A White ethnostate is a proposed type of state in which residence or citizenship would be limited to Whites , and non-Whites and any other groups not seen as White would be excluded from citizenship. Native populations would also be excluded from citizenship, such as the indigenous peoples of the United States.
116-476: A Volkstaat ( Afrikaans pronunciation: [fɔlkstɑːt] , "People's State"), also called a Boerestaat , is a proposed White homeland for Afrikaners within the borders of South Africa , most commonly proposed as a fully independent Boer/Afrikaner nation . The proposed state would exclude Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds but accept South Africans of English ancestry and other White South Africans, if they accept Afrikaner culture and customs. Following
232-619: A Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 . Until 1994, they dominated South Africa 's politics as well as the country's commercial agricultural sector. Afrikaans , a language primarily descended from Dutch , is the mother tongue of Afrikaners and most Cape Coloureds . According to the South African National Census of 2022 , 10.6% of South Africans claimed to speak Afrikaans as
348-440: A Volkstaat if one were created, a further 17% (1,908) would consider it while only 27% (2,933) would not consider it as a viable option. The newspaper's analysis of this was that the idea of a Volkstaat was doodgebore (stillborn) and that its advocates had been doing nothing but tread water for the past two decades, although it did suggest that the poll was a measure of dissatisfaction among Afrikaners. Hermann Giliomee later cited
464-661: A Volkstaat in the Northern Cape province, in a largely rural and minimally developed region. Avstig bought the town of Orania in 1991, and turned it into a model Volkstaat. Boshoff continued to be a representative of the Freedom Front , a political party which advocated the Volkstaat concept. Orania lies at the far eastern apex of the original Volkstaat state, near where the boundaries of the three provinces Northern Cape, Eastern Cape , and Free State meet. During
580-458: A Volkstaat in the 1990s. The idea originated in the early 1980s, when Hendrik Verwoerd Jr, son of the former prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd , moved to Morgenzon along with a group known as Oranjewerkers . Ultimately only 20 families followed him, as his plans required them to give up their black servants and labourers, and most of Morgenzon's whites were reluctant to perform the menial tasks that were otherwise reserved for blacks. Section 235 of
696-724: A Volkstaat that would stretch from majority-white neighborhoods in Pretoria to the Atlantic Ocean, which was seen as unacceptable by the ANC. On 5 June 1998, Mohammed Valli Moosa (then minister of constitutional development in the African National Congress (ANC) government) stated during a parliamentary budget debate that "the ideal of some Afrikaners to develop the North Western Cape as a home for
812-517: A Volkstaat. In the second survey, the proportion of white South Africans opposed to the idea had increased from 34% to 66%. The 1996 survey found that "those who in 1996 said that they would consider moving to a Volkstaat are mainly Afrikaans speaking males, who are supporters of the Conservative Party or Afrikaner Freedom Front, hold racist views (24%; slightly racist: 6%, non racist: 0%), call themselves Afrikaners and are not content with
928-887: A White ethnostate in the Ozark region and is affiliated with other separatist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK); the Knights Party , located near Harrison, Arkansas ; the League of the South (LS); and the National Socialist Movement (NSM), a member of the now-defunct Nationalist Front . Conversely, the Ozarks have been a "hotbed" for adherents of the Christian Identity movement, including
1044-586: A basis for the evolution of Afrikaner identity and consciousness. In the twentieth century, Afrikaner nationalism took the form of political parties and closed societies, such as the Broederbond . In 1914, the National Party was founded to promote Afrikaner interests. It gained power by winning South Africa's 1948 general elections . The party was noted for implementing a harsh policy of racial segregation ( apartheid ) and declaring South Africa
1160-691: A census of his non-indigenous subjects. White vrijburgers - now outnumbered by slaves brought from West Africa , Mozambique , Madagascar and the Dutch East Indies - only totaled about 6,000. Following the defeat and collapse of the Dutch Republic during Joseph Souham 's Flanders Campaign , William V, Prince of Orange , escaped to the United Kingdom and appealed to the British to occupy his colonial possessions until he
1276-468: A certain part of the country should have a White majority and other factions claim that the entire country should have a White majority. Historically, as well as in modern times, the Pacific Northwest ( Washington , Oregon , Idaho and Montana ) has been proposed by many White supremacists as a location for the establishment of a White ethnostate. This Northwest Territorial Imperative
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#17327809980101392-564: A class of former VOC employees, vrijlieden , also known as vrijburgers (free citizens, who stayed in Dutch territories overseas after serving their contracts. The vrijburgers 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. In March 1657, when the first vrijburgers started receiving their farms,
