Uys family

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The Uys dynasty is South Africa's foremost military family and includes two of the Afrikaner nation's famous heroes amongst their members. They belong to the Voortrekker aristocracy of the 19th century and have contributed numerous figures to South Africa’s military and literary heritage.

The family name of the Uys family was originally Nijs, a shortened form of Denijs (Denis in French), which points to an origin in the Southern Netherlands. The first known member of the family, Jan Cornelisz Nijs (ca. 1640-ca. 1674), was a ship's carpenter who lived with his wife and child in the maritime quarter of Amsterdam in the early 1670's. Following his death at Newcastle-upon-Tyne around 1674, during the course of the Anglo-Dutch maritime wars, his widow, Daentje Rijcken, re-married Jan Hendriksz de Lange at Amsterdam in 1676 and left with him for the Cape of Good Hope where she arrived early in 1677. Daentje was positive about her life at the Cape. When she returned to the Netherlands together with her third husband, Dirk Jacobsz Mol, in the late 1690's, she spent some time at Leiden with her only son from her first marriage, Cornelis Jansz Nijs (born 1671). Her account of the Cape led Cornelis to decide to leave for the Cape with his wife and first son.

This Cornelis was brought up at Leiden following the emigration of his mother. He was listed as being a sailor at the time of his marriage to Dirkje Matthijse Westerhout (1673-1714) in Leiden in 1698. He arrived at the Cape with his family in 1699 or 1700, and they appear to have settled on a farm on the Polkadraai road close to Kuilsrivier, between Cape Town and Stellenbosch.

All members of the Uys family are descended from Cornelis’ only surviving son, Dirk Cornelisz Nijs (1698-1758), who married Dina Maria le Roux (1702-1740), daughter of the prosperous Huguenot farmer Jean le Roux of Normandy, at Stellenbosch in 1722. In the same year Dirk purchased the estate Groot Zalze, south of Stellenbosch (the slave quarters of which still stand), and in 1731 he was amongst the earliest burghers to receive grazing rights in the Overberg (at Buffeljachtsrivier) thus becoming one of the first (official) part-time frontiersmen in South Africa. Dirk served as deacon in the Reformed Church at Stellenbosch from at least 1725; he was an Elder of the Church, and helped administer justice in his capacity as Heemraad of Stellenbosch. He was also a Captain in the burgher militia, making him the first known Uys to partake in the long military tradition of the family in South Africa. A Dutch visitor to Stellenbosch recorded the notable fact that Dirk had a length exceeding two meters.

It was during the first two decades of the eighteenth century that the name Nijs evolved to Uys, by way of variations such as Huijs.

One of Dirk's three sons was a sergeant in the militia of Stellenbosch, thus continuing the family's fresh military tradition. It was Dirks youngest son however, Cornelis Janse Uys (1736-1811), who was to father the most distinguished branch of soldiers. Cornelis received the enormous farm Wydgelegen, bordering on the Indian Ocean close to Cape Infanta, in the Overberg region in 1765, thus consolidating the family's pioneering attachment to this part of the country.

Cornelis Janse’s first son, Dirk Cornelis Uys (1769-1841), inherited Wydgelegen and was appointed Field Cornet of the Potteberg, in which capacity he led a contingent of burghers in the Fifth Frontier War (1819) against the Xhosa tribe. One of these burghers was his nephew and son-in-law, Petrus Lafras "Piet Italeni" Uys.

Piet Italeni's father (the brother of Dirk Cornelis), Jacobus Johannes "Koos Bybel" Uys (1770-1838), had moved from the Overberg to the Humansdorp district around 1822, close to the frontier with the Xhosa tribes, where Koos grew to be a leading figure in border life. The family gained a reputation for their horse-breeding and established close relationships with key colonial administrators and soldiers. Despite their farming successes and social standing the Uyses grew to be dissatisfied with the British administration at the Cape, which definitively replaced that of the Dutch in 1806. The deprivation wrought on their farms by a succession of Frontier Wars with the Xhosa tribes and a sense of estrangement from British frontier policy, led these Uyses to consider emigrating from the colony.

