, the English did not stop the war against the Afrikaners, an insight brilliantly understood by the Dutchman HT Colenbrander, who on 2 June 1902, two days after the peace agreement between Boer and Briton, wrote in his book "De Herkomst de Boeren" ("The decent of the Boers"),"Despite the peace accord, the world (read Britain) has not yet settled with the Boers. The struggle for their national survival, not started yesterday, will not end tomorrow." a remarkable prophetic insight into the life of the Afrikaner nation. Milner acknowledged this fact in the earlier mentioned quote, "The war continues". And it was the strong Afrikaner leader, JG Strijdom, who understood the fact well and expressed it with his call to Afrikaners,"Die stryd duur voort!"("The struggle continues").
In the passage in question, Colenbrander, in referring to the descent and character of the Boer nation, just as prophetically said,"A tree with such roots is not uprooted easily. It may well be stripped of its leaves due to disfavour of the tide; the old sap still rises in its trunk, and again it will blossom."
Sixty years later the tree of the once overwhelmed and wounded Boer nation stood in full bloom, when this country under the rule of an Afrikaner government of Dr HF Verwoerd, experienced its day of glory causing an English periodical (Financial Mail) to call it "The fabulous years 1961 - 1966".
The Boers lost the war against the Englishmen, but they maintained the self respect of their nation by the inspiring battle of the Bitter Enders and the faithfulness of their leaders such as Gens JBM Hertzog and CR De Wet, at the peace negotiations where Hertzog amended the caption "Conditions of Surrender" on the treaty to "Conditions of Peace". With that the unbroken national pride of the Boers was expressed.
The remark of Ramsay MacDonald quoted earlier, is worthy of quoting again. He wrote,"The Boers are a noble nation. They have been overwhelmed, but not defeated" -- the acknowledgement of the moral victory of the Boers over the Britons.
This war has many sides to it, but one thing is certain: Paul Kruger, figurative giant of the South African history, had great merit, but one of the greatest things he did, was to challenge and unmask British imperialism unmasked in its military incapacity against the Boer commandos and its barbarism in the practice of genocide of women and children and the destruction of the land where the Boer nation lives.
Traitors, Hands-uppers, Peace Talkers, but also Bitter Enders
This nation, which the British authority wanted to exterminate, still stands rooted to the earth of South Africa . Colenbrander said,"A tree with such roots is not uprooted easily." There are good Afrikaners who emigrate to other countries. But it was like this as well after, for example, 1877, with the Dorstland Trek (the Thirstland Trek -- Translator); after 1902, with the British occupancy, after 1948, with the victory of the NP, and after 1960, with the Black riots, the attempt on Dr Verwoerd's life and becoming a Republic. Yet after a few years every exodus yielded its quota of those who returned. And it was those who in love for their fatherland and faith and trust for the right of their nation, dug in the heels and created the future to which the emigrants returned yet again.
As in the Boer War, four types of leaders emerged -- on the one hand traitors, hands-uppers and peace talkers, but on the other hand the Bitter Enders, -- the terrorist war of the 1980's and 1990's was a repetition thereof. It also yielded traitors, hands-uppers and peace talkers. But there are also Bitter Enders, who like their sturdy predecessors symbolically in stormy weather and in bitter winter cold, mostly scantily clothed, "brilliantly led, fought on in a passion of patriotism, dour, desperate, irreconcilable", and next to them the women in concentration camps, who in the midst of suffering and sorrow urged their husbands and brothers to continue fighting. Times changed, circumstances changed, but the spirit of the Bitter Enders did not die or change.
The bearers of the spirit of the Bitter Enders say,"This land is our land." History says it loudly. For those who dispute or question that fact, the question is,"If it is not our country, then whose is it? Who, except the Afrikaners, fought wars against foreign exploiters for this country? And if it is alleged that it is not our country, did we never have a country then? And if we did not have a country, why did we fight wars against powers that wanted to take this country from us?"
Let it be said: a nation does not get a fatherland by begging it from enemies or powers that be. This is also the lesson of petitions and negotiations by the Boers after the annexation of Transvaal in 1877. It led to nothing. The lost freedom and fatherland was regained when at Amajuba the British were talked to in another language.
From the long history of British spite, envy and war against the Afrikaners, there are very important lessons to be learned, and remarkable conclusions to be made.
One of the conclusions is that since the two Freedom Wars were fought by the Brits against the Transvaal and it was the dominating influence of Transvaal which made the victory of 1948 at the ballot box possible for the Afrikaners, and secured bringing about of the Republic of South Africa outside the Commonwealth in 1961, it would stand to reason that the old British hatred would break loose against Transvaal after De Klerk had surrendered to the British connected and British supported ANC/SACP. And it is remarkable that with the introduction of the "New" South Africa, the name of the new provinces of the Cape remained intact, as well as those of the Free State and Natal. But the name of Transvaal had to be removed from the map to satisfy the old British hatred against the cradle of Afrikaner nationalism and the cause of British frustration. More than anything else this betrays the white British hand in the Black Communist glove.
From the history of this long drawn-out battle various lessons are to be learned, one of the most meaningful being the huge British miscalculations and mistakes in their encounters with the Afrikaner nation.
British Miscalculations
When Shepstone annexed Transvaal in 1877, the Britons were convinced that the Boers would not proceed to armed force. He described the Boers as "feeble of purpose and untrustworthy and not exceptional courageous". And approximately a year before the battle of Amajuba Sir Garnet Wolseley said,"I don't think they will resort to violence; they are as great cowards as they are liars." This was the early British miscalculation that cost them dearly.
However, it was not the only British miscalculation about the First Anglo Boer War. A few months before the outbreak of the First Anglo Boer War Shepstone said to an audience at Standerton,"So long as the sun shines, the Transvaal will be British territory, and the Vaal River shall flow back to its sources before Transvaal is again independent."
