As governess in the frontier districts, author Olive Schreiner knew well many of the stories told about the Voortrekkers. She remarked: ‘But that which most embittered the hearts of the colonists was the cold indifference with which they were treated, and the consciousness that they were regarded as a subject and inferior race.’
Two documents highlight the causes of the Great Trek. Frequently cited is the manifesto the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief published in the Grahamstown Journal on the eve of the departure of his trek in 1837. It is a combination of burning grievances and good intentions. It has a ring of eloquence but lacks frankness and authenticity. It sounds like the work of a scriptwriter and the author was probably Louis Meurant, a young newspaper editor.
Another source often cited is a statement of Anna Steenkamp, Retief’s niece, whose principal objection was that slaves had been ‘placed on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the laws of God, and the natural distinction of race and religion . . . wherefore we rather withdraw in order to preserve our doctrines in purity’.
Steenkamp’s main grievance probably related to the tough stand the government took against any racial discrimination in the Dutch Reformed Church, which for all practical purposes was a state church. Khoikhoi now got married in church and received the sacraments here. All this upset the trekkers greatly, but they always had the option of establishing another church.
It cannot be assumed on the basis of Steenkamp’s words alone that the Voortrekkers left mainly because of the introduction of equality before the law after Ordinance 50 of 1828 had lifted all legal restrictions on the Khoikhoi or because of the emancipation of the slaves in 1834.
There is also another revealing source, but it has seldom been cited in connection with the trek. The author was Olive Schreiner, an early feminist writer with strong liberal convictions. As a governess in the frontier districts of Colesberg and Cradock between 1874 and 1881, she knew the people, and the stories they told, well.
Referring to the losses the people suffered in successive wars, the arrogant way in which officials dealt with the frontier farmers, even those who had fought in the frontier wars, and government bungling with respect to the payment of compensation for slave owners, she wrote: ‘But that which most embittered the hearts of the colonists was the cold indifference with which they were treated, and the consciousness that they were regarded as a subject and inferior race … [The] feeling of bitterness became so intense that about the year 1836 large numbers of individuals determined to leave forever the Colony and the homes which they had created.’
The causes of the trek were complex but can be summarised in a single sentence. The trekkers left because of a lack of land, labour and security, which they felt unable to address due to a lack of representation, giving rise to a profound sense of marginalisation.
