A History of SA Freemasonry
From an address given in 1990 by M W Bro George Groenewald, OSM,
the then Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of South Africa:
A History of SA Freemasonry the then Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of South Africa:
A GRAND Lodge is "normally the supreme Masonic authority in a specific territory".
I must emphasize this aspect because it is in this respect that the situation in South Africa is all the more complex and therefore requires elucidation, the better to understand and appreciate the circumstances which finally influenced and culminated in the establishment of a Grand Lodges of South Africa.
For this reason it is necessary to comment at some length on the advent, progress and dissemination of Freemasonry in South Africa, since it first took root there in 1772.
It must be remembered that at that time the great trading facilities of the Dutch as a strong seafaring nation, opened up new ground in the East Indies, with the Dutch East India Company as the principal instrument in the exploitation of trade routes.
At the same time the Masonic Craft in Holland, following the formation of the Grand East of the Netherlands in 1756, was making extraordinary expansion and with many Masons being sailors on the ships sailing to and from the West and East Indies, it was a natural conclusion that lodges should be formed under the banner of the Grand East of the Netherlands, at all possible ports of call on the sea route. This was facilitated by the appointment of Deputy Grand Master with a roving commission. They were mostly masters of vessels.
Also, at the time, Kaapstad (now more commonly known as Cape Town) was an important settlement of the Dutch East India Company and being strategically located at the southern most part of the African continent, around which all vessels between Europe and the East Indies necessarily had to pass, Cape Town was a very important commercial centre and stop-over harbour for the replenishment of stores, fresh water, etc.
The eyes of the Grand East of the Netherlands had since as early as 1764 been focused on Cape Town, with the view to the establishment of a lodge there. This materialised when in 1771 a Brother Abraham van der Weijde, the captain of a sailing vessel plying between Holland and the East Indies was appointed Deputy Grand Master abroad, with the necessary authority to create and install lodges subject to subsequent ratification.
He arrived at the Cape on the 24th April 1772 and immediately convoked a meeting of the Brethren. This was held on the 2nd May 1772 with ten Brethren assembling under his presidency. Ten days later he issued a provisional warrant, subject to the approval of the authorities in Holland, and the first lodge in Southern Africa, name Lodge De Goede Hoop (translated meaning The Good Hope) came into being. Ratification of Lodge De Goede Hoop was given by the Grand East on 1st September 1772.
The lodge depended for its existence on visitors, conferring numerous degrees but failing to attract local residents as members, particularly because of the rigid social and religious attitudes of the confined Cape society, which consisted primarily of two broad classes of whites - the company official and the free burgher. In view of rigid company policy, company servants were not permitted to trade nor to own land until they were released from their contracts, allowed to settle in the Cape and become so called free burghers.
In these circumstances, the lodge experience considerable difficulty in making progress, causing the Wor. Master to write to the Grand East in 1774, stating that "warning from the pulpit had caused wives to persuade their husbands to hold aloof from Freemasonry". They clergymen in the Cape presumably saw Masonry not only as a threat to their authority over the male section of their congregation, namely those who could become Masons, but somewhat mistakenly viewed it as a rival religious body which indoctrinated its members in the principles of deism and induced them to forswear the established church under oath of secrecy. Sentiments and views which incidentally are still not uncommon on a large scale in certain quarters and especially in the rural areas at the present time in South Africa and therefore an inhibition on the acquisition of more members.
Lodge De Goede Hoop was further condemned for its application of the principals of equality among members meeting within the Lodge, since company officials of different rank and free burghers were allegedly meeting in secrecy, to practise those "Enlightened principles which could then be seen as a danger to the stratified society of the Cape.". In lighter vein, apparently social "apartheid" was very much the order of the day in the Cape from the earliest time.
As a result of these pressures and lack of candidates, it is not surprising that the lodge went into recess in April 1781.
Some years later, in 1794, Lodge De Goede Hoop members began to labour again, this time with more confidence as Freemasonry was now attracting many prominent officials of the company, such as Johannes Andries Truter, later to become Chief Justice, and therefore now was assured to a measure of protection from the company and pulpit.
The fact that more initiates were now South African - born and primarily resident in the Cape also ensured further stability.
I have purposely expounded at some length on the formation and the early history of Lodge De Goede Hoop, primarily for two reasons.
1. To emphasize that it was the Grand East of the Netherlands, to which the Grand Lodge of South Africa remains indebted for its own formation, which first introduced Freemasonry into South Africa, and 2. Since its revival in 1794, Lodge De Goede Hoop has remained active fulfilling over the past two centuries its fundamental function and purpose. In the process, it has been instrumental, irrespective of the circumstances, in the establishment of lodges under the jurisdiction of other Grand Lodges in South Africa. It is today proudly acknowledged as Lodge No. 1 on the register of the Grand Lodge of South Africa.
