The construction of Eugène Marais as an Afrikaner hero

Eugène Marais (1871–1936) is remembered as an Afrikaner hero. There are, however, competing claims as to the meaning of this ‘heroic’ status. Some remember him as the ‘father of Afrikaans poetry’, one of the most lionised writers in Afrikaans, and part of the Afrikaner nationalist movement. Yet a second intellectual tradition remembers him as a dissident iconoclast, an Afrikaner rebel. This article seeks to show, first, how these two very different understandings of Marais came to exist, and, secondly, that the course of this rivalry of legends was inextricably bound up with the socio‐economic and political history of South Africa. We look at his portrayal at particular historical moments and analyse the changes that have occurred with reference to broader developments in South Africa. This is in order to understand the making of cultural identity as part of nationalism, and opens a window onto the contested process of re‐imagining the Afrikaner nation. The article demonstrates how Marais's changing image was a result of material changes within the socio‐economic milieu, and the mutable needs of the Afrikaner establishment. The hagio‐graphy of Marais by the Nationalist press, both during his life and after his death, is explored, showing how the socio‐political context of the Afrikaans language struggle was influential in shaping his image. The chronology of his representation is traced in terms of the changing self‐image of the Afrikaner over the ensuing seven decades. Finally, in order to understand the fractured meaning of Marais today, the need for alternative heroes in the ‘New South Africa’ is considered. Notes ‘Al die slegte goed kan maar wag tot ek dood is.’ Transvaal Archives (hereafter TAD) Preller Collection, A 787, 41, Marais to Preller, 24 April 1923. This article was presented in the seminar series on Southern African History and Politics (Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, Trinity Term, 2000) and at Stellenbosch University in 2002. Thank you to the Agricultural Research Council, National Botanical Institute, Pretoria, and to Albert Grundlingh, Saul Dubow, Sarah Duff, Hermann Giliomee, Leon Rousseau and, especially, to Stanley Trapido. ‘Dit is [vir] my altyd bietjie skrikwekkend om my eie naam selfs in druk te sien; wees dus genadig met die biografie!’, TAD Preller Collection, A 787, 46, Marais to Preller, 11 May 1923. TAD Preller Collection, A 787, 184, Marais to Preller, 21 March 1927. The letter is composed solely of this sentence. Gustav Preller himself played an important role in the creation of an Afrikaner national identity, as a historian and newspaper editor. See I. Hofmeyr, ‘Popularising History: The Case of Gustav Preller’, Journal of African History, 29 (1988), pp. 521–535, and P. J. Du Plessis, ‘Die Lewe en Werk van Gustav Preller, 1875–1943’ (DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria, 1988). L. Rousseau, The Dark Stream – the Story of Eugène Marais (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball, 1982), p. 9. Kultuurpolitiek may be defined as the politics of culture, the debates and institutions surrounding the propagation of Afrikaans language and ‘civilisation’. A. Rupert, Eugène Marais Kom die Eer toe, 'n Huldeblyk (Stellenbosch, Rembrandt‐tabbakkorporasie, 1971). Inez Verdoorn was alerted to the cycad by Marais, and named it after him in 1945. Thank you to the Agricultural Research Council, National Botanical Institute, Pretoria. The Natal Mercury, 1 December 1999. The AWB is a right‐wing revolutionary faction dedicated to the ideal of white hegemony. See the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging's website, http://www.lantic.co.za. Sculpted