Modern Afrikaaner society has written its entire history around their interpretation of the events that today are referred to as the Great Trek The religious awe surrounding the Trek has resulted in an inability on the part of Afrikaaners to critically examine these events. We can, however, sidestep government propaganda, and comment with some certainty as to some of the reasons for the Trek.
- Boers used land extravagantly. We know that the farms of the Trekboers averaged 6 000 acres in area. Boer society evolved with the idea that male children — on coming of age — would seek out new farms to claim as their own. So all available land was swallowed up at an alarming rate.
- The Boers disliked the government. First the company, then the English colonial government, while taxing the Boers, did not have their interests at heart.
- The Boers had nothing to lose by leaving. Farming was land-intensive with little or no investment in development. Whatever possessions the Boers had could be taken with them.
- The Abolition of Slavery and other legislation granting greater rights to black people. Apart from the financial drain as a result of emancipation, Boers resented being placed on an equal footing with black people.
- The new British system of land-holding — which made the Boers pay higher rents for smaller farms — was resented.
- The introduction of English as the official language was a sore point for the Boers who were already overwhelmingly illiterate.
- Magistrates were now appointed instead of elected thereby making the dispensing of "justice" less favourable to the Boers.
- The Dutch rixdollar was replaced by the English pound as official currency.
In 1837, two parties of trekkers crossed into Natal. Piet Retief and Jacobus Uys approached Dingaan asking for permission to start a settlement. Dingaan had been warned against allowing white settlers access to the land by Xhosa refugees, but was indecisive about what course of action should be followed. Eventually, he agreed to lease to the Boers land between the the Tugela and Umzimkulu rivers on condition that they recaptured cattle stolen by Sekonyela, chief of the Tlokwa. When Retief returned with the cattle in tow, Dingaan became even more aprehensive and suspicious. No one will know exactly what happened afterwards. What is clear is that Retief's party was asked to leave their weapons outside Dingaan's kraal. On entering the kraal, they were killed.
In military terms, Dingaan's killing of the Boer party could be considered to be shrewd politics, as the Zulu might not have had an easy time of an open confrontation against Boer guns. At the same time, Dingaan was by no means close to being the military genius Shaka had been. His decision to send out troops to crush the remainder of the Boer presence to the west, where the rest of Retief's party had established camp, was slow in coming; allowing the latter time to seek refuge. Similarly, his attack which followed on the English settlement at Port Natal was ill-timed, allowing the English to board a ship in the bay. As it would turn out, letting the remainder of the Boers escape was a costly mistake. Regrouping under Andries Pretorius, the Boers gathered at Blood River where they formed a laager — a makeshift fort created by lashing ox-wagons together in a circle. Flanked by Blood River on one side and a ditch on the other, the laager was ideally placed for a siege. An astute general might have been content to starve the Boers into submission. Dingaan instead chose to attack. The Zulu forces were almost completely wiped out without the loss of a single life on the part of the Boers.
Afrikaaner society today celebrates that victory against the Zulu people as the Day of the Covenant along with promoting the myth that Blood River saw the crushing of the Zulu empire. In reality, only a fraction of the Zulu forces had been destroyed by the Boers. Dingaan attempted to salvage the situation by burning down his own capital at Ulundi and fleeing north, possibly to regroup his forces. At that critical moment, he — like he had done with Shaka — was betrayed by his own half-brother Mpande, who set up an alliance with Pretorius and drove Dingaan into Swaziland where he was killed by the Swazi. Mpande was crowned ruler of the Zulus with support from the Boers. The territory between the Umzimvubu and Tugela Rivers was ceded to the Boers and black people living in this region were ordered to leave.
The Boers set up the Republic of Natalia in the territory ceded to them by Mpande. Their control was not to last long. In 1943, the British annexed Natal, ruling it as a district of the Cape Colony. Most Boers were not willing to accept British rule yet again, and so pulled up roots and trekked again into the Transvaal. They left behind the land fought for at Blood River, and a Zulu nation which was relatively intact — Shaka's territory between the Tugela and Pongola was almost untouched. Mpande ruled in peace and relative prosperity for 32 years.
In 1854, the British reorganized their South African interests. The expensive and unprofitable Orange River Sovereignty was handed over to a Boer government as the Orange Free State, and Natal was declared a separate Crown Colony. The Boers had been granted recognition of the trans-Vaal area as the South African Republic in 1852, which together with the Orange Free State gave them control of some 415 000 square kilometres of land. The Boer tribes had achieved their aim of independence from British rule, in the process, defeating almost all black people they had encountered.
- ***. The use of the word "capital" should be taken with a pinch of salt. Several capitals were established by the Boers in several other places as they passed through. Potgieter himself set up four capitals in his wanderings across the country.