Portuguese and South European influence on Boer-Afrikaner people

In the last two posts we explain the influence of the French Huguenot and German people in the Boer-Afrikaner culture and people. Now we will develop the South European, mainly Portuguese, influence to Boer-Afrikaners. Portuguese was a great colonial power with many colonies in Africa, Mozambique and Angola in the South of Africa. They were as the Dutch, French and Germans in the Cape Colony, among the first Europeans in to live in the African continent.  The Portuguese influence in the Boer-Afrikaner people is uncertain but probably gets back to the XVIII century when begin to exist some Boer-Afrikaners with the surname Ferreira which is a very common Portuguese surname that is also an important Afrikaner surname. They are probably descendent of João Ferreira de Almeida a Portuguese man that go to Holland with just 14 years old and then go to Batavia and India where he became a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church and translated the Bible to Portuguese. The surname Ferreira is relatively common in Boer-Afrikaners with some important people holding these surname as Wayne Ferreira, Joachim Ferreira or Deon Ferreira. Also after the Union of South Africa some Portuguese arrive in South Africa especially from Madeira. The Afrikaans language have some influence of the Portuguese language. Some of the words are of Portuguese origin as moveer, to move in English from the Portuguese mover, kraal, from the Portuguese curral, a place to store animals.

Spanish influence in the Boer-Afrikaner culture was residual but one of the most important Boers of all time, Generaal Koos De la Rey had Spanish ancestry as his surname indicates. Probably he was a descendent of a Spanish family that flee to Holland to escape the inquisition and then to the Dutch Cape Colony to create a new live.

The Portuguese dictatorial regime known as ‘Estado Novo’, new state in English, had a good relationship with the Apartheid South Africa especially the Ultramarine provinces of Angola and Mozambique, and was until it’s end in 1974 one of it’s few allies.

After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal the decolonization process start being made and in 1975 the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola became independent. That led to black rule in those countries and a persecution of the white Portuguese people that lived there. Many of those had to flee to Portugal or to South Africa and Namibia, at that time under South African government. South Africans open the borders because they want more white employers and saw the Portuguese as a good opportunity to increase the white labor force. These Portuguese immigrants do not integrate immediately in the Afrikaner population because few could speak Afrikaans and they were Catholics not Protestants unlike the vast majority of the Afrikaners. However after some years, mostly since the 1980 decade, the Portuguese start to intermarry with Afrikaners, adopting and becoming part of the Boer-Afrikaner culture. Now there are 80 thousand Portuguese in South Africa and many more descendents.

There are also small minorities of other South European as French, not Huguenots, and also Italians. An example of a South African with Italian ancestry is the swimmer Giulio Zorzi.

The South European influence on the Boer-Afrikaner people is relatively small but the Portuguese in particular have a reasonable influence in the Boer-Afrikaner  people specially the ones that came from Angola and Mozambique.

The importance of international Relations

Whether we like it or not, we no longer live in an isolated World.

That is why it is so important that Afrikaners open themselves to the world and get external support to the cause of self-determination.

It is important that people throughout the world be aware of the justice of our cause and also manifest for the right to self-determination and protest against ethnic attacks that are being made ​​to the Boer people. See for example the impact that had the mobilization of people worldwide for the release of Timor from Indonesia, the end of the Ian Smith’s regime in Rhodesia or the Apartheid system in South Africa. BJ Vorster, former Prime Minister and President of South Africa realized the importance of good international relations to continue the South African regime and that’s why he spent so many resources in that aim

Arguably the mobilization of people to causes and problems that occur in various regions of the world results because people pressure their governments and movements to act internationally in the competent authorities  for some situations that occur in the world cease to happen

So the Boer-Afrikaner People should join and get support from the authorities who truly have a certain political and social impact in the world. We should be aware that this process will be long and we must be persistent and never give up to show the world that the Afrikaner people is suffering from racism and that this has resulted in deaths.