by Willem Nezar in 1975. One who is a hero to Afrikaners, but also, in this case, one who was both Afrikaans and a hero to a broader, scientific community. R. Marais, ‘Die Kanonisering van Eugène N. Marais as Digter’, Afrikaanse Letterkundevereniging, 1, 1 (March 1993), p. 11. This period saw the creation of the Afrikaanse Taalgenootskap for the Transvaal (1905), the Afrikaanse Taal Vereniging (1906), the founding of the SA Akademie (1909), the recognition of Afrikaans by provincial councils in 1914, including the schools, and its acceptance by the churches between 1916 and 1919, and by parliament in 1925 as the joint official language with English. The publishing house Nasionale Pers promoted the idea that it had been established by a ‘number of fervent nation‐feeling Afrikaners’ from ‘all classes’ who wanted not to make a profit but rather to ‘see better provision being made for the supply of Afrikaans reading material to the Afrikaans volk’. ‘Waarde vir u Geld’, Die Huisgenoot, July 1921. The Second Language Movement comprised a loosely associated, predominantly male group, working to foster a sense of Afrikaner identity, chiefly through post‐war promotion of the entrenchment of Afrikaans as an official language. TAD Preller Collection, A 787, Marais to Preller, Heidelberg, 11 December 1926. Malan probably refers to D. F. Malan. Jeppe had been active in Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) politics and by this stage had become Judge of the Water Court. TAD Preller Collection, A787, Preller to Malan, 14 December 1926. The term ‘cultural entrepreneur/broker’ is used and theorised by C. Young, The Politics of Cultural Pluralism (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), p. 45. Marais, ‘Die Kanonisering van Eugène N. Marais’, p. 11. Lindenberg, ‘Herout of Twintiger? in 1965’, Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse Letterkunde (Pretoria, Academica, 1972), p. 20; J. L. Kannemeyer, Geskiedenis van die Afrikaanse Literatuur (Pretoria, Academica, 1988 [1984]), pp. 222–240. Marais, ‘Die Kanonisering van Eugène N. Marais’, p. 11. Dekker and Antonissen, for example, adopt this image of Marais as the first significant Afrikaans poet, independent and unaffiliated. G. Dekker, Afrikaanse Literatuurgeskiedenis (Cape Town, Nasionale Pers, 1947), R. Antonissen, Die Afrikaanse Letterkunde van Aanvang tot Hede (Cape Town, Nasou, 1964). It is debatable whether his poetry falls over three or four generations. Kannemeyer, Geskiedenis, p. 222, maintains only three, while René Marais contends four generations in ‘Die Kanonisering’, p. 12. Kannemeyer himself, however, has labelled the 1930s as a new phase in the development of Afrikaans literature. F. G. M. Du Toit, Eugène Marais – Sy Bydrae tot die Afrikaanse Letterkunde (Amsterdam, N. V. Swets, 1940), p. 102. ‘Ode to the Paarl’ and ‘The Soldier’s Grave', Paarl District Advertiser, 14 October 1885 and 7 November 1885. See Paarl District Advertiser for ‘South Africa’, 26 March 1886; ‘Majuba’, 29 September 1886; ‘There Shall be no More Sea’, 13 October 1886; ‘On Revisiting a Spot where the Author met his Girl Sweetheart, Years Ago’, 29 January 1887; ‘Hymn for a Stormy Night at Sea’, 23 February 1887; ‘Anglified Africanders’, 15 March 1887 and ‘Love’, 11 May 1887. ‘Gert Senekal’, Land en Volk, 8 September 1891 and ‘Di Meisies’, ibid., 15 September 1891, under the pseudonym ‘Afrikanus Junior’. These poems fall within the tradition of the First Language Movement. Land en Volk, 5 May, 19 May and 23 June 1905. Marais is venerated in D. Denoon, A Grand Illusion – The Failure of Imperial Policy in the Transvaal Colony during the Period of Reconstruction (London, Longman, 1973), p. 84, as ‘a founder of Afrikaans as