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| The life of Jan Smuts |
|---|
| Early life 1870 - 1895 |
| Transvaal 1895 - 1899 |
| Boer War 1899 - 1902 |
| British Transvaal 1902 - 1910 |
| The Old Boers 1910 - 1914 |
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM (May 24, 1870 – September 11, 1950) was a prominent South African and Commonwealth statesman and military leader. He served as a Boer General during the Boer War, a British General during the First World War and was appointed Field Marshal by King George VI during the Second World War. In addition to various Cabinet appointments, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1948. From 1917 to 1919 he was one of five members of the British War Cabinet, helping to create the Royal Air Force. He played a leading part in the post-war settlements at the end of both world wars, making significant contributions towards the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations. He did much to redefine the relationship between Britain and the Dominions and Colonies, leading to the formation of the British Commonwealth.
This article encompasses Jan Smuts's youth and education, from his birth in 1870 to his departure from Cambridge in 1895. As the second son of a traditional Boer farming family, by tradition he was not destined to receive a full formal education. However upon the death of his elder brother in 1882, twelve year old Jan was sent to school for the first time. After making exceptional progress he won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University, from which he graduated with double First-class honours in Law.
Contents |
[edit] In South Africa
[edit] Childhood
Jan Christiaan Smuts was born into a prosperous Afrikaner family at the family farm, Bovenplaats, in the district of Malmesbury, in the Cape Colony. He was the second son in a family of four sons and two daughters. His family were of Dutch descent on his father's side, with Huguenot ancestry from his mother.
The Smuts family were well-established in the area. His father, Jacobus Abraham, was a man of local prominence, a pillar of the church and a leading fighre in the social and political affairs of the area. He was later to be elected as the member for Malmesbury in the Cape Colony legislature. Jan's mother, Catherina Petronella, was the sister of the local predikant (minister of religion in the Dutch Reformed Church). She was a woman of considerable education and culture (at least according to the standards of the area) having studied music and French at college in Cape Town.
In 1878, when Jan was eight, the family moved from Bovenplaats, where they had been living on the family farm with Jacobus Smuts's father, to a newly inherited farm at Klipfontein, some thirteen miles away.[1]
The Smuts family were traditional Afrikaner farmers. As such, questions of property and family affairs were governed extensively by custom. This dictated that it was on the first son that the family expectations fell; it was he that the family would put through formal education to enable him to enter into one of the professions. As for the others, they would be put to work on the farm whilst receiving a rudimentary home education.[2] As the second son this was to be Jan's role. His elder brother, Michiel, was sent to school, destined for a future as a predikant in the Dutch Reformed Church.
Farmwork combined with education from his mother - this was the order of Jan's life for the next few years. His chief responsibility on the farm was as a herd, first of the pigs and poultry and later of the cattle. Custom dictated that this work would have its benefits; Jan was entitled to a share of the natural increase of the beasts under his care.[3] During this time he built up a respectable holding of livestock. In his spare time he went for long, solitary walks, exploring the area surrounding Klipfontein. In later life he was to identify this as being where his strong attachment to nature and the veld originated.[4]
In ordinary circumstances Jan Smuts would have, in time, taken over the running of the farm and spent his life as a farmer, as his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had before him. However this was not to be; a new turn of events was to change his future.
[edit] Schooldays
In 1882 Jan's elder brother died of typhoid. Jan was now the eldest son and the family looked to him to take his brother's place. Jan was immediately sent to school in nearby Riebeek West. At twelve years of age, Jan was physically slight with a delicate and reserved disposition. He had lived all his life in a conservative, pious and rural Afrikaner environment and spoke no English. Hitherto his education had been rudimentary (although thanks to his mother's own education, it was superior to others in his position) and he was starting school far later than his contemporaries.
Despite these disadvantages, Jan proved himself an outstanding scholar. After only four years of study he had made sufficient progress to have caught up with his peers, children with up to eleven years of formal education.[5] When the time came for the results of the School Higher examinations, Jan had excelled - he was placed second on the Cape lists.[6]
Jan's time at school set the future direction of his life. It was here that he developed his lifelong zeal for hard work and reading, an enthusiasm bordering on mania during these early years. A few weeks before the School Higher exams he fell ill and was ordered to bed by his doctor for a complete rest, with an absolute ban on study and books. Despite the doctor's instructions Jan made strenuous efforts to obtain all the books that he could. One particular story told of him during this enforced convalescance describes how he used to bribe the headmaster's youngest son to bring him books. The subterfuge was successful until a visitor, in fact the headmaster's wife, hoping to ease his obvious discomfort, insisted on making his bed for him. To her astonishment she discovered that the reason for his restlessness was not due to his illness, but to the immense pile of books he was concealing under his bedclothes![7]
At the age of sixteen Jan embarked on the next stage of his education: the headmaster entered him for the entrance exam for Victoria College, a prominent Afrikaans college in Stellenbosch. He passed, and joined Victoria College in 1886.
