THE BOER OF TO-DAY
The wholesale slander and misrepresentation with which the Boers of
South Africa have been pursued can not be outlived by them in a hundred
years. It originated when the British forces took possession of the
Cape of Good Hope, and it has continued with unabated vigour ever since.
Recently the chief writers of fiction have been prominent Englishmen,
who, on hunting expeditions or rapid tours through the country, saw the
object of their venom from car windows or in the less favourable
environments of a trackless veldt.
In earlier days the outside world gleaned its knowledge of the Boers
from certain British statesmen, who, by grace of Downing Street,
controlled the country's colonial policy, and consequently felt obliged
to conjure up weird descriptions of their far-distant subjects in order
to make the application of certain harsh policies appear more applicable
and necessary. Missionaries to South Africa, traders, and, not least of
all, speculators, all found it convenient to traduce the Boers to the
people in England, and the object in almost every case was the
attainment of some personal end. Had there been any variety in the
complaints, there might have been reason to suppose they were
justifiable, but the similarity of the reports led to the conclusion
that the British in South Africa were conducting the campaign of
misrepresentation for the single purpose of arousing the enmity of the
home people against the Boers. The unbiased reports were generally of
such a nature that they were drowned by the roar of the malicious ones,
and, instead of creating a better popular opinion of the race, only
assisted in stirring the opposition to greater flights of fancy.
American interests in South Africa having been so infinitesimal until
the last decade, our own knowledge of the country and its people
naturally was of the same proportions. When Americans learned anything
concerning South Africa or the Boers it came by way of London, which had
vaster interests in the country, and should have been able to give exact
information. But, like other colonial information, it was discoloured
with London additions, and the result was that American views of the
Boers tallied with those of the Englishman.
Among the more prominent Englishmen who have recently studied the Boers
from a car window, and have given the world the benefit of their
opinions, is a man who has declared that the Boer blocked the way in
South Africa, and must go. Among other declarations with which this
usually well-informed writer has taken up the cudgel in behalf of his
friend Mr. Rhodes, he has called the Boers "utterly detestable," "guilty
of indecencies and family immorality," and even so "benighted and
uncivilized" as to preclude the possibility of writing about them. All
this he is reported to have said about a race that has been lauded
beyond measure by the editors of every country in the world except those
under the English flag. The real cause of it all is found in the Boers'
disposition to carry their own burdens, and their disinclination to
allow England to be their keeper. Their opinions of justice and right
were formed years ago in Cape Colony, and so long as their fighting
ability has not been proved in a negative manner, so long will the Boers
be reviled by the covetous Englishmen of South Africa and their friends.
The Boer of to-day is a man who loves solitude above all things. He and
his ancestors have enjoyed that chief product of South Africa for so
many generations that it is his greatest delight to be alone. The
nomadic spirit of the early settler courses in his veins, and will not
be eradicated though cities be built up all around him and railroads hem
him in on all sides.
He loves to be out on the veldt, where nothing but the tall grass
obstructs his view of the horizon, and his happiness is complete when,
gun in hand, he can stalk the buck or raise the covey on soil never
upturned by the share of a plough. The real Boer is a real son of the
soil. It is his natural environment, and he chafes when he is compelled
to go where there are more than a dozen dwellings in the same square
mile of area.
The pastoral life he and his ancestors have been leading has endowed him
with a happy-go-lucky disposition. Some call him lazy and sluggish
because he has plenty of time at his disposal and "counts ten" before
acting. Others might call that disposition a realization of his
necessities, and his chosen method of providing for them.
The watching of herds of cattle and flocks of sheep has since biblical
times been considered an easier business than the digging of minerals or
the manufacture of iron, and the Boer has realized that many years ago.
He has also realized the utter uselessness of digging for minerals and
the manufacture of iron when the products of either were valueless at a
distance of a thousand miles from the nearest market. Taking these
facts in consideration, the Boer has done what other less nomadic people
have done. He has improved the opportunities which lay before him, and
has allowed the others to pass untouched.
The Boers are not an agricultural people, because the nature of the
country affords no encouragement for the following of that pursuit. The
great heat of the summer removes rivers in a week and leaves rivulets
hardly big enough to quench the thirst of the cattle. Irrigation is out
of the question, as the great rivers are too far distant and the country
too level to warrant the building of artificial waterways. Taking all
things into consideration, there is nothing for a Boer to do but raise
cattle and sheep, and he may regard himself particularly fortunate at
the end of each year if drought and disease have not carried away one
half of this wealth.
The Boer's habits and mode of life are similar to those of the American
ranchman, and in reality there is not much difference between the two
except that the latter is not so far removed from civilization. The
Boer likes to be out of the sight of the smoke of his neighbour's house,
and to live fifteen or twenty miles from another dwelling is a matter of
satisfaction rather than regret to him. The patriarchal custom of the
people provides against the lack of companionship which naturally would
follow this custom.
When a Boer's children marry they settle within a short distance of the
original family homestead; generally several hundred yards distant. In
this way, in a few years, a small village is formed on the family
estates, which may consist of from five hundred to ten thousand acres of
uninclosed grazing ground. Every son when he marries is entitled to a
share of the estate, which he is supposed to use for the support of
himself and his family, and in that way the various estates grow smaller
each generation. When an estate grows too small to support the owner,
he "treks" to another part of the country, and receives from the state
such an amount of territory as he may require.
Boer houses, as a rule, are situated a long distance away from the
tracks of the transport wagons, in order that passing infected animals
may not introduce disease into the flocks and herds of the farmer.
Strangers are seldom seen as a result of this isolation, and news from
the outer world does not reach the Boers unless they travel to the towns
to make the annual purchases of necessaries.
Their chief recreation is the shooting of game, which abounds in almost
all parts of the country. Besides being their recreation, it is also
their duty, for it is much cheaper to kill a buck and use it to supply
the family larder than to kill an ox or a sheep for the same purpose.
It is seldom that a Boer misses his aim, be the target a deer or an
Englishman, and he has ample time to become proficient in the use of the
rifle. His gun is his constant companion on the veldt and at his home,
and the long alliance has resulted in earning for him the distinction of
being the best marksman and the best irregular soldier in the world. The
Boer is not a sportsman in the American sense of the word. He is a
hunter, pure and simple, and finds no delight in following the
Englishman's example of spending many weeks in the Zambezi forests or
the dangerous Kalahari Desert, and returning with a giraffe tail and a
few horns and feathers as trophies of the chase. He hunts because he
needs meat for his family and leather for sjam-bok whips with which to
drive his cattle, and not because it gives him personal gratification to
be able to demonstrate his supreme skill in the tracking of game.
The dress of the Boer is of the roughest description and material, and
suited to his occupation. Corduroy and flannel for the body, a
wide-brimmed felt hat for the head, and soft leather-soled boots fitted
for walking on the grass, complete the regulation Boer costume, which is
picturesque as well as serviceable. The clothing, which is generally
made by the Boer's vrouw, or wife, makes no pretension of fit or style,
and is quite satisfactory to the wearer if it clings to the body. In
most instances it is built on plans made and approved by the
Voortrekkers of 1835, and quite satisfactory to the present Boers, their
sons, and grandsons.
Physically, the Boers are the equals, if not the superiors, of their
old-time enemy, the Zulus. It would be difficult to find anywhere an
entire race of such physical giants as the Boers of the Transvaal and
the Orange Free State. The roving existence, the life in the open air,
and the freedom from disturbing cares have combined to make of the Boers
a race that is almost physically perfect. If an average height of all
the full-grown males in the country were taken, it would be found to be
not less than six feet two inches, and probably more. Their physique,
notwithstanding their comparatively idle mode of living, is
magnificently developed.
The action of the almost abnormally developed muscles of the legs and
arms, discernible through their closely fitting garments, gives an idea
of the remarkable powers of endurance which the Boers have displayed on
many occasions when engaged in native and other campaigns. They can
withstand almost any amount of physical pain and discomfort, and can
live for a remarkably long time on the smallest quantity of food. It is
a matter of common knowledge that a Boer can subsist on a five-pound
slice of "biltong"--beef that has been dried in the sun until it is
almost as hard as stone--for from ten to fifteen days without suffering
any pangs of hunger. In times of war, "biltong" is the principal item
in the army rations, and in peace, when he is following his flocks, it
also is the Boer shepherd's chief article of diet.
The religion of the Boers is one of their greatest characteristics, and
one that can hardly be understood when it is taken into consideration
that they have been separated for almost two hundred years from the
refining influences of a higher civilization. The simple faith in a
Supreme Being, which the original emigrants from Europe carried to South
Africa, has been handed down from one generation to another, and in two
centuries of fighting, trekking, and ranching has lost none of its
pristine depth and fervour.
With the Boer his religion is his first and uppermost thought. The Old
Testament is the pattern which he strives to follow. The father of the
family reads from its pages every day, and from it he formulates his
ideas of right and wrong as they are to be applied to the work of the
day. Whether he wishes to exchange cattle with his neighbour or give
his daughter in marriage to a neighbour's son, he consults the
Testament, and finds therein the advice that is applicable to the
situation. He reads nothing but the Bible, and consequently his belief
in its teachings is indestructible and supreme.
