The Voortrekkers

The Voortrekkers mainly came from the farming community of the Eastern Cape although some such as Piet Retief, originally came from the Western Cape farming community while others ,such as Gerrit Maritz were successful tradesmen in the frontier towns. Some of them were wealthy men though most were not as they were from the poorer communities of the frontier. It was recorded that the 33 Voortrekker families at the Battle of Vegkop lost 100 horses, between 4,000 and 7,000 cattle, and between 40,000 and 50,000 sheep.These figures appear greatly exaggerated. Other members of the trekking parties were of Trekboer stock who came from a life of semi-nomadic herding; yet others were employees, many of whom had been slaves only a few years earlier.

The reasons for the mass emigration from the Cape Colony have been much discussed over the years. Afrikaner historiography has emphasized the hardships endured by the frontier farmers which they blamed on British policies of pacifying the Xhosa tribes. Other historians have emphasized the harshness of the life in the Eastern Cape which suffered one of its regular periods of drought in the early 1830s, compared to the attractions of the fertile country of Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Growing land shortages have also been cited as a contributing factor. The true reasons were obviously very complex and certainly consisted of both "push" factors including the general dissatisfaction of life under British rule and "pull" factors ,including the desire for a better life in better country.The Voortrekkers were mainly of Trekboer migrating farmer ,descent living in the eastern frontiers of the Cape. Hence, their ancestors had long established a semi-nomadic existence of trekking into expanding frontiers

Andries Pretorius filled the leadership vacuum hoping to enter into negotiations for peace if Dingane would restore the land he had granted to Retief. When Dingane sent an impi armed force)of around twelve thousand Zulu warriors to attack the local contingent of Voortrekkers in response, the Voortrekkers defended themselves at a battle at Nacome River called the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838 where the vastly outnumbered Voortrekker contingent defeated the Zulu warriors. This date has hence been known as the Day of the Vow as the Voortrekkers made a vow to God that they would honor the date if he were to deliver them from what they viewed as almost insurmountable odds. The victory of the besieged Voortrekkers at Nacome River was considered a turning point. The Natalia Republic was set up in 1839 but was annexed by Britain in 1843 whereupon most of the local Boers trekked further north joining other Voortrekkers who had established themselves in the region.

Armed conflict, first with the Ndebele people under Mzilikazi in the area which was to become the Transvaal, then against the Zulus under Dingane, went the Voortrekkers' way, mostly because of their tactics, their horsemanship and the effectiveness of their muzzle-loading guns. This success led to the establishment of a number of small Boer republics, which slowly coalesced into the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. These two states would survive until their annexation in 1900 by United Kingdom during the Second Boer War.

The Voortrekkers are commemorated by the Voortrekker Monument located on Monument Hill overlooking Pretoria, the erstwhile capital of the South African Republic and the current and historic administrative capital of the Republic of South Africa. Pretoria was named after the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius.The Voortrekkers had a distinctive flag, used mainly by the Voortrekkers who followed Andries Hendrik Potgieter, which is why it was also known as the Potgieter Flag. This flag was used as the flag of the Zoutpansberg Republic until this republic was incorporated into the Transvaal Republic also known as the South African Republic. A version of this flag was used at Potchefstroom, one of the first independent Boer towns and republics established by local Voortrekkers.

The Trekboers were nomadic pastoralists descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch colonists, French Huguenots and German Protestants. The Trekboere began migrating from the areas surrounding what is now Cape Town such as Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek during the 17th century throughout the 18th century.The Trekboere were semi-nomadic pastoralists, subsistence farmers who began trekking both northwards and eastwards into the interior to find better pastures/farm lands for their livestock to graze as well as to escape the autocratic rule of the Dutch East India Company (or VOC), which administered the Cape, and who they saw as tainted with corruption and unconcerned with the interests of the free burghers, a social class from which most of the Trekboers came.

Trekboere also traded with indigenous people. This meant that their herds were of hardy local stock. They formed a vital link between the pool of animals in the interior and the providers of shipping provisions at the Cape. Trekboere tended to live in the wagons in which they traveled, and rarely remained in one location for an extended period of time. A number of Trekboere settled in the eastern Cape, where their descendants were soon known as Grensboere Border Farmers, or later called simply Boers which is a Dutch word for "farmers".

While numerous trekboere settled down to become border farmers for a few generations and later voortrekkers, trekboere continued to exist well into the 20th century as an economic class of nomadic pastoralists.Many Trekboere crossed the Orange River decades before the Voortrekkers did. Voortrekkers often encountered Trekboere in Transorangia during the Great Trek. In 1815 a Trekboer/trader named Coenraad (Du) Buys a surname of French Huguenot origin was accused of cattle theft and fled from the British. He settled in the western Transvaal. He was said to have polygamous marriages to hundreds of indigenous women, with his descendants' populating the town of Buysplaas in the Gourits River valley. He continued his rich marriage life after leaving the colony. Descendants of this second marriage series still live in the small town of Buysville, near the mission station of Mara, 20 km to the west of Louis Trichardt in the modern Limpopo province. Buys eventually disappeared while traveling along the Limpopo River.

