The Battle Of Vegkop And Thereafter (Ballade) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Totius)

At the Vaal River a small impi did murder seventeen Boers,
Bataoeng Bushmen did notice it, did see the slaughtering and heard
how they did take three children with their army and that more were coming,
did warn a Boer patrol of six horsemen so that they would not be at a loss.

Chorus:
"Bring the cattle, sheep and women as booty
and slaughter the Boers and the Tswana and destroy them all, "
king Mzilikazi did say to Kalipi, his general, in his kraal Mosega,
thought that neither the Boers nor Tswana would be able to stand against his impi.

Two days before the attack fifty Voortrekker-wagons were drawn into a laager,
camel-thorn branches filled the space among them,
while lead was molten to prepare enough bullets
next to the Heuning-tributary at a strategic place against the Vegkop Hillock.

In the laager thirty-five men and seven boys were ready for war
and Sarel Celliers knew that deliverance comes from God.
"Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you,
and you will honour me" he read where he stood sweating.

Chief-commandant Andries Hendrik Potgieter rode out with his horsemen
to get a answer about the attack from the five thousand strong Matabele impi:
"Why has the Matabele come to murder and plunder? "
"Mzilikatzi! " They roared, threw spears at them and tried to cut them off.

While the Matabeles rushed upon them, they started with fire in movement tactics
and the impi went into the Zulu bullhorn and half-moon
where the Boers remained out of striking distance of the assegais did reload and fired
did ride away reloaded again and with the blunderbusses in the hand tried to win,

but five thousand were just too many and with rifle in hand each horseman rode back,
prayed inside the laager that the Lord God must come to salvation to stop the enemy
while the Matabele impi did surround the laager, sat down and ate raw meat
and for hours were sitting and waited while Martha van Vuuren sang a song to God:

"Out of the depths I cry to you, Oh Lord"
but around the laager the Matabele impi stayed sitting
until Andries Hendrik Potgieter got up and whipped with a red flag tied to his whip
and raging the impi formed up in the Zulu bullhorn and half-moon into formation,

where five thousand stood around the laager clothed in baboon and ox-tails
Mzilikazi's shock troops the "blood path" came into motion and did attack,
where spears darkened the sky and came down whistling
where only murder and slaughter did exist for the whole impi,

where the blunderbuss in every hand became so hot that they did burn blisters,
while the Voortrekkers kept firing to keep the Matabeles at a distance
and while they came raging the Matabeles were mown down
but they did storm enraged and incited from every direction,

the women did load and passed blunderbusses on and two stood at the sides of their men
where with axes they did cut off arms, legs and hands at the camel-thorn branches,
where Sarel Celliers drew a spear from his leg, pushed it into a creeper in the branches
and one Matabele warrior was lifted upon one of the wagons,

while from below the others did pass assegais to him
and the beautiful wife of Lucas Bronkhost warned that he was throwing from above,
where Lucas shot him down and he fell into some of his own spears
and so the best of the Matabele army was scattered

but they did draw back and sat down around the laager out of shooting range,
with anger they did sing and the eyes of the whole impi was white and cruel
while Sara Swanepoel and Elisabeth Bronkhorst did stand ready with their axes
some more bullets were melted from lead where the fire was heating it

and ready for battle Andries Hendrik Potgieter and seven men walked out
while each man fired with his blunderbuss upon the impi,
and in anger they roared threats at the Voortrekkers,
did come to their feet and thought that a multitude could catch the men unaware,

until Kalipi did defeated flee with raided cattle and other livestock
and he and the remaining Matabeles returned to the capital Mosega,
where all the livestock was taken away and it brought famine to the Boers
but God was honoured and praised as the Matabeles were formidable

but they got cattle from Moroka the Tswana Rolong-tribe chieftain
and the Wesleyan missionary James Archbell came to praise God for their delivery,
where he brought as much food as he had out of brotherly love,
thye later destroyed the capital Mosega and the town eGabeni with Uys in faith,

did recover six thousand cattle but there was no trace of any white children
while fifteen thousand Matabeles fled across the Limpopo River,
the hunter William Cornwallis Harris heard about the two white wives of Mzilikazi
and far away in Rhodesia Mzilikazi did reign as the Matabele king.

[Reference:"Vegkop" by Totius, "Bloed, Sweet en Trane" (Blood, sweat and tears)by E. J.G. Norval, "The wild sports of Southern Africa, " Pelham Richardson, London,1844 by William Cornwallis Harris. Psalm 50: 15.Psalm 130: 1.
Poet's note:The battle of Vegkop raged on 16 October 1836 at Heilbron.The Matabeles was a tribe that deserted from the Zulus before they became an own nation."A Voortrekker was 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."A laager "is a camp or encampment formed by a circle of wagons."Chief-Commandant: Officer with the rank equal to that of colonel. An impi here does refer to a whole tribal army with different regiments making it up.Usually a kraal is a rural village but here it does refer to a large compound in which Mzilikazi (the Matabele king)did live with some of his regiments of soldiers and his many wives. An assegai is a slender iron tipped spear of hard wood especially used by South African native peoples."In his lust Mzilikazi spared the lives of two Voortrekker girls that he had taken into his harem" writes William Cornwallis Harris in his book "The wild sports of Southern Africa, " Pelham Richardson, London,1844.]

© Gert Strydom