 Seal of the Ossewabrandwag | |
| Formation | 4 February 1939 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1952 |
| Purpose | Afrikaner nationalism Anti-British sentiment Pro-German[1] Opposition to participation inWorld War II Antisemitism |
| Headquarters | Bloemfontein,Union of South Africa |
| Membership | 350,000 (1941) |
Leader | Johannes Van Rensburg |
TheOssewabrandwag (OB) (Afrikaans pronunciation:[ˈɔsəˌvɑːˌbrantvaχ], fromAfrikaans:ossewa,lit. 'ox-wagon' andAfrikaans:brandwag,lit. 'guard, picket, sentinel, sentry' -Ox-wagon Sentinel) was anAfrikaner nationalist organization, founded in South Africa inBloemfontein on 4 February 1939. It was strongly opposed to South African participation inWorld War II, had hostile views toward theUnited Kingdom and was sympathetic toNazi Germany.[2] In late 1940, the Ossewabrandwag plotted a pro-German insurrection against Prime MinisterJan Smuts, albeit the plan was aborted.[3]
The OB carried out a campaign of sabotage against state infrastructure, resulting in a government crackdown. The unpopularity of that crackdown has been proposed as a contributing factor to the victory of theNational Party in the1948 South African general election and the rise ofapartheid.
During the Napoleonic Era, what had previously been theDutch Cape Colony was seized by the Royal Navy to prevent it from falling under French hegemony. After Napoleon I was finally defeated in 1815, the British Empire refused to cede control over the colony back to the Netherlands. Much of Cape Colony's large population of Dutch settlers resented living under British rule, especially those on the Cape's frontier, known as the "Boers". Compounded disdain over British rule triggering the mass migration of Boers in 1835 from the colony into the African interior in an event that became known as theGreat Trek. Theemancipation of enslaved people in the British Empire in 1834, with full emancipation granted in 1838, was an important contributing factor. The Boer migrants eventually established theOrange Free State andSouth African Republic. In 1881, the independence of these states was confirmed following their victory over theBritish Empire in the briefFirst Boer War. Following the discovery of massive gold and mineral deposits in Boer territory,war broke out again in 1899. By 1902, Great Britain conquered bothBoer Republics, overcoming stubborn Boer resistance through the use of ascorched earth policy and forcing Boer civilians intoconcentration camps.
After the war, a degree of reconciliation developed between theAfrikaners and British, facilitating the formation of theUnion of South Africa in 1910, under the leadership of formerBoer Commandos such asLouis Botha andJan Smuts. South AfricanUnion Defence Force troops, including thousands of Afrikaners,served in the British forces during World War I.
Nonetheless, many Boers remembered the brutal tactics used by Britain in the Second Boer War and remained resentful of British rule, even in the looser form ofDominion status.
The chief vehicle ofAfrikaner nationalism at this time was the "Purified National Party" ofD. F. Malan, which broke away from theNational Party when the latter merged with Smuts'South African Party in 1934. Another important element was theAfrikaner Broederbond, a quasi-secret society founded in 1918, and dedicated to the proposition that "the Afrikanervolk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God..."[4]
TheOssewabrandwag was officially established in 1938 to commemorate thecentennial of the Great Trek. Most of the migrants travelled in ox-drawn wagons, hence the group's name. The group's leader wasJohannes Van Rensburg, an attorney who had previously served as Secretary of Justice under Jan Smuts and supported the Nazi government in Germany.[5][6]
The Boer militants of theOssebrandwag (OB) were hostile to theUnited Kingdom and sympathetic toNazi Germany. Thus the OB opposedSouth African participation in the war, even after the Union declared war in support of Britain in September 1939. By 1941, the OB had approximately 350,000 members.[7]
Members of the OB refused to enlist in the UDF and sometimes harassed servicemen in uniform. This erupted into open rioting inJohannesburg on 1 February 1941; 140 soldiers were seriously hurt.[8]
More dangerous was the formation of theStormjaers (Storm hunters), a paramilitary wing of the OB. The nature of theStormjaers was evidenced by the oath sworn by new recruits: "If I retreat, shoot me. If I fall, avenge me. If I charge, follow me" (Afrikaans:As ek omdraai, skiet my. As ek val, wreek my. As ek storm, volg my).[9] This motto is originally attributed to French RoyalistHenri de la Rochejaquelein in 1793, but was also a popular slogan ofBenito Mussolini'sFascists in the 1930s.
In August 1940, the OB informed theAbwehr that they were willing to launch a rebellion against Jan Smuts. The organization said they had 160,000 members and 15,000 soldiers, who had not taken the "Africa oath" of willingness to fight against the Axis anywhere on the continent, ready to strike. They proposed that the Germans drop off weapons inSouthern Rhodesia orSouth West Africa. The "West Plan" was far more well-planned.
"At an hour to be determined by the German High Command, Afrikaners would then blow up all rail and road bridges connecting the Transvaal with Natal. The railway personnel, the Police and 26,000 mine workers and employees have been penetrated as the rest of the State services with Ossewabrandwag members and would go on strike. The latter, viz. mine workers and employees, are already today urging for a strike. English newspapers are going to be blown up. Smuts and his followers are going to be asked kill themselves. Further dispositions are left to the German General Staff, particularly whether and which bridges are to be blown up."[3]
The plan was never carried out since the OB was unable to obtain sufficient weapons. Furthermore, the OB was reluctant to take up arms after Malan distanced the National Party from the organization at the end of 1941.[3] Nevertheless, individual members continued to carry out acts of sabotage against the Union government. TheStormjaers dynamitedelectrical power lines andrailroads and cuttelegraph andtelephone lines.[8] These types of acts were going too far for most Afrikaners, and Malan ordered the National Party to break with the OB entirely in 1942.[5]
The Union government cracked down on the OB and theStormjaers, placing thousands of them ininternment camps for the duration of the war. Even so, many of the internees, including future prime ministerJohn Vorster, became future leaders of the rulingNational Party duringapartheid. Moreover, the internment aroused Afrikaner opposition to the government and helped the NP win the1948 general election.[10]
At the end of the war, the OB was absorbed into the National Party and ceased to exist as a separate body.
A Nazi spy in South Africa who had frequent contact with van Rensburg in 1944 stated that the OB was "based on theFührer-principle, fighting against theEmpire, thecapitalists, thecommunists, theJews, the party and the system ofparliamentarism... on the base of national-socialism".[a] Many political science authors concurred that the OB's association withnational socialism ranged from an "inclination",[11] to "wholehearted acceptance"[12] One author,Pierre L. van den Berghe, contended that, while there were parallels, neither Van Rensburg nor the OB were genuinefascists.[13]
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