-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.
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