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You can go a long way in 97 years, and Elsa Joubert did.
Born in Paarl in 1922, Joubert grew up in an orthodox Afrikaner family, and at first embraced their beliefs. In fact in her early years she felt her father was not sufficiently committed to the Afrikaner cause.
In 1938, when Afrikaners celebrated the centenary of the Great Trek, 16-year-old Elsa was in the crowd when the Cape Town wagon, on its way from the Mother City to Pretoria, passed through Paarl. The oxen were unhitched for the night and Joubert was one of the proud young Afrikaners who placed the yokes over their shoulders and pulled the wagon to the showgrounds. Later she wrote in her diary: “I shall never forget this day.”
Part of the celebrations that year included a series of flaming torches being carried in relays across the country to converge in Pretoria, where on December 16 the foundation stone for the Voortrekker Monument was to be laid. Elsa was one of the torchbearers, but was resentful of the fact she had been allotted just a quarter mile of its journey….Click here to read full article
