The arrival ofPortuguese explorerVasco da Gama atCalicut, India, in 1498 opened a gateway of free access to Asia fromWestern Europe around theCape of Good Hope. This access necessitated the founding and safeguarding of trade stations along the African and Asian coasts.[9] The Portuguese landed inMossel Bay in 1498, exploredTable Bay two years later, and by 1510 had started raiding inland.[12] Shortly afterwards, theDutch Republic sent merchant vessels to India and, in 1602, founded theDutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie; VOC).[13] As the volume of traffic rounding the Cape increased, the VOC recognised its natural harbour as an ideal watering point for the long voyage around Africa to East Asia and established a victualling station there in 1652.[9] VOC officials did not favour thepermanent settlement of Europeans in their trading empire, although during the 140 years of Dutch rule many VOC servants retired or were discharged and remained as private citizens.[13] Furthermore, the exigencies of supplying local garrisons and passing fleets compelled the administration to confer free status on employees and oblige them to become independent farmers.[14]
Encouraged by the success of this experiment, the company extended free passage from 1685 to 1707 for Dutch families wishing to settle at the Cape.[14] In 1688, it sponsored the settlement of 200FrenchHuguenot refugees forced into exile by theEdict of Fontainebleau.[15] The terms under which the Huguenots agreed to immigrate were the same as those offered to other VOC subjects, including free passage and the requisite farm equipment on credit. Prior attempts at cultivating vineyards or exploiting olive groves for fruit had been unsuccessful, and it was hoped that Huguenot colonists accustomed to Mediterranean agriculture could succeed where the Dutch had failed.[16] They were augmented by VOC soldiers returning from Asia, predominantlyGermans channelled into Amsterdam by the company's extensive recruitment network and thence overseas.[17][18] Despite their diverse nationalities, the colonists used a common language and adopted similar attitudes towards politics.[19] The attributes they shared served as a basis for the evolution of Afrikaner identity and consciousness.[20]
The term "Afrikaner" currently denotes the politically, culturally, and socially dominant and majority group[23][need quotation to verify] amongwhite South Africans, or theAfrikaans-speaking population ofDutch origin. Their original progenitors, especially in paternal lines, also included smaller numbers ofFlemish,French Huguenot,German,Danish,Norwegian,Swiss, andSwedish immigrants.[9] Historically, the terms "burgher" and "Boer" have both been used to describe white Afrikaans-speakers as a group; neither is particularly objectionable, but "Afrikaner" has been considered a more appropriate term.[10]
Mixed-race "Afrikander"Trekboer nomads in the Cape Colony, ancestral people to the Oorlam and Griqua migrations, produced in the 1890s
The term "Afrikaner" originally describedmixed-race nomadic people in Southern Africa similar toBasters acrossNamibia and South Africa. Such groups include theOorlam people underOude Ram Afrikaner andJager Afrikaner in the early 1700s, with the Oorlam continuing to use Afrikaner as asurname and subgroup of their people. The term was later adopted by white Dutch speakers in the late 19th century to describe themselves via a connection to Africa.[24][25] The first recorded instance of a colonist identifying as an Afrikaner occurred in March 1707, during a disturbance inStellenbosch.[26] When themagistrate, Johannes Starrenburg, ordered an unruly crowd to desist, a young white man named Hendrik Biebouw retorted, "Ik wil niet loopen, ik ben een Afrikaander – al slaat de landdrost mij dood, of al zetten hij mij in de tronk, ik zal, nog wil niet zwijgen!" ("I will not leave, I am an African – even if the magistrate were to beat me to death or put me in jail, I shall not be, nor will I stay, silent!").[27] Biebouw was flogged for his insolence and later banished toBatavia[28]: 22 (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia). The wordAfrikaner is thought to have first been used to classifyCape Coloureds, or other groups ofmixed-race ancestry.[d] Biebouw had numerous mixed-race siblings and may have identified with Coloureds socially.[26] The growing use of the term appeared to express the rise of a new identity for white South Africans, suggesting for the first time a group identification with theCape Colony rather than with an ancestral homeland in Europe.[30]
By the late nineteenth century, the term was common language in both theBoer republics and theCape Colony.[31] At one time,burghers denotedCape Dutch: those settlers who were influential in the administration, able to participate in urban affairs, and did so regularly.Boers often refer to settled ethnic European farmers or nomadic cattleherders. During theBatavian Republic of 1795–1806,burgher ('citizen') was popularised among Dutch communities both at home and abroad as a popular revolutionary form of address.[10] In South Africa, it remained in use as late as theSecond Boer War of 1899–1902.[32] Afrikaner people are also commonly referred to asAfrikaans people.[33][34][35]
[38][39][9][10][40][41][42][2] Note: For the years 1985–2022, the census statistics show the number of Afrikaans-speaking whites. Considering that there is an increasingly significant number of English-speaking Afrikaners (especially after 2001), the numbers could be higher.
VOC initially had no intention of establishing a permanent Dutchsettlement at theCape of Good Hope; until 1657, it devoted as little attention as possible to the development or administration of theDutch Cape Colony.[38] From the VOC's perspective, there was little financial incentive to regard the region as anything more than the site of a strategic manufacturing centre.[38] Furthermore, the Cape was unpopular among VOC employees, who regarded it as a barren and insignificant outpost with little opportunity for advancement.[38]
A small number of longtime VOC employees who had been instrumental in the colony's founding and its first five years of existence, however, expressed interest in applying for grants of land with the objective of retiring at the Cape as farmers.[38] In time, they came to form a class of former VOC employees,vrijlieden, also known asvrijburgers (free citizens, who stayed in Dutch territories overseas after serving their contracts).[43] Thevrijburgers were to be of Dutch birth (although exceptions were made for some Germans), married, "of good character", and had to undertake to spend at least twenty years in Southern Africa.[38] In March 1657, when the firstvrijburgers started receiving their farms, the white population of the Cape was only about 134.[38] Although the soil and climate inCape Town were suitable for farming, willing immigrants remained in short supply, including a number of orphans, refugees, and foreigners.[10] From 1688 onward, the Cape attracted some FrenchHuguenots, most of them refugees from the protracted conflict between Protestants and Catholics in France.[9]
South Africa's white population in 1691 has been described as the Afrikaner "parent stock", as no significant effort was made to secure more colonist families after the dawn of the 18th century,[9] and a majority of Afrikaners are descended from progenitors who arrived prior to 1700 in general and the late 1600s in particular.[44][45] Although some two-thirds of this figure were Dutch-speaking Hollanders, there were at least 150 Huguenots and a nearly equal number ofLow German speakers.[9] Also represented in smaller numbers wereSwedes,Danes, andBelgians.[36]
Following the defeat and collapse of the Dutch Republic duringJoseph Souham'sFlanders Campaign,William V, Prince of Orange, escaped to theUnited Kingdom and appealed to the British to occupy his colonial possessions until he was restored. Holland's administration was never effectively reestablished; upon a new outbreak of hostilities with France, expeditionary forces led bySir David Baird, 1st Baronet, finally permanently imposed British rule when they defeated Cape governorJan Willem Janssens in 1806.[10]
At the onset ofCape Town's annexation to theBritish Empire, the original Afrikaners numbered 26,720 – or 36% of the colony's population.[9]
The South African census of 1960 was the final census undertaken in theUnion of South Africa. The ethno-linguistic status of some 15,994,181 South African citizens was projected by various sources through sampling language, religion, and race. At least 1.6 million South Africans were white Afrikaans speakers, or 10% of the total population. They also constituted 9.3% of the population in neighbouringSouth West Africa.[10]
According to the 1985 South African census, there were 2,581,080 white Afrikaans speakers then residing in the country, or about 9.4% of the total population.[41]
TheSouth African National Census of 1996 was the first census conducted in post-apartheid South Africa. It was calculated on Census Day and reported a population of 2,558,956 white Afrikaans speakers. The census noted that Afrikaners represented the eighth largest ethnic group in the country, or 6.3% of the total population. Even after the end of apartheid, the ethnic group only fell by 25,000 people.