Importantly already are being made ​​very significant efforts such as the adhesion of Vryheidsfront to UNPO ( association of peoples and nations not represented ) , the fact that Vryheidsfront have contacts with European parties that participate in the European Parliament or the fact that the Orania movement have been reunited with European parties and even in Europe have given lectures on the Orania project.
All this is very positive because the Afrikaner people and their problems will be more known and will increasingly attracting and mobilizing people for the support to self-determination. However , we believe that more can be done , for example , try to International Amnesty worry about racist attacks on Boer-Afrikaners and the discrimination of white afrikaners in access to jobs . Although, We know that this approach has been tried but has to be continued because as mentioned here we have to be persistent and if they refuse to support us we must continue by other means and be even more contructive.

To maximize  the support we received we have to show where and how the poor white Afrikaners live, show statistics regarding the crime, we must also demarcate the apartheid (let’s face it! this system is outdated and does not work, let us look to the future and build something long and stable), the Boer-Afrikaner people can not ever be associated with racismo We aren´t going anywhere with that association, we have to show the results of the 1992 referendum to show that we are not racist.

We can not be associated to radical, extremist and Nazi parties or movements of Europe for various reasons: these movements commit a series of crimes and that give us bad publicity, they don’t accept Israel as a independent country that was for decades our closest ally and like us have the right to self-determination to be na autonomous country and they don’t respect individual freedom and come to suspicion the free property which was the basis of the high economic growth of the Boers through their farms, also they don’t have no real power and only give us bad publicity. We obviously don’t include here parties like the Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders who completely reject an anti Semitic views and condemn Nazism, they’re not even associated with violent crimes and other organizations,and defend the individual rights of persons and free property.

Other parties that are interesting to make contacts are separatist parties of centre europe as Catalans, Basques, Flemish and Tyrolean, in the background we have in common with these parties the desire for self-determination that we should publicly support in their actions. A interesting Flamish Party is the Vlaams Belang, they  have a deputy in the European parliament and defend the Flemish separatism in relation to Belgium.

In addition, the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders have some influence on the outlook of the European Parliament and has already done much to help the Afrikaners. We could also try to have to have support of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats who are generally the major European parties and have great influence in politics, This is  difficult, however, we again repeat that we must be persistent and resilient. It would also be interesting to try to win the support of Israeli movements, we know that, Avigdor Eskin a Israeli Politician  have a great  appreciation for the cause of bóer self-determination, Who Knows if they are are more Israelis as Eskin,  that defend   the  cause of self-determination and freedom and security for our people.

We also considered important that the Boer-Afrikaners around the world whether they are in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa or South America join and create a World organization with branches in various parts of the world where there are Afrikaners and other people willing to help, it is difficult to create a worldwide organization but it  can be very effective especially to gather boer-Afrikaners over the world closer ties between them and also raise the number of supporters to the cause. This organization could happen after a few meetings between Boers and influential organizations with Boer Afrikaners that are outside of South Africa, the idea is to go creating embassies and increasing the influence and connecting communities Boer.

German influence on Boer-Afrikaner people

After in the first post of these series we had explain the influence of French Huguenot people in the Boer-Afrikaner culture in this post we will explain the influence of another people that influenced a lot the Boer-Afrikaner people, the German people. Germany was not a colonial power in the XVII or in the XVIII centuries. In fact the country that is now the most powerful of Europe was divided is kingdoms, duchies under the powerful of several kings, principes and religious orders. Several wars destroyed parts of the country and the society was still a feudal society far of the advanced society existing in the Netherlands dominated by rich businessmen and with a Colonial Empire that in 1651 founded the Cape Colony by Jan Van Riebeeck. The Cape Colony was developed but the Netherlands was not a very populous country and many of the employees of the Dutch Company of East Indies were foreigners specially Germans. Some of those German workers settle in the Cape Colony in hope to get a better live since most of them were poor. Some settle in the Cape and others go for the northeast region of the Cape Colony close to the Orange River.