1508-643: A first language at home, making it the third most widely spoken home language in the country. The arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama at Calicut , India, in 1498 opened a gateway of free access to Asia from Western Europe around the Cape of Good Hope . This access necessitated the founding and safeguarding of trade stations along the African and Asian coasts. The Portuguese landed in Mossel Bay in 1498, explored Table Bay two years later, and by 1510 had started raiding inland. Shortly afterwards,
1624-589: A group; neither is particularly objectionable, but "Afrikaner" has been considered a more appropriate term. By the late nineteenth century, the term was in common usage in both the Boer republics and the Cape Colony . At one time, burghers denoted Cape 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
1740-579: A major destination for French Huguenot refugees fleeing persecution at home. In April 1688, the VOC agreed to sponsor the resettlement of over 100 Huguenots at the Cape. Smaller numbers of Huguenots gradually arrived over the next decade, and by 1702 the community numbered close to 200. 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. Additionally, there were calls from
1856-493: A number of Boers took up arms against the British. British officials retaliated by hanging five Boers for insurrection. 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. This had the effect of further alienating the Boers. Boer resentment of successive British administrators continued to grow throughout
1972-411: 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. The South African National Census of 2001 was the second census conducted in post- apartheid South Africa. It was calculated on October 9 and reported
2088-618: 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. 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%. As in Canada or the United States , most modern European immigrants elect to learn English and are likelier to identify with those descended from British colonials of
2204-469: A republic in 1961. Following decades of domestic unrest and international sanctions that resulted in bilateral and multi-party negotiations to end apartheid , South Africa held its first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994. As a result of this election the National Party was ousted from power, and was eventually dissolved in 2005. The term "Afrikaner"currently denotes
2320-568: A returning ship. 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 VOC fleets. 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
2436-448: A semi-nomadic lifestyle permanently and became known as trekboers . 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. By the mid-eighteenth century the Boers had penetrated almost a thousand kilometres into South Africa's interior beyond
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#17327809980102552-469: A separate homeland for Afrikaners. Most of its members were arrested in 2003, and are facing charges of treason. Similar violent methods towards Volkstaat creation were employed by the Orde van die Dood in the 1980s. Penuell Maduna , one of the leading ANC negotiators during the transition era, noted that Afrikaner organizations could not agree on the borders of the new Volkstaat. He noted a proposal to create
2668-459: A small inlet which he named Vleesch Bay ('Meat Bay'), after the cattle trade, and another Visch Bay ('Fish Bay') after the abundance of fish. Not long afterwards, Admiral Joris van Spilbergen reported catching penguins and sheep on Robben Island. In 1648, Dutch sailors Leendert Jansz and Nicholas Proot had been shipwrecked in Table Bay and marooned for five months until picked up by
2784-554: 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 under Piet 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, Dingane's forces surprised and killed
2900-546: 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 from Jan van Riebeeck , the Heeren XVII authorised
3016-571: A survey to determine the best pastureland for the grazing of cattle. By 15 May, they had nearly completed construction on the Castle of Good Hope , which was to be an easily defensible victualing station serving Dutch ships plying the Indian Ocean . 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. VOC fleets bearing cargo from
3132-473: 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!"). Biebouw was flogged for his insolence and later banished to Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia). The word Afrikaner
3248-717: Is legally theirs in terms of the Sand River Convention of 1852 and other historical treaties, through the International Court of Justice in The Hague if necessary. The Front National also called for the re-establishment of Stellaland as possible Volkstaat. Die Boeremag ( The Farmer-Might ) advocated for a violent overthrow of the African National Congress government and sought to restore apartheid-era policies and create
3364-557: Is thought to have first been used to classify Cape Coloureds , or other groups of mixed-race ancestry. Biebouw had numerous "half-caste" (mixed race) siblings and may have identified with Coloureds socially. 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 the Cape Colony rather than with an ancestral homeland in Europe. Afrikaner culture and people are also commonly referred to as
3480-475: The burgher senate. The new judiciary then established circuit courts, which brought colonial authority directly to the frontier. These circuit courts were permitted to try colonists for allegations of abuse of slaves or indentured servants. 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. The Boers, who perceived most of