TheSouth African National Census of 2001 was the second census conducted in post-apartheid South Africa. It was calculated on October 9 and reported a population of 2,576,184 white Afrikaans speakers. The census noted that Afrikaners represented the eighth largest ethnic group in the country, or 5.7% of the total population.[42]
Distribution of Afrikaans versus English as home language of white South Africans.
87.5–100% Afrikaans
75–87.5% Afrikaans
62.5–75% Afrikaans
50–62.5% Afrikaans
50–62.5% English
62.5–75% English
75–87.5% English
87.5–100% English
Afrikaners make up approximately 58% of South Africa's white population, based on language used in the home. English speakers account for closer to 37%.[10] As inCanada or theUnited States, most modern European immigrants elect to learn English and are likelier to identify with those descended from British colonials of the nineteenth century.[47] Aside from coastal pockets in theEastern Cape andKwaZulu-Natal they remain heavily outnumbered by those of Afrikaans origin.[48]
Percentage of Afrikaners among white South Africans by province[48]
TheSouth African National Census of 2011 counted 2,710,461white South Africans who speak Afrikaans as a first language,[2] or approximately 5.23% of the total South African population. The census also showed an increase of 5.21% in Afrikaner population compared to the previous, 2001 census.
The earliest Afrikaner communities in South Africa were formed at theCape of Good Hope, mainly through the introduction of Dutch colonists, FrenchHuguenot refugees and erstwhile servants of theDutch East India Company.[9] During the early colonial period, Afrikaners were generally known as "Christians", "colonists", "emigrants", oringezeetenen ("inhabitants").[49] Their concept of being rooted in Africa—as opposed to the company's expatriate officialdom—did not find widespread expression until the late eighteenth century.[49]
It is to the ambitions ofPrince Henry the Navigator that historians attribute the discovery of the Cape as a settling ground for Europeans.[9] In 1424 Henry andFernando de Castro besieged theCanary Islands, under the impression that they might be of use to further Portuguese expeditions around Africa's coast.[12] Although this attempt was unsuccessful, Portugal's continued interest in the continent made possible the later voyages ofBartholomew Dias in 1487 andVasco de Gama ten years later. Dias made known to the world a "Cape of Storms", rechristened "Good Hope" byJohn II.[9] As it was desirable to take formal possession of this territory the Portuguese erected a stone cross inAlgoa Bay. Da Gama and his successors, however, did not take kindly to the notion, especially following a skirmish with theKhoikhoi in 1497, when one of his admirals was wounded.[12]
After theBritish East India Company was founded in 1599, London merchants began to take advantage of the route to India by the Cape.James Lancaster, who had visitedRobben Island some years earlier, anchored inTable Bay in 1601.[12] By 1614 the British had planted a penal colony on the site, and in 1621 two Englishmen claimed Table Bay on behalf of KingJames I, but this action was not ratified.[12] They eventually settled onSaint Helena as an alternative port of refuge.[9]
Due to the value of the spice trade between Europe and their outposts in theEast Indies, Dutch ships began to call sporadically at the Cape in search of provisions after 1598.[10] In 1601 a Captain Paul van Corniden came ashore atSt. Sebastion's Bay nearOverberg.[12] He discovered a small inlet which he namedVleesch Bay, after the cattle trade, and anotherVisch Bay after the abundance of fish.[12] Not long afterwards, AdmiralJoris van Spilbergen reported catching penguins and sheep on Robben Island.[12]
In 1648, Dutch sailors Leendert Jansz and Nicholas Proot had been shipwrecked in Table Bay and marooned for five months until picked up by a returning ship.[9] During this period they established friendly relations with the locals, who sold them sheep, cattle, and vegetables. Both men presented a report advocating the Table valley as a fort and garden for the East India fleets.[9]
We say, therefore, that the Honourable Company, by the formation of a fort or redoubt, and also of a garden of such size as may be practicable or necessary at the above-mentioned Cabo de Boa Esperanza, upon a suitable spot in Table Valley, stationing there according to your pleasure sixty to seventy as well soldiers as sailors, and a few persons acquainted with gardening and horticulture, could raise, as well for the ships and people bound to India as for those returning thence, many kinds of fruit, as will hereafter be more particularly demonstrated.
Under recommendation fromJan van Riebeeck, theHeeren XVII authorised the establishment of a fort at the Cape, and this the more hurriedly to preempt any further imperial manoeuvres by Britain, France or Portugal.[38] Van Riebeeck, his family and seventy to eighty VOC personnel arrived there on 6 April 1652 after a journey of three and a half months.[38] Their immediate task was the establishment of some gardens, "taking for this purpose all the best and richest ground"; following this they were instructed to conduct a survey to determine the best pastureland for the grazing of cattle.[38] By 15 May they had nearly completed construction on theCastle of Good Hope, which was to be an easily defensible victualing station serving Dutch ships plying theIndian Ocean.[38] Dutch sailors appreciated the mild climate at the Cape, which allowed them to recuperate from their protracted periods of service in the tropical humidity of Southeast Asia.[50] VOC fleets bearing cargo from the Orient anchored in the Cape for a month, usually from March or April, when they were resupplied with water and provisions prior to completing their return voyage to the Netherlands.[50]
In extent the new refreshment post was to be kept as confined as possible to reduce administrative expense.[49] Residents would associate amiably with the natives for the sake of livestock trade, but otherwise keep to themselves and their task of becoming self-sufficient.[49] As the VOC's primary goal was merchant enterprise, particularly its shipping network traversing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans between the Netherlands and various ports in Asia, most of its territories consisted of coastal forts, factories, and isolated trading posts dependent entirely on indigenous host states.[51] The exercise of Dutch sovereignty, as well the large scale settlement of Dutch colonists, was therefore extremely limited at these sites.[51] During the VOC's history only two primary exceptions to the rule emerged: theDutch East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, through the formation of a large class of"vrijlieden", or"vrijburgers" (free citizens).[51]
