Story 6 of 7

The Republic of Natalia and the Trek North

A short-lived Boer republic, a British takeover, and the move back over the mountains.

After the victory at Blood River in December 1838, the Voortrekkers in Natal finally had the chance to build the free state they had trekked for. Within five years it was gone, taken over by Britain. Its loss sent many families back over the Drakensberg mountains to the highveld, where the lasting Boer republics were born.

A republic is founded

In 1838 the trekkers laid out a new town on the Msunduzi River and named it Pietermaritzburg, after Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz. It became the capital of the Republic of Natalia, formally constituted in 1839. Its government was a Volksraad (people’s assembly) of 24 elected members, which held legislative, executive and judicial power all together. Andries Pretorius remained the military leader. Here the trekkers also kept their promise and built the Church of the Vow, completed in 1841.

The republic was democratic for its burghers (male citizens) but rough at the edges. The Volksraad met often and argued often, and authority was weak. Laws restricted the movement of Africans and set aside land for them, policies that foreshadowed later South African segregation.

The end of Dingane

Blood River had not destroyed the Zulu kingdom. In 1839 Dingane’s half-brother Mpande broke away and crossed the Thukela River with thousands of followers, seeking the trekkers’ protection. The Volksraad saw an opportunity. In January 1840 Pretorius led a commando, a mounted citizen militia, into Zululand in alliance with Mpande. Before the Boers even reached the fighting, Mpande’s army under Nongalaza defeated Dingane’s forces at the Battle of Maqongqo. Dingane fled north and was killed soon after, probably by Swazi or Nyawo people. Pretorius proclaimed Mpande king of the Zulu, and the trekkers claimed a large stretch of land and tens of thousands of cattle. Mpande would rule for more than thirty years.

Britain steps in

The British government had never accepted that its former subjects could found an independent state, especially one with a port, Port Natal, that other European powers might use.

In 1842 a small British force under Captain Thomas Smith marched to Port Natal. On the night of 23–24 May the Boers defeated it at the Battle of Congella and laid siege to the British camp. A young English settler, Dick King, rode about 600 miles (some 960 km) in ten days to Grahamstown to raise the alarm, a ride still celebrated in Durban, where his statue stands. Reinforcements arrived by sea in June and the siege was lifted. Natal was declared a British colony in 1843 and attached to the Cape in 1845.

Back over the mountains

Many Voortrekkers refused to live under the British flag again. Family by family, they loaded their wagons and climbed back up the Drakensberg passes to the highveld. Only a few hundred stayed. The remark attributed to Susanna Smit, sister of Gerrit Maritz, captured the mood: rather than accept British rule, the women would walk barefoot back over the Drakensberg.

On the highveld, other trekker communities had already settled. Potgieter had founded Potchefstroom in 1838 and later moved north-east to Ohrigstad (1845) and the Soutpansberg. Lydenburg and Rustenburg followed. Between the Orange and Vaal rivers, the British proclaimed the Orange River Sovereignty in 1848, and Pretorius’s commando was defeated by Sir Harry Smith at the Battle of Boomplaats that August.

Freedom at last

Britain, tired of the expense, eventually let go. In the Sand River Convention of January 1852 it recognized the independence of the Boers north of the Vaal, who formed the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic, often called the Transvaal). In the Bloemfontein Convention of February 1854 it withdrew from the land between the Orange and Vaal, which became the Orange Free State.

These two republics were the true fruit of the Great Trek. Their independence would last until the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902, but the memory of the Trek, and of the promise made at Blood River, would shape Afrikaner identity long after that.