[Illustration: Kirk Street, Pretoria, with the State Church in the
distance.]
His religious temperament is portrayed in almost every sentence he
utters, and his repetition of biblical parables and sayings is a custom
which so impresses itself upon the mind of the stranger that it is but
natural that those who are unacquainted with the Boer should declare it
a sure sign of his hypocrisy. He does not quote Scripture merely to
impress upon the mind of his hearer the fact that he is a devout
Christian, but does it for the same reasons that a sailor speaks the
language of the sea-farer.
The Boer is a low churchman among low churchmen. He abhors anything
that has the slightest tendency toward show or outward signs of display
in religious worship. He is simple in his other habits, and in his
religious observances he is almost primitively simple. To him the
wearing of gorgeous raiment, special attitudes, musical accompaniment to
hymns, and special demonstrations are the rankest sacrilege. Of the
nine legal holidays in the Transvaal, five--Good Friday, Easter Monday,
Ascension Day, Whit Monday, and Christmas--are Church festival days, and
are strictly observed by every Boer in the country.
The Dutch Reformed Church has been the state Church since 1835, when the
Boers commenced emigrating from Cape Colony. The "trekkers" had no
regularly ordained ministers, but depended upon the elders for their
religious training, as well as for leadership in all temporal affairs.
One of the first clergymen to preach to the Boers was an American, the
Rev. Daniel Lindley, who was one of the earliest missionaries ever sent
to South Africa. The state controls the Church, and, conversely, the
Church controls the state, for it is necessary for a man to become a
factor in religious affairs before he can become of any political
importance. As a result of this custom, the politicians are necessarily
the most active church members.
The Hervormde Dopper branch of the Dutch Reformed Church is the result
of a disagreement in 1883 with the Gereformeerde branch over the singing
of hymns during a religious service. The Doppers, led by Paul Kruger,
peaceably withdrew, and started a congregation of their own when the
more progressive faction insisted on singing hymns, which the Doppers
declared was extremely worldly.
Since then the two chief political parties are practically based on the
differences in religion. The Progressive party is composed of those who
sing hymns, and the members of the Conservative party are those who are
more Calvinistic in their tendencies. As the Conservatives have been in
power for the last decade, it follows that the majority of the Boers are
opposed to the singing of hymns in church. The greatest festival in the
Boer calendar is that of Nachtmaal, or Communion, which is generally
held in Pretoria the latter part of the year.
The majority of the Boers living in remote parts of the country, where
established congregations or churches are an impossibility, it behooves
every Boer to journey to the capital once a year to partake of
communion. Pretoria then becomes the Mecca of all Boers, and the pretty
little town is filled to overflowing with pilgrims and their "trekking"
wagons and cattle. Those who live in remote parts of the country are
obliged to start several weeks before the Nachtmaal in order to be there
at the appointed time, and the whole journey to and fro in many
instances requires six weeks' time. When they reach Pretoria they
bivouac in the open square surrounding the old brick church in the
centre of the town, and spend almost all their time in the church. It
is one of the grandest scenes in South Africa to observe the pilgrims
camping in the open square under the shade of the patriarchal church,
which to them is the most sacred edifice in the world.
The home life of the Boers is as distinctive a feature of these rough,
simple peoples as is their deep religious enthusiasm. If there is
anything that his falsifiers have attacked, it is the Boer's home life,
and those who have had the opportunity to study it will vouch that none
more admirable exists anywhere. The Boer heart is filled with an
intense feeling of family affection. He loves his wife and children
above all things, and he is never too busy to eulogize them. He will
allow his flocks to wander a mile away while he relates a trifling
incident of family life, and he would rather miss an hour's sleep than
not take advantage of an opportunity to talk on domestic topics.
He does not gossip, because he sees his neighbours too rarely for that,
but he will lay before you the detailed history and distinctive features
of every one of his ancestors, relations, and descendants. He is
hospitable to a degree that is astonishing, and he will give to a
stranger the best room in the house, the use of his best horse, and his
finest food. Naturally he will not give an effusive welcome to an
Englishman, because he is the natural enemy of the Boer, but to
strangers of other nationalities he opens his heart and house.
The programme of the Boer's day is hardly ever marred by any changes.
He rises with the sun, and works among the sheep and cattle until
breakfast. There at the table he meets his family and conducts the
family worship. If the parents of the married couple are present, they
receive the best seats at the table, and are treated with great
reverence.