The VOC operated under a strict corporate hierarchy which allowed it to formally assign classifications to those whom it determined fell within its legal purview.[51] Most Europeans within the VOC's registration and identification system were denoted either as Company employees or vrijburgers.[43] The legal classifications imposed upon every individual in the Company possessions determined their position in society and conferred restraints upon their actions.[51] VOC ordinances made a clear distinction between the "bonded" period of service, and the period of "freedom" that began once an employment contract ended.[52] In order to ensure former employees could be distinguished from workers still in the service of the company, it was decided to provide them a "letter of freedom", a licence known as avrijbrief.[52] European employees were repatriated to the Netherlands upon the termination of their contract, unless they successfully applied for a vrijbrief, in which they were charged a small fee and registered as vrijburgers in a Company record known collectively as thevrijboeken.[52] Fairly strict conditions were levied on those who aspired to become vrijburgers at the Cape of Good Hope. They had to be married Dutch citizens who were regarded as being "of good character" by the VOC and committed to at least twenty years' residence in South Africa.[38] Reflecting the multi-national nature of the workforce of the early modern trading companies, some foreigners, particularly Germans, were open to consideration as well.[38] If their application for vrijburger status was successful, the Company granted them plots of farmland of thirteen and a halfmorgen, which were tax exempt for twelve years.[38] They were also loaned tools and seeds.[53] The extent of their farming activities, however, remained heavily regulated: for example, the vrijburgers were ordered to focus on the cultivation of grain.[38] Each year their harvest was to be sold exclusively to the VOC at fixed prices.[53] They were forbidden from growing tobacco, producing vegetables for any purpose other than personal consumption, or purchasing cattle from the nativeKhoikhoi at rates which differed from those set by the VOC.[38] With time, these restrictions and other attempts by the VOC to control the settlers resulted in successive generations of vrijburgers and their descendants becoming increasingly localised in their loyalties and national identity and hostile towards the colonial government.[51]
Around March 1657,Rijcklof van Goens, a senior VOC officer appointed as commissioner to the fledglingDutch Cape Colony, ordered Jan van Riebeeck to help more employees succeed as vrijburgers so the company could save on their wages.[38] Although an overwhelming majority of the vrijburgers were farmers, some also stated their intention to seek employment as farm managers, fishermen, wagon-makers, tailors, or hunters.[38] A ship's carpenter was granted a tract of forest, from which he was permitted to sell timber, and one miller from Holland opened his own water-operated corn mill, the first of its kind in Southern Africa.[38] The colony initially did not do well, and many of the discouraged vrijburgers returned to VOC service or sought passage back to the Netherlands to pursue other opportunities.[54] Vegetable gardens were frequently destroyed by storms, and cattle lost in raids by the Khoikhoi, who were known to the Dutch asHottentots.[54] There was also an unskilled labour shortage, which the VOC later resolved by importing slaves from Angola, Madagascar, and the East Indies.[54]
In 1662 van Riebeeck was succeeded byZacharias Wagenaer as governor of the Cape. Wagenaer was somewhat aloof towards the vrijburgers, whom he dismissed as "sodden, lazy, clumsy louts...since they do not pay proper attention to the [slaves] lent to them, or to their work in the fields, nor to their animals, for that reason seem wedded to the low level and cannot rid themselves of their debts".[54] When Wagenaer arrived, he observed that many of the unmarried vrijburgers were beginning to cohabit with their slaves, with the result that 75% of children born to Cape slaves at the time had a Dutch father.[55][56] Wagenaer's response was to sponsor the immigration of Dutch women to the colony as potential wives for the settlers.[54] Upon the outbreak of theSecond Anglo-Dutch War, Wagenaer was perturbed by the British capture ofNew Amsterdam and attacks on other Dutch outposts in the Americas and on the west African coast.[54] He increased the Cape garrison by about 300 troops and replaced the original earthen fortifications of the Castle of Good Hope with new ones of stone.[54]
In 1672 there were 300 VOC officials, employees, soldiers and sailors at the Cape, compared to only about 64 vrijburgers, 39 of whom were married, with 65 children.[54] By 1687 the number had increased to about 254 vrijburgers, of whom 77 were married, with 231 children.[54]Simon van der Stel, who was appointed governor of the Cape in 1679, reversed the VOC's earlier policy of keeping the colony limited to the confines of the Cape peninsula itself and encouraged Dutch settlement further abroad, resulting in the founding ofStellenbosch.[54] Van der Stel persuaded 30 vrijburgers to settle in Stellenbosch and a few years afterwards the town received its own municipal administration and school.[54] The VOC was persuaded to seek more prospective European immigrants for the Cape after local officials noted that the cost of maintaining gardens to provision passing ships could be eliminated by outsourcing to a greater number of vrijburgers.[45] Furthermore, the size of the Cape garrison could be reduced if there were many colonists capable of being called up for militia service as needed.[45]
Following the passage of theEdict of Fontainebleau, theNetherlands served as a major destination for FrenchHuguenot refugees fleeing persecution at home.[57] In April 1688, the VOC agreed to sponsor the resettlement of over 100 Huguenots at the Cape.[14] Smaller numbers of Huguenots gradually arrived over the next decade, and by 1702 the community numbered close to 200.[58] Between 1689 and 1707 they were augmented by additional numbers of Dutch settlers sponsored by the VOC with grants of land and free passage to Africa.[14] Additionally, there were calls from the VOC administration to sponsor the immigration of more German settlers to the Cape, as long as they were Protestant.[59] VOC pamphlets began circulating in German cities exhorting the urban poor to seek their fortune in southern Africa.[59] Despite the increasing diversity of the colonial population, there was a degree of cultural assimilation due to intermarriage, and the almost universal adoption of the Dutch language.[60] The use of other European languages was discouraged by a VOC edict declaring that Dutch should be the exclusive language of education, administrative record, and religious services.[61] In 1752 the French astronomerNicolas-Louis de Lacaille visited the Cape and observed that the nearly all the third generation descendants of the original Huguenot and German settlers spoke Dutch as a first language.[58]
Trekboers making camp, an 1804 painting bySamuel Daniell.
