"Mariusz Kowalski
Slavic ancestors of Afrikaners
Afrikaners, also called Boers, are the only African nation of European descent. Among its founders from the 17th and 18th centuries, mainly immigrants from the Netherlands, Germany and France are mentioned. Nevertheless, among the settlers arriving at that time to the south of Africa there had to be a large group of people of Slavic origin. This is at least suggested by the results of genetic tests. Representatives of the genetic-genealogica l line of men appearing in Europe mainly in the Slavic peoples (haplogroup Y-DNA R1a and I2a) are among Afrikaners about 10% (mainly R1a). This would mean that they would be the most "Slavic" , due to the ancestral origin, among the all New World communities.
The Afrikaner community began to develop in the mid-17th century. During the first 50 years of European colonization, a major group of their ancestors arrived there. Among them were primarily the Dutch, Germans and French. Later, the influx of emigrants from Europe was decidedly limited by the colonial authorities. Among these first several hundred settlers (including about 500 men) found, according to archival sources, 20-30 men from the then Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, primarily refugees from Royal and Ducal Prussia. It was the result of relationships that connected Poland with the Netherlands at that time. Inhabitants of Rzeczpospolita often enlisted to serve in the Asian, South African or American colonies of the Netherlands. The well-known military Krzysztof Arciszewski was the commander of the Dutch forces in Brazil, and Albrecht Zaborowski came to New Amsterdam (today New York) at the time when he was still a Dutch property (1662), he gave birth to one of the oldest American families - Zabriskie.
Poles among the first emigrants
"Pieter Groenewald" (born in 1955), leader of the right-wing party Freedom Front Plus, a descendant of "Christoph Grunwald", an emigrant from Ducal Prussia.
One of the first Polish settlers in the South African Cape Colony (founded in 1652) was Jan Liske from Gdańsk. He arrived in 1656, and in 1659 took part in an expedition deep into the African interior. After four years of residence, however, he left the colony and returned to the country. Another well-known Pole was Jurgen Botkiewicz (Botkewitz) from Warsaw. He arrived in Cape Town in 1676 as a soldier, and settled permanently in Colony after completing his service. Shortly after, other Gdańskers appeared (by 1706, a total of 12): Jan Knuppel, Peter Malmer, Martin Mecklemburg, Bartolomeus Nachtigal, who also permanently tied their fate with South Africa. None of them, however, had a male grandson (or at least we do not know anything about them), so he could not initiate the genetic-genealogica l lines existing to this day. Apart from them, however, there appeared further settlers from lands connected with Poland, mostly from Prussia (up to 1706, in total 14): Michel Kowalski, Ludwik Romejk, Peter Becker, Christoph Grunwald and Thomas Eysman. The last three waited for male offspring, initiating the South African families still existing today. The descendants of Krzysztof Grunwald are particularly numerous. Today their name is Groenewald, and they carry about 40,000. people. These include Pieter Groenewald leader of the right-wing party Freedom Front Plus. One of the family members examined his DNA and it turned out that despite the German-sounding name he was the carrier of the haplogroup R1a, in the variation characteristic of the Western Slavs (R1a-M458).
Steven Kitshoff (born 1992), a leading South African rugby player, descendant of a Polish emigrant Jan Kiczuk (Kitschuck).
During the 18th century, newcomers from Poland appeared, just as before mainly from Gdańsk and from both parts of Prussia (Royal and Princesses): Godfried Droske (Drotskie), Henrik Jankowitz, Christian Truszke (Troskie), Jan Knoop, Jan Jakob Kube, Michel Zowietsky, Karl Freislich, Andreas Dirksz, Jan Krumholc, Christian Schonrat, Henrik Tesner, Jakob Renin (van Renen).. All those who were mentioned founded families and became the ancestors of Afrikaans. The stormy events of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries were brought by newcomers from Poland, most often former Napoleonic soldiers. The most numerous families were initiated by: Jan Kiczuk (Kitshoff), Jan Lacki (Latsky), Jan Koleski (Colesky), Stanislaus Iwaszkiewicz (Jewskiewitz) , Jan Mazurek (Masurik), Jan Beirowski. In the second half of the nineteenth century, there was another wave of emigration, originating in South Africa such families as: Ankiewicz, Lis, Waberski, Prozesky, Skorbinski, Aproskie, Dobrowski, Mendelski, Woicichowski, Schukala, Hohowsky, Dubiel, etc.. Late arrival to South Africa caused, that the descendants of emigrants from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are no longer so numerous (eg. Troskie about 2.5 thousand, Kitshoff 2 thousand, Ankiewicz 0.3 thousand people), so they could not have a significant impact on the genetic-genealogica l structure of Afrikaners.
Descendants of the Polabian Slavs
This relatively limited influx of emigrants from Poland (about 50-60 people till 1815), and even smaller from other Slavic countries (maybe a few) could not result in the presence of 10% of R1a haplogroup carriers among Afrikaners. In South Africa, till the end of the 18th century, a total of about 2,000 men settled, most of whom initiated male genetic and genealogical lines. It means that there must have been around 200 carriers of haplogroup R1a (ie 10% mentioned at the beginning).
