When the guerrilla war was at its height, the British resorted to destroying Afrikaans homesteads that had been supplying the soldiers with food and shelter. And then, in another of the defining moments of Afrikaans history, the British rounded up Afrikaans women and children and placed them in concentration camps to prevent them from aiding the soldiers. Conditions were so harsh that 26,000 died. As a result of these deaths, the Afrikaners agreed to end the war, signing a treaty at the town of Vereeniging on May 31, 1902.
The Afrikaners were at the lowest point in their brief history. They were defeated, their homes and farms were devastated, and they were virtually without resources. Both in the Great Trek and the wars that followed, their culture and language were widely diffused. Isolated groups developed independently, without cultural support or exchange. Viewpoints and ideas became stultified.
At this point Afrikanerdom revived itself and the pillars to that revivalism were nationalism, religion and language. The fight to establish and maintain Afrikaans as a alternative language and the “calling” a, particularly strong belief in their being blessed by God in their endeavours, drew Afrikaners together. Contributing towards the strengthening of Nationalism was the strong feelings grown out of the English divide. Revivalism also saw the formation of the Broederbond, a guiding force in the rebirth of the nationalist spirit.
Nationalism and the English divide.
Because the Dutch of the Netherlands supported the French and American revolutions, the on the Netherlands and began seizing their trade routes. They landed at the in . After the Dutch declared bankruptcy, the British annexed the Cape and appointed British land administrators there in , who were zealous propogators of the Enlightenment. They loosened the trade and labor regulations, speaking of the blacks as 'noble savages' whose untainted natural souls they professed to admire, finally outlawing slavery in . They called the blacks equals, and gave them access to the courts in suit against white landowners. And, they professed to believe in their own autonomous above all else.
A more antithetical message could hardly be imagined, as the English Enlightenment forced itself upon the Afrikaners. From the Boer point of view, the Enlightenment invaded their shores, seized their properties, annexed their farms, imposed alien laws, liberated their slaves without compensation, justified these actions by appeal to Reason alone, and claimed in all of this to be more virtuous than God. They were exposed to the Enlightment, and it appeared to them to be a revolution against God.
The new Boer states which arose after the Great Trek needed a comprehensive philosophy upon which to organize a genuinely Afrikaner society. Voortrekker 'Uncle' , first president of the , adopted the Doleantie in its political form, called the (lamp snuffers), and formulated the Afrikaner cultural mandate based on the neo-Calvinism of the Doleantie. The Doppers waged an intellectual war against outlander culture which was flooding into South Africa through the mass settlements of foreign squatters lured by gold and diamonds, accompanied by British armies. To the Afrikaner mind, the British represented imperialism, viciousness, outlander oppression, covetousness, envy, and unbelief. When the Anglo-Boer wars broke out, Paul Kruger's idealized version of Afrikaner history and alienation by the hostilities of all other peoples forged the Afrikaners into a united force. They were utterly crushed by the British, at great expense of life for the British, Afrikaners, and natives. But the Doppers won the war for the hearts of the Afrikaners, and left them absolutely committed to their laager mentality, to preserve themselves and their way of life against the British melting pot.
Religion
This anti-imperialism extended also to the theory of missionary obligation that developed within the
“the will grow within the sphere of influence assigned to the church by divine providence, as children are taught the Gospel by their parents and family. If God deems it fitting for the Gospel to be received by the natives, and taught to their children, then this is his glory”
Toward that end, Christians have a defining role given them from God, a calling, or covenantal responsibility as God's people, to keep themselves pure in the faith and just in their dealings with the heathen, and to be absolutely unyielding in their protection of what has been legitimately claimed in the name of the . Their history as a people has a central place in forming the Boer religion and is essential to understanding the distinctive concept of "calling" that developed among the Afrikaners. These attitudes went with them through later conflicts, formed in a way that seemed to them obviously crafted by the hand of God Himself. They believed themselves preserved by God's own wisdom and . The things they suffered, and the strong bonds between them that were formed through it all, seemed to confirm this idea at every turn.. In this way, a distinctive folk character became attached to their Calvinistic beliefs.
This was not articulated in a formal way. It was the experience of the Afrikaners, which they interpreted through their assurance that their absolutely sovereign Creator and Lord had shown special grace to them as a particular people. Their faith, tied as it was to their identity as a people, produced in them no appreciable trouble of conscience over their treatment of blacks as though they were incorrigible and dull-witted children, or animals in the shape of men.
