The southeastern mountains of Lesotho and South Africa's Fouriesburg district in the Free State Province are remarkable for their rich heritage of San rock paintings, indicating these hunter-gatherer nomads as the original inhabitants of the Fouriesburg area. San rock art can be viewed on more than 27 farms near Fouriesburg. The nomadic San hunter-gatherers depicted animal species that are (and were) exotic to the Fouriesburg region at 24 sites in the area. Paintings of elephant, giraffe and mormyrid fish, together with excavated marine shells and soapstone dishes, tell a story of far-flung travels and intense trade in the early history of the region.
Clustered around the eastern Free State town of Fouriesburg are 4 sites at which Bushman hunter-gatherers also painted comets. This site cluster is unique in southern African rock art. The comet paintings promise an insight into San (Bushman) cosmology and may possibly provide accurate evidence for the dating of these specific rock paintings.
The Basotho called Fouriesburg "Mashaeng", meaning "place of big harvests", because the first harvests in the Fouriesburg area were much bigger than in the rest of the Free State.
Birth of Fouriesburg
Fouriesburg was laid out in 1892 on the farm Groenfontein in the Ficksburg district, owned by Chistoffel (Rooi Stoffel) Fourie. The Vrystaatse (Free State) Volksraad decided to investigate the suitability of the settlement at a meeting on 17 June 1892. The town was officially proclaimed on 1 June 1893, and named Fouriesburg for the many Fouries who lived in the area. Of course, Rooi Stoffel Fourie was one of them.
Capital of The Free State
The government of the Republic of the Free State had to move from Bloemfontein because of British attack during the Anglo-Boer War. British forces already occupied Bethlehem, for some time the headquarters of the Free State Boers. So, President Steyn decided to move the Free State capital to Fouriesburg, one of the remaining strongholds of the Boer forces during the Anglo Boer War.
The proclamation of Fouriesburg as Capital of the Free State was printed on a field press in Snymanshoek during the Anglo-Boer war. It is interesting to note that the proclamation has never been rescinded, so Fouriesburg residents might still lay claim to living in the Free State Capital!
Anglo-Boer Battles Near Fouriesburg
In the 120 kilometres long horseshoe-shaped Brandwater Basin, formed by the Witteberge, extending north from Commando Nek opposite Ficksburg, and the Rooiberge, which continues in a south-easterly then easterly direction to Golden Gate, and Basotho Land, some 8 400 Boers, including their leaders President M T Steyn and Commandants Christiaan de Wet and Marthinus Prinsloo, were encircled by 16 000 British troops. There were seven well-marked passes, including Commando Nek to the south, Wit Nek to the north, Slabbert's Nek and Retief's Nek to the north-west and Slaap Krantz to the east, leading into the valley of the Little Caledon from which there were two other passes, Naauwpoort Nek and Golden Gate. Generals Rundle, Campbell, Hunter and Macdonald watched all these passes. General Paget moved up to Slabbert's Nek, after a short delay caused by a lack of supplies near Bethlehem, joining forces with Major-General Clements, who was already near Bulfontein. This delay would prove very costly.
Knowing that the British were trying to block them in, the Boers split into four groups. The largest of these groups, 2 600 men, 460 wagons and five guns, under the leadership of General De Wet, with President Steyn, left the Brandwater Basin on the night of 15/16 July 1900, retreating via the mountain pass at Slabbert's Nek, while there was still time. Two more groups were due to depart the following day, and the fourth, under Prinsloo, would hold the passes open and leave last of all. These two parties delayed their departure, because they were waiting for commandos from Natal to join them. They eventually tried to halt the advancing British at Slabbert's Nek and Retief's Nek.
The country before Naauwpoort Nek was occupied by elements of the Bethlehem, Vrede and Harrismith commandos. These Boers offered considerable resistance on 26 July, when two British columns swept down on them from Bethlehem. The Boers then withdrew through the Naauwpoort Nek pass and advanced eastward towards Golden Gate.
The British endeavoured to guard both Naauwpoort and Golden Gate, realising that the Boers could escape. But they arrived too late, encountering only slight opposition. The Boers had escaped and were heading northwards towards Harrismith.