It is now necessary to expatiate briefly on the subsequent expansion and development of Freemasonry in South Africa, particularly towards the North and also on the historic events which culminated in the unique situation - that apart from the Grand Lodge of South Africa, the United Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland also have Masonic authority in South Africa. A situation which is experienced only in isolation in other parts of the world.
The war between France, Spain and Holland on the one hand and England on the other, in the latter 1700's decidedly influenced the question of the control, military and otherwise, of the Cape with a definite effect on Masonic activity.
Under the British occupation of 1795 military lodges attached to British regiments arrived at the Cape, bringing new interest in the Craft, but not the establishment of new local lodges.
Similarly, further impetus was given to Freemasonry in the Cape with the subsequent take-over of the Colony by the Batavia Republic in 1802 and with the arrival the following year as Head of Government, Commissary General Jacob Abraham de Mist, who was the Deputy Grand Master in Holland and who was to become the first Deputy Grand Master National Netherlandic Constitution for South Africa. His first priority was to re-establish the Dutch presence in the Cape and one of the important avenues he used was Freemasonry.
With the second British occupation of the Cape Colony a few years later, British military lodges again made their appearance, in similar circumstances as the first occupation, with the Commander in Chief himself a Freemason. The Deputy Grand Master National saw in him a Masonic ally and welcomed him to Lodge De Goede Hoop as protector.
However, the influx of English-speaking members into the lodge brought tensions and an inevitable split, when English members broke away to form the first permanent English Lodge in the Cape, namely British Lodge in 1811. Hence effectively the first permanent Masonic involvement in the territory by the United Grand Lodge of England.
The years to follow were uneasy times for the Cape Colony and also for the Craft. The continuing frontier conflicts, and the exodus of thousands of farmers - burghers as they were known - to the north in what is known in South Africa as the "Great Trek" from 1835 to 1838 and the political and social unrest generally accentuated tension between the Dutch burghers and the British authorities. Added to these was the general economic stagnation in the Colony. All these circumstances had an adverse effect on Freemasonry.
Fortunately this unsatisfactory situation was to change through various factors. The Cape began to enjoy relative prosperity from the 1850s. Increased immigration of English settlers, commercial expansion along the eastern coast and the opening up to the Natal Colony were contributory causes to the revitalisation of the Craft, with English Freemasonry spreading primarily to the eastern part of the country and Dutch Freemasonry into the hinterland, as far afield as the Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, which had been established following on the Great Trek of Burghers to the north.
Unfortunately, the use of English as a language medium in Dutch Lodges was again to become a problem and culminated in the formation of the first Scottish Constitution lodge - Lodge Southern Cross, in a breakaway from Lodge De Goede Hoop in 1860.
The first Irish Constitution lodge, Lodge Abercorn, was formed in the Transvaal in 1896.
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and later of gold was to change Freemasonry's character and field of control and influence appreciably and with the passage of time, to move its centre of influence and expansion by way of new lodges away from the Cape. Particularly the development of the diamond fields in the area now known as the Northern Cape, previously forming part of the Republic of the Orange Free State and subsequently annexed by the British, opened the door for the expansion of English Freemasonry. Similar circumstances accentuated the spread of English Freemasonry further north with the exploitation of the gold fields of the Transvaal.
At this stage it is perhaps appropriated to record that as early as 1875 the first call was made for the establishment of a so called "United Grand Lodge of South Africa", but with negative results. A similar move was initiated in 1892, culminating in a meeting attended by some 500 Masons in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The proposal for a separate Grand Lodge for South Africa was however defeated by a small majority vote. The reasons advanced for the formation of the proposed Grand Lodge were:-
(a) its establishment would end competition between Masonic constitutions and would stop "undue multiplication of Lodges". (b) it would bring to an end the sending of money abroad to the mother Grand Lodges (incidentally a sore point with many Masons of the other Constitutions in South Africa still today). (c) a separate Grand Lodge would be able to legislate for "special South African needs". (d) it would end diversity in regalia and ritual and bring amalgamation of local charities.
All very valid reasons.
The call for a United Grand Lodge has been made repeatedly since that time but without any positive measure of success, primarily because of the reluctance on the part of many brethren to break old ties of loyalty and allegiance to their mother Grand Lodges and also in my personal opinion, because none of the more senior or authoritative leaders of any of the four constitutions being willing, for reasons of their own, to associate themselves actively and positively with any such movement. Although this has never been cited as an objection to the possible unification, it can not be overlooked that contrary to the practice for many years in lodges of the Netherlandic (now the Grand Lodge of South Africa) and Scottish Constitutions, and more recently to a limited extent in the Irish Constitution, to permit the use of Afrikaans as a language medium, the only language permitted to be used when lodges of the United Grand Lodge of England in South Africa are at labour, is English.
