The Boer Wars was the name given to the South African Wars of 1880-1 and 1899-1902, that were fought between the British and the descendants of the Dutch settlers (Boers) in Africa. After the first Boer War William Gladstone granted the Boers self-government in the Transvaal.
The Boers, under the leadership of Paul Kruger, resented the colonial policy of Joseph Chamberlain and Alfred Milner which they feared would deprive the Transvaal of its independence. After receiving military equipment from Germany, the Boers had a series of successes on the borders of Cape Colony and Natal between October 1899 and January 1900. Although the Boers only had 88,000 soldiers, led by the outstanding soldiers such as Louis Botha, and Jan Smuts, the Boers were able to successfully besiege the British garrisons at Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley.
Army reinforcements arrived in South Africa in 1900 and counter-offences relieved the garrisons and enabled the British to take control of the Boer capital, Pretoria, on 5th June. For the next two years groups of Boer commandos raided isolated British units in South Africa. Lord Kitchener, the Chief of Staff in South Africa, reacted to this by destroying Boer farms and moving civilians into concentration camps.
The British action in South Africa was strongly opposed by many leading Liberal politicians and most of the Independent Labour Party as an example of the worst excesses of imperialism. The Boer War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902. The peace settlement brought to an end the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics. However, the British granted the Boers £3 million for restocking and repairing farm lands and promised eventual self-government (granted in 1907).
The Lord Mayor of London appeared in his robes and made a speech to the crowd. I cannot remember his exact words, but they announced that after intolerable insults from an old man named Kruger, Her Majesty’s government had declared war upon the South African Boers. There was terrific and tumultuous cheering. Top hats were flung up after the crowd had sung “God Save the Queen”. I don’t believe I joined in the cheering. Certainly I did not fling up my top hat. Brought up in the Gladstonian tradition to the Liberals, and being, anyhow, a liberal-minded youth hostile to the loud-mouthed jingoism of the time, I was not swept by enthusiasm for a war which seemed to me, as it did to others, a bit of bullying by the big old British Empire.
You hear the squeal of the things all above, the crash and pop all about, and wonder when your turn will come. Perhaps one falls quite near you, swooping irresistibly, as if the devil had kicked it. You come to watch the shells – to listen to the deafening rattle of the big guns, the shrilling whistle of the small, to guess at their pace and their direction. You see now a house smashed in, a heap of chips and rubble; now you see a splinter kicking up a fountain of clinking stone-shivers. This is a dangerous time. If you have nothing else to do, you get shells on the brain, think and talk of nothing else, and finish by going into a hole in the ground before daylight, and hiring better men than yourself to bring you down your meals.
Britain considers the war over. But the Boers have a long and proud tradition in South Africa and are not about to give up so easily. Some Boer commando units, the ‘bitter-enders’, escape into the vast bush country and for 2 more years continue to wage unconventional guerilla warfare by blowing up trains and ambushing British troops and garrisons. The British Army, unable to defeat the Boers using conventional tactics, adopt many of the Boer methods, and the war degenerates into a devastating and cruel struggle between British righteous might and Boer nationalist desperation. The British criss-cross the countryside with blockhouses to flush the Boers into the open; they burn farms and confiscate foodstuffs to prevent them falling into Boer hands; they pack off Boer women and children to concentration camps as ‘collaborators’; they literally starve the commandos into submission. The last of the Boer commandos, left without food, clothing, ammunition or hope, surrender in May, 1902 and the war ends with the Treaty of Vereeniging
Calling Afrikaans pidgin Dutch is akin to calling English pidgin German. English did not come from modern German but both did come from a parent language. Just as Afrikaans did not come from Dutch but Dutch & Frankonish did come from a parent language therefore any similarities Afrikaans might have with Dutch is due mainly to the fact that Frankonish was a cousin of Dutch the same way that English is a cousin of German.
This excerpt proves nothing as the Bible was LONG ONLY EVER available in Dutch well into the 19th cent as Afrikaans did not become a written language until 1875 & much of the common Bible passages such as this have RETAINED their original Dutch structure despite the Afrikaans spelling. Dutch was often spoken in church (just as Muslims speak Arabic in Mosques & Catholics once spoke Latin in church) but the actual patois / dialect of the people was different.
I am well aware that French is a Latin based language as I even speak it as a second language. The French influence on Afrikaans was mostly in the form of the nasalization of vowels & the double negative. I never claimed that French influenced the grammar in any significant manner. Frankonish was of course similar to old fashioned Dutch BUT it developed into its own language just as Provencal is similar to French developing from Latin BUT developed into its own language DISTINCT from French.
Taken out of Europe not too unlike cattle that’s for sure. The VOC flooded them out of their homes then forced them to accompany Jan van Riebeeck who was noted as a cruel tyrant. No. The VOC was not the Netherlands. The VOC aka the Dutch East India Company was a PRIVATE company not a state. Further proof that Afrikaans is not from Dutch comes from van Riebeeck’s OWN DIARY in which he decried the dialect spoken by the White servants he dumped at the Cape to work for the VOC.
don’t worry I’m not a religous nutter, just a copy paste
Classic Dutch Protestant version of the Lord’s Prayer. Onze Vader’ [6]
Onze Vader die in de hemelen zijt, Uw Naam worde geheiligd; Uw koninkrijk kome; Uw wil geschiede, gelijk in de hemel alzo ook op de aarde. Geef ons heden ons dagelijks brood; en vergeef ons onze schulden, gelijk ook wij vergeven onze schuldenaren; en leid ons niet in verzoeking, maar verlos ons van de boze. Want van U is het koninkrijk en de kracht en de heerlijkheid tot in eeuwigheid. Amen.
