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LIFE IN AFRIKANDERLAND
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LIFE IN AFRIKANDERLAND
AS VIEWED BY AN AFRIKANDER
A Story of Life in South Africa, based on Truth
BY
“CIOS”
LONDON
DIGBY, LONG & CO., PUBLISHERS
18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1897
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
In all times of stress and struggle, it is not from ourfriends and supporters, but from our enemies andopponents, that we receive the best and most practicalinstruction. If an evil or a peril exist, it is surely bestto know it; and if serious treason be hatching in darkplaces, publicity may easily rob it of its main strengthand neutralise its virulence. Further, in order to rightlyunderstand racial conflicts—of all the most bitter—wemust put ourselves in our adversary’s place in orderto arrive at just conclusions. We are quite aware thatin issuing this uncompromising attack upon Britishsupremacy in South Africa the writer is viewing everythingfrom an entirely anti-English standpoint, but surelyit is of great practical importance that we should be accuratelyinformed as to the way in which our adversariesregard us. More practical instruction can be obtainedthus than in any other manner. The intense hostility ofthe writer to England is manifest, and a perusal of thesepages is calculated to be of real service to those to whom,as to ourselves, the solidarity and permanence of theBritish Empire is a primary consideration.v
Dedication
To my mother do i dedicate this work, who, i amsure, had she lived to read it, would have approvedthe sentiments expressed herein, and would havethoroughly sympathised with the earnest object forwhich this work has been written, viz., the ultimatetriumph of TRUTH.
PREFACE
To the Reader,
Gentle Reader, I have written thisstory in the English language—a language learned by me,as a foreign language, for the chief purpose of placingbefore the English reading public a true and faithfulversion of the character and life of an Afrikander. Somany libels and false stories have of late been spreadin England and all over the world about the Boers byenemies of the people inhabiting the Colonies and Statesof South Africa, that I could not resist the temptationto write something in which the truth and nothing butthe truth would be told. I have made the attempt;whether it is to be successful or not, the reading publicmust decide.
In this story there is no plot (excepting the GreatComplot). It is simply a story of everyday life, withlittle or no embellishment. Yet I trust the reader, inlands far away as well as those living here in my ownbeloved native land, will find sufficient to interest himto lead him on to the end of the book. At the least,there was subject-matter enough to write about withoutgoing out of the paths of Truth. My only difficulty wasnot to be led away by my subject and make this worktoo large for a first attempt in literature.
The incidents and adventures related, as well as anecdotes...