Fearful Boers flee to South Africa's last white enclave

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | November 24, 2002 | Jane Flanagan

[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."

[Clemenza]

Only white people believed in the "overpopulation" myth. There is a good reason why Euro-peons are going to be a minority within many of their "homelands" within the next century.

[formosaplastics]

As I've been saying with regard to China, when you introduce democracy into a country with a majority-poor population, you end up with true socialist rule that is hostile rather than friendly to capitalism and progress in general. When given the vote, poor people vote socialist, whether those people live in S. Africa, China, or America.

[BenR2]

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.

Great post! Damn! Why didn't I think of that. Our motto should be: "Have babies, not abortions!"

[BenR2]

The cow cannot be allowed to escape from the barnyard. Who will provide the milk?

True. But you forgot the part about the whipping-boy not being allowed to escape from the stocks. Who will provide the alibis?

[BenR2]

To make a dum-dum, simply cut a cross into the nose of a lead bullet. It will split when it hits the target.

Clearly, Clive, you are no dum-dum, when it comes to ballistics!

[BenR2]

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.

Question: Why the hell are they NOT moving there? If the Oranians can declare independence and get their hands on a nuke or two -- they will survive.

[tictoc]

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.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently - it's a serious issue.

The way the question is framed generally, it sounds as if we (i.e., "advanced western societies") have a choice: if we weren't so disdainful of "getting our hands dirty" doing menial labor, and if we produced more children ourselves, we wouldn't have to import dusky laborers and could avoid the problems they bring.

But is that true?

For example, in general parents find it much easier to provide the ample investment in their children's upbringing and education that will enable them to become productive in the modern economy if they have only one, two or at most three children. In a family of seven children, each child must make do with less.

So my question is, do we really have that choice, or is immigration of poorer laborers an inevitable consequence of building an advanced economy?

[patriciaruth]

Are Akfrikaners Dutch in origin?

[MadIvan]

Primarily Dutch - but there are German and Huguenot elements in their background as well. Their language is mostly an archaic form of Dutch - a Dutch person once told me that Afrikaans sounds as odd to them as someone speaking Shakespearean English would sound to us.

Regards, Ivan

[patriciaruth]

There were never any large scale rebellions in the South by slaves even during the war.

They weren't allowed to read or to marry or to have control of their children, and were brutalized if they put a toe out of line. Amazing that the human spirit managed any rebellions, like Nat Turner, under such circumstances.

BTW, American slavery was more repressive than slavery as practiced in South America, where families were kept together as a rule, for instance, as the Catholic church insisted on marriage there.

I think only Muslims still practice slavery legally now.

[patriciaruth]

When the last whites in Africa are expelled or murdered. Who can the Africans blame

It may eventually turn out well that the Iranian revolution expelled all Americans. As you say, they have no one to blame but themselves now for the last 23 years.

Saw a fascinating Q & A with Christopher Hitchens and David Rieff at the Miami Book Fair on C-span just now, and Hitchens mentioned that the press never reports that the "Iranian street" is 80% for the U.S. taking out Saddam.

He had some fun comments about the Orwellian society of North Korea, too.

[CWRWinger]

While the 7mm was the standard weapon, I suspect that the Boers used plenty of British weapons and ammunition.

I have read two books and many article on the Boer Wars. All accounts have the Boers preferring the 7mm X 57 Mauser over anything British because the Mauser was far superior in range and accuracy. The Mausers turned a Boer into a sniper.

One of their favorite war cries was, "God and Mauser".

They also had no love for British anything, especially the British tatic of using bayonets. The Boers refused to use the bayonet.

I don't doubt the Boers used dum-dums in their Mausers. I have seen British medical photos taken in the field after battles showing where the 7mm consistently over-penetrated a Brit, causing only a relatively minor wound. The lead round nosed 7mm bullet did not mushroom at all. The Boers wanted the casualty to stay down so they may have switched to dum-dums.

[rmvh]

Re your # 39..."Not genetics, culture."

Most reasonable people would like to agree with you but the facts make this impossible for them.

You can, if you are fair minded, see this by considering without excuses the racial makeup of professional sports...the leadeing people in Physics-chemistry-mathematics and all the high sciences and arts...children's spelling bee winners.....contestants on such "mental agility" shows such as Jeapardy...These all attest to and underscore the fact that the major races on earth have on balance and in general fundamental differences in physical and intellectual capabilites....no hate intended or impied.

Better to forget the myth of equality of all people and work toward equal opportunity for all... with no racial favoritism. The myth and insistence that all peoples have the same capabilities only fosters hatred.

[yarddog]

Your post about slavery in the American South was just plain wrong.

They were probably treated more benevolently than any slaves in history. The Spartans treated their helots far more brutally, and the Romans also were much worse. Still the Helots and Roman slaves such as Spartacus, were constantly rebelling.

Nat Turner was a truly monstrous man. Nearly all the ones he killed were women and children.

[Mark was here]

BTW, ir happened in Haiti, where 6,000 whites were lynched on a single day. Of course, liberals never mention it.

What is the story here?

[Eternal_Bear]

When the Haitian slaves rose in rebellion in the 1790's, vast massacres of whites occurred all over the island. This went on over many years. That's why none are left. The Haitian insurrection horrified the American South resulting in more restrictions on slaves. BTW. the French plantation masters were infamous for their cruelty to their slaves so maybe they got their just desserts.

[MinorityRepublican]

bttt

[go-dubya-04]

One of the greatest unknown movies - EVER!

[MinorityRepublican]

bttt