Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius

Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius (1798-1853), Afrikaner, or Boer, leader and general in what is now South Africa. He grew up in what is now Eastern Cape province and took part in the border war with the native Xhosa from 1834 to 1836. He then led an Afrikaner exploratory party into the region of Natal in 1836. This trip was a prelude to leading a group of Afrikaners called Voortrekkers on the Great Trek, a migration north from the Cape Colony.

Following the massacre of another Great Trek leader Pieter Retief and his followers by Zulu chief Dingane in February 1838, Pretorius returned to Natal where he was made commander of an Afrikaner force of 500 men and 57 wagons. He led them across the mountains into Dingane’s territory to avenge Retief by defeating the Zulu warriors at the Battle of Blood River on December 16, 1838. Pretorius then made an alliance with Dingane’s brother, Mpande, and together they defeated Dingane’s forces. He helped establish the Afrikaner republic of Natalia in 1840, which the British seized in 1843. For a time he attempted to work with the British while other Afrikaners moved inland to avoid doing so. He became increasingly disillusioned, however, particularly after Sir Harry Smith, governor of the Cape Colony, annexed the territory between the Orange and Vaal rivers where many Afrikaners had already settled.

Pretorius raised an Afrikaner force to fight the British but was defeated by Smith at Boomplaats in August 1848. He fled to the Transvaal in northern South Africa, where he became, with Great Trek leader Hendrik Potgieter, one of the leaders of the Afrikaners. Pretorius was still in favor of negotiating with the British and represented the Afrikaners at the Sand River Convention of 1852, which recognized the independence of the South African Republic in Transvaal. In 1853 Pretorius led several military expeditions against African chiefs. After his death the city of Pretoria was founded and named after him by his son, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, who later was elected president of the Transvaal.