3596-580: The vrijburger population became known as the Cape Dutch and remained concentrated in the southwestern Cape and especially the areas closer to Cape Town. They were likelier to be urban dwellers, more educated, and typically maintained greater cultural ties to the Netherlands than the Boers. The Cape Dutch formed the backbone of the colony's market economy and included the small entrepreneurial class. These colonists had vested economic interests in
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3712-676: The 1994 general election , Afrikaners were asked by the Freedom Front (FF) to vote for the party if they wished to form an independent state or Volkstaat for Afrikaners. The results of the election showed that the Freedom Front had the support of 424,555 voters, the fourth highest in the country. The FF did not however gain a majority in any of South Africa's voting districts, their closest being 4,692 votes in Phalaborwa , representing 30.38% of that district. Two surveys were conducted among white South Africans, in 1993 and 1996, asking
3828-715: The Batavian Republic of 1795–1806, burgher ('citizen') was popularised among Dutch communities both at home and abroad as a popular revolutionary form of address. In South Africa, it remained in use as late as the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. The first recorded instance of a colonist identifying as an Afrikaner occurred in March 1707, during a disturbance in Stellenbosch . When the magistrate , Johannes Starrenburg, ordered an unruly crowd to desist,
3944-604: The Belgium , Canada and Spain models of granting territorial autonomy to linguistic minorities, believing it the only way to protect the rights of Afrikaner people. Under this policy, they proposed that a mostly uninhabited chunk of land in the Western Cape and Northern Cape , stretching from the Atlantic Ocean near Vredendal , to the Orange River at Orania, would be developed into an Afrikaner homeland. As of 2024,
4060-669: The Church of Israel and various members of the Christian Patriot movement who have set up paramilitary training camps to prepare for a coming Armageddon . The defunct neo-Nazi organization Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), led by Matthew Heimbach , also sought to establish a White ethnostate which it named "Avalon", based on the ideological principles of Nazism , various strands of European fascism such as Legionarism and British Fascism . Afrikaners Afrikaners ( Afrikaans: [afriˈkɑːnərs] ) are
4176-541: The Dutch Republic sent merchant vessels to India and, in 1602, founded the Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie ; VOC). 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. VOC officials did not favour
4292-538: The Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s, Boer colonists established several Boer republics over the rest of the 19th century. The end of apartheid and the establishment of universal suffrage in South Africa in 1994 left some Afrikaners feeling disillusioned and marginalised by the political changes, which resulted in a proposal for an independent Volkstaat. Several different methods have been proposed for
4408-536: The Mpumalanga province, but both failed to develop beyond their initial phase. The first was at Balmoral , at the site of a former concentration camp built during the Second Boer War . The effort at Balmoral was financed by American white supremacist politician David Duke . Prominent right-winger Willem Ratte owns a farm in Balmoral. Meanwhile, Morgenzon was the site of another failed attempt to set up
4524-588: The Oranjewerkers . They also planned a community based on "Afrikaner self-determination", and attempted to create a neo-"boerstaat" (literally: "Boer State," a reference to an idiomatic term for an Afrikaner-only state) in the remote Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga ) community of Morgenzon . In 1988, Professor Carel Boshoff (1927-2011) founded the Afrikaner-Vryheidstigting (Afrikaner Freedom Foundation), or Avstig. Avstig proposed
4640-516: 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. In extent the new refreshment post was to be kept as confined as possible to reduce administrative expense. 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. As
4756-556: The South African Constitution allows for the right to self-determination of a community, within the framework of "the right of the South African people as a whole to self-determination", and pursuant to national legislation. This section of the constitution was one of the negotiated settlements during the handing over of political power in 1994. The Freedom Front was instrumental in including this section in
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4872-760: The South African Republic (the Transvaal). However, after the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), British rule led to the dissolution of the last two remaining Boer states (the Orange Free State and the South African Republic). Under apartheid, the South African government promoted Afrikaner culture; though both Afrikaans and English were the official languages, the majority of the politicians running
4988-471: The University of Windsor (Canada), as follows: "A minority who are geographically separate and who are distinct ethnically and culturally and who have been placed in a position of subordination may have a right to secede. That right, however, could only be exercised if there is a clear denial of political, linguistic, cultural and religious rights." However, Afrikaner nationalists who have brought cases to
