Stephanus Jacobus du Toit (; 9 October 1847 – 29 May 1911) was a South African

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

, theologian, journalist and translator. He promoted the

Afrikaans language Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento that speaks the Patagonian dialect. It evolved from the Dutc ...

as a symbol of

Afrikaner nationalism Afrikaner nationalism () is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnic nationalistic political ideology created by Afrikaners residing in Southern Africa during the Victorian era. The ideology was developed in response to the significant events in Afrikaner ...

, launched the first Afrikaans language newspaper '' Die Afrikaanse Patriot'', and translated the Bible into Afrikaans. He was Superintendent of Education in the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

from 1882 to 1889.

Early years

He was born in 1847 near

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

in the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

at ''Plaas Kleinbos'', a farm that had been in the family's possession since their arrival in the Cape as

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

refugees in 1688. He was educated at Paarl Gimnasium and studied theology at the Theological Seminary at

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, completing his studies in 1872 and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

as a minister in the

Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NGK) is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighbouring countries, such as Namibia, Eswatini, and parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

(Dutch Reformed Church) (NGK) the same year. Theologically his view were much influenced by Abraham Kuyper the Dutch Neo-Calvinist thinker. This made many congregations reluctant to invite him to be their minister. In 1875, he became the minister of a new congregation based close to the family farm – that of North Paarl, a post that he held until 1881.

Promoting the Afrikaans language

At the time, the better-educated Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony regarded the Afrikaans language as a

patois ''Patois'' (, same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon or sl ...

that was used by the less-educated. Du Toit however regarded the Afrikaans language as a symbol of Afrikaner Nationalism. In the early 1870s two Dutch schoolteachers, Arnoldus Pannevis and C.P. Hoogenhout made a number of pleas in '' De Zuid-Afrikaan'' newspaper that, for the benefit of the

Cape Coloured Cape Coloureds () are a South African group of Coloured people who are from the Cape region in South Africa which consists of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Their ancestry comes from the interracial mixing between th ...

community and also for the lesser-educated Afrikaner community, the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

should be translated into Afrikaans. In 1874, Pannevis addressed his concerns to the

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

while Du Toit's articles in ''De Zuid-Afrikaan'' added support to Pannevis and Hoogenhout. On 14 August 1875, Hoogenhout, Du Toit and others established the '' Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners'' (Society of True Afrikaners) which has as its objectives the promotion of the Afrikaans language, nation and country. Initially this was to be achieved by the publication of a monthly journal and as soon as was possible, a dictionary and grammatical rules (''spraakkuns''). Du Toit was elected president of the association and within a year had compiled a set of grammatical rules. In 1876, he launched the first Afrikaans language newspaper '' Die Afrikaanse Patriot''. Initially the paper, a monthly publication, had 50 subscribers, in its second year of publication 400 and by 1881 3000 subscribers, having in 1877 become a weekly publication. Although Du Toit could not openly control ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' without the consent of his church council, he was the driving force behind the paper, while his brother D.F. du Toit (known as ''Oom Lokomotief'') was officially the paper's editor. The British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 caused considerable anger among the Dutch community in all of Southern Africa. ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' published a scathing attack and Du Toit proposed a boycott of British goods and services, and in October 1880 ''Die Patriot'' argued that the time had come for decisive action-—many Transvaal leaders state that this was the trigger for the start of the

First Boer War The First Boer War (, ), was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British ad ...

which led, in 1881, to the Transvaal regaining its independence. In 1879, Du Toit proposed the formation of the Afrikaner Bond, an anti-British organisation in which all Afrikaners could feel at home. ''Die Patriot'' urged a boycott of British products. Jan Hofmeyr, who had founded the ''Zuidafrikaansche Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging'' (South African Farmers' Protection Association) as a vehicle of protest against a proposed excise duty on wine agreed to merge the two organisations and by skilful manoeuvring gained control of the merged organization.

