16 Dirkie Uys defends his father (11 April 1838) A2/A3

B2

C2

D N 16 Dirkie Uys 26 27 1 25 2

South wall, south-west projection, above door (panel 20/31) 24 3 h. 2.3 × 2.4 m 4 23 Restored fractures on the vertical edges Sculptor of the clay maquette: Laurika Postma 22 5

Stages of production 21 A1 W.H. Coetzer, pencil drawing, retained only in A2 (April–June 1937) 6 A2 Reproduction of A1 (June 1937) 20 A3 W.H. Coetzer, revised pencil drawing A1, h. 13.4 × w. 15.2 cm 7 (after September 1937) 19

Annotation: ‘Dirkie Uys’ 8 18 A4 W.H. Coetzer, Dirkie Uys; monochrome oil on board, h. 27 × w. 27 cm 17 9 (late 1937–38?) 16 10 B1 One-third-scale clay maquette, not extant but replicated in B2 (1942–43) 15 14 13 12 11 B2 One-third-scale plaster maquette, h. 78.5 × w. 85 × d. 8 cm (1942–43)

C1 Full-scale wooden armature, not extant (1943–46) 0 5 10 m C2 Full-scale clay relief, not extant but photographed; replicated in C3 (1943–46) C3 Full-scale plaster relief (1943–46), not extant but copied in D (late 1947–49) D Marble as installed in the Monument (1949)

Early records SVK minutes (4.9.1937) ― item 4m (see below, ‘Development of the design’) Voorstelle (5.12.1934?) ― item 14 ‘Vlugkommando keer verslae terug. Piet Uys gewond, sy seun Dirk sterf by hom: Donga aan die bokant waarvan perderuiters deurjaag, agtervolg deur vyand. Aan die anderkant (oorkant die sloot) Uys van sy perd, en sy seun oor hom gekniel, word met assegai gegooi’ (Flight commando turns back defeated. Piet Uys wounded, his son Dirk dies alongside him: donga at the top through which horseriders rush, followed by enemy. On the other side [across the ditch] Uys [fallen] from his horse, and his son kneeling over him, are showered with assegais) Panele (c. Dec 1934–36) ― item 9 ‘Indiwiduele heldedade (a) Dirkie Uys’ (Individual heroic deeds [a] Dirkie Uys) Wenke (c. 1934–36) ― item I. F.A. STEYTLER, g. ‘Dirkie Uys omsingel deur Soeloes word doodgesteek by die lyk van sy vader’ (Dirkie Uys surrounded by Zulu is stabbed to death next to the body of his father) Moerdyk Layout (5.10.1936–15.1.1937) ― scene 13 on panel 19/31, ‘Dirkie Uys’ Jansen Memorandum (19.1.1937) ― item 7.13 ‘Heroic death of Dirkie Uys’

Open Access. © 2020 Elizabeth Rankin and Rolf Michael Schneider, published by De Gruyter and African Minds. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110668797-021 348 16 Dirkie Uys

Figure 16.1: D. Dirkie Uys. 1949. Marble, 2.3 × 2.4 m (courtesy of VTM; photo Russell Scott) Description 349

Description

Although a group of three Zulu towers above him and fills the height of the panel, a young Voor- trekker is clearly the all-important protagonist here, picked out because he is isolated on the left, with ample space around him (fig. 16.1). It is Dirkie Uys who, undaunted by the heroically propor- tioned attackers with their raised assegais,788 kneels to aim his muzzleloader directly at the central figure. The Zulu on the far right has already been despatched and topples backwards with a dra- matically up-flung arm, while another is stretched out lifeless in front of the boy. In the foreground his father, Piet Uys, lies facing in the opposite direction to the dead Zulu, obscuring most of his body and shield, Uys’ limbs echoed by the corpse’s lifeless outstretched arm. Mortally wounded and with drooping head, Uys barely raises his upper body on his left elbow, while his right hand grasps the edge of the marble panel as though he tries to support himself. Yet he is staged frontally in a tranquil classical pose and, within the decorous frame provided by his arms, his dying face with half-closed eyes shows little sign of his suffering. He remains dignified and neatly dressed even in death, with only a loose lock of hair suggesting any loss of his calm control. Despite Dirkie’s valiant attempt to defend him, the boy’s isolation makes him appear vulnerable and a tragic end is inevitable. A riderless horse that gallops away in the left background, against a scene enclosed by flat-topped mountains, adds to the sense that the two Voortrekkers have been abandoned to their fate.

