5 The Battle of Vegkop (October 1836) A3 B2 C2 D N 5 Vegkop 26 27 1 25 2 East wall (panels 6–7/31) 24 3 h. 2.3 × w. 4.56 m (2 m of panel 6, full width of panel 7) 4 23 Restored fractures on vertical edges between panels 5 to 8 Sculptor of clay maquette: Hennie Potgieter 22 5 Stages of production 21 A1 W.H. Coetzer, pencil drawing (April–June 1937) 6 A2 Reproduction of A1 (June 1937) 20 A3 W.H. Coetzer, pencil drawing A1, h. 13.2 × w. 22.9 cm (after September 7 1937) 19 Annotations: ‘nog nie klaar’ (not yet finished) / ‘waens vasgemaak aan 8 18 pale’ (wagons tied to poles) / ‘vrouens giet Kooels’ (women cast bullets) / 17 9 ‘Vegtkop’ (Vegkop) / ‘Trekkers Trek ’n boom in tussen die twee waens’ 16 10 (Trekkers pull in a tree between the two wagons) 15 14 13 12 11 B1 One-third-scale clay maquette, not extant but replicated in B2 (1942–43) B2 One-third-scale plaster maquette, h. 77 × w. 123.2 × d. 8 cm (1942–43) 0 5 10 m C1 Full-scale wooden armature, not extant (1943–46) C2 Full-scale clay relief, not extant but recorded in photograph; replicated in C3 (1943–46) C3 Full-scale plaster relief (1943–46), not extant but copied in D (1948–50) D Marble as installed in the Monument (1950) Early records SVK minutes (4.9.1937) ― item 4e (see below, ‘Developing the design’) Voorstelle (5.12.1934?) ― item 9 ‘Die slag van Vegkop, na die voorstelling van Egersdörfer’ (The Battle of Vegkop, following the representation by Egersdörfer)125 Panele (c. 1934–36) ― item 3 ‘Moelikhede om mee te kamp; b. die inboorling. B. Gevegte teen Kaffers / Vegkop of Bloedrivier. Die metode van verdediging: die rol wat vrou gespeel het indien dit kan’ (Difficulties the Voortrek- kers faced; b. the natives; B. Battles against Kaffirs / Vegkop or Bloedrivier. The system of defence: the role that woman played, if this is possible) Wenke (c. 1934–36) ― item II. Dr. L. Steenkamp, mnre. A.J. du Plessis en M. Basson, A. ‘MAATSKAPLIK’ (SOCIAL), 3. ‘Verhouding met ander volksgroepe’ (Relationship with other ethnic groups), b. ‘Vegkop; botsing met die Matabele’ (Vegkop; clash with the Matabele) Moerdyk Layout (5.10.1936–15.1.1937) ― scene 5 on panel 8/31 ‘Vegkop’ Jansen Memorandum (19.1.1937) ― item 7.5 ‘The battle of Vegkop (O.F.S.)’ 125 In the Jansen files copy of ‘Voorstelle’ (ARCA PV94 1/75/1/7) the reference to Egersdörfer is scored out. 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/10.1515/9783110668797-010 80 5 Vegkop Figure 5.1: D. Vegkop. 1950. Marble, 2.3 × 4.56 m (courtesy of VTM; photo Russell Scott) Description 81 Description The Battle of Vegkop is presented from inside a laager of covered wagons (fig. 5.1).126 Twenty-two Voortrekker men and women, all in formal dress, fight off, endure or succumb to an outside attack. The narrative is divided into three layers receding in space: eleven larger figures dominate the fore- ground; an equal number of smaller size defend the laager from directly behind the wagons; in the distance an army of half-naked Africans attacks the laager. With the exception of one who has been killed after forcing his way inside, only the heads and upper bodies of the attackers with their assegais, shields and clubs (knobkieries) are visible through the gaps on either side of the middle wagon. These are the attacking Ndebele, popularly referred to as Matabele at the time the Monu- ment was being designed, if indeed they were awarded a specific name at all.127 Larger even than the foreground groups, two figures stand, one on either side, facing inward to frame the Vegkop narrative, a woman on the left loading a muzzleloader, and a man on the right holding his gun, the Voortrekker leader Hendrik Potgieter. Seven women provide support for those fighting. On the left are two young women wearing kappies; one kneels to cast bullets, while the other reloads a gun with the newly made ammunition. The four assegais on the ground around them indicate their dangerous situation, although these weapons, like the others that strew the ground, appear more still life than life-threatening. In the centre two more young women care for a wounded man slumped on the ground; one kneels to bandage the ankle of his left leg, the other, wearing a richly adorned kappie, crouches behind him, the fabric of her skirt stretched across her thigh and buttocks, and her face turned away as though in grief. Her unusual pose, as she leans against the wounded man and cradles his left arm, creates an intimate closeness that suggests that