Frederick Hale, Stellenbosch University

FREDERICK HALE, STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY

Heroism, Tragedy, and the Failure of Historicity in Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai

Since the 1890s the heroism of individual well entrenched in the case of those like Voortrekkers and of these emigrating Boers Retief and Maritz who had fallen at the generally has been a hallmark of fictional hands of Zulu foes. reconstructions of the Great Trek, especially More challenging, however, was the task those written in Dutch and Afrikaans, and of enthroning in the pantheon of indeed it has also left its mark on those Voortrekker leaders those whose place in which English-speaking writers have history was ambiguous. Hendrik Potgieter contributed to this sub-genre. This for instance, was widely known to have ' generalisation is particularly applicable to been autocratic and frequently at odds with works intended for the cultural and moral other trek chieftains. In the present article I edification of young Afrikaners, as I have shall consider how Anna de Villiers, an emphasised in earlier studies (Hale 1999a, Afrikaans female litterateur who was Hale 1999b). During the first four decades steeped in Afrikaner nationalism, tackled the ofthe twentieth century, the authors of such challenge in her novel of 1938, Die Wit books relied heavily on the heroic image of Kraai, of constructing the tragedy of Hans the Voortrekkers which such trail-blazing de Lange, a once-respected Voortrekker Afrikaner nationalists as Gustav Preller scout who, after settling in Natal and. meticulously constructed in the wake of the becoming a well-established farmer, became emotionally burdensome defeat in the one of the first Europeans in southern Africa Second Anglo-Boer War. In this strand of to be executed for murdering an indigenous the Afrikaans ethnic tradition, such leaders African. This novel is above all else a study of the Great Trek as Andries Pretorius , of historical relations between ethnic groups Gerrit Maritz, and Piet Retief were lionised and particularly of how its protagonist to serve as types to be emulated by their relates to his fellow Afrikaners, the British descendants in the Union of South Africa. colonial administration, and African Literarily raised from the grave, they were indigenes. Accordingly, much of the to continue to lead Afrikaners in the ongoing concentration is necessarily on De Villiers' competition with their English-speaking portrayal of these segments of the compatriots, as indeed they had done a demographic kaleidoscope, paying special century earlier. This role was particularly attention to the place of the heroic myth- Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 27 and its limits - in her representation of began to write a dissertation on "Die Voortrekkers and, concomitantly, the Hollandse Taalbeweging in Suid-Afrika", employment of other peoples as foils. No for which the University of Stellenbosch one-dimensional saint cast in what by the conferred on her the degree Doctor late 1930s was the conventional Litterarum in 1934. The topic reflected hagiographic mould ofVoortrekker heroes, vividly her ethnic and linguistic interests. her Hans de Lange is a fairly well-drawn De Villiers spent several years lecturing in character with a complex personality. Afrikaans at the Pretoria Technical College During the course of the narrative he is and, though for only a year, in history at the heroic, anti-heroic, sagacious, ruthless at University of Pretoria. In 1940 she returned times, for years a commendable pater to the Cape as principal of the Huguenot familias but later an insensitive and aloof University College in Wellington, a post she husband. A second focal point of this article occupied until that institution closed its is the historicity of De Villiers' treatment of doors a decade later. De Villiers then the legal ramifications of De Lange's final succeeded in following for well over a months, particularly the failure of Die Wit decade her keen interest in lexicography as Kraai as a reliable historical novel. an editor of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal in Stellenbosch. Intimately related to these professional activities, she An Afrikaans Female Perspective was deeply involved in such organisations as the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir De Villiers wrote from the perspective of Wetenskap en Kuns, the Suid-Afrikaanse an Afrikaans woman who spent most of her Taalbond, the Afrikaanse Skrywerskring, life amongst Afrikaners and devoted much and the Afrikaans Language Monurpent of her career to pursuits and causes Committee. intimately linked to the nurturing of Afrikaner nationalism. Born in 1900 near As an unmarried woman without children, Kuilsrivier in what was then the De Villiers found time to pursue her. Stellenbosch district, she was the eldest of interwoven literary and ethno-cultural six children and had countless relatives in interests. While teaching at the Pretoria the De Villiers and Bester families (her Technical College, she wrote the first of her mother was a Bester), both of which were several books about Afrikaans history, a firmly rooted in the history of the Cape. quasi-autobiographical historical novel titled Anna De Villiers matriculated at the Sterker as die Noodlot, which was published BloemhofGirls' High School in in 1930. Die Wit Kraai was her second Stellenbosch in 1918 and received her fictional work. De Villiers' third published Bachelor of Arts at that town's university novel, Hercule de Pres, appeared in 1947 three years later. During the early 1920s she and dealt with her early Huguenot forebears taught briefly at Oudtshoorn and earned a in the Cape. She also ventured into Master of Arts at her alma mater in 1924. nonfictional reconstructions of historical The young linguist then served briefly on topics, chiefly the Great Trek and South the staff of Die Afrikaanse Woordeboek. African women's history, sometimes During a brief stint as a translator at the merging these two themes. Department of Statistics in Pretoria, she 28 Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies

