A Young Minister in Eldoret: Piet and Bets Grobler, 1962 to 1963

An overview of two memoirs in Habari, the newsletter of the Friends of East Africa: "Ons onthou Henza" by Ds Piet Grobler (Habari 1983) and "Mev Bets Grobler skryf oor haar en Ds Piet se lewe in Kenia, 1961 tot 1963" by Bets Grobler (Habari 2021). Both are in Afrikaans. This is a summary for readers of this archive, not a translation.

Piet and Bets Grobler came to the Vergenoeg parsonage in Eldoret as a newly married couple in the last two years before independence. Their two accounts, written nearly forty years apart, give a rare picture of the Afrikaans community in its final years on the Plateau.

A call to Kenya

In 1961 Piet and Bets planned their wedding for 2 December. A few days before, a call came from the Dutch Reformed congregation of Vergenoeg in Eldoret. Bets remembers the family falling silent, and Piet's mother pleading with them not to accept. He was ordained in his parents' congregation at Marikana, and they married and set out. They landed in Kenya on 23 January 1962. Swanie and Monica Swanepoel gave them their first night in Nairobi, Adam van Rensburg drove them up, and they slept at Hennie van Rensburg's warm wooden house at Ainabkoi before reaching the furnished parsonage in Eldoret. Piet writes that they were rich in a new wife and a first congregation, and poor with just ten pounds. Juma Hajee opened an account for them, and they bought their first groceries on credit from an Indian shop.

A shrinking congregation

Bets writes that Vergenoeg once had about 600 members and was down to about 200. On their home visits with the elders to distant farms, they found that many families had already decided to leave, and some had let their flower gardens go. Piet remembers people trekking to Australia, England, Rhodesia and the south. The minister served four congregations, Eldoret, Thomson's Falls, Nairobi and Arusha, and travelled to far places such as the Kilembe mines in Uganda, the Congo, Mombasa and Oldeani in Tanganyika.

He remembers the community as close, where everyone knew everything about everyone and cared for each other. Oom Schalk Steyn told him who was who in the old political divisions, and everyone had stories about Ds Loubser. There were tears, such as the sudden death of Sakkie Steyn and the death of Dirk Coetzee's little boy. There was humour too, like the wedding where he forgot to post the notice at the magistrate's office, so the couple went on honeymoon first and were married afterwards in his study.

Piet also writes that Kenya taught him something that made life easier later: that Black and Coloured people are ordinary people, who can be clerks, police officers and politicians and do the work well.

Life in the parsonage

Bets remembers farmers dropping in at the parsonage at lunchtime when shops closed, and sharing the meal with them, though she admits she was not yet a good cook. Settlers still kept their guns on the mantelpiece at dinner, the Mau Mau years having only just ended. One night someone broke the dining room window from outside, and their worker Machanga disappeared the next day and was never seen again. In 1962 Piet's parents visited, and the four of them drove to Uganda, and later the couple took a three day boat trip on Lake Victoria.

Their son Piet was born in the parsonage on the Sunday evening of 30 December 1962. Carl Emslie lent his new Ford to fetch the doctor from Plateau, but the garage key could not be found, so another minister had to race along the muddy road to get him. The Groblers left Kenya on 10 December 1963, just before Uhuru, for Tanganyika and then South Africa.

Afterwards

Habari 2020 records that Ds Piet Grobler was born on Good Friday 1937, and that his memorial service was held on Good Friday 2020. After Eldoret he served several congregations in South Africa, took part in the East Africa reunions in Pretoria from the start, and was a strong voice in founding Huis Vergenoeg, the home for the aged named after the Eldoret congregation and built with money from the sale of its church property.

Sources: Ds Piet Grobler, "Ons onthou Henza", Habari 1983, pages 3 to 4 of the PDF; Bets Grobler, "Mev Bets Grobler skryf", Habari 2021, pages 9 to 10; obituary in Habari 2020, page 3; Friends of East Africa. Habari 1983, Habari 2021, Habari 2020 (Afrikaans). See also the guide to settler stories in Habari.