South African by default, American by choice

Photo By 94th Airlift Wing | Six-year-old Nicolaas Van Tonder (left) plays in the mud with a friend near his grandmother’s general store in South Africa in 1988. He was born and raised in South Africa and moved to the U.S. at the age of 15. (Courtesy photo)  

FORT STEWART, GA, UNITED STATES

06.30.2017

Story by Sgt. Caitlyn Smoyer 

3rd Division Sustainment Brigade

For American Soldiers, culture shock generally occurs after being sent overseas to an unfamiliar country. It isn’t often that the United States itself is the source of that change; however, that was the case for Sgt. Nicolaas Van Tonder, an operations noncommissioned officer with the 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade on Fort Stewart, Ga.
Van Tonder was born and raised in South Africa during the final years of Apartheid. His family was known as boers, the Afrikaans word meaning “farmers.”
“I noticed very fast growing up that my family was not a traditional Afrikaans family,” he said. “We were more accepting of races.”
His best friend, Eugene, was Indian, and he also made friends with others of diverse origins, cultures and languages.
Van Tonder was a well-known child, as his grandmother owned a general store and his parents owned other businesses including an electrical company and a small convenience store.
Outside of his year-round school schedule, he would often run about, accompanying one of his grandmother’s employees who tended cattle or playing in the mud.
“I had a very fun childhood,” he said. “It was very rough-tumble.”
One day, Van Tonder and his friend found what their young minds imagined to be a sinkhole, he said. They decided to jump in, but found it to be a giant mud puddle instead. Every inch of their bodies was covered in black mud.
“All you could see was our eyes,” he said.
When Van Tonder was 10 years old, he stood with his grandmother in her store on April 27, 1994. Not a single customer had appeared that day. The Apartheid government, which segregated the South African people by race and created preferential treatment for whites, had been removed the year before. This was the first year blacks were allowed to vote.
“Let’s take the store to the people,” his grandmother said.
They loaded up a truck with food and drinks and drove out to the school where the people were casting their votes.
“That line, I kid you not, was probably about two miles long of people that were allowed to vote for the first time ever,” Van Tonder said.
That day led to a big turn of events. Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa’s first black president after spending 27 years in prison and becoming a symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle.
The 10-year-old Van Tonder took his place in history, selling cupcakes to waiting voters.
“That was a distinct moment in South African history as well as for my memory’s sake.”
It did not, however, fix other problems that were going on in South Africa. The crime rates were high, and safety became a concern for his family.
Five years later, he moved with his sister and parents to Atlanta where his uncle lived. Not only were they more secure, but they also had better opportunities, something that his parents wanted for them, he said.
His father exchanged his life savings of 100,000 rand for 10,000 dollars to move his family to the United States. After all his hard work, the value of the U.S. dollar only allowed him one tenth of his earnings.
“It was a big leap of faith,” Van Tonder said.
Though he already knew the English language, his strong accent stood out to other children. Many of them were surprised to learn of his origin because of his skin color, and they asked ridiculous questions concerning his upbringing.
“Did you wear those grass skirts?”
“Did you have a lion as a pet?”
He had also never been taught in English, so he was unfamiliar with some of the terminology used, he said. “Pythagorean theorem” was one of them. This caused him to fall behind in his math classes.
“It was different,” he said. “It was a big culture shock coming to the U.S.”
Regardless of his obstacles in the beginning, he graduated high school with distinction.
After graduation, Van Tonder spent some time as a granite and marble installer, even running his own company, until the Great Recession hit the U.S. in December 2007. The Army became a last resort for him at the time, he said, and he decided to enlist in February 2009.
“If you asked me back when I was in South Africa what I would be doing as an adult, I definitely would not have told you U.S. Soldier.”
But after more than eight years, he is still serving because he enjoys what he does, he said.
“I feel like in the Army I have a purpose.”
He has been stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Lee, Virginia and has deployed to Iraq from Fort Hood, Texas. He also spent three years in Korea, where he had two children, before making his way to Fort Stewart, Georgia.
He plans to continue his career in the military and is currently in the process of putting together a packet to become ab aviation warrant officer. His hope is to retire as a chief warrant officer four.
“By default I guess I am South African, but I don’t think of myself as one,” Van Tonder said. “I think of myself as an American. There is no other place or country I would rather be than here.”

• Date Taken: 06.30.2017
• Date Posted: 06.30.2017 14:52
• Story ID: 239829
• Location: FORT STEWART, GA, US