A Fictional Reconstruction ofthe Great and Piet Retief and the Christian ministry pf Trek Erasmus Smit. Undeterred by cursorily described Matabele attacks on their wagon In some respects Die Wit Kraai resembled train, they press on towards the "Promised other novels about the Great Trek which had Land" of Natal and eventually cross the begun to appear in the late nineteenth Drakensberg. Along the way Hans de Lange century and were being published with repeatedly evinces his skills as a scout and, increasing frequency during the 1930s as the while the official leaders are away centenary of that migration approached and confronting the "Kaffers" (natives), as an Was observed. De Villiers related her tale efficient an hoc commander of the camp. from a conventional omniscient narrator Negotiations with King Dingaan at the Zulu point of view. The almost completely linear royal kraal result in the ceding of an narrative of the text spans approximately enormous tract of land to the Voortrekkers, 250 pages and is divided into fourteen who, after briefly interacting in a co chapters. The first and considerably longer operative manner with the few British of the two parts of the novel deals with the settlers at Port Natal and defeating in the period from the mid-1830s, when the Battle of Blood River the supposedly last De Lange family is still farming and fighting Zulu resistance to their colonisation venture, off raids by Xhosa tribesmen in the Eastern begin to layout farms and establish a Cape, until the defeat of the Zulus by the republican government at Pietermaritzburg. Boers at the Battle of Blood River in At this point De Villiers goes beyond the December 1838. The second carries chronological framework of most earlier De Lange's tale as a farmer in Natal from novels of the Great Trek. The vexing 1846 until his death on the gallows in 1861. British, refusing to allow these pioneers to There is nothing complicated about the plot live undisturbed and realise their vision of of Die Wit Kraai, and very little in it will self-determination, annex the Republic of seem novel to anyone who is familiar with Natalia and impose on the Boers imperial antecedent fictional reconstructions of this ways similar to those which had harried historic migration, as its author them out of the Cape Colony. De Lange and unquestionably was. Like most other novels many of his neighbours consequently trek about the Great Trek, it briefly relates the again, secure from Dingaan' s successor woes which frontier Boers in the Eastern King Mpande another expanse of lan~, and Cape were experiencing during the mid- constitute on it the Klip River RepublIc, but, 1830s, and in this respect De Villiers, again in what strikes the settlers as a painful true to convention, uses farmhouse dialogue repetition of history, the British are hard on to voice (though here in extremely skeletal their heels and incorporate that short-lived form) the grievances which they had against country into Her Majesty's recently founded the British colonial administration, colony of Natal. In this politically particularly with regard to woefully .. unsatisfactory setting the ageing De Lange, inadequate compensation for the abolItIOn of increasingly withdrawn from his wife, slavery and the inefficacy of military allows his smouldering anger to flare up protection from the Xhosa. The De Langes when Ncatya, one of his Zulu employees, is join the trek to the north and soon c~me . reported by a female colleague to have. under the secular leadership of Gerrlt Mantz broken into an outbuilding. Accompamed by Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 29 a troupe of his other workers, De Lange sets first novels about the Great Trek, De out to take the accused to a magistrate in Voortrekkers, ofHet Dagboek van Izak van Ladysmith but becomes involved in a fight der Merwe, which the two Dutch Reformed with him en route and kills him with a dominees Nico Hofmeyr and his brother-in firearm. In the ensuing legal hearing and law John Daniel Kestell had published in murder trial, the Zulu witnesses contradict 1896. There is nothing novel in the use of one another, but the unsympathetic jury the heroic myth of the Voortrekkers as such ignores the implausibilities of their or the concomitant and stereotypical testimonies and returns a verdict of guilty, references to the Zulus and other African though with mitigating circumstances. The characters as bloodthirsty and morally British colonial judge nevertheless imposes depraved foils, although this typing is a sentence of death by hanging, which is absolutely central to nuances in the eventually carried out, despite the character development of the protagonist unwillingness of local settlers to co-operate (which are themselves crucial) and merits with the executioner, the breaking of the consideration. To a great extent, the rope used on the impromptu gallows, and significance of Die Wit Kraai in the history De Lange's impassioned pleas to the of Afrikaans literature must be judged on the governor in Pietermaritzburg for clemency. basis of De Villiers' pivotal treatment of De Lange and his legal