According to Pienaar, (1964, 235-236) Dr D.F. Malan voiced the sentiments of his people when he said:
“Our history is the greatest masterpiece of the centuries. We hold this nationhood as our due for it was given to us by the architect of the universe. [His] aim was the formation of a new nation among the nations of the world……………the last hundred years have witnessed a miracle behind which must lie a divine plan. Indeed, history of the Afrikaner revels as a will and a determination which makes one feel that Afrikanerdom is not the work of men but the creation of God”
Language
At the heart of the Afrikaners steadfast determination and ability to rule the land was Afrikaans, a language jealously guarded and nurtured by its speakers since the Dutch arrived in South Africa in the seventeenth century The Taal movement—Afrikaans (at the time almost always referred to as ‘die Taal’—the Language) was a spoken, not a written language. It was a simplified version of Dutch which probably had originated among the slaves and/or Khoikhoi servants. Because young children were raised mostly by nannies, this was the language most whites learned first. Over many generations, the Taal was usually the first language of young children. Dutch remained the official language of government and the Dutch Reformed Church and thus it had to be learned later. Dutch was the written language. The Taal movement was dedicated to making Afrikaans a written and respectable language. The argument was that it was humiliating and demeaning that their mother tongue had no status and was not respectable. Moreover, it meant that Afrikaners could never express themselves in a written form in the language that was most basic and most natural to them. A defining moment for ‘die Taal’ movement was translating the Bible into Afrikaans a newspaper was published in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriote (The Afrikaans Patriot), and began publishing books and pamphlets.
Broederbond
Guiding force in the rebirth of this nationalist spirit was the Afrikaner Broederbond (Association of Brothers), a secret society which gradually came to assume a dominant position in the affairs of the people. The Broederbond was formed in 1918 and maintained an open existence until 1924, when it went underground and its affairs became largely a matter for conjecture. An elite organization, its membership was stated in 1944 to be 2,672, of whom 8-6 percent were public servants and 33-3 percent teachers. In 1952 the Rev. V. de Vos, who had broken away from the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in 1944 and formed a Reconstituted Dutch Reformed Church because the N. G. Kerk, he alleged, was dominated by members of the Broederbond, gave the following breakdown of Broederbond membership: 357 clergymen, 2,039 teachers, 905 farmers, 159 lawyers, and 60 members of parliament. Its general mode of operation has been to co-ordinate activities among Afrikaners and to ensure that Broeders (Brothers) are placed in key positions which can then be utilized for the advancement of the people, one of the strategies that allowed a minority people to rule a majority for so long. But for a few that was not enough and in response to fears that the Boer was once again under attack several resistance groups formed in particular the Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging.
THE AWB IS BORN
In 1971 seven Boers began searching for an alternative to the Westminster system. They blamed the Westminster system of democracy on the fate of whites throughout Africa and that there was no conclusive compromise to the “possession is nine tenths of the law” attitude of black nations, and that concession inevitable leads to total surrender. They made it clear that if action was not taken, the Afrikaner / Boer would suffer the same fate as other white groups in the rest of Africa, who had to pull out and, as dejected and poor whites, flee. The alternative for them lay in the Bible and the role and place of the Boer in Gods great plan. Thus the principles, policy and views of the AWB were based on the Whole Trinity of God. The AWB claims:
“The AWB came into existence from out the years of suffering of the Boerevolk to lead our people to its own Boer state”
The founding members were aware that the then government was steering towards majority rule government for South Africa. Their opposition to majority rule was based on the constitutional dispensation, one man one vote, which according to the AWB unjustly denies the Boer People’s right to self government in their own Republic leading to the fear that the dispensation would then lead to the oppression of the Boer ‘volk’ (people).
The most important endeavour for the AWB was the establishment of a homeland for the Boer ‘volk’ (people).This homeland was to be based on the historical claims to territory already granted to the former Boer Republics: the Zuid Afrikaansche Republic, the Republic of the Orange Free State and the Nieuwe Republic - namely Vryheid and Utrecht, Natal.
