Trip down memory lane to the Transvaal....in the Hague

On one of my first trips to the scenic Dutch capital Den Haag (The Hague), I had to several double-takes while on a tram. We reached a stop called "PaulKrugerlaan"....I look around and was absolutely gobsmacked at all the street names:

Paul Krugerlaan - Paul Kruger Lane

De la Reyweg - De la Rey Road

Christiaan de Wet straat - Christiaan de Wet street

Bothastraat - Botha Street

To name a few of the street names. What do they have in common you ask and why should one care?

Well, if you put Paul Kruger, De la Rey, Christiaan de Wet and Botha into a google search you will find that these are all heroes of the notorious Anglo-Boer Wars of the 1890s and early 1900s which has the even more dubious honour of being the first time concentration camps were ever used. This was by the British in which thousands of Afrikaaners were imprisoned. 

So back to my surprise, not only are these heroes of the Anglo-Boer War but have the equally dubious honour of being the heroes of the architects of 'apartheid'. 

It is hardly surprising that the Dutch would have streets celebrating the heroes of the Anglo-Boer war. After all, the Dutch were the first foreign settlers in the Cape in the mid 1600s and although Afrikaaners are a mixture of French Huguenot descent among other things, the vast majority are of Dutch descent. The ties between the Afrikaans language and Dutch are undeniable. Indeed, there were a number of Dutch foreign volunteers in the two Anglo-Boer wars. 

In fact, the so-called "Architects of apartheid", South African prime minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was actually a Dutch national born in Amsterdam whose family immigrated to South Africa in the early 1900s.

So to me it appears slightly archaic to have Dutch street names in 2012 celebrating the heroes of the architects of apartheid in an area of The Hague known as the Transvaal Kwartier (Transvaal Quarter). Note, I have not thought of the Transvaal since primary school when I had to learn the provinces of South Africa which included the now defunct Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal and Cape Province. 
However, it is perhaps paradoxical that the Transvaal Kwartier of The Hague is probably the most ethnically diverse part of the city. In fact, the vast majority of residents of Transvaal are Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese.