17 August 2020

 

Lessons in Madness

From Somerset to Milner the British never learned that the big stick policy towards the Boers was simply only going to result in failure.

The Boers were never going to be like Britain’s most loyal subjects, in the later Australian colonies, because they came from a different history. For a century and half the Dutch had been the mother country, among the white population, and it indeed it was the ‘changing of the guard,’ that led to the Great Trek exodus of the mid-1830s, just  three decades after the new masters had established the Union Jack at the Cape.

A century after that British occupation of the Cape, the two Boer independents republics, established by the trekkers, simply lay in smouldering ruins, after the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

The architect of that war, Lord Milner, showed he had learned nothing from history and nor from another, less than illustrious, predecessor at the Cape, Lord Charles Somerset.

In 1822 Somerset had issued an edict that English was to be the only language of the courts and schools, even though Dutch outnumbered English speakers, eight to one. Even then, the High Dutch of books was not the taal of the people, as Afrikaans was the language of the farms and later, deep in the hinterland.

Somerset imported English and, especially, Scottish teachers although many of the Presbyterian ministers sympathised with their fellow Calvinists. From 675 pupils at the Cape, in 1828, the numbers shrank to 84 some 11 years later. This was an early warning sign that parents wanted their children taught in their own language. It is called, ‘voting with your feet.’

While English History, from 1066, is indeed fascinating, it was not the history of the Cape pioneers forebears and it would still be a while before their history was presented. Indeed, it was hard for English speaking teachers to teach a Dutch population anything without having the language skills themselves.

 

However with the establishment of two Boer republics in the middle of the 19th century there was a change and by 1875 the Society of True Afrikaners was formed to ensure the taal would not disappear because of English.Their own newspaper (Die Afrikaanse Patriot) and dedicated dominees ensured the new language prospered, along with the written Dutch, in the two Boer republics, as the 19th century progressed.

The defeat in 1902 put an end to all that, as Milner was simply determined to follow Somerset’s earlier example (but like him he would eventually fail spectacularly).

So out went Dutch –language,teachers, school inspectors with local committees ignored. Only three hours a week was in Dutch and a further two hours for religious instruction. For 90% of the rural population this meant schooling in a foreign language.

Colonial Secretary,Joseph Chamberlain’s attitude was that in dealing with a very astute adversary (Dutch reform Church)  there is ‘‘no harm in using the wisdom of the serpent,’’ in what was now his ‘garden.’

Again the Afrikaners reacted with their own schools being organised so that children could be schooled in the language of the home.

Thus the irony of Milner’s extreme measures led to an aversion towards the universal English language he was trying to encourage.

When penalties for speaking Afrikaans were imposed reactions came. Thus the national anthem was altered, by some wags, to

‘God save our noble King

Wash him in paraffin

And put fire on him’

A young John Vorster (later PM 1966-78) remembered at High School having to take all lessons in English because there was one English speaking girl in the class who could not speak Afrikaans.

Even in 1937 when the SABC first started programs in Afrikaans, there were complaints. One letter writer wrote, ‘Dear Enemy’ and then berated the dual speaking announcer for “polluting God’s clean air with your Afrikaans.”

But it worked both ways. As an Afrikaans speaking history professor,Marius Swart, would regularly check the bi-lingual capacity of people, in service industries, in Port Elizabeth. If they didn’t measure up he would report them. Those who could not speak Afrikaans “should be fired, and they “could go and sweep the streets!”

Milnerism, had indeed come the full circle.

 

(source: The White Tribe of Africa, David Harrison)