Beyers Naude: the compassionate dissident Afrikaner

Abstract

Anti-apartheid activist, cleric and theologian Christiaan Frederick Beyers 'Oom Bey' Naude was a principled Christian who followed his conscience despite significant opposition from his family and community. He was born into a prominent Afrikaner nationalist family,1 and was named after Boer nationalist and war hero Christiaan Frederik Beyers. Naudes father, Jozua Francois Naude, had served under General Beyers in the South African War of 1899 to 1902 between the British and the Boers, as a soldier and official pastor. Jozua Naudes choice of name for his son reflected the deep resentment that Afrikaners still felt against the British for the war, and their treatment of Afrikaner non-combatant women and children.2 It was also a period in which the burghers of the Boer republics were rebelling against the Union government order to fight on the side of Britain against Germany in World War I. General Beyers, who was one of the leaders of the rebellion, drowned in the Vaal River while fleeing from the Union forces in December 1914.