Long before the British annexed the Cape Colony, there were already large Dutch-speaking European settlements in theCape Peninsula and beyond; by the time British rule became permanent in 1806, these had a population of over 26,000.[46] There were, however, two distinct subgroups in thevrijburger population settled under the VOC.[62] The first were itinerant farmers who began to progressively settle further and further inland, seeking better pastures for their livestock and freedom from the VOC's regulations.[15] This community of settlers collectively identified themselves as Boers to describe their agricultural way of life.[15] Their farms were enormous by European standards, as the land was free and relatively underpopulated; they merely had to register them with the VOC, a process that was little more than a formality and became more irrelevant the further the Boers moved inland.[15] A few Boers adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle permanently and became known astrekboers.[63] The Boers were deeply suspicious of the centralised government and increasing complexities of administration at the Cape; they constantly migrated further from the reaches of the colonial officialdom whenever it attempted to regulate their activities.[64] By the mid-eighteenth century the Boers had penetrated almost a thousand kilometres into South Africa's interior beyond the Cape of Good Hope, at which point they encountered theXhosa people, who were migrating southwards from the opposite direction.[15] Competition between the two communities over resources on the frontier sparked theXhosa Wars.[15] Harsh Boer attitudes towards black Africans were permanently shaped by their contact with the Xhosa, which bred insecurity and fear on the frontier.[64]
The second subgroup of thevrijburger population became known as theCape Dutch and remained concentrated in the southwestern Cape and especially the areas closer to Cape Town.[65] They were likelier to be urban dwellers, more educated, and typically maintained greater cultural ties to the Netherlands than the Boers.[66] The Cape Dutch formed the backbone of the colony's market economy and included the small entrepreneurial class.[20] These colonists had vested economic interests in the Cape peninsula and were not inclined to venture inland because of the great difficulties in maintaining contact with a viable market.[20] This was in sharp contrast with the Boers on the frontier, who lived on the margins of the market economy.[20] For this reason the Cape Dutch could not easily participate in migrations to escape the colonial system, and the Boer strategy of social and economic withdrawal was not viable for them.[64] Their response to grievances with the Cape government was to demand political reform and greater representation, a practice that became commonplace under Dutch and subsequently British rule.[64] In 1779, for example, hundreds of Capeburghers smuggled a petition to Amsterdam demanding an end to VOC corruption and contradictory laws.[64] Unlike the Boers, the contact most Cape Dutch had with black Africans were predominantly peaceful, and their racial attitudes were more paternal than outright hostile.[64]
Meanwhile, the VOC underwent a period of commercial decline beginning in the late eighteenth century which ultimately resulted in its bankruptcy.[67] The company had suffered immense losses to its trade profits as a result of theFourth Anglo-Dutch War and was heavily in debt with European creditors.[67] In 1794, the Dutch government intervened and assumed formal administration of the Cape Colony.[15] However, events at the Cape were overtaken by turmoil in the Netherlands, which was occupied byNapoleon during theFlanders Campaign.[68] This opened the Cape to French naval fleets.[15] To protect her own prosperous maritime shipping routes,Great Britain occupied the fledgling colony by force until 1803.[68] From 1806 to 1814 the Cape was again governed as a British military dependency, whose sole importance to theRoyal Navy was its strategic relation to Indian maritime traffic.[68] The British formally assumed permanent administrative control around 1815, as a result of theTreaty of Paris.[68]
Relations between some of the colonists and the new British administration quickly soured.[69] The British brought more liberal attitudes towards slavery and treatment of the indigenous peoples to the Cape, which were utterly alien to the colonists.[69] Furthermore, they insisted that the Cape Colony finance its own affairs by taxes levied on the white population, an unpopular measure which bred resentment.[15] By 1812, new attorneys-general and judges had been imported from England and many of the preexisting VOC-era institutions abolished, namely the Dutch magistrate system and the only vestige of representative government at the Cape, theburgher senate.[20] The new judiciary then established circuit courts, which brought colonial authority directly to the frontier.[64] These circuit courts were permitted to try colonists for allegations of abuse of slaves or indentured servants.[64] Most of those tried for these offences were frontier Boers; the charges were usually brought by British missionaries and the courts themselves staffed by unsympathetic and liberal Cape Dutch.[64] The Boers, who perceived most of the charges levelled against them to be flimsy or exaggerated, often refused to answer their court summons.[64]
In 1815, a Cape police unit was dispatched to arrest a Boer for failure to appear in court on charges of cruelty towards indentured Khoisan servants; the colonist fired on the troopers when they entered his property and was killed.[64] The controversy which surrounded the incident led to the abortiveSlachter's Nek Rebellion, in which a number of Boers took up arms against the British.[15] British officials retaliated by hanging five Boers for insurrection.[68] In 1828, the Cape governor declared that all native inhabitants but slaves were to have the rights of citizens, in respect of security and property ownership, on parity with whites.[68] This had the effect of further alienating the Boers.[68] Boer resentment of successive British administrators continued to grow throughout the late 1820s and early 1830s, especially with the official imposition of the English language.[63] This replaced Dutch with English as the language used in the Cape's judicial system, putting the Boers at a disadvantage, as most spoke little or no English at all.[68]
Bridling at what they considered an unwarranted intrusion into their way of life, some in the Boer community began to consider selling their farms and venturing deep into South Africa's unmapped interior to preempt further disputes and live completely independent from British rule.[15] From their perspective, the Slachter's Nek Rebellion had demonstrated the futility of an armed uprising against the new order the British had entrenched at the Cape; one result was that the Boers who might have otherwise been inclined to take up arms began preparing for a mass emigration from the colony instead.[20]
In the 1830s and 1840s, an organised migration of an estimated 14,000 Boers, known asvoortrekkers, across the Cape Colony's frontier began.[70] Thevoortrekkers departed the colony in a series of parties, taking with them all their livestock and portable property, as well as slaves, and their dependents.[70] They had the skills to maintain their own wagons and firearms, but remained dependent on equally mobile traders for vital commodities such as gunpowder and sugar.[70] Nevertheless, one of their goals was to sever their ties with the Cape's commercial network by gaining access to foreign traders and ports in east Africa, well beyond the British sphere of influence.[70]
Many of the Boers who participated in the Great Trek had varying motives. While most were driven by some form of disenchantment with British policies, their secondary objectives ranged from seeking more desirable grazing land for their cattle to a desire to retain slaves after the abolition of slavery at the Cape.[70][71] The Great Trek also split the Afrikaner community along social and geographical lines, driving a wedge between thevoortrekkers and those who remained in the Cape Colony.[72] Only about a fifth of the colony's Dutch-speaking white population at the time participated in the Great Trek.[15] TheDutch Reformed Church, to which most of the Boers belonged, condemned the migration.[15] Despite their hostility towards the British, there were also some Boers who chose to remain in the Cape of their own accord.[69] For its part, the distinct Cape Dutch community remained loyal to the British Crown and focused its efforts on building political organisations seeking representative government; its lobbying efforts were partly responsible for the establishment of theCape Qualified Franchise in 1853.[72]
Weenen massacre: Zulus killed hundreds of Boer colonists (1838)
As important as the Trek was to the formation of Boer ethnic identity, so were the running conflicts with various indigenous groups along the way. One conflict central to the construction of Boer identity occurred with theZulu in the area of present-dayKwaZulu-Natal.
The Boers who entered Natal discovered that the land they wanted came under the authority of the Zulu KingDingane kaSenzangakhona, who ruled that part of what subsequently became KwaZulu-Natal. The British had a small port colony (the future Durban) there but were unable to seize the whole area from the war-ready Zulus and only kept to the Port of Natal. The Boers found the land safe from the British and sent an unarmed Boer land treaty delegation underPiet Retief on February 6, 1838, to negotiate with the Zulu King. The negotiations went well, and a contract between Retief and Dingane was signed.
However, the agreement between Retief's and Dingane's people was that no weapons would be present during their negotiation time. Dingane and his people did not keep to this treaty, kicked their assegaai's from their buried hiding places, and killed the members of the delegation while they were still in the kraal; a large-scale massacre of the Boers followed: seeWeenen massacre. Zuluizibutho ('regiments') attacked Boer encampments in theDrakensberg foothills at what was later calledBlaauwkrans andWeenen, killing women and children along with men. (By contrast, in earlier conflicts thetrekkers had experienced along the eastern Cape frontier, theXhosa had refrained from harming women and children.)
A commando of 470 men arrived to help the settlers. On 16 December 1838, theVoortrekkers under the command ofAndries Pretorius confronted about 10,000 Zulus at the prepared positions.[73] The Boers had three injuries without any fatalities. Due to the blood of 3,000 slain Zulus that stained theNcome River, the conflict afterwards became known as theBattle of Blood River.
In present-day South Africa, 16 December remains a celebrated public holiday, initially called "Dingane's Day". After 1952, the holiday was officially recognised and named the Day of the Covenant, changed toDay of the Vow"Geloftedag" in 1980 (Mackenzie 1999:69)[clarification needed] and, after the abolition of apartheid, toDay of Reconciliation in 1994. The Boers saw their victory at the Battle of Blood River as evidence that they had found divine favour from The Lord for theirexodus from British rule.[74]
After defeating the Zulu and the recovery of the treaty between Dingane and Retief, the Voortrekkers proclaimed theNatalia Republic. In 1843, Britain annexed Natal and many Boers trekked inwards again.
