Back to the Laager

No return to the laager?

Many Afrikaners feel their community is in crisis, but for some it is providing an opportunity for renewal

Shell shocked and still reeling from the loss of power and control enjoyed under apartheid, the 'white tribe of Africa' is gripped by a severe identity crisis. For some, the community is experiencing one of its worst phases since the first Afrikaner crossed the Orange River into what is now Namibia in 1760. Afrikaners have quietly and apathetically withdrawn and once again circled the wagons behind high walls in upmarket suburbs, say these concerned voices. “There is a sort of numbness and lack of idealism and a feeling that everything is lost,” says retired historian Professor Ernst Stals. “Apartheid severely disadvantaged us too,” says Koos Keyser, Manager of recently launched Netwerk, which is being touted as an Afrikaner interest group with the aim of encouraging networking and cooperation within the community. “It made us bad.” Keyser says Netwerk came into being following years of informal discussions among leading Afrikaners across the country around the role and place of the community in an independent Namibia. However, he says, these discussions led nowhere as there was never any connection between concerned groups around the country. “What we are saying is that for now we just want to connect Afrikaners,” says Keyser. “We want to do it in the interest of the country.” Keyser is quick to point out that Netwerk is not an “old boys' club” attempting to revive some form of Afrikaner nationalism and says the organisation has no political ambitions. The idea behind Netwerk, Keyser says, is to try and find solutions to improve the lot and future prospects of young Afrikaners who are confronted with affirmative action and black economic empowerment when competing for opportunities. He says many young people have emigrated to South Africa and abroad because they feel marginalised. “It's about our children who aren't here,” says Keyser. “We realised that everywhere there were people who were concerned about this. Everywhere the Boere are concerned about their people. We have a responsibility towards our own.” At present the organisation boasts only 60 members under the leadership of prominent businessman Nico Tromp. Keyser says over the six months until April 2007, a lot of planning and canvassing will be done to publicise Netwerk and what it stands for and he says they expect a hard slog. He stresses that “we can talk for, but definitely not on behalf of Afrikaners”. “The Boere know how to argue with each other,” he says. “Netwerk should be a bridge for Afrikaners across their differences.”

Church and culture And the differences are plenty. Heated debates around culture, language, religion, history, leadership and every other aspect of the Afrikaner psyche that have been raging in South Africa since the early nineties have spilled over into Namibia and caused something of a chasm between older and younger generations especially. Add to this, Netwerk is not the first initiative set up in the hope of articulating and guiding Afrikaners’ interests. Before and after independence a number of associations and organisations, such as Akswa and Cultura 2000, saw the light of day and floundered again just as quickly because of infighting, politicking and mismanagement. “The Boere are not an easy lot to bring and keep together,” says Reverend Clem Marais, General Secretary of the Dutch Reformed Church in Namibia. “We fight with each other and we are very critical of each other.” Rev Marais believes the issue is largely one of post modernism having overtaken and overwhelmed a community which had been insulated and isolated in the past, causing something of a fracturing of what it means to be an Afrikaner. He says part of the problem is that in the past Afrikaner culture had been too closely linked to ideological and dogmatic institutions, such as church and state structures. “I think we are actually a culturally poor volk,” says Rev Marais. “You hear people say we have lost everything [with the collapse of apartheid].” He adds that since about the mid 1980s the Dutch Reformed Church itself has been trying and struggling to extricate itself from being identified as an Afrikaner cultural institution. “People confuse church and culture with each other,” he says. Rev Marais says he welcomes initiatives such as Netwerk and others aiming to provide leadership on issues affecting the Afrikaner community, within the context of a diverse society. “In Namibia we [Afrikaners] don't have cultural leaders,” he says. “I get the impression that their [Netwerk] purpose is not to circle the wagons.”

Open for debate Professor Ernst Stals says the loss of political power and control has severely affected Afrikaners. “It was very, very important for the Afrikaner to control his environment,” says Prof Stals. “At the root of apartheid was the reasoning that 'I want to rule my environment as it suits me'. It was the expression of an idea of survival because the Afrikaner was somebody who felt easily threatened.” He says this mindset was born out of the Afrikaner's pioneering days of struggle, hardship and oppression under British rule, which had given rise to the treks further and further into the African hinterland in an effort to remain independent and self sustaining. While he concedes that some Afrikaners are still clinging to apartheid era mindsets, Prof. Stals believes most have moved on. “The modern Afrikaner has already moved far away from these antiquated mindsets,” he says. Stals also believes the concept of Afrikaner culture is open for debate at present. However, not everyone is of the opinion that the Afrikaner is in such dire straits. Quinton Steele Botes, chairperson of the Afrikaans language and cultural association ATKV, says the continued use of Afrikaans as the lingua franca in Namibia shows that Afrikaners and their cultural tools contribute to society. And while he concedes that the Afrikaner is experiencing something of an identity crisis, he says the issue might not necessarily be about cultural dysfunction or lack of leadership, but rather more about the generational viewpoint. Where older people see crises, younger people see opportunity and renewal, Steele Botes believes. The current state of the Afrikaner is symptomatic of a communication breakdown between the older and younger generations. “If it is not addressed, the gap will become bigger,” he says, adding that older generations are guilt- ridden over apartheid while the youth have moved beyond the sins of the fathers. “We should stop making excuses,” he says. “We have to build bridges,” he adds. “It is very important to never burn them down again.” Although Afrikaner history is marked by a quest for separateness and superiority, their current crisis of identity may be little different from what other traditional communities are going through as they struggle to come to terms with globalisation and modernisation.

The history of the Afrikaner in Namibia

The first recorded visit by an Afrikaner to Namibia was that of a Cape Colony farmer, Jacobus Coetse, and a small party in 1760. Following this, Afrikaner hunters and adventurers visited the territory intermittently and the first recorded settlement by Afrikaner-Boer farmers in Namibia was established in the late 18th century, when three Afrikaner families, led by one Gideon Visagie, started farming activities in the vicinity of what was to become known as Keetmanshoop, in the south of the country. The next hundred years did not see many Afrikaner-Boers settle in the territory, but in the late 19th century many Afrikaner-Boer families, in the wake of the collapse of the Boer republics in South Africa and wanting to get out from under British rule, trekked into the territory. Afrikaner-Boers came into the territory in two notable streams from around the late 1880s. One stream trekked from the Transvaal to the north of the country and into the Kaokoland and all the way to Angola before finally settling in the vicinity of Grootfontein. The other was a steady stream of Afrikaner-Boers who trekked from the Cape Colony and settled mainly in the south-central parts of the country. When the territory became a German colony at the end of the 19th century, German colonial authorities encouraged the limited Afrikaner-Boer migration as a means of establishing a more visible European presence. When the First World War broke out, Afrikaner-Boers came to the territory as British soldiers and when South West Africa became a mandated territory of the Union of South Africa following the war, Afrikaner-Boers were brought into the country in increasing numbers as lower level civil servants and administrators. During the apartheid years, from 1948, Afrikaner-Boers were encouraged to settle in the South West Africa and during the liberation struggle era, many Afrikaner-Boers came into the country as soldiers and eventually settled here with their families.