Jacob Daniël du Toit (21 February 1877 – 1 July 1953), better known by his pen name Totius, was an Afrikaner poet. He was the son of

Stephanus Jacobus du Toit The Reverend Stephanus Jacobus du Toit (9 October 1847 – 29 May 1911) was a controversial South African nationalist, theologian, journalist and failed politician. In his younger years Du Toit did much to promote the Afrikaans language as a s ...

and Elisabeth Jacoba Joubert.

Life

The poet D.J. Opperman compiled brief biographical notes in Afrikaans about Du Toit. Du Toit began his education at the Huguenot Memorial School at Daljosafat in the Cape (1883–1885). He then moved to a German mission school named Morgensonne near Rustenburg from 1888 to 1890 before returning, between 1890 and 1894, to his original school at Daljosafat. Later he attended a theological college at Burgersdorp before becoming a military chaplain with the

Boer Commando The Boer Commandos or "Kommandos" were volunteer military units of guerilla militia organized by the Boer people of South Africa. From this came the term "commando" into the English language during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902 as per Costica ...

s during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

. After the war, he studied at the Free University in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and received a Doctor of Theology degree. He became an ordained minister of the Reformed Church of South Africa and from 1911 he was a professor at the Theological College of this Reformed Church in Potchefstroom. As an adult he traveled to the

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and Palestine; his impressions of these visits to foreign lands are included in the collection ''Skemering'' (1948). (The word Skemering is a pun and difficult to translate. It can be interpreted as "twilight" but also as "faint recollection"). Du Toit was a deeply religious man and a conservative one in most senses. His small son died of an infection and his young daughter, Wilhelmina, was killed by lightning, falling into his arms dead as she ran towards him. Du Toit recorded this calamity in the poem "O die pyn-gedagte" (literally "Oh the pain-thoughts"). Du Toit was responsible for much of the translation of the Bible into Afrikaans, finishing what his father

had begun. He also put a huge amount of work into producing poetic versions of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. His poetry was in the main lyrical and dealt, inter alia, with faith and with nature, as well as more political themes such as British imperialism and the Afrikaner nation. He left behind many collections of poems, including ''Trekkerswee'' (1915; “Trekkers' Grief”) and ''Passieblomme'' (1934; “Passion Flowers”). He was on the committee that founded

Potchefstroom Gimnasium Potchefstroom Gimnasium is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high School in Potchefstroom, North West, South Africa. Beginnings It was founded in 1907, by the Theological Centre of the Reformed Church of South Africa. Dutch was the langu ...

in 1907 and chancellor of the

Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education The Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (abbreviated as PU for CHE) was a South African university located in Potchefstroom. Instruction was mainly in Afrikaans. In 2004, the university was merged with other institutions to c ...

, from 1951-1953.

Poetry

One of the poems from ''Skemering'' was translated by C.J.D Harvey as follows: :''"Night at Sea – Near Aden"'' :Nothing but sea and darkness everywhere :as when the earth was desolate and void :and o'er the world-pool hung night, unalloyed :No star and no horizon visible, :no sight or sign the wandering eye to guide, :I hear only the waves beating the side. :Though she sails always on, she now sails blind, :the prow thrusts forward, cleaving through the night. :Only upon the compass, shafts of light. Another poem, from ''Passieblomme'', translated by J.W. Marchant: :''"The World is not our Dwelling Place"'' :The world is not our dwelling place :I see this in the sun that flees :and see it in the heron that, mistrustfully, :the same sun sees :on one leg from the reedy dale :and once the final rays are gone :a chill spills from this queachy lea :a frigid thrill runs right through me :I see it then in everything :that dusk throws round me in a ring :the world is not our dwelling place :The world is not our dwelling place :I see it when the moon blood red :rising from its field-dust bed :still (only just) the church-roof pares :from where an owl, abstrusely dumb, :sits and at that crescent stares. :As it grows quiet down the way :I recollect how, late today, :the mourners of the afternoon :emerged where owl now meets the moon :I mark it then in everything :while even tightens in a ring :the world is not our dwelling place :The world is not our dwelling place :I feel it when the winds awake :and oaken branches clash and break :I hear it in the fluttering :of little birds whose wings are thrown :against the branches smashed and blown :and find on coming closer yet :by moonbeam's vacillating light :a nest of fledglings overset :hurled down by tempest, shattered, dead :and feel it then in everything :as nighttime closes in a ring :the world is not our dwelling place

Honors and recognition

Du Toit (under the name Totius) appeared on a South African postage stamp in 1977. In 1977, a statue of Totius by the sculptor Jo Roos was placed in the Totius Garden of Remembrance, in Potchefstroom. The statue was restored by Roos in 2009, and moved to the Potchefstroom Campus of

North-West University af , Noordwes-Universiteit , image = https://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/NWU-Logo-SW.png , motto = ''Dit Begin Alles Hier (Afrikaans)'' ''Gotlhe Go Simolola Fano (Setswana)'' , mottoeng ...

. It was removed in 2015 at the request of the Reformed Churches of South Africa (RCSA), after consultation with the Du Toit family, with the intention of instead displaying it on RCSA property.

References

# (1) Opperman, D.J. Undated; probably 1962. Senior Verseboek. Nationale Boekhandel Bpk, Kaapstad. Negende Druk, 185pp. Translation for Wikipedia by J.W. Marchant 2005. # (2) Schirmer, P. 1980. The concise illustrated South African Encyclopaedia. Central News Agency, Johannesburg. First edition, about 211pp. # (3) AP Grove and CJD Harvey. Afrikaans Poems with English Translations. Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1969.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Totius 1877 births 1953 deaths People from Paarl Cape Colony people Afrikaner people South African people of French descent Members of the Reformed Churches in South Africa Afrikaans-language poets 20th-century South African poets Translators of the Bible into Afrikaans South African male poets 20th-century South African male writers Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni Hertzog Prize winners for poetry