Pieter Grobbelaar (1908-1988), South African general, descendant of the Polabian Slavs.
It turns out, however, that carriers of the haplogroup R1a with subclads characteristic of the Slavic peoples are also examined representatives of German descent: Davel, Els, Grobbelaar, Metzner, Hammann, Calitz whom we would not suspect of Slavic origin. Haplogroup I2a-P37, also characteristic of Slavic peoples, has representatives of the Wrensch family. Among these families, the most numerous are Grobbelaars, whose number should be estimated at approx. 70 thousand. Genealogical research shows that the founders of these Afrikaner families came from the areas of contemporary eastern Germany, such as Brandenburg (Els, Grobbelaar, Calitz), Lusatia (Davel) and Western Pomerania (Wrensch), and thus from the lands originally inhabited by Slavic people (in Lusatia its remnants have managed to survive to this day). In these areas, R1a haplogroup carriers are still prevalent today, and currently make up 16% of all men in Germany. The name Grobbelarów (in the original version of Grobler) refers explicitly to the Polish word "grobla" (“dike”), and such Polish names as Grobelny, Grobelak or Groblica. In the names Calitz, Wrensch, or Els (originally Eltz), you can also see the Slav core.
Paulus Kruger (1825-1904), president of the South African Republic, probably a descendant of the Polabian Slavs.
Afrikaners derived from former East Germany are, however, much more. One of them are Krugers, whose number in South Africa exceeds 100,000. The founder of the family was Jakob Kruger, from the Prignitz region in Brandenburg, where till the 16th century, the descendants of the Linian tribe of Obotrites used Slavonic (Polabian) language. The most famous representative of this family was Paul Kruger, the heroic president of the Transvaal of the late nineteenth century. His name is called the largest national park in South Africa, as well as the famous Krugerrands, the South African gold coins. We do not know the haplogroup of Y-DNA descendants of Jacob Kruger, but among the present-day population of Prignitz, which has mostly Slavic ancestors, the haplogroup R1a prevails. There is a high probability that the Krugers also have it, as well as a large part of other Afrikaans whose ancestors came from the originally Slavic provinces of former Germany (Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, Western Pomerania, Lower Silesia, East Prussia), bearing names such as: Campher, Delitzsch, Emsighoff, Geneke, Hertzog, Horak, Karnspeck, Kolbe, Kotze, Krynauw, Kutzer, Ludeke, Marnitz, Neethling, Odendal, Olweg, Pentz, Reyneke, Wentzel, Wilken, Woeke, etc. The names of some of the settlers (e.g. Geneke, Horak, Krynauw, Ludeke) clearly point to Slavic pedigree.
Not all carriers of haplogroup R1a from Germany (or other countries) had to have Slavic ancestors. The subclasses characteristic of the Slavic peoples dominate in the whole pool of haplogroup R1a Afrikaners, but they are not the only ones. Surveyed representatives of a large line of Potgieter (about 70 thousand representatives) are carriers of the R1a-Z284 subclass, characteristic primarily for Scandinavia (eg, the carriers of the haplogroup R1a is approx. 25% of Norwegians). Their European family nest was on the border between Germany and the Netherlands (Bentheim County). The most famous representative of this family was Hendrik Potgieter, the leader of the Boer settlers settling Transvaal in the first half of the nineteenth century. In his honor were named, among others, Potchefstroom and Potgietersrus, located in this former province of South Africa.
Religious refugees from Poland
Genetic tests, however, bring further surprises. It turns out that among the descendants of the first emigrants from the Netherlands, often very numerous families, there are also carriers of haplogroup R1a in the variation characteristic of the Slavs. These carriers include: Venter (about 110,000 name carriers today), de Jager (about 35,000), van Schalkwyk (about 30,000). The second characteristic mainly for the Slavs haplogroup I2a-P37 was another emigrant from the Netherlands, the founder of the Afrikaner family De Bruin (about 35,000). It is possible that there were more such cases, as so far only a small number of Afrikaner families have been genetically examined..
Jacobus Venter (1814-1889), the president of the Free State of Oranje, the carrier of the "Slavic" haplogroup sub-group R1a.