[edit] Victoria College
At Victoria College, Jan faced similar problems to those that he faced at school. He was reclusive and addicted to his studies. Perhaps the best indication of Jan's personality at this time comes from a letter he wrote just before he joined Victoria College, to a tutor there, Dr C. Murray:
| ... such a place [Stellenbosch], where a large puerile element exists, affords fair scope for moral, and what is more important, religious temptation, which, if yielded to will eclipse alike the expectations of my parents and the intentions of myself ... for of what use will a mind, enlarged and refined in all possible ways, be to me, if my religion be a deserted pilot and morality a wreck?[8] |
Given these attitudes it is unsurprising that Jan spent his five years in Stellenbosch largely aloof from the "puerile element" - that is to say his peers. Without social outlet, he buried himself in his work. He taught himself High Dutch. He immersed himself in German and in the works of the German romantics, whilst learning Ancient Greek, so that he could study the classics. On Sundays he attended both morning and evening church services and conducted a Bible study class for coloured boys. During the week he also found time to regularly attend prayer meetings. Jan continued to find physical refreshment in long, solitary walks on the veld.
However Stellenbosch served to round some of the sharp edges in Jan's character, during his time there he began to cast off some of his shyness. He joined the local militia and began to write for the college magazine, for the first time beginning to consider the major political issues confronting South Africa.[9]
[edit] Political Awakening
While at Stellenbosch he became leader of the college debating society; in this role he was called upon to make the speech of welcome to Cecil Rhodes on his visit to the college in 1888. Rhodes, at this time on the verge of becoming Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, was an enthusiastic proponent of a wider Southern African union and the extension of British dominion in Africa. It was fitting therefore that Smuts, whose thoughts had begun to develop along the very same lines, should deliver the welcome address on the theme of Pan-Africanism.[10]
Smuts had been thinking along these lines throughout his years at Stellenbosch. These emerging political views developed in tandem with his personal system of philosophy - ideas which he later developed into the philosophy of holism. Smuts wrote two political essays during this time, essays which already betray the influence of one of the key concepts of holism - the realisation of inherent unity.
The first of these was written in 1890. Entitled 'South African Customs Union'[11], it was entered for the JB Ebden prize offered by the University of the Cape of Good Hope. The essay, conisting of some sixty pages of closely written foolscap, was 'highly commended' but failed to win the prize. In this essay Smuts considered the economic relations of the colonies and states of South Africa - relations which were often beset by arguments and petty jealousies. Smuts's overarching conclusion was that:
| No policy in any Colony or state is sound, which does not recognise, and frame its measures as much as possible in accordance with the fact that South Africa is one, that consisting as it does of seperate parts, it yet forms one commercial and moral unity. |
In this essay Smuts examined the existing economic arrangements of South Africa, attempting to illustrate the weaknesses of existing arrangements - weaknesses which were to the disadvantage of all of South Africa. Smuts pressed the advantages of economic union as being self-evidently superior. Smuts had considered the realisation of the inherent commercial unity of South Africa, in his next important essay he considered moral unity.
In 'The Conditions of Future South African Literature'[12], Smuts stated that a true South African literature could not exist until there was a unified nation-state. Smuts then proceeded to urge this very course;
In Stellenbosch, he met Isie Krige, with whom he fell in love. She adored him, and revered him for his unparalleled intellect. He was happy with having any female acquaintance, especially someone who gave him self-confidence.
In 1891 Smuts graduated with First-class honours in Literature and Science. He applied for and won the Ebden scholarship for overseas study. He left the Cape to read Law at Cambridge University.
