Oxwagon Sentinel

Oxwagon Sentinel
Author: Christoph Marx
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 667
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 3825897974

This new approach to the social history of Afrikaner nationalism looks into the diverse causes for the rise of a political movement which was to shape South African history profoundly during the 20th Century. In the 1930s Afrikaner nationalism transformed itself from a populist into a cultural nationalism, becoming politically radicalised at the same time. The nationalist symbol of the oxwagon was used not only by the National Party, but also by the extra- and antiparliamentarian mass movement Ossewabrandwag, which was founded in 1939. Drawing on a broad range of archival resources the social history of this extremist organisation is analysed, showing local and regional differences. The Ossewabrandwag as a nationalist movement counted a considerable part of the Afrikaans white population among its members. Therefore, the Ossewabrandwag can be understood approprately only in the context of radical Afrikaner nationalism. Given that the potential for political radicalisation in the white South African population was considerable, ideological influences from overseas played merely an additional role. The book looks into the reasons for the mass participation in the Ossewabrandwag. In addition it analyses the organisation's fight with the National Party and its illegal and treasonable activities. In this context the book discusses which ideological influences on the apartheid policy can be identified as coming from organised right wing extremism.

Christian Nationalism and Anticommunism in Twentieth-Century South Africa

Christian Nationalism and Anticommunism in Twentieth-Century South Africa
Author: Ruhan Fourie
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040003184

This book investigates Afrikaner anticommunism in South Africa in the twentieth century, focusing on the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). Following contemporary understandings of anticommunism as a fluid ideological stance, it demonstrates that the deeply held anticommunist convictions of ordinary twentieth-century Afrikaners is more than merely a natural result of global politics. It examines how the DRC, the institution with the widest reach and deepest influence in the everyday lives of Afrikaners, played a significant role in perpetuating an anticommunist imagination amongst twentieth-century Afrikaners. The text explores the critical role the DRC fulfilled in legitimising overt opposition to and suppression of ‘communism’ in all its perceived manifestations, including black dissent, whilst also creating an Afrikaner imagination in which the volk remained convinced of the ever- present communist threat, and of its own role as a bulwark against communism. The church’s moral standing in Afrikaner society also made it susceptible to right-wing opportunists gaining mainstream political clout, which this monograph also exposes and explains. It ultimately concludes that anticommunism functioned as a vehicle for nationalist unity (and uniformity), a paradigm for Afrikaner identity, and a legitimiser of the volk’s perceptions of its imagined moral high ground throughout the twentieth century. It will appeal to readers interested in anticommunism, Christian nationalism, right-wing networks, racism, and apartheid culture and society.

Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought (set)

Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought (set)
Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: CQ Press
Total Pages: 943
Release: 2013-08-20
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1452234159

This groundbreaking new work explores modern and contemporary political thought since 1750, looking at the thinkers, concepts, debates, issues, and national traditions that have shaped political thought from the Enlightenment to post-modernism and post-structuralism. Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought is two-volume A to Z reference that provides historical context to the philosophical issues and debates that have shaped attitudes toward democracy, citizenship, rights, property, duties, justice, equality, community, law, power, gender, race, and legitimacy over the last three centuries. It profiles major and minor political thinkers, and the national traditions, both Western and non-Western, which continue to shape and divide political thought. More than 200 scholars from leading international research institutions and organizations have provided signed entries that offer comprehensive coverage of: Thought of regions and countries, including African political thought, American political thought , Australasian political thought (Australian and New Zealand), Chinese political thought, Indian political thought, Islamic political Thought, Japanese political thought, and more Thought regarding contemporary issues such as abortion, affirmative action, animal rights, European integration, feminism, humanitarian intervention, international law, race and racism, and more The ideological spectrum from Marxism to neoconservatism, including anarchism, conservatism, Darwinism and Social Darwinism, Engels, fascism, the Frankfurt School, Lenin and Leninism, socialism, and more Connections of political thought to key areas of politics and other disciplines such as economics, psychology, law, and religion Notable time periods of political thought since 1750 Concepts including class, democratic theory, liberalism, nationalism, natural and human rights, and theories of the state Theorists and political intellectuals, both Western and non-Western including John Adams, Edmund Burke, Mohandas Gandhi, Immanuel Kant, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, George Washington, and Mary Wollstonecraft

Deconstructing Apartheid Discourse

Deconstructing Apartheid Discourse
Author: Aletta J. Norval
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 404
Release: 1996-04-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781859841259

The book thus seeks to trace the construction and contestation of the central axes around which its political frontiers were organized.