Although in the early stages Freemasonry did suffer some setbacks and estrangement of relationships between Constitutions because of English/Boer antipathies, which to some measure were again prevalent during the tow Anglo-Boer Wars which were fought at the time of the turn of the last century, and which finally culminated in the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, following the defeat of the Boer forces, generally speaking, Freemasonry in more recent times has not been subjected to any direct political interference or interracial strife or disunity. A relationship which is still experienced today since many Afrikaans speaking Freemasons are also member of the three Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland and are very proud of this association.
Despite temporary setbacks occasioned by internal political and economic circumstances, strong criticism from certain religious quarters and the two World Wars, Freemasonry in South Africa has over the years progressed and expanded. The position today is that all four Constitutions are well represented in all four provinces, namely Cape, Transvaal, Natal and Orange Free State, constituting the Republic of South Africa, working in close harmony and co-operation. The centre of Masonic activity, irrespective of constitution, undoubtedly presently lies in the Transvaal, with Johannesburg and the Reef being the hub of the industrial and commercial development, having the greatest concentration of lodges.
It must be acknowledged however that with the emergence of Afrikaner nationalism as a dominant political force in South Africa in 1948, the movement among Freemasons for a South African Grand Lodge again gained momentum. A factor which possibly also gave impetus to this thinking was the growing campaign for South Africa to become a republic.
In these circumstances and the failure to make any visible progress in regard to the establishment of a United Grand Lodge of South Africa, it is perhaps not surprising that a group of Freemasons, members of the Netherlandic Constitution in the Transvaal decided to set up an entirely South African "Grand Lodge" under the title of the South African Order of Freemasonry. As motivation it stressed that all efforts in the past to unite the Freemasons of South Africa under one banner had been abortive, whilst there was a "national urge" for such a Grand Lodge.
Its first president, officers and members were invested on 13th March 1952.
The fact that its formation was irregular since the official procedure for the formation of a Grand Lodge, had not been complied with, was duly pointed out to the leader of the movement, by the local heads of the four Constitutions, but all to no avail.
In consequence the four Constitutions, namely English, Irish, Scottish and Netherlandic operating lodges in South Africa had no alternative but to prohibit their members from attending any meetings of the breakaway South African Order of Freemasonry. Those members who did transgress in this respect were expelled and had to seek re-admittance to their lodges.
Complete ostracism of this Order followed with its one lodge going it alone until the formation of the Grand Lodge of South Africa in 1961, when the Order was dissolved and the 61 remaining members signing an oath of allegiance to the new, officially recognised Grand Lodge.
I quote merely as a matter of interest from the book entitled "The Freemasons of South Africa" by Dr. A.A. Cooper. "But the reasons for the formation of the "SA Order" - the only irregular body to be set up in South Africa's Masonic Craft history - are still not clear. Could personal ambition have been the cause or was it the wish to have an organisation with no ties overseas, which, in some way reflected considerable opinion in South Africa in the 1950's towards the formation of a republic?
With the principal actors no longer on the stage, Dr Cooper's question remains unanswered.
I must apologise if I have possibly bored you by elaborating too fully on aspects which might be regarded as irrelevant to the basic topic of this lecture. I have done so because I do believe that the early history and development of Freemasonry in South Africa and the involvement of the four Constitutions already mentioned, creating an unique and unfamiliar situation, are indeed the very essence which finally brought about the formation of the Grand Lodge of South Africa, as it is known today.
Considering the repeated efforts to establish a United Grand Lodge of South Africa, it is somewhat ironical that the establishment of the Grand Lodge of Southern Africa, as it was originally called, when it did come, is actually attributable to a combination of events enacted in the Masonic Grand Lodges of Europe, and not associated initially directly in any manner to local pressure.
It is also necessary again to emphasize that over the years there has always been a very close and intimate inter-association, especially between individual lodges of the respective four Constitutions in South Africa. In consequence there is appreciable inter-visiting, dual membership and possibly more important, a common use by lodges of different constitutions of Masonic complexes, irrespective of ownership.
Another feature which might have had some influence, albeit not a serious or significant consideration, is the fact that after the Second World War, South Africa, once one of the leaders of the British Commonwealth in the fight against the Axis, faced a verbal onslaught from its critics overseas over its internal policies.
As the black man achieved independence in neighbouring states, the whites in South Africa, very much in the minority numerically, saw these changes and the overseas criticism as a threat to their own survival, resulting in what might be termed as the closed of the ranks of the Afrikaner.
The consolation of the ruling party, and its victory in the elections of 1953, together with the continuing growing economic strength, at the time, of South Africa, provided an incentive to accelerate the removal of the last symbols of British Imperialism.