In the XVIII century German immigration to Cape was the largest even bigger than the Dutch. The German immigrants were the only allowed to build a church not Dutch Reformed, in the Cape Colony, a Lutheran Church in Cape Town. In the XVIII century Germans as other people like the French Huguenot admix with Dutch and that created the Afrikaner culture and the Afrikaner Volk. With the Cape Colony under British control some of the people that lived in the eastern part of the colony crossed the Great Karoo to the Oranje Vry  Staat and after the Transvaal regions. Many of those Boers had German ancestry and they influenced the accent of the Afrikaans that is speaking in the regions of the Transvaal and Vry Staat. Still for a people that makes around 25% to 30% or even more of the Boer-Afrikaners genetics the Germans had a smaller influence in the culture that what was expected for such a number immigrants. A possible explanation for that is the fact that the majority of the German immigrants to South Africa were of the North-West region of the country were the language and accent is more close to Dutch, the old Low German language. Some of the most common Afrikaner surnames are of German origin such as Pretorius, Botha, Kruger (Krüger), Muller (Müller), Meyer, Potgieter, Schoeman (Schuman) or Liebenberg. Because of the similarity of the language some of these names might also be of people with origin because some of these surnames are common to the two countries. Some of the most famous Boer-Afrikaners have German ancestry as Paul Kruger, Andries Pretorius, Gerd Maritz, Francis William Reitz, Louis Botha, Breyten Breytenbach, Jim Coetzee and Roland Schoeman. In South Africa we could see a big amount of German names, probably 500 or more but just a few of them are really common names being most of them relatively rare names. The reason because that happen is that many German immigrants cannot leave many descendents because they were in the majority poor with little recourses which could explain the fact of existing much more German surnames than French but with the French surnames being more common.

In 1915 with the annexation of the Deutsch Süd West Afrika by the South African troops the territory, which is now Namibia, became under South African administration and some German Namibians go to South Africa and by marriage with Afrikaners became also part of the Boer-Afrikaner people increasing even more the German influence in the Boer-Afrikaner people.

French Huguenot influence on Boer-Afrikaner culture

With this post we will begin a series of posts about the influence that several people and cultures had in the Boere-Afrikaners helping to create our people and our culture.

In this post we will talk about the influence that the French people and their culture had on Boer-Afrikaners. The French  influence in the Afrikaners begin when in the end of the XVII century and the beginning of the XVIII century 200 French Huguenot families came to the Dutch Cape Colony. The reason because their came for a place so far away of their land was because the French catholics had persecute the Huguenots in the XVI century because of their Calvinist religion. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes guaranteed the freedom of religion to the French Calvinists but in 1685 the Edict of Fontainebleau done by king Louis XIV resulted in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and in the return of the intolerance towards Huguenots in France. Is good to remember that during the massacre of Saint Bartolommeo French catholics murdered thousands of Huguenots in one night and there were dozens another massacre against the Huguenots. The wave of French Huguenot immigration to the Cape Colony happened in the end of XVII century and the beginning of the XVIII century. 180 families came from France and 18 families from Wallonia the French speaking region of Belgium. These French Huguenot immigrants influenced a lot the Boer-Afrikaner culture. In the XVIII century they were integrated on the larger group of the Dutch speaking population. In this century with the arrival of German immigrants and minorities of other countries the Afrikaner culture was form. The French were then assimilated in this new people, by marriage with people of other origins and the obligation of the speaking of Dutch in the Cape Colony led to the lost of the French culture in South Africa. However they build and important memorial to honor their culture and people, the Huguenot Monument in Franschoek. Franschhoek means the French corner, was a town build by French Huguenots in South Africa. The French also introduce the culture of wine in South Africa, especially around Franschhoek and Stellenbosch.

