-Caveat Lector- >From The Super Afrikaners-Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom 1978 (note the power of the symbolic action to a susceptible population) 4The Symbolic Oxwagon Trek of 1938 It is difficult to find another single event which stirred Afrikaner emotions more between the Anglo-Boer War and the Second World War than the symbolic oxwagon trek of 1938. Not even the people who planned and organised it, the Afrikaner Broederbond, had the faintest idea it would be such an overwhelming success. It served to reunite Afrikaners in one nationalism and played a most significant role in the 1948 election victory. A year after the Trek, the war divided the Afrikaners and the Ossewabrandwag created a split in the National Party; but it was all temporary. Deep down the Afrikaners wanted unity, and the symbolic trek emphasised this. As soon as the war was over the deep divisions healed and a political unity was found which led to a victory through the ballot box. Looking back today, it is impossible to see how this could have been achieved without the emotional binding force of the symbolic trek. It created the opportunity for Afrikaners to be together, to experience the satisfying feeling of a nation on the march, of agreement rather than divisions. What started as a fairly inconspicuous attempt to celebrate the centenary of the Great Trek by sending a team of oxwagons from Cape Town to Pretoria became a rousing national movement. At the final celebrations 200 000 Afrikaners camped for days at Monument Koppie, the site chosen for the Voortrekker Monument to be completed about 10 years later. Along the route to Pretoria thousands of Afrikaners - some travelling hundreds of miles came to see the oxwagons, to touch them, to pray by them. The oxwagon trek was one of the Broederbond's greatest master-strokes. Realising the division in Afrikaner ranks and the absolute necessity for unity to prepare for political victory, they staged it as an emotional rally. The opportunity was ideal. It was 100 years since the Great Trek when the Voortrekkers went north, one of the most important reasons being the desire to escape British rule. The celebrations planned by a central committee headed by 97 Dr E J Jansen, a prominent Broeder and then Speaker of the House of Assembly, were to peak on December 16, Dingaan's Day, at Monument Koppie where the foundation stone for the Voortrekker Monument was to be laid. No doubt this would have been an impressive ceremony on its own, but it was the oxwagon trek which turned it into a national crusade. The idea came from the Afvikaanse Tual en Kultur vereniging of the Railways (Afrikaans Language and Cultural Society of the Railways), a cultural front organisation of the Broederbond. The ATKV was formed by Henning Klopper, one of the three young men who founded the Broederbond on the koppie in Johannesburg in 1918. When he formed the ATKV on the Rail-ways it had only 200 members; five years later it had 50 000 and today it is probably the largest formally organised Afrikaans cultural association. Who was Henning Klopper who had played such an important part in forming the Broederbond and the ATKV? Like other prominent Broeders, Danic du Plessis and Willie Heckroodt, he worked on the Railways. He joined when he was 15 at a salary of f4 a month, and worked hard to spread his belief in Afrikanerdom. His role in the oxwagon trek made him a national hero among Afrikaners. Not only was he the founder of the ATKV who had organised the trek, but they had nominated him as trek leader. At all the main celebrations along the route he was the central figure, making speeches and passing on the message of Afrikaner unity. Henning Klopper is convinced that it was the symbolic oxwagon trek that paved the way for the 1948 election victory for the National Party and the subsequent referendum majority which led to the Republic. "It was this dynamic movement which gave expression to the aspirations of the Afrikaners, and united them at the time when division among Afrikaners was at its greatest, and their feelings were bitterest," he says. When Klopper left home to join the Railways, his mother gave him a Bible and said: "Read it every morning and evening." Fifty years later he said: "I never let her down." At that stage he had read the Bible from cover to cover 22 times. It takes him 10 to 18 months to read it though once. He does not smoke or drink and in the true spirit of the Broederbond, abhors "loose morals". Like the Broederbond, which expels members involved in a divorce, he sees divorce as an evil 98 practice "undermining the morals of the people." He feels clergymen should "put their foot down and take the lead in stamping out this evil." In all his readings of the Bible, he says he has found nothing to shake his belief in apartheid. "We are not all created the same. We are