In 1834, Petrus Lafras “Piet Italeni” Uys (1797-1838), led an expedition, known as “the Uys Commission”, to Natal to reconnoitre the land there and establish its suitability for settlement. Through their contacts with Zulu indunas, the Uys Commission came to believe that the Zulu king, Dingane, had granted them the territory of Natal.

During the absence of the Uys Commission the Sixth Frontier War had broken out and upon his return to the colony in 1835, Piet Italeni -in his capacity as Field Cornet- performed various acts of bravery during the hostilities, which led to high praise from the British authorities and the local press.

As in the case of many frontiersmen, the Uys relationship with the Xhosa tribes was ambiguous. The frontier trekboers led a life similar to that of their Xhosa neighbours in many ways and trading contacts between the two parties inevitably led to friendship as well as hostility. Some Boer families even chose to live as subjects within the Xhosa territories, preferring the rule of Xhosa chiefs to that of the British colonial administration. It is known that Piet Uys had a warm relationship with the Xhosa chief Hintsa and that on one occasion he presented him with a fine horse. It was on Piet Uys’ horse that Hintsa unsuccessfully tried to make his escape from the British, before being murdered by the British forces that finally caught up with him.

Following the re-establishment of peace after the Sixth Frontier War a court case was conducted against Piet Italeni’s wife (and cousin), Alida Maria Uys, for slapping Rosina, one of their domestic servants. The case was poorly conducted by the colonial authorities and was based on false evidence. Though Alida was acquitted, the incident greatly infuriated the Uys family and further strengthened Piet’s determination to leave the colony. In 1837 he led a trek party, under the nominal leadership of his father, into the interior to join the other Boer emigrants who had also quit the British administration, in a movement that was to become known as the Great Trek: a mass emigration of the Boers to the north that would shape the future of South Africa’s history.

The departure of such highly respected men as Jacobus and Piet Uys from the Cape Colony led the British settlers of Grahamstown to express their sense of loss by presenting the Uys trek party with a large Dutch bible (Statenbijbel). The bible had been bought by public conscription by the British settlers on the frontier and in handing it over to Jacobus Uys they recorded their sympathy with the departing immigrants. The site where this occurred outside Grahamstown is marked by a monument and the "Uys Bible" can be seen in the Museum of the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. A marble frieze in the Voortrekker Monument also commemorates this event.

The Uys party crossed the boundary of the colony in 1837 and established a camp along a tributary of the Modder River. They called this site Kerkspruyt (Church spring), since it was here, under the guidance of Jacobus Uys, that one of the first church buildings north of the Orange River was built, where the Uys party were able to attend regular church services and celebrate the first holy communion to be held outside the colony. Piet Uys soon established contact with Moshesh, king of the Basotho, and Maroko, chief of the Barolong, as well as other local chiefs with whom he signed treaties of friendship. Moshesh even granted him and his descendants the land around Kerkspruyt, on which the railway station of Uysklip (Uys stone) is presently situated. Uysklip is named after the stone on which the Uyses recorded their stay in the vicinity; this inscribed stone can be seen in the National Museum in Bloemfontein.

Piet Uys was on less good terms with the other Commandants of the Great Trek than he was with the autochthonous chieftains. He refused to acknowledge the validity of the Voortrekker constitution drawn up under the leadership of Piet Retief in which his own party had had no say, and proposed to draw up a constitution based on that of the United States once the Voortrekkers had settled down in their new homeland. He was however eventually willing to compromise his strong principles for the sake of Voortrekker unity and accept the Retief constitution as a temporary measure.

The Matabele were a powerful tribe of former Zulu subjects who had revolted against the authority of the Zulu kings and then fled to the Highveld, where they subjected local tribes to their authority and established a short-lived and powerful kingdom under the authority of their chief, Mzilikazi. When during the course of the Great Trek, a party of Boer trekkers trespassed in Mzilikazi’s zone of influence they were exterminated by his impis. Mzilikazi encouraged further attacks on the Voortrekkers by his soldiers.