5104-424: The permanent 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. 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. Encouraged by the success of this experiment,
5220-562: The Afrikaans or Afrikaans people . VOC initially had no intention of establishing a permanent European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope ; until 1657, it devoted as little attention as possible to the development or administration of the Dutch Cape Colony . 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. Furthermore,
5336-608: The Afrikaner "parent stock", as no significant effort was made to secure more colonist families after the dawn of the 18th century, and a majority of Afrikaners are descended from progenitors who arrived prior to 1700 in general and the late 1600s in particular. Although some two-thirds of this figure were Dutch-speaking Hollanders, there were at least 150 Huguenots and a nearly equal number of Low German speakers. Also represented in smaller numbers were Swedes , Danes , and Belgians . In 1754, Cape Governor Ryk Tulbagh conducted
5452-621: The Afrikaner community along social and geographical lines, driving a wedge between the Voortrekkers and those who remained in the Cape Colony. Only about a fifth of the colony's Dutch-speaking white population at the time participated in the Great Trek. The Dutch Reformed Church , to which most of the Boers belonged, condemned the migration. Despite their hostility towards the British, there were also Boers who chose to remain in
5568-649: The Afrikaner culture and language within the framework of the Constitution and the charter of human rights is viewed by the government as a legitimate ideal." On 23 July 2014, members of an Afrikaner group who call themselves the "Boer-Afrikaner Volksraad" announced forthcoming talks with the South African government around the concept of territorial self-determination for "Boer Afrikaner people". The talks would include either President Jacob Zuma , his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa , or both; and would be held before
5684-643: The Beeld poll in saying that over half of "northern Afrikaners" would prefer to live in a homeland. Dissatisfaction with life in post-apartheid South Africa is often cited as an indication of support for the idea of a Volkstaat among Afrikaners. A poll carried out by the Volkstaat Council among white people in Pretoria identified crime, economic problems, personal security, affirmative action, educational standards, population growth, health services, language and cultural rights, and housing as reasons to support
5800-545: The British annexed the Cape Colony, there were already large Dutch-speaking European settlements in the Cape Peninsula and beyond; by the time British rule became permanent in 1806, these had a population of over 26,000. There were, however, two distinct subgroups in the vrijburger population settled under the VOC. The first were itinerant farmers who began to progressively settle further and further inland, seeking better pastures for their livestock and freedom from
5916-520: 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 . 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. Following the passage of the Edict of Fontainebleau , the Netherlands served as
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#17327809980106032-568: The Cape of Good Hope, at which point they encountered the Xhosa people , who were migrating southwards from the opposite direction. Competition between the two communities over resources on the frontier sparked the Xhosa Wars . Harsh Boer attitudes towards black Africans were permanently shaped by their contact with the Xhosa, which bred insecurity and fear on the frontier. The second subgroup of
6148-403: 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. Reflecting the multi-national nature of the workforce of the early modern trading companies, some foreigners, particularly Germans, were open to consideration as well. If their application for vrijburger status
6264-591: The Cape of their own accord. 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 the Cape Qualified Franchise in 1853. As important as the Trek was to the formation of Boer ethnic identity, so were
6380-407: The Cape peninsula and were not inclined to venture inland because of the great difficulties in maintaining contact with a viable market. This was in sharp contrast with the Boers on the frontier, who lived on the margins of the market economy. 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
6496-414: The Cape was unpopular among VOC employees, who regarded it as a barren and insignificant outpost with little opportunity for advancement. 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. In time, they came to form
6612-411: The Cape were overtaken by turmoil in the Netherlands, which was occupied by Napoleon during the Flanders Campaign . This opened the Cape to French naval fleets. To protect her own prosperous maritime shipping routes, Great Britain occupied the fledgling colony by force until 1803. From 1806 to 1814 the Cape was again governed as a British military dependency, whose sole importance to the Royal Navy
6728-411: The Castle of Good Hope with new ones of stone. 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. By 1687, the number had increased to about 254 vrijburgers , of whom 77 were married, with 231 children. Simon van der Stel , who was appointed governor of the Cape in 1679, reversed
