Jacob 2 Kruger

Notas deur David Abraham Swanepoel

Hy en sy broer Carel was nie onder die voorbeeldigste van die Krugers nie, maar baie dapper en gehard.

Carel het vervalste riksdaaldernote gemaak wat baie lyk soos dié wat deur die Oos-Indiese Kompanjie uitgereik is. Jacob het van hierdie vervalsings na Kaapstad geneem en het gewere en messe, ploeë en seil- en “buckskin” broeke (leerbroeke, velbroeke?) gekoop. Hy is in hegtenis geneem, maar het ontsnap. [1]

Beide Kruger-broers vlug na die onbekende noorde. Hulle is in hul afwesigheid verhoor. Jakob as 'n medepligtige moes op die galg geslaan en gebrandmerk word en dan vyftien jaar gevangenisstraf uitdien. Hierdie strawwe is bietjie erg vir bedrog (sy broer moes hang).

Rondom 1803 het die Somervile-ekspedisie die huidige Prieska bereik waar hulle die sendeling William Edwards en Jacob Kruger teëgekom het [1].

'n Paar jaar later, ná die tweede Britse bewindsoorname, is daar aan hom amnestie verleen en het hy teruggekeer na die Kaapkolonie. Hy het hom op 'n plaas in die Roggeveld gevestig; maar dit lyk asof die kwytskelding toegestaan is op voorwaarde dat hy as 'n gids vir 'n ekspedisie onder leiding van dr. Cowan optree; op soek na 'n roete na Mosambiek. Hierdie ekspedisie het nooit teruggekeer nie. Dit kan wees dat hulle aan óf aan malaria dood is, of deur inboorlinge vermoor was, alhoewel daar in die Kruger-familie geglo word dat Jacob Kruger deur 'n leeu in die Kalahari doodgemaak is.

Die ekspedisie het ten minste ‘n punt aan die Limpopo-rivier op dieselfde breedtegraad as die huidige Louis Trichardt / Makhado bereik (Martin’s Drift), aangesien daar later knope gevind is wat hoogswaarskynlik van die uniform van een van die ekspedisielede, luitenant Donovan af kom [2]. “We now know that Cowan and Donovan perished on the Limpopo in the country of the Laka of chief Mapela, a group of "Tebele" traders and raiders living in the hill-forts of the Waterberg mountains south-east of present Martin's Drift (cf. Huffman 1990). It is believed that they died of malarial fever-hardly surprising as it was now the wet summer period of 1808-1809. One story claims that they were deliberately drowned, thrown into the raging Limpopo river with their wagons, because a Laka rain-doctor claimed that the rotating wagon-wheels were tokens of witchcraft which would stop the rain. The horses of the intruders were eaten, and found to be rather disgusting, just like zebra meat. ‘n Tikskrif in die versameling van die Universiteit van die Witwatersrand [3] raak ook die kwessie aan.

“Remains of Cowan and Donovan's expedition are said to have been found along the Limpopo river in the 1850s-including regimental buttons of the 83rd regiment of the British Army (from Donovan's tunic), pocket knives and "other trifles".” [2, p38].

“The Tlhaping spread the story to subsequent Cape travellers that the Ngwaketse had killed Cowan and Donovan.” One historian thinks that the Tlhaping may have been unwittingly confusing Cowan and Donovan with the fate of a cattle-thieving Boer or Xhosa-Boer Frans Krieger (Krüger Danster), killed while attacking Kanye in 1809 (Wagner 1973: 5).” Oor hierdie Krüger kon geen ander inligting gevind word nie.

Wagner [4] noem net dat die broers agter ivoor aan was: “While whites such as Jan Bloem and Adrian van Zyl had found havens as raiders among the Korana at the end of the eighteenth century, more characteristic of the first decade of the nineteenth were the Kruger brothers, Jacobus and Karel, who settled on the edge of the colony in order to exploit Orange River ivory.”

Die ekspedisie het vertrek van Dithakong, ‘n plek noord-oos van of Kuruman. Dit was ‘n bestemming vir verskeie vroeg 19de eeuse ekspedisies. In die reisverslae varieer die spelling tussen Litakun, Litakoo, Lattakoo ensovoorts. 'n Afrika- inwoner van Kuruman het die woord vir my uitgespreek en dit klink nogal snaaks, meer in die rigting van die spelling. Vandag weet weinig mense van die plek.

“Dr. E.E. Mossop, who traced the careers of many early Krugers, lamented the fact that Jacob Kruger had kept no diary of his wanderings in the unknown regions beyond the Orange River between 1783 and 1805. Had he done so, he might have gained a place for himself among the South African explorers. Lichtenstein, however, left this description of the man: "He spoke little and laughed seldom, knew no fear: his deep-set eyes, long grey hair and great beard lent him a threatening appearance. He carried a short thick elephant-gun carrying bullets weighing quarter of a pound." “ [1].

Jacob Kruger was sonder twyfel ‘n man met baie testosteroon, gemeet aan die risiko wat hy geneem het, vreesloosheid, onsosialiteit en gebrek aan laglus. “ The pattern among men of less smiling with higher testosterone levels fits with research linking testosterone to face-to-face dominance [5]. High testosterone men reportedly seldom smile socially [6]. By baie ou mans neem testosteroon af, maar hy is op 'n ouderdom oorlede toe hy nog baie moes gehad het.

Sterfdatum gebaseer op die vertrekjaar van die Cowan-Donovan ekspedisie - dit kan ook 1809 wees.

Bronne:

1.  Lawrence G. Green. 1955. Karoo. HB Timmins. Available online: https://archive.org/stream/Karoo/Karoo_djvu.txt.  Accessed on 2018-05-07. 

2. Neil Parsons. 1997. Makgowa, Mahaletsela, and Maburu: traders and travellers before c.1820. PULA Journal of African Studies, vol. 11, no. 1 pp30-42.

3. Untitled anonymous typescript. In Collection Number: A979 Silas T Molema and Solomon T Paatje Papers. Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Available online: http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/A979/A9.... Accessed on 2018-05-13. Extract uploaded.

4. Wagner, Roger (1973) 'Coenraad Buys in Transorangia', The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries, (University of London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies Collected Seminar Papers, 4:.1-8 Available online: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/8766305.pdf. Accessed on 2018-05-13.

5. James M. Dabbs Jr. 1997. Testosterone, Smiling, and Facial Appearance. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 21(1):45-55

6. Mary F. Morrison (ed). 2000. Hormones, gender and the aging brain—the endocrine basis of geriatric psychiatry. Cambridge University Press

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Kwytskelding: geen verantwoordelikheid word aanvaar vir enige foutiewe of onakkurate inligting nie, hetsy aangehaal, herverpak of self geskryf.