The Rapportryers of Grahamstown are doing a special project as part of the celebrations to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Great Trek.
The Rapportryers of Grahamstown are doing a special project as part of the celebrations to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Great Trek.
The Bible Monument outside town, in Strowan Road, was erected in 1962 to remember the special bonds of friendship between two cultural groups who shared wheels and woes in the Frontier Country of the early 1800s.
Under the leadership of William Rowland Thompson, a Bible was presented by some 100 citizens of “Graham’s Stad” to Jacobus Uys in April 1837. Uys had trekked from Uitenhage with roughly 100 family members to the north.
Uys’s son, Piet, and grandson, Dirkie, later died in battle at Etaleni.
It was during this battle that Dirkie became famous for rallying to his father’s help when he was already safe, but his father was overpowered by a Zulu impi.
The Rapportryers want to remember with gratitude this gesture of friendship on the basis of their common faith in God.
They would also like to declare their commitment to friendship with all other language and cultural groups in South Africa with whom we trek on into the future.
We believe that God placed us here, spread us out, used and blessed us – and wants to do so still in his service – as we proclaim and live the good news of Jesus Christ.
A special Bible has been produced by the Bible Society in Cape Town to commemorate this very special part of our history.
It will be passed on by different groups of Rapportryers, travelling from Grahamstown to King William’s Town, Ugie/Maclear and Bloemfontein, all the way to Pretoria.
We request that this Bible be placed at the Voortrekker Museum with the historic Uys Bible, which is kept there.