6844-409: The Dutch language. The use of other European languages was discouraged by a VOC edict declaring that Dutch should be the exclusive language of administrative record and education. In 1752, French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille visited the Cape and observed that nearly all the third-generation descendants of the original Huguenot and German settlers spoke Dutch as a first language. Long before
6960-450: The FF+ no longer explicitly supports the creation of a Volkstaat, but it does support Cape Independence , which is often seen as a separatist movement for Afrikaans speakers at large (rather than exclusively Afrikaners). The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging made headlines in March 2008 for their re-activation and plans of establishing an independent Boer state. Plans include a demand for land, such as Stellaland and Goshen , that they claim
7076-440: The Khoikhoi, who were known to the Dutch as Hottentots . There was also an unskilled labour shortage, which the VOC later resolved by bringing slaves from Angola, Madagascar, and the East Indies. In 1662, van Riebeeck was succeeded by Zacharias 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
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#17327809980107192-449: The Northwest and parts of Northern California in the United States and British Columbia in Canada . Some in the far-right use the term American Redoubt to describe a similar migration to the Northwestern United States. Other areas have been looked into as sites for a potential White ethnostate by certain groups. Most notably, the South has been proposed as a White ethnostate by the self-proclaimed "Southern Nationalist" League of
7308-426: The Orania Movement. Moving to Orania requires an application. Orania is currently petitioning the government to become a separate municipality and in the meantime their (transitional) representative council will remain in place indefinitely with all its powers, rights and duties. Another attempt is the settlement of Kleinfontein outside Pretoria (in the Tshwane metropolitan area). Similar to Orania, Kleinfontein
7424-451: 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. Between 1834 and 1840 about 15 000 Afrikaners left the Cape Colony permanently. They called themselves 'emigrants' and their mass-trek an 'emigration', but in
7540-422: The South (LS) due to the region's history of secessionism and its de facto independence as the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). The Republic of Florida Militia also has fought for the creation of a White Ethnostate in Florida. Another White ethnostate has been proposed by Billy Roper's Shield Wall Network (SWN), a neo-Nazi organization based in Mountain View, Arkansas . It seeks to establish
7656-544: The UN claiming indigenous status were rejected in 1996 and 2005 on the grounds that Afrikaners were neither marginalised or discriminated against. The rights awarded to minorities were formally asserted by the United Nations General Assembly when it adopted resolution 47/135 on 18 December 1992. White ethnostate In the United States, proposals for the establishment of such a state are advanced by White supremacist and White separatist factions such as Ku Klux Klansmen and Neo-Nazis . Some of these factions claim that
7772-401: The VOC administration to sponsor the immigration of more German settlers to the Cape, as long as they were Protestant. VOC pamphlets began circulating in German cities exhorting the urban poor to seek their fortune in southern Africa. Despite the increasing diversity of the colonial population, there was a degree of cultural assimilation due to intermarriage, and the almost universal adoption of
7888-405: The VOC underwent a period of commercial decline beginning in the late eighteenth century which ultimately resulted in its bankruptcy. The company had suffered immense losses to its trade profits as a result of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and was heavily in debt with European creditors. In 1794, the Dutch government intervened and assumed formal administration of the Cape Colony. However, events at
8004-424: 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 of Stellenbosch . Van der Stel persuaded 30 vrijburgers to settle in Stellenbosch and a few years afterwards the town received its own municipal administration and school. The VOC was persuaded to seek more prospective European immigrants for
8120-401: 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. The exercise of Dutch sovereignty, as well the large scale settlement of Dutch colonists,
8236-505: The VOC's registration and identification system were denoted either as employees or vrijburgers . The legal classifications imposed upon every individual in the Company possessions determined their position in society and conferred restraints upon their actions. VOC ordinances made a clear distinction between the "bonded" period of service, and the period of "freedom" that began once an employment contract ended. In order to ensure former employees could be distinguished from workers still in
8352-419: The VOC's regulations. This community of settlers collectively identified themselves as Boers to describe their agricultural way of life. 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. A few Boers adopted
8468-404: 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". 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. Wagenaer's response
