Voortrekkers
The Voortrekker Monument built in 1949.
The Voortrekkers (Afrikaans for pioneers, literally "those who move ahead") were white Afrikaner farmers -then known as Boers- who in the 1830s and 1840s emigrated from the British-controlled Cape Colony into the erstwhile black-populated (depopulated from the Difaqane said to have originated from Shaka the Zulu King) areas north of the Orange River in what is now South Africa.
The Voortrekkers were mainly of Trek-Boer (migrating farmer) descent living in the eastern frontiers of the Cape. A contingent of Voortrekkers migrated into Natal & negotiate a land treaty with Dingaan: the Zulu King. Upon reconsideration Dingaan doublecrosses the Voortrekkers killing their leaders Piet Retief & Gerhard Maritz along with half of the Voortrekker settlers who followed Retief into Natal.
Andries Pretorius fills the leadership vacuum & retaliates for the killings at a since famous battle at Nacome River on December 16 1838 where the local Voortrekker contingent defeat Zulu impis (warriors) who vastly outnumbered the Voortrekkers. This date was hence known as the Day of the Vow as the Voortrekkers made a vow to God that they would honour the date if He were to deliver them from what they viewed as alomost insurmountable odds. The Natalia Republic is set up in 1839 but later annexed by Britain in 1843.
Armed conflict, first with the Ndebele under Mzilikazi, then against the Zulus under Dingane, went the Voortrekkers' way, mostly because of the technological superiority of their muzzle-loading rifles. This success led to the establishment of a number of small Boer republics, which slowly coalesced into the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. These two states would survive until their annexation (1900) by Britain during the Boer War.
The Voortrekkers are commemorated with the Voortrekker Monument located on Monument Hill overlooking Pretoria: the erstwile capital of the Transvaal Republic / South African Republic & the current & historic administrative capital of the Republic of South Africa. Pretoria was named after the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius.
The Voortrekkers is also an Afrikaner youth movement founded in South Africa in 1931 as an Afrikaans-language alternative to the English-speaking Boy Scout movement. The Voortrekkers developed their own identity, represented in what they called their ABC: Afrikanerskap; Burgerskap; Christenskap (Afrikanership; citizenship; Christianity).