woes. Apart from the post-1838 events, much of the plot and narrative of Die Wit Kraai are utterly typical of the antecedent historical A Qualified Attitude towards the Heroic fiction of the Great Trek. Even some of the Myth ofthe Voortrekkers dimensions which De Villiers has added to her basic story line to create greater interest The first few decades of De Villiers' life and add mythic significance mirror similar coincided with the period of rapid efforts of previous authors. Her creation of a development of Afrikaner nationalism and romantic subplot involving the courting and the unfolding of the heroic myth of the eventual marriage of one of De Lange's Voortrekkers. When she was a schoolgirl daughters, reflects a conventional structural and university student, Gustav Preller was technique which De Villiers may well have taking the lead in attempting to revive the read in several of Johan Frederik Afrikaner volk's spirits after the defeat in the van Oordt's immensely popular historical Second Anglo-Boer War by, inter alia, novels, such as his reconstruction of the writing a seemingly endless series of quasi Great Trek in David Malan. Similarly, there hagiographic books about individual is nothing unique in her repeated allusions Voortrekkers as well as intimately related to the Biblical account of the Exodus as a volumes about Boer officers and the Great prefigurative typing, or the identification of Trek in general. Beginning at least as early some of the Voortrekkers with the Hebrews as the 1890s, historical novels and as they entered a new country under divine nonfictional works in Dutch and Afrikaans, guidance. The literary employment of this some of them intended for young readers, interpretation of Afrikaner history was also rolled from the presses to reinforce this virtually de rigueur by the late 1930s, image of exemplary heroism. Such authors having reached an early zenith in one of the as Van Oordt, Hofmeyr and Kestell, Miemie 30 Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies

Rothmann, and Pieter Erasmus van der samewerking en tot noodlottige Merwe played instrumental parts in creating gebeurtenisse soos dit die geval was met the fictional components of this literary Hendrik Potgieter en Piet Uys op die campaign, which gained increased Vlugkommando in 1839" (less pleasant momentum as the centenary of the Great traits, such as lust for power in some Trek approached in 1938. With few leaders, which gave rise to a lack of co exceptions, these authors presented their operation and to fatalities, as was the case nineteenth-century heroes as incapable of with Hendrik Potgieter and Piet Uys on the wrongdoing, juxtaposing them with the 1839 Raid.). Furthermore, De Villiers oppressive colonial British and the conceded, "Daar was die twissiekies, soos ostensibly bloodthirsty "barbarians" who blyk uit die gedurige weiering van resisted the incursions of the Voortrekkers sommiges om eeerw. Erasmus Smit as leraar into traditional homelands. te aanvaar self nadat hy deur goewerneur Piet Retief as amptelike predikant van die Notwithstanding her lifelong involvement trekgemeenskap aangestel is"(There were in the institutions of Afrikaner nationalism, quarrels, as we see from the continuing De Villiers held a qualified attitude towards refusal of some of them to accept the Rev. the heroic myth which it had spawned and Erasmus Smit as minister even after he was which underlay much of the historical appointed official preacher to the fiction about the Great Trek. In one of her Voortrekkers by Governor Piet Retief). subsequent books about that migration, she Turning from the realm of religion to private emphasised matter-of-factly, "Dit is habits, she added to her syllabus of belangrik om te onthou dat al die Voortrekker sins a qualified generalisation Voortrekkers nie heldefigure was nie; nee, that "daar was selfs mense wat misbruik hulle was gewone indiwidue met al die van sterk drank gemaak het, hoewel dit eienskappe soos wat 'n mens dit in elke seIde voorgekom het" (there were even ander gemeenskap vind, veral onder die people who abused strong drink, although plattelandse bevolking" (It's important to that did not happen often), without remember that not all the Voortrekkers were specifying on what this allegation was heroic figures; no, they were ordinary based, but flatly denied illegal conduct on people with all the characteristics that one the part of the Voortrekkers" "Sekerlik was finds in any other community, especially daar geen misdadigers nie" (there were among a farming population). On the one certainly no criminals among them) hand, De Villiers could point to such (De Villiers 1975: unpaginated Inleiding). laudatory characteristics as "godsdienssin, dapperheid, deursettingsvermoe en gedult Despite this subsequent qualification, wat van talle van hulle ware helde gemaak De Villiers' Voortrekkers in Die Wit Kraai, het" (piety, courage, perseverance and which was written during a period of patience, which made a lot of them true intensifying Afrikaner nationalism, heroes). At the same time, she incorporate much of what by the late 1930s acknowledged that one could find amongst had become conventional heroic attributes in the Voortrekkkers "minder aangeneme fiction about the Great Trek. Throughout trekke, soos heerssug onder sommige leiers, most of her narrative, she embeds signs of wat aanleiding gegee het tot 'n gebrek aan valour and other virtues of the emigrating Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 31

