POTGIETER, ANDRIES HENDRIK
- 3 Min Read
Andries Hendrik Potgieter (December 19, 1792-December 16, 1852), a prominent Voortrekker leader, was the second son of Hermanus Potgieter and Petronella Margaretha Krugel.
PHOTO CAPTION: Potgieter Andries Hendrik. SOURCE: Johan Wolfaardt.
Like most of the children of the frontiersmen, he did not enjoy a formal education. He married Elisabeth Helena Botha in 1812 and became a prosperous farmer near Cradock in the Cape Province. There he shared his fellow farmers’ frustration, embitterment and discontent which was a result of the vacillating British policy on the eastern frontier.
He had taken part in the Fourth and Fifth Frontier Wars and was convinced that a lasting peace with the Xhosa was impossible. In 1835 he led a party of Trekkers to the north and crossed the Orange River early in 1836. Beyond the borders of the Cape Colony, he was elected commandant of the trek and entered into friendly relations with the peoples who were being terrorised by the Matabele under Mzilikazi.
While Potgieter was away on a reconnoitering expedition in the interior of the Transvaal in 1836, the Matabele attacked the scattered groups of Trekkers. Determined to punish Mzilikazi, Potgieter led two punitive expeditions against the Matabele, thus breaking their power and driving them completely from the western Transvaal.
The fact that Potgieter was not re-elected as commandant in December 1836 can be ascribed to his disapproval of Natal as the final destination of the Trek, because he anticipated the extension of British authority to the coastal area. He was rather in favour of settling in the interior beyond proclaimed British jurisdiction and within reach of the Portuguese harbour of Delagoa Bay.
The Trekkers soon became involved in bloody clashes with the Zulu in Natal, and Potgieter was called on to act as joint leader in a punitive expedition. The commando was ambushed at Italeni on April 10, 1838, where co-leader Piet Uys and ten others were killed. Potgieter retreated, but was promptly accused of cowardice and blamed for the disaster. Deeply affronted he left Natal to settle again in the Transvaal. There, he traded 30 head of cattle to the ba Taung chief, Makwana, in exchange for the Vet River territory.
When the Trekker Republic of Natalia was established after the defeat of the Zulu, Potgieter agreed in 1840 to enter into a union with the authorities there. The British annexation of Natal in 1842 prompted Potgieter once again to sever all ties with Natal and to proclaim his independence. After the British annexation of Natal, Potgieter oversaw the formation of the Winburg-Potchefstroom republic.
After a vote of confidence was taken among Potgieter’s followers, at his request, the party moved to the northwest, settling at Andries-Ohrigstad, on land obtained from the Pedi chief, Sekwati. The Volksraad split there, some favouring Potgieter, others behind J.J. Burger. Potgieter finally left the Volksraad, and in 1846 formed his own government. The situation remained unresolved until Potgieter and his followers decided, early in 1848, to trek further to the north where they settled in the Soutpansberg region.
The different Trekker factions were ultimately reconciled at a meeting at Derdepoort in 1849 with the result that they were in a much stronger position to negotiate the recognition of their independence by Britain in 1852. The controversial and isolationist Potgieter died in August of the same year and was buried at Schoemansdal.
M. S. APPELGRYN
