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Piet Retief

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Pieter Retief (usually referred to as Piet Retief), was born about 1780 in the Cape Colony, South Africa, and died 6 February 1838 in what is now Kwa-Zulu Natal. His family were Boers of French Huguenot ancestry, and Retief grew up on one of the vineyards established by French wine-making immigrants near Stellenbosch.

After moving to the vicinity of Grahamstown Retief, like other Boers, acquired wealth through livestock but suffered repeated losses from Xhosa raids in the period leading up to the 6th Cape Frontier War. Such losses impelled many frontier farmers to become Voortrekkers (literally those who move forward) and to migrate to new lands in the north. Retief authored their 'manifesto', dated 22 January 1837, setting out their long-held grievances against the British government, which they felt had offered them no protection, no redress, and which had freed their slaves with recompense to the owners hardly amounting to a quarter of their value. This was published in the Grahamstown Journal on 2 February and De Zuid-Afrikaan on 17 February just as the emigrant Boers started to leave their homesteads.

Retief's household departed in two wagons from his farm in the Winterberg District in early February of 1837 and joined a party of 30 other wagons. The pioneers crossed the Orange River into independent territory. When several parties on the Great Trek converged at the Vet River, Retief was elected "Governor of the United Laagers" and head of "The Free Province of New Holland in South East Africa." This coalition was very short-lived and Retief became the lone leader of the group moving east.

On 5 October 1837 Retief established a camp near the Drakensberg ridge and proceeded on horseback the next day to explore the region between the Drakensberg and Port Natal, now known as Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Upon receiving a positive impression of the region he started negotiations with the Zulu chief, Dingane, in November 1837. Retief led his own band over the Drakensberg Mountains and convinced Voortrekker leaders Maritz and Potgieter to join him in January 1838. On a second visit to Dingane, the Zulu agreed to Boer settlement in Natal, provided that the Boer delegation recovered cattle stolen from him by the rival Tlokwa tribe. This the Boers did, their reputation and rifles cowing the tribe into peacefully handing over the cattle.

Despite warnings, Retief left the Tugela region on 28 January, 1838, in the belief that he could negotiate permanent boundaries for the Natal settlement with Dingane. The deed of cession of the Tugela-Umzimvubu region, although dated 4 February, 1838, was signed by Dingane on 6 February 1838. This Dingane did by imitating writing and with the two sides recording three witnesses each. Dingane then invited Retief's party to witness a special performance by his soldiers. However, upon a signal given by Dingane, the Zulus overwhelmed Retief's party of 70 and their coloured servants, taking all captive.

Retief, his son, men, and servants, about a hundred people in total, were taken to Kwa Matiwane Hill at and murdered. Their bodies were left on the hillside to be devoured by wild animals, as was Dingane's custom with his enemies. Dingane then gave orders for the Voortrekker laagers to be attacked, which plunged the migrant movement into serious disarray. Eventually, the Retief party's remains were recovered and buried on 21 December, 1838, by members of the "victory commando" led by Andries Pretorius, following the decisive Voortrekker victory at Blood River.

Also recovered was the undamaged deed of cession from Retief's leather purse, as later verified by a member of the "victory commando", E.F. Potgieter. An exact copy survives, but the original deed disappeared in transit to the Netherlands during the Anglo-Boer War. The site of the Retief grave was more or less forgotten until pointed out in 1896 by J.H. Hattingh, a surviving member of Pretorius's commando. A monument recording the names of the members of Retief's delegation was erected near the grave in 1922.

The town of Piet Retief was named after him as was (partially) the city of Pietermaritzburg. (The "Maritz" part being named after Gerrit Maritz, another Voortrekker leader.)

The progenitor of the Retief name in Southern Africa was a French Huguenot refugee named François Retif, from Mer, Loir-et-Cher near Blois, France, who arrived in the Cape in 1689. "Retif" was one of the many French names whose spelling was slightly altered as the Huguenots joined and married into the more-established Dutch-speaking community.

References

  1. Ces français qui ont fait l'Afrique du sud. Translation: The French People Who Made South Africa. Bernard Lugan. January 1996. ISBN 2841000869'
  2. The concise illustrated South African encyclopedia, 1980, Central News Agency, Johannesburg. First edition, about 212pp. Schirmer, P.
  3. Dingaanstat, Stander, Eerw. P.P.
  4. Voortrekkerlewe, 1988, Carstens, R. and Grobbelaar, P.W. ISBN 0 620 12295 1

See also

External links



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