Following these attacks, Piet Uys took joint command of a punitive commando with another Voortrekker leader, Commandant Hendrik Potgieter. Potgieter had allied himself with local tribes eager to overthrow the despotic rule of their alien overlord. The Voortrekker commando of 360 men and their Barolong and Griqua allies fought a running battle against 12.000 Matabele warriors for nine days in November 1837, including two major engagements at Kapain and Mosega. Uys and Potgieter managed to convincingly crush the military might of the Matabele and thereby evict the Matabele king Mzilikazi from the northern Free State and the western Transvaal, thus establishing -by right of conquest- the Voortrekker claim to the area later known as the Transvaal, the very areas which Mzilikazi himself had conquered only a decade before.

Although Potgieter now wished to settle on the Highveld, Piet Uys still maintained his desire -together with his antagonist Piet Retief- to settle in the lush tropical lands of Natal which he had explored in 1834/5. He did not however entirely trust Retief nor share his haste to settle in Natal and thus was not involved in Retief's missions to the Zulu king Dingane. During Retief’s second visit to the Zulu royal kraal in February 1838, Dingane decided to kill Retief and a hundred of his companions since he saw them as a danger to his rule and to his people. The Retief party was exterminated after both parties had signed a treaty ceding Natal to the Voortrekkers, although it is likely that Dingane did not understand this treaty in the same manner as the Voortrekkers later did. After the murder of Retief and his men, Dingane set his army upon the string of Voortrekker encampments which had been established in Natal, resulting in a series of massacres and bloody encounters which seriously mauled the Voortrekker community but did not destroy it. Upon hearing of the Zulu attacks Piet Uys sped to Natal, where he was elected Commandant-General in Retief's stead. Once again he and Potgieter were given joint command over a punitive commando which encountered a Zulu impi (regiment) at eThaleni. The Zulus managed to lure Uys' commando into an ambush and mortally wound Piet Uys whilst he and his fellow combatants shot their way out of the Zulus' encircling movement. Piet Uys ordered his companions to make good their escape and leave him behind to distract the Zulus from pursuit. His fifteen year old son, Dirk Cornelis “Dirkie” Uys (1823-1838), could however not bear to see his father die alone and thus turned his horse around, galloped back to his father, and died fighting the Zulus beside him. The heroic deaths side by side of father and son led Piet and Dirkie Uys to enter the folk history of South Africa. The first historical novel dealing with Afrikaner history (written by C.W.H. van der Post) was based on the story of their lives. The German author Karl May also immortalized the story of their lives and deaths in his novel "Der Boer van het Roer". A marble frieze in the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria further immortalized their heroic death. The author C.W.H. van der Post wrote of Piet and Dirkie: „No monument, no tombstone marks the place where [Piet and Dirkie Uys (+1838)] lost their lives. Their most glorious monument however, invulnerable to the sands of time, is their valiant, manly life and death, which will always occupy the first place in the history of South Africa’s noblest sons.“

Unlike other Trek leaders, Uys had a generally favourable opinion of British administration and was on friendly terms with the governor of the colony, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, and the British military commander (and later governor) Sir Harry Smith. The historian Theal emphasised his natural intelligence, which he augmented by reading on a wide range of subjects. However, his dissension with Retief, the martyr of the Trek, was embarrassing to nationalist historians who sought to recount a narrative of national unity in the face of animosity and adversity.