Afrikaans Version of the Lord’s Prayer. Onse Vader.[5]
Onse Vader wat in die hemele is, laat U naam geheilig word. Laat U koninkryk kom, laat U wil geskied, soos in die hemel net so ook op die aarde. Gee ons vandag ons daaglikse brood, en vergeef ons ons skulde, soos ons ook ons skuldenaars vergewe. En lei ons nie in versoeking nie, maar verlos ons van die bose. Want aan U behoort die Koninkryk en die krag en die heerlikheid, tot in ewigheid. Amen.
I still say it’s pidgin dutch
bist een Frys ofsa? ik tink it net want oars hiest wol nuchterder reageert.
French is a Latin based language,
and the spelling change as you call it ij–> y is wrong, using the y instead of ij is old fashion Dutch y changed to be ij were it stayed the same over there
Frisians taken out by VOC? what like cattle? Frisians were VOC, just as much as the rest of NL
There were ALSO numerous Germans living in the Netherlands whom the VOC took out & sent to the Cape further dispelling your erroneous notion. Do not forget the numerous French Huguenots who ALSO influenced the emerging Afrikaans language most of whom were ALSO living in the Netherlands before the VOC sent them to the Cape. The fact that a given ethnic group might live in the Netherlands does not mean that they are native speakers of the Dutch language as there are OTHER established ethnic group.
The fact that many MODERN Frisians are now in the Netherlands does not negate the fact that they are a SEPARATE & DISTINCT ETHNIC GROUP from the Dutch people. Ergo: Afrikaans can not be of Dutch origin as they were not from the Dutch ethnic group. The ancestor of Robert van Tonder was from the town of Tonder in Denmark BUT was from the Frisian ethnic group living there! This does not then mean that this ancestor was a speaker of “Danish” simply because he lived in Denmark.
During the era of its formation during the late 1600s & into the 1700s. The true nature of the ethnic roots of the White Afrikaans people & of the language they spoke was often HIDDEN behind the amorphous “Dutch” designation applied by the Dutch authorities & can be interpreted in MUCH THE SAME way as the term Pennsylvania Dutch which describes Germans who settled in Pennsylvania & are often known as the Amish. The fact that many MODERN Frisians are now on the Netherlands does not.
Afrikaans only rudimentary appears to resemble Dutch because Frankonish is a SIBLING language to Dutch but is not FROM Dutch. Furthermore: the Dutch authorities at the Cape INTRODUCED Dutch spelling which later gave way to a homegrown Afrikaans spelling. ie: vrij to vry / hij to hy / lager to laer etc. The so called “crap grammar” statement just proves your ignorance & your contempt towards Afrikaans all at once as the grammar of Afrikaans was influenced by Malay & Portuguese during.
All right asshole: I can name call too. No. Most of the Frisians taken out of Europe by the VOC were taken from the northern coastline of Europe from the Netherlands into modern Germany into Denmark & even all the way along into the Baltic state. So get your facts straight moron before attacking myself with insults & acting like a know-it-all! Go read a book on the subject. No. Afrikaans is not “clearly of Dutch descent”. What you are ding here is making an unfounded PRIORY (“clearly”) argument.
Anyway funny to read how the opinions are different on something so (relatively) short ago, hell seems like you can’t even agree on your ancestral heritage, and then people believe in fairy tales like the Bible, Koran etc. funny that.
Frisian is in the Netherlands ya twat, (well the biggest remaining part of it, two smaller parts are in Germany) how do you explain the language Afrikaans is clearly of Dutch descent (with crap grammar, shortened words, and an occasional foreign word mixed in there.
The Afrikaans language is Frankonish based but is also significantly influenced by Malay as well as Portuguese / French & German.
Macafricascot. No. Afrikaans come from Frankonish not Dutch. Afrikaans is only “similar” to Dutch simply because Frankonish & Dutch branched from an older parent language. The surnames are only similar because the Dutch authorities at the Cape SPELLED the surnames after the Dutch spelling. Numerous French & German names were RESPELLED after the Dutch spelling IMPOSED by the VOC. Numerous White arrivals did not have surnames & were thus GIVEN them by the VOC like van Rensburg / van Tonder.
First of all there is NO DEMOCRACY in Southern Africa as the election process is just as rigged if not more so than in most other countries. The Boers DO NOT CONTROL ANYTHING! As they are part of the working class & many if not most are now living under the poverty line. The assertion of the Afrikaner -note: not Boer as they oppress the Boers- Broederbond still being in control was made by leftist Afrikaans civil rights activist Dan Roodt within his new book exposing the corrupt ANC regime.
What I pointed out was that the Boers never wanted to rule over other people as the Boer traditions was that of self rule & to let the other tribes rule themselves as well.
No fool! Those AWB folks were not trying to annex Botswana! The President of Bophuthatswana – which IS NOT Botswnana- called on the AVF to come to his aid -but the AWB -as part of the larger more professional AVF at the time- then decided to act UNILATERALLY often saving the lives of Pro Mangope individuals who were besieged by ANC aligned insurgents – but also accused of indiscriminate shooting- ended up getting ambushed & killed by members of the local Bophuthatswana police force.
Hence your assertion is rendered moot. Furthermore: the Boers did not even encounter the Black Africans until just A FEW DECADES before the British even came!!!!! Prior to this period the Boers only encountered the yellow-brown skinned Khoisan Africans who are the aboriginal people of the southern part of the African continent.
Furthermore: the VOC MADE IT ILLEGAL to enslave the local populations. This is why the VOC imported Indians / Malays & other Asians who were used as slave labour. It is interesting to note that Boers & White Afrikaners in general are also partly descended from these Asian slaves as well. The point of the Boer Republics was to acquire Boer self determination. The Sand River Convention & the Orange River Convention PROHIBITED the practice of slavery within the republics – hence your assertion.