© Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen
All Rights Reserved
The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.
- Thermistocles, 514-449 B.C.
The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.
- Thermistocles, 514-449 B.C.
What
a memorable morning when, a few years back, my family and I had the enormous privilege of visiting the site in
Kwazulu-Natal where the Battle of Spioenkop
was fought along the Tugela-river between the Boers and the British on 23-24 January 1900 for the relief of the besieged town of Ladysmith, at the start of
the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The battle-site of
Spioenkop (Mechanical translation: ‘Spy Knoll’ or ‘Spy Lookout’) was situated
on top of the 1400 ft. (430 mtr.) hill (relative from the ground) where an Indian lawyer and human rights activist, Mohandas Gandhi, later to become known as the famous ‘Mahatma’, also served with his compatriots as a stretcher-bearer for the Indian Ambulance Corps, and Winston Churchill participated as a war correspondent for the British.
According
to Wikipedia the
British suffered 243 fatalities (many buried in the trenches where they fell)
and 1250 wounded or captured. The Boers
suffered 68 fatalities and 267 wounded.
So many books have been written on this war and this specific battle
that it boggles the mind as to which titles to recommend, but the following
remain firm favourites, i.e. The Boer War
(Thomas Pakenham); The Anglo-Boer War
(Arthur Conan Doyle); Commando
(Deneys Reitz); The Anglo-Boer War: A
Chronology (Pieter G. Cloete) and The
National Army Museum Book of the Anglo-Boer War (Field Marshall Lord Carver). The book by Pieter G. Cloete is remarkably thorough in terms of the major as well as some minor conflicts and the time lines involved.
Now
what made our visit to the site so special was that the conditions on top of
the hill that morning probably were the same as it was on the day of the battle, almost
as if it had been replicated in advance just for our convenience by a
local tourist agency. When we arrived at
the battle-site following the long-winding road to the top by car, Spioenkop was still shrouded
in a heavy, smothering fog, exactly as it must have been for both Boer and
Brit on the morning of 23 January 1900. It is a place of eerie silence, almost as if all of nature is holding its breath out of respect for the fallen dead.
I immediately commenced with the typical layman and history buff’s ‘survey’ of the topography, and the lay of the British and Boer positions during the conflict. Boulders were scattered helter-skelter all over the place, still heavily pockmarked by (I suspect) Mauser or Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield bullets.
I immediately commenced with the typical layman and history buff’s ‘survey’ of the topography, and the lay of the British and Boer positions during the conflict. Boulders were scattered helter-skelter all over the place, still heavily pockmarked by (I suspect) Mauser or Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield bullets.
I then did the stupid thing of straying from the main party and getting lost in the fog. The tall grasses were soggy and
wet and I battled to find my way back to where the car was parked. Now, Spioenkop is reputed to supposedly house some ghosts
from the historic battle and, although the idea of a khaki-clad Brit or
slouch-hatted Boer appearing out of the mist and pointing the way first made my skin crawl, I later was beginning
to wish that I could run into one of them just to help me find my way back. As it were my luck was out i.r.o. meeting a rescuing party of ghosts, but fortunately I found my way back to the rest of the party without their aid anyway. I do not really believe in
ghosts, so my main concern really was getting lost on the hill and having to
survive in the open and the freezing cold overnight, with family (perhaps) shivering in the car and frantic with worry.
Life
is strange, for although it was a bitter war replete with the typical carnage,
heartache and misery of war for both sides, Boer and Brit went on to fight shoulder to
shoulder as allies during World War I as well as World War II. In fact, Winston Churchill went on to co-opt his former ‘enemy’ and later ‘friend’ (his ‘frenemy’?), General Jan Smuts (as well as General Louis Botha) into the British War Cabinet during WWI as well as to induct General Smuts as a Field-Marshall
into the British army during WWII. In fact, Smuts was not only instrumental in the
development of the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) but was also later, after the war, offered the governorship of Palestine, or, alternatively, the position of Viceroy of India, both of which he declined in
favour of a premiership at home in South Africa. General Smuts was the only surviving signatory to the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919) to also become a signatory to the UN Charter in San Francisco on 26 June 1945. I stand to be corrected but I believe he also wrote the preamble to the Charter.
Isn’t
it just amazing how drastically and dramatically fortunes, conditions and circumstances (for nations as well as for individuals) can change?! We are in the same type of situation today,
where the god of this world (Satan) is ruling with an unspeakable brutality and with sin, natural disasters, war, crime, pestilence, disease, famine, poverty and
now also global warming wreaking havoc on planet Earth. But the wheel will turn, and Jesus Christ
will return as promised to rule with a rod of iron and with the righteousness
we have been praying for, for over two-thousand years. Rest assured, the everlasting arms of God will not disappoint: Maranatha!
(Elisha
A. Hoffman, 1839-1929/ Anthony J. Showalter, 1858-1924)
What
a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms;
What
a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms.
O
how sweet to walk, in this pilgrim way,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms;
O
how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms.
What
have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms?
I
have blessed peace,
With
my Lord so near,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms.
CHORUS
Leaning,
leaning,
Safe
and secure from all alarms;
Leaning,
leaning,
Leaning
on the everlasting arms.
Piet
Stassen
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Bibliography
1. Andrews, Allen (1969)
Quotations
For Speakers And Writers. Newnes
Books. Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd.
London.
2. Peterson, John W. et al (1968) Great
Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Leaning On The Everlasting Arms’. Singspiration,
Inc. Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, Michigan.
3. Wikipedia. ‘The Battle Of Spioenkop’. Accessed At <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spion_Kop>
[online] 2013.
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