created to be what we are - not something different from what the Creator wants us to be. But there is room for everyone." As international pressure intensifies around South Africa, Klopper remains unshakeable in his faith in the future of the Republic his Broederbond created. "We are in South Africa to stay, no matter what the United Nations or any other body decrees. We are here in accordance with the will and by the grace of God. Our road is forward only forward and always forward." After the oxwagon trek Klopper became active in politics and in 1943 he was elected MP for Vredefort. He became Speaker of the House of Assembly in 1961, a post he held until 1974 when he re-tired to his farm near Parys in the Free State. Initially the trek featured two wagons sponsored by the ATKV, but the idea captured the imagination of the people to such an extent that further wagons were added on routes far away from the original ones. Some of the wagons were more than 100 years old. Eventually the routes covered almost the whole of South Africa, the wagons visiting an amazing number of places before they congregated at Monument Koppie. The wagons were named after national heroes. Thelohanna VUY~ der Merwe trekked through Namaqualand, the Magrieta Prinsloo through the western and northern Cape, the Hen&k Potgieter and Andries Pretoritrs through the southern and eastern Cape and Orange Free State. This last route was also followed by the Piet Retief and I/rotl en Moeder while the Hendrik Potgieter and Andries Pretoritrs also visited the eastern Transvaal. All over the country men started growing beards and women fashioned Voortrekker dress for the day the wagons would reach their district. Town and city councils renamed streets, squares and buildings in honour of the Voortrekkers, sometimes creating disputes between Afrikaans- and English-speaking members of the communities. The Government of the day was a coalition between General Hertzog, the Prime Minister, and General Smuts, his deputy. On their right were Dr Malan and his purified Nationalists. The brimming Afrikaner emotionalism of the symbolic trek presented a 99 problem to General Hertzog who was trying to keep Afrikaner and English together. It delighted the Malanites, however. It was a rallying cry for Afrikaner nationalism, bringing the volk together, at least in spirit. The strains it created in the Government party could only benefit the Nationalists. All along the route Broeders served on the welcoming commit tees arranging local celebrations for the oxwagons. They made the most of their opportunity to stress Afrikaner unity, the need for a republic and the dominant role to be played by Afrikaners in South Africa. In Pietersburg they tabled a motion of no confidence in the mayor because he did not attend the arrival of the oxwagons. His claim that it was all a misunderstanding was rejected. The Benoni Town Council was not invited to the celebrations after a bitter row between the mayor and festival committee. The "Christian spirit" of the festival was given as one of the reasons, the mayor's followers claiming that it was because he was Jewish that he was not invited. While the mayor of Bloemfontein, Mr W F Prophet, stood watching the arrival of the wagons, the chairman of the local branch of the ATKV, Mr P J Goosen, said he should be requested not to take part in the proceedings. The announcement was loudly cheered by the crowd. The protests were made as a result of a controversy over the renaming of certain streets which arose between 100 the committee and the Bloemfontein Town Council. Young men drew the wagons through the streets in place of the oxen provided by the Bloemfontein municipality. The Voortrekker choir and guard of honour refused to use municipal transport, and were driven in private cars. The atmosphere of the time, and the message from the Broederbond during the trek, could be perceived in a speech that day by one of the trek leaders and a prominent Broeder, Mr M C (Oom Tinie) van Schoor. He deplored the cold reception of the wagons in the Orange Free State - the model State of South Africa. Why should the Afrikaner feel himself a stranger in his own city?' "In the slums we are permitted," Mr van Schoor said, "but in those parts which rightly belong to us admission is refused." The time had come, he declared, when the Afrikaners would no longer be strangers in the land which had been dearly bought by the blood of their ancestors. "While the Afrikaner is working with the pick and shovel, the stranger is occupying the offices. The time has come when we should erect monuments to our heroes who gave their lives for us, and those monuments should be erected in the cities where they belong. There are sufficient monuments to the men who offered their lives to foreign countries, but where are the graves of our own heroes of the past century?" Realising