The Africanders

by Le Roy Hooker

It only remains to show that in all the matters in dispute between the government of the Transvaal and that of Great Britain, and in the war which resulted therefrom, the two Africander republics acted in solidarity. Early in November, 1899, the President of the Orange Free State [[255]]announced this to his people and to the world in the following proclamation:

“Burghers of the Orange Free State: The time which we had so much desired to avoid—the moment when we as a nation are compelled with arms to oppose injustice and shameless violence—is at hand. Our sister republic to the north of the Vaal river is about to be attacked by an unscrupulous enemy, who for many years has prepared herself and sought pretexts for the violence of which he is now guilty, whose purpose is to destroy the existence of the Africander race.

“With our sister republic we are not only bound by ties of blood, of sympathy and of common interests, but also by formal treaty which has been necessitated by circumstances. This treaty demands of us that we assist her if she should be unjustly attacked, which we unfortunately for a long time have had too much reason to expect. We therefore cannot passively look on while injustice is done her, and while also our own dearly bought freedom is endangered, but are called as men to resist, trusting the Almighty, firmly believing that He will never permit injustice and unrighteousness to triumph.

“Now that we thus resist a powerful enemy, with whom it has always been our highest desire [[256]]to live in friendship, notwithstanding injustice and wrong done by him to us in the past, we solemnly declare in the presence of the Almighty God that we are compelled thereto by the injustice done to our kinsmen and by the consciousness that the end of their independence will make our existence as an independent state of no significance, and that their fate, should they be obliged to bend under an overwhelming power, will also soon after be our own fate.

“Solemn treaties have not protected our sister republic against annexation, against conspiracy, against the claim of an abolished suzerainty, against continuous oppression and interference, and now against a renewed attack which aims only at her downfall.

“Our own unfortunate experiences in the past have also made it sufficiently clear to us that we cannot rely on the most solemn promises and agreements of Great Britain, when she has at her helm a government prepared to trample on treaties, to look for feigned pretexts for every violation of good faith by her committed. This is proved among other things by the unjust and unlawful British intervention, after we had overcome an armed and barbarous black tribe on our eastern frontier, as also by the forcible appropriation [[257]]of the dominion over part of our territory where the discovery of diamonds had caused the desire for this appropriation, although contrary to existing treaties. The desire and intention to trample on our rights as an independent and sovereign nation, notwithstanding a solemn convention existing between this state and Great Britain, have also been more than once and are now again shown by the present government, by giving expressions in public documents to an unfounded claim of paramountcy over the whole of South Africa, and therefore also over this state.

“With regard to the South African Republic, Great Britain has moreover refused until the present to allow her to regain her original position in respect to foreign affairs, a position which she had lost in no sense by her own faults. The original intention of the conventions to which the republic had consented under pressure and circumstances has been perverted and continually been used by the present British administration as a means for the practice of tyranny and of injustice, and, among other things, for the support of a revolutionary propaganda within the republic in favor of Great Britain.

“And while no redress has been offered, as justice demands, for injustice done to the South [[258]]African Republic on the part of the British government; and while no gratitude is exhibited for the magnanimity shown at the request of the British government to British subjects who had forfeited under the laws of the republic their lives and property, yet no feeling of shame has prevented the British government, now that the gold mines of immense value have been discovered in the country, to make claims of the republic, the consequence of which, if allowed, will be that those who—or whose forefathers—have saved the country from barbarism and have won it for civilization with their blood and their tears, will lose their control over the interests of the country to which they are justly entitled according to divine and human laws. The consequence of these claims would be, moreover, that the greater part of the power will be placed in the hands of those who, foreigners by birth, enjoy the privilege of depriving the country of its chief treasure, while they have never shown any loyalty to a foreign government. Besides, the inevitable consequence of the acceptance of these claims would be that the independence of the country as a self-governing, independent sovereign republic would be irreparably lost. For years past British troops in great numbers have been placed on the [[259]]frontiers of our sister republic in order to compel her by fear to accede to the demands which would be pressed upon her, and in order to encourage revolutionary disturbances and the cunning plans of those whose greed for gold is the cause of their shameless undertakings.

“Those plans have now reached their climax in the open violence to which the present British government now resorts. While we readily acknowledge the honorable character of thousands of Englishmen who loathe such deeds of robbery and wrong, we cannot but abhor the shameless breaking of treaties, the feigned pretexts for the transgression of law, the violation of international law and of justice and the numerous right-rending deeds of the British statesmen, who will now force a war upon the South African Republic. On their heads be the guilt of blood, and may a just Providence reward all as they deserve.

“Burghers of the Orange Free State, rise as one man against the oppressor and the violator of right!