One last goal remained - the establishment of South Africa as a Republic, which became a "fait accompli" on 31 May 1961, following on a meeting some months earlier of Prime Ministers of the British Commonwealth in London, when as a result of an onslaught of severe criticism of South Africa's policies, the then Prime Minister withdrew his application for South Africa to remain a member of the Commonwealth.
Although the developments leading up to the establishment of South Africa as a republic might not necessarily have had a direct influence on the decision to form a Grand Lodge of South Africa, it cannot be entirely discounted, although there is no positive substantiation for this view. In actual fact, as I have already mentioned, the circumstances which finally culminated in the decision to establish a Grand Lodge of South Africa originated from an entirely different direction altogether.
It is necessary that I should elaborate at some length on this aspect.
Fully to appreciate the circumstances it must be firstly recalled that with the Nazi onslaught of Europe in the Second World War, Freemasonry in that part of the world was thrown into a state of complete confusion and oppression. In fact the Grand Master of the Grand East of the Netherlands, Major General van Tongeren was thrown into prison, to succumb in a concentration camp in April 1940. He died simply because he was a Freemason, as incidentally did the Grand Master of Austria, who died of brutal treatment in a prison camp.
In consequence, Freemasonry virtually ceased to function in Holland and basically with no contact with Grand Lodge headquarters as such, it was the South African component of the Grand East, by its continued active engagement in Masonic labour, which largely assured the continued existence of the Grand East of the Netherlands and its firm re-establishment after the war. A fact which undoubtedly did not go unnoticed when the question of the formation of a Grand Lodge of Southern Africa came to the fore later.
Freemasonry on the continent of Europe in the post war years was in a state of chaos. Grand Lodges which had been suppressed by Axis forces, gradually began to re-emerge and reform themselves with the added problem of having to decide which neighbouring Grand Lodges should be recognised or not, with due cognisance of their particular Masonic practices.
I do not intend to expand on the term "recognised", as its interpretation, Masonically speaking, should generally be familiar. Suffice it to say that a fundamental prerequisite to qualify for the term "recognised" or "regular" requires of a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient to conform to certain basic and accepted Masonic norms and practices.
Most important is that its members should believe in a Living God and that a Holy Book according to the particular acknowledged religious doctrine or doctrines of the country in which that Grand Lodge operates is exhibited in open lodge.
In his self-imposed efforts to bring about greater unification of the various Grand Lodges in Europe, the Grand Master of the Grand East of the Netherlands, indicated his intention to afford recognition to certain Grand Orients in European countries which did not conform to accepted basic requirements and practices.
In consequence the Grand East of the Netherlands became involved in a serious difference of opinion with the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland, with the distinct possibility that its recognition by the latter three could be withdrawn.
Any such an eventuality could and would have had most disruptive and adverse effect on the Masonic scene in South Africa, where the close association and amity existing between the four constitutions was in sharp contrast to the confusion in Europe.
To compound the problem, the local Masonic heads of the Netherlandic Constitution were completely unaware and uninformed of the dark clouds gathering on the Masonic horizon in Europe.
At the stage when it became evident that a state of impasse was being reached and a suspension of relations between the United Grand Lodge of England and the Grand East of the Netherlands seemed unavoidable, the English Grand Secretary immediately informed his local District Grand Masters in Southern Africa of the developments in Europe. It was only when the contents of his letter were divulged by senior English Freemasons to their Netherlandic counter-parts, that the local Netherlandic Brethren became aware of the situation, with an immediate appreciation of the serious if not disastrous implications involved.
Col. Colin Graham Botha, the then Netherlandic Deputy Grand Master National in South Africa promptly wrote to the Grand Master of the Grand East of the Netherlands expressing his profound fears as to the consequences for Freemasonry in South Africa, should the impasse not be resolved quickly and satisfactorily.
By peculiar coincidence, the same day the Grand Master despatched a letter to Col. Colin Graham Botha informing him officially of the situation, adding and I quote
"I shall do my utmost to prevent a rupture with England. I further fully appreciate that with regard to the close connections between the Netherlandic Constitution and the English Constitution, this rupture would be hardly bearable for South Africa and we should contemplate what could be done in such a case. Perhaps the best solution will be then to form an independent Grand Lodge of Southern Africa".
The first seed had been sown for a separate Grand Lodge of Southern Africa, which was to be nurtured and fostered strongly and actively in the months to follow, although initially some lodges opposed the suggestion.
I was realised that speed was of the essence and steps were immediately initiated to send a delegation consisting of the three senior Netherlandic Masons in South Africa to Holland to seek clarification on the whole contentious issue.
Although the Grand Master was confident that the dispute with England could be satisfactorily resolved, he repeatedly suggested to the delegation that should this not eventuate, the dilemma facing the Netherlandic brethren in South Africa could best be overcome by forming their own independent Grand Lodge.
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