Blood River

government officials. All over the country, people attending events in their own towns tuned in to hear the Prime Minister's speech. In Krugersdorp, a judge addressing the crowd in Jermyston urged Africaners not to forsake God by tolerating communism, saying quote, everywhere is the cry for equality of whites and non whites,

and everywhere it is fanned by communism. In Freddorp, a speaker waxed poetic on the noble character of their Dutch pioneer forefathers, saying quote, they were neither conquerors nor oppressors. They always followed a determined policy towards the barbarians. In Vadfal, a member of parliament gave a speech about the importance of apartheid, that it was in fact a kindness allowing the races to live and let live, retaining their racial

identities by avoiding race mixing. That speaker mc botha would later help design and implement the administration of the Bantustans, and that day he told the crowd that apartheid had a far more positive outlook than something like segregation. In Kempton Park, theologian Petras Dreyer warned that there could be no middle ground. Economic integration inevitably leads to social integration,

which always ends in blood mixing. Apartheid was still young in nineteen fifty six, the system was still being constructed. Dryer predicted a complete disappearance of the white race if the country failed to quickly adopt total and complete apartheid. That celebration, the one in Kempton Park, was presided over by festival chair William Henry Huggett. He'd been the mayor of the city for several years in the early fifties, and he was on the board of his local branch

of the National Party. The newspaper write up about the event mentions him only briefly, I couldn't even tell you if mister Huggett gave a speech, But I'm willing to bet that they're in the audience listening to those warnings of impending racial annihilation. Was his daughter, a twelve year old Monica Huggett Hunger And this it's weird, little guys. This is a story about religious fervor. It's about myth and legend and racial holy war. It's a story of

very modern bombings and treason convictions and planned assassinations. But it's a story rooted in history. So first, if you'll indulge me a bit of history. December sixteenth is a significant day for South Africans. Today it's celebrated as Reconciliation Day,

but it wasn't always a day of peace. In nineteen sixty one, the newly formed paramilitary Arm of the African National Congress and Konto Wi Sizwey announced their existence with a series of bomb blasts and leaflets declaring quote, the time comes in the life of any nation where there remains only two choices, submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit, and we have no choice but to hit back by all

means within our power in defense of our people. In nineteen thirty, the South African Communist Party held a nationwide protest encouraging black South Africans to publicly burn their past books, the internal passports black people were required to carry at all times. At a passbook burning rally in Durban, police attacked demonstrators, killing A and C organizer Johannes and Kosi.

Day of the Vow. The holiday occupies a place of great importance in the political ideology of the africaner nationalist. In the eighteen thirties, Dutch speaking settlers in the British controlled colony at the Cape of Good Hope began migrating north away from British rule of course, the land north of the British Colony wasn't empty, and these exploratory missions often came into conflict with the African people whose land

they wanted to settle on. In eighteen thirty seven, one of those bands of Dutch pioneers, known as the Fore Trekkers, set their sights on a bit of land in what is now Quasulu Natal. They approached the Zulu king Dingane an attempt to negotiate, stating a desire to live in peace with the Zulu, but noting that they had been victorious in prior conflicts with Zulu warriors. The negotiations did not go well. Dingane was understandably cautious in dealing with

the Fort Trekkers. Earlier treks north had brought the settlers into violent conflict with the indigenous people they encountered, and their proposal just wasn't consistent with.

to sign the treaty. There are conflicting accounts as to whether this treaty was actually signed, but ding Ghane clearly had no intention of giving the Dutch settlers any land. The entire delegation was led to a nearby hillside and killed. There were retaliatory attacks and skirmishes throughout the year, but the settlers spent most of eighteen thirty eight regrouping. Farmers from the Cape Colony were called up as reinforcements, and the bit of history that matters here came at the

end of the year, the Battle of Blood River. In December of eighteen thirty eight, Andres Pretorius led a caravan of fifty seven ox carts and four hundred and sixty four trekker men into Zulu territory. The four trekkers were armed with guns, and the caravan had several cannons. The battle began at dawn on December sixteenth. A surviving member of the Zulu forces said their first charge was mown

down like grass by the musket fire. The Zulu had an overwhelming numerical advantage, accounts very widely putting the number at at least nine thousand, with some estimates ranging as high as thirty thousand, but the Fort Trekkers had a strong defensive position and they had artillery. By noon, three thousand Zulu warriors were dead. The Fort Trekkers had not lost a single man in the Battle of Blood River. There is, of course, no river with such a hideous name.