788 For Zulu dress and arms, see Bloukrans. 350 16 Dirkie Uys

Figure 16.2: A2. W.H. Coetzer. Reproduction of first sketch for Dirkie Uys. June 1937 (courtesy of ARCA PV94 1/75/5/1; photo the authors)

Figure 16.3: A3. W.H. Coetzer. ‘Dirkie Uys’. After September 1937. Pencil, 13.4 × 15.2 cm. Revised first sketch (photo courtesy of Museum Africa, no. 66/2194H) Developing the design 351

Developing the design

Already the reproduction of Coetzer’s first drawing (fig. 16.2) shows a compositional divide of the Voortrekkers and their foes similar to the final marble. Six Zulu (one of them wounded) are approaching from the right with assegais and shields to attack the two Voortrekkers who occupy the lower left-hand side of the composition. Two people lie dead on the ground. One, at the lower right corner, partly beyond the frame, is a Zulu who lies on top of his shield and two abandoned assegais. The other, centrally positioned, is the body of Piet Uys in an oblique foreshortened view. He still clings to his rifle, but his head falls backwards towards the viewer, hat abandoned, shirt unbuttoned and legs curiously crossed. The awkward angle of his head is echoed in the wounded Zulu at the top. Next to his father, a bare-headed Dirkie with short tousled hair balances himself on one knee (the other oddly angled) to take aim with his gun, its weight partly supported on an outcrop of jagged rocks that affords him a little shelter. Behind him on the far left a horse without saddle looks back as it moves away. The Historiese Komitee requested the following alterations at its meeting on 4 September 1937:

Death of Dirkie Uys. Italeni is level land with high grass. Show rolling hills; the fight takes place on the bank of a small stream; it must be a flintgun; show a horse that runs away.789

The final pencil sketch (fig. 16.3) shows traces of a different drawing underneath with a full face and left arm of the Zulu nearest to Dirkie; at some point they were for the most part covered by a shield. Following the committee’s instruction, Coetzer removed the rocks (faint signs are still detectable) and covered the ground with the requisite high grass. Without the rocky prop for his gun, Dirkie now has to support its full weight and his hands are enlarged as though to indicate this. The changes also meant that the lower part of some Zulu previously hidden by the rocks became visible amidst the grass, so that Coetzer had to supply them with legs, including some puzzlingly positioned buttocks and a bent leg in the middle of the group. The horse is similar, but its left rear leg is now lifted and the mane ruffled to suggest greater movement, and the addition of a saddle suggests that it has been abandoned by its rider. Apart from the more elevated position of Piet Uys and his inward gaze towards the Zulu attack, Coetzer’s monochrome oil (fig. 16.4) is close to his revised drawing (fig. 16.3), although the horse is without a saddle, and the grassland setting implies that it was made after the feedback from the Historiese Komitee. For the small plaster maquette (fig. 16.5), Laurika Postma changed Coetzer’s arrangement sig- nificantly, although she reintroduced rocks, showing her dependence on the earlier drawing. They form a natural stage, with more coherent flat layers, rather than a steep and rugged barrier. Again Zulu close in from the right, brandishing assegais and small shields. Two figures are more distant, while two are depicted prominently in the foreground, one forcefully attacking, the other dramati- cally collapsing, precariously balanced on the toes of his left foot on a rectangular rock. On the far left a much younger Dirkie Uys kneels on a rocky pedestal with his far knee raised in a calm and compact pose. He takes aim at the attacking Zulu in the foreground with his rifle, the barrel omi- nously overlapping the head of a dead Zulu staged prostrate on the rocks. It is not clear which of the Zulu is in the line of fire although the collapsing figure on the far right is presumably the victim. The foreground figure is again Piet Uys, now shown in a reversed pose parallel to the picture plane, with his far knee raised. The right arm crosses the body to rest over his rifle, the hand framed by the

789 ‘Dood van Dirkie Uys. Italeni is ’n gelyk wêreld met hoë gras. Wys rollende heuwels; die geveg vind op die wal van ’n klein spruitjie plaas; dit moet ’n vuursteengeweer wees; wys ’n perd wat weghardloop’ (Historiese Komitee 4.9.1937: 4m). 352 16 Dirkie Uys