he is a loved one. Just behind them in the centre another group of three people is staged. Two young bareheaded women holding guns frame a boy standing between them, identified as the young Paul Kruger. Although all three are engaged in reloading guns using powder horns, his importance is marked by his central position and frontal pose, as well as the big wagon wheel in the background which acts like a surrogate halo. Yet another woman strides swiftly towards the combat, her action and the deep brim of her kappie directing our gaze onto the battle that takes place in the background. Sheltered by three wagons positioned closely next to each other, the gaps thickly packed with thorn bushes, nine men and two women fight the Ndebele. To see over the wagons and fire on the attackers, they stand on a rough scaffold of planks supported on purpose-cut branches. At the left wagon, one Voortrekker shoots down attackers, another supports a falling comrade, wounded by a spear, and below them on the ground a youth crouches ready to fire on any intruders that might crawl through under the wagon, a dead black warrior already lying in front of him. Four more men fight from behind the centre wagon. On the left, one of them is precariously positioned between the two wagons to fire directly into the charging mass of attackers. In a brief moment of personal connection amidst the fighting, the second receives a reloaded muzzleloader from a young woman. The third man fires over the edge of the wagon cover, while the fourth uses his muzzleloader like a giant club, their guns in parallel as if to emphasise the Voortrekkers’ deadly firepower that will overcome such terrible odds. Behind the third wagon a man and a woman are both firing into the attackers. 126 For the place, see Raper, Möller and Du Plessis 2014, 526. 127 Many contemporary documents speak only of ‘kaffirs’. Following Laband (1995, 79–81) and others (e.g. Giliomee 2003, 162–163), we use the Zulu form ‘Ndebele’ when discussing the ‘Matabele’ people. Etherington (2001, xv–xvi, 256) sheds new light on the historical relationship of the two names: ‘When he [Mzilikazi] first appeared on the high- veld Tswana-speaking people called him king of the aliens – the “Matabele.” By the time he had relocated to Zimbab- we, some may have begun to use the Zulu form of that word, Ndebele. On the map sketched by … Adulphe Delegorgue [and published] in 1845, his name appears by the Limpopo River with the title “Roy des Ama Débelés”, the earliest approximation to King of the Ndebele appearing on any printed page.’ 82 5 Vegkop Figure 5.2: A2. W.H. Coetzer. Reproduction of first sketch for Vegkop. June 1937 (courtesy of ARCA PV94 1/75/5/1; photo the authors) Figure 5.3: A3. W.H. Coetzer. ‘Vegtkop’. September 1937. Pencil, 13.2 × 22.9 cm. Annotated first sketch (photo courtesy of Museum Africa, no. 66/2194P) Developing the design 83 Developing the design Figure 5.4: W.H. Coetzer. Vegkop – 16 Oktober 1836. 16 October 1936. Pencil drawing, 25.4 × 38.1 cm (Coetzer 1947, 106) Coetzer’s early interest in the conflict at Vegkop – and possibly also in the upcoming project of the Voortrekker Monument and its visual narrative – is shown in a drawing made on 16 October 1936 for the hundred-year anniversary of the battle (fig. 5.4). His close-up view inside the Voortrekker laager focuses on a woman tending a wounded man with two distressed girls nearby, while another reloads a gun with bullets she has been making for a man who takes aim at the invisible Ndebele enemy beyond the wagons. In his sketches for the frieze, Coetzer extended the view to embrace a wider scene of the laager interior. We have two identical Coetzer designs for Vegkop, the reproduc- tion of the pencil drawing (fig. 5.2) and the same sketch annotated on or after 9 September 1937 (fig. 5.3), both almost purely linear, in contrast to his centenary drawing mentioned above (fig. 5.4). In the Historiese Komitee meeting on 4.9.1937 the following comment was offered: Vegkop. Rework this scene according to existing paintings. See amongst others, one of Vegkop.128 The painting referred to is most likely ‘Vechtkop’ by Heinrich Egersdörfer, made around 1900, which is also recommended as a model for this battle in Voorstelle, an early proposal (c. 1934) of histor- ical scenes for the frieze (fig. 5.5).129 Born in Germany, Egersdörfer (1853–1915) spent two decades 128 ‘Vegkop. Herontwerp hierdie toneel volgens bestaande skilderye.