Shortly thereafter the biggest British miscalculation followed. In a series of battles at Bronkhorstspruit, Laingsnek, Ingogo and Amajuba the Britons were defeated by a nation counting barely 50 000 souls, with approximately 7 000 adult men, something that was impossible according to British calculation. After this humiliation of the British armed force Transvaal regained her independence, while the Vaal River continued flowing on its original course.
The British miscalculation was yet again apparent in the Jameson invasion in 1895. It was said that the Boer forces would be out of action due to drunkenness if the invasion took place around New Year's Day! Instead of Transvaal's being conquered by this band of robbers, this escapade became the biggest embarrassment for the Britons, in particular when President Kruger delivered the leaders thereof to Britain to be punished.
The English War became inevitable due to the repeated humiliations of the Britons and from there the urge to take revenge on the Boers.
Reference has been made in brief remarks to the course of the Boer War. The British miscalculations was first of all about the duration of the war, which they thought would last three months, but turned out to be almost three years. Secondly, with the head-on confrontations at the Eastern and the Western Fronts, where their military reputation was irreparably damaged by the Boer forces. Thirdly, there was the big miscalculation that the war was over with the invasion of Pretoria and Bloemfontein and with the guerilla war of almost two years, in which the British military reputation was further destroyed. Concurrently the Britons miscalculated with regard to the effect of the concentration camps and the policy of scorched earth. Not a single British anticipation with regard to the war was correct, because they underestimated the Boers in everything, the same as in the First Anglo Boer War. This historical fact is of great importance.
Miscalculation thereafter
The underestimation of the Boers in the political battle that started after the English War, again confounded the British calculations. Gen Hertzog's insistence on language rights for Afrikaans (Dutch) stirred the self respect of Afrikaners in the early revival of national pride. And his somewhat later call to "South Africa First!" set Afrikaner nationalism going and led to the foundation of the National Party in 1914 -- something totally beyond British calculation.
The Britons completely mistook themselves with the election victory of Gen Hertzog in a pact with Col Creswell of the Labour Party in 1924. And as Prime Minister of South Africa, Gen Hertzog in concurrence with Mackenzie King of Canada, set the Commonwealth on a different track than the Britons had intended.
The election victory of 1948 by the then Reunited National Party was contrary to all British calculations. Where it had been expected that Gen Smuts would have won the election, a complete turnaround occurred: Smuts was defeated and an Afrikaner government came into power and in control of the entire South Africa.
The succeedingsteps: the discontinuance of British citizenship in South Africa, the lowering of the British flag and the discontinuance of the British anthem in preparation for South Africa's becoming a Republic and leavind the Commonwealth in 1961, finally cancelled all the British calculations with regard to the war of 1899 -1902. The Britons underestimated the persistence of the Afrikaners in their struggle to regain their freedom, and misjudged the Afrikaners for the umpteenth time.
In the light of the past it is almost certain that the Britons' use of the ANC-SACP and the national traitor, FW De Klerk, to subject the Afrikaners, in the hope that it would be irreversible, will once again be a miscalculation.
The history of the Afrikaner nation shows one major characteristic: the Britons could with all their power and dirty tricks never permanently subject the Afrikaners. Time and again the Afrikaner stood up and frustrated the British intentions.
Their history is one of achievement above the total of their numbers, under the most trying circumstances. He has all the right to take pride in what he achieved and what history made of him.
At this time, when his enemies want to humiliate him before the world, and high demands are made on the self confidence of every Afrikaner, he or she should look down the years and draw inspiration from our heroes. And then recall Isaiah,"Look unto the rock [whence] ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit [whence] ye are digged." (Is 51:1, KJ 1769)
In the realisation of the great role of the Afrikaner nation in the history of South Africa and its right to stand proudly against any other group in this country, the challenge is now to show that it does not acquiesce in the injustice done to it in its country.
A sense of resistance born from heart to heart, which grows to an infectious spirit of resistance against the injustice that the Afrikaner suffers at the hands of the conquerors, is the call from the death of thousands who had to perish to make this country a home for their children.
(Note by the translator: The English word "people" used in SINGULAR context in this document is used to translate the Afrikaans word "volk", for which a proper English translation is not known. As such it is used to identify a group of persons that have a common language, religious and cultural values, and, more important, common racial heritage, irrespective of where they actually live.)
In the country where their people was born, Afrikaners are now treated as a misprized and outcast "minority". By deceit and fraud they were spiritually gradually disarmed, so that they could be robbed bloodlessly of their birthright. This is the central fact of the present situation in South Africa.
The Afrikaner soldiers and policemen who defended their fatherland against British-inspired and Communist-driven gangs of terrorists, are mocked, ridiculed and persecuted as criminals. And by slander and lies the Afrikaner people is placed "in the dock" of history to admit guilt before the enemies that want to destroy him.
The Afrikaner is the one community that for the "sake of peace" had to consent and concede and give in and give up until there was nothing left to preserve and his "leaders" could without honour, hands-up to the enemy.
The English speaking part of South Africa did not sacrifice anything. In terms of political and cultural influence they gained immeasurably. South Africa became an English country in the name of "African nationalism", with the English language predominant, with English representatives in influential positions to which they were not elected, and with Britain (and America) in colonial "remote control" of South Africa.
Also, no other community -- Coloured, Indian, or Black -- sacrificed anything. Their social influence was increased enormously, and their representation in Parliament, the provincial legislators and local authorities, the administration of the government, the justice system, education, journalism and economics advanced in gigantic strides.
Pushed aside
However, the Afrikaners, which formed the middle class in South Africa due to their position in agriculture, the small and medium enterprises, the public service, the State and semi-state corporations, have been progressively pushed to the side of the economic stream through a purposeful policy. "Middle class blown out of the economic water", the Sunday Star reported (8 Sept 1991). And this middle class were the Afrikaners.
