Afrikaner Society Research Articles

Innovative register and feminist critique in Mark Behr's The Smell of Apples

Mark Behr's artistic exploration of the horrific legacy of Afrikaner racist and masculinist ideology in The Smell of Apples has attracted substantial critical attention. This is perhaps what has elevated his novel to a post-apartheid South African literary canon. While it has been read as an exculpatory narrative-an exploration of how white South Africans disclosed their complicity in apartheid's atrocities and/or a disclosure of how the apartheid system violated their rights-there is critical blindness to other important themes that the novel grapples with. This is why I offer a limited reading of Behr's critique of Afrikaner gender oppression. My exploration, which focuses on Behr's exposition of gender discrimination of upper-middle class women in an Afrikaner society, is anchored on two questions: how does Behr deploy an innovative register-eavesdropping child witness-narrator and a written letter-to unveil the oppression of upper-middle class white South African women in the Afrikaner polity? Second, how does he script the feminist agency of the 'mother of the nation' figure who is muzzled by Afrikaner patriarchy? I foreground Maria Pia Lara's thinking about the liberational potential of literary texts in my discussion of Behr's exposition of the gendered oppression of certain categories of women by Afrikaner patriarchy.

Transformasie in die diverse Afrikanergemeenskap in die postapartheidera: Vier gevallestudies

Transformation in the diverse Afrikaner society in the postapartheid era: Four case studies. Since the end of apartheid in South Africa, Afrikaner people have been faced with disentangling their culture from Afrikaner nationalism. This article argues that the transformation of the Afrikaner people, or the lack thereof, will influence the future and place of Afrikaners in postapartheid South Africa. This article investigates the transformation within the Afrikaner community, considering four case studies: The aftermath of the death of Matlhomola Moshoeu in Coligny, the aftermath of Brendin Horner’s death near Paul Roux, in the court at Senekal, the inequality in SA highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the organisation and movement called Betereinders. Unresolved racial tension was a driving force in Coligny and Senekal. In Coligny, Afrikaner individuals and other community members helped to transform the destruction left by the protests and addressed some burning issues of inequality. In the Senekal protest, some Afrikaners were responsible for most of the destruction. None of the big Afrikaner organisations or churches openly condemned these actions. The pandemic exposed how little economic transformation actually happened on ground level. The Betereinders movement is driven by Afrikaners who believe in a better future for all South Africans. They act, are hands-on, and won’t give up. Unwillingness to face the postapartheid SA and turning a blind eye, have prevented Afrikaners from being part of transformational efforts. However, Afrikaners can, with intentional effort, disentangle their culture from Afrikaner nationalism and are capable of being part of the transformation needed in SA.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary implications of this article involved the subjects of church history, general history, and a dogmatic approach.

Race, rumour and the politics of class in late and post-apartheid South Africa: the case of Arrie Paulus

ABSTRACTDrawing on social histories of rumour, this article challenges notions of white and Afrikaner homogeneity which persist in the scholarship on late and post-apartheid South Africa. In so doing, it demonstrates the revisionist potential of rumour as a historical source, while reinserting class in a scholarship which privileges race as salient historical feature. The article focuses on Arrie Paulus, apartheid South Africa’s most prominent white trade unionist, infamous as the personification of working-class racism. Yet this defender of race-based privilege and staunch Afrikaner nationalist was haunted by a rumour: Paulus, it was whispered, was not actually white. The rumour circulated in reform-era South Africa and persists in the post-apartheid present. By examining the rumour surrounding Paulus’s racial and ethnic origins in terms of the functions it fulfilled within the particular contexts in which it appeared, this article exposes longstanding tensions around the politics of class characterizing Afrikaner society since the 1970s.

Hybridische zelfpositionering en performance in Breytenbachs reisverhalen

This article focuses on the hybrid self-representation and liminal self-positioning of Breyten Breytenbach as presented in his twotravelogues, Return to Paradise (1993) and Dog Heart (1998). Firstly, the form of travel writing is shown to be a suitable genrefor the manifestation of a nomadic or ‘travelling’ subject. Secondly, his liminal self-positioning toward Afrikaner society reflects theproblem of identity in post-apartheid South Africa, as well as the writer’s performance of a future agency for rehabilitating thecollective self within a new South African community. Breytenbach is seen to manifest his cultural identity on the one hand, whileattempting to position this identity within the multicultural society on the other. Key words: autobiography, BreytenBreytenbach, hybridity, identity, self-positioning.

The Impact of General De la Rey’s Death on the Political Situation in South Africa

Abstract The purpose of this article is to explain the historical significance of J.H. de la Rey’s death by analyzing the general's political involvement at the beginning of the First World War. The author also examines the outbreak of the Boer Rebellion and De la Rey's attitude towards it. The controversies surrounding the night of September 15, 1914 are discussed after providing a detailed illustration of the events leading up to the shooting the criminal activities of the Foster gang). It also analyzes the influence the general and Niklaas van Rensburg had on the Afrikaner society, which was faced with the option of revolting against the British. International media coverage of the accident is used in order to portray the world's reaction to the incident.