Following the disaster at eThaleni (known as the vlugkommando -flight commando- since Potgieter supposedly fled after Uys was ambushed) Andries Pretorius became the Commandant-General of the Voortrekkers and throughout 1838 he methodically organised a campaign of revenge which culminated in the epic Battle of Blood River on 16 December of that year. Piet Uys' younger brother, Jacobus Johannes "Cobus" Uys, had been elected Commandant of the Uys party in Piet's place, and it was in that capacity that he led a contingent of men which fought with Pretorius at Blood River. Prior to the battle the Voortrekkers made a solemn covenant with God on behalf of themselves and their descendants in which they vowed to build a church and (according to traditional sources) keep the day of victory as a sabbath if God would deliver the enemy into their hands. On the day of the battle a Voortrekker army of over five hundred men faced the Zulu army of 12.000 warriors, which attacked the Voortrekker laager repeatedly. Without a single loss the Voortrekker muzzle loaders defeated Dingane's army of assegais, making 3.000-4.000 Zulu casualties (and thus colouring the river with blood).

Commandant Cobus Uys led a party which occupied Dingane's royal kraal shortly after the battle, where they found the remains of Retief and his men at the place of execution, together with the treaty ceding Natal still in his knapsack. The circumstances surrounding this battle gave the event a sacral character (particularly to later Afrikaner nationalists). The Voortrekker victory against such mighty odds was interpreted by some Trekkers as confirming the status of the Boer nation as God’s Chosen people. Besides Commandant Cobus Uys, various other family members participated in the Battle of Blood River, including Piet Italeni’s brothers “Swart” Dirk and Jannie “Gyselaar”, his young son Piet “Hlobane” and even younger nephew Johannes Jacobus, as well as his cousin and brother-in-law Petrus Johannes “Piet Kapkamma” Uys (1803-1878). The battle confirmed the leading role of the Uys family in the young Voortrekker community.

Commandant Cobus Uys left Natal after the British annexation and settled in the Transvaal. His son, Jacobus Johannes “Kootjie” Uys (1828-1881), was Commandant of the Klerksdorp forces in the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881). Another son, Petrus Lafras Uys (1852-1924) was a Transvaal Member of Parliament (Volksraad) and enjoyed fame as the Commandant of the Pretoria North Commando during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). He was one of the Boer deputies to the Vereeniging Peace Conference and was a co-signatory to the Peace Treaty (Treaty of Vereeniging) signed there.

Another of Piet “Italeni’s” brothers, “Swart” (Black) Dirk Uys (1814-1910), played a leading role in Natal and Transvaal society in the second half of the 19th century. “Swart” Dirk served on the General Staff of Commandant General Piet Joubert during the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881) and was one of the signatories of the Peace Treaty signed to end that war after the Boer victory at Majuba. Dirk was also the founder of the town Wakkerstroom, which he had initially named Uysenburg.

“Swart” Dirk is considered to be the father of one of South Africa’s indigenous cattle breeds that was known as the Uysbees (Uys cattle) until 1947 when the breed was officially renamed Drakensberger by the South African Ministry of Agriculture. Although the origins of the Uysbees / Drakensberger go back hundreds of years to when Friesland bulls (known as “Vaderlanders” at the Cape) and the black cattle of the Khoi (Hottentots) were interbred for the first time, it was “Swart” Dirk and his family who bred and improved the breed during the latter half of the 19th century and who subsequently saved the race from extinction after the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

Two of “Swart” Dirk’s sons died on the field of honour: Dirk Cornelis Uys (1855-1881) fell at the Battle of Laings Nek in the First Anglo-Boer War and Jacobus Johannes Uys (1846-1899) was mortally wounded during an engagement in the Second Anglo-Boer War. Their sister “Sannie” Uys (born 1850) sang to the Boer forces in their military laager prior to the battle of Majuba (1881) during the First Anglo-Boer War.

Wessel Hendrik Uys, brother of Piet “Italeni” and “Swart” Dirk, was reputed for his strength and bravery in the Boer and British wars with the Zulus. His son, Jacobus Johannes “Kootjie” Uys (1858-1942) was Senator in the Union Parliament.

The widow of Piet “Italeni”, Alida Maria Uys, re-married Andries Theodorus Spies, who was a cruel stepfather to his Uys stepsons but was not entirely without virtue for he was a member of the Natal Parliament (Volksraad) and became the only leader of the short-lived Republic of Kliprivier (later Ladysmith), from 1842 until its annexation by the British in 1847.