Later years

In 1882, after the Transvaal (now the

) regained its independence, its president

Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904), better known as Paul Kruger, was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State Preside ...

invited Du Toit to become Superintendent of Education, a post that he held until 1889. He assisted in drawing up the Republic's education law of 1882 which embodied Christian national principles. While he was secretary of state both the number of schools and the number of children attending school increased substantially. In 1883–4, he was part of Kruger's delegation to Europe and helped negotiate the London Convention. In 1875, while in the Transvaal, he was appointed official translator of the Bible by the GRA, a task for which he received official encouragement from the government of the South African Republic. He resigned in 1888 due to a personality clash with

Willem Johannes Leyds Willem Johannes Leyds (1 May 1859 – 14 May 1940) was a Dutch lawyer and statesman who served as state attorney and state secretary of the South African Republic. From 1898 to 1902, during the crucial period of the Second Boer War, he was ...

, a newly appointed advisor to Kruger. After his resignation, he returned to the Cape Colony and publicly took over the post of editor of ''Die Patriot'', breaking with his brother and other members of the Afrikaner Bond. He was personally

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

, having lost money in speculation while in the Transvaal. Under his editorship ''Die Patriot'' adopted a much more conciliatory stance towards the British Government, possibly as a result of financial backing he received from

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded th ...

, though this is disputed. He continued his translation of the Bible into Afrikaans, following the principals of translation laid down by the Synod of Dordrecht requiring the use of the original

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

where appropriate. He succeeded in translating the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

, the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

, the Songs of Solomon,

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

, the Gospel according to Matthew, the Gospel according to Mark, the

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

and the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

. Du Toit's translation program was not well received—neither the

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...

of the NGK in Orange Free State in 1885 nor the synod of the NGK in the South African Republic in 1886 supported Du Toit's efforts. By 1890 the ''Eerste Taalbeweging'' (first language movement) was all but dead. His son Jakob Daniël du Toit, known by the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

''Totius'', a member of the ''Tweede Taalbeweging'' (second language movement), completed the translation in 1933 with assistance from his own son Stephanus du Toit (1905–1982). The Jameson Raid of 1896 caused the ''Afrikaner Bond'' to break with Rhodes. Du Toit broke with the ''Afrikaner Bond'' and through ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' backed Rhodes both in the Jameson Raid and in the Second Anglo-Boer War. He stood for the

Cape Parliament The Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope functioned as the legislature of the Cape Colony, from its founding in 1853, until the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when it was dissolved and the Parliament of South Africa was establish ...

in 1898 but failed to get elected. In 1904, following financial problems ''DF du Toit & Co'', the company that owned ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' was sold and the paper was succeeded by the ''Paarl Post''. Du Toit died on 25 May 1911 as a result of injuries sustained in August the previous year when the cart in which he was travelling overturned while he was journeying to

Calvinia Calvinia is a regional town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa named after the French people, French religious reformer Jean Calvin. The town falls under the Hantam Local Municipality which forms part of the Namakwa District Municipalit ...

to visit one of his congregations.

Legacy

Du Toit was a prolific writer – the anonymous author of the epitaph on his tombstone described him as "The father of the Afrikaans language", though this honour has also be given to Pannevis, to Hoogenhout or to all three. His contributions to Afrikaans literature included: * 1876 – ''Erste Beginsels van die Afrikaanse Taal'' undamentals of the Afrikaans language(A joint work of which Du Toit was the main contributor). *1877 – (With Hoogenhout and Malherbe) ''Die Geskiedenis van ons Land in die Taal van ons Volk'' he history of our country and the language of our people * 1889 – ''Die Bybel in Afrikaans'' he Bible in Afrikaans(A brochure with a translation of the first three chapters of the

). * 1893 – ''Genesis'' (translation of the Book of Genesis) * 1895 – ''Mattheus'' (translation of the Gospel according to St Mathew) * 1898 – ''Openbaring'' (translation of the

) * 1902 – ''Patriot woordeboek: Afrikaans-Engels'' atriot dictionary: Afrikaans-Englishref> * 1907 – ''Die Psalms'' (translation of the

)

Sources

This Day in South African History''Encyclopædia Britannica''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Toit, Stephanus Jacobus Afrikaner people South African politicians Translators of the Bible into Afrikaans Afrikaner nationalists 1847 births 1911 deaths South African male journalists Cape Colony politicians 19th-century translators