Boers beyond South Africa: Transnational Trekking into Angola, Zambia, and East Africa

 Boer history is conventionally framed within the territorial confines of South Africa, particularly through the narratives of the Great Trek, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and the Anglo-Boer Wars. This territorial fixation obscures a broader and less examined reality: Boer migration was not merely a South African phenomenon but part of a wider transnational settler movement across southern and eastern Africa. From the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth century, Boer communities trekked into present-day Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanganyika, seeking autonomy, land, and political independence beyond British imperial reach.

As historian Norman Etherington observes, “The Great Trek was not a single movement with a fixed destination, but an open-ended process of dispersal that extended far beyond the borders of what later became South Africa” (Etherington, The Great Treks, 2001).

 

Motivations for Transnational Trekking

Boer migrations beyond South Africa were driven by a combination of political, economic, religious, and cultural factors. Central among these was resistance to British imperial authority, particularly the abolition of slavery (1834), land regulation, taxation, and judicial reforms. For many Boers, mobility itself became a political strategy.

Leonard Thompson notes that “trekking was both an act of protest and a method of survival, allowing Boer communities to evade state authority while reproducing their social order elsewhere” (Thompson, A History of South Africa, 2001).

Equally significant was the search for African labor and grazing land, which required engagement—often coercive—with African polities. These migrations were not movements into empty spaces but into regions with established African states, trade networks, and systems of land use.

 

Boer Settlements in Angola: The Dorsland Trekkers

Perhaps the most dramatic example of transnational Boer migration was the movement of the Dorsland Trekkers (“Thirstland Trekkers”) into Portuguese Angola between the 1870s and 1920s. Traversing the Kalahari Desert under extreme conditions, these Boers sought refuge from British rule and imagined Portuguese colonial authority as weak and negotiable.

Historian John S. Galbraith describes the trek as “a grim illustration of settler determination, marked by high mortality, environmental ignorance, and an unwavering belief in divine providence” (Galbraith, Reluctant Empire, 1963).

In Angola, Boer settlers established agricultural communities such as Humpata, maintaining Afrikaans language, Calvinist religious practices, and racial hierarchies. However, their autonomy proved limited. Portuguese colonial authorities imposed taxes, military conscription, and administrative oversight, undermining Boer expectations of independence.

Nancy Clark and William Worger note that “the Angolan Boers discovered, too late, that imperial weakness was not the same as imperial absence” (Clark & Worger, South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, 2011).

 

Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and the Central African Interior.

Boer migration into what is now Zambia occurred largely through gradual settlement rather than mass trekking. Some Boers moved north from the Transvaal into Northern Rhodesia, often as farmers, transport riders, or auxiliary settlers within British colonial systems.

Unlike Angola, these Boers were more readily absorbed into imperial economies dominated by the British South Africa Company (BSAC). Yet they retained distinct cultural identities and often functioned as intermediaries between African labor and colonial authorities.

Terence Ranger emphasizes that “white settler society in Central Africa was far from homogenous; Afrikaners occupied a marginal yet strategically useful position within British colonial hierarchies” (Ranger, Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe, 1985).

Their presence complicates the assumption that Boer identity was inseparable from anti-British resistance; in some contexts, survival required pragmatic accommodation.

 

East Africa: Boer Experiments in Kenya and Tanganyika.

After the South African War (1899–1902), defeated Boers sought new frontiers. British authorities, paradoxically, facilitated Afrikaner settlement in East Africa as a means of stabilizing white populations and diffusing Afrikaner resistance.

Small Boer communities settled in Kenya and German East Africa (Tanganyika), engaging in farming and ranching. However, environmental challenges, disease, and political marginalization limited their success.

Dane Kennedy observes that “the East African environment resisted Boer pastoral traditions as much as it resisted European imperial fantasies of easy settlement” (Kennedy, The Magic Mountains, 1990).

These failed experiments reveal the ecological limits of settler colonial expansion and undermine myths of Boer adaptability.

 

African Encounters: Conflict, Alliance, and Dependency.

Across Angola, Zambia, and East Africa, Boer settlers relied heavily on African labor, military alliances, and local knowledge. Their survival often depended on negotiating with African chiefs, engaging in warfare, or participating in regional trade networks.

Historians increasingly emphasize that Boer mobility was enabled—not despite—African societies. As historian Clifton Crais argues, “settler power was never absolute; it was relational, contingent, and constantly renegotiated on African ground” (Crais, The Politics of Evil, 2002).

These interactions ranged from coercive labor systems and land dispossession to strategic alliances against rival African or European forces.

 

Identity, Faith, and the Limits of Mobility.

Despite their geographic dispersal, transnational Boer communities maintained strong ideological cohesion. Calvinist theology reinforced notions of chosenness, suffering, and divine destiny, particularly when migrations failed or settlements collapsed.

Saul Dubow notes that “Afrikaner nationalism was shaped as much by defeat and exile as by triumph” (Dubow, Afrikaner Nationalism, 1992).

Yet repeated failures beyond South Africa ultimately reinforced the idea that political survival required territorial consolidation rather than perpetual flight.

 

Why Transnational Boer History Matters.

The history of Boers beyond South Africa challenges nationalist, territorial, and teleological interpretations of settler colonialism. These migrations demonstrate that Boer identity was mobile, adaptive, and contingent, shaped by imperial competition, African resistance, and environmental realities.

More importantly, this transnational perspective reveals that settler colonialism was not a monolithic or inevitable process. As Etherington succinctly concludes, “mobility did not guarantee mastery; in many cases, it exposed the fragility of settler power” (Etherington, 2001).

Reintegrating Angola, Zambia, and East Africa into Boer history not only broadens the geographical scope of southern African studies but also destabilizes myths of permanence, inevitability, and exceptionalism that continue to shape popular and political memory.

Clark, Nancy L., and William H. Worger. South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2011.

Crais, Clifton. The Politics of Evil: Magic, State Power, and the Political Imagination in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Dubow, Saul. Afrikaner Nationalism, 1875–1933. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Etherington, Norman. The Great Treks: The Transformation of Southern Africa, 1815–1854. London: Longman, 2001.

Galbraith, John S. Reluctant Empire: British Policy on the South African Frontier, 1834–1854. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.

Kennedy, Dane. The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Ranger, Terence. Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe: A Comparative Study. London: James Currey, 1985.

Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.