Afrikaner

Afrikaners are white South Africans of predominantly Calvinist Dutch, German, French Huguenot, Friesian and Walloon descent who speak Afrikaans. Afrikaners are also sometimes referred to as Boers, but many Afrikaners now view this as a derogatory term.

History

Afrikaners are principally descended from northwestern European settlers and religious refugees who lived in the Cape of Good Hope during the period of administration (1652-1795) by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) and the subsequent period of British rule. The original colony at the Cape, which was started as a refreshment station for the VOC, was first settled by the Dutch in 1652. The arrival in 1688 of a small group of French Huguenots who were fleeing religious persecution in France infused new blood and swelled the settlers' numbers. Some settlers from other parts of Europe (e.g. Scandinavia and the British Isles) also joined the ranks of the Afrikaners. Non-Europeans (including Malay, Indian, Khoi and Bantu) makeup around 5-7% of Afrikaner origins.

Related Topics:
Cape of Good Hope - 1652 - 1795 - Dutch East India Company - Huguenots - Scandinavia - British Isles - Malay - India - Khoi - Bantu

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The Afrikaans language evolved from the Dutch spoken by the first white settlers at the Cape. From the late 17th century, the form of Dutch spoken at the Cape developed differences in pronunciation and accidence and, to a lesser extent, in syntax and vocabulary, from that of the Netherlands, although the languages are still similar enough to be mutually intelligible (with some effort). Settlers who arrived speaking German and French soon shifted to using Dutch and later Afrikaans. The process of creolisation was influenced by the languages spoken by slaves, Khoikhoi and people of mixed descent, as well as by Cape Malay and Portuguese. While the Dutch of the Netherlands remained the language of officialdom, the new creolized form, often known as Cape Dutch, African Dutch or "Kitchen Dutch", developed into a separate language by the 19th century. In 1925 this new language replaced standard Dutch as one of the two official languages of the Union of South Africa

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The term Afrikaner encompasses disparate communities of white Afrikaans speakers. Originally it distinguished those Dutch speakers who saw themselves as local, i.e. "African", from those who still primarily identified with Europe; it was later used to distinguish between Afrikaans speakers and English speakers among the white population. Its earliest use dates from 1707 but was not widely used until after the Anglo-Boer War of the early 20th century. Prior to then, the various white Afrikaans speaking communities were known under different names. A significant number were known as Boers (farmers). The semi-nomadic/migrating farmers of the eastern frontier were known as Trekboers. Those who lived in the western Cape and did not trek eastward were known as the Cape Dutch. The isolated pioneers from the eastern Cape frontier who trekked (migrated into the interior) en masse in a series of migrations later known as the Great Trek (Groote Trek) were known as Voortrekkers (which may be translated as 'forerunners'). A small number of Voortrekkers came from the western Cape as well.

Related Topics:
1707 - Anglo-Boer War - 20th century - Cape Dutch - Great Trek - Voortrekkers

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In the 1830s and 1840s an estimated 12,000 Voortrekkers penetrated the future Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal provinces to put themselves beyond the reach of British authority, in order to escape relentless border wars, British colonialism and its Anglicization polices, as well as to ease pressure on an overcrowding frontier where land was becoming scarce. While some historians claim that this series of migrations, later known as the Great Trek, was caused because the Boers did not agree with the British restrictions on slavery, most Trekboers did not own slaves, unlike the Cape Dutch, their more affluent cousins in the western Cape who did not trek eastward and migrate or participate in the Great Trek. The vast majority of Voortrekkers were Trekboers from the eastern Cape who engaged in pastoralism. Nevertheless, the British promulgation of Ordinance 50 in 1828, which guaranteed equal rights before the law to all "free persons of color", was indeed a factor in Boer discontent, as is well documented by numerous contemporary sources; the various republics founded by the Voortrekkers while prohibiting slavery itself would all enshrine inequality by race into their constitutions.

Related Topics:
1830s - 1840s - Slavery - Trekboers - 1828

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The Great Trek was mainly the result of the "bursting of the dam" of pent up population migration and population pressures, as Trekboer migrations eastward had come to a virtual stop for at least three decades (though some Trekboers did migrate beyond the Orange River prior to the Great Trek). During the Great Trek they fought with the Zulus after Voortrekker leaders Piet Retief and Gerhard Maritz, along with almost half of their followers, were lured under the pretence of a land treaty and massacred by King Dingane and his warriors, who occupied the best land in some of the areas the Boers were attempting to trek into. Although in revenge the forces of Andries Pretorius killed about 3,000 Zulus in the Battle of Blood River in a classic mismatch between guns and spears, Zulu resistance changed the direction of the Trek. The emphasis moved from occupying from the Zulu lands east of the Drakensberg mountains to the west of them and onto the high Transvaal which was occupied by peoples devastated by the Mfecane.

Related Topics:
Zulu - Piet Retief - Gerhard Maritz - Dingane - Andries Pretorius - Battle of Blood River - Drakensberg - Transvaal - Mfecane

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The Boers established independent states in what is now South Africa: the Natalia Republic, the Transvaal Republic (the South African Republic) and the Orange Free State. The British wish to appropriate the diamonds mines in the Boer areas led to the two Boer Wars of 1880-1881 and 1899-1902, which ended with the inclusion of the Boer areas in the British colonies. Canada has participated in this war being requested by its motherland. First concentration camps were built for women, the elderly, and children of the Boers and their black allies. A large number of the prisoners died under the British administration of the camps. Following the British annexation of the Boer republics, the creation of the Union of South Africa (1910) went some way towards blurring the division between British settler and Afrikaner. The black majority, however, was excluded from equal participation in the affairs of the State and country, except for the states which were self governed (Qwaqwa, Zululand, Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, Bophutatswana) until 1994, owing first to the British colonial policies and then later to an Afrikaner-led political party's policy of apartheid, (the Afrikaans word for "aparthood" or "separation"), particularly under the National Party from 1948.

Related Topics:
Natalia - Transvaal - South African Republic - Orange Free State - Boer War - 1880 - 1881 - 1899 - 1902 - Concentration camp - Union of South Africa - 1910 - Qwaqwa - Zululand - Ciskei - Transkei - Venda - Bophutatswana - 1994 - British - Apartheid - Afrikaans - National Party - 1948

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