Highlites from South Africa

[Editor’s note:  Alas, information is still thin for South Africa…no news to report in this issue.  Rather than replace or delete this Section, we’ll keep it for a while longer hoping that news will arrive before we give up.  Readers are encouraged to contribute to this Section and to help us discover something/anything about our elusive namesakes in this part of the world.  We do know they exist in South Africa – and that’s about all.  In the meantime, we will retain the following report, first included here in Issue # 2 (1998).]

We seem to be getting nowhere fast in our search for DEBOO in South Africa. I checked their "Phonebook - Residential" listings again (September 2003), but this time all I could find were three De Booi listings and one van Boo. Absolutely no listings were found for Deboo, Debow, Debou, or Boo. We seem to have lost even our single know De Boo namesake at Johannesburg (see article below).

Its true that the original 17th C settlers were mostly from the northern part of the then troubled Netherlands. However, we've been hoping to find a transplant from the south who later migrated again, or perhaps a family that immigrated in the 19th or 20th C. Alas, no such luck.

Our name seems to be as rare as hen's teeth in South Africa at the present time. For now, as before, we'll keep this Section open, hoping something good will turn up. And we'll keep our old article from 1997 posted below for purposes of general information.

- RFD

   As reported in the first issue of our Newsletter, I planned to visit the southwestern part of South Africa last year.  Well, I did - from September 15 to 30 - during an exceptionally fine early spring season.  I confined my travels and snooping to Western Cape Province, the old Cape Colony area where the country was first settled by Dutch and Huguenot immigrants.  South Africa has exceptionally rich and (for me) exciting history.  I felt no need to see lions stalking bambis, nor to visit this country's exceptional national parks, nor to even attempt to see the mind-boggling geography and biodiversity ranging from desert to jungle.  I had enough to do just trying to deal with the human element here. You might as well know - off the top - that I fell in love with the place.

     I think Cape Town (population ~3 million) is the most exciting, best-looking big city I've ever visited.  In the words of the British Airways guy I met at London's Heathrow Airport: "Ah, off to beautiful Cape Town I see...you'll have a great time there."  Yes, there are warts, social unrest, and many issues to deal with here, but overall I think the future will brighten for South Africa, Cape Town will remain as the jewel of the continent, mostly resulting from the exceptional "lets get on with the future" approach taken by Nelson Mandela and his government. I will get to DEBOO in a moment, but for namesakes and friends contemplating a trip to this part of a very fine country, I suggest some planning and preparation via CAPTOUR (PO Box 1403, Cape Town 8000) and the following essential references as required reading:

Judd, D.  1977.  The Boer War.   ISBN 0 246 10868 1

Michener, J.A. 1980.  The Covenant.   ISBN 0 449 21420 6

Thomas, A. 1996.  Rhodes - The Race for Africa, ISBN 1 86842 035 3

Venter, L. 1997.  When Mandela Goes.   ISBN 0 0 385 40884 6

    And, yes, there is at least one DEBOO there - Mnr. I. De Boo of Johannesburg.  I wrote to Mnr. De Boo about a year ago hoping to gain some information about the South African line and to open a communication channel.  Alas, no response from Mnr. De Boo.

    About the same time, I contacted Mrs. Isabel Groesbeek of the Human Sciences Research Council at Pretoria.  Mrs. Groesbeek was eventually contracted to conduct an official genealogical search for DEBOO/DEBO in South Africa. Following are extracts from her letter to me dated 23 July 1997:

    "I consulted the following sources in the HSRC collection and include the results:

RSA Voter's Roll 1983 & 1989 (the only available years) found 10 pp. with DE BOD addresses but no DE BOO/DE BO addresses;

HSRC's genealogical collection, e.g., family files - no information on family in question, no addresses available of persons who are also researching the DE BO/DE BOO family;

General reference works - no references found in Rosenthal, E. (1965), South African Surnames: Hees, J.A., and R.T.J. Lombard (1986), South African Genealogies; Malherbe, D.F. du T. (1966), Family Register of the South African Nation."

    "Fewer immigrants came to the Cape of Good Hope from the Southern Netherlands than from the northern United Provinces due to the following reasons:

1. the Cape was a settlement belonging to the Dutch East India Company, with its headquarters in the northern United Provinces;
2. the Southern Netherlands successively formed a part of the Spanish and then the Austrian  Empire until the end of the eighteenth century;
3. the independent United Provinces became predominantly Protestant, whereas the Southern  Netherlands remained in the Catholic faith of their rulers;
4. the Dutch East India Company favoured the Calvinist religion of their masters, and did not   willingly allow Lutherans, Catholics, Moslems and Jews to settle at the Cape."

    At Mrs. Groesbeek's suggestion, I spent considerable time at the National Archives, the South African Library, at Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, and at two branches of the city library during my visit to Western Cape Province in September, 1997.  My own searching
confirmed Mrs. Groesbeek's conclusion - DEBOO/DEBO does not have historical connections to South Africa.  Meneer De Boo of Johannesburg remains a mystery.

    However, I did not strike out in South Africa.  While at the National Library at Cape Town, I met the Head Librarian who explained South Africa's banned book policy which was in effect until recently.  Books considered controversial, critical of, and perhaps contrary to government apartheid policy were stored in a back room at this national institution.  With the change in government, and policy, many of these books were catalogued and placed on shelves for public reference.  One of these, banned in 1978, was co-authored by Jan de Boo:

Boo, Jan de, P. Juffermans, J. Meerman, and H. Odink.  1977.  Van slavernij naar bevrijding.  Vrijheidsstrijd in Zuidelijk Afrika.  Uitgeverij Pegasus, Amsterdam, ISBN 90 6143 1492, 177 pp.
[This book is written in Dutch (vs Afrikaans) and published in the Netherlands suggesting Mnr. Jan de Boo to be a foreign author/non-South African citizen.  Another little mystery!]

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