The battle was fought on the banks of the Encome River, but on the day three thousand Zulu men were slain in a matter of hours. The river is said to have run red with their blood.

They didn't, not until many decades later, anyway. Leonard Thompson, an English historian who led Yale's Southern African Research program, posits that the Day of the Vow is political mythology, a piece of history that was resurrected and embellished when it was politically expedient. There is some kernel of truth.

There is a contemporary account in the journals of Pretorius's secretary, General Jan Bantis, that one week before the battle, Pretorius called his senior officers to his tent and asked them to pray to God for victory. And he promised that if they were victorious, he would build a church to commemorate it. And they did win, and he did build that church, thus fulfilling the only portion of that promise

that we have any record of. For decades, white South Africans did not keep December sixteenth as a holy sabbath. An eighteen seventy seven text by a South African nationalist theologian, contains a history of the battle, but it makes no mention at all of any vow or of divine intervention.

The story re emerged in the late eighteen hundreds amidst the Boer Wars, and in eighteen eighty a ceremony was held to renew the covenant, and in this ceremony they tied the story of the four treker victory over Black Africans to the present struggle for national identity against the British Empire. There were sporadic celebrations of the holiday in the last few decades of the nineteenth century, and the story was evolving as a sort of founding myth. God

wanted the Africaner to have the land. God wanted whites to conquer Black Africans. God gave the Afrikaaner of this land because they were God's chosen people. When South Africa gained independence in nineteen ten, one of the first acts of Parliament was to make the Day of the Covenant a national holiday. In nineteen thirty eight, at the celebration of the one hundred year anniversary of the Battle of Blood River, nationalist politician D. F. Milan addressed the crowd.

He said Blood River had decided the future of South Africa, that it was to be a civilized Christian nation under the authority of the white race. And now, in that moment in nineteen thirty eight, they were standing on the banks of their own Blood River quote, seeing the dark masses gathering around your isolated white race. A decade later, when Milan was elected Prime Minister, he oversaw the implementation of apartheid. You might be wondering at this point, why

am I telling you about this? What does this racist, fake holiday have to do with the subject of our story, Monica huggets Stone, It has everything to do with her. Her belief in the vengeful racist God of Blood River is central to the way she has lived her entire life. She brings it up in almost every interview I could find. In one podcast from twenty twenty one, she describes visiting

the site with her family as a child. To this day, she believes that if the africaner renews that vow, their God will guide their hand in slaughtering the enemies of the white race, whoever they may be.

a conference paper at the University of Pretoria. He had begun to question the historicity of the popular cultural narratives about Blood River, and just as he approached the lectern to present his paper, forty men burst into the lecture hall and surrounded the professor, emptied the tin of hot tar over him, and coated him in white feathers. Those men were members of a group that had up until that very moment operated entirely in secret.

group called the Swedelanders. The blog was written by Adrian Snyman. We'll get to him in a minute. But in the comments under the post, there was one from Monica posted in twenty twenty three, and she was so sorry to see whites turning on each other instead of focusing on the real enemy. And she ends this rather long comment by saying, quote, the time is now for the Boer people to stand together, to go on their knees and beg forgiveness from our creator, the Great Almighty God, who

created the heavens and the earth. We have turned our backs on God and have the mistaken idea that we ourselves are the saviors of the Boer people. God has not abandoned us. He is waiting patiently for the people to call upon him. Just as at Blood River, he will answer again and give his children victory. And I didn't know what that meant, so I made a note of it, and I moved on, And then I saw it again in a YouTube.

well regarded by biblical scholars. He was also briefly the head of the South African diamond mining corporation, the Dedbers Group, and he believed that British people were the true Israelites. I didn't know the Ferra Fentin Bible was even an option, but I guess if you're a racist South African who believes white people are the descendants of the lost tribes of.

