Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
History of Rural South Africa
Commandant Louw Wepener was killed during the Second Free State-Basotho War while leading his men against near-impossible odds. His name became a byword for bravery, writes
Thaba Bosiu, the mountain fortress of the Basotho, led by King Moshoeshoe I, had the reputation for being almost impregnable. During the Difaqane (the inter-tribal warfare during the first half of the 19th century), Shaka’s, Mzilikazi’s and Matiwane’s warriors all came to grief as they attempted to storm the mountain. On 15 August 1865, it was the turn of the Boers and their celebrated leader, Louw Wepener.
Wepener was born in GraaffReinet in 1812, and by his early twenties had distinguished himself in the Sixth Eastern Frontier War against the Xhosa. His impulsive bravery is said to have bordered on recklessness, yet he went on to fight in both the Seventh (1846 to 1847) and Eighth (1850 to 1853) Frontier Wars.
By the 1850s, he was farming near Jamestown in the Stormberg, not far from the Free State, and in 1858 participated in the First Free State-Basotho War. When the Second Free State-Basotho War erupted in mid-1865, he was farming near Bethulie in the Free State and led several hundred southern Free State Boers against the Basotho. After a number of victories in June and July 1865, he joined the combined Boer forces under the command of Commandant-General Jan Fick at Thaba Bosiu in early August.
Defeat in the Pass
The first Boer assault on Thaba Bosiu on 8 August was easily repelled by the Basotho. A week later, the Boers tried to summit Thaba Bosiu via the Khubelu Pass. Also called the ‘gutter’ by the Boers, the pass was intimidating, as three barricades of rock, defended by Basotho, made it nearly impossible to access a narrow gap between huge sandstone cliffs leading to the summit.
Even if they reached this point, the Basotho would then be able to fling assegais, drop boulders and fire weapons on the attackers below.
Despite the obvious danger, Wepener volunteered to lead a force of approximately 500 Boers, supported by about 200 African auxiliaries, up the gutter. The assault began at about 11am, and by late afternoon the Boer-led force had managed to reach the third barricade.
By this time, it was obvious that reinforcements were needed. But Wepener was undeterred, and he and his agterryer, Jacob Stolz, continued to advance. The Basotho were ready, however, and Wepener took a bullet in the chest and dropped down dead. Stolz, too, perished.
The situation deteriorated dramatically, and 11 Boers were killed and about 30 wounded.
Reinforcements now finally arrived, but it was too late; the Basotho charged down the pass towards the barricades, and the Boers were forced to beat an undignified retreat.
A stalemate now ensued: the Boers reorganised below Thaba
Bosiu and the Basotho regrouped on the summit. Between them in the gutter lay the Boer dead. That night, two Boers clambered up the mountain to bring down Wepener’s body, but only managed to drag it into a nearby ditch, where Wepener’s young adjutant, Adam Raubenheimer, had fallen.
mortal remains
What happened next to Wepener’s corpse is shrouded in mystery. According to some sources, Wepener and his men were buried on top of Thaba Bosiu by Dr Prosper Lautre of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society. However, when Wepener’s son, Dick, visited Thaba Bosiu with four friends (unarmed) in April 1866 to request his father’s remains from Moshoeshoe, they were guided to a grave site in the Khubelu Pass.
Most disturbing for Dick was that his guide, Moshoeshoe’s son, Tladi, apparently informed him that his father’s heart had been eaten by the Basotho commanders to ‘capture’ his bravery. This detail was corroborated by several other sources.
Dick successfully retrieved both his father’s and Raubenheimer’s remains from Thaba Bosiu and buried them on the Wepener family farm of Constantia near Bethulie. Later, their remains were again exhumed and reinterred along the road to Springfontein about 8km outside of Bethulie. It is here that a monument and bust of Wepener were erected in the early 1940s, and can still be viewed today.
• Sources: Becker, P. 1969. Hill of Destiny. Longman Group Ltd; De Kock, JW (Ed). 1968. Dictionary of South African Biography. Tafelberg Uitgewers Ltd; Scholtz, L (ed). 1984. Beroemde Suid-Afrikaanse Krygsmanne. Rubicon-Pers; artefacts.co.za; and ajol.info.