These Republics were already acknowledged by Britain, Holland, France, Germany, Belgium and the United States of America (USA) as the sovereign property of the Boer. The Boer, as they saw it, were thus laying claim to a Boer State under international law. After the loss of independence in 1902 (Peace of Vereeniging) and the establishment of the Union in 1910 the Boer ‘people’ (people) employed several attempts to regain their independence. The rebellion of 1914, the Freedom delegation to Britain in 1919, several attempts since 1986 to discuss their plight with the State President, petitions in lieu of their claim to independence and the attempted secession in 1994 failed to regain independence for the Boer.
Although the AWB claims to recognise the rights of other nations and peoples to self- governance and claims nothing more for it’s own ‘people’. The AWB however, rejects any form of dispensation that denies a nation (the Boer nation) the right to self-determination or self-government.
The AWB have framed their perspective of Afrikaner history to suit their objectives. According to the AWB:
A HISTORY OF OUR SUFFERING AND OPPRESSION
The Great Trek came as a result of the British’s insufferable domination, the total failure of government protection against attacks by the Xhosa, and the treatment of placing the Boer on an equal footing with the Hottentots in a land which they (the Boer) considered to be their own. This the Voortrekkers (Pioneers) imbued with a craving for freedom immigrated into the unknown.
After much wandering (note the biblical connotations and the parallel with the Jew wandering in the desert. The AWB use every opportunity to make links between themselves and the Jews, not for any other reason than that they identify with the concept of being a chosen people), this idea of freedom was attained with the establishment of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republic and the Republic of the Orange-Free state. It is in these two Boer Republics that the fundamentals of the Boerevolk (Boer people) are founded.
The Peace of Vereeniging (the republics were incorporated into the British Empire and the blacks disenfranchised) was a bitter pill for our forefathers to swallow, but it nevertheless had still not extinguished the struggle for freedom. We were not only compelled to accept the power of Jewish money, but also the British parliamentary system. Unification did not bring freedom for the Boer nation; it only entailed further burdens and obligations. Who became responsible for the Coloureds, the Blacks and the Indians of Natal? (Note the automatic assumption of the Boer being the superior race).On top of all it all we still had to look after the welfare of the reputed English speaking Boer haters from Natal. Truly: The Union of South Africa entailed only obligations for us and no rights or freedom.
The impoverishment, brought about by the Second War of independence, was intensified by the Depression of the Thirties. Thus the Afrikaner became a pauper in his own country.
In 1961 the Republic of South Africa attained its goal. The Republic of South Africa, however great the desire had been for such, no matter how much zeal was expended, and however much trust and loyalty exist today for such a Republic, the ideal freedom of the nation could not, in the long run, be answered. In actuality it was nothing but a “transitional” Republic: For instance, the governor-general was merely replaced by State President etc. The only positive aspect was the breaking of ties with Britain, and our withdrawal from the British Commonwealth.
At all times we were burdened with the divisive Westminster system which resulted in the Afrikanerdom being divided into groups and political parties. More specific, the acceptance of the Westminster system of government, which was, and still is, designed to divide a nation into political parties, has totally, nullified the Boer-ideal of “unity is strength”.
After the assassination of Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, who held the interest of the Afrikaner nation close to his heart and who expanded the policy of racial segregation (Apartheid) he was succeeded by National Party politicians, who began to deviate more and more from the traditional policy of separation between races and concessional politics quickly led to a split in the National Party. Again here was proof of the divisive influence which the Westminster party political system had had on our people. Although the older generation, to an extent, could still be founded and were followers of the political party system, there appeared on the scene in the seventies a group of young Boer idealists. ( Similar to the Israeli settlers in the occupied territories these Boer idealists consider themselves not only doing the will of God but also hanker back to the pioneer fighting spirit of their forefathers who established the land off the sweat of their brow. Gun in one hand and the Bible in the other)
The AWB was not alone in these endeavours and there are a number of these, generally extreme-right-wing groups with racially motivated agendas.
The AWB in context
The International Freedom Forum wants to establish Saxia, the Land of the Anglo-Afrikaner Saxons: Others include: Wit Wolwe (White Wolves) an extremist Afrikaner group, violently racist, advocating formation of separate Afrikaner homeland. The most notorious member is Barend Strydom who gunned down a number of black pedestrians in Pretoria in November 1988. The Boer Liberation Army (BLA), Blanke Weerstandsbeweging (White Resistance Movement), Boeremag (Farmer Power or Farmer Strength) whose leader Thomas Vogel Vorster is in custody, but six top Boeremag members are wanted after detonating 10-11 bombs in and around Soweto (Johannesburg) on October 29th 2002. Their plan to overthrow the South African government, contained in "Document 12", was emailed to most SA newspapers in Nov 2002 (although its authenticity has yet to be confirmed).