That was the result of a socio-economic policy followed over years to redistribute wealth by taking the possessions of the Afrikaners away from them. Dr Frans Cronjé, President of Nedbank, said, "the living standards of Whites must drop, but those of the others cannot be allowed to drop" ('The Star' 4 April 1976).
Thus, this spokesman of the organised moneyed interests either prescribed to the Vorster government that the Whites' (Afrikaners) standards of living had to be forced downwards, or he expressed what was already known to the moneyed interests as being government policy.
In agreement with what Cronj‚ said, the newspaper 'Rapport' reported on 3 April 1977,"Whites are becoming all the poorer". And 'The Star' reported on 11 January 1978, "The living standards of whites have been falling during the past five years and those of the Blacks have been rising sharply" -- exactly what Cronjé pleaded for on behalf of the organised moneyed interests. The Official Year Book for 1981 quantified this robbery of the Whites/Afrikaners. "The real income of Whites, it is stated, dropped by 5,6%, in compared to those of the Blacks, which rose by 7,4%", obviously as intended policy to weaken Afrikaners socially and economically.
In this way thousands of home owners and farm owners were forced into insolvency.
"South African families are being hit by summonses for debt at the record rate of more than 64 000 per month" ('The Star', 31 January 1984)
"700 farmers liquidated every month" ('Beeld, 24 January 1992).
This is how Afrikaners were economically disempowered in preparation for the military and political capitulation to a gang of terrorists that could never win a war against the Afrikaner people.
Economic war continued
From this weakened position of the Afrikaners the economic war is being continued against them by the current Black regime. Education for Whites is becoming progressively more expensive. University training for Afrikaners becomes progressively more unaffordable, while Blacks owe millions to universities. Land taxation and tariffs for services in cities and towns are progressively raised to compensate for the nonpayment of tariffs in Black areas. The prices of fuels are raised time and again to provide among others, an income for the extravagant remuneration of ever increasing more persons that are increasingly less capable to control the affairs of the State. Imagine a "consultant" receiving R500 per hour (which is extremely expensive even in South Africa today). And presumably he works for 10 hours per day, even over weekends, which amounts to R300 000 per month (compared for example to R26 500 per month before taxation for a professional -- translator). Of course he will work at a rate that will stretch his "services" over months.
In the meantime a large impoverished Afrikanerdom has come into being, families being forced to find accommodation in even Black squatter camps or in tents on open spaces. And then they have to beg in the streets to find a living. THIS is the "New South Africa" in which Afrikaners are targeted by the Black regime for exploitation. THIS is the injustice that Afrikaners suffer.
This, in the country which in the days of "apartheid", under an Afrikaner government, had the second highest growth rate in the world, and in which job opportunities were so abundant that immigrants from Europe flocked to South Africa, and almost 75 percent of the new labour of all young people in South Africa found employment in the formal sector.
Willem De Klerk infects Afrikaners
In addition to the premeditated impoverishment of Afrikaners, their national consciousness is under attack. History as subject is phased from the syllabi of schools, so that new generations of Afrikaners and others shall be ignorant of the great role that Afrikaners played in the development of the country. And Afrikaners who took part in the treacherous surrender to the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), such as Prof Willem de Klerk, advance this campaign. At a congress staged by the ATKV (see below for the meaning of the acronym) he said (reported by 'Beeld' 28 August 1999),"Race, religion and history... must not count in any way".
So, the Afrikaners must deny their entire heritage: their White racial generation, which is their greatest distinction from other racial groups, their Protestant Christian religion, that distinquishes them from all other racial and cultural groups in South Africa, and their history of war and struggle for their freedom and their fatherland. These things, according to De Klerk, "must not count". And they must not count, because De Klerk wants to take their distinction and national pride from the Afrikaners. His insistence that "history shall not count" is meaningful in the extreme, because the history is a people's memory which tells a people who it is and where it comes from. Without it a people is like a person suffering from amnesia. This is why Alfred Milner said after the English War ( the Second Anglo Boer War -- translator), "I attach especial importance to history books". Of course, history books that do not tell the history of the Afrikaners.
In echoing Milner, De Klerk also said, "The notions 'Afrikaner' and 'Afrikaner people' are too contaminated... These notions must be got rid of". So, according to him Afrikaners must feel 'contaminated' to be called Afrikaners, they must be ashamed of their 'contaminated' people, and consequently of themselves. This is the extreme of national contempt and self humiliation. In this way De Klerk makes himself to a contamination of the Afrikaner people.
Thus the injustice against the Afrikaner people is continued by a Afrikaans-named individual that cringingly curries favour with the Black regime and feels more closely related to Blacks with whom he treacherously collaborated in the 1980's in London, than to his own father, the late Senator Jan de Klerk.
Afrikaners: Who and What?
Who and what is the Afrikaner people that Willem de Klerk wants to wish away and to alienate from his (the Afrikaner's) race, religion and history, and to leave him with a guilty feeling of 'contamination', to be ridiculed and trodden upon?
The foremost fact is that it is the ancestors of this Afrikaner people that wrestled this country from the wilderness: the "Skiereiland" (Peninsula), the Boland, the Swartland (lit "Blackland", does not relate in any way to the Black populations translator), Namakwaland, Boesmanland, "Suid- Kaap" (the Southern Cape), "Oos-Kaap"(the Eastern Cape), the "Karoo"; the Hantam and from there, northwards and eastwards, "Vrystaat" (the Free State), "Noord-Natal" (Northern Natal), "Oos-Transvaal" (Eastern Transvaal), Noord-Transvaal" (Northern Transvaal), "Bosveld" (the Bushveld) and "Wes-Transvaal" (the Western Transvaal) were populated and cultivated by Afrikaners as the soil of their fatherland. The names of farms, "Dwaalboom", "Armoedsvlakte"; of towns, "Steynsburg", "Ermelo" and "Steydtlerville"; of cities, "Bloemfontein", "Pietermaritzburg", "Pretoria" testify to that effect: This country is the country of the Afrikaner people. (Note by translator: The English names of territories given in this passage are translations of the original Afrikaans names taken by English speaking persons AFTER the arrival of the first Afrikaans inhabitants.)
