BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
this situation he wrote a dispatch for his commandants and officers. It is
four pages long and can be divided into four parts. The first part is an
introduction, but, nevertheless, Kruger got directly to the point. The
main theme is the fight against the British. The last part is a small con-
clusion referring to the most important points of the dispatch. In be-
tween are two parts which are introduced by the phrase: “Brothers, I
beseech you abandon not your faith” (Kruger 1902:399). In the second
part rhetorical questions are used. Some of them are combined with an
anaphora: “Is not our God the same God” (Kruger 1902:399f). Then
Kruger alluded to certain biblical stories. He referred three times to the
Exodus, once to the story of Daniel, and to the Gideon narrative. But the
anaphor and the rhetorical questions are also related to stories from the
New Testament, like Peter walking on the water, healing people from
leprosy, and even Christ’s rising from the dead. Kruger did not choose
biblical stories by chance. He used stories which illustrated miracles and
showed how God saved his people through unexpected miracles in situa-
tions where nothing but miracles could help.
The scheme of rhetorical questions is interrupted on page 401 where
Kruger referred to the actual situation. Here is no longer the question
“Is not our God the same God” (Kruger 1902:399) but the answer linked
with the rhetorical question: “And this same God our Lord and Saviour”.
The events of the last months are referred to and are described as the
actions of God. The sentence which started as an answer becomes a
question in the end: “dare we doubt that He who commenced his work
will finish it?” (Kruger 1902:401). The miraculous God is not only the
biblical God – he is the God who is responsible for the situation the
Boers are in, and they hope that he will save them as God did with the
people referred to in the biblical stories. After this short interruption,
Kruger continued in his scheme of rhetorical questions.
The third part gives direct advice on what to do and what not to do.
Here, Kruger alluded to actual political situations and calls upon the
intuition of his officers and commandants to do the right thing.
When analyzing the dispatch it becomes obvious that there is a massive
usage of the word ‘fight’. Within four pages the word is used eight
times. Another word field which attracts attention is ‘belief’. Words like
‘belief’, ‘unbelief’, ‘faith’, ‘trust’ are used all over the dispatch. This leads
to the main point of the text: Kruger tried to appeal to the faith of his
officers so that they feel religiously committed to stay with Kruger and