Figure 16.4: A4. W.H. Coetzer. Dirkie Uys. Late 1937–38? Monochrome oil on board, 27 × 27 cm (courtesy of DNMCH, OHG 902; photo the authors)

strap of his gun, while the other arm is bent to cushion his head. The reclining posture and closed eyes are more suggestive of a sleeping figure than the suffering of a fallen man. In the distance on the far left a horse is again depicted. It is now really fleeing the scene, represented in profile with a full saddle, front legs lifted off the ground, stirrups, tail and mane flying. Regardless of the dynamic design, however, it looks more like a statue than a real animal. The full-scale clay panel (fig. 16.6) increases the height of the Zulu adversaries who close ranks on the right. They are reduced to four, one already killed, two that attack, and the fourth in the foreground, hit by a bullet and shown collapsing in the same precarious moment as in the small plaster maquette (fig. 16.5). Three much larger Zulu shields play a role in the narrative’s compo- sition: the first shield masks the body of the attacker, who will ultimately be victorious, and the second is a foil behind the collapsing figure who succumbs to Dirkie’s gun. The third, however, rests on the ground, placed emblematically to divide Piet Uys from the dead Zulu, who lies in frontal view, partly obscured by the Boer and the shield, but presented like a trophy in front of the young gunman, the victim’s head hard against his knee. There are major changes too in the way the Voortrekkers are shown. Now Piet Uys is shown dying but not dead, agonisingly supporting himself on his left arm. But his posture is further formalised and only a few loose strands of hair emphasise his fatal condition. Dirkie appears more adolescent than child, taller and with styled hair. His older demeanour makes his action less miraculous but more credible. He seems to be more in control of his weapon, now with the correct details for a flintlock, which is held on his shoulder more firmly, his raised arms higher, as he aims directly at the middle Zulu. The loss of distracting details such as the aloe at his feet and the hat in the foreground of the maquette help to focus attention on the young hero, and the ample space around him singles him out and brings him close to the viewer. The horse, however, remains above his head in curious isolation. It appears frozen, although its galloping pose is more realistic. Developing the design 353

Figure 16.5: B2. Laurika Postma. Dirkie Uys. 1942–43. Plaster, 78.5 × 85 × 8 cm. Maquette (courtesy of VTM Museum VTM 2184/1–28; photo Russell Scott)

Figure 16.6: C2. Dirkie Uys. 1943–46. Clay. Full-scale relief (Pillman 1984, 48–49, photo Alan Yates) 354 16 Dirkie Uys

Figure 16.7: Dirkie Uys. 1943–46. Plaster. Full-scale relief, as installed in the Monument before cleaning (photo courtesy of Unisa Archive; Van Schaik album, MSS 134, 27)

An intriguing photograph in J.L. van Schaik Publishers’ photo album in the Unisa Archive shows the relief in an exceedingly dirty state (fig. 16.7): it is difficult to know whether it is the plaster version installed in the Monument before being sent to Italy to be carved, or more probably the marble itself, soiled and stained during its journey back to South Africa, as the two are very similar. As discussed in Part I,790 noticeable differences between the full-size clay (fig. 16.6) and the marble relief (fig. 16.1) are the less detailed textural treatment of the foremost Zulu’s front apron and, in the dying Voortrekker, the less articulated beard and hands, the curious form of the left shoulder and arm, and the simplified rendering of the fabric’s folds.

790 Chapter 4 (‘From plaster to marble’).

356 16 Dirkie Uys

Figure 16.8: Major battle sites, Boer, Zulu and Swazi, including eThaleni (Italeni) (courtesy of Laband 1995, 106) Reading the narrative 357