a literary language’, and by H. H. Hewison, Hedge of Wild Almonds (London, Heinemann, 1989), p. 234, as a writer ‘whose poetry had proved that Afrikaans was a language in its own right’. D. W. Krüger, The Making of a Nation (Johannesburg, Macmillan, 1969), p. 20. He also wrote a hagiographical account of Marais’s attempt to carry weapons and ammunition to a Boer commando in 1902. See D. W. Krüger, ‘Dr. Schultz en Eugène Marais Probeer om deur Oos‐Afrika die Boerelinies te Bereik’, Die Huisgenoot, 11 January 1946. Marais was in fact later to write a poem ‘Klaas Vakie’ in Die Brandwag, 15 July 1910. ‘Die schrijwer daarvan ...is ’n ongeleerde Boer, wat nimmer of nooit Hollands kan schrijft nie, maar hij is ongetwijfeld 'n digter. Dit is maar net 'n brokkie, getiteld, “'n Winternag”, maar jij kan daarna luister.' See M. S. B. Kritzinger, ‘Eugène N. Marais as Digter’, Ons Tydskrif, May 1936 and Du Toit, Eugène Marais, p. 120. In 1936, Kritzinger attempted, in ‘Eugène N. Marais as Digter’, to explain away this political stratagem by contending that the political climate prevented Marais from revealing his identity. This is clearly not the case, as Marais openly published direct criticism of the Milner regime, and ‘Winternag’ has no overt political content. Preller's ‘Introduction’ in E. N. Marais, Gedigte (Cape Town, Nasionale Pers, 1934), p. 8. Indeed, C. M. van den Heever, ‘Critique of Die Swart Verraad’, De Vaderland, 10 June 1933, maintained that its publication heralded the beginning of the Second Language Movement. Die Vaderland, 31 March 1936. Kritzinger, ‘Eugène N. Marais as Digter’. A. Thorpe, Eugène Nielen Marais – Gedigte/Poems (Pretoria, J. L. Van Schaik, for Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1956). In the 1934 edition, for example, Preller refers to ‘’n Winternag' rather than the correct ‘Winternag’; he also refers to its ten lines, whereas it consists of eighteen lines; and he quotes Marais's birthdate as 1872 instead of 1871. D. F. Malherbe quoted in P. J. Nienaber (Johannesburg, Afrikaanse Pers, 1947), p. 12. C. M. Van den Heever, ‘Die Eensame onder die Afrikaanse Kunstenaars’, Die Vaderland, 3 April 1936. G. Dekker, ‘Review of Gedigte and Versamelde Gedigte’, Die Nuwe Brandwag, May 1933. ‘Hy was digter ... voor enige Afrikaanse digter. Maar tog is dit alles, ten spyte van sy bereisheid, so innig verbonde met die Afrikaanse grond, dat ’n mens hierin en in ander gedigte nog altyd die digter van Afrikaanse bodem sien.' A. H. Jonker, ‘Eugène N. Marais’, Die Burger, 1 April 1936. ‘as kragtige propagandamiddel in die toenemende stryd om die erkenning van die moedertaal’. D. F. Malherbe, Die Volksblad, 11 April 1936. The use of pen names was common practice during the First Language Movement. See, for example, the poems in S. J. du Toit's Afrikaanse Gedigte, Byeenversameld uit wat in di Laaste 30 Jaar Verskyn is: 1876–1906 (Paarl, Paarl Drukpers, 1906). Paarl District Advertiser (9), Land en Volk (5), De Volkstem (1), Die Boerevrou (1, reprinted from De Volkstem), Die Brandwag (2), Die Burger (1), Die Huisgenoot (5) and Ons/Die Vaderland (3). He used the pen names ‘Klaas Vaakie’, ‘Eugène, O.F.S.’, ‘Afrikanus Junior’, ‘H.v.R.v.O.’, ‘V.R.’ and ‘Niggie van A. G. Visser’. Today there exists no complete collection of the poems published in his lifetime, let alone the nine poems discovered posthumously. Certain poems are even omitted from his collected works edited by Leon Rousseau, E. N. Marais, Versamelde Werke (Cape Town, Nasionale Pers, 1984). In 1933, Van Schaik published Marais's Versamelde Gedigte, consisting of 30 poems, the first to be selected and edited by Marais himself. Versamelde Gedigte underwent changes as it was reprinted – the 1934 edition, for