Jacobus Daniël du Toit

Jacob Daniël du Toit (21 February 1877 – 1 July 1953), known by the pseudonym Totius, was a South African Afrikaner poet, minister, theologian, translator and professor.

Life Jacob Daniël du Toit was born on the 21 February 1877 in Paarl, Cape Colony (present-day, South Africa) in 1907 and chancellor of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, from 1951-1953.

Poetry

One of the poems from Skemering was translated by C.J.D Harvey as follows:

"Night at Sea – Near Aden"

Nothing but sea and darkness everywhere as when the earth was desolate and void and o'er the world-pool hung night, unalloyed No star and no horizon visible, no sight or sign the wandering eye to guide, I hear only the waves beating the side. Though she sails always on, she now sails blind, the prow thrusts forward, cleaving through the night. Only upon the compass, shafts of light.

Another poem, from Passieblomme, translated by J.W. Marchant:

"The World is not our Dwelling Place"

The world is not our dwelling place I see this in the sun that flees and see it in the heron that, mistrustfully, the same sun sees on one leg from the reedy dale and once the final rays are gone a chill spills from this queachy lea a frigid thrill runs right through me I see it then in everything that dusk throws round me in a ring the world is not our dwelling place

The world is not our dwelling place I see it when the moon blood red rising from its field-dust bed still (only just) the church-roof pares from where an owl, abstrusely dumb, sits and at that crescent stares. As it grows quiet down the way I recollect how, late today, the mourners of the afternoon emerged where owl now meets the moon I mark it then in everything while even tightens in a ring the world is not our dwelling place

The world is not our dwelling place I feel it when the winds awake and oaken branches clash and break I hear it in the fluttering of little birds whose wings are thrown against the branches smashed and blown and find on coming closer yet by moonbeam's vacillating light a nest of fledglings overset hurled down by tempest, shattered, dead and feel it then in everything as nighttime closes in a ring the world is not our dwelling place

Honors and recognition Du Toit (under the name Totius) appeared on a South African postage stamp in 1977.

In 1977, a statue of Totius by the sculptor Jo Roos was placed in the Totius Garden of Remembrance, in Potchefstroom. The statue was restored by Roos in 2009, and moved to the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University. It was removed in 2015 at the request of the Reformed Churches of South Africa (RCSA), after consultation with the Du Toit family, with the intention of instead displaying it on RCSA property.The request came after a group called ReformPUK didn't want the statue on the grounds of the university because they see him as a figure of apartheid.

Personal life In 1903, Totius married (; 1881–1966), the daughter of Dirk Postma, the first minister of the Reformed Churches in South Africa, and . Together Totius and Marie had 6 children including the Reformed Churches in South Africa Minister and academic .

On 1 July 1953, Totius died in Pretoria, Union of South Africa (present-day, South Africa) aged 76.