Reading the narrative

The killing of the Voortrekker leader Petrus Lafras (Piet) Uys and his son Dirk Cornelis (Dirkie)791 by Zulu happened on 11 April 1838 at a site usually called Italeni by Boers and British, situated ‘near the sources of the Mhlahuze River and the eThaleni Hill’ (fig. 16.8),792 just five kilometres south- west of uMgungundlovu.793 Their deaths were the consequence of an attempt to avenge the two terrible losses the Voortrekkers had suffered barely two months before: first at uMgungundlovu (6 February), where Retief and his entire entourage, some seventy Boers, thirty-eight servants and the English interpreter, Thomas Halstead, were murdered – and then, only eleven days later, in the area of Bloukrans, where Dingane’s Zulu had slaughtered two hundred and eighty-one Boers, mainly children and women, as well as some two hundred and fifty black servants. The Voortrekkers reacted to these tragedies with two mounted commandos, a party of one hundred and forty-seven men led by Piet Uys and two hundred further men by Hendrik Potgieter, who had come from the Transvaal to support them.794 On 6 April 1838, both groups began to move from the south-west against uMgungundlovu, while a smaller force of English settlers advanced from Port Natal.795 On 11 April at Italeni, the Uys and Potgieter parties ran into an ambush laid by Dingane’s army, estimated to be 6 000 to 7 000 strong.796 Potgieter sensed a trap and retreated with his men in time, but Uys and his commando, who rode on to confront the Zulu, came suddenly under attack from all sides; he, his son Dirkie and ten further men were killed before the rest escaped.797 The Voortrekker defeat came to be known by the shameful name of the Vlugkommando, literally the commando that took flight.798 The recollections of what specifically happened to Piet Uys and his son Dirk vary substantially. The basic narrative is that, in the course of fierce fighting, Piet Uys and a small group of his men including his son were separated from their commando and came under attack by a superior force of Zulu. Most reports say that Piet Uys was fatally wounded by an assegai, and died with his son at the hands of the enemy. While this is the context in which Dirkie Uys has become known to histori- ans, he and his death are shrouded in mystery. It provided fertile ground for heroic myths. Not only is there conflicting information about where, when and how he died, but we know almost nothing about him. His name is remembered in the diminutive as Dirkie, an affectionate form implying youthfulness, but even his age has been disputed, with estimates ranging between ten and fifteen years, and the reliefs show him as very young, particularly the maquette (fig. 16.9). So too was the model for this portrait, Werner Kirchhoff, corroborated by Potgieter (fig. 16.10), who was a school- boy in his early teens at the time he posed for the figure. Only recently has Ian S. Uys clarified that the higher age is correct, and that Dirkie was born on 3 March 1823;799 among the Voortrekkers, males of this age would have been thought of as young men and regularly undertaken the tasks of adults. Some chroniclers report merely that he died with his father.800 Others, however, hand down more colourful accounts. They describe how from the small group of Uys’ men Dirkie alone remained with or turned back to his mortally wounded father, and that they died together after the

791 Visagie 2011, 503 (Dirk Cornelis Uys), 504–505 (Petrus Lafras Uys). 792 Laband 1995, 92; Raper, Möller and Du Plessis 2014, 207. 793 DSAB 5, 1987, 787. 794 Laband 1995, 92–93. 795 For the English alliance with the Boers against Dingane during March and April 1838, see Cubbin 1988. 796 Van der Merwe 1986, 252. 797 Owen ed. Cory 1926, 135; Van der Merwe 1986, 254 (who states that seven men died with Uys). 798 Already emphasised by Smit trans. Mears (1972, 102; Dutch text: Smit ed. Scholtz (1988, 129) recorded on 12 April 1838: ‘… in the evening two men arrived … with the saddening news for us that our force with a loss of 10 men has been defeated with God’s leave, and they have been forced to flee [hebben moeten vluchten] …’ 799 Uys 1988, 31; Visagie 2011, 503. 800 For example, Bird, Annals 1, 1888, 233 (Willem Jurgen Pretorius, 1839?), 243 (Sarel Cilliers, 1871); Owen ed. Cory 1926, 135. 358 16 Dirkie Uys

Figure 16.9: The glorified hero in Dirkie Uys. Maquette and marble relief, details of figs 16.5 and 16.1 (photos Russell Scott)

son had bravely killed several Zulu.801 The undated recollections of Hermanus Jacobus Potgieter (1821–99),802 the eldest son of Andries Potgieter, recorded by the Dutch schoolteacher Odé in the 1890s,803 are a good example of how heroic suffering, Christian belief and nationalistic glorifica- tion became part of the story:

