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Gerard Moerdijk was born in 1890 in Modimolle, South Africa. His father, Jan Leendert Moerdijk was from the Netherlands, as a result he was raised in a Dutch home and was not considered Afrikaner. The family later moved to Pretoria, South Africa after the Anglo-Boer War.

Moerdijk was homeschooled for a while before attending the Staatsmodel School and later attended Pretoria College. However, before he even matriculated, he won an award for the design of a school and so he left the school and worked under the Public Works Department. In 1910 Moerdijk studied abroad in England at the Architectural Association school where he attended both day and night classes.

Moerdijk would continue his studies all over Europe, by studying archeology in Rome, and visiting Florence, Venice, London and Paris. He would later apply for and join RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects), a professional body of architects, and in 1913, Moerdijk would return to Pretoria.

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In 1835 as a result of the British coming to South Africa with their anti-slavery ideals, 12,000 Boers migrated away from Cape Colony, South Africa; this was known as the Great Trek, and the migrated Boers were called Voortrekkers which is Afrikaans for “Early Migrant”.

As Afrikaner nationalism grew in South Africa, so too did Gerard’s reputation, and In 1949 the National Party was voted into power. “The Day of the Vow”, was a great historic event in 1838 where the Voortrekkers supposedly made an agreement with God to win a confrontation with the Zulu who vastly outnumbered them at the Battle of Blood River. To commemorate The Day of the Vow and Afrikaner Nationalism, the National Party announced the construction of the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, and Gerard Moerdijk was commissioned to design the monument.

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The Voortrekker Monument was constructed with sculpted murals all designed by Moerdijk. These statues depict renditions of the Great Trek while glorifying the violent Voortrekkers and depicting them as innocent families, pioneers, and heroes while showing the brutality of the Native Africans.

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[Propaganda] Depicted the Voortrekkers as innocent families and explorers by having statues of families and oxen.

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[Propaganda] Depicted the Voortrekkers as innocent families and explorers by having statues of families and oxen.

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Moerdijk marked the main face of the Voortrekker Monument with a statue of a maternal figure with her two children facing into the distance. The first thing people see when they go to visit the Voortrekker Monument is the face of a strong mother caring for and protecting her family. While this was likely a reality of the Voortrekkers, it fails to depict the highly militant and violent nature of the Great Trek. Additionally, carvings of oxen were engraved along the sides of the monument. The oxen carvings further push the idea that the Voortrekkers were first and foremost a group of pioneers in search of new frontiers rather than a highly armed groups invading native land.

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[Propaganda] Depicting the Native Africans as primitive and dishonorable

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[Propaganda] Depicting the Native Africans as primitive and dishonorable

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The Voortrekker Monument entrance has a scene carved above it of one Boer fighting off six Native African men. The Native Africans are again depicted as primitive, using violent penetrative weapons like spears while the Boer has a gun and is on horseback. The Native African’s savagery is also conveyed through they’re clothing, the Native Africans warriors are all shirtless wearing nothing but rags and pieces of cloth whereas the Boer is wearing nice long pants and a shirt. The Native Africans’ savagery is shown by one attempting to stab the Boer from behind which is typically seen as a dishonorable move.

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[Propaganda] Depicting the Native Africans as brutal savages while downplaying and erasing any violence done in by the Voortrekkers. 

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[Propaganda] Depicting the Native Africans as brutal savages while downplaying and erasing any violence done in by the Voortrekkers. 

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Inside the Voortrekker Monument, Moerdijk sculpted a scene showing the brutality and savagery of the Native African people (likely the Zulu) who the Boers encountered. Moerdijk depicts Native Africans violently killing and torturing Voortrekker women and children. This scene of the sculpture shows no form of retaliation on the part of the Boers and it serves to justify other acts of violence that the Boers may have done on the Native Africans; this section also reflects no brutal, senseless violence on the part of the Boers.

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The Voortrekker Monument’s effect on Afrikaner culture.  

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The Voortrekker Monument’s effect on Afrikaner culture.  

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The Voortrekker Monument glorifying the Afrikaner Boers consequently glorifies the Voortrekker’s ideals: the support of slavery and white supremacy over the Native Africans. By depicting the Afrikaner Voortrekkers as more civilized, ethical, and heroic than their adversaries, Gerard Moerdijk perpetuated the idea that Afrikaners were above other races; pushing that ideology onto Afrikaners made Apartheid seem more justifiable which made more people willing to partake in the system