Not From The Cape Dutch Population Group.

The Boer people arose on the Cape frontier from the Trekboers who were from the poorest members of the fledgling Cape colony established by the Dutch East India Company during the 1650s who could no longer cope within its "grindingly class conscious" control. An anti-Boer propagandist once erroneously asserted a while ago that the Boers "are Cape Dutch that trekked" but that is a demonstrable falsehood as the Boers developed up to five hundred miles away from the Cape Dutch. The author Oliver Ransford noted within Chapter one of The Great Trek that the Trekboers formed the nucleus of a new nation & experienced a minor population explosion thus cementing their distinction from the Cape Dutch population. The Trekboers started to trek away from Cape society early on in its life: during the 1670s on & emerged on the northern & eastern Cape frontier while the Cape Dutch were coalescing within the south western Cape region. Testament to this is the fact that both groups developed their own unique dialects from the lingua franca [ later called Afrikaans ] that was emerging at the Cape & spoken by all the population groups that emerged at the Cape. Further testament is the fact that both groups developed radically different outlooks. The Cape Dutch were pro Colonial / anti-independence oriented while the Boer people of the frontier on the other hand were the exact opposite: anti-colonial & independence oriented. The notion of republican independence on the Cape frontier during 1795 & then later more notably during the 19th cent beyond the Cape frontier across the Orange River in the wake of British Colonialism - would have been IMPOSSIBLE if the Boers were in fact just Cape Dutch that trekked. Simply because if it were the Cape Dutch that trekked they would have brought THEIR outlook into the frontier & would have been content for the Colonial power to claim the land they lived on as was the case with the British / Portuguese & German settlers of the 19th cent. The Cape Dutch were much more in tune with the Colonial outlook of the aforementioned 3 groups while the Boers' outlook was more in tune with the outlook of an anti-colonial indigenous group [ as the Boers had become ] who were tied to the land & bristled at being controlled at the hands of a Colonial power.    

The Original Use of the Afrikaner Desigation.

The term Afrikaner in current times is often horribly misunderstood & erroneously employed due solely to the mass indoctrination of the 20th cent - propagated by the Afrikaner Broederbond organization that acquired significant control - & the political propaganda that it was based on. The fact of the matter is that this term was appropriated during the latter half of the 19th cent by a Cape Dutch run organization & was then picked up by politicians who originally used the term Afrikaner as a term they used to describe ALL designated White citizens of South Africa who were loyal to South Africa regardless of the home language the citizens spoke. This definition of Afrikaner was widely employed until the 1930s.  Politicians from Louis Botha to JBM Hertzog spoke openly of Afrikaans Afrikaners & English Afrikaners often simply calling them all just Afrikaners. Thus the term Afrikaner was not just used to describe the Cape Dutch & then later the numerically smaller Boer people - particularly during the 20th cent after they were conquered after the second Anglo-Boer War - but the term was originally ALSO used to describe the Anglophone population as well. There are 3 books that I am aware of that explicitly note this pertinent fact.

Those books are: The White Tribe of Africa from David Harrison. The Rise of Afrikanerdom from T Dunbar Moodie. Boerestaat from Robert van Tonder. The first two books are mixed bags as the authors have an overriding ignorance of the distinction between the Cape Dutch & the Boer people & the significance of this fact. The third book was authored by someone who was well ware of this distinction as he was a son of one of the Bitterenders who voted to continue fighting against the British during the second Anglo-Boer War. Robert van Tonder later became a notable activist in trying to secure self determination for his people - the Boer people - & began advocating for the restoration of the Boer Republics back in 1961 when the Dutch born usurper Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd established a nominal & false Republic of South Africa which further prevented the Boers from obtaining self determination.

Van Tonder spoke openly about the Boers being a distinct people from the so called Afrikaners since this political term had included the larger Cape Dutch population as well as initially the Anglophones. Today far too many people who are simply ignorant propagate the damaging but erroneous notion that the so called Afrikaners are from the Boers when the truth is that the Boers are the smallest segment [ the Cape Dutch are much larger & its leadership controls the entire population that ascribes to the Afrikaner identification ]  of the arbitrary establishment imposed Afrikaner designation. This is a most significant fact when recognizing the salient fact that the Boer people will not be able to secure any authentic form of self determination so long as they are tethered [ politically ] to & claimed by the leadership / academics & personalities of the Cape Dutch population.

Map of the First Boer Republic.

The first Boer Republic was established in 1795 out of the district of Graaff-Reinet followed a few months later when the district of Swellendam declared itself a republic. Both republics were later conquered after the British took control of the Cape from the Dutch power. A lot of folks often have no awareness of this important fact often erroneously presuming that the first Boer Republics arose during The Great Trek. This fact is important because it is a stark example demonstrating that the Boers have had a long running desire for independence in Africa while the Cape Dutch did not. I have mentioned these first Boer Republics before, but recently found a map outlining the areas where they were as someone made a map of the Graaff-Reinet & Swellendam districts during the era of Dutch / VOC rule up to 1795. These districts were on the Cape frontier where the Boers emerged [ from the Trekboers ] starting just a few decades after the initial arrival of the VOC at the Cape & where the Boer people lived until the Great Trek of the early to mid 19th cent took them across the Orange [ Gariep ] River & then the Vaal River. 

Map of the districts of the Cape colony under Dutch administration. The districts of the Cape frontier noted as red & blue would become the first Boer Republics in 1795 in opposition to Dutch rule. The Boer people of the Cape frontier were anti-colonial & independence oriented. 

The red / white & blue horizontal tri color flag was used for both republics of the Cape frontier. Most probably inspired by the flag of the Batavian Republic. For further reading: The First Boer Republic. The Boer people had a republican tradition before the arrival of the British Colonial Power.