Due to the return of British rule, Boers fled to the frontiers to the north-west of theDrakensberg mountains, and onto thehighveld of theTransvaal andTransoranje. These areas were mostly unoccupied due to conflicts in the course of the genocidalMfecane wars of the Zulus on the local Basuthu population who used it as summer grazing for their cattle. Some Boers ventured beyond the present-day borders of South Africa, north as far as present-day Zambia and Angola. Others reached the Portuguese colony ofDelagoa Bay, later calledLourenço Marques and subsequentlyMaputo – the capital of Mozambique.
A significant number of Afrikaners also went asDorsland Trekkers toAngola, where a large group settled on theHuíla Plateau, inHumpata, and smaller communities on theCentral Highlands.[75] They constituted a closed community which rejected integration as well as innovation, became impoverished in the course of several decades, and returned toSouth West Africa and South Africa in waves.[76][77]
Afrikaner diaspora in Africa and the world.
unavailable
< 10,000
10,000+
1,000,000+
The Boers created sovereign states in what is now South Africa:de Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (theSouth African Republic) and the Orange Free State were the most prominent and lasted the longest.
The discovery of goldfields awakened British interest in the Boer republics, and the two Boer Wars resulted: TheFirst Boer War (1880–1881) and theSecond Boer War (1899–1902).[78][79] The Boers won the first war and retained their independence. The second ended with British victory and annexation of the Boer areas into the British colonies. The British employedscorched earth tactics and held many Boers inconcentration camps as a means to separate commandos from their source of shelter, food and supply. The strategy had its intended effect, but an estimated 27,000 Boers (mainly women and children under sixteen) died in these camps fromhunger anddisease.
In the 1890s, some Boers trekked intoMashonaland, where they were concentrated at the town of Enkeldoorn, nowChivhu.[80] After the second Boer War, more Boers left South Africa. Starting in 1902 to 1908 a large group of around 650 Afrikaners[81] emigrated to thePatagonia region ofArgentina, under the leadershipLouis Baumann and the ItalianCamillo Ricchiardi (most notably to the towns ofComodoro Rivadavia andSarmiento),[82][83] choosing to settle there due to its similarity to theKaroo region of South Africa.[81]
Another group emigrated to British-ruled Kenya, from where most returned to South Africa during the 1930s as a result of warfare there amongst indigenous people. A third group, under the leadership of GeneralBen Viljoen, emigrated toChihuahua in northern Mexico and to the states ofArizona, California,New Mexico andTexas in the south-western US. Others migrated to other parts of Africa, including German East Africa (present day Tanzania, mostly near Arusha).[80]
Brazil is the country inLatin America with the largest community of Afrikaners, they mostly live inSoutheastern Brazil, the most populous area of the country. In 2020, they numbered 2,895 people.[84]
A relatively large group of Boers settled in Kenya. The first wave of migrants consisted of individual families, followed by larger multiple-family treks.[80] Some had arrived by 1904, as documented by the caption of a newspaper photograph noting a tent town for "some of the early settlers from South Africa" on what became the campus of theUniversity of Nairobi.[85] Probably the first to arrive was W.J. van Breda (1903), followed by John de Waal and Frans Arnoldi at Nakuru (1906). Jannie De Beer's family resided atAthi River, while Ignatius Gouws resided at Solai.[80]
The second wave of migrants is exemplified by Jan Janse van Rensburg's trek. Janse van Rensburg left the Transvaal on an exploratory trip toBritish East Africa in 1906 fromLourenço Marques (thenPortuguese), Mozambique. Van Rensburg was inspired by an earlier Boer migrant, Abraham Joubert, who had moved to Nairobi from Arusha in 1906, along with others. When Joubert visited the Transvaal that year, van Rensburg met with him.[80] Sources disagree about whether van Rensburg received guarantees for land from the Governor of theEast Africa Protectorate, SirJames Hayes Sadler.[80]
On his return to the Transvaal, van Rensburg recruited about 280 Afrikaners (comprising either 47 or 60 families) to accompany him to British East Africa. On 9 July 1908 his party sailed in the chartered shipSSWindhuk fromLourenço Marques to Mombasa, from where they boarded a train for Nairobi. The party travelled by five trains to Nakuru.[86]
In 1911, the last of the large trek groups departed for Kenya, when some 60 families from the Orange Free State boarded theSSSkramstad in Durban under leadership of C.J. Cloete.[86] But migration dwindled, partly due to the British secretary of state's (then Lord Crewe) cash requirements for immigrants. When the British granted self-government to the former Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in 1906 and 1907, respectively, the pressure for emigration decreased. A trickle of individualtrekker families continued to migrate into the 1950s.[80]
A combination of factors spurred on Boer migration. Some, like van Rensburg and Cloete, had collaborated with the British, or had surrendered during the Boer War.[80] These joiners andhensoppers ("hands-uppers") subsequently experienced hostility from other Afrikaners. Many migrants were extremely poor and had subsisted on others' property.[86] Collaborators tended to move to British East Africa, while those who had fought to the end (calledbittereinders, "bitter-enders") initially preferredGerman South West Africa.[80]
One of the best known Boer settlements in the British East Africa Protectorate became established atEldoret, in the south west of what became known as Kenya in 1920. By 1934, some 700 Boers lived here, near the Ugandan border.[87]
With the onset of theFirst World War in 1914, the Allies asked the Union of South Africa to attack the German territory of South West Africa, resulting in theSouth West Africa Campaign (1914–1915). Armed forces under the leadership of General Louis Botha defeated the German forces, who were unable to put up much resistance to the overwhelming South African forces.
Boer women and children in British concentration camps
Some Boers subsequently moved to South West Africa, which was administered by South Africa until its independence in 1990, after which the country adopted the name Namibia.