8584-446: The charges levelled against them to be flimsy or exaggerated, often refused to answer their court summons. 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. The controversy which surrounded the incident led to the abortive Slachter's Nek Rebellion , in which
8700-480: The colonial government. Around March 1657, Rijcklof van Goens , a senior VOC officer appointed as commissioner to the fledgling Dutch Cape Colony , ordered Jan van Riebeeck to help more employees succeed as vrijburgers so the company could save on their wages. 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. A ship's carpenter
8816-404: The colonists. Furthermore, they insisted that the Cape Colony finance its own affairs by taxes levied on the white population, an unpopular measure which bred resentment. 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,
8932-509: The colony's population. The South African census of 1936 gave the following breakdown of language speakers of European origin. The South African census of 1960 was the final census undertaken in the Union 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
9048-568: The company extended free passage from 1685 to 1707 for Dutch families wishing to settle at the Cape. In 1688, it sponsored the settlement of 200 French Huguenot refugees forced into exile by the Edict of Fontainebleau . 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
9164-577: The company's expatriate officialdom—did not find widespread expression until the late eighteenth century. It is to the ambitions of Prince Henry the Navigator that historians attribute the discovery of the Cape as a settling ground for Europeans. In 1424, Henry and Fernando de Castro besieged the Canary Islands , under the impression that they might be of use to further Portuguese expeditions around Africa's coast. Although this attempt
9280-530: The constitution. No national legislation in this regard has yet been enacted for any ethnic group, however. International law presents a possible recourse for the establishment of a Volkstaat over and above than what the South African Constitution offers. This is available to all minorities who wish to obtain self-determination in the form of independence. The requirements set by international law are explained by Prof C. Lloyd Brown-John of
9396-403: The country were Afrikaners. The underlying principle of apartheid was racial separatism , and the means by which this was implemented, such as the homeland system of bantustans , were biased against the non-European majority as they excluded them from exercising their rights in the broader South Africa. In the 1980s, a group of Afrikaners, led by HF Verwoerd 's son-in-law, formed a group called
9512-451: The creation of Volkstaat. In an interview with Global Politician , Volkstaat Council Chair Johann Wingard cited what he described as rising unemployment, reduced political representation for whites Afrikaners, and dangers to white Afrikaner cultural heritage as motivations for the creation of a Volkstaat. However, white people in South Africa have the lowest unemployment rate of all racial groups in South Africa. The Freedom Front has been
9628-507: The end of August 2014. There have been several notable attempts at a practical implementation of a Volkstaat. One Volkstaat attempt is the small town of Orania in the Northern Cape province. The land on which Orania is built is privately owned. It had a population of 519 in 2001, 10 years after being established. Today, Orania is home to about 3,000 Afrikaners but has approximately 7,000 'uitwoners' or 'outhabitants' who are part of
9744-584: The establishment of a Volkstaat. The geographic dispersal of minority Afrikaner communities throughout South Africa presents a significant obstacle to the establishment of a Volkstaat, because Afrikaners do not form a majority in any separate geographic area that could be sustainable independently. Supporters of the proposal have established several land cooperatives in Orania in the Northern Cape province and Kleinfontein in Gauteng as practical implementations of
9860-445: The establishment of a fort at the Cape, and this the more hurriedly to preempt any further imperial maneuvers by Britain, France or Portugal. 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. 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
9976-433: The farmers and the restrictions imposed upon them by British colonial authorities. Land prices had also increased considerably during the 1820s and 1830s, which meant that the younger generation could not afford their own pieces of land, a problem that would only grow. Another reason was concerns about labour loss and financial retribution with the passing of Ordinance 50 in 1828, which outlawed slavery. The Great Trek split
10092-540: The idea. Initiatives in Balmoral and Morgenzon , both in Mpumalanga , failed to develop beyond their initial phase. Historically, Boers have exhibited a drive for independence which resulted in the establishment of different republics in what is now the modern Republic of South Africa. The Voortrekkers proclaimed separate independent republics, most notably Natalia Republic , the Orange Free State and
10208-679: The late 1820s and early 1830s, especially with the official imposition of the English language. 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. 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. From their perspective,