and the post is a response to Monica Stone. She had written privately to Snyman to let him know that she would be attending the Aryan Nations World Congress in September of twenty eleven, and she'd be giving a speech

about the white genocide in South Africa. Sneyman's post describes Monica as the only female member of the Africaner Resistance movement to have ever served time in prison for her involvement in the group, and he urges his readers to email her their letters of thanks so she can present them to the Aryan Nations after her speech. And here's where things start to go off the rails. Adrian Snyman, the author of that blog.

nineteen twenty six during the Second Boer War. He was a close companion of General.

books were lost. At the time of her death in nineteen eighty one, the family was not in possession of any of those writings. It appears he's based his books on a document written in nineteen forty two a man who had seen those original written versions of the prophecies related them orally to another man who wrote them down sixteen years after Van Rensburg died, and even that document was lost until Sneiman received it in nineteen ninety. There's no explanation of where it was in between or how

he came to possess it. Very unclear providence on these prophecies. There's no chain of custody on the prophecies. Sneiman has written so feverishly on the subject for the last thirty five years that almost everything I can find about Van Rensburg is written by him, and everything else relies on

his work. There are some contemporary accounts of some of Van Rensburgh's visions, but it's worth mentioning that the most spectacular examples of his coming to pass aren't ones I was able to find written accounts of that date back to his lifetime, and the interpretations of those prophecies that present possible modern occurrences as their fulfillment are almost universally written by fervent race war enthusiasts, people who really really

want the prophecies to be true. And the problem with prophecies that some people really really want to be true is that there will sometimes be people who take matters into their own hands and try to make them come true. Most of his visions are entirely symbolic, things like I saw a red bull and AGray bull fighting is interpreted by his followers as an accurate prediction of World War One, or out of the north, a speckled black ox appears.

He is looking in our direction. The earth in our country becomes desolate, but in Europe it becomes pitch dark, and that is apparently a prediction of the Great Depression. According to Sneimann, Van Rezberg correctly predicted such events as every war of the twentieth century, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster Aids, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the election of Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana's divorce, Princess Diana's death, and a nineteen ninety

five earthquake in Japan. As for the prophecies that haven't come true, well maybe they just haven't come true yet.

war will begin. By his own account, Snyman started interpreting the prophecies in nineteen ninety He published his first book on them in nineteen ninety two, but the earliest writing I could actually get my hands on is from nineteen ninety five, So I can't tell you if Sneimann always believed that this particular prophecy was about Nelson Mandela and his release from prison in nineteen ninety and his election

as president in nineteen ninety four, but that's his interpretation. Now, and this particular prophecy has inspired at least two attempts to force it to come true. In late two thousand and two, a white supremacist terrorist organization calling itself the Booramag set off a series of bombs in Soeto, outside of Johannesburg. They targeted a mosque, a Buddhist temple, an airport, a gas station, and railways, and those bombs went off

after the first round of arrests earlier that year. After the wave of bombing, the group emailed newspapers taking responsibility for the attacks. They demanded the release of the Booramag members who'd already been arrested, but it warned that it wasn't just lower ranking members of the group that people should be worried about interfering with the mission of the Boramagu was a challenge to the God of the Blood River. If their demands weren't met, another wave of bombings would commence.

On December sixteenth, the day of the vow. Those bombings did not come to pass. Police responded to the emails by raiding ninety four properties and arresting eleven more Boromac members. Intriguingly, some of the homes that were raided that day belonged

to men we've encountered elsewhere in this story. There were police raids at the home of Baron Stredam, the White Wolf, who went on a shooting spree in nineteen eighty eight, and at the home of villem Rata, the former Rhodesian military officer who commanded the German mercenaries at Radio Pratoria

in nineteen ninety four. Africana Resistance Movement member Mani Merits and Pete Rudolph, the leader of the Order Borofolk at one of these homes, though none of the reporting specifies whose police found a list of names of the detectives who had been investigating the Borromac. The trials took over a decade, with testimony from over two hundred people. In the end, twenty three members of the group received prison sentences of varying lengths between five and thirty five years.

The ring leader, Mike Detoy, was the first South African to be convicted of treason by the post apartheid government, and because the cases spent eleven years in court, we know a lot about them. At the group's first meeting, members took the vow of blood River. They carried copies of the vow pasted into a little book at all times, and they gave each other code names like Rottweiler and motherfucker.