‘Radio Apartheid’: Investigating a History of Compliance and Resistance in Popular Afrikaans Music, 1956–1979

The ideologues responsible for the construction of hegemonic Afrikaner identity during the era that saw the rise (and fall) of apartheid, did so by painstakingly weaving Afrikaner nationalist ideology into the fabric of Afrikaner society. This had a crucial impact on Afrikaner culture, including the sphere of popular Afrikaans music. The majority of Afrikaans artists did not resist these efforts by apartheid's cultural entrepreneurs, but not all. Some preferred local indigenous music styles of the ‘racial other’ over European trends at a time of increasing racial segregation and complex identity politics. Furthermore, during this time commercial Afrikaans music lost its legitimacy among Afrikaner youths, who preferred to listen to English rock and pop hits from abroad. This preference did not, however, lead to noteworthy anti-establishment sentiments until 1979 when a group of Afrikaans music artists started to question the non-confrontational, compliant mainstream Afrikaans pop. This resonated with a wider circle of critical Afrikaner voices and led to new genres in Afrikaans music. This paper explores the dominant narratives present in the construction of Afrikaner identities by looking at examples of compliance and resistance in popular, or commercial, Afrikaans music from 1956 to 1979.

Dictionaries and Discourses of Deviance: Changing Lexical Representations of ‘Moffie’ and the Reorganisation of Sexual Categories among Afrikaans Speakers during the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This article has as its aim to demonstrate that successive editors of descriptive dictionaries such as the Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT) were instrumental in the shaping and reshaping of idealised Afrikaner masculinity during much of the second half of the twentieth century. Moreover, it seeks to show how the term ‘moffie’, through processes of definition and redefinition, came to form part of a discourse of power, dominance and control that reinforced the ideals of a patriarchal state, and ultimately how its meaning came to be renegotiated as ideals of masculinity changed along with the shifting sands of state (re)formation. Additionally, it seeks to demonstrate how idealised masculinity was conceptualised and reconceptualised by means of the definition and redefinition of its deviant opposite/s. Methodologically, this is achieved by triangulating three sets of data: (1) unpacking changing lexical representations of the word ‘moffie’ and comparing these to (2) contemporary narratives sourced from the popular print media and (3) ethnography. I argue that this allows us to better understand the reorganisation of sexual categories among Afrikaans-speakers, as well as changes in the gendered ordering of Afrikaner society during the second half of the twentieth century.

‘Mother of the nation’: rugby, nationalism and the role of women in South Africa's Afrikaner society

This study investigates the role of women in Afrikaner society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how it came to form an integral part of emergent Afrikaner nationalism within South Africa. Created by men and sustained through the male-dominated realms of politics and rugby, the notion of Volksmoeder or ‘Mother of the Nation’ promoted the virtues of ‘ideal womanhood’ and became a central unifying force within Afrikanerdom in the years following the Anglo-Boer War. Although the concept of the Volksmoeder defies precise definition, it nevertheless incorporated a clear role model for Afrikaner women and became part and parcel of the Afrikaner nationalist mythology that incorporated masculinized sport as part of its doctrine. On the basis of the exploits of Voortrekker women and those who had suffered at the hands of the British during the 1899–1902 conflict, this study explores the notion of an ‘idealized womanhood’ and how it was woven into a male-dominated nationalism.

She Danced Alone: Jo Fourie, Songcatcher of the Groot Marico

With a concertina and a ukulele in the trunk of her car, Jo Fourie—a female Dutch immigrant and widow of a prominent Afrikaner—criss-crossed South Africa in the 1950s in search of Afrikaans folk music. Fourie's documents in the National Film, Video and Sound Archives, Pretoria, tell an extraordinary tale of a collector and musician who is now all but forgotten. This article employs biography as interpretive strategy, not only to give credence to the personal meanings Fourie assigned to boeremusiek, but also to highlight the uncertain and ambiguous position of the genre within Afrikaner society of the period. It is argued that Fourie conceived of her identification with boeremusiek as a strategy of integration, when the genre's low social stature for reasons of morality, race and class would have rendered her efforts impossible. In so doing, the competing forces of aesthetic discipline and musical rapture in Fourie's boeremusiek adventures are highlighted.

Of Gold and Iron: Collaborators in the Winburg District

In Belgium, France and the Netherlands, state-induced punishments were inflicted on collaborators with the German occupation. In this article, Boer collaboration with the British is explored by recounting the careers of three high-profile officers of the Winburg commando, Commandants Harry Theunissen, Fanie Vilonel and Gerrie van der Merwe. There were hundreds of ordinary men and women in the district who also collaborated, but after the war there was no Boer state to bring them to book and the Dutch Reformed Church, as the only coherent social structure to survive the war was, unsurprisingly, more inclined to reconciliation than to retribution. Within post-war Afrikaner society there were furthermore social and political pressures for not settling accounts with those who had been disloyal. Consequently, collaborators were speedily reintegrated into society and the mythology of a united and heroic struggle against British imperialism could be sustained. Today the individualistic and pragmatic way in which Boers responded to occupation helps us to see the past and therefore also the present and the future in a different light.

