The Real Reitz

What name would appear were the sticker to be removed? In other words: who was the ‘real’ Reitz?

His name is Francis William Reitz Jr. (Fig. 1), born in 1844 in Swellendam, South-Africa, and passed away in 1934 in Cape Town. The original subscript further informs the passerby that Reitz was a leader of the Boers and president of the Orange Free State.

Orange Free State, just like Transvaal, was an independent state in South Africa. Here, the Boers were in charge. They were descendants of the (predominantly) Dutch and German colonists. Besides European roots and a white skin color, this group also brought a strict orthodox form of Protestantism to South Africa. Although there were also black workers and other Europeans, such as English people, in these states, the Boers held the power.

Francis Reitz played an important role in both states. From 1889 to 1895, he was the president of Orange Free State and was often present in its capital, Bloemfontein. Prior to that, he had already vastly improved the legal system as the president of the Supreme Court. He was also keen on opposing the Volksraad (the parliament). Furthermore, he traveled a lot throughout his country to meet the local residents. In that manner, he was able to strengthen the nationalism of the Boers (Afrikanerdom). As one of the rulers of Orange Free State and later of Transvaal, he solved many political problems. You can read more about this in the longread below.

Reitz was an important cultural figure. As one of the forerunners for Afrikaans nationalism, he was loved greatly by the descendants of the Boers. He was also considered an important hero of war, for which statues of him were erected and streets in the Netherlands were named after him. But there is also a dark side to Reitz. His policy against Bantu people was racist and thus had many consequences. The Boers were seen as the most important people, while people with other skin colors were openly discriminated. Black people carried out harder work for less pay, and Indian people were not even allowed into the country anymore. Although Reitz was not the prime instigator of the Apartheid movement, his ideas and plans did lay the foundation for it.

Both the lives and times of Rosetta Reitz and Francis Reitz are very different. Whereas one of the two fought for the emancipation of (black) women, the other strove to strengthen his own people. Francis lived in a completely different time and world than Rosetta, which makes it difficult to judge him by contemporary standards. Although he accomplished many good things, it is undeniable that his policy has had bad consequences. In fact, there is one thing that both Reitzes had in common: they both loved books and poetry, and they both published books themselves, albeit on very different subjects.

Want to know even more about the 'old' Reitz? Click below! Otherwise, continue to the next step: you might have come across other streets called Reitzstraat in the Netherlands. Why is that?