After they swore their allegiance to God and each other, the leader of the group gave each man a single nine millimeter bullet. In later testimony, a member said quote he said, there was no turning back now. Anyone turning back will be shot, and if you knew somebody would betray you, you had to make sure he was shot. In October of two thousand and two, former President Nelson Mandela was scheduled to travel to Limpopo for a ceremony

opening a new school. Boromag members placed a large bomb on the side of the road they knew he would have to travel to get there, and.

all without the context of the prophecies. One plan presupposes, without explanation, that the violence will simply begin when a mob of black people engage in violent midnight attacks in Johannesburg. That's an extremely unlikely and unexplained scenario in the real world, but it is something that does incite an unstoppable wave of violence. In some of Sneyman's interpretations of the prophecies, their planning doctor humans also fixate on the idea of

amassing their forces in a small town called Prisca. There's no political or tactical advantage to being in Prisca, but the town is mentioned more than twenty times in one of Snyman's books. Van Rensburg had a vision that a miracle would occur in Prisca, that in their hour of need, the Boers would receive much needed help from abroad. In the prophecies, the white africaner is armed for the final struggle in Prisca when German guns arrive. It's very important

in the prophecies, these German guns. The guns must come from Germany, and that's so interesting. I mean, the prophecies are a jumbled mess and a lot of it doesn't mean anything. They're mostly about bulls fighting and white horses on hillsides and chickens running east. But the German guns are quite concrete. And I wonder if that was on anyone's mind in nineteen ninety three when Monica Huggett started

hosting German mercenaries in her home. Maybe it's a coincidence that those Germans were the ones smuggling in the guns they hoped to use in the race war back then.

A police informant who'd infiltrated. The group testified that one member claimed his American contacts in the coup klux Klan could help them create a poison to put in the water supply. Another member sat on the stand that they'd plan to poison oranges and then leave them on the streets of Soweto where black people might pick them up and eat them. When the guilty verdicts were read, Pete Rudolph stood up in the gallery and yelled in Afrikaans,

we shall overcome. How odd to see Pete Rudolph misbehaving in the gallery twice, so many years apart. It was a few episodes ago now, but thirty three years before this, in nineteen eighty it was Pete Rudolph who stood and applauded as the VIC Commando bombers were led into the court room. But during the trials, thirteen of those defendants

took a unorthodox approach to their defense. They challenged the court's jurisdiction to even try them at all, claiming that due to irregularities in the nineteen ninety two referendum and then I ninety four election, the current government was illegitimate and the post nineteen ninety four constitution was not binding. The government's position was, of course, that the nineteen ninety two referendum had authorized the government to negotiate a new constitution.

That referendum, for the record, asked the question, do you support continuation of the reform process which the state president began on two February nineteen ninety and which has aimed at a new constitution through negotiation, and that referendum passed with sixty nine percent of voters saying yes. Here's Monica's memory of that election, just for fun.

Afrikaner Folksrad attacked to Clerk. The press release read, in part, each of those sentences is yours personally, because you are the real trader who subjugated our people to a hostile power with cunning in deceit. And further down the page he continues that you have not created any git through which the Boer, African or people can escape from this dispensation in a constitutional manner, shows your evil intent against

our people. News reports at the time say the press release was issued via his Facebook page.

strange and fascinating intersection. But back to the press release, I wouldn't have bothered to tell you Andreas Breytenbach's name if that was his only appearance in this story. There's already too many guys I know, but it's not no because he had friends overseas two and he was in Washington, d C. In September of twenty twelve. I can't blame you if you've forgotten why. That's interesting. It's been a

long story. It was in September of twenty twelve that Monica Huggett Stone led that tiny gaggle of Aryan Nations members on a march through DC. It was her second attempt at getting public attention for her South Africa project, raising awareness for the white genocide.

action stop genocide was initiated by the HNP. So maybe there was some other march against white genocide somewhere in the United States in September of twenty twelve, as possible, I guess, but this was the only one in Washington, DC, and that's where Andres Breidenbach was the week of Monica's

Arian Nation's rally at the Capitol. I can't find him in any of the photos, but that same party newspaper uses a photo of Monica at her rally to illustrate their story about Breidenbach delivering a letter to the ambassador in Washington that same week. Maybe something is lost in translation here, but the article appears to conclude with this statement.

