Slaughterer's Neck (Refrain Stanza Sequence) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after C. J. Langenhoven)

I
The British build a gallows at Slaughterer's Neck against rebellion as a solution
they forced everyone in the region to be present at the public execution,
to family and friends was said to look upon what happens with revolt.
The rebels were told to climb up for the noose and this did crowd jolt
but they trusted upon God for His resolution
the ropes of the gallows broke and they were free according to the law
but the British was resolute to hang them once more
"Hang, they will all hang! " With rifles the people were held at caution,
they forced everyone in the region to be present at the public execution.

II

The crowed roared:"Look, the gallows did brake, let them be! "
"God found them innocent.Free!Let them Free! "
John Philip did look on along with the Khoikhoi named Boy
as a pastor of the British empire to see them the rebels destroy
and so they hanged one by one without mercy.
Five men that stood up against tyranny and for liberty did fall,
lost their lives in the name of freedom and valiant they were all
and they remain the greatest Afrikaner Boer heroes to me:
"God found them innocent.Free!Let them Free! "

[Reference:"Die galg" (The gallows)by C. J. Langenhoven.Poet's note: In
October 1815 the missionary John Philip of the London Missionary Society incited a Khoikhoi named Boy to lay charges against Cornelis Fredrik Bezuidenhout and his brother Jan Bezuidenhout that as farmers they do misuse the Khoikhoi in labour."Cornelis Fredrik Bezuidenhout suspected the Khoikhoi labourer Boy of stealing and did retain his wage.Boy did lay false charges of assault against Cornelis Fredrik Bezuidenhout at the Graaff-Reinet magistrate" and in his absence Cornelis Fredrik Bezuidenhout was sentenced to a month's imprisonment."A force of 12 Khoikhoi British soldiers under a white British officer was sent on 16 October 1815 to arrest Cornelis Fredrik Bezuidenhout" and at his arrest he was shot dead.The British also tried to arrest his brother Jan Bezuidenhout and at his arrest he was also killed which led to the Slaughterer's Neck rebellion.The executions of Cornelis Fredrik Bezuidenhout, his brother Jan Bezuidenhout and the executions at Slaughterer's Neck led to the Great Trek of the Vootrekkers twenty years later where the Boer / Afrikaner nation brewed on this for twenty years and were concerned with the continuous Xhosa and Khoikhoi attacks that murdered and plundered and the far too many border wars."Voortrekker is a pioneer and it's a name given to the South African Dutch settlers, known as Boers or Afrikaners, in the Cape Colony (modern Cape Provinces)who migrated north into the interior of South Africa and away from Cape Colony and British rule in what became known as the Great Trek."]

© Gert Strydom