November 5, 2010
The Boers are not of Dutch Descent.
There is a common misconception that the Boer people are Dutch descendents when in reality there are comparatively few actual Dutch roots as they are an amalgamation of German / Frisian / Danish & French Huguenot origin. Uniformed folks will often point to the numerous Dutch surnames as supposed proof of the Dutch roots of the Boers while forgetting that the VOC respelled most surnames to conform to a Dutch spelling. This even affected numerous French surnames as well ie: Villion was changed to Viljoen / Jourdan was changed to Jordaan / Pinard was changed to Pienaar / Cronier was changed to Cronjé / Gauch was changed to Gouws etc. Though quite a lot of French names did retain their original spelling. For example: Joubert / Du Toit / Roux / Du Plessis / Marais / Naudé / Vivier. etc. The Boer people are not descended from any single ethnic group which was brought out to the Cape as they are a composite & amalgamation of the various groups which merged into distinct Afrikaans speaking successive groups. The impoverished folks who began to trek into the Cape frontier [ about 35 years after the VOC first arrived at the Cape ] were the ancestors of the Boer people / nation. This occurred long before the arrival of the British Colonial power.
The Boers Are Distinct From the Afrikaners.
The distinct nature of the Boer people from the bulk of the Cape Dutch descended Afrikaners is recognized among honest academic circles.
Quote: [ The majority of the original white settlers, known as Cape Dutch, or in frontier regions Boers, maintained a nominal loyalty to the Dutch Reformed Church. ] From: Christianity in Southern Central Africa Prior to 1910.
The frontier Boers themselves recognized themselves as distinct from the Cape Dutch.
Quote: [ Trekboers certainly recognised the differences in language, religion, etc. between themselves and the British; they had certainly developed a way-of-life and a set of values that were distinctive, but they were also significantly different from people of Dutch descent in the western province areas of the Cape. The latter regarded the Trekboers as rather wild, semi-barbarous frontiersmen and the sense of common identity was limited and incomplete. The westerners followed the Trek with interest and probably with a good deal of sympathy, but they certainly did not see the trekkers as the saviours of some mystical Afrikaner ‘nation’. ] From: Professor Wallace Mills. The Great Trek.
Though it turns out that there was not a lot of "sympathy" for the Great Trek by the Cape Dutch as they could not understand why the Boers would want to trek "away from civilization" but they must have realized that the conditions were especially rough for the frontier Boers who were facing the brunt of the constant "frontier wars" & the arbitrary policies of the British Colonial power.
Quote: [ The majority of the original white settlers, known as Cape Dutch, or in frontier regions Boers, maintained a nominal loyalty to the Dutch Reformed Church. ] From: Christianity in Southern Central Africa Prior to 1910.
The frontier Boers themselves recognized themselves as distinct from the Cape Dutch.
Quote: [ Trekboers certainly recognised the differences in language, religion, etc. between themselves and the British; they had certainly developed a way-of-life and a set of values that were distinctive, but they were also significantly different from people of Dutch descent in the western province areas of the Cape. The latter regarded the Trekboers as rather wild, semi-barbarous frontiersmen and the sense of common identity was limited and incomplete. The westerners followed the Trek with interest and probably with a good deal of sympathy, but they certainly did not see the trekkers as the saviours of some mystical Afrikaner ‘nation’. ] From: Professor Wallace Mills. The Great Trek.
Though it turns out that there was not a lot of "sympathy" for the Great Trek by the Cape Dutch as they could not understand why the Boers would want to trek "away from civilization" but they must have realized that the conditions were especially rough for the frontier Boers who were facing the brunt of the constant "frontier wars" & the arbitrary policies of the British Colonial power.
The RSA was Result of Foreign Legislation.
The macro State known as South Africa [ composed out of two British Colonies & two former Boer Republics ] did not exist prior to the 20th cent as it was created by an act of British legislation which was passed in the British Parliament.
Quote: [ The South Africa Act passed by the British Parliament in 1909 merged the self-governing British colonies of the Cape, Natal, Orange River and the Transvaal into the Union of South Africa, a dominion within the British Commonwealth. The Act, which served as the Union's constitution until 1961, established a parliamentary regime along the lines of the Westminster model, composed of a directly elected House of Assembly and an indirectly elected Senate. ] The Republic of South Africa Electoral System.