The group of local protesters was also encouraged by the fact that their spokesman, mister Andres Breitenbach, gave an interview to the media at the embassy, and Monica obviously saw and had no issue with the wording of this article because it was proudly posted to the Aryan Nation's website, which is where I found it. But it gets even stranger. Breitenbach wasn't the only South African who paid a visit

to the Aryan Nations in September of twenty twelve. That same month, a man named Hein Bunsier took a trip to the United States. When he was arrested for treason three months later, it was revealed in court that he'd been trying to secure funding from the Aryan Nations and

the ku Klux Klan. Buonsire and three others, Johann Printslou, John Martin Kievy, and Mark Trollop were arrested on December sixteenth, twenty twelve, the day of the vow and the day they had planned to assassinate South African President Jacob Zuma. The charges against Boonsire were dropped in August of twenty thirteen, and after a psychiatric evaluation, John Martin Kievy was committed

to a state hospital. Mark Tarlot pled guilty to conspiracy and Johann Princeleu was found guilty of treason after a trial. So legally, can I tell you that Hein Buonsier was soliciting funding for terrorism?

such a trip. I mean, guns aren't cheap, sure, but what's the return on investment in terms of ammunition when you're looking at booking international travel. But it's possible they needed money for more than just weapons. Buonsire was buying land, a lot of it in Prisca. There is a post from the year before his arrest on a website for

believers in the Free Afrikaner movement. It's a collection of white South Africans who want an independent state, and the post names Bunsire's real estate company, Hausenberg Development Cooperative, is one of two companies allowing people to purchase shares in

a large tract of land. Illitate white resettlement. Later, reporting from investigative journalism outlet I'mapunghani says Boonsire's company website was in twenty twelve quote in the process of purchasing thirty thousand hectares of farmland in Prisca, but I can't find any follow up as to whether or not he ever

successfully purchased the land for his white enclave. During his trip to the United States in twenty twelve, he appeared on six episodes of one right wing podcast and made a single appearance on a wildly fringe anti Semitic conspiracy theory show. I spent the better part of the day trying to dig up audio of any of those episodes,

but they seem to be lost a time. I'm Apungane in twenty twelve that in one episode, Buonsire said, I think we can assume that within the next six to eight months, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a full scale civil war in South Africa. It's a low level war that's being waged against us, and at some point any group of people or a nation would stand up and say enough is enough. In the reporting about Boonsiro's American connections, It's mentioned that he'd visited once before,

but no details are provided. It seemed like that first trip might remain a mystery until I found an open letter Boonsire himself wrote in twenty thirteen after his charges were dropped. In that letter, he reveals that he'd been publishing online for years under the pseudonym Heinrich Zeman, and there is a bit of writing online in Afrikaans under that name, much of it published by the Pro African or Action Group. But I found one essay in English.

The piece tells the almost entirely fictional story of the author's grandparent and its falling victim to the ongoing white genocide in South Africa. They are victims of these infamous farm murders, hacked to death in their beds by machete wielding black men, and he writes in gory detail about the couple's beloved dog, dismembered by the attackers as he

gave his life trying to protect his masters. It's gruesome, it's almost pornographic in its description of the author discovering that the dog's final act was tearing the throat out of one of the black attackers. It was published in twenty eleven by American Renaissance, the white supremacist magazine run

by Jared Taylor. Taylor's website notes that the author attended the American Renaissance Conference in twenty ten, an event that was headlined by a speaker from the Belgian fascist group flams Belang, the successor organization to Flams Block, the neo Nazi organization that coordinated the movement of stolen go uns

and mercenaries to South Africa in the nineties. Bundsaire's piece was included in a collection of essays published by American Restaurants in twenty twenty, and the book has a forward by Jared Taylor himself. I will do some episodes on Jared Taylor one of these days. He's had an enormous influence on American white supremacist thought over the last forty years. His annual conference has for decades now been a real who's who of the international extreme right.