example, included ‘Wanneer dit Reën op Rietfontein’ and the 1936 edition saw the addition of ‘Diep Rivier’. The definitive version of 1936 contained 32 poems, omitting 22. Rousseau's Versamelde Werke uses all of these and adds two to the total, 35 of them in English. See also Kritzinger, ‘Eugène N. Marais as Digter’. See D. van Reybrouck, De Plaag – Het Stille Knagen van Schrijvers, Termieten en Zuid‐Afrika (Amsterdam, Meulenhoff, 2001) and S. Swart, ‘A “Ware Afrikaner” – an Examination of the Role of Eugène Marais (1871–1936) in the Making of Afrikaner Identity’ (DPhil thesis, Oxford, 2001). The collection of articles appeared in book form as Die Siel van die Mier in 1934 and by 1948 had undergone four reprints. This article uses E. Marais, The Soul of the White Ant (London, Penguin, 1973 [1937]) and M. Maeterlinck, The Life of the White Ant (London, George Allen, 1928 [1927], trans. Alfred Sutro). For a discussion of these points, see Swart, ‘A “Ware Afrikaner” ’, chapter four. Quoted in du Toit, Eugène Marais, p. 184. In Johannesburg alone, the number of Afrikaners increased from 86,700 to 163,575 between 1926 and 1936, the year of Marais's death. E. L. P. Stals, Afrikaners in die Goudstad, II (Pretoria, Haum, 1986) p. 17. As D. F. Malan declared at the Great Trek Centenary celebrations on Blood River Day, 16 December 1938, ‘Your Blood River lies in the city’. Quoted in A. Grundlingh and H. Sapire, ‘From Feverish Festival to Repetitive Ritual? The Changing Fortunes of Great Trek Mythology in an Industrializing South Africa’, South African Historical Journal, 21 (1989), p. 23. Grundlingh and Sapire have shown how the Great Trek proved a changing reference point to meet changing historical exigencies. They analysed the Great Trek mythology over a period of 50 years against a backdrop of successful ethnic mobilisation of Afrikanerdom in the 1930s and the subsequent mutations of the mythology in an increasingly industrial society as the material basis for beliefs changed. Quoted in Grundlingh and Sapire, ‘From Feverish Festival to Repetitive Ritual?’, p. 23. B. Butler, The Myth of the Hero (London, Rider and Co., 1979) p. 7. T. Nairn, The Break‐up of Britain (London, New Left Books, 1977), p. 340 and B. Anderson, Imagined Communities (London, Verso 1991 [1983]), p. 80. This argument was used in Grundlingh and Sapire, ‘From Feverish Festival to Repetitive Ritual?’, p. 24, when asking why the public responded to the Centenary celebrations, probing popular motivation. Other appealing alternatives existed – such as socialism and ‘South Africanism’, promoted by both state and capital. Both failed, perhaps because they lacked reference to a communal past. The historical dimension was missing, and neither ideology could provide the body of historical mythology made available by Afrikaner nationalism. For a discussion of ‘South Africanism’ as an ideology, see B. Bozzoli, The Political Nature of a Ruling Class: Capital and Ideology in South Africa 1890–1933 (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981), pp. 204–205, 243. This phenomenon has received great attention – see, for example, Grundlingh and Sapire, ‘From Feverish Festival to Repetitive Ritual?’; Stals, Afrikaners in die Goudstad, II, p. 17, and J. Joubert, ‘Blanke Arbeid in die Sekondêre Industrieë aan die Witwatersrand 1924–1933’ (D. Litt thesis, Rand Afrikaans University, 1987). Nairn, The Break‐up of Britain, p. 340. Grundlingh and Sapire have used this argument in their review of the changing fortunes of the Great Trek myth, ‘From Feverish Festival to Repetitive Ritual?’, p. 22. See H. Adam and H. Giliomee, The Rise and Crisis of Afrikaner Power (Cape Town, David Philip, 1979), p. 110. For an example, see S. W. Pienaar and