Scholars have traditionally considered Afrikaners to be a homogeneous population ofDutch ancestry, subject to a significantfounder effect.[88] This viewpoint has been complicated by recent studies suggesting multiple uncertainties regarding the genetic composition of white South Africans at large and Afrikaners in particular.[88]
Afrikaners are descended, to varying degrees, from Dutch, German and French Huguenot immigrants, along with minor percentages of other Europeans and indigenous African peoples.[89][90] The first mixed race marriage which took place in Cape Town in 1664 was that ofKrotoa, a Khoi woman, and Peder Havgaard, a Danish surgeon. Krotoa and Peder's descendants are the Pelzer, Kruger, Steenkamp and other Afrikaner families.[91] Although the Cape Colony was administered and initially settled by VOC, a number of foreigners also boarded ships in the Netherlands to settle there. Their numbers can be reconstructed from censuses of the Cape rather than passenger lists, taking into account VOC employees who later returned to Europe.[9] Some Europeans also arrived from elsewhere in Holland's sphere, especially German soldiers being discharged from colonial service.[59] As a result, by 1691 over a quarter of the white population of South Africa was not ethnically Dutch.[9] The number of permanent settlers of both sexes and all ages, according to figures available at the onset of British rule, numbered 26,720,[9] of whom 50% were Dutch, 27% German, 17% French and 5.5% other.[46] This demographic breakdown of the community just prior to the end of the Dutch administration has been used in many subsequent studies to represent the ethnic makeup of modern Afrikaners, a practise criticised by some academics such as Dr. Johannes Heese.[92]
Boer children, c. 1901
Based on Heese's genealogical research of the period from 1657 to 1867, his studyDie Herkoms van die Afrikaners ("The Origins of the Afrikaners") estimated an average ethnic admixture for Afrikaners of 35.5% Dutch, 34.4% German, 13.9% French, 7.2% non-European, 2.6% English, 2.8% other European and 3.6% unknown.[92][28]: 18 [93] Heese reached this conclusion by recording all the wedding dates and number of children of each immigrant. He then divided the period between 1657 and 1867 into six thirty-year blocs, and working under the assumption that earlier colonists contributed more to the gene pool, multiplied each child's bloodline by 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 according to respective period.[88] Heese argued that previous studies wrongly classified some German progenitors as Dutch, although for the purposes of his own study he also reclassified a number of Scandinavian (especially Danish) progenitors as German.[36] Drawing heavily onChristoffel Coetzee de Villiers'Geslacht Register der Oude Kaapsche Familien, British historianGeorge McCall Theal estimated an admixture of 67% Dutch, with a nearly equal contribution of roughly 17% from the Huguenots and Germans.[36][94] Theal argued that most studies suggesting a higher percentage of German ancestry among Afrikaners wrongly counted as "German" all those who came from German-speaking Swiss cantons or the Baltics and ignored the VOC's policy of recruiting settlers among the Dutch diaspora living in the border regions of several German states.[45]
The degree of intermixing among Afrikaners may be attributed to the unbalanced sex ratio which existed under Dutch governance.[95] Only a handful of VOC employees who sailed from the Netherlands were allowed to bring their families with them, and the Dutch never employed European women in a full-time capacity. Between 1657 and 1806 no more than 454 women arrived at the Cape, as compared to the 1,590 male colonists.[59] One of the most fundamental demographic consequences was that white South African women, much like their counterparts in colonialNorth America, began to marry much younger and consequently bear more children than Western Europeans.[95] Another was the high occurrence of inter-family marriages from the matrilineal aspect.[clarification needed] These were reinforced by the familial interdependence of the Cape's credit and mortgage obligations.[95] Afrikaner families thus became larger in size, more interconnected, and clannish than those of any other colonial establishment in the world.[95] Some of the more common Afrikaner surnames includeBotha,Pretorius andvan der Merwe.[96] As in other cases where large population groups have been propagated by a relatively small pool of progenitors, Afrikaners have also experienced an increase in the frequency of some otherwise rare deleterious ailments, includingvariegate porphyria[88] andfamilial hypercholesterolaemia.
According to a genetic study in February 2019, almost all Afrikaners have admixture from non-Europeans. The total amount of non-European ancestry - on average - is 4.8%, of which 2.1% are of African ancestry and 2.7% Asian/Native American ancestry.[97] Among the 77 Afrikaners investigated, 6.5% had more than 10% non-European admixture, 27.3% had between 5 and 10%, 59.7% had between 1 and 5%, and 6.5% below 1%. It appears that some 3.4% of the non-European admixture can be traced to enslaved peoples who were brought to the Cape from other regions during colonial times. Only 1.38% of the admixture is attributed to the local Khoisan people.[97]
Approximately 100 black families who identify as Afrikaners live in the settlement ofOnverwacht, established in 1886 near the mining town ofCullinan. Members of the community descend from the freed slaves who had been with theVoortrekkers who settled in the area.[98][99][100][101]
In South Africa, theNational Party came to power in 1948 and enacted a series of segregation laws known asapartheid, meaning "separateness". The apartheid laws allowed for sporadic persecution of opposition leaders and enforced general segregation by classifying all South African inhabitants into racial groups. Non-White political participation was outlawed, and the entire public sphere, including education, residential areas, medical care, and common areas such as public transport, beaches, and amenities, were segregated.
Since apartheid ended, there has been a notable false rhetoric about anti-Afrikaner racism. A false claim of an Afrikaner genocide has been perpetrated by Donald Trump as well as the Afrikaner advocacy organisationAfriForum. It has been consistently portrayed by several organisations that Afrikaner people now live in poverty, despite white South Africans holding disproportionately more wealth and assets than black South Africans.[105][106][107]
There has been a popular claim that white South Africans (particularly Afrikaners) have been targeted in farm attacks. White South Africans are exposed less to violent crimes than black South Africans and the majority of victims of farm attacks are black.[108]
Afrikaners originated in theDutch Cape Colony (after 1806, theBritish Cape Colony), and thus their present-day numbers are concentrated inSouth Africa. Afrikaners also have a significant presence inNamibia due to the country's long political administration and de facto incorporation into South Africa between 1915 and 1990.
An Afrikaner diaspora has developed since the end of the South African white minority government in 1994. Emigrants have settled predominantly in English-speaking countries, with their largest concentrations inAustralia andNew Zealand.
TheSouth African National Census of 2011 shows the greatest geographic concentration of Afrikaners is in theCity of Tshwane, with over 453,000 white Afrikaans-speakers there overall.[109] Afrikaners are particularly prevalent inPretoria andCenturion.[110]At the time of the census, over 331,000 residents of Pretoria spoke Afrikaans as their first language and the city was majority (52%) white. In nearby Centurion (formerly Verwoerdburg), also majority white (59%), 115,000 residents spoke Afrikaans as their first language.[111]The importance of this region to post-apartheid Afrikaner society can be seen in the building of campuses for two new Afrikaans-medium institutions of higher education in the vicinity, Sol-Tech in 2020 (Pretoria) andAkademia in 2021 (Centurion). The importance of the City of Tshwane can also be gleaned from the numbers of high schools in the area. In 2022, 20 Afrikaans-medium secondary schools and another 6 dual- or parallel-medium (Afrikaans and English) secondary schools existed in Pretoria and Centurion graduating 4,515 students.[112]
The chief site of Afrikaner settlement in Namibia is the country's capital city,Windhoek. Afrikaners are concentrated in the sections of the city east of the Western Bypass road, areas historically reserved for whites prior to the end of legal residential apartheid in 1977.[113] In the 2011 Namibian Census, 29,717 residents spoke Afrikaans in the constituencies of Windhoek East and Windhoek West combined,[114] both located for the most part east of the Western Bypass.[115] This is a fair estimate of the size of the Afrikaner resident population in the city at that time.
Smaller concentrations of Afrikaners exist in the coastal Namibian cities ofSwakopmund andWalvis Bay, the latter an exclave of South Africa until 1994.
Botswana has a small group of Afrikaners historically concentrated in theGhanzi area, as well more recent arrivals as in theKgalagadi District along the country's southwest border with South Africa. Afrikaners have lived in the Ghanzi area since 1898 when theBritish South Africa Company offered land to settlers who moved to the region.[116] According to the 2001 Botswana Census, 6,750 residents of the country spoke Afrikaans at home making up 0.4% of the total population. As some unknown number of those counted were Coloured, the number of Afrikaners in Botswana is some degree less than the stated census figure.[117]
White South Africans began emigrating in significant numbers in the mid-1970s in the wake of theSoweto uprising and again in the mid-1980s after the 1985 declaration of the state of emergency and the intensification of theSouth African Border War. These early waves were overwhelmingly Anglo in character, however. Not until the early 1990s, duringthe transition period out of apartheid and white minority rule, did Afrikaners begin leaving the country.[118] Statistics South Africa estimated a net 304,112 white residents left the country over the years 1986–2000 with another 341,000 over the period 2001–2016.[119] This emigration is the source of a notable Afrikaner diaspora today.