Mountains and rivers, fishes and animals, reptiles and birds, bushes and trees indelibly bear the mark of the language of this people: "Langeberg" and "Drakensberg", "Paardeberg" and "Waterberg", "Bre‰rivier" and "Vaalrivier", "Olifantsrivier" and "Vetrivier", "kabeljou" and "dageraad", "stompneus", "steenbras" and "snoek", "luislang", "trapsoetjies" and "koggelmander", "kiewiet" and "tarentaal", "kelkiewyn", "gompou" and "tinktinkie", "taaibos" and "raasblaar", "hardekool" and "kiepersol", "huilbos" and "haak-en-steek". The people (individuals) of this nation grew into this country, and the country anchored them onto its earth. For them the country was not a territory of which the mineral wealth could be and was to be exploited, but was a fatherland. A fatherland in which they were physically removed thousands of miles from those they were related to in spirit and blood, and physically close to those from whom they were removed thousands of miles in spirit and blood. They found their soul apart as a people in this country. And in an intuitive bonding to the country, they took their name from the name of the country: Afrikaners. This is the people that now, as a misprized and ostracised "minority" has to see how in gross injustice this fatherland that was developed by them, is being ransacked and degraded to what the English author Paul Johnson described as "an industrial rubble dump, beastly, bloody and bankrupt".
Those responsible are not they who governed the country under a policy of apartheid, but those of other races and languages that came afterwards, and with the aid of "hands-uppers" and traitors of this century allowed the country to be debased to a multi-criminal state dumping ground-in-the- making. All this, while a small group of Blacks live off the fat of the land and a small group of White money gluttons become stinking rich and are taking their wealth out of the country.
Stamp of the Afrikaner people
The country that is now being so pillaged, was made the strongest in Africa, thanks to the Afrikaner people's will to nationhood and dedication to its fatherland. In every sphere developments and achievements bear the stamp of the Afrikaner people.
In agriculture generally, and in particular in wine cultivation, grain cultivation, fruit cultivation and the breeding of large and small farm stock, it was mostly Afrikaner farmers that led the development and achieved great feats.
It was Afrikaners that with the ox wagons of the previous century provided the transport service on which the mining and industry was developed. The tracks of the ox wagons of the Afrikaners are imprinted indelibly in the development of this country.
On the cultural domain this people achieved what few others would have been able to in similar circumstances. It developed an own language as its greatest distinction. On its own this is a remarkable achievement. But what makes it more noteworthy, is that the language had to maintain itself against two powerfully established languages: Dutch and English. Not only did the Afrikaner people succeed, but gradually developed the language into a medium in which poetry was written that can stand up to with the most beautiful in other languages. On the domain of drama and theatre arts great work was done, from the early theatre groups that travelled the countryside with great trouble, but inextinguishable enthusiasm, and the erstwhile dramatic plays for radio, to the creation of great work by NP Van Wyk Louw and Dirk Opperman. Even "Die Stem van Suid- Afrika" (national anthem, was translated into "The Call of South Africa", the translation retained the melody of the original Afrikaans version -- translator) is in itself an Afrikaans creation and the melody for it as well. No other group in South Africa has anything to place beside it.
This people also founded and developed its own churches from whence the Gospel was taken in an own way. Other White groups in South Africa did not have this urge. They were content to retain the forms from overseas here.
On the domain of education from the founding and maintaining of farm schools, to the founding and development of Afrikaans universities and the publication of scientific handbooks and later the founding of universities for other races and peoples it was the Afrikaners who by sacrifice and dedication and vision created an educational system that was in harmony with the multiracial nature of South African community.
On the industrial domain the great development was pioneered by the Afrikaans political leaders: General JBM Hertzog with "Yskor" (Iscor, the Iron and Steel Corporation) in the 1920's, and Sasol, "Krygkor" (Armscor), the "Raad op Atoomkrag" (Atomic Energy Board), "Foskor" (the Phosphate Development Corporation) by the National Party of 1948 - 1966. This laid the foundation for the development of South Africa as the industrial giant of Africa. The "Nywerheidsontwikkelingskorporasie" (Industrial Development Council) was also turned into a power by this government (National Party of 1948 - 1966).
On the commercial domain Volkskas was founded and developed by Afrikaners to a great factor in the banking sector before it disappeared into the monopolizing trend that led to ABSA. Other successful enterprises such as "SANLAM", "SANTAM", "Nasionale Pers" (literally "National Press" -- translator) were pioneered by the Afrikaner people and developed to great dimensions, but were alienated from their roots through their greater association with the organised moneyed interests than with the cultural value of their people. Numerous other Afrikaner enterprises of smaller size and with limited resources successfully grew against strong resistance due to the competent leadership and management of Afrikaners, in which the name of mr WT Marais of "Omnia-kunsmis" (could be translated as "Omnia Fetilizers" -- translator) is of importance in the company of Afrikaner Nationalists.
Political Leaders: from Paul Kruger to Hendrik Verwoerd
It was on the political domain in particular that the Afrikaner stood out. The erstwhile "Kaapkolonie" (Cape Colony) brought forth a JH Hofmeyr, an SJ and a DF du Toit and a DF Malan, who all played decisive roles.