J. J. J. Scholtz (eds), Glo in u Volk: Dr D.F. Malan as Redenaar 1908–1954 (Cape Town, Tafelberg, 1954), pp. 122–123. In describing how the upper level was dispossessed of power, dominees lost control, lawyers lost clientele, teachers were trapped in the ‘50–50’ (50 per cent Afrikaans, 50 per cent English) educational system, and civil servants needed English skills to get ahead, O’Meara has argued that they promoted Afrikaner Nationalism as a way forward to regain control. D. O'Meara, Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital, and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1934–1948 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 55; see also Adam and Giliomee, Rise and Crisis of Afrikaner Power, pp. 110–111 and T. Dunbar Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1975). Meaning ‘Ox‐wagon’, ‘Jawbone’ (representing a kind of ox‐wagon) and ‘Centenary Festival’. J. D. Kestell, Die Voortrekkers – ’n Kort Geskiedenis Verhaal (Pretoria, J. H. de Bussy, 1926). Preller's biography of the voortrekker Piet Retief had already run ten and by his of edited voortrekker and his edition of the of and biography of were also very See G. Preller, Piet Retief (Cape Town, Nasionale Pers, (Cape Town, Nasionale Pers, van (Cape Town, Nasionale Pers, and (Johannesburg, Afrikaanse Pers, en in Ons Vaderland, 15 January refers to in a cultural was an English and who made of the Boer in the Rousseau, Dark p. I. Hofmeyr, a Nation from Afrikaans and in S. and S. (eds), The Politics of and Nationalism in South Africa and New Longman, p. TAD Preller Collection, A787, S. P. to Preller, April 1936. TAD Preller Collection, A787, Marais to Preller, April 1923. ‘Eugène Marais, my Vereniging van Pretoria, 10 pp. J. H. 'n (Cape Town, Nasionale A. H. Jonker, ‘Eugène N. Marais’, Die Burger, 1 April 1936. M. S. B. Kritzinger, aan Preller’, April 1936. Die Brandwag was published from 1910. W. de in Marais, The Soul of the White p. from the G. Preller, (Pretoria, J. L. Van Schaik, p. G. Preller, (Pretoria, J. L. Van Schaik, p. Anderson, Imagined pp. in Swart, ‘A “Ware Afrikaner” ’, chapter and – A of Eugène Marais’s and C. in the See also M. and H. ‘Eugène en vir pp. was Preller quoted in du Toit, Eugène Marais, p. p. ‘Hy in die in die en maar om te en te om dood te Du Toit, Eugène Marais, p. This with the argument that at this there was a need to the Afrikaner as a of the in Swart, ‘A “Ware Afrikaner” ’, chapter ‘The Ant of the White Soul – History and the Politics of Afrikaner with to the of Eugène ‘Hy altyd Boer op ’n C. A. aan ’n Eugène Die 7 September Du Toit, Eugène p. die van sy deur aan G. S. Preller, aan E. N. Marais’, Ons Tydskrif, May 1936. W. and (London, and This is in J. C. Afrikaners – van en (Cape Town, Tafelberg, 1987). See also E. the – and the South African Journal, 3 p. and D. Joubert, (Cape Town, Tafelberg, the in Quoted in Afrikaners, p. and pp. Die 11 April The role of in ethnic identity through institutions has been by J. Butler, and the of in a South African Town, in L. The of in Southern Africa (London, Ons Vaderland, 15 January in Die Vaderland, April had to in the newspaper 5 April April Die Volksblad, April 26 April Die Vaderland, 21 April Die Burger, 24 May The that was both a and later The 23 May was Die Volkstem 24 May was of the Die Vaderland, May maintained that not only was the it was also in a later May it was of the English and Die May the nationalist from was of the English and the The June the as Die Vaderland, May Die Burger, was the of of and an and He in the South African and was to later to the Transvaal and to the of as Nationalist for In he with Ons Land en Ons Volk: 'n Nasionale (Johannesburg, Afrikaanse Pers wat He that Marais was very of practice