Perhaps in the case of the aforementioned families concerns expatriates from Poland or the Czech Lands, who after leaving the country began to use new names. This explanation is very likely for a number of reasons. In those days (second half of the seventeenth century) in the Netherlands appeared a large group of Protestants from Poland and the Czech exiled from their homeland for political reasons. In the case of Poland, it primarily concerns the Polish Brothers (Arians), but also other Protestants accused of favoring invaders during the Swedish invasion. One of them was Jan Amos Comenius (Comenius), leader of the Czech Brethren in Poland, in the years 1628-1656, living and working in Leszno in Greater Poland. Another, Andrzej Wiszowaty (Wissowatius) , one of the leaders of the Polish Brethren. Both of them actively supported the Swedes during the invasion and later found shelter in Amsterdam. Hundreds of lesser known representatives of various Protestant denominations from Poland and the Czech Lands followed in their footsteps. We know that around 1671, the leader of the Polish Brothers in Ducal Prussia, Zbigniew Morsztyn (Morstin), considered the possibility of moving along with persecuted co-religionists to one of the Dutch possessions in the Eastern Hemisphere. Faced with the normalization of the position of the Polish Brethren in the Prussian principality, he gave up this idea. However, it cannot be ruled out that some settlers in the South of Africa originating from the Netherlands, Germany, Silesia, Ducal Prussia, or lands still belonging to the Poland, originated from this religious community. They could use adopted names and give a false place of origin, because the Calvinist of the Netherlands did not look favorably on the members of the radical church of the Polish Brethren (Unitarians) . For similar reasons (though a Catholic, not an Unitarian), this is what Anselm Teodor Dzwonkowski did at the end of the 18th century, who, after enlisting in the Dutch service, used the name Pregonius (from the Przegonia family coat of arms), declaring his descent from Hungary at the same time. The "Slavic" haplogroups worn by some of the emigrants from the Netherlands allow us to suppose that other emigrants of Polish origin could do so.
Such a hypothesis does not exclude in individual cases the possession of haplogroups less typical of Poland or other Slavic countries. Some researchers, due to the wording of the surname, made a thesis about the Slavic origin of a large family of Strydom (about 65,000 family members today). In their representatives, however, the haplogroup R1b was found, and therefore characteristic primarily for Western Europe. However, it should be remembered that its carriers in Poland constitute 13%, and in the Czech Republic even 28%.
Pioneers of the frontier and literature
In comparison with Poland or Ukraine, 10% of the haplogroup R1a carriers among Afrikaners may seem irrelevant. In typical Western European countries, however, it is even smaller (France - 3%, the Netherlands - 4%, England - 4..5%), but additionally with the dominant share of sub-clades characteristic of Germanic peoples (such as Potgieters). Much more R1a carriers are in Scandinavia (R1a 15-25%), but R1a subclasses from north-western Europe also predominate there. The only exception is Germany, where the carriers of haplogroup R1a constitute 16%, with a distinct advantage of subclasses characteristic of the original Slavs. This is not much less than in such Slavic countries as Bulgaria, Serbia or Bosnia (18%). Whereas in Germany the Germanization of the Slavic population took place, in the Balkans (Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia) the inflowing Slavs assimilated the local Roman population at the beginning of the Middle Ages (only Romanians remain its relic). On the basis of this knowledge, it can be assumed that over a dozen percent of the male ancestors of Afrikaners had Slavonic roots. Could this contribution have any meaning in the formation of Afrikaans society? In the United States, the presence of descendants of emigrants from Slavic countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine) is visible, though the carriers of haplogroup R1a constitute only about 8% of white Americans (people of Polish origin constitute about 5% of white Americans). The migration of Poles and eastern Germans to South Africa must have had a similar meaning.
Albert Du Biel (1884-1963), a pioneer of literature in Afrikaans, son of an immigrant from Poland
South African researcher Robert Shell notes that it is not "van der Merwe" (the most popular among the Afrikaners, Dutch origin - about 140 thousand carriers), but "Cowalskyes&qu ot; were the driving force for the territorial expansion of European settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries. This symbolic term refers to the person of Michel Kowalski (“Cowalsky” in the Dutch colonial documents), one of the leaders of the expedition from 1702, that reached 700 km east of the then colony, where its participants fought the first in the history of South Africa battle with Bantu warriors (Cabuquas tribe). It seems that when the emigrants from the Netherlands and France formed the foundations of the God-fearing community of farmers, newcomers from Scandinavia, Germany and Poland took upon themselves the burden of forming a group of pioneers in the Boer community (R. Shell calls them "Teutonic falange" ), accustomed to difficult living conditions and fighting in the eastern and northern frontiers of the Dutch Cape Colony. The presence of this group and the customs and traditions developed by it enabled territorial expansion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and gave the possibility of effective resistance to British aggression in the nineteenth century. Perhaps this is the reason why the Polish captain Leon Pokrowski, the daring commander of the Boer's commando during the Boer War (1899-1902), found himself so well among the Boers (I described this in the April issue of Najwyższy Czas No. 15-16 / 2018), just like the earlier and later newcomers from Poland. However, this is not question of miraculous impact of R1a haplogroup, but the personality traits of emigrants from northern and eastern Europe, where living conditions were more severe than in Western European countries.
Later, such personality traits could give positive results also in other areas of life. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the pioneer of literature in Afrikaans was Albert Du Biel, the son of an immigrant from Poland Baltazar Dubiel, and Louise "Lulu" Latsky, a great-granddaughter of Jan Latsky from Poland, was a pioneer of Afrikaans literature for children and additionally the first woman who South Africa received a PhD. Perhaps due to their origin, it was easier for them to break the existing patterns. A dozen or so percentages of emigrants from Poland and East Germany (descendants of the Polabian Slavs), could therefore have a significant meaning in the development of many specific features of Afrikaner society.
- Sources - The paper was published in Poland (in Polish) in weekly “Najwyższy Czas!” (no. 31-32, 23 July 2018, pp 44-47)
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