In the "Vrystaat" (Free State) former "Kaaplanders" ( a term describing someone who previously lived in the Cape Province, or from Cape decent -- translator) like president Jan Brand and Frank Reitz, had important political effect. But it was Marthinus Theunis Steyn who rose to be a timeless symbol of political resistance against conquest. His ability to say 'no' to capitulation and surrender when Transvaal leaders in the absence of the great Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger were willing to bow the neck, was the deed of a man who would be great in the international company of any era.
In Transvaal the Boer people brought a man to the fore who in his spiritual depth, his comprehension of the truth of his time, the power of his personality, the force of his character and his faith to his fatherland was an extension to his people that contributed immeasurably to courage, nerve, faith and drive. The British-Jewish supported Cecil John Rhodes and Alfred Milner were faced by him. He accepted the challenge to the honour of his people and directed the ultimatum which led to the Boer War (Second Anglo-Boer War). His people did not win the war, but the fighters that perservered for their freedom, the "Bittereinders" (Bitter Enders) maintained the honour of the Afrikaner people. Kruger emerged from every war as the symbol of the Afrikaner people's will to life. He knew in his wisdom that war was the highest expression of a people's resistance to conquest and passion for life and freedom.
As the leader of his people Kruger was succeeded by JBM Hertzog, Hertzog in his turn was succeeded by DF Malan and Malan by JG Strijdom. These men kept the spirit of resistance against the injustice of the Boer War alive and strengthened it. All three of them, each on his own domain and in is own way, contributed greatly to evoke the self-esteem of the Afrikaners in preparedness and militancy.
However, it was JG Strijdom who with drive and eloquence touched the hearts of Afrikaners and urged them to make South Africa a republic, to be free from the humiliation of having a British monarch as South African head of state. He died in harness on the verge of the fulfillment of his republican ideal.
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd succeeded Strijdom -- a man who dominated the political scene to the extent that what would ordinarily pass as merit seemed slender and next to him pale. Like Kruger, Verwoerd was a gift to the Afrikaner people.
In a mere eight years as Prime Minister he did not only make South Africa a republic outside the Commonwealth, but also put the Black homelands on their way to self determination and independence, such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana were to receive from Britain.
Concurrently he united the Afrikaner people as never before, and gained the confidence of Englishmen in South Africa to an extent that was unknown in the history of South Africa. Even more importantly, he expanded the economic and military capabilities to the extent that South Africa had the entire Southern Africa under Afrikaner influence and that against the entire English speaking world, the Communist empire and the Afro-Asian bloc, which were unified in struggle against South Africa. This is a political achievement probably without parallel in the history of the world. Like Kruger, he had to be removed by force to open the wealth of South Africa to the financial exploiters of nations.
Just as Kruger ripped the mask off the face of British imperialism by his ultimatum, Verwoerd ripped the mask off the face of the new imperialism by his withdrawal from the Commonwealth, and during the first five years outside the Commonwealth enabling South Africa to experience its golden epoch. "The fabulous years: 1961 - 1966", it was trumpeted by Financial Mail.
In broad terms, this is the role of Afrikaners on the political domain. What came after Verwoerd, is the old biblical story of bad kings. A people always has in its midst the weaklings who rationalise their cowardice and treason and do what the enemy wants done, be it in instalments as with the Afrikaners after Verwoerd. The English had a sir Roger Hollis as the head of the Intelligence Service who was an agent for the Russian KGB, just as Burgess and Maclean, Klaus Fuchs, Alan Nunn May and Anthony Blunt were, and just as Canaris on the German side was an agent for the Russian KGB. Time and again traitors are born from the spiritually weaker elements of a people.
Even with this decline considered, other groups in South Africa do not possess anything to match the achievements of the Afrikaners on the political domain. The entire constitutional development of South Africa up to the assassination of Dr Verwoerd depended on the roles of Afrikaner leaders.
War: From Vegkop to Majuba
Between the political and the military struggle the dividing line is very thin, as Clauswitz said,"War is the continuation of policy by other means", and Lenin twisted it to,"Policy is the continuation of war by other means".
A noteworthy fact of history is that the Afrikaners never initiated any aggressive war, be it against Blacks within South Africa, or Whites from outside. But when they were attacked or had to fight for their independence, they accounted very well of themselves.
The war at Vegkop in 1838 was started by the Matabeles against the Voortrekkers, and the following war of nine days against Mzilikatsi was a punitive expedition. In both cases a high standard of warfare was set, against which any English battle operation with superior arms of war against Blacks compares poorly. The Battle of "Bloedrivier" (Blood River) was the direct result of the murder of Piet Retief and his men and the atrocities at Weenen and Blaauwkrans. This battle, as an extremely important feat of arms, is overshadowed by the Covenant of 9 December 1838. These battles were time and again the result of aggression against the Trekkers of the 1830's, and not due to aggression by the Trekkers.
The test of the war capabilities of the Boers, however, was the later confrontation with the Britons, as after the annexation of Transvaal by Shepstone in 1877. In succeeding battles at Bronkhorstspruit, Laingsnek, Ingogo and eventually at Amajuba in February 1881, the Britons were humiliatingly defeated in a matter of weeks.
Lady Bellairs, the wife of the British commander in Pretoria, wrote,"The victories gained by the Boers over the English troops were such as any young nation might well be proud of. That of Majuba Hill was brilliant in the extreme, and will rightly be handed down to succeeding generations of South Africans as a grand achievement performed by their ancestors."
That was the work of the small "Boerevolk" (Boer people) against the largest military force of those times. Of course it is a military achievement of which Afrikaners are rightfully very proud.
Dr Oliver Ransford wrote about the battle of Majuba Hill with great admiration. "The battle", he said, "was at once recognised to be the most humiliating defeat ever inflicted on British arms. Judged by its effects it almost deserves to be called one of the greatest battles of England. Of all the battles in the world I judge this one the most compelling. No place is more haunted by its memories. Although it was fought less than a lifetime ago this battle has already taken on the aura of a legend."