The AWB has managed to make itself stand out from these by the charisma of its colourful leader Eugene Terre'Blanche. According to the AWB:
A PEOPLE’S LEADER BECOMES PROMINENT
Our nation has always been lucky and blessed in that in our hour of crisis there has never been a want for dynamic leadership. Eugène Ney Terre’Blanche also came to prominence at the hour of need..
The AWB membership attributed “saviour status” to Terre’Blanche. This charisma was confirmed for the membership by the ridicule accorded to Terre’Blanche by people outside of the movement.
He had to endure derision and abuse. Especially the financially powerful press with it Afrikaans stooge press had striven to make the leader of the AWB and the Movement to be supporters of the Nazi-ideology. The original purpose was to convince the people to reject him and the Movement. Attempts were also made to remove him from the community. The enemy had sought for something and eventually succeeded in having him charged criminally and cast into prison. If they had had him prosecuted for his political views and deeds, he would have achieved martyr status, and that had to be avoided at all cost. This conspicuous trick had naturally failed because a Boer who reveals natural and unadulterated leadership is quickly recognized by the people. And so a group of seven grew into a powerful people’s movement.
Terre’Blanche nurtured this attribution. His language was that of the old people and always appeared in public dressed as the old Boers did. A 1995 Associated Press release on Terre’Blanche presenting himself to start serving a prison sentence typifies this:
POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa (AP) _ the white, racist leader of a right-wing militant group arrived at a prison Monday to begin serving a six-year sentence for beating a black man so badly he became paralyzed and brain damaged.
It was the second time in a year that Eugene Terre’Blanche reported for jail. Last March he rode into police custody on a black horse with military music booming in the background, to serve a one-year sentence for assaulting a black man.
He was released into house arrest in August. His entrance was far more low-key this time.
As he turned himself over to the prison authorities in Potchefstroom, 75 miles west of Johannesburg, about 50 white students from a nearby agricultural college sang traditional Afrikaner songs, including Die Stem, South Africa's national anthem from 1957 to the end of apartheid in 1994.
The beginning of the end
When South African President F .W. de Klerk declared that apartheid had ended and released black leader Nelson Mandela from prison after twenty-seven years, he unloosed a torrent of doubts and despair among Afrikaners. The beliefs and laws that had guided them were now open to question. The country was to be run with full participation; jobs would be awarded based on merit rather than skin colour. The laws of apartheid began to be dismantled.
Afrikaans was to lose its privileged, protected position, and so were the Afrikaners. The AWB suffered a further blow with the imprisonment for assault of Eugene Terre’Blanche. Despite his imprisonment Terre’Blanche continued his attempts at change although now directed at bringing down the African National Congress (ANC). The advent of all-race elections in 1994 spawned a plot by the AWB to bomb the Jan Smuts airport in Johannesburg, but their efforts were thwarted when a massive police raid drove them from their training facility. They did manage to detonate a number of car bombs during that period; however police forces acted swiftly and managed to arrest four of their members. AWB operatives are also suspected of carrying out the attempted assassination of Mandela’s wife, Winnie, while she attended a funeral march in July of 1994. The AWB denied any involvement in a statement released soon after the incident. Despite their lack of a defining success, the unit will undoubtedly continue to operate to destabilize the ANC, and any other black political party that comes to power. A November 1994 statement by Terre’Blanche demanded the release of all his imprisoned compatriots under threat of a renewed “armed struggle.” Later in his speech, he also threatened, “Touch our weapons and you are declaring war.”.
Nothing typifies the eventual demise of the AWB better than an excerpt from an interview in the WorldNetDaily in which international correspondent Anthony C. LoBaido had with four top South Africans who had high-ranking positions in South Africa's former anti-communist government, military, academia and intelligence branch about the role of the AWB and their current status.
The men are Pieter du Toit, a former South African air force pilot; Col. Wakefield Manner, the head of the South African Foreign Legion known as "32 Battalion" during the Angolan War; Afrikaner academic Harry Botha; and Jan Louis Coetzee, the former head of South Africa's Department of Strategic Communication of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the covert intelligence unit of the agency.
