Racheltjie de Beer

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Rachel de Beer (1831 - 1843) (sometimes known by the diminutive form, Racheltjie) is an Afrikaner heroine, who gave her life in order to save that of her brother. She was the daughter of George Stephanus de Beer (b. 1794).

[edit] Incident

The legend goes that in the winter months of 1843 Rachel was part of a trek from the Orange Free State to the south-eastern Transvaal. During one of their nightly stopovers, the members of the trek realised that a calf, much-beloved by their children, was missing.

A search party was formed, in which Rachel and her six-year old brother also took part. However, during the gathering dusk Rachel and her brother got separated from the search party and became lost. As the night progressed it got very cold and started snowing.

Realizing that their chances of survival were slim, Rachel found an anthill hollowed out by an aardvark, took off her clothes, put them on her brother and commanded him to get into the hollowed-out anthill. She then laid in front of the opening of the anthill in order to keep out the cold.

The children were found the next morning by the trekking party. Rachel was dead, but her brother had survived.

[edit] Controversy

The story here is known and has been part of oral history and culture all round South Africa in Afrikaner households. However, like other legends, the facts are very hard to verify. Many now believe that this legend is purely fictitious, especially because it was one of the tools used by politicians to incite Afrikaner nationalism during the first half of the 20th century. (This culminated in the symbolic Ossewa Trek of 1938.)

The doubts are supported by the absence of a grave site or records of her life and death. This is to be expected though, because of the generally bad record keeping of the people in an uncivilised frontier region. Many other people who must have lived during this time were not recorded in any way either. The story might have been conveyed by word of mouth for a long time before being written down for the first time.

[edit] Bravery

She touched the hearts of many nations, and the memory of her bravery lives on even today. When she gave her life, to save her brother, she was only 12 years old.