Few peoples ever qualified for such military praise. This is what the Boers were capable of under leaders who had courage, drive and national pride.
The Britons did not want to leave the Boer republics in peace, however. And unavoidably the war of 1899 - 1902 was "to round off the empire" and "to secure the paramount of Great Britain", as Joseph Chamberlain wrote on 19 October 1899.
RESISTANCE OF THE AFRIKANERS AGAINST THE INJUSTICE OF THE BLACK REGIME
(PART 2)
English War
In the first battles where the Britons attacked the Boers in full force, they came off badly. Colenso and Spioenkop on the Eastern front were Boer victories that testified to the superior military craft of the Boers. The same on the West Front; Stormberg and Magersfontein were an unbelievable humiliation for the Britons.
The defeat of the Boers at Paardeberg after a battle lasting nine days was a turning point in the war. And the invasion of Pretoria and Bloemfontein by the British forces took place without resistance.
The British commanders were convinced that they had won the war. But as Prof DW Kruger wrote in the chapter entitled "Die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog" ("The Second Anglo Boer War") in "Die Geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika" ("The History of South Africa"), "Seldom in the history of warfare from apparent total defeat and demoralisation did such an unexpected revival and resistance come as toward the end of 1900... The revival occurred first in the Free State. There at the end of August De Wet had already called the burghers to arms yet again."
This was the beginning of a heroic epoch in the history of South Africa. Cecil Headlam wrote in "The Milner Papers", "... these sturdy Dutch farmers, brilliantly led, fought gallantly on, undeterred by infinite hardships, unshaken by innumerable hairbreadth escapes, in a passion of patriotism and hate of British interference, dour, desperate, irreconcilable."
In this new war the military craft of the Boers astounded the Britons. John McCord wrote in "The South African Struggle", "The British were baffled and frantic with rage because of a war that had gone so awry. All their calculations had been wrong. They had grossly underrated South Africans."
It was not the first time that Britons underestimated the Afrikaners, and it would not be the last time.
The new war on the Boer side consisted in particular of breaking the British lines of communication and transport and attacks on isolated troop divisions by small units, with sporadic gatherings for larger operations.
On the 28th of October, 1900, Milner wrote to Chamberlain, "I am fairly taken aback at the vitality and ubiquity of the enemy... The Boers slip round you and get back again, and with this eternal see-saw everything in the country is totally ruined."
In reaction to the tactics of the Boers the Britons applied drives against the Boers at tremendous cost and effort. But a year after the new war had started (31 October 1901), Chamberlain wrote to Milner,"The drives continue in many cases with disproportionate results. And we still employ 200 000 troops and 500 guns to deal wit 10 000 men without guns." This was an admission to military shame.
War against women and children
Because the Britons could, even with the aid of the entire Commonwealth, consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India not defeat the Boers on the battle field, they started a war against the women and children. Farm houses with everything inside were burned down, all food reserves were destroyed, large and small farm stock were brutally killed to deprive the country of all means of livelihood.
The later British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, wrote in "What I saw in South Africa", that of a million head of cattle in the Transvaal only 200 000 had remained, and of 1,5 million sheep only 400 000. His estimates of the loss of cattle, sheep and horses were even greater in the Free State than those in Transvaal. And 30 000 farms were burned down. Milner wrote after the war, "The country is quiet. Only there is nothing left. The farmhouses are all gone."
The women and children were taken to the concentration camps mostly in the roughest ways. In August of 1901 there were 105 347 captives in the camps where conditions were so desperate that during that month 1800 died, of whom 1545 were children. By October of that year the death figure in the camps was 34,4%. But for the children in the camps this percentage was considerably higher. This was what caused a later British Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, to ask, "When is a war not a war?", to which he replied himself, "When it is carried on by methods of barbarism, as in South Africa."
According to McCord 14,4 percent of the people of the Boer Republics died in this freedom fight. But what is worse, was that 25 percent of the women and children of the Boer nation sacrificed their lives. In the death camps the deaths ran to over 34 percent at one stage. After the war not a single child under three years old left the camps. Not only was a generation almost wiped out, but in addition an unborn generation was enforced to kill the Afrikaner nation.
A few years ago the matter of this extermination was raised by an Oxford professor, Richard Crompton, in the periodical "Economic Link". He wrote,"Ethnic cleansing is a dirty business, but it is not a new one. It has been practised after a number of major political upheavals. In the Boer War the British Army used precisely this tactic, giving rise to the phrase 'concentration camp'."
A more damning expression about British warfare on the Boers is unthinkable. This is the verdict of an English academic that the Britons wanted to exterminate ("cleanse") the Boer nation by means of the concentration camps. If there were talks of a "holocaust", then this British barbarism would be the telling example thereof. Genocide is what it means. So deep was British hatred of the Boers, because they could not defeat them by force of arms.
Why did the Britons want to exterminate the Boers? Because the Boers were their superiors on every domain, but in particular the military domain, where the Boers made a laughing-stock of the Britons in the eyes of the world. The craft and durability of the "Bittereinders" (Bitter Enders) made the Brits a faltering, stumbling military force against an agile, ingenious and determined small Boer force. The Britons never forgave this humiliation, in particular coming after the humiliation of Amajuba and the subsequent Jameson fiasco.
Overwhelmed, but not conquered
Ramsay MacDonald was in later life a British Prime Minister. When visiting South Africa shortly after the war, he asked,"Was he a conquered man?" His own answer was,"He takes pride in himself. He lost his independence, but he won a row of heroes... he does not admit having been defeated by better men." Many of them lost all their possessions, and often a man lost his entire family. But they retained their national pride. The destruction by the Brits was the future of the Boers. How did they react?