Fouriesburg Captured
Once Retief's Nek and Slabbert's Nek had been captured, the British forces were able to move through Commando Nek and march to Fouriesburg. The town of Fouriesburg was captured without opposition and the British forces under command of Lieutenant General, Sir Leslie Rundle, released 115 British captives. An hour after Rundle's arrival, General A. Hunter and some of his forces also entered Fouriesburg from the north.
Boers Surrender
At Surrender Hill, a flat-topped hill between Fouriesburg and Clarens, a memorial to both fallen British soldiers and Boer soldiers stands today. Surrender Hill was the place where 986 Boer soldiers came forward to lay down their arms and surrendered to British forces on the morning of 30 July 1900, mainly because of a misunderstanding between the Boer Generals De Wet and Prinsloo.
Had the Boer Generals decided on a common plan of action, the whole of their forces might have escaped, but there was so much discussion that, in the end, de Wet went off with his commando on his own. On 29 July, Prinsloo despatched a messenger with the white flag and an announcement of his unconditional surrender to General Hunter, after first requesting an armistice, which was refused by the British General. Other Boer commandos delayed their surrender. On 31 July, more Boers surrendered near Slaapkrans and a large number laid down their arms at Golden Gate.
But it soon became evident that, in speaking for all, Prinsloo had over-estimated his influence. Boer General Olivier, with fifteen hundred men and several guns, broke away from the captured force and escaped through the hills. In total, 4 314 men and three guns (two of which were their own) were surrendered to the British. Of this incident, General Hunter remarked in his official report: "I regard it as a dishonourable breach of faith upon the part of General Olivier, for which I hold him personally responsible. He admitted that he knew that General Prinsloo had included him in the unconditional surrender."
Some Sour Grapes
Arthur Conan Doyle, in his book The Great Boer War, remarks that it seemed strange to him that, on Olivier's capture shortly afterwards, he was not court-martialled for this breach of the rules of war. Doyle felt, as some other Englishmen must also have, that the "good-natured giant" that was the British Empire, was too quick to let bygones be bygones.
He-he! This sure sounds like sour grapes to me. Much like the indignant remarks of British soldiers, who used to wear red coats, complaining that the stubborn, and ugely outnumbered Boer forces wouldn't stand still and be shot like men. The Boer forces were individuals, bound together by their love for South Africa and a yearning for freedom from foreign rule. The Boers never claimed to be "gentlemen" in the English sense. They were farmers (and practical), fathers, sons and husbands acting for the good of their families.
The same Doyle also wrote of the young British soldiers, under command of Colonel Spragge, who ended up dying at Lindley, "The men were of peculiarly fine quality, many of them from the public schools and from the universities, and if any would fight to the death these with their sporting spirit and their high sense of honour might have been expected to do so." For the Boers, this was no sport. No glory awaited them for exploits during this war for which they did not ask. The Boers were fighting for survival and for freedom.
Boer discipline was a function of their free will to submit to orders from their elected generals, not military law, as with the British army. Individualism had a high place in the Boer army. Every man might repudiate the decision of his commandant, as every man might repudiate the white flag of his comrade. Unbelievably, the Boers fought like one, and were widely admired for their use of guerrilla tactics to successfully oppose the might of the British Empire.
Free Staters In Exile
The majority of Surrender Hill's more than four thousand Boer prisoners of war were exiled to India for the duration of the war, but many died of "fever", never returning to the Free State.
Fouriesburg History
Today, the marks of history on the Fouriesburg area can be seen in the ancient San rock art in the sandstone caves, a visit to the sandstone church in Fouriesburg (built in 1893), the blockhouse (one of only two of this type in South Africa), a museum, monuments, many British and Boer war graves, battlefields that witnessed the violent clashes, and caves that gave shelter. President Steyn House is the humble Fouriesburg dwelling of the former Free State President.
There are numerous caves in the Fouriesburg area, where Boer women and children hid during the Anglo Boer War. A newspaper was even printed in one of these caves. Boer women and children took refuge in the caves at Snymanshoek, from the British forces and their "scorched earth policy", which saw hundreds of thousands of Boer women and children confined in concentration camps that led to the horrible fever and starvation deaths of tens of thousands.
I know that I digressed a bit into a discussion of the Anglo-Boer War, but this event played such a big role in the history of the whole of South Africa, and still does in the Fouriesburg area character, population and tourism, that I hope I will be forgiven.
