Boer

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War.

Boer (pronounced /ˈbʊər/, /ˈboʊ.ər/, or /ˈbɔər/; Afrikaans: [ˈbuːr]) is the Dutch word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking pastoralists of the eastern Cape frontier ^[1] in Southern Africa during the 18th century as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State, Transvaal (together known as the Boer Republics) and to a lesser extent Natal. Their primary motivation for leaving the Cape was to escape British rule as well as the constant border wars between the British imperial government and the native tribes on the eastern frontier.

Boer people

Paul Kruger Andries Pretorius Petrus Jacobus Joubert
Total population
approx. 1.5 million. [2]
Languages
Afrikaans
Religion
Protestant (Calvinist Reformed churches)
Related ethnic groups
Dutch, Flemish, Frisians; Germans, French, Scots, English; Cape Coloureds, Basters

History

Origin

The Trekboere, as they were originally known, are descended mainly from Dutch Calvinist, Flemish and Frisian Calvinist as well as French Huguenot ^[3], and German Protestant origins dating from the 1650s and into the 1700s. Minor numbers of Scandinavians, Portuguese, Greeks, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Scots, English, and Irish also contributed to this ethnic mix.

For more information on history before the Great Trek, see Afrikaner.

Great trek

Those Trekboers who trekked into and occupied the eastern Cape were semi-nomadic. A significant number in the eastern Cape frontier later became Grensboere ("border farmers") who were the direct ancestors of the Vrugtekoek. The Vrugtekoek were those Boers (mainly from the eastern Cape) who left the Cape en masse in a series of large scale migrations later called the Great Trek beginning in 1835 as a result of British colonialism and constant border wars. When used in a historical context, the term Boer may refer to an inhabitant of the Boer Republics as well as those who were cultural Boers.

Anglo-Boer wars

Though the Boers, without resistance, accepted British rule in 1877, they fought two wars in the late 19th century in order to defend their internationally recognized independent countries, the republics of the Transvaal (the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, or ZAR) and the Orange Free State (OFS), against the threat of annexation by the British Crown. This led the key figure in organizing the resistance, Paul Kruger, into conflict with the British.^[4]

Boer War diaspora

After the second Anglo-Boer War, a Boer diaspora occurred. Starting in 1903, the largest group emigrated to the Patagonia region of Argentina. Another group emigrated to British-ruled Kenya, from where most returned to South Africa during the 1930s, while a third group under the leadership of General Ben Viljoen emigrated to Mexico and to New Mexico and Texas in south-western USA.

Boer Revolt

Jopie Fourie executed by firing squad for treason

The Maritz Rebellion or the Boer Revolt or the Five Shilling Rebellion or the Third Boer War, occurred in South Africa in 1914 at the start of World War I, in which men who supported the recreation of the old Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa because they did not want to side with the British against Germany so soon after they had had a long bloody war with the British. Many Boers had German ancestry and many members of the government were themselves former Boer military leaders who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War, which had ended only twelve years earlier. The rebellion was put down by Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, and the ringleaders received heavy fines and terms of imprisonment. A renowned Boer, Jopie Fourie, was executed for treason as he was in 1914 an officer in the Union Defence Force and was convicted as rebel for his refusal to take up arms with the British.

Characteristics

Culture

The drive to trek (known as the trekgees) was a notable characteristic of the Boers in the past beginning in the late 1600s out of necessity when the Trekboers began to inhabit the northern and eastern Cape frontiers, to the era of the Great Trek when the Voortrekkers left the eastern Cape en masse, as well as later after major republics were established such as during the Thirstland Trek.^[5]

A rustic characteristic and tradition was developed quite early on as Boer society was born on the frontiers of white settlement and on the outskirts of civilization.^[6]

The Boer quest for independence manifested in a tradition of declaring republics, which predates the arrival of the British since when the British arrived a number of Boers were in rebellion from the VOC having declared republics.^[7]

The Boers of the frontier were known for their independent spirit, resourcefulness, hardiness, and self-sufficiency, whose political notions verged on anarchy but had begun to be influenced by republicanism.^[7] Most of the men were also skilled with the use of guns as they would hunt and also be able to protect their families with them.

Nationalism

The Boer nation is well-known for their strong nationalistic characteristics. Their nationalism was born of hundreds of years of fighting against imperialism, a continuing struggle for independence battling mainly British expansion into central South Africa, as well as the harsh African climate, a strong sense of nationhood. As with any other ethnic group that has come from troubled land to troubled land, many of them see it as their duty to educate future generations on their people's past.

Calvinism

The Boer nation is mainly descended from Dutch, German and French Huguenots, who migrated to South Africa during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. The Boer nation has revealed a distinct Calvinist culture and the majority of Boers today are still members of a Reformed Church. The Nederdeutsch Hervormde Kerk was the national Church of the South African Republic (1852–1902). Also note the "Orange" in Orange Free State (1854–1902) was named after the Protestant House of Orange in the Netherlands. Recently, however, many Boers have found a spiritual home in the Christian Identity Movement, a white supremacist sect of Christianity. The Calvinist influence, however, remains, in that some fundamental Calvinist doctrines such as unconditional predestination and divine providence remains present in many of these Identity Churches. A small number of Boers may also be members of Baptist, Pentecostal or Lutheran Churches.

