Beards and Beatings

The period of pioneering in the U. S. was the Covered Wagon Era. Corresponding period in South Africa was the Great Trek. Last week in Pretoria, South Africa, the 100th Anniversary of the Great Trek was celebrated in a wild clash of nostalgic happiness and partisan bitterness.

"Boer" is the Dutch form of the English word "boor" in its original meaning--farmer. In the 1830s the Dutch farmers in South Africa decided they would rather live among Zulus and Basutos than live under the thumbs of greedy English traders. Accordingly they set out in oxcarts, migrated inland. Years later they were absorbed again by the spreading sponge of British rule which made them not-too-loyal citizens of the U. S. A. (Union of South Africa).

Months of preparation were devoted to the anniversary of the Boer's futile trek for freedom. Three men in every four grew beards--symbols of Boer virility and spiritual grace. A caravan of eight oxcarts set out to follow the route of the original trek. As the caravan progressed, hysteria grew. At the instigation of German spellbinders the hysteria shaded from pride in pioneer traditions, to intense nationalism, to open hatred of British and Jews.

In towns with English mayors, the mayors were allowed to welcome the wagons only on sufferance. Jewish mayors were rudely told to keep away. Finally even the pro-Boer South African Broadcasting Corp. was obliged to censor speeches. Ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church piled spiritual coals on the political fire. They declared that the wagons represented the Biblical Ark, that their axle grease would cure diseases, that children baptized in the wagons would lead blessed lives. The Czech crisis and the German pogroms were excuses for severe nationalistic outbreaks. In Johannesburg bearded Fascists fell on a band of antiFascists with iron bars, bicycle chains, knives, revolvers; over 100 were injured. In Benoni a synagogue was blown to the Promised Land.

Climax of the celebration was the arrival in Pretoria of the eight dusty wagons. Because the Boers and their backers would not sing God Save the King, Prime Minister General J.B.M. Hertzog was obliged to stay away. The crowd of 150,000 would not listen to English. So a message from King George VI was read in Afrikaans, the Boer language. Then a tattered Transvaal flag, saved from falling into British hands in the Boer War, was unfurled high on the site of a monument soon to be erected to the Voertrekkers.

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