South Africas right wing nationalist group Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) Tuesday (April 6, 2010) demanded a piece of land for its people to govern and call their own homeland within South Africa. Pieter Steyn, Spokesman for AWB told journalists in the northwestern province town of Ventersdorp said, We want a piece of land in South Africa where we [white South Africans] can settle and call it our own. This we would govern with our own religion and our own laws. The so-called White Boer Volkstadt was a dream of the many European farmer descendents in South Africa, already in 1827.
After the Napoleonic wars a flood of British settlers arrived to South Africa in 1820. Initially the farmers were at peace with the English, but soon a land dispute erupted as British rule dominated the coastline and the Afrikaaner Boers (African farmers as they were called by then), were taxed heavily, their slaves were liberated (1834) and they were unprotected, constantly having to fight their own battles against hostile Xhosas from the east, who raided their farms.
Hundreds of Boers (including Dutch, French Huguenot and German descents dubbed the Trekboers) grouped into ox-wagon formations (known as the osewaa) and left the Cape in several waves to start a new life beyond the wild unsettled borders of the inland. The biggest formation travelled for almost three years and was known as the Great Terk (1836-1839). The February 2, 1837 edition of The Grahams Town Journal published the 10 main reasons for their trek under the title Piet Retiefs Manifesto. Their main wish was to live a free, peaceful and organized life under Gods protection.
Besides engaging in battle against hostile natives along the way the Boers were also decimated by sicknesses like maleria and cholera. Despite the odds the Afrikaaners moved north-east and after umpteen struggles they decided to settle in the fertile areas and informally called the two independent Boer Volkstaats Oranje Vrijstaat (1854-1902) and Transvaal Republik (1856-1902).
Their biggest leaders included Louis Tregardt, Hendrik Potgieter, Gert Maritz, Piet Retief and Andre Pretorius. Under Pretorius the Boers riding 68 ox wagons clashed with the Zulu army at the Battle of Blood River. The handful of Boers defeated the 12,000 member hostile Zulu army on Dec 16, 1838 (now celebrated by Afrikaaners as the day of the Vow).
To commemorate courage and spirit of the Great Trek, the Afrikaaner Voortrekkers erected an 80-metre monument outside Pretoria (named after Pretorius) and named it the Voortrekker Monument. Each year at Noon on Dec 16 (the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River) a shaft of sunlight illuminates a cenotaph inscribed Ons vir jou, Suid-Afrika (We for you, South Africa).