MacDonald wrote,"... ruined back to the land. One would see them in the streets of towns waiting for the generosity of the Repatriation Board (which had to help the Boers back onto their farms); one would encounter them miles and miles from the railways, where they lived in tents, or wandered around their destroyed houses and fields overgrown by grass, burdened by poverty and with patched clothes, but not a single one would beg from you, not a single one would threaten you. The mugging that was so commonplace in Johannesburg and two other cities, was the work for Coloureds and strangers." (Note: This passage was translated back into English from a Afrikaans translation, therefore the words may not necessarily be exactly those originally written by Mr MacDonald.)
Just as during the war the Boers, to the admiration of the world, widened their vibal qualities, after the war enjoyed the esteem of others in a demonstration of their human attributes.
After the war, in "The Great Boer War", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described the descent of the Boers from their Dutch and French ancestors, and then wrote. "The product" he said, "must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth. Take this formidable people and train them for seven generations in constant warfare against savage men and ferocious beasts, in circumstances under which no weakling could survive, place them so that they acquire exceptional skill with weapons and horsemanship, give them a country which is eminently suited to the tactics of the huntsman, the marksman, and the rider. Then, finally, put a finer temper upon their military qualities by a dour fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism. Combine all these qualities and all these impulses into one individual, and you have the modern Boer... the most formidable antagonist ever to cross the path of imperial Britain."
This is the quality of this nation against whom the Britons committed the century of wrong.
The war continues
Eventually the Boer laid down arms. Because the Britons could not defeat the Boers on the battle field and had to resort to "methods of barbarism" against women and children, yet knowing all along as MacDonald wrote,"The Boers are a noble nation. They have been overwhelmed, but not defeated", the Britons did not make peace with the Boers. Milner said after the war,"The South African War continues. It is no longer a war with bullets, but it is war still."
So, the English did not stop the war against the Afrikaners, an insight brilliantly understood by the Dutchman HT Colenbrander, who on 2 June 1902, two days after the peace agreement between Boer and Briton, wrote in his book "De Herkomst de Boeren" ("The decent of the Boers"),"Despite the peace accord, the world (read Britain) has not yet settled with the Boers. The struggle for their national survival, not started yesterday, will not end tomorrow." a remarkable prophetic insight into the life of the Afrikaner nation. Milner acknowledged this fact in the earlier mentioned quote, "The war continues". And it was the strong Afrikaner leader, JG Strijdom, who understood the fact well and expressed it with his call to Afrikaners,"Die stryd duur voort!"("The struggle continues").
In the passage in question, Colenbrander, in referring to the descent and character of the Boer nation, just as prophetically said,"A tree with such roots is not uprooted easily. It may well be stripped of its leaves due to disfavour of the tide; the old sap still rises in its trunk, and again it will blossom."
Sixty years later the tree of the once overwhelmed and wounded Boer nation stood in full bloom, when this country under the rule of an Afrikaner government of Dr HF Verwoerd, experienced its day of glory causing an English periodical (Financial Mail) to call it "The fabulous years 1961 - 1966".
The Boers lost the war against the Englishmen, but they maintained the self respect of their nation by the inspiring battle of the Bitter Enders and the faithfulness of their leaders such as Gens JBM Hertzog and CR De Wet, at the peace negotiations where Hertzog amended the caption "Conditions of Surrender" on the treaty to "Conditions of Peace". With that the unbroken national pride of the Boers was expressed.
The remark of Ramsay MacDonald quoted earlier, is worthy of quoting again. He wrote,"The Boers are a noble nation. They have been overwhelmed, but not defeated" -- the acknowledgement of the moral victory of the Boers over the Britons.
This war has many sides to it, but one thing is certain: Paul Kruger, figurative giant of the South African history, had great merit, but one of the greatest things he did, was to challenge and unmask British imperialism unmasked in its military incapacity against the Boer commandos and its barbarism in the practice of genocide of women and children and the destruction of the land where the Boer nation lives.
Traitors, Hands-uppers, Peace Talkers, but also Bitter Enders
This nation, which the British authority wanted to exterminate, still stands rooted to the earth of South Africa . Colenbrander said,"A tree with such roots is not uprooted easily." There are good Afrikaners who emigrate to other countries. But it was like this as well after, for example, 1877, with the Dorstland Trek (the Thirstland Trek -- Translator); after 1902, with the British occupancy, after 1948, with the victory of the NP, and after 1960, with the Black riots, the attempt on Dr Verwoerd's life and becoming a Republic. Yet after a few years every exodus yielded its quota of those who returned. And it was those who in love for their fatherland and faith and trust for the right of their nation, dug in the heels and created the future to which the emigrants returned yet again.
As in the Boer War, four types of leaders emerged -- on the one hand traitors, hands-uppers and peace talkers, but on the other hand the Bitter Enders, -- the terrorist war of the 1980's and 1990's was a repetition thereof. It also yielded traitors, hands-uppers and peace talkers. But there are also Bitter Enders, who like their sturdy predecessors symbolically in stormy weather and in bitter winter cold, mostly scantily clothed, "brilliantly led, fought on in a passion of patriotism, dour, desperate, irreconcilable", and next to them the women in concentration camps, who in the midst of suffering and sorrow urged their husbands and brothers to continue fighting. Times changed, circumstances changed, but the spirit of the Bitter Enders did not die or change.
The bearers of the spirit of the Bitter Enders say,"This land is our land." History says it loudly. For those who dispute or question that fact, the question is,"If it is not our country, then whose is it? Who, except the Afrikaners, fought wars against foreign exploiters for this country? And if it is alleged that it is not our country, did we never have a country then? And if we did not have a country, why did we fight wars against powers that wanted to take this country from us?"
Let it be said: a nation does not get a fatherland by begging it from enemies or powers that be. This is also the lesson of petitions and negotiations by the Boers after the annexation of Transvaal in 1877. It led to nothing. The lost freedom and fatherland was regained when at Amajuba the British were talked to in another language.