Undoubtedly French Huguenot marked the live of the Boer-Afrikaner people and culture. Some of the most important Boer-Afrikaner of all time was descendent of French Huguenots, such as Piet Retief, Piet Joubert, Koos de la Rey even not having a French surname, Sarie Marais, DF Malan, Frederik de Klerk, Eugène Terre’Blanche or Charlize Theron. Without these people the history of our people would be much different because there were in some of the most important moments of our history. Some of the most common Afrikaans surnames are of French Huguenot origin as Nel, Du Plessis, Du Toit, Malan, Joubert, De Villiers or Pienaar which shows that a French Huguenot origin have a big relevance in the genetic of the Afrikaners. According to most of the studies, French origin makes around 15% to 20% of the Afrikaners genetics and could be even more. Is impressive how only 200 families make such a big impact in a people with around 3.5 million people. And that happen because French Huguenots were probably the most successful immigrants in South Africa because of their strong Calvinist working spirit and education levels that were among the highest in the Cape Colony. That explains the fact of existing many Afrikaner with a Huguenot French surname but not so many Huguenot surnames comparing with Dutch and even German. The Huguenot settlers were few but grown at a bigger rate than the others because of the factors that said above.

We could see that these French Huguenots and their culture influenced a lot the Boer-Afrikaner people. With the merge of different cultures including this one the Boer-Afrikaner culture emerged as a new culture a true African culture because was create in Africa and was influenced by several local factors.

Interview to John Strydom, member of the Orania community

How do you characterize the growing of the Orania community along the years?

Orania was bought in 1990 and officially opened in 1991. It was bought from the Department of Water Affairs who built and used it as a construction camp for a canal system of about 200 km out of the Vanderkloof (PK le Roux dam). The area was decided on after extensive research by SABRA (SA Bureau of Racial Affairs) and dictated three principles:

1.    An area where Afrikaners can be a majority.

2.    Own labour

3.    Own institutions.

Since 1991 growth was initially slow but constant. The town started of as an abandoned, empty town that was badly neglected during the seven years it was uninhabited. Over the last 3-4 years growth has increased to the point where we are growing at more than 9% per annum with about 600 new stands being planned at present. We presently have about 1 000 inhabitants.

How do you see the current wave of anti-white crime in South Africa ? Do you think that has contributed to the fast growing of Orania?

Government insists that crime is not based on race in South Africa . Statistics however indicate that farm murders claim about 130 victims per 100 000 population. That is more than the number of policemen murdered in the RSA and these farmers are mostly white. This situation increases the interest in Orania but we have a focus based more on positive interest on the Afrikaner culture than on negative external factors.

What is the dominant opinion about Orania among the South African media? 

That it is “backward”, gun-slinging radicals and racists that populate Orania. This changes drastically as soon as they physically visit Orania.

Which region of South Africa you think that is the best to a future Volkstaat/Boerstaat? Do you think that the area surrounding Orania is suitable to that?

Yes. Based on the research by SABRA as well as present demography and tendencies there is simply no other area in the RSA where the Afrikaner (or even Europeans for that matter) will ever be a dominant group.

This year, a delegation of Orania visited Europe and was received by some parties. What is their opinion about Orania?

Europe has excellent arrangements with minorities and we would feel happy to be treated like, for example, the Germans in South-Tyrol (part of Italy ) or the German minority in Belgium . The need to respect minorities is becoming increasingly apparent worldwide and we hope to be part of that tendency.

Does  Anyone who wants to live  Orania prove with a document that they are actually Boer-afrikaner?

No. That would be virtually impossible. We rely on people’s own decision on whether they actually would choose to be part of an Afrikaner town, and to take responsibility for themselves and their families. We do require admission interviews and go to great lengths to explain Orania and what is expected of them.

Orania is undoubtedly exceed expectations and it’s a success community. It is possible that the Orania Movement supports the creation of” new oranias”.,new communities Boer-Afrikaners, in other parts of South Africa ?

Our experience is that it is much better and easier to grow “organically” from where we are. To develop “satellites” is much more difficult. We are however looking at developing ties with communities that think along the same lines.

Are there any foreigners visiting Orania?

Yes, we are regularly visited by interested parties, academics and journalists from all over the world. We took a decision to be open, transparent and law-abiding, but taking a firm stand on our rights.

