Afrikaner nationalism

Afrikaner nationalism is a political ideology that was born in the late nineteenth century among Afrikaners in South Africa; it was strongly influenced by anti-British sentiments that grew strong among the Afrikaners, especially because of the Boer Wars.

According to historian T. Dunbar Moodie, Afrikaner nationalism could be described as a kind of civil religion that combined the history of the Afrikaners, the formalised creole language (Afrikaans) and Afrikaner Calvinism as key symbols. A major proponent of the ideology was the secret Broederbond organisation and the National Party that ruled the country from 1948 to 1994. Other organisations aligned with Afrikaner nationalist ideology were the Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organisations (Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge, FAK), the Institute for Christian National Education and the White Workers' Protection Association.

One of the first champions of Afrikaner nationalism 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 nationality with a fatherland (South Africa) and their own language (Afrikaans) and that the volk's destiny was to rule South Africa.

Religion, especially Afrikaner Calvinism, played an instrumental role in the development of Afrikaner nationalism and consequently the apartheid ideology. The Dutch Reformed Churches of South Africa were involved throughout the 18th century in a constant battle against modernism and modernity. They aligned with the conservative views of Abraham Kuyper, who emphasised God's authority over separate spheres of creation. These spheres, for example historical nations, had to be preserved and protected from liberalism and revolutionary ideologies. Kuyper also rejected the Enlightenment with its emphasis on human rationality and individuality and thought that it had led to the ideals of equality, fraternity and freedom of the French Revolution. In his view, all these ideas challenged God's authority. Afrikaner theologians worked from this foundation and defined a number of political, economic and cultural spheres that had their separate, independent destinies. The Afrikaner history was also reinterpreted through a Christian-nationalistic ideology. Already Paul Kruger, president of Transvaal and a founding member of the Gereformeerde Kerke van Zuid-Afrika or 'Dopper Church', referred to it as "sacred history" with volk as the chosen people, where the Great Trek was seen as the Exodus from the British rule in Cape to the Promised Land of the Boer Republics.

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