Boers in general and particularly - though hulle met hul knipmesse geweer en twintig with noteworthy exceptions to which we Zoeloes afgemaak het voordat hul self shall return briefly - in their principal doodgemartel is" (how bravely Retief and leaders. They are a freedom-loving people his men kept them at bay with their pocket who left the Cape not as adventurers - as knives and killed twenty Zulus before he some of their Anglophone contemporaries in himself was martyred)(137). When Andries that colony contended - but in order to Pretorius and his contingent arrive at the escape from British imperialist oppression abandoned royal kraal and discover the and maladministration. Indeed, their thirst remains ofthe massacre, this Voortrekker for liberty is so great that they are willing to leader proclaims to his men that they "staan risk immense perils to obtain it. De Lange's vandag voor die oop graf van helde wat hul son-in-law Izak van Niekerk ponders this at lewe veil gehad het vir hul volk; ons staan an early stage of the Great Trek: "Vryheid by die ontsielde oorblyfsels van manne, bied hulle aan die trekgemeenskap. Vryheid vlees van ons vlees en bloed van ons bloed, en .... die dood? Is vryheid dan ook aan wat met hullewens geboet het vir ons bande gele? Dan is ook vryheid g'n absolute vryheid" (stand today by the open grave of vryheid nie? Swerwend, weg van hul heroes who sacrificed their lives for their voorvaderlike erfenis, om die vryheid te people; we stand by the lifeless remains of vind wat hulle in huI geboorteland ontse is, men, flesh of our flesh and blood of our het die Trekkers nou vryheid, maar 'n blood, who paid with their lives for our vryheid agterhaal deur die dood" (The freedom)(138). Some of these liberty-loving Voortrekker community offers them people have sufficient initiative to launch freedom. Freedom and - death? Is freedom their own "Kliprivier-republiek" (171). They also in chains, then? Is freedom then not are above all else a proud people, and when absolute? Wandering far from their the governor of Natal asks De Lange's wife forefathers' heritage, to find the freedom why her recalcitrant husband has not denied them in the land of their birth, the defended himself in court, she replies, "As u Voortrekkers now have freedom, but a ons Boeremense ken, sal u weet dat ons trots freedom hunted by death)(49). Bravery is is en my man voel in sy eer gekrenk omdat consequently a vital component of the hy soos 'n gewone misdadiger behandel collective Voortrekker character. These word" (When you get to know us Boers, you pioneers are undaunted, or nearly so, by man will learn we are proud, and my husband and beast alike. De Villiers even includes a feels deeply offended that he is being treated scene in which Izak wrestles and slays a like a common criminal)(238). Their ethnic lioness to underscore the point (25-27). The pride incorporates a vital dimension of greater valour of the Voortrekkers, however, group solidarity, and they rally as one is revealed in their dealings with indigenous behind De Lange in his hour of need (227, Africans. De Villiers does not dwell on the 247-249). confrontations ofPiet Retiers party with In fairness to De Villiers, it must be King Dingaan of Zululand, choosing instead stressed that her image of the Voortrekkers to highlight Voortrekker bravery by in Die Wit Kraai is far from hagiographic. allowing both black and white characters to Repeatedly she tempers her narrative with voice their respect for it. One elderly Zulu incidents which underscore anti-heroic relates "hoe dapper Retief en sy manskappe 32 Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies elements in the general Afrikaans natives)(20). Experiences in Natal and demeanour. There is considerable strife over Zululand confirm this article of the the validity of Erasmus Smit's ministry (30- Voortrekkers' faith. Before the first 33), and his spouse, Susanne Smit, is both a encounter with Dingaan, De Lange cautions, gossip and boastful (22-23). Indeed, "Maar vertrou g'n Kaffer nie" (but don't although the Voortrekker women in gener21 trust a native)(153), a conviction which his are intrepid souls, they also bicker a great friend Zach Pretorius shares: "Ek vertrou deal (72), and even the element of bravery g'n swartvel meer nie" (I'll never trust a which is a consistent theme in Die Wit Kraai black again), he tells De Lange after these has its limits. Under threat of nocturnal two meet Mpande (155). attack, "Almal is moeg en uitgeput, maar 'n An even more pervasive Leitmotiv in the geheime vrees hou almal wakker" (Everyone is weary and exhausted, but a stereotyping of the indigenes is De Villiers' recurring reliance on familiar images of secret fear keeps everyone awake )(90). them as primitive and bestial. She goes on De Villiers does not veil her dislike of and on ad nauseam in describing in Hendrik Potgieter, particularly his autocratic unrelentingly condescending terms the and egotistical behaviour, and one of her Africans with whom the De Langes and characters voices a similar attitude towards their ethnic fellows come into contact. him after the disaster at Italeni: "Potgieter Fourteen pages into the narrative, one reads het ons darem lelik in die steek gelaat" that the emigrating Boers bring their rural (That's why Potgieter wickedly left us in the Christian virtues into "'n wildernis vol lurch)(112). dreigende wilde diere, barbaarse mense en onbekende landsomstandighede" (a wilderness full of menacing wiid animals, The Indigenous African Foil barbarous people and unknown terrain). Like most other novelists who wrote about Their fears and prejudices soon seem to the Great Trek, De Villiers employed have been well-founded when they discover stereotypical images of indigenous Africans villages that have been devastated