THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERS - The Works of F. N. Lee

Christian National Calvinist Public Education. Probably there were private schools in the Transvaalat this time, especially for groups such as the Jews. But Kruger believed that what the SouthAfrican Republic needed, was a National School System that would be outspokenly Calvinist andChristian. So he launched it.Interestingly, he imported into the South African Republic from Holland many Kuyperian schoolteachers to teach in the South African Public School System -- men whom Abraham Kuyper andhis followers had been training in Holland. Consequently, very firm relations were establishedbetween Abraham Kuyper in Holland and Paul Kruger in South Africa.If you read Kuyper's two massive volumes on Anti-Revolutionary Statecraft (which he wrote afterfinally being defeated in his attempt to gain re-election as Prime Minister of Holland), you willnotice that Kuyper speaks very highly of Paul Kruger. Kuyper then regarded Kruger as perhaps theforemost Calvinist statesman in the whole world.At any rate, Kruger not only imported all of these Dutch Calvinist schoolteachers from Holland thatKuyper had trained -- and gave them schools in South Africa to take care of. But Kruger alsoappointed many South African Reformed Preachers as Regional Superintendents of the CalvinistPublic Education System.Such included men like Reverend S.J. du Toit. He started writing in Afrikaans (as opposed toDutch) in South Africa for the first time. He was also a father of the Genootskap van RegteAfrikaners, (alias the "Society of True Afrikaners"). That body gave a great push to thedevelopment of written Afrikaans as a medium of cultural expression -- from approximately 1875onward.So what we see in the Transvaal Republic, is a Christian education system. But unfortunatelyKruger lost the war against Britain. In 1902, as a broken man, he then went into exile on a ship thatQueen Wilhelmina, the Calvinist monarch of Holland, sent to fetch him at Delagoa Bay in what istoday Mozambique. She received him royally in Holland.Kruger died as a broken old man in Switzerland, the land of Calvin -- in a house at a place calledClarens. That house is now South African Property -- and something of a tourist mecca for SouthAfricans who go to Switzerland. His body was later taken to Pretoria, where it was reinterred instate in Church Square -- with a huge statue of Kruger looking out over the Capital City today.(Incidentally, Pretoria -- though not by any means a very populous city -- is the largest city in thewhole world as far as its municipal sprawl is concerned. It is spread out over a huge area.)The best book in English on the life of this great and godly man, was written by a South AfricanJew called Manfred Nathan: The Life and Times of Paul Kruger. The best book ever written on theCalvinist political views and actions of this State president, is still only available in Afrikaans. It isa doctoral dissertation by Dr. Smit, called Die Staatsopvatting van Paul Kruger (meaning "ThePolitical Viewpoint of Paul Kruger").The further development of Calvinist statecraft in South Africa was given a big push by the famousProfessor, Dr. L.J. du Plessis. He was for many years the Head of the Department of PoliticalScience at Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education -- which is today the largestconservative Calvinist University in the world.Du Plessis wrote many books. One is entitled Calvinism and Politics; another Liberal Politics andCalvinist Politics; a third, The Solution to the Poor White Problem; and a fourth, Our RepublicBetween East and West.