During the late 19th century, both the Trekboere and the Voortrekkers were collectively called Boers.During the 20th century, both Boers and the Cape Dutch those who did not trek eastward and remained in the Western Cape would become known as Afrikaners, a term that was applied to all Afrikaans speakers of Western and Central European (Dutch, German, French Huguenot) ancestry. The term later sometimes included non-White Afrikaans speakers (chiefly those who became known as Coloureds in the Cape Province) as well. In recent times, however, many of the descendants of the Trekboers have preferred to be called the boerevolk.

The Trekboers spoke a language which was called die taal lit. 'the language'though later it was classified as Eastern Border Afrikaans or East Cape Afrikaans. This language originated from 17th and 18th century Dutch dialects, but over time it became a distinct language, with numerous words having non-Dutch origins, mainly words taken from French, German, Portuguese, Malay, Khoi, and later English.

At this most northerly point of their trek, unhealthy conditions began to take a toll on man and animal. Seemingly abandoned by a follow-up trek, and distant from supplies and buyers for their ivory, Tregardt abandoned the settlement, and led the party southeastwards to the Portuguese outpost at Delagoa bay. The oceanward route proved arduous and included the challenge of traversing a section of the northern Drakensberg. Though reaching the fort at Delagoa bay, a number of their party contracted malaria en route. Tregardt's wife perished at the fort in May 1838, followed by Tregardt six months afterward.

Charl (Sarel) Arnoldus Cilliers (1801 – 1871) was a Voortrekker leader and a preacher. With Andries Pretorius, he led the Boers to a huge victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. In particular, Cilliers lead the Voortrekkers in a vow which promised that if God would protect them and deliver the enemy into their hands, they would build a church and commemorate the day of their victory as if it were an annual Sabbath day, which their descendants would also be instructed to honour.He was a prominent member of the Gereformeerde Kerk (Reformed Church), an offshoot of the Dutch Reformed Church. He is described as being a short, stout man, and was believed to have been very religious. He joined the Great Trek at the age of thirty-five.

The town of Kroonstad was, according to folklore, named after a horse belonging to Cilliers, which drowned in a stream (Kroonspruit) where the town is situated.There is a Sarel Cilliers Museum as well as a statue of him on the site of the Dutch Reformed Church in Kroonstad. Numerous streets and roads in Kroonstad and throughout South Africa are named after him.

After this successful scouting expedition, the party returned to Uitenhage in February 1835. The subsequent favourable reports of the Commission Treks resulted in many farmers leaving their farms and trekking into the interior of Southern Africa, in what later became known as the Great Trek. Uys sold his own farm in December 1836 and left the Uitenhage area with his party of 100 Voortrekkers (as they became known) in April 1837.

Pieter Mauritz Retief (12 November 1780 – 6 February 1838) was a South African Boer leader. Settling in 1814 in the frontier region of the Cape Colony, he assumed command of punitive expeditions in response to raiding parties from the adjacent Xhosa territory. He became a spokesperson for the frontier farmers who voiced their discontent, and wrote the Voortrekkers' declaration at their departure from the colony.

He was a leading figure during their Great Trek, and at one stage their elected governor. He proposed Natal as the final destination of their migration and selected a location for its future capital, later named Pietermaritzburg. Following the massacre of Retief and his delegation by Zulu king Dingane, the short-lived Boer republic Natalia suffered from ineffective government and succumbed to British annexation.

Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius ;27 November 1798 – 23 July 1853; was a leader of the Boers who was instrumental in the creation of the Transvaal Republic, as well as the earlier but short-lived Natalia Republic, in present-day South Africa.Pretorius received his education at home and although a school education wasn't a priority on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony, he was schooled enough to read the Bible and put his thoughts down on paper. Andries Pretorius was the oldest of five children of Marthinus Wessel Pretorius and his wife Susanna Elizabeth Viljoen.Pretorius descended from the line of the earliest Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony. He belonged to the fifth generation of the progenitor, Johannes Pretorius  son of Reverend Wessel Scout of the Netherlands. Scout in his time as a theology student at the University of Leiden changed his name to the Latin form and therefore became Wesselius Praetorius ,later Pretorius.

Although the details of Andries Pretorius's early life is scant he probably grew up on his father's farm named Driekoppen, about 40 kilometers north-east of Graaf-Reinet.Pretorius lead 470 men with 64 wagons into Dingane's territory and on the dawn of 16 December 1838, next to the Ncome river, they would achieve victory over an attacking army of 10,000 to 15,000 Zulu warriors. The Voortrekkers fought with muzzle-loading rifles and made use of two small cannons. The Zulus sustained losses of an estimated 3,000 warriors in what became known as the Battle of Blood River. The Boers sustained no casualties. Three men were injured including Andries Pretorius who was injured on his hand by an Assegai.