The Centenary of the Great Trek – A Nation Commemorates

The Great Trek took place roughly between 1835 and 1840, when Dutch-speaking farmers (Voortrekkers) left the Cape Colony and moved into the hinterlands of what later became Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. In 1938, the powers that be decided that this year would best serve to celebrate the centenary of those movements. It was also, notably, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blood River, making the combination of celebrations especially meaningful.

The driving force behind the 1938 celebrations was the (FAK), the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organisations). Founded in Bloemfontein in 1929 as an umbrella body for Afrikaans cultural organisations, the FAK had been working towards this moment since 1931, when it established the Sentrale Volksmonumente Komitee (Central People’s Monuments Committee) specifically to plan commemorations for the Great Trek centenary. It was the FAK that organised the symbolic ox-wagon trek through the country on the same routes the Voortrekkers had taken from 1835. This event became known as the Eeufees, or Centenary Celebration.

Preparations for this centennial event generated immense excitement. The main focus was a re-enactment of the Trek, with ox wagons leaving Cape Town on the 8th of August bound for Pretoria, a journey of 1,705 miles (2 728 km). The convoy arrived in Pretoria four months and seven days later, on the 14th of December, averaging just over 13 miles (20 km) a day. The foundation stone of the Voortrekker Monument was laid two days later, with 100,000 people attending the festivities.

On the 1st of November, part of the trek split off at Vegkop, near Heilbron, arriving at Blood River on the 14th of December 1938. Various other routes traversed the country. Wakkerstroom was likely on the Memel, Vrede, Volksrust, Wakkerstroom and Utrecht route.

At the forefront of the nationwide initiative was a torch run and the symbolic ox-wagon trek from the Cape to Pretoria. Many towns along the routes, and indeed many that were not, organised their own commemorations. Across the country, monuments were erected to mark the occasion.

Wakkerstroom’s Part in the Celebrations

Wakkerstroom had its own ox wagon parade through the streets of the town, but the real focus was on the construction of a lasting reminder on the hill commanding the town, then known as Voortrekker Kop, later renamed Ossewa Kop. Mr P C Vercuil, then headmaster of the Marthinus Wessel School, conceived the idea of laying out a Jawbone Ox Wagon (Kakebeen Ossewa) with the dates 1838 – 1938 in stone on the slopes of the mountain.

The Burger Monument and the Cement Footprints

Apart from the remarkable achievement on the mountain, a simple monument was also constructed next to the NG Church in the centre of town. On the 10th of November 1938, an ox wagon led by Gerhardus Petrus Breytenbach and his son Ben, was driven through wet cement to immortalise the event. Their footprints, together with the tracks of the oxen and the wagon wheels, can still be seen there today, dated 10 November 1938.

Sandstone blocks with the names of families inscribed on them suggest that a stone-laying ceremony also formed part of this event. An attendance register was kept on the day and this ancient book is safely preserved at the NG Church archives. This register even contains the names of families whose descendants are still in the area. In the Commemoration Book, forbears wrote their own names and birth dates on 10 November 1938 with the arrival of the symbolic ox-wagon trek. Dr Bruwer (whose children make this family a fifth-generation family in Wakkerstroom), says: “I read the names, still remembering some of their faces and it left me very melancholy and emotional. My grandfather was only 44 years old at the time and seeing my grandparents’ name in the attendance register made me even more emotional as it serves as a strong reminder of the transience of us as humans”.

The Burger Monument and the Anglo-Boer War

The Burger Monument, the stone figure standing next to the NG Church was unveiled in December 1953 by Minister Klasie Havenga (Nicolaas Christiaan Havenga, 1882 – 1957), then Minister of Finance. Havenga was indeed a veteran of the Anglo-Boer War. He went on commando at the age of 17, took part in the battles of Belmont, Graspan, Modderrivier and Magersfontein, and was wounded in March 1902 near a farm in the Lindley district, spending the remainder of the war in hospital. Winston Churchill reportedly said of him: “That man has more British lead in his body than anyone else I know and still he doesn’t hate us” He was, at the time of his death in 1957, the last cabinet minister in South Africa who had fought in the Anglo-Boer War, making him a fitting choice to unveil a monument honouring the Wakkerstroom Commando’s fallen. The delay between the 1938 festivities and the 1953 unveiling is not fully explained, though it is notable that the outbreak of the Second World War also delayed the opening of the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, which was only opened in 1949.

The figure depicts a Burger (citizen-soldier) with a bandolier and a rifle. From older photographs identified as a .303-type rifle with a magazine, possibly a Lee-Enfield, Lee-Metford or 7x57mm Mauser which is more reminiscent of the Anglo-Boer War (1899 – 1902) than the Great Trek. The monument also bears the names of members of the Wakkerstroom Commando who fell or were taken prisoner during the Anglo-Boer War. This dual character, commemorating both the Centenary of the Great Trek and the sacrifices of the Boer War, is central to understanding the significance of the monument.

Nigel Mason, a local resident, has researched the monument extensively and identified omissions in the list of those killed or taken prisoner. Efforts to correct the record are ongoing.

Other Interesting Details

The Mail Wagons and Commemorative Stamps

On the 8th of August 1938, the ox wagons Piet Retief and Andries Pretorius left Cape Town carrying half a ton of mail. By the time they reached Worcester, another 200-plus pounds had been added. On arrival at Worcester, the mail had to be unloaded as the base, planks and wheels of the wagons were beginning to sag under the weight.

Commemorative postage stamps were issued for the occasion. Six stamps for 2/5d (24 cents) and special envelopes were carried on the wagons from Cape Town. These envelopes received specially designed cancellation marks and there were 48 different postmarks for the main Trek route and 28 (or 29) for the Blood River Trek. Some collectors today still try to assemble complete sets. Buying a stamp at the time was also a good deed: 1/-d (10 cents) of the purchase price went to the Voortrekker Monument building fund.

Names for a Generation

The Eeufees inspired a wave of patriotic baby names. Eeufeesina, and to a lesser extent Ossewania and Kakebenia, proved popular names for girls born in 1938. It is uncertain whether any boys were made to go through life answering to Eeufees, Ossewa or Kakebeen.

The Breytenbach Connection

Mari Breytenbach, now living in New Zealand, recalls that her father, Gerhardus Petrus Breytenbach, and her brother Ben are the two whose footprints were set in the cement at the church monument, preserving the event. Gerhardus also helped cut sandstone during repairs to the church in 1946. From her childhood memories, local residents could locate the quarries from which the stone was taken.

A Note on Sources

The primary eyewitness account of the construction of the ox wagon on the kop comes from Mr P E Reid’s letter of 10 September 1988 which was written fifty years after the event. Additional material has been gathered from the NG Church archives, from the Wakkerstroom Eeufees publication, from correspondence with Mari Breytenbach, and from research by other locals.

Dr PW Bruwer