Afrikaner nationalism

Voortrekker Monument, Arfikaner nationalistic monument in the honor of the people that took part in the Great Trek. The architect Gerard Moerdijk describede it as a "monument that would stand a thousands of years to describe the history and the meaning of the Great Trek to it descendants".

Afrikaner nationalism is a political ideology that was born in the late 1800s around the idea, that Afrikaners in South Africa were a "chosen people" and was also strongly influenced by anti-British sentiments that grew strong among the afrikaners especially because of the Boer wars. Afrikaner nationalism emphasized the unity of all Afrikaans speaking white people, the Volk, against such "foreign" elements as blacks, jews and English-speaking South Africans. According to historian Dunbar Moodie, Afrikaner nationalism could be described as a kind of civil religion that combined the history of the Afrikaners, their language and the Afrikaner Calvinism as key symbols. A major proponent of the ideology was the secret Broederbond organization and the National Party that ruled the country 1948–1994.

One of the first champions of the ideology was ordained minister Stephen Du Toit of the Dutch Reformed Church, who was also one of the founding members of the Broederbond as well as the publisher of Die Afrikaanse Patriot newspaper. In his writings, Du Toit put forward the notion that Afrikaners were a distinct natinality with a fatherland (South Africa) and their own language (Afrikaans) and that the volks destiny was to rule South Africa.

During the 1930's a group of Broederbond members shaped the Afrikaner nationalistic ideology, by trying to create a common "Christian-nationalistic" identity for all white, Afrikaans speaking South Africans as well as introducing the idea of "volkskapitalisme" (people's capitalism) that tried to take control from the foreign "British" or "Jewish" economic system and to adapt it to Afrikaner's national character. Volkskapitalisme strived to improve the economic conditions of the Afrikaners who in general at the time were less well-of than the English-speaking whites in South Africa. In practice the program consisted of utilizing the Afrikaner capital into new and existing Afrikaner businesses. Although volkskapitalisme managed to develop some Afrikaner businesses, such as Sanlam and Volkskas into corporate giants that still have a central role in South African economy, in the end the economic benefits for the majority of the poor Afrikaners were slim.

After Apartheid, the Afrikaner nationalism has lost most of it's support. Some right wing political parties, such as the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) still declares its goal as the "unashamed promotion of afrikaner nationalism".

See also

• Volkstaat