ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��

This statue of Paul Kruger in Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Hall (Dutch name: Academiegebouw) illustrates Paul Kruger's complicated legacy. It invites to reflect on his role in the history of South Africa and his legacy in the current debate on identity, justice and heritage.

Gifted in gratitude, stolen in protest and finally returned under Mandela’s presidency, the statue of Paul Kruger in Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Hall (Dutch name: Academiegebouw) embodies the complicated legacy of South Africa’s former president. Revered by some as a symbol of Boer resistance against British colonialism and South African independence, Paul Kruger is also viewed as a figure who upheld and benefited from the colonial oppression of South Africa’s native populations. Today, the statue serves us to reflect on the ongoing debates about heritage, identity, memory and justice.

About Paul Kruger

Paul Kruger (full name: Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger) was born on 10 October 1825 in the town of Cradock, in the Eastern Cape Colony of South Africa. This area was founded in the seventeenth century by the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), but had been under British rule since 1806. However, many were very unsatisfied with British rule, and between 1835 and 1845, some 12,000 Boers left the colony and headed inland, including Kruger and his parents.

The Boers were looking for new and better land for their livestock, and their search took them further and further inland. This brought them into conflict with the native people of South Africa who owned these areas. In many cases this led to bloody battles. One example of this is the Battle of Vegkop, in which Kruger already fought as an eleven-year-old boy. In the end, the Boers found a fixed settlement and founded the South African Republic (also known as the Transvaal Republic). Kruger’s fighting skills, demonstrated time and again during expeditions, earned him status among the Boers. He kept rising through the military ranks and in 1852, he was appointed field cornet: this made him the leader of his own militia. In 1855 he helped to draft the constitution of Transvaal and in 1862 he was appointed vice-president under State President Thomas François Burgers.

In 1877, the South African Republic was annexed by Great Britain. Although the then  State President Burgers took little action, Vice-President Kruger put up a fierce resistance. The Boers successfully fought back and eventually succeeded in regaining Transvaal's independence. After the decisive victory, a peace agreement between Transvaal and the United Kingdom called the Pretoria Convention was signed. On behalf of the Transvaal Republic, this treaty was signed by the Triumvirate: Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, Piet Joubert and Paul Kruger. All three of them were appointed State President of Transvaal.

In 1883, Kruger succeeded in surpassing his Triumvirate and obtained the presidency for himself. Not long after that, in 1899, a second war between Great Britain and the Boers broke out. This war was catastrophic to the Boers. Kruger left for Europe in 1900 in order to obtain both moral and material support from other countries. Although he gained much public and moral support, his diplomatic mission did not result in the desired political or military aid. The European powers were careful and did not want to enter into a direct conflict with Great Britain.

In December 1900, Kruger arrived in the Netherlands. In The Hague, he was welcomed as a hero and received a great deal of moral support, as shown by the large-scale reception ceremonies and public events in his honour. Many Dutch people sympathised with the Boers for standing up to the supreme Great Britain. The Dutch also saw the Boers as kin because of their shared history: the Boers were called fellow tribesmen. However, the Dutch government remained impartial; again to avoid a conflict with Great Britain.

Kruger stayed in The Hague briefly, after which he spent approximately three months in the Des Pays-Bas hotel at Janskerkhof in Utrecht. He found long-term residence in Hilversum, but returned to Utrecht after six months. Here, he took up residence in the Oranjelust house at Maliebaan 89.

In the months after that, the battle came to an end. Great Britain managed to defeat the Boers because it had more manpower and better weapons. Their tactics of burning farms to the ground and sending women and children to concentration camps, weakened the Boer population significantly. On 31 May 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed. Paul Kruger never returned to South Africa.

The statue’s journey

In 1938, decades after Kruger’s death, a statue of him was donated to Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� by a South African delegation. Created by renown South African sculptor Anton van Wouw, the statue was intended as a gesture of appreciation for the university’s support in fostering Afrikaner intellectuals. According to then Rector Magnificus J. Boeke, it is an image of “the old President, as he sits there after his country has lost its independence.” The statue received an ‘honorary place’ in the Senate Hall, right beneath the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina, symbolizing the historic connection between Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� and South Africa.

However, as global awareness of apartheid in South Africa grew, so did the controversy surrounding Kruger’s legacy. In 1979, students of the action group Beeldenstorm tegen apartheid stole the statue as a protest against South Africa’s racial segregation policies. Although Kruger died in 1904, before apartheid became an official policy in South Africa, his beliefs can be seen as connected to apartheid thinking. For instance, he supported segregation and he believed the native people should have a subservient position to the Boers.

After its theft, the statue was eventually returned to the university, but it was stored away in the depot of the ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Museum at the Plompetorengracht. It wasn’t until 2004, at the request of the South African government under President Nelson Mandela, that the statue was reinstated at Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Hall. Although Mandela condemned Kruger because of his connection to apartheid thinking, he was most of all the man who made South Africa independent from the English.

A symbol recontextualised

This time the statue was assigned to a less prominent place. Right next to the Dom, the statue of Paul Kruger stands, not just as a reminder of the past, but as an object for reflection and dialogue. Kruger’s story, and the journey of his statue, invites us to participate in the current debate on heritage and memory; whose history is commemorated and how we reconcile the past with the values of the present.

Further reading: