Dorsland Trek
Channel: the aleatoric learning channel
Date: 22/12/2021

The "Mak volk" was a colourful and interesting group of labourers who accompanied the Thirstland Trekkers and adapted the way of life and spiritual culture of the Trekkers. Palgrave's interference incited most of the Herero and Nama-Oorlam captains against the trekkers before the first trekker even set foot in the area. Even before the first trek group had left the Transvaal, the first trekkers of the second trek began to trek from the districts Pretoria and Rustenburg in April 1875. The second trek group eventually left the Limpopo on 10 April 1877 and trekked along the Mahalapye River without permission. Despite an agreement the trekkers reached the previous evening to trek in separate groups a few days apart, complete disorder prevailed when the first trekkers left Letloche on the morning of 7 May 1877 and the rest of the trek party followed them as one group. Ten to eleven families under Louw du Plessis trekked to Rietfontein to join the first trekker party, while the rest trekked northwestwards along the Okavango River. Malaria once again took its toll on the trekkers and from October 1877, most of the group who trekked along the Okavango River, died of malaria. The different trekker parties united, trekked further north, and then stayed over for a while at Leeupan and the Kaudum. Even though the trekkers initially had good relations with the Kavango tribes, it eventually soured, and the trekkers had no choice but to move on. The Ovambo tribes further along the route were a threat to them, and so the trekkers were forced to deviate from the path and trek to a neutral area south of the Etosha Pan. Reports about the disastrous trek and the trekkers' predicaments eventually reached their compatriots in southern Africa and the Cape authorities. A group of Boers who had not immediately trekked to Humpata but had instead continued with their hunting endeavours along the Okavango and then trekked deeper into Angola, only joined the Boers at Humpata in 1883.