Elizabeth de Beer at the Bloukrantz massacre (16-17 February 1838).
Bertha's story.
“The next morning the blood was still dripping off the wagons” Visagie (2000:pg3).In a nearby tree a young woman was found, her lower body literally pierced through with spear wounds, but still alive. They counted over 30 wounds on her body. The woman was Bertha (Elizabeth) de Beer, maiden name Lochenberg. At the onset of the attack she grabbed her baby and sought shelter under the axle of the nearest wagon from the plundering Zulu. She was spotted almost immediately, and the warriors stabbed at her through the spokes of the wagon. She fled into the Bloukrantz riverbed and the darkness of the night mercifully closed around her. It was there that she noticed that the tiny body she carried was dead, so she left him and continued her flight.At dawn, exhausted from blood loss and anxious to death she climbed a tree and prayed that she would not be noticed by the marauding Zulu. This was no to be, two warriors saw her and tried to stab her to death from below. One caught her by her long hair and tried to pull her out of the tree. She fell into the fork and became entangled in the branches. The Zulu, who were evidently in hurry, left her for dead. After hours of suffering she managed to get down from the tree.
Her full names were Elizabeth Wilhelmina Gertruida Johanna Lochenberg. She married Johan Adam de Beer on the 7th of November 1836. That night 28 members of the de Beer clan died at Bloukrantz. Amazingly Bertha recovered fully and went on to become a founding mother of another Boer family.I have tried to depict this little known account of events at Bloukrantz from the viewpoint of Bertha’s reunion with her child at the resurrection. As a descendant of those first de Beers in Africa I feel that her story needs to be told.
Her full names were Elizabeth Wilhelmina Gertruida Johanna Lochenberg. She married Johan Adam de Beer on the 7th of November 1836. That night 28 members of the de Beer clan died at Bloukrantz. Amazingly Bertha recovered fully and went on to become a founding mother of another Boer family.I have tried to depict this little known account of events at Bloukrantz from the viewpoint of Bertha’s reunion with her child at the resurrection. As a descendant of those first de Beers in Africa I feel that her story needs to be told.