(Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Wessels, Andre
The decision taken by the government of General Louis Botha to actively deploy the Union (of South
Africa’s) Defence Forces in support of the Allied cause during the Great (later known as the First
World) War of 1914-1918, elicited strong negative reactions from a portion of South Africa’s white
Afrikaans-speaking community. In due course, nearly 12 000 Afrikaners took up arms against their
lawful government. One hundred years later, the Afrikaner rebellion of 1914-1915 is still a controversial
episode in South Africa’s history. In this article the events of 1914 (and their aftermath) are revisited by
analysing the reminiscences of two-time rebel, Commandant Jacob Petrus (Japie) Neser. (During the
Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 he was a Cape rebel in Boer ranks.) His reminiscences shed light on the
rebel activities in the Orange Free State, with special reference to the role played by General Christiaan
de Wet. To what extent was Neser a rebel without (or with) a cause? How should the rebellion be
evaluated from a military point of view? Is it unfair to label the 1914-1915 rebellion as a farce in the
veld? These are some of the issues that are addressed in this study.