10324-475: The late 19th century this mass-movement became known as the Great Trek and the emigrants Voortrekkers . The Voortrekkers departed the colony in a series of parties, taking with them all their livestock and portable property, as well as slaves, and their dependents. 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. Nevertheless, one of their goals
10440-451: The major political driving force for the formation of a Volkstaat. This Afrikaner-focused political party has representation in the national Parliament as well as several Provincial legislatures in South Africa. Support for this party however decreased to just under 140,000 votes, being less than 1% of the total votes cast (approximately 20% among registered Afrikaner voters) by the 2004 national elections . The Freedom Front advocates following
10556-548: The members of the delegation; a large-scale massacre of the Boers followed: see Weenen massacre . Zulu izibutho ('regiments') attacked Boer encampments in the Drakensberg foothills at what was later called Blaauwkrans and Weenen , killing women and children along with men. (By contrast, in earlier conflicts the trekkers had experienced along the eastern Cape frontier, the Xhosa had refrained from harming women and children.) A commando of 470 men arrived to help
10672-469: The new democratic South Africa." The study used the Duckitt scale of subtle racism to measure racist views. A 1999 pre-election survey suggested that the 26.9% of Afrikaners wanting to emigrate, but unable to, represented a desire for a solution such as a Volkstaat. In January 2010, Beeld , an Afrikaans newspaper, held an online survey. Out of 11,019 respondents, 56% (6,178) said that they would move to
10788-487: The nineteenth century. Aside from coastal pockets in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal they remain heavily outnumbered by those of Afrikaans origin. The South African National Census of 2011 counted 2,710,461 white South Africans who speak Afrikaans as a first language, or approximately 5.23% of the total South African population. The census also showed an increase of 5.21% in Afrikaner population compared to
10904-595: The notion, especially following a skirmish with the Khoikhoi in 1497, when one of his admirals was wounded. After the British 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 visited Robben Island some years earlier, anchored in Table Bay in 1601. By 1614, the British had planted a penal colony on
11020-520: The politically, culturally, and socially dominant and majority group among white South Africans , or the Afrikaans -speaking population of Dutch origin. Their original progenitors, especially in paternal lines, also included smaller numbers of Flemish , French Huguenot , German , Danish , Norwegian , Swiss , and Swedish immigrants. Historically, the terms " burgher " and " Boer " have both been used to describe white Afrikaans-speakers as
11136-500: The previous, 2001 census. The earliest Afrikaner communities in South Africa were formed at the Cape of Good Hope, mainly through the introduction of Dutch colonists, French Huguenot refugees, and erstwhile servants of the VOC. During the early colonial period, Afrikaners were generally known as "Christians", "colonists", "emigrants", or ingezeetenen ("inhabitants"). Their concept of being rooted in Africa—;as opposed to
11252-405: The question "How do you feel about demarcating an area for Afrikaners and other "European" South Africans in which they may enjoy self determination? Do you support the idea of a Volkstaat?" The 1993 survey found that 29% supported the idea, and a further 18% would consider moving to a Volkstaat. The 1996 survey found that this had decreased to 22% supporting the idea, and only 9% wanting to move to
11368-527: The running conflicts with various indigenous groups along the way. One conflict central to the construction of Boer identity occurred with the Zulu in the area of present-day KwaZulu-Natal . The Boers who entered Natal discovered that the land they wanted came under the authority of the Zulu King Dingane kaSenzangakhona , who ruled that part of what subsequently became KwaZulu-Natal. The British had
11484-512: The service of the company, it was decided to provide them a "letter of freedom", a licence known as a vrijbrief . 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 a vrijburger in a VOC record known collectively as the vrijboeken ('free(dom) books'). Fairly strict conditions were levied on those who aspired to become vrijburgers at
11600-636: The settlers. On 16 December 1838, the Voortrekkers under the command of Andries Pretorius confronted about 10,000 Zulus at the prepared positions. The Boers had three injuries without any fatalities. Due to the blood of 3,000 slain Zulus that stained the Ncome River , the conflict afterwards became known as the Battle of Blood River . In present-day South Africa, 16 December remains a celebrated public holiday, initially called "Dingane's Day". After 1952,
11716-593: The site, and in 1621 two Englishmen claimed Table Bay on behalf of King James I , but this action was not ratified. They eventually settled on Saint Helena as an alternative port of refuge. Due to the value of the spice trade between Europe and their outposts in the East Indies , Dutch ships began to call sporadically at the Cape in search of provisions after 1598. In 1601, a Captain Paul van Corniden came ashore at St. Sebastion's Bay near Overberg . He discovered
11832-422: The total population. They also constituted 9.3% of the population in neighbouring South West Africa . 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. The South African National Census of 1996 was the first census conducted in post- apartheid South Africa. It was calculated on Census Day and reported