the danger of even deeper divisions between the Afrikaans-and English-speaking sections over the trek, the Government and English-speaking leaders encouraged their people to support local celebrations, to avoid conflict and turn the occasion into an event for all sections. This was successful to a large extent, and apart from minor incidents the two sections co-operated well. In Durban, heart of English-speaking Natal, thousands of people formed a milelong crowd to welcome the wagon. Scenes of wild enthusiasm greeted it as it made its way slowly down West Street which was packed with thousands of people, 40 deep in places. The crowd rushed up to the wagon singing Sarie Maruis. At the city hall 15 000 people waited for the wagon. Clearly, many thousands of those people must have been English-speaking. The spirit was the same throughout the country. But deep down there was always the feeling that it was really an Afrikaner celebration. The Broeders who took an active part in the trek knew exactly how far to go in whipping up Afrikaner emo- 101 tions without antagonising the English section. The delicacy of the situation was clearly illustrated by General Hertzog's dilemma over the foundation stone ceremony at Monument Koppie. The controversy centred around the playing of the then national anthem, God Save the K'zrzg, at the ceremony. If the foundation stone laying was a State occasion attended by the Governor General and General Hertzog, God Save the King would have had to be played. This was too much for the Broeders and Dr Malan's National Party, and even some Afrikaners in General Hertzog's Government, like Dr E G Jansen, Speaker and chairman of the central committee. The Broeders took over the occasion and turned it to their advantage, pressing for Afrikaner unity, a stronger National Party, Die Stem as the national anthem, and ultimately a republic. In all these respects they totally outmanoeuvered the coalition Government of Hertzog and Smuts. The Government had decided in 1935 to assume responsibility for the celebration of the Voortrekker centenary and issued the following statement.* "The decision to which the Government has come contemplates the celebration of the centenary on a broadly national basis worthy of the occasion and in such a manner that all sections of the people of South Africa can take part.. . For these reasons the Government felt that it should in the name of the State and the people as a whole, assume responsibility for the erection of a worthy monument and take steps to ensure that all arrangements in connection therewith should be made on a broadly national basis. It was the opinion that in order to attain this end, the laying of the foundation stone of the monument should be a State ceremony. . ." There would probably not have been a dispute had the celebrations featured only the foundation stone laying at Monument Koppie. It would have been a much tamer event, with much smaller attendance, than eventuated. The Broedcrbond saw its chance to control the event by arranging the symbolic oxwagon trek, carrying the emotion and the crowds with it on the way to Pretoria. The number of wagons had to be increased in response to popular demand, and the Voortrekkers, the youth organisation formed by the Broederbond, organised a torchlight procession to Pretoria. As the emotion increased, the prospect of hearing God Save the King at the climax of the celebrations became a thought too horrible for Afrikaner minds to contemplate - a development the Breeders were quick to exploit. This finally forced Generals 102 Hertzog and Smuts out of the celebrations. Although a compromise was reached which also excluded Dr Malan and all active politicians, the Broeders took over the leading role and worked on the same lines as Dr Malan. On July 26 1938 General Hertzog issued a statement that "in present circumstances it appeared such a course (playing God Save the King at the koppie) would lead to much unpleasantness and bitterness and the fear had been aroused that in consequence the peaceful development of our national unity would be impeded." General Hertzog said that accordingly English-speaking members of the United Party had said they would welcome a decision to depart from the intention of making the foundation stone laying a State ceremony. The event would therefore be non-political and descendants of the Voortrekkers would lay the foundation stone. In October, another attempt was made by the Centenary Committee to persuade General Hertzog to lay the foundation stone. He agreed - provided the English-speakers in the United Party caucus and Dr Malan's Nationalists supported the move. General Hertzog already had the support of his caucus, but Dr Malan refused point-blank to give his support. He agreed with the Government's July statement that no politicians should take part in the ceremony. Once