Piet “Italeni’s” two remaining sons, each remained prominent in their own right. “Kruppel “ Koos Uys (1819-1886) had become lame after an accident as a boy and could thus not fully participate in the family’s martial tradition. In his youth Sir Harry Smith granted him land near Ladysmith as a token of esteem for their late and valiant father after their stepfather had disinherited both him and his brother. Based on his family’s rich and tragic experience in their encounters with gallant Zulu warriors, “Kruppel” Koos advised Lord Chelmsford, the British Commander, during the course of the Zulu War of 1879. His advice to ensure that the British columns should always form defensive laagers at every stage of their advance into Zulu territory was not followed but might have helped prevent the crippling British defeat at Isandlwana.

Koos’ son Petrus Lafras Uys (1852-1920) was a Transvaal Member of Parliament (Volksraad) and his grandson Piet “Manzaan” Uys (1878-1899) who worked under Jan Smuts in the Transvaal Department of Justice, was one of the first Boer mortalities in the Second Anglo-Boer War, when he fell on the battlefield of Talana in 1899.

Piet “Italeni’s” youngest son, Petrus Lafras “Piet Hlobane” Uys (1827-1879), played an important role in South Africa’s 19th century’s history. He served as a military Commandant, Member of Parliament (Volksraad) and Landdrost of the Utrecht district. He retired from various public functions after the death of his wife but British annexation of the Transvaal and their subsequent hostilities with the Zulu nation brought him to take on a public role once again. Despite his high esteem for the British nation and its culture, Piet “Holbane” was determined not to allow the British to dominate the state that his family had helped create at such a high price in their blood, hence his opposition to the annexation. But despite his implacable hostility to the British occupation of the Transvaal, he also believed that a war to break the Zulu might was both inevitable and desirable. When the British thus provoked the outbreak of war in 1879, he decided to support them, and formed a private commando of Boer burghers (largely his family and friends), known as the Gallant Forty. Whilst the creation of his burgher commando was not well viewed by many Boers who remained fiercely anti-British, it was warmly welcomed by the British command and many Natalians. Nonetheless, Piet “Holbane” refused to accept any payment for his services from the British command, whom he still considered to be illegally occupying his homeland.

Piet “Hlobane” supported the operations of Colonel Wood’s flying column on the north western front of the war zone. During the course of these operations Wood was asked to effectuate a forward movement of his column to facilitate Lord Chelmsford’s approach to the Zulu stronghold of Eshowe. Partly based on Piet “Hlobane’s” advice, Wood decided to attack the mountain stronghold of Hlobane. After an initial success, the British position on Hlobane mountain became untenable and the British forces were forced to retreat together with Piet Uys’ Gallant Forty. Piet’s son, Dirks, was attacked by Zulus as he descended from the mountain and Piet “Hlobane” returned from safety to help his son. Having saved his son, he was himself assegaied and died. Major Ashe, an eyewitness and fellow combatant, described how he fell: „Splendid, manly, honest Piet Uys (whose father, uncles, brother and cousins fought and fell in the old wars with Dingane) was killed [at Holbane]. He could easily have escaped but, like Buller, preferred to see the last of his men cleared before turning back...he was last seen with his back to the cliff, standing over the body of his favourite horse and six Zulus lying dead in a circle round him, his empty revolver in his left hand and his body pierced with two assegais.“

The Natal press described Piet “Hlobane” Uys’ death as “a national calamity”. The outpouring of grief and admiration was universal. General Sir Redvers Buller said of his death: “we had better spared one hundred men. ... Piet Uys was my guide, counsellor and friend. His loss is irreparable to me. He was really the finest man, morally speaking, that I have ever met.“ Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, then a colonel and close personal friend of Piet “Hlobane” and his family, wrote of “the invaluable aid this patriotic gentleman rendered not only to this column but to South Africa’s highest interests ... [he] was South Africa’s noblest patriot.“

