"Take a community of Dutchmen of the type of those who defended themselves for fifty years against all the power of Spain at a time when Spain was the greatest power in the world. Intermix with them a strain of those inflexible French Huguenots, who gave up their name and left their country forever at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The product must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon the face of the earth. Take these formidable people and train them for seven generations in constant warfare against savage men and ferocious beasts, in circumstances in which no weakling could survive; place them so that they acquire skill with weapons and in horsemanship, give them a country which is eminently suited to the tactics of the huntsman, the marksman and the rider. Then, finally, put fine temper upon their military qualities by a dour fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism. Combine all these qualities and all these impulses in one individual and you have the modern Boer - the most formidable antagonist who ever crossed the path of Imperial Britain. Our Military history has largely consisted in our conflicts with France, but Napoleon and all his veterans have never treated us so roughly as these bard-bitten farmers with their ancient theology and their inconveniently modern rifles.
Look at the map of South Africa, and there, in the very center of the British possessions, like the stone in a peach, lies the great stretch of the two Republics. A mighty domain for so small a people. How came they there? Who are these Teutonic folk who have burrowed so deeply into Africa? It is a twice-told tale, and yet it must be told once again if this story is to have even the most superficial of introductions. No one can know or appreciate the Boer who does not know his past, for he is what his past had made him."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Joubert...'n trotse Franse Protestant
Vanuit Avignon provinsie se kant
met Bybel in brood versteek
het hy die Katolieke op 'n boot vergeef
oppad na 'n nuwe land
iewers in die suide van Afrika se rand
Sy afstammelinge het vooruit geboer
wingerd stokke en vee het hulle gesinne gevoer
die Protestante het floreer Het kerke gestig en mense bekeer
en met Hollanders en Engelse verkeer
Nou het dit tyd geword om weer te besin
Gaan ons nog steeds Nkandla sing!
Is dit tyd vir 'n nuwe trek op na waar
het ons 'n grondeis in Frankryk of
moet ons ons man hier staan en klaar
© Arno Joubert Paarl