The Evolution and Destruction of Oorlam Communities in the Rustenburg District of South Africa: The Cases of Welgeval and Bethlehem, 1850s–1980

This is a study of two Oorlam communities in the Rustenburg district. The one, Welgeval, was predominantly rural, the other Bethlehem, otherwise known as the Oorlam Locasie, in Rustenburg town itself, was mostly urban in character. They were situated no more than 60 kilometres apart. They were both off-springs of Boer, later Afrikaner society, and, to a lesser extent, of attachment to missionaries. They both survived for approximately the same duration, and both were victims, in slightly different ways, of apartheid. There was some known contact between the two communities. The emergence of their respective histories has rested in part on land restitution claims, which like many across South Africa, have brought to light previously forgotten or uncovered remembrances. There are, therefore, significant points of similarity and comparison between them. This article further complements the existing literature of previous scholars on the Oorlam by uncovering the experiences of two more sites of Oorlam occupation. Finally a study of the two communities raises interesting issues regarding their identity and the ways in which they have remembered and reconstructed their pasts.

Medical history and Afrikaner society in the boer republics at the end of the nineteenth century

Extracted from text ... ARTICLES Medical history and edical Afrikaner society in the frikaner Boer R Republics at epublics the end of the nineteenth century Elizabeth van Heyningen* Birth, death and disease are fundamental to human society and have been widely explored in the history of other countries.1 In South Africa, however, such studies remain relatively undeveloped, except where they touch on political issues.2 The emergence of HIV/AIDS as a national crisis, however, has drawn attention to the way in which health issues can permeate national life and social identity and makes a strong case for the need to understand the relationship between ..

'Volksmoeder' : mother of a rugby playing nation

This study investigates the role allocated to women in Afrikaner society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how it came to form an integral part of emergent Afrikaner nationalism. Created by men and sustained through the male dominated realms of politics and rugby, the notion of Volksmoeder or 'Mother of the Nation' promoted the virtues of 'ideal womanhood' and became a central unifying force within Afrikanerdom in the years following the Anglo-Boer War. Although the concept of the Volksmoeder defies precise definition, it nevertheless incorporated a clear role model for Afrikaner women and became part and parcel of the Afrikaner nationalist mythology. Synonymous with Afrikaner paternalism, it was a deliberately constructed ideal, the work of male cultural entrepreneurs who deliberately promoted a set of images surrounding women. Based on the exploits of Voortrekker women and perhaps more significantly, those who'd suffered at the hands of the British during the 1899-1902 conflict, the notion of an 'idealised womanhood' was woven into a male-dominated nationalism. (S. African J. for Research in Sport, Physical Ed. and Recreation: 2001 23 (2): 1-6)

Black Students' Perceptions of Factors Related to Academic Performance in a Rural Area of Natal Province, South Africa

Since the Nationalist government came into power in South Africa in 1948, provision of for black Africans in that country has been deliberately and systematically inadequate. In 1949, W. M. Eiselen, a broederbonder (the secret Afrikaner society responsible for much of the policy of the Nationalists), was instructed to plan for blacks as a separate race. He recommended that most blacks receive only the first four years of schooling, as this was sufficient to enable them to communicate with whites. Eiselen also recommended that black be tailored to white economic development plans. Eiselen's proposals were implemented by the Bantu Education Act No. 47 of 1953, which, according to Christie and Collins, signifies education for subservience and cultural domination,' in other words, apartheid. Referring to this act, the then prime minister, Dr. H. F. Verwoerd said it would empower him to teach natives in departments which would assure them that equality with whites was not for them. On June 7, 1954, Verwoerd outlined in the Senate his further ideas for black children: There is no place for him [blacks] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour.... Until now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his own community and misled him by showing him the green pastures of European society in which he was not

South African Development and the Paradox of Racial Particularism: Toward a Theory of Modernization from the Center

There are two main issues taken up in this essay. The first is a critical examination of the prevailing thesis that universalism progressively increases with industrialization. A critique is offered both on theoretical grounds and on the basis of case materials drawn from the Republic of South Africa.1 This analysis provides the background for the second and major task-the presentation of an outline of an emerging pattern of change within societies which began industrialization after the industrialization of the West. This pattern, here called from the center, represents a sharp break with the developmental patterns of the West and provides a way of understanding why South Africa and other later developing states have diverged from the Western route toward modernization. It is argued that South Africa's racialism is a retention and amplification of traditional patterns which, in turn, are direct consequences of the modernization of Afrikaner society from its center. It is further suggested that South Africa's experience is and will be shared by other developing states.