series of public statements after the Charleston church shooting. Dylan Roof's manifesto made it quite clear that he'd been radicalized by the Council of Conservative Citizens, specifically their publications on black crime, and that's what convinced him that white people were being treated unfairly. Their website set him down the path that ended the lives of nine people whose only

crime was welcoming a stranger into their Bible study. Like I said, Boonsire's charges were dropped when he was arrested. In twenty twelve, he was removed as the head of a newly formed political party, the Federal Freedom Party, after its founder was arrested for treason. It obviously struggled a bit, and it rebranded as Front National in twenty thirteen, and then rebranded again as the Africaner Self Determination Party in

twenty twenty. I can't tell if Boonsire is still active and the party he started seems like it would be kind of hard to go back to canvassing for elections when you've already considered triggering a prophecy by blowing up the president. But people can change, I don't know. In September of twenty twelve, Monica huggets Stone was in touch with the leader of the far right party HNP and a man accused of treason. She led a tiny Arian nation's rally at the United States Capital and then she left.

She'd been living in the United States since two thousand after marrying Jim Stone, a retired sports news broadcaster living just outside New Orleans. Federal Election Commission filings show that Jim Stone was on the payroll for David Duke's nineteen ninety six Senate run, but the campaign didn't amount to much.

Jim was apparently the campaign press secretary and director of media relations, but the only news story I can find that looks like it was placed by a press secretary is the one announcing he'd been hired for the position, So maybe he wasn't very good at it. Jimstone passed away in early twenty twelve, and in twenty thirteen, the now widowed Monica Stone sold their home in Mandeville, Louisiana, and returned to her hometown of Kempton Park in South Africa.

Back in South Africa, she operates a charitable organization called the Living Waters Foundation, and interviews in recent years always include a request for donations. She helps orphans, you see, but only white ones. She's quite meticulous about it. In twenty fifteen, a fellow South African neo Nazi recommended donating to Monica's charity, writing on his blog quote, She's a hardcore national socialist. She only gives money to white children.

If she gives money to someone and she later sees them helping non whites, then she cuts off the monies. I went with her in twenty fifteen to visit an orphanage in Pretoria, the only one run by a white woman who was doing it only for white children. But when Monica later found out that the woman was also helping blacks, she cut off.

can't find a single bad word about Monica Huggetstone. I scraped together every existing record of her involvement in white supremacist groups from nineteen seventy nine, when she first met Eugene tare Blanche, through the present day, covering nearly fifty years, intersecting with multiple bombing campaigns, international arms smuggling rings, and

attempted coups. She turned State's witness against her own boyfriend in nineteen eighty And I dug through dozens of ancient blogs in multiple languages, and I can't find a single Nazi with a bad word to say about her. And I think that's a first. There's always beef somewhere. I will have to circle back at some point to talk

about the Swede Lenders, maybe another time. They are more recent African nationalist group founded in the early two thousands, and they publicly shy away from being associated with obvious neo Nazi imagery, but the group is explicitly and completely centered around the Van Rensburg prophecies. They exist to prepare their members for the coming race war and spoiler alert in case I don't get back to the Swede Lenders

anytime soon. Their spokesman, Simon Roche, spent most of the summer of twenty seventeen ling in the United States, including attending the Unite the Right rally here in Charlottesville, and back in that time period, they got into a little bit of hot water in the movement. There were allegations that Simon Roch had been pocketing donations from other white nationalists.

It was a bit of a scandal, and in twenty eighteen he appeared on an American neo Nazi podcast to address the issue, and at some point during the show he was ambushed by Jan Lamprecht, who is a rival of his, and it got a little heated and it

was a very lengthy, uncomfortable interview. But at the end of all that, Simon Roche still spoke glowingly of Monica, calling her someone with an impeccable reputation and recommending that if after all of this, you are still not comfortable donating to the Swedelanders, you should donate to Monica.

Our executive producers are Sophy Letterman and Robert Evans. The show is edited by the wildly talented Rory Gagan. The theme music was composed by Brad Dickert. You can email me at Weird Little Guys podcast at gmail dot com. I will definitely read it, but I probably won't answer it.

It's nothing personal. You can exchange conspiracy theories about the show with other listeners on the Weird Little Guys separated it, but as always, don't post anything that's going to make you one of my weird little guys,