After breakfast he makes his plans for the day's work, which may consist
of a forward "trek" or a hunting trip. He attends to the little plot of
cultivated ground, which provides all the vegetables and grain for the
table, and spends the remainder of the day in attending to the cattle
and sheep. Toward night he gathers his family around him, and reads to
them selected chapters from the Bible. From the same book he teaches
his children to read until twilight is ended, whereupon the Boer's day
is ended, and he seeks his bed.
During the dry season the programme varies only as far as his place of
abode is concerned. With the arrival of that season the Boer closes his
house and becomes a wanderer in pursuit of water. The sheep and cattle
are driven to the rivers, and the family follows in big transport
wagons, not unlike the American prairie-schooner, propelled by eight
spans of oxen. The family moves from place to place as the necessity
for new pasturage arises. With the approach of the wet season the
nomads prepare for the return to the deserted homestead, and, as soon as
the first rain has fallen and the grass has changed the colour of the
landscape, the Boer and his vast herds are homeward bound.
The Boer homestead is as unpretentious as its owner. Generally it is a
low, one-story stone structure, with a steep tile roof and a small annex
in the rear, which is used as a kitchen. The door is on a level with
the ground, and four windows afford all the light that is required in
the four square rooms in the interior. A dining room and three bedrooms
suffice for a family, however large. The floors are of hardened clay,
liberally coated with manure, which is designed to ward off the
pestiferous insects that swarm over the plains.
The house is usually situated in a valley and close to a stream, and, in
rare instances, is sheltered by a few trees that have been brought from
the coast country. Native trees are such a rarity that the traveller
may go five hundred miles without seeing a single specimen. The Boer
vrouw feels no need of firewood, however, for her ancestors taught her
to cook her meals over a fire of the dry product of the cattle-decked
plains.
Personal uncleanliness is one of the great failings that has been
attributed to the Boer, but when it is taken into consideration that
water is a priceless possession on the plains of South Africa, no
further explanation is needed. The canard that the Boers go to bed
without undressing is as absurd as the one of like origin that an entire
family sleeps in one bed. Yet these fictions constantly appear, and
frequently over the names of persons who have penetrated into South
Africa no farther than Cape Town.
The Boer here depicted is the representative Boer--the one who shoulders
his rifle and fights for his country; the one who watches his cattle on
the plains and pays his taxes; the one who tries to improve his
condition, and takes advantage of every opportunity for advancement that
is offered. There is a worthless Boer, as there is a worthless
Englishman, a worthless German, and a worthless American, but he is so
far in the minority that he need not be analyzed.
There is, however, a Boer who lives in the towns and cities, and he
compares favourably with other men of South African birth. He has had
the advantage of better schools, and can speak one or more languages
besides his own. He is not so nomadic in his tendencies as his rural
countryman, and he has absorbed more of the modernisms. He can conduct
a philosophic argument, and his wife and daughters can play the piano.
If he is wealthy, his son is a student at a European university and his
daughter flirting on the beach at Durban or attending a ladies' seminary
at Bloemfontein or Grahamstown.
He is as progressive as any white man cares to be under that generous
South African sun, and when it comes to driving a bargain he is a match
for any of the money sharks of Johannesburg. For the youthful Boer who
reaches the city directly from the country, without any trade or
profession, the prospects are gloomy. He is at a great disadvantage when
put into competition with almost any class of residents. The occupations
to which he can turn are few, and these have been still further
restricted in late years by the destruction of cattle by the rinderpest
and the substitution of railways for road transport. His lack of
education unfits him for most of the openings provided in such a city as
Johannesburg, even when business is at its highest tide, and a small
increase in the tension of business brings him to absolute want.
The Boer of to-day is a creature of circumstance. He is outstripped
because he has had no opportunities for development. Driven from Cape
Colony, where he was rapidly developing a national character, he was
compelled to wander into lands that offered no opportunities of any
description. He has been cut off for almost a hundred years from an
older and more energetic civilization, and even from his neighbours; it
is no wonder that he is a century behind the van. No other civilized
race on earth has been handicapped in such a manner, and if there had
been one it is a matter for conjecture whether it would have held its
own, as the Boer has done, or whether it would have fallen to the level
of the savage.
Had the Boer Voortrekkers been fortunate enough to settle in a fertile
country bordering on the sea, where they might have had communication
with the outer world, their descendants would undoubtedly to-day be
growing cane and wheat instead of herding cattle and driving transport
wagons. Their love of freedom could not have been greater under those
circumstances, but they might have averted the conditions which now
threaten to erase their nation from the face of the earth.