Modern usage

In more recent times, mainly during the apartheid reform and post-1994 eras, a number of white Afrikaans-speaking people, mainly with "conservative" political views and of voortrekker descent, have preferred to be called "Boers" or Boere-Afrikaners, rather than "Afrikaners". They feel that there were many people of Voortrekker descent who were not co-opted or assimilated into what they see as the Cape-based Afrikaner identity which began emerging after the Second Anglo-Boer War and the subsequent establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Certain Boer Nationalists have asserted that they do not consider themselves a right-wing element of the political spectrum.^[8]

They contend that the Boers of the South African (ZAR) and Orange Free State republics were recognized as a separate people or cultural group under international law by the Sand River Convention (which created the South African Republic in 1852)^[9], the Bloemfontein Convention (which created the Orange Free State Republic in 1854), the Pretoria Convention (which re-established the independence of the South African Republic 1881), the London Convention (which granted the full independence to the South African Republic in 1884) and the Vereeniging Peace Treaty, which formally ended the Second Anglo-Boer War on 31 May 1902. Others contend, however, that these treaties dealt only with agreements between governmental entities and do not imply the recognition of a Boer cultural identity per se.

The supporters of these views feel that the Afrikaner designation (or label) was used from the 1930s onwards as a means of unifying (politically at least) the white Afrikaans speakers of the Western Cape with those of Trekboer and Voortrekker descent (whose ancestors began migrating eastward during the 1690s and throughout the 1700s and later northward during the Great Trek of the 1830s) in the north of South Africa, where the Boer Republics were established.

Since the Anglo-Boer war the term "Boervolk" was rarely used in the twentieth century because of this attempt to assimilate the Boervolk with the Afrikaners. A portion of those who are the descendants of the Boerevolk have reasserted this designation. ^[10]

The supporters of the "Boer" designation view the term "Afrikaner" as an artificial political label which usurped their history and culture, turning "Boer" achievements into "Afrikaner" achievements. They feel that the Western-Cape based Afrikaners — whose ancestors did not trek eastwards or northwards — took advantage of the republican Boers' destitution following the Anglo-Boer War and later attempted to assimilate the Boers into a new politically based cultural label as "Afrikaners".

Politics

• Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
• Boere-Vryheidsbeweging
• Boerestaat Party
• Freedom Front Plus
• Herstigte Nasionale Party
• Transvaal Agricultural Union

Education

The BCVO ('Movement for Christian-National Education') is a federation of 47 Calvinist private schools, primarily in the Free State and the Transvaal, committed to educating Boer children from grade 0 through to 12.^[11]

Media

Some local Radio stations promote the ideals of the people identifying with Boer/Afrikaner people, like Radio Rosestad (in Bloemfontein), Overvaal Stereo and Radio Pretoria.

Territories

Two territorial areas are being developed as settlement exclusively for Boer/Afrikaners, Orania in the Northern Cape and Kleinfontein near Pretoria.

See also

• Afrikaner
• Boer music
• Great Trek
• Natalia Republic
• Orange Free State
• South African Farm Murders
• South African Republic
• Transvaal
• Volkstaat
• Voortrekker

Notable Boers

Voortrekker leaders

• Sarel Cilliers Voortrekker leader
• Andries Hendrik Potgieter
• Andries Pretorius
• Piet Retief Voortrekker leader

Great trek

• Racheltjie de Beer
• Dirkie Uys

Participants in the Second Anglo-Boer War

• Siener van Rensburg, considered a prophet by some.
• Koos de la Rey, general and regarded as being one of the great military leaders of that conflict.
• Danie Theron, soldier
• Christiaan Rudolf de Wet, general

Politicians

• Louis Botha, first prime minister of South Africa (1910–9) and former Boer general
• Petrus Jacobus Joubert, general and cabinet member of the Transvaal Republic
• Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal Republic
• Eugene Terre'Blanche, leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) political and paramilitary group.

Spies

• Fritz Joubert Duquesne, a Boer Captain known as the Black Panther, served in the Second Boer War. Captured in Mozambique, he escaped prison in Portugal and returned to South Africa as a British officer. In 1901, he was caught planning to sabotage strategic British installations in Cape Town and sentenced to life in prison; however, he escaped and was re-captured several times again throughout his life. In World War I, Duquesne spied for Germany, earning the Iron Cross for allegedly sinking the HMS Hampshire thereby killing Lord Kitchener in 1916. He also served as a Nazi spy in the United States and, in 1941, he was caught by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the largest espionage case in U.S. history: The Duquesne Spy Ring.

References