again it was seen how cleverly the Broeders squeezed General Hertzog into a corner, and out of the limelight. Dr Malan could accept exclusion because others were doing his work for him. The strange role played by Dr Jansen was never fully explained. As Speaker he was regarded as above party politics. He was a top Broeder, and as chairman of the Centenary Committee he supported the move to ban God Save the King from the proceedings. However, it was clearly accepted that if the ceremony was no longer a State occasion, in the interest of national unity Die Stem would not have been played either, yet it was Dr Jansen who ap pealed in his speech at Monument Koppie for all sections to help make Die Stem the national anthem. According to the Rand Daily mai13 "this was greeted with thunderous applause from the crowd of ten thousand and they rose to their feet to sing the anthem once more." Dr Malan and General Hertzog agreed on one thing - a political truce until after December 16. But there was an unease in Government ranks as the wagon wheels started rolling in Cape Town's Adderley Street on August 8 1938. A Government Minister, Mr Oswald Pirow, made a speech and that was the last time the government of Hertzog and Smuts had any significant part: from en on the Broeders took over. As Henning Klopper said, before e whip cracked in Adderley Street: "Let us build a monument of iited Afrikaner hearts stretching from the Cape to Pretoria. We Ist that the wagons will be the means of letting Afrikaner hearts, hich today may not beat in unison, beat as one again."4 By the ne the wagons reached the Reef on December 2, it was clear that s wish had come true - Afrikaner hearts were indeed beating in iison and the fever of nationalism was building. 'Some of the most vivid descriptions of the scene, the atmosiere and emotions appeared in the Rand Daily Mail and Sunday imes under the by-line of that remarkable journalist, T C Roberts. He captured the spirit of the trek as no other reporter of his ne did. This is how he described the entry of the wagons into hannesburg.5 "Modern Voortrekkers - Afrikaners whose pulses eat to the rhythm of the wheels of industry - heard the rumble of wagon wheels among the skyscrapers in Johannesburg yesterday. .and children of the men whose flocks once grazed on the hills of : Witwatersrand stood among the cheering thousands in the city gold, the gold the old Voortrekkers feared. "Girls in Voortrekker kappies leaned out of the windows of faces in Fordsburg, where the relentless assembly belts stopped jving as the wagons passed . . . miners came up from underground and raced off to watch the procession . . . Voortrekker costumes made vivid splashes of colour on the balconies of skyscrapers . . . As the wagons passed through the farflung suburbs, ere Afrikaner workers live, thousand of people lined the route, ir enthusiasm not damped by the steady rain." And on the evening's events: "Fifteen thousand Afrikaners, red by deep emotions of patriotism, last night sang the old tch psalms and anthems that had once echoed through the laagof the Voortrekkers. Above the head of the vast crowd gathered on the Brixton Ridge the two Centenary Trek wagons stood high platforms like images on a shrine. Floodlights illuminated white tents and brown stinkwood of the wagons.. . Men and men gazed at the cumbersome vehicles that had cradled a ion, and were silent with adoration.. . Fathers lifted their children on to their shoulders to show them the wagons. . . The on the Rand had made a pilgrimage to a new symbol of On December 13 Robertson reported: "The great Voortrekker camp on Monument Koppie stirred with life tonight. Ten thousand visitors from all over South Africa had trekked in, and the smoke from their campfires drifted low over the long rows of white tents. It was a scene with those hard contrasts of light and shade, of silence and noise, which provided the stark qualities of a film set. "Powerful floodlights played on the tents and accentuated the red glare of the campfires against the white canvas. In the valley, a mile below the hill where the foundations of the Voortrekker Monument were silhouetted against the evening sky, a choir of 1 000 children were singing Afrikaans songs. The echo of the melodies vibrated among the tents, and men and women round the campfires stopped to listen. "But the heroes of the camp are the burghers of the commando. They sit loosely in their saddles and yet manage to ride with the swagger and bravado of Roman cavalry in a triumphal procession. Looking at these commandos one can understand why they have been described as the greatest and most mobile fighting unit in the world." The eight wagons reached Pretoria on December 13 after four months of trekking across the country. "Scenes of enthusiasm and crowds of a size never before seen in Pretoria marked the arrival of