This foreign legislation effectively created an artificial macro State in Southern Africa which joined the conquered Boer Republics with the British ruled Cape & Natal Colonies which had earlier annexed Xhosaland & Zululand in the 19th cent. & wherein most of the non-Boer descended Afrikaner population was living in the Western Cape region. Therefore what this foreign imposed legislation did was to cobble together an artificial mega State structure which lumped the various diverse peoples under a single administration for the first time ever. In other words the creation of this state reversed the natural independent status of various peoples & it imposed a blocking mechanism against the self determination which was expressed by many of its peoples prior. The natural tendency of its peoples [ & peoples in general ] is to gravitate towards independence & self determination which was stunted & reversed when the British imposed an artificial macro State based on an imperial model & then recruited members of the local White population to administer it with their government as a surrogate Colonial ruler on behalf of the British power.
This act was the direct result of the friction which later followed [ the State rulers prevented both Boer self determination / Boer Republics restoration & Bantu political petitions for control of macro State ] as the newly empowered White regimes were reluctant to give up control of the macro State [ with later modifications as per the Bantu homeland independence policies ] they were recruited to administer as their general White constituent population were often concerned about inherently becoming an oppressed demographic minority within a universal suffrage based macro State. The British power elite appeared to have used this unfolding political machination to great success as it later gave them the opportunity to reclaim South Africa under the covert guise of the post Apartheid regimes who are financed & propped up by them. After all the British went to great lengths to set up & impose the macro State of South Africa - even to the point of killing off 50 % of the Boer child population in concentration camps during the British war to conquer the Boer Republics.
Therefore it stands to reason that the British would not just simply walk away from the region [ as the Republic of South Africa has only ever existed in name alone ] nor cede true executive control over to any local peoples of the region. This was confirmed with the basic premise of the South African Act of 1909 being incorporated & thus perpetuated into the various Constitutions of South Africa thereby perpetuating the very state apparatus executive control mechanism [ which perpetuated Apartheid in the past & the neo Apartheid of the present ] which works against the various peoples' desire for ethnic group or nation based self determination. Thus the various Constitutions have retained the centralization of power.
Quote: [ The South Africa Act passed by the British Parliament in 1909 merged the self-governing British colonies of the Cape, Natal, Orange River and the Transvaal into the Union of South Africa, a dominion within the British Commonwealth. The Act, which served as the Union's constitution until 1961, established a parliamentary regime along the lines of the Westminster model, composed of a directly elected House of Assembly and an indirectly elected Senate. ] The Republic of South Africa Electoral System.
This foreign legislation effectively created an artificial macro State in Southern Africa which joined the conquered Boer Republics with the British ruled Cape & Natal Colonies which had earlier annexed Xhosaland & Zululand in the 19th cent. & wherein most of the non-Boer descended Afrikaner population was living in the Western Cape region. Therefore what this foreign imposed legislation did was to cobble together an artificial mega State structure which lumped the various diverse peoples under a single administration for the first time ever. In other words the creation of this state reversed the natural independent status of various peoples & it imposed a blocking mechanism against the self determination which was expressed by many of its peoples prior. The natural tendency of its peoples [ & peoples in general ] is to gravitate towards independence & self determination which was stunted & reversed when the British imposed an artificial macro State based on an imperial model & then recruited members of the local White population to administer it with their government as a surrogate Colonial ruler on behalf of the British power.
This act was the direct result of the friction which later followed [ the State rulers prevented both Boer self determination / Boer Republics restoration & Bantu political petitions for control of macro State ] as the newly empowered White regimes were reluctant to give up control of the macro State [ with later modifications as per the Bantu homeland independence policies ] they were recruited to administer as their general White constituent population were often concerned about inherently becoming an oppressed demographic minority within a universal suffrage based macro State. The British power elite appeared to have used this unfolding political machination to great success as it later gave them the opportunity to reclaim South Africa under the covert guise of the post Apartheid regimes who are financed & propped up by them. After all the British went to great lengths to set up & impose the macro State of South Africa - even to the point of killing off 50 % of the Boer child population in concentration camps during the British war to conquer the Boer Republics.
