Stuart Cloete's construction of Voortrekker religion in Turning Wheels
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Date
2001
Authors
Hale, F.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State
Abstract
Stuart Cloete’s novel of 1937, Turning Wheels, was unquestionably the most controversial of
many fictional reconstructions of the Great Trek, a book which fell foul of Afrikaner nationalism
and whose further importation into the Union of South Africa was long consequently
banned. Religious motifs reflecting the popularised Calvinism of the Voortrekkers figure
prominently in the text. Cloete depicted these migrants as people of faith whose removal to
a new Canaan entailed both internal strife and repeated clashes with indigenous African
tribes. Among the thematic elements are belief in divine purpose and providence, postfigurative
uses of the Pentateuchal characters Moses and Abraham, the image of the clergy, the
failure of religious belief to maintain ethical norms among the Voortrekkers and the contribution
of an ethnocentric distortion of Christianity to disharmonious relations with black
Africans.
Description
Keywords
Turning Wheels, Cloete, Stuart, Great Trek, Voortrekkers, Religious belief, Afrikaner nationalism
Citation
Hale, F. (2001). Stuart Cloete's construction of Voortrekker religion in Turning Wheels. Acta Theologica, 21(1), 24-40.