1 Vow strong

1 Vow strong

A Boerevolk understanding, remembering and live fully with the meaning of the Vow and what happened along with it, will not have to surrender to any power on earth.

We are the only people on earth whose being a People was unmistakably given yes from Heaven, who received a pellucidly clear direction on our winding path through the ages of that kind of People for whom were then given yes and who have an additional Sabbath, to be reminded of it in the presence of the Lord.

The great victory by the Voortrekkers’ Punish Commando is put vividly in this chapter, setting straight some misconceptions. The greatness lies in the answer of God on the prayers of those 470 men who stood against an overwhelming fifteen to twenty thousand brave Zulu warriors whom they would have stood no chance of conquering without God’s help. In military terms it would inevitably be a triumph for the Zulus.
He who has the minimum knowledge to imagine something of the practical situation which may have been prevalent in the laager (battlefield) at Blood River, will have no doubts as to the almighty yes with which God himself answered there on the Vow. Do you know how fragile and timid a “kakebeenwa” ( ox wagon) was, how slender and rare a single row of them between 470 enclosed people on the inside and 15 000 to 20 000 brave Zulu soldiers around it must have been?

· That the finest marksman could impossibly in less than five or six seconds load the correct quantity of gunpowder by hand, followed by the correct amount of lead shot into the front end of the “voorlaaier” (muzzle loader), compressing these lightly in position by a piece of cotton and loading stick, pick up the gun standing on its butt in the upright position, cock it, put it to the shoulder, aim and fire? The late Prof. Felix Lategan, authority in this regard, estimated that a marksman who was able to fire one shot a minute would be exceptionally fast.

· That any marksman would be inexcusably irresponsible to waste irreplaceable ammunition on a target farther than one hundred yards, and that a fit charging Zulu fighter undoubtedly would cover a hundred yards within twelve to thirteen seconds?

· That at the very first charge of 20 000 Zulus at most two times 470, that is 940 shots could be fired, shooting, to the most, 5 000 Zulus before the other 15 000 would have swept like an enormous wave over the wagon tents to get involved in close combat by razor like sharp “assegais”(spears) making short meat of the defenders?

But no, onslaught after onslaught were repulsed, relentless, merciless, again and again . . . There is no explanation for this - except that of the Zulus, namely “uNkulunkulu . . . ,” that means “the Great Great One.”