Brieven uit en over Natal, door een Nederlander by T. C. Colenbrander

Brieven uit en over Natal, door een Nederlander (Letters from and about Natal, by a Netherlander) is the 1978 reprint published by The State Library / Die Staatsbiblioteek, Pretoria. The original was published anonymously at Doesburg in the Netherlands in 1856, and the letters are attributed to Theodoor Christiaan Colenbrander. This edition carries a new foreword and explanatory notes in Afrikaans by Dr C. de Jong.

The text itself is in nineteenth-century Dutch, with Dr de Jong’s notes placing the letters in their historical setting for the modern reader. The book is bound in blue cloth boards with the title stamped in gilt on the front board.

Colenbrander came to Natal in the mid-1850s, a decade after the Voortrekker republic of Natalia had become a British colony. He looked first at Pietermaritzburg, then made his home at Pinetown in 1855, hoping to build a Dutch-minded community there. He later founded the Nieuw-Gelderland settlement on the Natal north coast with family members and colonists brought out from Holland. His letters were written partly to encourage Dutch emigration and give a first-hand picture of the colony in its early years.

A useful primary source for collectors of Natal Africana, researchers of Dutch emigration to South Africa, local historians of Pinetown and the north coast, and anyone interested in the Colenbrander family’s long connection with Natal.

Condition – Very Good

The blue cloth boards are free of defects and the gilt title stamping remains bright. A prior ownership sticker is present on the endpaper, and there is foxing to the pages. A well-kept copy of this State Library reprint.