Local historian pens new work
Local historian Dr JC van der Walt is completing a new book: 'The Rebels of Slagtersnek'
POSSIBLY the most prolific writer of his ilk in the country, Zululand historian-cum-author Dr JC van der Walt is completing yet another volume to add to his expanding body of works.
This time, the man who has sold over 9 000 copies of ‘Zululand True Stories’ and who has written 140 articles for the Zululand Observer, is about to fill the bookstore shelves with a provocative re-telling of a pre-Boer War story set in the Eastern Cape.
As the name implies, ‘Rebels of Slagtersnek’ recounts the saga of the rough band of Afrikaner revolutionaries who met their fate at the end of a hangman’s noose…after four of the ropes snapped!
Vilified by those of their era for their disrespect to authorities and disregard for human life, the rebels were later glorified as heroes in Boer propaganda, their treatment showing how ‘unjust’ the English and Dutch leaders were towards such ‘victims’.
‘In fact, my book will show that the British were very fair indeed,’ said Van der Walt, who also denies that the Slagtersnek incident precipitated the Groot Trek.
‘It was largely a non-event, soon forgotten in the area, but after 1881 it was used to promote Afrikaner nationalism and ‘freedom’.
The timing of the book is significant, as it will be published by Jonathan Ball in 2015, the 200th anniversary of the Slagtersnek rebellion.
The arduous task of one-finger typing almost matches the effort Dr Van der Walt made to gather the reams of material needed to publish an accurate and compelling book.
‘I dragged my wife and daughter some 1 100km to some extremely remote places in the Tarkastad area, including farms once owned by rebels but confiscated and given to the 1820 Settlers.
‘I sifted through hundreds of archives, records and court inscriptions written in English and Dutch.
‘With wonderful help from the Somerset Budget newspaper and farmers in the area, I was able to visit all the places where the events took place, glean more history, and even see the very same yellowwood beam of the gallows on which the nooses were fastened.
’I am proud of this; it took me nearly 10 years to get the book to this stage