A Perfect Storm

A Perfect Storm
Author: Milton Shain
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Total Pages: 541
Release: 2015-11-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1868427013

The interwar years were a tumultuous time in South Africa. The effects of the worldwide economic slump gave rise to a huge number of 'poor whites' and fed the growth of a militant and aggressive Afrikaner nationalism that often took its lead from Nazi Germany. For a great number of whites, both English- and Afrikaans-speakers, the Jew was an unwelcome and disturbing addition to society. A Perfect Storm explores the growth of antisemitism in South Africa between 1930 and 1948 within the broader context of South African politics and culture. A Perfect Storm reveals how the radical right's malevolent message moved from the margins to the centre of political life; how demagoguery was able to gain traction in society; and how vulgar antisemitism seeped into mainstream politics, with real and lasting consequences. Milton Shain, South Africa's leading scholar of modern Jewish history, carefully documents the rise of the 'Jewish Question' in this period, detailing the growth of overtly fascistic organisations such as the Greyshirts, the New Order and the Ossewa-Brandwag. Central to his analysis is the National Party's use of antisemitism to win electoral advantage and mobilise Afrikaners behind the nationalist project. The party contributed to the climate of hostility that resulted in the United Party government drastically curtailing the numbers of Jews admitted as immigrants. Indeed, some of its most virulent antisemites were accorded high office after 1948 when the National Party came to power.

Negotiating Racial Politics in the Family

Negotiating Racial Politics in the Family
Author: Barbara Henkes
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-05-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9004401601

This book is situated at the cutting edge of the political-ethical dimension of history writing. Henkes investigates various responsibilities and loyalties towards family and nation, as well as other major ethical obligations towards society and humanity when historical subjects have to deal with a repressive political regime. In the first section we follow pre-war German immigrants in the Netherlands and their German affiliation during the era of National Socialism. The second section explores the positions of Dutch emigrants who settled after the Second World War in Apartheid South Africa. The narratives of these transnational agents and their relatives provide a lens through which changing constructions of national identities, and the acceptance or rejection of a nationalist policy on racial grounds, can be observed in everyday practice.

History of South Africa

History of South Africa
Author: Thula Simpson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 667
Release: 2022-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0197681182

South Africa was born in war, has been cursed by crises and ruptures, and today stands on a precipice once again. This book explores the country's tumultuous journey from the Second Anglo-Boer War to 2021. Drawing on diaries, letters, oral testimony and diplomatic reports, Thula Simpson follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, insurrections, massacres, crashes and epidemics that have shaped the nation. Tracking South Africa's path from colony to Union and from apartheid to democracy, Simpson documents the influence of key figures including Jan Smuts, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, P.W. Botha, Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. He offers detailed accounts of watershed events like the 1922 Rand Revolt, the Defiance Campaign, Sharpeville, the Soweto uprising and the Marikana massacre. He sheds light on the roles of Gandhi, Churchill, Castro and Thatcher, and explores the impact of the World Wars, the armed struggle and the Border War. Simpson's history charts the post-apartheid transition and the phases of ANC rule, from Rainbow Nation to transformation; state capture to 'New Dawn'. Along the way, it reveals the divisions and solidarities of sport; the nation's economic travails; and painful pandemics, from the Spanish flu to AIDS and Covid-19.

Letters of Stone

Letters of Stone
Author: Steven Robins
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2016-02-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 177609025X

As a young boy growing up in Port Elizabeth in the 1960s and 1970s, Steven Robins was haunted by an old postcard-size photograph of three unknown women on a table in the dining room. Only later did he learn that the women were his father’s mother and sisters, photographed in Berlin in 1937, before they were killed in the Holocaust. Steven’s father, who had fled Nazi Germany before it was too late, never spoke about the fate of his family who remained there. Steven became obsessed with finding out what happened to the women, but had little to go on. In time he stumbled on official facts in museums in Washington DC and Berlin, and later he discovered over a hundred letters sent to his father and uncle from the family in Berlin between 1936 and 1943. The women who before had been unnamed faces in a photograph could now tell their story to future generations. Letters of Stone tracks Steven’s journey of discovery about the lives and fates of the Robinski family. It is also a book about geographical journeys: to the Karoo town of Williston, where his father’s uncle settled in the late nineteenth century and became mayor; to Berlin, where Steven laid ‘stumbling stones’ (Stolpersteine) in commemoration of his relatives; to Auschwitz, where his father’s siblings perished. Most of all, this book is a poignant reconstruction of a family trapped in an increasingly terrifying and deadly Nazi state, and of the immense pressure on Steven’s father in faraway South Africa, which forced him to retreat into silence.

The Rise of Afrikanerdom

The Rise of Afrikanerdom
Author: T. Dunbar Moodie
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1975-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780520039438

The Unbreakable Thread

The Unbreakable Thread
Author: Julie Frederikse
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1990
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780862329709