[edit] Spreading his wings
[edit] Cambridge
Jan went to study at Christ's College, Cambridge, a bastion of academia at the heart of the British Empire. In later years he was to write:
| At Cambridge, I read much, walked much and thought much; and when I left the University I had probably drunk as deeply of the well of knowledge as most ... I did not, however, mix much in the social life of the place.[13] |
Smuts came to Cambridge at the age of twenty-one, three or more years older than his fellow undergraduates. He was isolated from the other men of his year by a different social background, upbringing and attitudes. He maintained his disdain for the 'puerile element' from his days in Stellenbosch. During his first term at Cambridge Smuts suffered from tremendous homesickness, describing himself as being "utterly desolate".[14]
In spite of Smuts's loneliness, he had not been without social opportunities. During his first term he received and accepted invitations to join the debating society and to write for the college magazine.[15] However he did not follow up the opportunities for friendship which these activities put in his way. Smuts's shyness was undoubtedly a factor in this, however perhaps the dominant cause was that Smuts was living in poverty, he lacked the money to repay the hospitality of others.[16]
Smuts was a recipient of the Ebden scholarship which typically paid some £200 per year. However due to a bank failure, Smuts was awarded only £100. Before leaving the Cape, Smuts sold the holding of livestock which he had accumulated from the family farm. This money paid his sea passage and left him with a modest sum to bank. Nevertheless, he soon discovered that even essential undergraduate expenses were beyond his resources. Smuts wrote to the trustees of the Ebden fund but was told that nothing could be done. In desperation he wrote, bemoaning his situation, to a friend from his time at Stellenbosch, Professor JI Marais, lecturer in Theology. Professor Marais immediately replied, enclosing a cheque for £50 and urging Smuts to approach him whenever he found himself in need.[17] Marais continued to advance money towards Smuts throughout his time at Cambridge; in return Smuts took out a life insurance policy, naming Marais as beneficiary.
With his financial situation more secure, Smuts found himself able to enter more into the social arena of the university. He ceased to be lonely, making aquaintances chiefly amongst the other colonial students.[18] He went on frequent walking expeditions, both with these friends and alone. Although he ceased to be lonely, he remained extremely serious and dedicated to his work; an attitude which perhaps was the main barrier between him and the English undergraduates.
At Cambridge, Smuts nurtured his passion for literature, reading widely from sources that had not been available to him, even at Victoria College. He was enthralled by the romantics and transcendentalists. His favourite author was the American poet Walt Whitman. So great was Whitman's impact upon Smuts that the student wrote a book on Whitman, but it remained unpublished until Smuts's fame had made it inevitable. However, the effect manifested itself more evidently in Smuts's idealism, and his later work, Holism and Evolution, which drew greatly from the transcendental movement.
In addition to extra-curricular studies, Smuts also excelled at Law. He achieved the unique distinction of attempting both parts of the Law Tripos in the same year and passing with First-class honours. He won many academic awards and accolades. In 1893 he won the prestigious George Long prize in Roman Law and Jurisprudence; a particular honour given that the prize was very rarely awarded as the required high academic standard was rarely met.[19]
[edit] Aftermath
Smut's tutor, Professor FW Maitland, himself one of the most eminent legal scholars of the time, described Smuts as the most brilliant law student he had ever taught, providing Smuts with a glowing testemonial.[20] With his brilliant academic record and endorsements such as this Smuts's future was bright.
In 1894 he passed the examinations for the Inns of Court, entering the Middle Temple. The possibility of a distinguished legal career was now before him. His old college, Christ's College, offered him a fellowship in Law, but Smuts turned it down.[21] Instead by June 1895 he was back in the Cape Colony, determined to make his future there.
[edit] Notes
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.15
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.8
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.8
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.12
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.15
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.11
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.11
- ^ Smuts to C Murray, 12 June 1886, Selections from the Smuts Papers (hereafter SP) vol.1, p.4
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.31
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.19
- ^ Essay, 1891, SP vol.1, p.15
- ^ Essay, 1892, SP vol.1, p.41
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.21
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.33
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.34
- ^ K Ingham, Smuts: The Conscience of a South African, p.9
- ^ JI Marais to Smuts, 8 Aug 1892, SP vol.1, p.25
- ^ WK Hancock, Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, p.42
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.23
- ^ FW Maitland to Smuts, 15 June 1894, SP vol.1, pp.33-34
- ^ JC Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.24
[edit] Select Bibliography
[edit] Primary Sources
- Hancock, WK and van der Poel, J (eds) - Selections from the Smuts Papers, 1886-1950, (7 vols), (1966-73)
[edit] Smuts, General
- Hancock, WK - Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, 1870—1919, (1962)
- Ingham, K - Jan Christian Smuts: The Conscience of a South African, (1986)
- Millin, SG - General Smuts, (2 vols), (1933)
- Smuts, JC - Jan Christian Smuts, (1952)
| Jan Smuts |  |
|---|---|
| I: Early life | II: The South African Republic | III: The Boer War | IV: A British Transvaal V: The Old Boers |