Charles Norris-Newman, war-correspondent of the London „Standard“ noted that „among the many brave soldiers who died with Wood’s Column, the name of Piet Uys certainly ranks as high as that of a thorough patriot who sank all party feeling for the general good, and in so-doing found a noble and never-to-be-forgotten death. Piet Uys came from a family whose names are celebrated in connection with the earliest [Frontier] Wars. ... There were few men in the field against the Zulu whose death will be more deeply deplored than that of the gallant Dutch (sic) leader, Piet Uys.“

Following the cessation of hostilities the Uys family was given a grant of 18.000 morgen of land at the insistence of Wood, a favourite of Queen Victoria, at the express instructions of the Queen “as a token of acknowledgement for [Piet Uys’] unselfish patriotism and fidelity exhibited by him and the brave and prominent services rendered by him during the Zulu War.“

Furthermore, when the Empress Eugenie of France visited South Africa accompanied by Wood in order to see the spot where Zulu warriors killed her son, the Prince Imperial, she stayed with Piet “Hlobane’s” family and made a special point of visiting the location on Hlobane mountain where he was killed.

The Empress may also have been curious to see the beautiful daughter of Piet “Hlobane”, “Sannie” Uys, whom local stories associated with her son, the Prince Imperial. The young Prince Louis-Napoleon exhibited a gallant interest in Sannie’s welfare during his visits to the Uys family, shortly before his death in the Zulu War of 1879. The Uys town home in Utrecht where Sannie met the Prince Imperial is a tourist site, where the account of their supposed romance is used to promote visits to the house.

Even after the death of Piet “Hlobane”, the first loyalty of the Uys family was not to Britain but to their own Boer nation. When in 1880 the First Anglo-Boer War broke out to free the Transvaal from British occupation, Piet “Holbane’s “ sons, nephews and cousins were in the forefront of the struggle against Britain. Piet Hlobane’s son Dirk Cornelis “Dirks” Uys (1863-1899) was the first Boer to reach the summit of Majuba on the day of the fateful battle which re-gained the Transvaal its independence. Various sources attest to the fact that it was also Dirk who killed the British commander, General Sir George Colley. Dirk was himself to die at the hands of the British for he fell at the Battle of Talana (1899) in the opening weeks of the Second Anglo-Boer War. He was not the only Uys to lose his life in defence of Boer sovereignty in the course of this conflict, which saw many acts of gallantry by members of the family. Like all Boer families, the Uyses lost women and children in the British concentration camps and saw many of their men transported to Prisoner of War camps across the width of the British Empire.

The Uyses continued to provide soldiers for various Imperial and African conflicts of the 20th century, but the great age of heroes had passed. During the course of the 20th century the family continued to contribute to South Africa’s culture and heritage through various members of the family amongst whom:

Contents 1 In the domain of the arts 2 In the military domain 3 In the domain of politics 4 In the realm of sports 5 References

[edit] In the domain of the arts

• Sannie Uys, writer
• Uys Krige, son of the writer Sannie Uys, a poet and adventurer
• Jamie Uys, the film producer and director (“The Gods Must Be Crazy”, “Beautiful People”, etc.)
• Pieter-Dirk Uys, playwright, cabaretier and television personality, the “theatrical conscience of South Africa” and passionate activist in the fight against apartheid and AIDS (better known in his theatrical guise of Evita Bezuidenhout)
• Pieter Uys (born 1956), poet
• Dirk “Dagga” (Marihuana) Uys, iconoclastic songwriter of the 80’s and 90’s
• Professor D.C. Uys, historian and academic
• Ian S. Uys, historian and publisher

[edit] In the military domain

• Captain Stoffel Uys who displayed remarkable bravery during the course of many years of service in Namibia
• Brigadier Thys Uys, air ace in the Second World War
• Major Adriaan Izaak Uys, the host of the Greek Royal family in Cairo during the Second World War
• Captain Jan Uys, who served both in the Airforce and Signals Corps during the end of the Angola War