WND: What about Eugene Terre’Blanche and the now defunct Afrikaner Resistance Movement? What about his invasion of the homelands?
Du Toit: I'm afraid the AWB lived in some sort of dreamland under the National Party government – some of the far right thought them to be the guardians of the Afrikaners future.
Unfortunately, they were not taken seriously by most whites in South Africa. They were ridiculed by a large portion of the population. They had two really major faults which negated any real support. Firstly, their bombastic attitude, which in the main was due to their very poor leadership. In fact, we used to say that the AWB changed leadership every weekend after their barbecue. Eugene Terre’Blanche was an excellent orator but lacked dynamic leadership; his military capabilities are very limited...
At present, one neither hears nor sees anything of the AWB – they were so infiltrated by informers that they were a danger to any action.
Their leader, Eugene Terre’Blanche, is in jail. At present he is trying to get out on parole. Unfortunately, he has the wrong colour skin. His whole trial was strange, to say the least, but the ANC is determined to make examples of whites. Winnie Mandela – who is known to have been involved in the murder of a black youth which involves cruelty of a barbaric nature for which she was sentenced to a very nominal six years jail – has not done a day in jail and never will.
Manner: The AWB was riddled with agents, informers and agent’s provocateur. The "invasion" of the black homeland was ill-conceived, badly planned and disastrously implemented. . . .
Coetzee: The question should rather be asked where the money came from to enable a relatively poor official of the former Secret Police to set up a paramilitary apparatus such as the AWB, with its (Nazi-like) banners, uniforms, etc. Someone should study precisely what the AWB did where and when and divert the activities to a budget. Then one should evaluate the situation [to see] whether it was reasonable to expect such huge funds coming from individual sources. Another in-depth research should be done on exactly what the government's secret project to discredit right-wing politics in SA . . . precisely entailed.
Botha: The AWB was a government setup from the start to open the gate for negotiations with the ANC and discredit the conservative Afrikaner by linking him with Nazism. It was the most brutal and destructive mechanism to destroy the Afrikaner resistance ever devised in the history of the Afrikaner people by the left-wing National Party ministers of the time.
Thus from a suburban garage the Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging AWB (Afrikaner Resistance movement) burgeoned into an organisation that attracted worldwide attention to its cause and became a thorn in the side of the South African Government to an organisation which is now almost obsolete. This fuelled by the Afrikaners nations’ history, their nationalism, strengthened by their religiosity and feelings of persecution by the English, which initiated the formation of the Broederbond. A secret organisation whose aim it was to firm the power base of the Afrikaner in South African politics. Setting the stage for a colourful and charismatic man to found the AWB and for close to a decade challenge the path of reconciliation in South Africa.
Reading list
Adam, Heribert, and Moodley. (1993) The Negotiated Revolution: Society and Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Johannesburg: Ball.
Beukes, P. (1994). The Religious Smuts. Cape Town: Human and Rousseau
Bloomberg, C. and Dubow, S. (1989), Christian Nationalism and the Rise of the Afrikaner Broederbond in South Africa, 1914-48, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Dalby, David, ed. (1970) Language and History in Africa. London: Cass.
De Klerk, W. (1975) The Puritans in Africa: The Story of Afrikanerdom. London: Collings.
February, V. (1991) . The Afrikaners of South Africa. New York: Paul International, 1991.
Karis, T, and Carter M. From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1964. 4 vols. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1972-1977.
Marks, Shula, and Trapido, eds.(1982) The Politics of Race, Class, and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century South Africa. New York: Longman, 1982.
Moodie, T. Dunbar. (1975) The Rise of Afrikanerdom: Power, Apartheid, and the Afrikaner Civil Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.
O'Meara, D. (1983) Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital, and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1934-1948. New York: Cambridge University Press.
12/10/2003 information obtained from website: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/weber.htm
12/10/2003 information obtained from website www.barnesreview.org/greatrek.htm
12/10/2003 information obtained from website www.barnesreview.org/greatrek.htm
information obtained from website :http://www.awb.co.za/
03/10/2003 information obtained from website :http://www.awb.co.za/
information obtained from website :http://www.awb.co.za/
information obtained from website http://www.specialoperations.com/Terrorism/SOCGuide/A_F.htm
25/10/2003 information obtained from website http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28790