the wagons, and their progress through the flag-bedecked streets was the signal for the pealing of church bells, the firing of guns and the ceaseless cheering of thousands of people".6 On December 15 Robertson told of the "river of flame." "The two torches brought by relays of Voortrekkers from Cape Town and Ding- aan's Kraal, arrived in the valley below the Monument tonight. Three thousand boys and girls, carrying torches, met them on the hill above the aerodrome. They marched down towards the camp like a winding river of fire more than a mile long. There a crowd of 60 000 stood waiting in silent amazement. "Then, as the chain of light wound past them, they started cheering - more lustily and enthusiastically than I have ever heard a South African crowd cheer. Women rushed forward and burned the corners of their handkerchiefs and kappies in the flame of the two torches, to keep as momentos of the great event." The next day he reported: "A score of women knelt in silent prayer in the darkness round the bare foundations of the Voortrekker Monument tonight. I saw the outlines of their kappies silhouetted against 105 the brilliant lights of Pretoria - the Voortrekker city - in the valley below. The action of these 20 women was characteristic of the reverent spirit that is prevailing at the Monument. Although a soft rain was falling they climbed the steep slopes of Monument Koppie through the thick growth of protea bushes and long grass. From the camp the echo of the massed choirs singing hymns could be heard. In the south the lights of the city of gold, where the modern Voortrekkers are fighting their battle, could be seen twinkling over the hills." And so the great day arrived. More than 200 000 Afrikaners attended the ceremony, the biggest and most enthusiastic gathering of Afrikaners ever. There was no revolution or attempted coup d'etat as some had feared. Rumours had been spread, fanned by the fervour of the trek and the mood of Afrikanerdom, that they would plan to take over the Government. But it was based only on an interview an Afrikaner dominee had with the famous Boer "prophet" Niklaas van Rensburg. Dr S H Rossouw, minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Swellcndam, told a Nationalist newspaper of van Rensburg's "flag of blood" prophecy which led to all kinds of rumours about a revolution. Van Rensburg was the famous visionary who helped General Koos de la Rey in the Anglo-Boer War. According to Dr Roussouw, Van Rensburg had predicted the 1938 trek in 1920 when he said: "In our country I see in the turbulent times oxen and donkey wagons trekking from the south to the north. The donkey wagons, however, gradually lag behind, while the oxwagons gradually increase in numbers. They are escorted by equestrians. From all sides people will gather in tens of thousands at a spot somewhere north of Lichtenburg. "It will be the greatest gathering of Afrikaners in our national history. All this will happen without any leader summoning the people togcthrr. The people will take things into their own hands and those who do not want to stand out of the way, they will trample to death. Then a great silence will ensue before the storm. That storm will be severe but of very brief duration. One pail of blood will tumble over in which our flag will be dipped and the flag of blood will then fly over a free people." But although the feelings on Monument Koppie were intense, there was also a lot of goodwill; even the King's message (in Afrikaans) was cheered. Then, suddenly, it was all over and life could return to normal - but the Broederbond's intervention in 106 the trek had ensured that Afrikanerdom would never be quite the same again. As T C Robertson said in his final report from Monument Kop The Great Trek of 1938 is only a vivid memory. But thepie. emotions that it stirred up are still alive. Those Afrikaners who came from their karakul farms in South West Africa, from their cattle ranches in the bushveld, from the vineyards and orchards of the Cape, are going back with an intenser feeling of patriotism. "Eight thousand schoolchildren, in the uniforms of the Voortrekker movement, will remember the ceremony as the greatest experience of their lives.I listened to their shrill cheers on Saturday morning as they left their tents to march to Pretoria station . . .heard them singing Die Stem as a final salute to the greatest monument that will be built on the koppie. "Over the hill in the east, with the rising sun glinting on the barrels of their rifles, the commandos rode homewards.. ." 1. Sunday Times, October 23 lY38. 2. Rand Daily Mail, July 27 1Y38. 3. Ibid. December 17 1938. 4. Ibid. August Y lY38. 5. Sunday Timzs, Dccembcr lY38. 6. Rand Daily Mail, December 14 lY38. 7. Ibid. December 13 lY38. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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