[edit] In the domain of politics

• D.C.H. Uys, Minister of Agriculture and Senator in the 1960’s
• J. L. Uys, Undersecretary to the National Assembly in the 1990’s
• David Uys Rootenberg, nationalist Boer Commandant in the 1980’s and 1990’s; co-founder of the Wit Wolwe and leader of various para-military groups (who descends from an extra-marital branch of the Kapkamma Uyses)
• Colonel Piet Uys, Secretary-General of the Boer nationalist Freedom Front (Vryheidsfront) party
• Pierre Uys, Minister of Health of Western Cape Province
• Juan-Duval Uys, controversial gay political candidate and leader of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (later changed to Death Penalty Party!)

[edit] In the realm of sports

• Pierre Uys, Springbok rugby player
• Antoinette Uys, South African badminton player in the 2004 Olympic Games
• Lafras Petrus Uys, provincial rugby player (Blue Bulls & Griquas)
• Corne Uys, provincial rugby player (Western Cape)

[edit] References

• A letter to the Cape Times in 1879, following the gallant death of Piet “Hlobane” Uys, paid homage to the family’s contribution to South Africa’s history and heritage in stating that: „the name of Uys is associated in my mind with what is generous, brave, religious, hospitable, and, in the truest way, refined.”

• E.H. Brookes & C. de B. Webb, A History of Natal. Pietermaritzburg, 1987 (2nd edition).
• Saul David, Zulu, The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879. London, 2005.
• Peter Becker, Hill of Destiny, The Life and Times of Moshesh, Founder of the Basotho. London, 1969.
• Peter Becker, Rule of Fear, The Life and Times of Dingane, King of the Zulu. London, 1964.
• Peter Becker, Path of Blood, The Rise and Conquests of Mzilikazi, Founder of the Matabele. London, 1962.
• Norman Etherington, The Great Treks, The Transformation of Southern Africa, 1815-1854. Harlow, 2001.
• Joseph Lehmann, The First Boer War, London 1972 (Reprint 1985).
• Johannes Meintjies, The Voortrekkers. Great Britain, 1973.
• Donald R. Morris, The Washing of the Spears, The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation under Shaka and its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879. London 1994 (First Edition 1964).
• C.F.J. Muller, Die Oorsprong van die Groot Trek. Pretoria 1973 (Reprint 1987).
• Carel Potgieter & N.H. Theunissen, Kommandant-Generaal Hendrik Potgieter. Johannesburg, 1934.
• Eric Rosenthal, South African Surnames. Cape Town, 1965.
• George McCall Theal, Pieter Lavras Uys; in “Willem Adriaan van der Stel and Other Historical Sketches”. Cape Town, 1913.
• George McCall Theal, Geschiedenis van Zuid Afrika 1486-1835. ‘s Gravenhage, 1891.
• Ian S. Uys, Die Uys Geskiedenis. Heidelberg, Transvaal, 1974.
• Ian S. Uys, A Boer Family; in “Military History Journa, South African Military History Society”, Volume 3, No. 6.
• Ian Uys, South African Military Who’s Who, 1452-1992. Germiston, 1992.
• Ian Uys, Rearguard, The Life and Times of Piet Uys. Knysna, 1998.
• J.R. Uys, Uys Familie Register. Cape Town, 1984.
• S. Francesco Uys Rootenberg, The origins of the Uys family in the Netherlands; in “Familia, Quarterly Journal of the Genealogical Society of South Africa”, 1997, Volume 34, no. 4.
• H.J. van Aswegen, Geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika tot 1854. Pretoria, 1991 (2nd Edition).
• C.W.H. van der Post, Piet Uijs, of Lijden en Strijd der Voortrekkers in Natal. Kaapstad, 1917.
• Jan Visagie, Voortrekkerstamouers 1835-1845. Pretoria, 2000.
• Eric Walker, The Great Trek. London, 1934.
• Eric A. Walker, A History of South Africa. London, 1935 (Revised Edition).