The Vryburgers established an agricultural community in the Cape of Good Hope to supply ships on their way to the East. This community of Vryburger grew rapidly and by the end of the 17th century, they started to leave the borders of the VOC (Dutch) settlement.
They cross the Hottentots-Holland mountains on a route eastwards. Another group headed more north into the semi-deserted which the Khoikhoi called the Karoo.
The life of the Trekboer was not easy.
They were isolated from the market in the Cape and received no support from any government or the VOC - is was the way they preferred it. Wine and Beer was a luxury and they mostly just drank water. Honey was in abundance from which they sometimes brewed a healthy beer. Even bread was scarce and their main diet was meat - game and sheep. A Dutch traveller of those time (P. Kolbe) describe it as a healthy diet as few of them ever got sick.
In the beginning, the Trekboer only followed a nomadic lifestyle like the Khoikhoi, but over time some of them settled and create farms which started to supply produce to the Cape.
Today one can still see the place where they crossed the Hottentots-Holland mountains with their ox waggons. To managed a heavy loaded waggon down the mountain side, they locked the back wheels which cut markings into the rocks.
Some historians are of the opinion that the period of the Trekboer established the Afrikaner culture and distinguishes if from the Dutch and other European cultures.
His search for freedom and created a strong individualism and conservative outlook to life. They all shared a Calvinistic Reformed Christianity which bound them together as a group.
As they move deeper into the interior, they established towns to the support the farmer communities which settled in the region. The creation of the town followed the same pattern. First, a farmer will donate a piece of his farm where a church is built. Because the church was a place which became a gathering point for the farmers, traders started to settle. In this manner, a town developed.
These traders were mostly of Jewish origin and good relationship existed between the Afrikaner and the Jewish communities. Most of these towns still have a small Synagogue.
Due to the Afrikaner strong individualism, disagreements were a comment phenomenon.
The selection of a property to build a church sometime led to such a disagreement as more than one farmer will make a piece of property available. In one instance an agreement could not be reached and two churches were built which developed into two different towns - Napier and Bredasdorp.
After the English conquered the Cape in 1795 and again in 1806 they did not stay at the Cape of Good Hope as the Dutch settlement.
The English were colonist and had to conquer the countryside.
By that time the Trekboer created two republics - Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet - in an attempt to govern themselves. Unfortunately, the English did not honour this independence and conquered these republics without a fight.
By 1770 the Trekboer reached the Visrivier where for the first time the white man and black man of Africa came face to face with each other.
The Xhosa stopped the Trekboer migration east and the Trekboer stopped the Xhosa migration west. The Visrivier was acknowledged as a border between the two groups. The Trekboer was now caught between two forces - the Xhosa in front and the English behind them. The tension in these relationships led later on to the Groot Trek which started in 1834.
Source:
http://www.afrikanergeskiedenis.co.za/die-lewe-van-die-trekboere/
Great adventures! Thank you for sharing
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You are welcome. Glad you enjoyed it :)
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