in as foils to accentuate her generally positive internecine African strife. De Villiers casts depiction of the Voortrekkers and to make her presentation of the warring African their heroism stand out in bold relief. The factions in the mould of popular social tone of vilification is initially set as early as Darwinist terminology: "Die oeroue drang the third page, when De Lange tells his son van die primitiewe mens tot Adriaan that "mens kan nie weet of die alleenheerskappy huis nog in die gemoed Kaffers lieg nie" (you can't tell if the natives van die wilde. Die oorlewing van die are lying). The conviction that blacks are sterkste geld ook hier, onvermydelik, untrustworthy reverberates throughout the genadelos" (The ancient primitive will to text. Adriaan has learnt his lesson and absolute power still lives in the character of shortly thereafter tells his friend Izak van the savage. The survival of the fittest also Niekerk that "al se wie ook die Kaffers is applies here, inevitably, relentlessly). ons goedgesind, hulle bly Kaffers" (no Apparently not content with this superficial matter who says the natives are favourably analysis, she adds a theological veneer to it: disposed towards us, they're still "Die puinhope is simbool van sataniese lis, Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 33 goddelose broedermoord, wrede wraaksug an attack on their wagon train, the trek to - oerkragte van die menslikegees gebotvier which the De Langes belong hear "die op die swakste" (The ruins are a symbol of barbaarse dreunsange van die bloeddorstige Satanic cunning, godless fratricide, a wildes" (the barbaric chant of the ferocious desire for revenge - the primeval bloodthirsty savages) (122). Faced with the power of the human spirit's domination of constant threat of violence from the Zulus the weakest)(53). Bestial black-on-black after settling in Natal, the Voortrekkers violence remains a minor theme in the believe they must maintain a posture of narrative. Andries Pretorius and his superiority as part of their ongoing defence. commando discover more signs of it in This, De Villiers explains, accounts in part Zululand: "Die heuwels weergalm van die for the abrupt way in which the latter treat wilde oorlogsrumoer en bloedstollende their employees. As De Lange tells Spies, skrydkrete van die twee regimente "hoe korter jy 'n Kaffer vat, koning of moordlustige barb are wat met dierlike gewone swartvel, hoe meer dink hy van jou" wreedheid alles in werking stel om hul eie (the more abrupt you are with a native, stamgenote uit te roei. Verwarring. Slagting. whether a king or an ordinary black, the Die dood" (The hills echo with the wild more highly he thinks ofyou)(173). The clamour of war and bloodcurdling battle protagonist finds unadvisable the cries of the two regiments of murderous willingness of certain British settlers, such barbarians who with animal ferocity use as John Dunn, to take Zulu spouses, as every means to exterminate their own race. miscegenation contributes to a breaking Confusion. Slaughter. Death) (156-157). down of the wall separating Europeans in southern Africa from the barbarian Of more immediate relevance to the indigenes. Moreover, his local ecclesiastical Voortrekkers, of course, is the threat of Zulu status has become entwined in this hierarchy violence to them. De Villiers rides this horse of ethnic power. How can he possibly wed a as well, through the well-trodden valley of Zulu girl whom Mpande has given him as a the shadow of death. Her description of present, he wonders. "Hy, Johannes what De Lange finds at the site of a de Lange, 'n ouderling van die kerk! Die massacre of emigrating Boers is as hele besigheid is·ongehoord" (He, Johannes sanguinary as it is unoriginal: "Bloed oral de Lange, an elder of the church! The whole waar Hans Dons sy oe draai ... vars rooi business is unheard-of) (ISO). bloed. Die aarde is bevlek daarmee ... oral slaan swartrooi kolle uit ... oral drup daar bloed van die waens af, uit die beddegoed Colonial British Villains uit, onder die tentrepe uit ... die gras is nat ... bedou met vars bloed" (Blood everywhere No less than the Zulus and other Nguni Hans Dons turns his eye ... fresh red blood. peoples, the British colonial officials who The earth is stained with it ... everywhere appear in Die Wit Kraai serve as . there are reddish-black patches ... stereotypical negative referents whose everywhere their blood drips from the interaction with the Voortrekkers and other wagons, out of the bedding, out under the Boers underscores the heroic characteristics tent ropes ... the grass is wet ... bedewed of the latter. There is nothing unique in with fresh blood)(SO). While later awaiting De Villiers' depiction of the British. A few 34 Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies

examples of her portrayal of this segment of convinces De Lange, "Dis vir my so snaaks the southern African population will dat die rooi nasie ons nie willos nie" (It illustrate both their place in this novel's seems to me that the red nation will not shallow ethnic typing and De Villiers' leave us alone). One of his mates, Abraham captivity to attitudes prevalent in Afrikaans Spies, suggests that the roots of British circles of her formative decades. incursions into supposedly Boer territory lie in "Hebsug, neef Hans, en landhonger" In the second chapter De Villiers begins to (Greed, cousin Hans, and hunger for land), establish a negative image ofthe British, prompting De Lange to retort with a query: employing what by the late 1930s were "Maar, neef Abraham, het hulle dan g'n well-known stereotypes to underscore Boer skaamte nie?" (But, cousin