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Christian-Nationalism and the Rise of the Afrikaner CHRISTIAN-NATIONALISM AND THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER BROEDERBOND IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1918-48 Charles Bloomberg Christian-Nationalism and the Rise of the Afrikaner Broederbond, in South Africa, 1918-48 Charles Bloomberg Edited by Saul Dubow M MACMILLAN © the friends of the late Charles Bloomberg 1990 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced. copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. 33-4 Alfred Place. London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1990 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Bloomberg. Charles Christian-Nationalism and the rise of the Afrikaner Broederhond in South Africa. 1. South Africa. Afrikaners. Nationalism. Religious aspects, history I. Title II. Dubow. Saul 291.1'77 ISBN 978-1-349-10696-7 ISBN 978-1-349-10694-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-10694-3 Contents Friends of Charles Bloomberg VI Foreword: Charles Bloomberg and the Broederbond Vll Preface by Saul Dubow Xll Introduction XIX 1 The Precepts and Tenets of Christian-Nationalism 1 2 The Anatomy of a Secret Society: An Overview 31 3 Birth and Early Years 65 4 The Afrikaner Broederbond's Christian-Nationalist Counter-Offensive 86 5 General Hertzog's Attack on the Afrikaner Broederbond 108 6 Christian-Nationalist Colour Policy in the 1930s and the Impact of Totalitarian Thought 131 7 Republicanism and the Struggle for Leadership within the Christian-Nationalist Camp, 1940-8 156 8 General Smuts Attacks the Afrikaner Broederbond 183 9 Post-War Developments and the Birth of Apartheid 201 Notes and References 230 Index 241 v Friends of Charles Bloomberg Publication of this book was made possible by generous contributions from a number of Charlie's friends. The Trustees would like to thank the following: John Battersby Virginia Makins Mark Benson Jo Menell Lee Bozalek Clive and Irene Menell Belinda Bozzoli William Millinship Irma Brenman Maureen and Francis Nichols Jill Cargill Andrew Philips James Cornford Michael Richman Meriel and Adrian Derby Anthony Sampson David Elstein Rena Sampson Ralph Evans Ada Shapiro Sadie Forman Kenny and Sybil Sisely Minne Fry Alan Sillitoe Sandy Gall Margaret Smith Don Goldstein Michael Treisman Eric Hobsbawm Frances Weinreich Anthony Howard Katharine Whitehorn Jeremy Isaacs Gill Wright Michael Kidron Hugo Young Magnus Linklater Trustees: Hope Bloomberg, Nicholas Faith, Ros Faith, Jeremy Isaacs. vi Foreword: Charles Bloomberg and the Broederbond The publication of this book is the best tribute his friends can pay to the late, much-lamented Charles Bloomberg. It represents the life's work of a man dogged for twenty years by a severe heart condition which killed him in 1985, a man we knew as a delightful friend, brilliant journalist and talented artist. But behind all these qualities, lay a deeply serious researcher and historian, grappling with one of the most important themes in South African history, the development of the beliefs and organisations which lie at the heart of Afrikanerdom. The work is the more astonishing because it was written under conditions which were totally inimical to serious research, harassment, poverty, and perpetual insecurity. Charlie's friends were entranced by a personality which combined friendliness and lack of aggression with enormous talent and charm, a perpetual fascination with new sights, new people and new experiences, and an uncomplaining acceptance of an uncomfortable and stressful way of life. He was the ideal person to understand South Africa. Lacking any preconceptions based on race, colour or creed, he was blessed with that subtlety of perception which sometimes accompanies a sweetness and openness of nature. Charlie, and his younger sister Ada, were the children of Willy Bloomberg. By trade he was a dental mechanic. but by nature he was a true Jewish intellectual: somewhat solitary, self-taught. immensely knowledgeable. free-thinking, radical. a man who had accumulated a famous library. By contrast Charlie's mother, who had formerly been her husband's assistant. was deeply religious. After High School Charlie took an arts degree at 'Wits' - the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg - before studying law in the early 1950s. He was involved in liberal student politics. Charlie was no orator, but an inspired observer and reporter. As an editor of the student magazine, the liberal 'Wits St11dent', he had his first taste of the complexities involved in South African journalism. Student leaders at the University of Pretoria, who supported apartheid, had privately agreed to accept whoever the VII Vlll Foreword Wits students nominated, black or white, in any joint student organisation. Charlie published the promise, a revelation which provoked an