From the long history of British spite, envy and war against the Afrikaners, there are very important lessons to be learned, and remarkable conclusions to be made.
One of the conclusions is that since the two Freedom Wars were fought by the Brits against the Transvaal and it was the dominating influence of Transvaal which made the victory of 1948 at the ballot box possible for the Afrikaners, and secured bringing about of the Republic of South Africa outside the Commonwealth in 1961, it would stand to reason that the old British hatred would break loose against Transvaal after De Klerk had surrendered to the British connected and British supported ANC/SACP. And it is remarkable that with the introduction of the "New" South Africa, the name of the new provinces of the Cape remained intact, as well as those of the Free State and Natal. But the name of Transvaal had to be removed from the map to satisfy the old British hatred against the cradle of Afrikaner nationalism and the cause of British frustration. More than anything else this betrays the white British hand in the Black Communist glove.
From the history of this long drawn-out battle various lessons are to be learned, one of the most meaningful being the huge British miscalculations and mistakes in their encounters with the Afrikaner nation.
British Miscalculations
When Shepstone annexed Transvaal in 1877, the Britons were convinced that the Boers would not proceed to armed force. He described the Boers as "feeble of purpose and untrustworthy and not exceptional courageous". And approximately a year before the battle of Amajuba Sir Garnet Wolseley said,"I don't think they will resort to violence; they are as great cowards as they are liars." This was the early British miscalculation that cost them dearly.
However, it was not the only British miscalculation about the First Anglo Boer War. A few months before the outbreak of the First Anglo Boer War Shepstone said to an audience at Standerton,"So long as the sun shines, the Transvaal will be British territory, and the Vaal River shall flow back to its sources before Transvaal is again independent."
Shortly thereafter the biggest British miscalculation followed. In a series of battles at Bronkhorstspruit, Laingsnek, Ingogo and Amajuba the Britons were defeated by a nation counting barely 50 000 souls, with approximately 7 000 adult men, something that was impossible according to British calculation. After this humiliation of the British armed force Transvaal regained her independence, while the Vaal River continued flowing on its original course.
The British miscalculation was yet again apparent in the Jameson invasion in 1895. It was said that the Boer forces would be out of action due to drunkenness if the invasion took place around New Year's Day! Instead of Transvaal's being conquered by this band of robbers, this escapade became the biggest embarrassment for the Britons, in particular when President Kruger delivered the leaders thereof to Britain to be punished.
The English War became inevitable due to the repeated humiliations of the Britons and from there the urge to take revenge on the Boers.
Reference has been made in brief remarks to the course of the Boer War. The British miscalculations was first of all about the duration of the war, which they thought would last three months, but turned out to be almost three years. Secondly, with the head-on confrontations at the Eastern and the Western Fronts, where their military reputation was irreparably damaged by the Boer forces. Thirdly, there was the big miscalculation that the war was over with the invasion of Pretoria and Bloemfontein and with the guerilla war of almost two years, in which the British military reputation was further destroyed. Concurrently the Britons miscalculated with regard to the effect of the concentration camps and the policy of scorched earth. Not a single British anticipation with regard to the war was correct, because they underestimated the Boers in everything, the same as in the First Anglo Boer War. This historical fact is of great importance.
Miscalculation thereafter
The underestimation of the Boers in the political battle that started after the English War, again confounded the British calculations. Gen Hertzog's insistence on language rights for Afrikaans (Dutch) stirred the self respect of Afrikaners in the early revival of national pride. And his somewhat later call to "South Africa First!" set Afrikaner nationalism going and led to the foundation of the National Party in 1914 -- something totally beyond British calculation.
The Britons completely mistook themselves with the election victory of Gen Hertzog in a pact with Col Creswell of the Labour Party in 1924. And as Prime Minister of South Africa, Gen Hertzog in concurrence with Mackenzie King of Canada, set the Commonwealth on a different track than the Britons had intended.
The election victory of 1948 by the then Reunited National Party was contrary to all British calculations. Where it had been expected that Gen Smuts would have won the election, a complete turnaround occurred: Smuts was defeated and an Afrikaner government came into power and in control of the entire South Africa.
The succeedingsteps: the discontinuance of British citizenship in South Africa, the lowering of the British flag and the discontinuance of the British anthem in preparation for South Africa's becoming a Republic and leavind the Commonwealth in 1961, finally cancelled all the British calculations with regard to the war of 1899 -1902. The Britons underestimated the persistence of the Afrikaners in their struggle to regain their freedom, and misjudged the Afrikaners for the umpteenth time.
In the light of the past it is almost certain that the Britons' use of the ANC-SACP and the national traitor, FW De Klerk, to subject the Afrikaners, in the hope that it would be irreversible, will once again be a miscalculation.
The history of the Afrikaner nation shows one major characteristic: the Britons could with all their power and dirty tricks never permanently subject the Afrikaners. Time and again the Afrikaner stood up and frustrated the British intentions.
Their history is one of achievement above the total of their numbers, under the most trying circumstances. He has all the right to take pride in what he achieved and what history made of him.
At this time, when his enemies want to humiliate him before the world, and high demands are made on the self confidence of every Afrikaner, he or she should look down the years and draw inspiration from our heroes. And then recall Isaiah,"Look unto the rock [whence] ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit [whence] ye are digged." (Is 51:1, KJ 1769)
In the realisation of the great role of the Afrikaner nation in the history of South Africa and its right to stand proudly against any other group in this country, the challenge is now to show that it does not acquiesce in the injustice done to it in its country.
A sense of resistance born from heart to heart, which grows to an infectious spirit of resistance against the injustice that the Afrikaner suffers at the hands of the conquerors, is the call from the death of thousands who had to perish to make this country a home for their children.
HNP
