In the Beginning…: Geology in South Africa and the Early Years of Alex Du Toit

At the time of Alex Du Toit’s birth in the late nineteenth century, the territory that would become South Africa in 1910 had undergone a period of important intellectual development contextualised by its position as both a colony and emerging nation. This was compounded by the mineral discoveries of Kimberley and the Witwatersrand and their implications for the study of geology. And Du Toit’s history was emblematic of this new nation. Of French Huguenot descent, his ancestry dated to Francois Du Toit, originally from Northern France, who arrived in South Africa in 1687. The Huguenots were Protestants fleeing religious discrimination in France and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) settlement at the Cape provided a haven. They were incorporated into the fledging Dutch community and given land on which to farm. They would later become identified with the Afrikaner population. Du Toit’s middle name, “Logie”, however, suggested a more complicated family history. Captain Alexander Logie was a Scottish officer in the Royal Navy who married a Du Toit and subsequently adopted her nephew who was christened Alexander Logie Du Toit. This younger Du Toit married Alexander Logie’s niece, Anna Logie. The match produced four children, the oldest of whom was Alexander Logie Du Toit. From the outset, then, Du Toit represented the complex mix of Briton and Afrikaner that would play out in intricate ways in the early twentieth century.