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Individual Note
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"Paul & Deirdre Snook" <[email protected]> wrote:
I thought this article from the Natal Witness might be of some interest to
the list
http://www.witness.co.za/content/2004_01/21292.htm
Who was the widow Retief?
In recent articles in The Witness, the possible demolition of the historic
house of the widow Retief was debated. Because of public pressure, the
KwaZulu-Natal Heritage Council decided last week that 225 Church Street,
Pietermaritzburg should be preserved. They should be congratulated on this
brave decision.
Part of this house once belonged to the wife of Pieter Retief, the
Voortrekker leader, after whom Pietermaritzburg was partly named. Sadly, the
house of the widow Maritz, wife of Gert Maritz after whom the other half of
Pietermaritzburg was named, was not so fortunate a couple of years ago, and
had to bite the dust to make way for McDonalds.
But who was the widow Retief? As with most histories, men played the main
role and women were the distant shadows behind their male counterparts. In
this instance, the widow Retief is also exclusively known because of her
relation to her famous husband. But who was she in her own right?
Magdalena Johanna "Lenie" De Wet was born in 1782 at Zwartberg in the
Swellendam district as the fifth of six children. She first married
Field-Cornet Jan Christoffel Greijling with whom she had 9 children. After his
death in 1811, she married again in 1814 to Piet Retief. Besides taking
responsibility for a huge step-family, Retief had a further 6 children with
his wife Lenie. Her new life was not an easy one, for Retief was a restless
person who was making a living as general dealer, baker, miller, butcher,
liquor trader, auctioneer, timber merchant and building contractor on the
eastern frontier towns of Uitenhage and Grahamstown. By 1834, he was forced to
surrender his estate. During this time they also farmed on
"Mooimeisiesfontein", named after Lenie, who by all accounts was a
good-looking woman and referred to by Retief as his "mooi meisie". They
hereafter moved high up in the Winterberg where Retief became involved in the
struggle of the border farmers. After the p!
ublication of his Manifesto in 1837, which broadly stated the reasons for the
Great Trek, Retief and his family departed for Natal. Retief was elected
Governor of the united trek parties and took it upon himself to negotiate with
Dingane, the Zulu king, for land in Natal on which the Trekkers could settle.
From the private letters of Piet to Lenie, it is evident that he shared his
most inner feelings and fears with her. They must have been trusted partners
and one can only speculate on the degree of influence she had on him.
One of her most trying experiences must have been when she received the news
of the death of her husband who was killed on January 6, 1838 at the hands of
the Zulu. News of the events only came two weeks later. Not only was her
husband killed but also two of her sons and a son-in-law, three days before
the laagers along the Bushmen’s River were attacked by the Zulu. Miraculously,
Lenie’s lager was not amongst them. Hereafter, the reverend Erasmus Smit and
his wife took pity on the widow Retief. Smit "spoke and comforted her in her
misfortune according to the word of God." The previous year, Lenie showed
empathy with the Smits following the death of their son Salomon by making a
burial shroud, a pleated collar, a cap and a covering for the face and head.
Lenie was amongst the first mourners to comfort the family.
The widow Retief was not immune to the daily trials of the trek and at one
point Erasmus Smit recorded in his dairy that "we received the news that the
wagon of Mrs Retief, while travelling through the river to the other side,
capsized, but God be thanked, she has not been hurt." After the Battle of
Blood River in December 1838, the Voortrekkers were, in early 1839, free to
settle in their new capital of Pietermaritzburg, partly named after her
husband. Her son from her first marriage, Pieter Greijling, laid out the town,
and one of the streets is still named after him. The widow Retief was granted
Erf 22 Church Street. She must have immediately erected a substantial dwelling
for, before the building of the first reed church or the completion of the
Church of the Vow by 15 March 1840, the first church services, baptisms and
even weddings took place in her house.
Because the Reverend Smit was already old and weakened, the widow Retief,
her three daughters and other persons decided to make contributions towards
the building of a pulpit. The core of this pulpit is still to be seen in the
Church of the Vow. The widow Retief was an ardent supporter of Smit and with
the virtual excommunication of him by the official church authorities and
replacement by the American missionary Daniel Lindley, the fortunes of the
widow Retief also changed. When in 1840 the widow Retief requested a pension,
it was decided to grant her the erf in Church Street as a present.
To survive, she now had to earn her living with her hands by baking bread
and biscuits. She also planted mealies and pumpkins and had some head of
cattle. By now, only five of her 15 children were still alive. In 1843 she
rendered an account to the Volksraad for delivering bread and biscuit to the
burghers for consumption the previous year during the skirmish at Congella
near Port Natal. A total of 94 Riksdaalders were paid out. By the middle of
1844, she got the help of the prolific Charles ?tienne Boniface to present to
the Volksraad two petitions on her behalf, in which she requested a pension.
He pleaded her sad and sorrowful state and concluded that it would be
unforgiving of the Volksraad to deny her as the widow of the immortal Piet
Retief. Upon investigation, it was determined that the erf in Church Street
was given to her as a form of pension and that the treasury could not afford
another form of compensation.
After the British annexation of Natal, many Trekkers left their lost
Republic of Natalia to settle in the areas to the north of the Orange and Vaal
Rivers. Retief probably left Pietermaritzburg in 1848 with her daughter
Deborah and her husband to settle in the town of Potchefstroom, leaving behind
her dearest friends the Reverend Erasmus Smit and his wife Susanna. There the
Dutchman Jacobus Stuart (grandfather of James Stuart of the analogous
archives) found her in the early fifties, still living in poverty. By now, at
least, the Transvaal government had granted her a pension of 15 shillings a
month. Today, it is still not known when she died or where she is buried. She
was remembered, however, in 1938, when the well-known poet and author Uys
Krige wrote an epic drama for the centenary of the Great Trek and named it
"Magalena Retief".
a.. Louis J. Eksteen is the Chairman of the Natal Voortrekker Grave and
Monuments Committee.
Publish Date: 26 January 2004
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de WET Barend Christiaan
de WET Magdalena Johanna