11948-560: The white population of the Cape was only about 134. Although the soil and climate in Cape Town were suitable for farming, willing immigrants remained in short supply, including a number of orphans, refugees, and foreigners. From 1688 onward, the Cape attracted some French Huguenots , most of them refugees from the protracted conflict between Protestants and Catholics in France. South Africa's white population in 1691 has been described as
12064-445: Was built on private property. Kleinfontein falls within the metropolitan area of Tshwane . In 2013 Tshwane recognized Kleinfontein as cultural community. Members of the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance have denounced the settlement and the continued existence of white-only settlements in post-apartheid South Africa. Kleinfontein currently has a population of around 650. Two other notable Volkstaat attempts occurred in
12180-450: 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. 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. Vegetable gardens were frequently destroyed by storms, and cattle lost in raids by
12296-452: Was hoped that Huguenot colonists accustomed to Mediterranean agriculture could succeed where the Dutch had failed. They were augmented by VOC soldiers returning from Asia, predominantly Germans channeled into Amsterdam by the company's extensive recruitment network and thence overseas. Despite their diverse nationalities, the colonists used a common language and adopted similar attitudes towards politics. The attributes they shared served as
12412-455: Was its strategic relation to Indian maritime traffic. The British formally assumed permanent administrative control around 1815, as a result of the Treaty of Paris . Relations between some of the colonists and the new British administration quickly soured. The British brought more liberal attitudes towards slavery and treatment of the indigenous peoples to the Cape, which were utterly alien to
12528-545: Was not viable for them. 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. In 1779, for example, hundreds of Cape burghers smuggled a petition to Amsterdam demanding an end to VOC corruption and contradictory laws. 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. Meanwhile,
12644-746: Was promoted by Richard Girnt Butler , Robert Miles , Robert Jay Mathews , David Lane , and Harold Covington , alongside the White supremacist terrorist organization The Order , the Neo-Nazi Christian Identity organization Aryan Nations , the White power skinhead group Volksfront , and the Northwest Front, among others. The Northwest Territorial Imperative also has loose overlap with the Cascadia independence movement , which also seeks to create an independent republic between
12760-472: Was restored. Holland's administration was never effectively reestablished; upon a new outbreak of hostilities with France, expeditionary forces led by Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet , finally permanently imposed British rule when they defeated Cape governor Jan Willem Janssens in 1806. At the onset of Cape Town 's annexation to the British Empire , the original Afrikaners numbered 26,720 – or 36% of
12876-503: Was successful, the Company granted them plots of farmland of thirteen and a half morgen (equal to 2,000 to 10,100 square metres or 1 ⁄ 2 to 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres), which were tax exempt for twelve years. They were also loaned tools and seeds. The extent of their farming activities, however, remained heavily regulated: for example, the vrijburgers were ordered to focus on the cultivation of grain. Each year their harvest
12992-409: Was therefore extremely limited at these sites. During the VOC's history only two primary exceptions to the rule emerged: the Dutch East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, through the formation of the vrijburgers . 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. Most Europeans within
13108-522: Was to be sold exclusively to the VOC at fixed prices. They were forbidden from growing tobacco, producing vegetables for any purpose other than personal consumption, or purchasing cattle from the native Khoikhoi at rates which differed from those set by the VOC. 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
13224-487: 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. The various motives for the Great Trek are laid out in the Voortrekker leader, Piet Retief's 1837 manifesto. On the one hand, there was an ongoing conflict between the Boers and the Xhosa inhabitants on the frontier, as well as growing resentment between
13340-530: Was to sponsor the immigration of Dutch women to the colony as potential wives for the settlers. Upon the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War , Wagenaer was perturbed by the British capture of New Amsterdam and attacks on other Dutch outposts in the Americas and on the west African coast. He increased the Cape garrison by about 300 troops and replaced the original earthen fortifications of
13456-542: Was unsuccessful, Portugal's continued interest in the continent made possible the later voyages of Bartholomew Dias in 1487 and Vasco da Gama ten years later. Dias made known to the world a "Cape of Storms", rechristened "Good Hope" by John II . As it was desirable to take formal possession of this territory, the Portuguese erected a stone cross in Algoa Bay . Gama and his successors, however, did not take kindly to
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