Pride of the Fighting Boer Songtext
von John Edmond

Here′s a tale about a Boer War legend
That really must be told
About a boy who fought the Basotho
When he was eleven years old
And he fought the Brits in the First Boer War
At Majuba and Laing's Nek
He was known by the name
Of Christiaan Rudolf de Wet
British generals, they were schooled
At many an army academy
But this Free State farm boy he relied
On his inborn natural strategy
Never a wilier guerilla fighter
You could never ever get
Battles won by hit and run
The style of Christiaan de Wet


A magic web of victories
And some great escapes he wove
Like Reddersburg and Tweefontein
Sanna′s Post and Poplar Grove
He led the Brits a merry dance
All across the Free State Plains
Plundered supply wagons
They say he even looted trains
Legend has it Robin Hood
He robbed the rich to help the poor
But General Christiaan de Wet
He robbed the Brits to help the Boer
At a place they called the Brandwater Basin
The British set a trap
But he slipped out
Just the way a clever mouse evades a cat

With his sjambok
This flying fox
On a big white horse called Fleur
We'll never forget Christiaan de Wet
The pride of the fighting Boer


One day he called his men and said
You must go home and rest
Then come back and fight for me
Only when you're at your best
He told his fellow generals
Here is something that I found
You can never hunt a hare
With an unwilling hound
He was summoned to sound conditions
Of surrender to the foe
The pen in his shaking hand said yes
But his valiant heart said no
To live beneath the Union Jack
He said, I never will be free
So with my men back on commando
To be sure, one day I′ll be

In 1914 led a new rebellion
Right across the land
But it was at Mushroom Valley
Where he made his final stand
So to the Kalahari wastes
And deserts then, he tried to run
But by his very own countrymen
He was betrayed and hunted down
They tried him as a traitor
But with a grin, he said with glee
At least it wasn′t an Englishman
That finally captured me
Then he got a pardon
And was banished to his home
A hero with a broken heart
With his freedom dreams
He died alone

With his sjambok
This flying fox
On a big white horse called Fleur
We'll never forget Christiaan de Wet
The pride of the fighting Boer
With his sjambok
This flying fox
On a big white horse called Fleur
We′ll never forget Christiaan de Wet
The pride of the fighting Boer