Vredeskoppie and the Afrikaner Nationalist Myth of Benevolent Paternalism

ABSTRACT Ikalafeng, kgosi of the Bahurutshe ba ga Moiloa at Dinokana since 1877, hoped to get British support to rid his people of Boer domination and engaged in acts of defiance against the Boers. Early in 1882 a Boer commando, accompanied by General Piet Joubert, the commandant-general of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, moved against the inhabitants of Dinokana, disarmed them, forced them to dismantle the fortifications around Dinokana and use the stones to build a ‘peace memorial’ (vredeskoppie), and imposed a heavy fine on them, which resulted in the loss of 20 per cent of their livestock. They were humiliated and impoverished, and did not recover from this setback. This article analyses Afrikaans-language narratives of these events written during the twentieth century from a pro-Boer perspective to show how they contributed to the mythology of apartheid.