history, Kruger National Park

Favorite thing: THE FATHER OF THE KRUGER PARK.

The Kruger National Game Park is named after this man,Paul Kruger 1825 - 1904.
He has a significent place in South African history as well, thus the Kruger Park was named after him.

At one entrance at the Kruger gate there is a monument erected in this man's name.

Fondest memory: Paul Kruger was born in 1825 in Cradock in the Colesberg district. At the age of ten his family set out as part of the Great Trek and he was brought up within the strict tenets of Dutch Calvinism.

Kruger fought his first battle at Vegkop in 1836, where Mzilikazi’s impis suffered the first of their defeats. Shortly after this he and his family accompanied Piet Retief on his trek to Natal. Here Paul was exposed to the slaughter among the Boer encampments along the Bloukrans and Bushmans rivers. Next the family moved north with Hendrik Potgieter. Paul’s father and uncle were two of the founders of the town Potchefstroom, the first capital of what would later become the South African Republic.

Kruger served as a veldkornet during his teens and was present at the Sand River Convention in 1852. Here the Transvaal was granted its independence. Three years later he helped draw up the constitution of this new republic. He also served as commandant-general and played a prominent role in the pacifying and uniting of the Boer communities in the early 1860’s.

In 1877, when the British annexed the Transvaal, Kruger became the champion of the Boer nation in their struggle to regain and keep their independence. His first two visits to England, and his negotiations with the government of Benjamin Disraeli were fruitless, as with his campaign of passive resistance back home. These attempts established him as a patriotic leader and a skilled politician.

In 1880 the Transvalers, under the leadership of Kruger, M.W. Pretorius and Piet Joubert, rebelled against the British authorities. The invading forces were defeated by Joubert’s burghers at Laing’s Nek, Ingogo, and Majuba Hill in 1881.

Paul Kruger was known as the ‘father of the Afrikaner nation’ and his firm belief in the destiny of the Afrikaner, his strong faith and his obedience to his God characterized his life. In 1883 he was elected president of the South African Republic.