School Days at Broederstroom: Hermanus Steyn Remembers

An overview of "Skooldae op Broederstroom" (School days at Broederstroom) by Hermanus Steyn, published in Habari 1986, the newsletter of the Friends of East Africa. The original is in Afrikaans. This is a summary for readers of this archive, not a translation.

Broederstroom, between Sergoit and Plateau, was the heart of the Afrikaans settlement on the Uasin Gishu, and its school educated generations of settler children. Hermanus Steyn, who also wrote the tribute to Thysie Davies, remembers his years there.

The church school

The school began as a small church school, probably of the Dutch Reformed Church, since most of the teachers were members. Ds M.P. Loubser sometimes came to help, riding his horse Kolbooi. When Hermanus started, the school had two classrooms, a hostel, a house nearby fitted out as boys' bedrooms, and a two roomed building called Bethel, perhaps first meant for a minister, where an unmarried headmaster lived. Married headmasters and their wives ran the hostel, and the women teachers lived there too.

Before his time Mr and Mrs Rousseau ran the school and hostel. In his first year the head was a Mr Malan. His very first teacher was a Miss Cerns from the Laikipia area, who spoke only English and gave him his first caning within hours of meeting him. It was also George van Staden's first day, and they became friends for 36 years.

Moving and coming back

The family moved to Laikipia, then to Eldoret, where he went to an English school, then to Concordia school, and back to Broederstroom. By then the government was taking over the school. The teachers were Gawie Steyn, a missionary, as head, and Miss M.C. Malan, who later married Dirk Kleynsmith. When Gawie Steyn left, Bokkie von Maltitz and Miss Malan ran the school while they waited for a new head from South Africa.

The children were told the day before that he would arrive, and watched him walk over with Oom Bokkie: a lean, dark man in a brown suit who, to them, looked like a devil on two legs. This was L.S.J. Wolmarans, later known to everyone as Oom Wolfie. He meant a great deal to Hermanus, and they understood each other well, though Wolfie knew exactly when the cane was needed.

Running away

One day Miss Malan was angry that the Standard 1 and 2 classes did not know their history, and told them all to leave the school and come back after the break to apologise. Hermanus and his cousin Steyn Murphy took the chance and went home. His mother did not believe that his schooling was over, and the next day he went back wearing two pairs of trousers, which did not help.

Standard 6 was the highest class at Broederstroom. After that, pupils had to go to Nairobi for the Senior Certificate. Hermanus lists his classmates from Standard 2 to 6: Susan van As, Frieda Raath, George van Staden, his cousin Hermanus Steyn Murphy, Jannie Smit, Andries Korf and Willie Bishoff.

Source: Hermanus Steyn, "Skooldae op Broederstroom", Habari 1986, pages 11 to 12 of the PDF, Friends of East Africa. Read the original issue (Afrikaans). See also the archive's posts The Broederstroom and Sergoit Schools and Thysie Davies of Sergoit, and the guide to settler stories in Habari.