While Uys adjusted the flint of his gun, he was struck by a spear in the side. The strong man retained his presence of mind, and he pulled the spear out of the wound and helped another wounded Boer on a horse. The blood loss he suffered was unfortunately too great; soon he felt death approaching. Then he ordered his men to flee, while he had to die. … His last words to his friends were: ‘Save yourselves. Strike through the enemy. Keep God in mind!’ One could do no better than to follow the command of the dying Uys, and so his companions fled (by Modderspruit) and initially Dirk Uys was with them. Then looking back, he saw his father surrounded by enemies, and his intense feelings as his child made him resist flight; he turned his horse around, and rode into the Zulus. He wanted his father to be saved, or to die with him. Three Zulus quickly fell before his infallible shots, but the number of the enemy was too great, and soon father and son fell to the ground, with countless assegai wounds, and gave up the spirit in each other’s arms.

The name of Piet Uys is honoured by our nation, no less than that of his son Dirk, such an outstand- ing example of parental love and heroism for other young people.804

801 According to Uys (1976, unpaginated [printout, p.6]) ‘The usual version’. See also Bird, Annals 1, 1888, 374 (Daniel Pieter Bezuidenhout, 1879), 411 (Jacobus Boshof, 1838). 802 Visagie 2011, 364–365. 803 For Odé, see Preller, Voortrekkermense 3, 1925, ‘Vooraf’ (preface). 804 ‘Terwyl Uijs de vuursteen van zijn geweer verstelde, werd hij door ’n assegai in de zijde getroffen. De sterke man behield zijn tegenwoordigheid van geest, hij trok de assegai uit de wond en hielp nog ’n gewonde Boer bij zich op ’t paard. Het bloedveries dat hij leed, was helaas, te groot; weldra voelde hij de dood naderen. Daarop gebood hij zijn manschappen de vlucht te nemen, wijl hy toch sterven moest. … Zijn laaste woorden tot zijn vrienden waren: “Red u, slaat u door de vijand heen, houdt God voor ogen!” Men kon niet beter doen dan ’t bevel van de stervende Uijs opvol- gen, zijn metgezellen vluchten (door Modderspruit) en aanvankelik Dirk Uijs met hen. Deze omziende, ziet zijn vader van vijanden omringd, zijn kinderlik gevoel kwam toen zo hevig in verzet tegen zijn vlucht, dat hij zijn perd wendde, en op de Zoeloes inreed. Hij wilde zijn vader redden of met hem sterven. Spoedig vallen drie Zoeloes voor zijn gewisse schoten, maar ’t getal vijanden is te groot, en weldra vallen vader en zoon door ontelbare assegaaisteken verwond, Reading the narrative 359

1 J. Combrinck (Oom Commie) [for Piet Uys] 2 Werner Kirchhoff, son of the sculptor Peter Kirchhoff [for Dirkie Uys]

Figure 16.10: Models for portraits (Potgieter 1987, 28)

The Potgieter narrative reads like an eyewitness report, although he had presumably left Italeni with his father’s Vlugkommando and was not present when Dirkie Uys died. Such accounts and a desire to exalt the Voortrekker past paved the way to transform Dirkie Uys into a widely respected hero of the Great Trek. Hennie Potgieter named some of these issues and the Boer ideologies around them when he recounted the debates of the SVK and the sculptors on the Dirkie Uys panel:

The Dirkie Uys narrative gave rise to widely diverse opinions in the committee. Some contended that Dirk shot and killed three Zulus from the saddle, others that he beat three Zulus to death from the saddle with a rifle-butt. Two other viewpoints held that the skirmish happened on the ground. A descendant of the Uys family was convinced that it never happened and that Dirk was killed as they raced away from the Zulus. Whatever the case, we decided that a twelve-year-old boy could not have killed three Zulus with a rifle butt, and Laurika decided to portray him in a heroic pose, kneeling next to his father while shooting. Whether this is a myth or not, it is an inspiring story that deserves to be recorded in the Monument.805