Abraham, have resentment of them. When the De Langes they no shame?) (188). discuss their grievances which precipitate their decision to join the Great Trek (itself a The colonial British intrude not only on typical scene in both Afrikaans and English the Boers' independence and terrain, but fiction about the migration), Catrina vents also on their folkways, especially with her wrath about the hurdles that make it regard to race relations. Discussing with his virtually impossible to receive compensation wife the practice of white settlers taking for their emancipated slaves. "Die indigenous spouses, De Lange generalises bloedsuiers!" she exclaims. "Kastig agente that "die Engelse in die Baai het vroeer vir slawe-komespsasie, maar hulle is niks omtrent almal so 'n vrou gekry en niemand beter as bosluise op 'n perd nie" (The het daar ooit iets van gese" Gust about all bloodsuckers! Bogus agents for slave the English in the Bay used to take such a compensation, but they're no better than wife and nobody ever said anything about it) ticks on a horse). Reinforcing the point, (182). Affecting the Boers much more De Lange's own horse has been confiscated immediately and comprehensively, however, by the British (11). Repeatedly De Villiers was the imposition of supposedly colour returns to images that emphasise British blind British justice. In the scene in which imperialist oppression of the Afrikaners. De Lange hears that a Zulu has burgled one The Voortrekkers leave the Cape "om of his buildings but doubts that the courts sodoene die Engelse juk van hul skouers te will deal severely with the accused African, skuif' (so as to take the English yoke off De Villiers describes her protagonist's their shoulders)(14), but after reaching Natal reaction as one in which he has a sense of and acquiring land through costly deja vu: "Maar die gelykstelling van die confrontations with the Zulus they resent the Kaffers met die Boere, net soos in die ou incursions of parasitic British settlers who Kolonie - dit is die vernedering wat die threaten to enjoy at least some of the fruits Engelse die Boere aandoen, sonder dat hulle ofthe Boers' struggle. "Sal al die bloed dan dit skyn te besef' (But the equation of the verniet gestort weesT' (shall all that blood natives with the Boers, just like in the old have been shed for nothing?) Andries [Cape] colony - that is the humiliation that Pretorius wonders (143). There is apparently the English inflict on the Boers, without no effective resistance to the proliferation of seeming to realize it) (212). De Lange British colonial presence. The annexation of perceives a perpetual cleft between these their short-lived Klip River Republic two European ethnic groups, in part because Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 35 of a lack of empathy for the Boers and his to cope with this, De Villiers stated that she own inability to comprehend British ways. conducted research at the Natal Archives He and his wife resent his being arrested by Depot, although she did not specify which "Kaffers," and he tells her bluntly, "Vrou, jy materials she consulted there or relate ken mos die Engelse. Geen mens kan ooit se anything else about her investigation. waarom hulle die dinge doen wat hulle do en nie" (Wife, you know the English.Nobody De Villiers had little formal training as an can ever tell why they do the things they historian. This lacuna in her preparation, do)(224). Under arraignment and awaiting coupled with the relative paucity of trial for murder, De Lange seeks to justify trustworthy source material dealing his use of violence by telling himself that specifically with De Lange and particularly his legal difficulties, virtually doomed from the English simply do not understand that he had reason to shoot Ncatya (229). the outset much of her attempt to write solid historical fiction. The central thrust of and pivotal facts in De Villiers' reconstruction of De Lange's trial and execution fail the The Execution ofHistory test of historicity. She has created a tragic Although Die Wit Kraai is historical hero significantly different from the one fiction, when assayed with the touchstone of who emerges from nineteenth-century contemporary sources in Natal certain documentation, a fictional character whose aspects of De Villiers' imaginative plot relationship to his fellow Afrikaners had prove to be more fictitious than historical. little in common with that of the man who To be sure, literary critics have long held supposedly inspired him. To be sure, in differing views about the nature of some respects her inability to ferret out basic novelists' responsibility when facts did not significantly compromise Die reconstructing the past. In this case, it Wit Kraai. For example, De Villiers wrote should be borne in mind that De Villiers, that in 1853 Catrina De Lange noticed that like several other Afrikaans and English her husband was finally showing signs of speaking litterateurs of her day, consciously ageing and that his previously copper sought to present fictional reconstructions of coloured beard was finally turning white the Great Trek as an historical event while (209). In one ofthe few recorded South Africa was preparing to celebrate the contemporary comments about De Lange's centenary of that migration. Furthermore, in physical appearance, however, the British her "Voorwoord" she pointed out that "Hans trader Charles Barter observed in 1851 of de Lange het feitlik 'n legendariese figuur this "old fellow", who was then not quite onder die Afrikanervolk geword" (Hans de fifty-one: "His moustache and whiskers Lange has in fact become a legendary figure were united, and both were snow-white, and among the Afrikaners) and conceded that his countenance was more expressive and "daar het so baie verhale om hom ontwikkel less stolid than that of most of his dat dit moeilik is om die ware grens tussen countrymen, while his frame was that of a die werklikheid en die legende te bepaal" tall powerful man" (Barter 1852: 73-74). (so many stories have grown up around him This is arguably of little significance, but that it is hard to draw the line between the same can hardly be said of De Villiers' reality and legend) (unpaginated). Seeking severely flawed reconstruction of the murder 36 Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies

case which sent De Lange to the gallows. from Afrikaners and English-speakers alike Her chronological framework for the legal that were printed in the Natal Witness, a proceedings is unnecessarily imaginative weekly newspaper of the time in and simply does not reflect facts which were Pietermaritzburg, De Lange was virtually readily available had she done appropriate disowned by his Afrikaans neighbours in research. One reads in Die Wit Kraai, for Klip River County after he was arrested for example, that the trial began on 27 February murdering one of his employees. To be sure, 1861 (231), but in fact it got underway on violent treatment ofZulus by European 20 February and was completed two days settlers in Natal was a publicly debated topic later. More seriously, De Villiers, reflecting at the time. While De Lange was awaiting her interpretation of the De Lange case as an trial in January 1861, a fellow colonist, instance of injustice at the hands of the Richard Smithwick, was sentenced to one British, insists that there was a change of month in gaol "on such spare diet as is venue from Ladysmith to Pietermaritzburg, consistent with his health, for every because it was decided that owing to local alternate week" for shooting a "Kafir" who Boer admiration of the accused in the former subsequently recovered. There is no reason locale, it would have been impossible to to believe that the colony's courts were impanel an impartial jury there (230). There particularly lenient along racial lines. was in fact a change of venue, but it was According to a published account of this precisely the reverse of what De Villiers particular case, Smithwick "was in the habit believed. The trial, initially set for the of giving way to his temper, and ... this was colonial capital, was transferred to not the first offence he had committed". 3 Ladysmith at the request of defence counsel Some reformers pleaded in the press for Krogh. It was on his home turf that more humane treatment of African De Lange was tried and found guilty of employees. "I do not mean to say ,that the murder. The most serious gaffe, however, complaints of native laziness, impertinence, and the one most damaging to De Villiers' &c., are unfounded. It would be strange, case, is her assertion that De Lange was the indeed, if 150,000 savages could at once be victim of insensitive British colonial justice metamorphosed into a steady labouring and his own pride in refusing to mount a population", wrote one well-intentioned defence In fact, nearly all of the men who observer in Klip River County who shared convicted him were fellow Afrikaners. A list the common colonial perception of of the nine jurors who arrived at the verdict indigenous Africans at that time. He urged by a vote of eight to one indicates that only readers to pay greater attention to their food, two were British settlers: William Lazenby, housing and other living conditions, in J.R.M. Watson, Jakobus Labuschagne, harmony with their fundamental Christian Johannes Labuschagne, Gerrit Potgieter, convictions, as a conditio sine qua non for Frederik Potgieter, Berent Jakobus Nell, improving relations with employees.4 Coenraad Lucas Pieters, and Adolph Writing to the Witness at the beginning of Krogman (Pace 1972: 46). March, i.e. after the trial but before the The verdict which these men returned may execution, an anonymous resident of have harmonised with local public opinion Ladysmith identified only as "Memo" about the case. If one can rely on letters insisted that virtually everyone in the region Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 37 was pleased with the verdict of guilty. He Afrikaner nationalists after the publication emphasised that there had not been an ethnic of Die Wit Kraai, and the historical errors line of demarcation involved among the which De Villiers confirmed in her members ofthe jury, "two of whom only reconstruction of his trial and execution were Englishmen, and the rest his continued their career in the annals of their countrymen, and many of them his relatives modem movement. In 1941 C.J.S. Lombard and connections". Nevertheless, responses could write in Die Brandwag that "bekende to the finding had been emotionally charged. feite" about "hierdie Afrikanerheld" (known "Every man of the jury seemed to have more facts about this Afrikaner hero) included his than enough to do to repress his tears". This being sentenced to death in writer described De Lange's own reaction in Pietermaritzburg, that the rope which the terms which differed immensely from hangman employed broke twice, and that the De Villiers' presentation of his supposed crowd witnessing the morbid event equanimity, stating that when the foreman of unanimously called for his release on the the jury announced its verdict "it was also basis of that supposed sign. In full harmony painful to hear the old man, De Lange, with the enduring heroic motif, Lombard exclaim, in Dutch, 'Not Guilty,' five times announced that the