Today in History: Piet Retief’s Great Trek manifesto is completed
The manifesto was published in English in the Grahamstown Journal on 2 February 1837.
On this day in 1837, Piet Retief completed the manifesto that set out the reasons why the Voortrekkers would be leaving the Cape Colony and embarking on the Great Trek.
To understand the mass emigration of the Afrikaans frontier farmers out of the Cape Colony, one has to look back at the situations they faced in the Cape at that time. On the one hand, there was the ongoing conflict between these farmers and the Xhosa inhabitants on the frontier, as well as growing resentment between the farmers and the British colonial authorities.
The farmers argued that because the colonial government limited the activities of the burgher commandos, and refused to let them handle law and order on the frontier themselves, they could not protect themselves from Xhosa attacks. Furthermore, they blamed the government for not giving them any financial support in the frontier wars and other confrontations with the Xhosa.
Both the Xhosa and Afrikaner farmers needed land to support themselves and their livestock. Land prices had also increased considerably during the 1820s and 1830s. This meant that the younger generation could not afford their own pieces of land, and this problem would surely grow.
Another reason for the Great Trek was a lack of labour. In 1828, the government passed Ordinance 50, which outlawed slavery. This Ordinance has been called ‘The Magna Carta of the Khoikhoi’, as it determined that the Khoikhoi were equal to White people and did not need to carry passes anymore.
Not many of the farmers owned slaves, but some did suffer losses with the emancipation of slaves, like Trek leader Gerrit Maritz. For the frontier farmers, the Ordinance meant less strict control over their servants and farm labourers. It also meant that many labourers left the farms, and many of them formed roving gangs. These plundering gangs were the first grievance Retief mentioned in his manifesto.
Many farmers believed that in the country’s interior, there was land in abundance (and therefore it would be cheap), and especially no British government. Between 1834 and 1840, about 15 000 Afrikaners left the Cape Colony permanently. They called themselves ’emigrants’ and their mass-trek an ’emigration’, but in the late 19th century, this mass movement became known as the Great Trek, and the emigrants were referred to as Voortrekkers.
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