and his his popular image to C. J. en Marais – (Pretoria, p. was a See, for example, The 21 June and Die Burger, 24 June was to write in from to The that he not the and was with a new in with the of a at a The July 1933. was published (London, from has one of his to as and the of a a a and the The debates within the University of are in Afrikaners, p. The Agricultural Journal of the of South Africa Pretoria, February 1914, p. TAD Preller Collection, TAD Preller Collection, A787, V. A. van to Preller, 24 April 1936. C. J. ‘Die had been to in and had been used by the South African in addition to the was played in addition to the at the of parliament in TAD Preller Collection, A. to Preller, June 1936. the Marais to their his with the of Die TAD Preller Collection, Albert van to Preller April 1936. wat nog ’n wat was op sy om die te sien.' TAD Preller Collection, A 787, A. to Preller, June 1936. ‘Eugène Marais Die Volksblad, November has shown that as Great Britain to be a power, was by L. The Political Mythology of University Press, p. There was from a P. J. Eugène Marais – Die Eensame (Johannesburg, Afrikaanse Pers J. van ‘Die van Eugène Marais’, vir 3 of van die by C. G. S. de Die Huisgenoot, 3 June Dekker, Afrikaanse p. M. S. B. Kritzinger, review of van die Die 23 April It is that this chronology in The Political Mythology of p. that there is a of a and at the University of African The The and The See University of University Research of was to an S. J. – in History Penguin, p. argued that was the very of See of and (London, Kegan Paul, He quotes in S. The Life of and (London, Kegan Paul, p. The Life of and p. African pp. Marais had in it was that could be with and his on the of and it has been that he also in and on the See L. Rousseau, Die van Eugène Marais (Cape Town, Press, p. In en and uit die Lewe van en Marais the of through and See ‘Die van die The of to is the in Marais's in van die ‘Die van die uit die Lewe van en ‘Die van Siel van die and in van den Life The and The proved very popular in See D. – and Nature in the of (London, p. C. made use of in A See A. C. of New T. T. Eugène N. Marais (Cape Town, Nasionale W. S. H. Du Eugène N. Marais as (Cape Town, Nasou, E. Lindenberg, Versamelde Gedigte van Eugène N. Marais (Pretoria, Academica, and M. Eugène Marais (Cape Town, and Rousseau, ‘Die Nuwe sy Hede is in die New his is in the Die Huisgenoot, May Afrikaners te Afrikaners Huisgenoot, July en by die Afrikaners’ and Die Huisgenoot, 10 November and November S. and A. The South African (London, Macmillan, E. and T. The of (London, [1983]), pp. S. within the South African in and (eds), Politics of and Nationalism, p. D. ‘The Language of in ibid., p. In the of the of the of as Afrikaner Adam and Giliomee, The Rise and Crisis of Afrikaner Power, pp. the in self‐image by two popular of the Afrikaner in a of the Boer who beliefs his and an and C. R. The of History at South African (Pretoria, Research Council, 1972), pp. The was on in the of History with to from South African History such as the of Blood the as Afrikaners are of ... that is to the Afrikaners by and 1 April There were to a of white with a on Marais's language – the of poems the that Marais in English. Rupert, Eugène The has been by one J. du P. G. van and R. F. A. for University of the 30 May For of van role see, for example, M. of N. P. van the and Journal of Southern African The were Afrikaners who to their through literature. The of this development was not lost on a political identity had of a and cultural movement. die in quoted in F. I. J. van Die (Cape Town, Tafelberg, p. with Rousseau, Town, November Rousseau's biography the most important on as Marais and

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