Outside South Africa and Namibia, the largest population of Afrikaners resides in Australia and New Zealand. According to the2021 Australian census, 49,375 residents spoke Afrikaans at home.[120] While not all of those are Afrikaners, they are likely the overwhelming majority. In 2018, 36,966 residents of New Zealand spoke Afrikaans.[121]
The largest geographic concentration of Afrikaners outside Africa is likely Auckland, New Zealand. In 2018, 1.1% of allAuckland region residents spoke Afrikaans, or roughly 16,980 people.[122] TheNorth Shore is a site of notable Afrikaner settlement, especiallyBrowns Bay and the surrounding suburbs.East Auckland is a secondary site, especiallyHowick.[123]
A second major overseas concentration isGreater Perth, Australia. In 2021, 0.6% of the population ofWestern Australia's capital and its environs, or 11,870 persons, spoke Afrikaans.[124] The city's northwest suburbs, particularly theCity of Wanneroo andCity of Joondalup, have the highest concentrations of Afrikaans-speakers.[125] The South African, and especially Afrikaans-speaking, community is so large there that South Africans have nicknamed the city "Perthfontein" and "Bloemfontein by the sea".[126]
According to the 2021 Canadian Census, 14,665 residents of Canada spoke Afrikaans. The largest concentration was in theVancouver metropolitan area at 1,860 persons.[127]
On 7 February 2025, US PresidentDonald Trump signed anexecutive order, addressing South Africa's Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which allowed land seizures targeting Afrikaner farmers. In addition, the US would be halting aid to South Africa and prioritising refugee resettlement for Afrikaners facing discrimination.[129][130] A month later, theUS State Department reported receiving approximately 8,000 inquiries from Afrikaners, seeking refugee resettlement.[131] In addition, the Trump administration indicated that up to 1,000 Afrikaners could be admitted to the United States within the year.[132] Two months later, on 12 May, nearly 60 Afrikaner refugees arrived atDulles International Airport under a new US policy prioritising their resettlement.[133] In the meantime, theEpiscopal Church ended its refugee resettlement partnership with the US government, claiming their policy is racially biased and inconsistent with their values of justice and equity.[134]
While theUnited Kingdom is the leading destination for white South African emigrants, very few Afrikaners move to the country. In England and Wales in 2021, over 217,000 residents were born in South Africa but only 7,489 spoke Afrikaans as their main language.[135]
The Netherlands, due to persistent skilled labour shortages in the 2020s, is increasingly recruiting Afrikaners. Their distance to the Dutch labour market is significantly lessened due to the partial mutual intelligibility of Afrikaans and Dutch as well as the rapid pace at which Afrikaners can typically learn Dutch.[136][137][138][139][140][141]
At the time of settlement, Dutch traders and others came out of a majority- Protestant area, where the Reformation had resulted in high rates of literacy in the Netherlands. Boers in South Africa were part of the Calvinist tradition in the northern Europe Protestant countries. The original South African Boer republics were founded on the principles of the Dutch Reformed Church. Missionaries established new congregations on the frontier and churches were the center of communities.
In 1985, 92% of Afrikaners identified as members of the Reformed churches that developed from this background. Pentecostal churches have also attracted new members.
The Afrikaans language changed over time from theDutch spoken by the first white settlers atthe Cape. From the late 17th century, the form of Dutch spoken at the Cape developed differences, mostly in morphology but also in pronunciation and accent and, to a lesser extent, in syntax and vocabulary, from that of the Netherlands, although the languages are still similar enough to bemutually intelligible. Settlers who arrived speaking German and French soon shifted to using Dutch and later Afrikaans. The process oflanguage change was influenced by the languages spoken by slaves, Khoikhoi, and people of mixed descent, as well as byCape Malay, Zulu, British and Portuguese. While the Dutch of the Netherlands remained the official language, the new dialect, often known as Cape Dutch, African Dutch, kitchen Dutch, ortaal (meaning "language" in Afrikaans) developed into a separate language by the 19th century, with much work done by theGenootskap van Regte Afrikaners and writers such asCornelis Jacobus Langenhoven. In a 1925 act of Parliament, Afrikaans was given equal status with Dutch as one of the two official languages (English being the second) of theUnion of South Africa. There was much objection to the attempt to legislate the creation of Afrikaans as a new language.Marthinus Steyn, a prominent jurist and politician, and others were vocal in their opposition. Today, Afrikaans is recognised as one of the eleven officiallanguages of South Africa, and is the third most common first language in South Africa.
Nobel Prize winnerJ. M. Coetzee is of Afrikaner descent, although he spoke English at home as a child in Cape Town. He has translated some works from Afrikaans and Dutch into English, but writes only in English.
Music is a popular art form among Afrikaners. While the traditionalBoeremusiek ("Boer music") andVolkspele ('folk dancing', lit. 'people games') enjoyed popularity in the past, most Afrikaners today favour a variety of international genres and light popular Afrikaans music. American country and western music has enjoyed great popularity and has a strong following among many South Africans. Some also enjoy a social dance event called asokkie. The South African rock bandSeether has a hidden track on their albumKarma and Effect titledKom Saam Met My ("Come With Me"), sung in Afrikaans. There is also an underground rock music movement and bands like the controversialFokofpolisiekar ('Fuck-off-police-car') have a large following. The television ChannelMK (channel) also supports local Afrikaans music and mainly screens videos from the Afrikaans Rock genre.[145] Afrikaner classical musicians include the pianists Wessel van Wyk, Ben Schoeman, andPetronel Malan, and the music departments of the various universities (Pretoria,Stellenbosch,Potchefstroom,Free State) that started as Afrikaans universities still are renowned. In the 20th century,Mimi Coertse was an internationally renowned opera singer. She is also known as African Lieder interpreter byStephanus Le Roux Marais. The world-renownedUNISA music exams include a section of South African contemporary music, which acknowledges Afrikaner composers. The contemporary musicalOns vir jou ('Us for you'), dealing with the Second Boer War, featured a book by Deon Opperman and a score by Sean Else and Johan Vorster of the bandEden. Afrikaner film musicals flourished in the 1950s and 1960s, and have returned in the 21st century with two popular films, Liefling and Pretville, featuring singers such asBobby van Jaarsveld,Steve Hofmeyr, and Kevin Leo.[146][circular reference]
Afrikaner cuisine has contributed three unique terms to the South African lexicon, namelyboerekos ('farmer/Boer food'),potjiekos ('small pot food') andbraaivleis ('grilled meat'; frequently justbraai, 'grilled'), although the latter (meaning "grilled meat") has actually expanded to a common South African habit.
A typical recipe forboerekos consists of meat (usually roasted in a pan or oven), vegetables such as green beans, roots or peas, and starch such aspotatoes orrice, with sauce made in the pot in which the meat is cooked. The dish can also usepumpkins orsweet potatoes, and some of the ingredients may be further processed intopampoenkoekies ('pumpkin biscuits', pumpkin baked in a kind of puff) orplaasboontjies ("Farm beans") consisting of green beans cooked and crushed with potatoes and onions. Afrikaners eat most types of meat such as mutton, beef, chicken, pork and various game species, but the meat of draft animals such as horses and donkeys is rarely eaten and is not part of traditional cuisine.
East Indian influence emerges in dishes such asbobotie and curry, and the use of turmeric and other spices in cooking. Afrikaner households often eat combinations such aspap-and-sausage, meat curry and rice, and even fish and chips (although the latter are bought rather than self-prepared). Other traditional Afrikaner dishes includebiltong,droëwors,koeksisters,melktert, and a variety of traditionally homemade but increasingly storebought pastries.
Rugby,cricket,golf andshot-put are the most popular sports among Afrikaners. Rugby in particular is considered one of the central pillars of the Afrikaner community. The national rugby team, theSpringboks, did not compete in the first two rugby world cups in1987 and1991 because ofanti-apartheidsporting boycotts of South Africa, but later on the Springboks won the1995,2007,2019 and2023 Rugby World Cups.
Boeresport ('farmer/Boer sport') also played a big role in the Afrikaner history. It consisted of a variety of sports liketug of war, three-legged races,jukskei,skilpadloop ('tortoise walk') and other games.
The world's first ounce-denominated gold coin, theKrugerrand, was struck at theSouth African Mint on 3 July 1967. The name Krugerrand was derived fromKruger (after presidentPaul Kruger) and therand monetary unit of South Africa.
In April 2007, theSouth African Mint coined a collectors R1 gold coin commemorating the Afrikaner people as part of its cultural series, depicting theGreat Trek across theDrakensberg mountains.
TheAfrikaanse Taal en Kultuurvereniging ("Afrikaans Language and Culture Association"), referred to by its initials,ATKV, promotes Afrikaans language and culture.
Voortrekkers is a youth movement for Afrikaners in South Africa and Namibia with a membership of over 10,000 active members to promote cultural values, maintaining norms and standards as Christians, and being accountable members of public society.[147]
Smaller numbers are involved in nationalist or separatist political organisations. TheFreedom Front Plus (FF+) is an Afrikaner ethnic political party which lobbies for minority rights to be extended to Afrikaners. The FF+ is also leading theVolkstaat initiative and is closely associated with the small town ofOrania.[149] Then-Freedom Front Plus leaderPieter Mulder served as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in theCabinet ofPresidentJacob Zuma from 2009 to 2014.
In an online poll of the Beeld newspaper during November 2012, in which nearly 11,000 Afrikaners participated, 42% described themselves as conservative and 36% as liberal.[151]
In the2019 general elections, the FF+'s support surged in former strongholds of the DA.[152] Senior FF+ memberPhilip van Staden said that his party had grown significantly in the election due to the DA leaderMmusi Maimane's positions on race and ethnic identity resulting in the estrangement of many Afrikaans-speaking white voters.[153][154] The party has since gone on to win previous DA wards with concentrated Afrikaner populations.[155]
^The2011 Australian Census records 5,079 Australian residents who explicitly identify as Afrikaner (that is, excluding those who identified as "African" or "South African"), while 35,031 identified as Afrikaans speakers.[5]
^The2013 New Zealand census records 1,197 New Zealand residents who explicitly identify as Afrikaner (that is, excluding those who identified as "African" or "South African"), while 27,387 identified asAfrikaans speakers.[6]
^"Afrikaners constitute nearly three million out of approximately 53 million inhabitants of the Republic of South Africa, plus as many as half a million in diaspora."AfrikanerArchived 28 November 2017 at theWayback Machine – Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
^abcCensus 2011: Census in brief(PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. p. 26.ISBN9780621413885.Archived(PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015. The number of people who described themselves as white in terms of population group and specified their first language as Afrikaans in South Africa's 2011 Census was 2,710,461. The total white population with a first language specified was 4,461,409 and the total population was 51,770,560.
^"Demographics".Namibiagovernment.com. Archived fromthe original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved18 March 2015.
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^abVan Goor, Jurrien (2004).Prelude to Colonialism: The Dutch in Asia (2005 ed.). Verloren B.V., Uitgeverij. pp. 9–83.ISBN978-9065508065.
^abcdefghijklmGreaves, Adrian (2 September 2014).The Tribe that Washed its Spears: The Zulus at War (2013 ed.). Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. pp. 36–55.ISBN978-1629145136.
^Theale, George McCall (4 May 1882).Chronicles of Cape Commanders, or, An abstract of original manuscripts in the Archives of the Cape Colony. Cape Town: WA Richards & Sons 1882. pp 24—387.
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^S. W. Martin,Faith Negotiating Loyalties: An Exploration of South African Christianity Through a Reading of the Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr (University Press of America, 2008),ISBN0761841113, pp. 53-54.
^CH Thomas (22 January 2008).Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed: The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked (1900 ed.). Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 144–146.ISBN9781437510454.
^abcdefghijklmnopqrsHunt, John (2005). Campbell, Heather-Ann (ed.).Dutch South Africa: Early Settlers at the Cape, 1652-1708. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 13–35.ISBN978-1904744955.
^ab"Slavery".Goodhope.nl.Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved18 March 2015.
^abMalherbe, E.G. (1939).Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa and of Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, and Swaziland. Vol. 20. Pretoria: Union of South Africa. p. 1047.
^abParthesius, Robert (2010).Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters: The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipping Network in Asia 1595-1660. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.ISBN978-9053565179.
^abcdAndre du Toit & Hermann Giliomee (1983).Afrikaner Political Thought: Analysis and Documents, Volume One (1780 - 1850) (1983 ed.). Claremont: David Philip (Pty) Ltd. pp. 1–305.ISBN0908396716.
^abBlok, Petrus Johannes (1970).History of the People of the Netherlands, Volume Four. New York: AMS Press. p. 526.ISBN978-1-330-44171-8.
^abcdefWard, Kerry (2009).Networks of Empire: Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 322–342.ISBN978-0-521-88586-7.
^abcVan Rossum, Matthias; Kamp, Jeannette (2016).Desertion in the Early Modern World: A Comparative History. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 188–197.ISBN978-1474215992.
^abLucas, Gavin (2004).An Archaeology of Colonial Identity: Power and Material Culture in the Dwars Valley, South Africa. New York: Springer, Publishers. pp. 29–33.ISBN978-0306485381.
^abcdefghijkGeyl, Pieter (1964).The Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century, Part Two. New York: Barnes & Noble, Incorporated. pp. 66–67,356–364.ISBN978-0510269319.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Thomason, Sarah Grey; Kaufman, Terrence (1988),Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics, University of California Press (published 1991), pp. 252–254,ISBN0-520-07893-4
^Morris, Michael and Linnegar, John with the South Africa Ministry of Education, Human Sciences Research Council, Social Cohesion & Integration Research Programme. 2004.Every Step of the Way: the journey to freedom in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press, pp. 184–185.ISBN978-0-7969-2061-4
^Lambert, David (2009).The Protestant International and the Huguenot Migration to Virginia. New York: Peter Land Publishing, Incorporated. pp. 32–34.ISBN978-1433107597.
^abDenis, Phillipe (2003). Van Ruymbeke, Bertrand; Sparks, Randy (eds.).Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 285–303.ISBN978-1-57003-484-8.
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