Therefore it stands to reason that the British would not just simply walk away from the region [ as the Republic of South Africa has only ever existed in name alone ] nor cede true executive control over to any local peoples of the region. This was confirmed with the basic premise of the South African Act of 1909 being incorporated & thus perpetuated into the various Constitutions of South Africa thereby perpetuating the very state apparatus executive control mechanism [ which perpetuated Apartheid in the past & the neo Apartheid of the present ] which works against the various peoples' desire for ethnic group or nation based self determination. Thus the various Constitutions have retained the centralization of power.
May 17, 2010
Not an Apartheid Era Flag.
The following is how the CBC web site describes the Vyfkleur flag. [ More on the Vyfkleur flag here. ] An unmistakable Boer pre Apartheid era flag dating from the second Anglo-Boer War. A man [ no doubt a proud Boer ] holds up the Vyfkleur in the following photo taken recently outside of court & posted on the web page in question but the CBC then engages in bad journalism by calling the flag he holds "an Apartheid era flag" thus totally distorting the true meaning of the flag & long struggle for Boer self determination. Notice the caption under the photo in question.
This is just proof positive that the Western media are lazy journalists at best or are propagandizing distorters at worst. Perhaps a combination of both. I guess no one should be surprised that none other than the CBC: the Canadian public broadcaster has labeled the Vyfkleur quote: "an Apartheid era flag". I doubt they even know that the flag in the photo in question is even called a Vyfkleur [ five colour ] yet alone that it was adopted long before the establishment of Apartheid. For those who might not know [ that's you CBC! ] the Vyfkleur is not & can not possibly be "an Apartheid era flag" because it was a flag adopted during the second Anglo-Boer War by Boer Commandos who were fighting against Colonialism [ ie: the forces which later adopted Apartheid ] & for their freedom & self determination within their half century old internationally recognized independent Boer Republics. The Vyfkleur flag was a distinct & clever combination of the national flags of the then two Boer Republics [ remove the the vertical bar within the left portion of the flag & you have the upper left portion of the Orange Free State Vierkleur flag ] remove the horizontal orange bar & you have the Transvaal Vierkleur flag ] which were fighting for their survival against Britain. This era of course was long before the Apartheid era. The Vyfkleur flag was also later adopted by the BWB in the past & its members often wore the flag on the upper region of their right shirt sleeves but it was originally designed as a war flag by the fighting Boer Commandos during the second Anglo-Boer War.
Link to full hit piece article here.
Neither is it surprising that the CBC totally distorts & distracts from the topic.
This is just proof positive that the Western media are lazy journalists at best or are propagandizing distorters at worst. Perhaps a combination of both. I guess no one should be surprised that none other than the CBC: the Canadian public broadcaster has labeled the Vyfkleur quote: "an Apartheid era flag". I doubt they even know that the flag in the photo in question is even called a Vyfkleur [ five colour ] yet alone that it was adopted long before the establishment of Apartheid. For those who might not know [ that's you CBC! ] the Vyfkleur is not & can not possibly be "an Apartheid era flag" because it was a flag adopted during the second Anglo-Boer War by Boer Commandos who were fighting against Colonialism [ ie: the forces which later adopted Apartheid ] & for their freedom & self determination within their half century old internationally recognized independent Boer Republics. The Vyfkleur flag was a distinct & clever combination of the national flags of the then two Boer Republics [ remove the the vertical bar within the left portion of the flag & you have the upper left portion of the Orange Free State Vierkleur flag ] remove the horizontal orange bar & you have the Transvaal Vierkleur flag ] which were fighting for their survival against Britain. This era of course was long before the Apartheid era. The Vyfkleur flag was also later adopted by the BWB in the past & its members often wore the flag on the upper region of their right shirt sleeves but it was originally designed as a war flag by the fighting Boer Commandos during the second Anglo-Boer War.
Link to full hit piece article here.
Neither is it surprising that the CBC totally distorts & distracts from the topic.
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