recently appointed repeated". Furthermore, far from rejecting "De Lange-Herbegrafniskommissie" (the De the judicial system because of its treatment Lange Reburial Commission) was arranging of this convict, Boers in the Klip River to have his remains interred on 16 December district lauded the British colonial judge's of that year near the Blood Rivier conduct of the case: "The judge, Voortrekker Monument that was to be notwithstanding the peculiar circumstances unveiled on that hallowed day (Lombard under which he visited this place for the first 1941: 17). time, has gained the greatest popularity. Not The significance ofthe cleft between a Boer who would not, as they express it documentable historical facts and themselves, walk to him on bare knees". The De Villiers' defensive and evidently predominantly Afrikaans jury had earned ahistorical portrayal of De Lange and his this writer's unqualified respect by not treatment at the hands of the colonial shielding their ethnic fellow from effective judiciary in Natal may well vary in the eyes prosecution: "Here he was the relation, of different readers. Many presumably friend, or acquaintance of nearly every man regard such fictional reconstructions as who sat. At all events they knew him well primarily an artistic matter and accordingly by name and reputation. Added to this, the have a high level of toleration for poetic jury sat for the first time to try one of licence in the subgenre of the historical themselves, and sentenced him to a novel. But should readers who are disgraceful death. All honour, then, say I, to concerned about the historicity of fictional the jury, and the race they represent".5 representation be perturbed at De Villiers' apparent distortion of the De Lange case? Undoubtedly some have simply dismissed it Conclusion as an expression of authorial freedom The heroic myth surrounding De Lange exercised by a relatively inexperienced remained firmly entrenched in the minds of novelist whose grounding in historical 38 Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies research fell far short of her lexicographic Stellenbosch. skills. The matter becomes particularly problematical from a historiographical "De Villiers, Anna Johanna Dorothea". perspective, .however, because some late 1995. New Dictionary ofSouth twentieth-century literary theoreticians have African Biography, I, EJ. Verwey postulated that historical fiction is a valid (ed.) Pretoria: Human Science source, one which opens a revealing window Research Council, 59-61. on events of the past. Michael Green of the Hale, Frederick. 1999a."The Heroic Motif in University of Natal, for example, has Two Afrikaans Children's Novels contended this with regard to Oliver about the Great Trek", Die Walker's novels about the polygamous KultuurhistorikuslThe Cultural British colonist in Natal, John Dunn, Proud Historian, 14 (1), 32-57. Zulu and Zulu Royal Feather.6 It is hardly necessary to emphasise that Die Wit Kraai Hale, Frederick. 1999b."Voortrekker Values does not enhance Green's case. On the for Afrikaans Youth in Pieter van der contrary, De Villiers' construction of Merwe Erasmus's Twee De Lange and his fate underscores the Voortrekkertjies", Tydskrifvir desirability of examining a representative Nederlands en Afrikaans, 6 (1), 48- sample of contemporary sources about the 62. matter and, even then, taking them cum Hofmeyr, Isabel. 1991. "Popularising grano salis. As history, Die Wit Kraai is History: The Case of Gustav largely a failure which conceals or distorts Preller", in Stephen Clingman (ed.), far more than it reveals about its subject. Its Regions and repertoires: Topics in real value probably lies in what it says about South African Politics and Culture. Anna de Villiers' ethnic group loyalty and Braamfontein: Ravan Press, 60-83. Afrikaners' attitudes towards their English speaking compatriots during the politically Lombard, CJ.S. 1941."Die Laaste Rusplek tense 1930s. Van Hans Dons", Die Brandwag, 4 (198), 17. Nienaber, P.J. 1949. Hier Is Ons Skrywers/ BIBLIOGRAPHY Biografiese Sketse van Afrikaanse De Villiers, Anna. 1975. Barrevoets oor Skrywers. Johannesburg: Afrikaanse Drakensberg. Johannesburg, Perskor. Pers. De Villiers, Anna. 1930. Sterker as die Pace, R.P. 1972. Hans Dons De Lange - Noodlot. Kaapstad, Stellenbosch en Martyr or Murderer? Codicillus, 13 Bloemfontein. (1),44-47. De Villiers, Anna. Die Wit Kraai. 1938. Preller, Gustav S. (ed). 1920. Bloemfontein, Kaapstad en Port Voortrekkermense II. Kaapstad: De Elizabeth, Nasionale Pers. Nasionale Pers. De Villiers, Anna J.D. 1934. "Die Hollandse Van Wyk, A. 1973. "Hans Dons de Lange Taalbeweging in Suid-Afrika". D.Litt. - Skuldig ofUnskuldig?" Historia, proefskrif, Universiteit van 18 (1), 18-29. Anna de Villiers' Die Wit Kraai 39

NOTES The English call this simply "the Boer War," forgetting the first one (1881), which I The Voortrekkers (pioneers) were the they lost. Boers (farmers) who left the Cape Colony after the British became its rulers in 1814. A 3 "Criminal Sessions," Natal Witness, 25 major cause of dissent was the abolition of January 1861, p.2. slavery. In the Great Trek (migration) of 1834-9, Boers moved into Basutoland 4 Natal Witness, 4 January 1861, pp.2-3.

(modem Lesotho), the Orange Free State, 5 Natal Witness, 8 March 1861, p.5. and then the Transvaal, but one branch moved into Natal; they are the people 6 Michael Green: "History in Fiction: Oliver described in Anna de Villiers' novel. Walker and John Dunn," English in Africa, XV, no.l (May 1988), pp.29-53. 2 The second Boer War lasted from 1900 to 1902. It was hard fought, but the English defeated the Boers' bid for independence.