Posted on 11/23/2002 4:50:53 PM PST by MadIvan
Orania, an Afrikaner enclave on the edge of a desert, is being flooded with applications from whites disillusioned with South Africa's black government.
Founded in the early 1990s as white rule ended, the enclave, named after the local river, was an attempt by Afrikaner purists to preserve their culture around an independent Boer republic.
The founding fathers expected thousands to join them but only 600 moved to the dusty, windswept town on the edge of the Karoo desert.
Now, with a widespread fear that South Africa will follow Zimbabwe into political and racial turmoil, Orania is beginning to fill up.
"We are overwhelmed by calls from people inquiring about moving here," said John Strydom, a former GP who moved to Orania five years ago. "We have had 200 calls and e-mails in the last month alone."
Racial tensions have been growing elsewhere in South Africa. A previously unknown group called the Warriors of the Boer Nation have claimed responsibility for a string of explosions in Soweto two weeks ago. Twenty men - including farmers and university lecturers - are being held following the discovery of arms caches and a threat of a Christmas terror campaign.
In Orania, however, such groups are condemned as "hypocrites". Wynand Boshoff, a grandson of Hendrik Verwoerd, the former prime minister and architect of apartheid, said: "These people are professionals who don't mind taking money from blacks, having them as customers or employing them cheaply. But they can't tolerate the idea of them having any power."
While a perimeter fence around the town is strung with warning signs declaring the area "private property", its residents decry violence and choose their words carefully to emphasise the incompatibilities between the Afrikaner and African cultures.
Whereas the old nationalist rulers advocated racial separation yet relied on cheap black labour, the Oranians are prepared to get their hands dirty.
As she picked up a spade to turn the soil in her garden, Riekie de Jager, 62, admitted that she missed the services of the black staff she left behind to move to Orania two years ago. "People think we are here because we hate the blacks - we don't," she said. "We are very friendly with them when we meet. But I am happier here with people like myself.
"Things are going the way of Zimbabwe and we have come here for some security. Things are very bad now, but you wait - when Nelson Mandela dies there will be nothing but chaos. But at least in Orania we can feel safe."
One of the great dilemmas which western civilization has always faced is this: we generally create prosperous societies with growing economies, yet never have large enough birth rates to maintain a healthy labor market. This always results in the importation of large numbers of people from other cultures to do much of the manual labor.
Inevitably, the imported laborers rebel against "unjust" social systems which they find in these societies. This occured in Rome and the South...and is now occuring in Europe, Israel, the US Southwest, and across the Western world in general.
The choice is simple: do the work yourself (and have enough children to supply a growing economy's labor needs), or face displacement, social upheaval, crime, etc at the hands of the imported workers.
The ANC cannot allow this sort of thing to take root. It defeats the whole purpose of their takeover of the nation. The blacks in SA could have negotiated an independent, black-ruled nation on part of SA's territory at any time. What they held out for was total control of all of SA. The whites must remain in the same polity dominated by the ANC so that the ANC govt can milk them to finance the country (and to provide wealth to bilk from the public treasury).
The cow cannot be allowed to escape from the barnyard. Who will provide the milk?
There were never any large scale rebellions in the South by slaves even during the war. A couple of well publicized ones which were actually very minor.
The following is a comment on the recent bombings in South Africa.
"First of all that it is the rightwing that is responsible for the bombings is highly speculative but one of the most likely possibilities. If it was the rightwing that was responsible for the bombings, then a new era has started in South Africa. It will be an era where pockets of the white Afrikaans people are becoming militant.
This alone deserves serious consideration. For the past decades the white Afrikaans community was mostly passive in their objections to the NP governments decline and eventual handover to the ANC led government. The Afrikaner is a minority in South Africa not even 10% of the total population. Masses of the Afrikaners have moved overseas in what is called in some circles the Afrikaner Diaspora. London is rumored to have an Afrikaner population of over 300,000. The numbers of Afrikaners that has left for Australia and in particular Perth has caused the area to be satirically referred to as one of the South African provinces. The Afrikaans speaking in London and some other major cities in the world has increased in numbers so much that Afrikaans cultural festivals have been organized there with great success.
In Canada some areas have not seen a Canadian doctor in over six years. Medical doctors from South Africa mostly Afrikaans immigrated to Canada in such numbers that the South African government demanded compensation.
The question must be asked then why does Afrikaners feel so alienated in their country of birth that they move to other countries? And what is the reaction of those who are not willing to make the leap to leave the country?"
I will celebrate on that day, which couldn't come soon enough.
I don't know just WHO is moving there ; however, I don't know a single Afrikaner family ( nor do the ones I know, know of any), who is moving there.
Will they eventually be driven out ? YES, I THINK SO. Do they have anywhere that they can go ? NOT REALLY.
The Boer farmers, have been threatened and murdered, in larger numbers and for FAR longer ( since the ANC took over ), than what has been done in Zimbabwe. This is NOT something " new ", nor even all that much imfluenced by Mugabe. It's just that most Westerners have never heard about it.
The ANC has also gone after the Zulus ( they are mostly Xhosias and were once the slaves of the Zulus. Also, they , unlike the Zulus , have been courted and trained by COMMIES , for 70 years ! )and have unfortunately, been able to divide and , to some extent, conquer them .
To the Jewish enclaves in South Florida as well. My parents (the token gentiles in their community) have a couple South African Jewish neighbors in their development in Boca Raton.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.