Fifty Years of the History of the Republic in South Africa 1795-1845 (Africana Collectanea XXXII/XXX

The writer presents the case of the emigrant farmers against the Colonial authorities and the British Government, the account of Slachter's Nek rebellion being remarkable for the amount of vituperation expressed, by the characterisation of the insurgents as heroes, and by the complaint that 'The very School primers on South African history have, for a great part of this century, taught the officially trained youth of Cape Colony that the Bezuidenhouts were 'rebels' and 'outlaws.'' Mr. Voigt remarks that 'They, the doughty champions of the veld, at least knew how to die when their time came. What can be said of those mock heroes of the present-day South African Imperialism...those great leaders who hoodwinked deceived their followers, led them to slaughter, and then in the hour of danger saved their own skins by surrender.' The majority of the writers of South African history, including Noble, Wilmot, and Chase, Moffat and Livingstone, are accused of misrepresenting the emigrant farmers on the subject of their attitude regarding the Slave Question, and it is remarked that 'Neither Moffat nor Livingstone ever had a good word for the old colonists of South Africa and for 'the Boers.'' Even Theal and Cloete do not escape censure, having had the temerity to descant for a moment on the execution of Tambusa, the ambassador of Dingan, by the emigrant farmers, and to question the honour and justice of the proceeding. The volumes teem with violent criticism of the British Policy in South Africa, and the appendix, which is written in heroics of a highly hysterical character, end with the following lines: 'Does the widowed mother; do the sorrow-stricken parents whose sons - deceived and sent to slaughter by the Mammon Colossus - now lie in those nameless graves of Doornkop; do the white bleached bones on the hillsides of Matabele- and Mashonaland; do the victims of the Moloch of Modern Imperialism; do they all now appeal in vain to Heaven for retribution? Hark! The bells are tolling their warning in the great echoing belfry of the temple of History. Is it only a warning? or are they sounding the death-knell of an Empire?' ' - Mendelssohn Vol. II, page 574. Hardcover. English. Struik. 1969 facsimile reprint of the original 1899 edition, limited edition no 409. ISBN: 0. 350 & 316 pp with fold-out map. Good condition in faux leather, with dw in protective plastic. Book No: 2505668