Predictably, the heroic account was the one chosen for the frieze.806 Laurika Postma portrayed Dirkie Uys in a valorous pose kneeling next to his father, bravely shooting at the attacking Zulu. In doing so she represented the intrepid son and the dying father in an honorific manner, in the tradi- tion of memorial statuary, which makes the father the counter model of the dead Zulu behind him. Looking back at the earlier designs it is interesting to note that this concept took shape only in the

ter aarde, en geven in elkanders armen de geest. Blijve de naam van Piet Uijs bij ons volk in ere, niet minder die van zijn zoon Dirk, die zulk ’n voortreflik voorbeeld voor andere jongeren gaf van ouderliefde en heldemoed’ (Hermanus Jacobus Potgieter in Preller, Voortrekkermense 3, 1925, 49–50). See also Daniel Pieter Bezuidenhout (ibid., 161), who exclaimed, ‘If [only] all Afrikaners were like small Piet Uys …!’ (‘… als alle Afrikaners zo als klein Piet Uijs waren …!’) 805 ‘Oor die Dirkie Uys – verhaal was daar by die Komitee groot meningsverskil. Sommige het gesê dat Dirkie van die rysaal af drie Zoeloes doodgeskiet het; party het beweer dat hy van die saal af drie Zoeloes met die geweerkolf doodgeslaan het. Twee ander sienswyses was dat die verweer op die grond plaasgevind het. ’n Afstammeling van die Uys-familie was vas oortuig dat dit nooit gebeur het nie, maar dat Dirkie in die wegjaag deur die Zoeloes doodgemaak is. Hoe dit ook al sy, ons het aangeneem dat ’n twaalfjarige seuntjie nie drie Zoeloes met ’n geweerkolf kon doodslaan nie, en Laurika het besluit om hom in ’n heldhaftige houding langs sy pa, geknield en besig om te skiet, uit te beeld. Of dit nou ’n mite is al dan nie, dit is ’n inspirerende verhaal, en verdien sy plek in die Monument …’ (Potgieter 1987, 46). 806 Potgieter (ibid.) notes that the Dirkie Uys story ‘can also be taken as a symbol of many child heroes’ (kan ook geneem word as simbool van baie kinderhelde). Postma later undertook relief panels on the theme of ‘kinderhelde’ (child heroes) for the Kindermonument, installed at the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk Sunday School building in Bloemfontein in 1959. Dirkie Uys was not among those portrayed and only one, Petrus Bezuidenhout, was associated with the Trek, saving horses during the Bloukrans massacre. The central panel depicted a boy and girl with the na- tional flag and an open Bible, ‘symbolic of Afrikaners’ Christian National outlook’ (simbolies van die Afrikanervolk se Christelik-nasionale lewensbeskouing). See Pillman 1984, 83–86 with figs (quote p.83); Duffey 1993, 54. 360 16 Dirkie Uys

maquette (fig. 16.5) and received its final form in the full-scale clay (fig. 16.6). The more general and possibly more trustworthy statements of the majority of chroniclers were ignored as they would not have contributed to the purpose of the panel within the narrative of the frieze. Dirkie Uys is a telling example of how a shifting blend of history, myth and Afrikanerdom promoted a powerful new image. Similar dynamics of memory are attested by the Uys family, who have kept contradictory ver- sions of Dirkie’s fate alive to the present day. Two articles by Ian S. Uys are revealing. In his 1976 article ‘A Boer family’, he explained:

The usual version of how Piet’s son, Dirkie, 15, met his death is that on glancing backwards he saw his dying father lift his head for a last look at his son. The anguished boy turned his horse and with a cry of ‘I will die with my father’ he raced back to Piet, shooting three Zulus in the process, and fell under the assegais at his father’s side.

The Uys family version is that Dirkie was not aware of his father’s fate. He and Jan de Jager, 20, were galloping together when Zulus sprang up in a reed-choked stream ahead. Jan’s horse jumped in and out of the donga, but Dirkie’s horse landed with its forelegs splayed and before he could escape Dirkie was dragged from its back. His remains were never found, possibly through being washed away in the donga.807 Another version is that he was taken alive to Dingaan who had ‘muti’ (medi- cine) made from this brave young boy.808

Twelve years after this article, Ian Uys revisits the Italeni episode but does not mention the ‘Uys family version’, instead reinstating a simplified account of the ‘usual version’ in an account that val- orises not only the son but also the father, who is credited with qualities that would have changed South African history. In his article ‘Her Majesty’s Loyal and Devoted Trekker Leader: Petrus Lafras Uys’, he writes:

… on 8 April (1838) … Uys rode to the rescue of two impetuous Malan brothers and was mortally wounded by an assegai in his back. He was supported in his saddle but kept fainting and eventu- ally ordered his men to leave him. His 15-year-old son, Dirkie, then achieved immortality. The boy looked back to see his dying father raise his head and watch him ride to safety, while Zulus swarmed towards him. Dirkie swung his horse around and rode back to fight and died with his father.809 Piet Uys was the only Trekker leader to die on the battlefield.

