Page 141 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1882
The heathens were absolutely not satisfied that after Mamogale and Raikane I had now suddenly got a Christian chief Jakobus and because they were still the majority, they tried to convince him to return to heathenry by asking him to take the younger wives of his deceased father as his wives. As a Christian, he vehemently refused to do this. Then they instructed a heathen Rasskopi to murder Jakobus. He came one Sunday when everybody was in church and Jakobus went home because he was not feeling well. He went to the ill Jakobus and would almost have killed him with a club, but instead hit the table at which Jakobus was sitting. Jakobus jumped into his bedroom, grabbed his revolver that was hanging there and shot down
the murderer. The police took Jakobus, who always reported everything, to Rustenburg before the judge. Advocate Keet defended the “kaptein” and Jakobus was acquitted und great cheering of the many hundreds from all surrounding tribes, because he had acted in self-defence. The clique of the murderer then moved far away. Under Jakobus from 1880 until 1903 when he died, the congregation grew a lot, and so did the village Bethanie because Jakobus was a Christian with all his heart, married a Christian from the congregation and promoted Christianity. Jakobus lived in Bethanie with the old Jakobus Lebethe, his councillor, until he moved into the seminary building in 1885 and this was moved to Berseba.