anti-liberal reaction at Pretoria and prevented any further collaboration. After university Charlie naturally became a journalist. His chance came in the years after 1958 when he became a political reporter on the Johannesburg Sunday Times. Its editor, Joel Mervis, had brought a new dynamism to the paper. concentrating, like its British namesake, on bold headlines backed by well-documented political exposes, creating an atmosphere which appealed to Charlie. His gentle approach worked wonders with people as different as Nelson Mandela and a number of Afrikaner ministers. So he was the natural recipient of the material which formed the base for the single most important expose in South African journalistic history- the series of articles, starting on 25 April 1963, which revealed the existence, and explained the workings and enormous influence, of the Afrikaner Broederbond, the hitherto unknown organisation whose members dominated the spiritual, political and economic life of the Afrikaner people. Charlie's revelations were based on the spiritual agonies of one of the most remarkable Afrikaners of his generation, Dr Beyers Naude. 1 A brilliant 'Moderator' in the Dutch Reformed Church, the NGK. Naude was born into the heart of Afrikanerdom. His father had been a founding member of the Broederbond, of which he naturally became a member. Naude himself was one of the NGK delegation to a conference organised by the World Council of Churches in December 1960 at Cottesloe, a former university residence at Wits. The conference was held to consider the increased racial tensions which followed the killings at Sharpeville earlier that year. After Cottesloe Naude became increasingly isolated within the NGK. and found his ideas totally repudiated at the NGK's first national synod in October 1962. In early 1963, convinced that the Broederbond had a stranglehold on the NGK. he broke his vow of silence. He discussed the agonies he felt with Professor Albert Geyser, a close friend, not himself in the Broederbond. In Randall's words: 'Naude asked for Geyser's advice and left a number of Bond documents for him to study.' Geyser decided that 'public exposure was the best means of countering the "quasi-biblical arguments" used by the Bond to cloak its clandestine political activities'. Without consulting Naude, Geyser photographed the documents and gave the negatives to Charlie, a Foreword IX natural recipient given his paper's mass circulation and reputation. With a colleague, 'Hennie' Serfontein, Charlie used the documents as the basis for a long series of articles. Naude subsequently founded the Christian Institute, and, as a former insider, became one of the government's most feared adversaries and one of the most important symbolic figures in the anti-apartheid movement, revered by black and white alike. Now that the Broederbond has been discussed in a number of books (including one written by Charlie's former colleague) it is difficult to recreate the impact of the articles, which were both sensational and authoritative, revealing in detail the full extent of the Broederbond's influence throughout Afrikanerdom. The Broederbond, helped by the Special Branch of the South African police, immediately made feverish attempts to trace the source of the leaks. Dr Piet Koornhof. then the secretary of the Broederbond. and later a cabinet minister. told members of the Bond that the disclosures were part of 'the Communist pattern of suspicion-sowing' aimed at ·subverting Afrikanerdom and its holiest spiritual possessions' - an attitude reflected by the Afrikaner press. The mere mention of 'Communism· and ·subversive forces· provided enough justification for action by the Special Branch. On I October I 963 the offices of the Sunday Times were raided and searched and all the copies of the Broederbond documents were removed. on the flimsy pretext that the documents had been stolen. Six weeks later a special meeting of the executive council of the Broederbond was convened to announce that the source of the leak had been identified as Beyers Naude. Charlie's situation soon became impossible. Laws passed after the Sharpeville massacre provided for detention without trial. and some of Charlie's political contacts were arrested. He was led to believe that he himself might also be taken into custody. In addition he (as well as Geyser and Naude) began to receive death threats. Not surprisingly he decided to leave South Africa. a wrenching decision. for it remained his spiritual home for the rest of his life. By then he had determined to transform the material. not simply into a history of the Broederhond. hut into a much more ambitious study tracing the Bond's roots back to Holland and the rise of Christian-Nationalism. Before he left he copied hundreds of docu­ ments covering the Bond and its links with Christian-Nationalism.
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