 

 

White Squatter camps

Today in South Africa one of the biggest problems that affect Boere-Afrikaners is the poverty. Around 800.000 of them live in poverty some of them even struggling to survive. They were put in this situation especially by the affirmative action policies of the various ANC governments that gave jobs to blacks that belong to whites in order to increase the quality of life of the South African blacks. The whites that became unemployed because of those policies were completely forgotten by the government. Without money their jobs they lost the money they need to keep the house and many of them end up in Squatter camps where their live in poverty with very bad conditions sometimes without any drinkable water and food with some even struggling for survive.  Recent statistics point to as much as 800.000 poor Afrikaners in South Africa with the squatter camps congregating a large number of those with some of them, around 100.000 Afrikaners struggling to survive. There are atleast 90.000 Afrikaners, in Squatter camps, with some numbers pointing to much more, and only around Pretoria there are 80 squatter camps a number the shows well the whole dimension of the problem.

As we have said before the Afrikaner poverty and number of squatter camps is increasing because the rendement of some of them is being smaller at every year. And that happen mainly because of the Black Empowment and Affirmative Action policies. Those policies have only one objective, give job to blacks at any cost allowing black people without proper formation to take the jobs at whites, coloureds and Indians that are more qualified in that specific job but go to unemployment because the government prefers to see a black person there than a person of other race specially whites. That leads to a big growing on the white’s unemployment and many of them specially with worse qualifications cannot find a job and lose the house, the car and some go these squatter camps were they started a live of poverty and difficulties.

The population living in the squatter camps is from different backgrounds. Most of them are from the middle-low class who worked on the public sector and lost the jobs because of the Black Empowerment policies. There are also some ex-militaries that couldn’t find jobs after their military careers end because they had fewer professional habilitations because since a young age they dedicated to the military. The squatter camps consist in a large number of old caravans congregated in some caravan parks were people are not spending a vacancies but living there without most of the basic living conditions. In those camps there are no drinkable water, proper food, sometimes just one or two bathrooms, the space of a small caravan is too small to families that are sometimes of 5 or even more because sometimes we have 3 generations of the same family living in the same caravan.

Because of the bad conditions in the camps and the poverty, some marginal behaviors increase. The two major problems provoked by the bad social conditions are alcoholism specially of men and domestic violence in the vast majority of men against women. There are a lack of professionals that can lead with this subjects and the as always police doesn’t care with the security of the people that are attacked. The inexistence of proper hygiene conditions led to diseases and infections caused specially by lack of food or spoiled food and by undrinkable water that are sometimes drink because is the only water available.

These people are really poor and need our help to sustain their lives sometimes even to survive. Many people forget or don’t even know the situation of these people. Boere-Afrikaners don’t have a state to help them and so they are dependent on the help of individuals or founds. So is essential that we help these poor Afrikaners to keep with their lives running or sometimes just to help them survive.

This video with the song of Bok van Blerk, Die kleur van my vel, is in honour of the habitants of Coronation Park sqautter.

 

Racist Attack in Pretoria filmed

 

We read that this attack happened during the month of October. Anyway, we can not confirm, what we can confirm is that these attacks occur every year, months and weeks and often in South Africa, just to see the stats to confirm the frequency of these attacks.

http://www.alertadigital.com/2013/10/28/un-grupo-de-surafricanos-violan-y-lapidan-a-una-mujer-de-raza-blanca-en-una-calle-de-pretoria/ (The video can be viewed by clicking on the link)

As we can see, this brutal and savage attack, is not a simple robbery, is pure and simple hatred, the woman probably after being raped is humiliated and beaten to unconsciousness and possibly to die. This all happens with a huge passivity of all the citizens passing. Probably do not want to know, maybe even think that because it’s white woman doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately we do not look at this video and say it is an isolated case, because it is not! There are a series of attacks to farms and houses that what interests for the criminals isn’t  the property or the money, what matters is hurting and torturing whites.

Afrikaners are a nation that have right to self-determination, We have the right to live in a place where we are not discriminated  and where we are not constantly exposed to this type of violence.

There are no more words to say about this video, but there is a lot to think about.

And from now, we appeal, that all who see this video to publicize on social networks, in the Internet in general and referring that this isn’t an isolated case, but a reality in South Africa