Rase Issues in in South Africa

Under the Act of Union in 1910, all of the British colonies in southern Africa were consolidated into South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire. At this stage in South Africa’s history, the relationship between white and black people was by no means standardized. On farms, some black sharecroppers were treated well and valued by white landowners, while others were abused and exploited. By 1824, however, South Africa formed a government that enshrined racism and segregation. These ideas were valued because of the crystallization of an Afrikaner identity throughout the turn of the century that was racist and exclusionary from its conception.

C.P. Bezuidenhout’s The History of the Afrikaans People is an exemplary text to illustrate the formation of an Afrikaner identity in the late 19th century. Bezuidenhout opens by describing himself as an “Afrikaner, born of Afrikaans parents, patriots from time immemorial, […] brought here from Holland over the seas” (Pg. 78). This definition implies that Afrikaners are of Dutch origin and that they are fiercely patriotic. The corollary of this statement is that people who are not of Dutch descent likely do not love their country as much. It also implies that there have been many generations of Afrikaners and gives no clue to the fact that the term was coined in recent history. This serves to give Afrikaners a sense of a shared rich history that is in reality fabricated in many ways. The Great Trek, for example, was not so much a single great flood of Afrikaners fleeing oppression, as it was a constant trickle of rural Dutch farmers pushed by a number of factors. The text is fraught with allusions to the book of Exodus. As Bezuidenhout paints it, the Afrikaners are “cedars if God” who righteously spread throughout South Africa because they are a chosen people (Pg. 79). When then then relates the British attack on the Afrikaners at Slagtersnek, the British are not only oppressing Afrikaners, but also transgressing against the will of god. The same may be said of the Zulu King Dingaan who “perpetrated the last cruel murders [leaving…] mutilated and smashed men, women and children, scattered on the ground” (Pg. 81). Bezuidenhout succeeds in creating a narrative that portrays Afrikaaners as bastions of God that are being constantly antagonized by the combined forces of the other, whether that be the British, the Hottentot, or the Zulu. The Afrikaner identity, then, is defined by xenophobia and racial purity.

Isabel Hofmeyr writes about the crystallization of the Afrikaner identity, not through mythologizing like Bezuidenhout, but through the creation of a common language. In the early 19th century, Dutch-Afrikaans varied substantially from region to region in Southern Africa. Depending on the area, Dutch patois was colored with English, French, Portuguese, Malay, Xhosa, or Khoesan. Dialect varied not only by region, but also by social status. Many of the upper class spoke English and High Dutch, while the lower class Afrikaans gained a “strong association with poorness and ‘coulouredness’ (Pg. 161). To understand the formation of Afrikaans, one must understand the state of affairs in the Boer Republics after the South African War. The traditional bonds between wealthy landowner and poor farmer were in many ways broken. During the war, almost one fifth of poor Boer farmers joined the British instead of fighting in a commando with the men on whose land they worked. Increasing industrialization meant increasing migration to cities. With urbanization came increasing mixing of Afrikaners and non-Afrikaners, which inspired fear in those who valued Afrikaner purity. Inequality between whites was also extraordinary. One small farmer described the dichotomy as “the rich and the desperately poor: the bosses and the white kaffirs. God forbid!” (Pg. 164). Despite himself, this poor farmer can in some ways relate to black Africans because of their shared poverty. Needless to say, some Afrikaners felt that their communities and shared identities were crumbling.

To understand this perceived deterioration of Afrikaner values, white publications argued about the Afrikaner nationality and identity. Through a combination of fear for Afrikaner identity and recognition of potential economic gain, publications started to print in Afrikaans. In the process of standardizing the language, Afrikaaners felt that its “strong associations of poverty and particularly ‘colouredness’” must be eliminated (Pg. 165). And so with the creation of an Afrikaner language, just like the creation of an Afrikaner history, was the concept of exclusion to maintain purity. And the poor Boer farmer, who was in some ways relating to blacks because of his economic situation, relinquished that empathy along with his distinct patois. As he read newspapers in Afrikaans purged of African influence, and his children learned Afrikaans in school, his shared identity with the wealthy landowner was reinforced.

The idea, cultivated by Bezuidenhout, that Afrikaners were a chosen people manifested itself in the colour bar. Although some secondary industries were starting to develop in the early 20th century, mining was still far and away South Africa’s most important industry. The mines in Kimberly and Johannesburg employed hundreds of thousands of black migrant workers, dwarfing the 25,000 whites that mostly managed the bureaucracy of the mines. This status quo, known as the color bar, was proof that Afrikaners felt themselves superior to blacks. It was left unquestioned by mine owners until 1911 when global gold prices fell and the economic pressure put on the mines forced owners to rethink their policies. Their mines were inefficient and top-heavy because they were encouraged to hire more whites than were actually necessary. When the Chamber of Mines proposed letting off about 8,000 whites, Afrikaners were both terrified and furious. Rural Boer farmers equated the letting off of these workers with the removal of the color bar and the mixing of races. Fear of racial mixing was at the core of Afrikaaner identity. The thought process was that if blacks replaced whites in the higher paying jobs presently denied to them by the colour bar, a black middle class would arise. Next, this newly empowered class would claim the franchise as the prerogative of all blacks. As William Urquhart put it, “many white girls, embarrassed by the removal of the colour bar, will enter into marriage with coloured people – a danger against which the Afrikander is always fighting” (Pg. 231, Workers of the World, William Urquhart).

A South African government that was sympathetic to cultures besides Afrikaans was simply not compatible with Afrikaaner identity. The Afrikaaner identity illustrated in Bezuidenhout’s The History of the Afrikaans People demonizes all other cultures in South Africa, including the British, the Khoesan, and the Zulu. The Dutch patois, forged in a multi-cultural melting pot, is purged of its African and Asian influences. Transformed into Afrikaans, it derives the majority of its words and syntax from Dutch, harkening back to Afrikaner roots. And the racism and segregation inherent in Afrikaner culture was manifested in the colour bar and enshrined in the South African government formed under Hertzog in 1924. These values would be rooted firmly in the government for another 60 years and are still a regrettable part of South African culture today.