Afrikaner culture and politics

Question 1

Afrikaner culture

Answer 1

• Afrikaner people were descended from white settlers called Boers, who came largely from Holland and Germany in the late eighteenth century; their language, Afrikaans, is derived from German and Dutch.

Question 2

Afrikaner characteristics

Answer 2

• Hard work, mainly farming land that was naturally infertile.
• A stern puritanical Christianity: a belief in the literal truth of the Bible, and a rejection of what were considered ‘pleasures of the flesh’ such as alcohol.
• Extreme racism: believing that non-white people were inferior.
• A ‘laager mentality’, exemplified by their determination to proceed with apartheid and white supremacy despite opposition internally and internationally.

Question 3

White justification for segregation

Answer 3

• Most white people had racist views of African people as being lazy, untrustworthy, and potentially dangerous.
• These views were largely based on two factors:
  1. Ignorance and fears for their own safety if African people were given political or economic rights.
  2. A belief that segregation from whites was in the Africans’ best interests – that they were most happy and content living separately from white people and in a simple pastoral environment.

Question 4

The influence of Britain

Answer 4

• South Africa had been a dominion within the British empire since 1910.
• English speaking parties dominated the South African government during the inter-war tears although they were just as racist as the National Party.

Question 5

Why did Afrikaner people resent British influence?

Answer 5

• They had been defeated in the Boer war of 1899 to 1902 to expel the British and resented the settlement which saw South Africa created as a British dominion.
• They had resented South Africa supporting Britain in WWI – many had strong tied to Germany.
• They resented English speaker’s dominance in the economy.