History has not forgotten the spontaneous heroism of Dirkie, but has largely overlooked the tre- mendous charisma of the man which inspired it. The boy’s love for his father was the natural con- sequence of the respect and adulation his family and friends bore for a morally and physically cou- rageous man … Piet Uys’ vision of a United States of South Africa, … had he survived …, would perhaps have prevented the carnage of two Anglo-Boer Wars and led to a more peaceful solution to our sub-continent’s problems.810

807 This is close to P.S. de Jongh’s account in DSAB 5, 1987, 787: After the death of his father, Piet Uys, ‘approximately one kilometer further on U. [Dirkie Uys] was cornered by the Zulu warriors, and probably died in the spruit at that place. His remains were never found and his body was most probably swept down in the stream’. What neither ac- count concludes is that, since Piet Uys’ remains were later recovered and buried, but his son’s body was not with his, it is very likely that they did not die together. 808 Uys 1976, unpaginated (printout, pp.6–7). 809 This coincides with the account of Schalk Willem Burger in Preller, Voortrekkermense 4, 1925, 95. 810 Uys 1988, 39. It is interesting that Marthinus Oosthuizen, who rode with the Vlugkommando but did not himself witness the death of Uys (recounted to him by his brother-in-law Rudolph who did), does not mention Dirkie’s heroic deed in a letter of 19 January 1897, as his emphasis is on demonstrating what a hero Piet Uys was (quoted in Preller’s account of the memories of his wife Aletta Oosthuizen, Voortrekkermense 3, 129–132; see also Marthinus Oosthuizen). Reading the narrative 361

Figure 16.11: Dying Piet Uys in Dirkie Uys. Marble, detail of fig. 16.1 (photo Russell Scott)

Figure 16.12: Apollo kills the Giant Ephialtes, detail of Pergamon Altar, east frieze. c. 200–150 BC. Marble, h. 2.3 m; total length of frieze 113 m (Pergamonmuseum, Berlin; photo Susanne Muth) 362 16 Dirkie Uys

While the dying Piet Uys is portrayed with dignity (fig. 16.11), in an ancient pose reminiscent of the Giant Ephialtes in the ancient frieze of the Pergamon Altar (fig. 16.12),811 we have seen that it was the ‘usual version’ glorifying Dirkie that is portrayed in the marble. In the scene Dirkie has killed two of the attacking Zulu already: the first lies dead in front of him, next to his dying father, the second collapses on the far right, and his third victim, the middle Zulu, is at gun point. In the narrative of the frieze it is the task of the remaining Zulu nearest to Dirkie to stab him to death with his assegai, but he is portrayed before he kills the young Boer to allow Dirkie to be represented as a hero performing a heroic act. Purpose, context and moral high ground have throughout history been driving forces to lend stories a cutting edge. In the visual narrative of the frieze the intention of the Dirkie Uys relief was to portray cardinal values which formed part of the Afrikaner mythology of the Great Trek, namely the unbreakable bond between father and son, and their perfect, irreproachable behaviour when faced with death. The choice of this very episode is relevant for another reason also. As Eric Walker has argued, the disaster at Italeni was the Voortrekkers’ first ‘stark defeat in fair fight’ including the loss of one of their leaders.812 The murder of Retief and his party ‘had been done by treachery upon unarmed men’, and the massacre at Bloukrans was ‘achieved by surprise on open laagers in the dark’813 – explanations which avoided having to think of the cost of the many lives in these two tragedies as defeat. The story of Dirkie Uys as a Boer hero, a young man ready to die for the Afri- kaner cause, transformed Italeni from the shameful ignominy of the Vlugkommando into a worthy chapter of the foundation myth of Afrikanerdom.

811 The likelihood of Laurika Postma knowing this work from the time she spent in Berlin is discussed in Part I, Chapter 2 (‘Topics for the Great Trek’). 812 Walker 1934, 172. 813 Ibid.