Afrikanerbond
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Template:Politics of South Africa The Afrikanerbond or, as it was known throughout most of its history, the Afrikaner Broederbond, is an organisation which promotes the interests of the Afrikaners. During the apartheid years most government ministers and many influential Afrikaner churchmen, academics, professionals and military and policemen were members. It was often said and always denied that the important decisions of the South African state were undertaken by the then very secretive Broederbond.
History
The creation of the Broederbond was an important development in the history of the Afrikaners,the National Party (National Party of South Africa), as well as South Africa as a whole. Roughly translated from the Afrikaans, the group's official name, 'Afrikaner Broederbond', is ‘league of Afrikaner brothers’ or ‘Afrikaner brotherhood’. The Broederbond was created in 1918 by a group of disaffected Afrikaners on the basis of what was known in Afrikaans as ‘baasskap’ or ‘domination’ (also, more accurately translated as "boss-ship"), the notion that they were superior and destined to rule South Africa. Their stated aim was "to further Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa – to maintain Afrikaner culture, develop an Afrikaner economy, and to gain control of the South African government”. The secret society restricted membership to white Afrikaner and had a fairly rigorous selection process. Over the next decade or so the power of the Broederbond grew quietly and its members slowly infiltrated the South African political scene.
However, in 1934, the Prime Minister of the National Party, Barry Hertzog agreed to merge with South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts in order to form what became known as the United Party (United Party (South Africa)). This merger was extremely unpopular among Afrikaners, resulting in a group of radicals, composed mostly of Broederbond members to break off from the newly formed United Party and continued to maintain the National Party under the leadership of Daniel Malan. Radical members of the NP broke away from the 'fusion government' to form the Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP – 'Reunited National Party') under the leadership of DF Malan. The Broederbond threw its full support behind the HNP, and its members dominated the new party – especially in the Afrikaner strongholds of Transvaal and Orange Free State. Shortly after this, World War II broke out. Despite the fact that the governing United Party, led by General Smuts fully supported the allied cause in the war against Nazi Germany, there was significant dissent amongst Afrikaners, many of whom were of German ancestry, in addition to supporting the Nazi idea of white superiority.
These sentiments aided the National Party in garnering support for the next election in 1948 which they won to the shock and dismay of Nelson Mandela and many others. Despite the fact that the Afrikaners made up a minority of the population, the Broederbond had gained enough power to carefully manipulate the election into a Nationalist victory.
By 1947 the Broederbond had control of the South African Bureau of Racial Affairs (SABRA), and it was within this select group that the concept of total segregation for South Africa was developed (essentially, what was to become apartheid). Changes were made to electoral boundaries, with constituencies favoring rural areas – with the result that although the United Party received a greater share of the votes in 1948 elections, the National Party (with the assistance of the Afrikaner Party) had the greater number of electoral constituencies, and hence gained power. The Nationalist campaign had centered around swart gevaar (the black danger), in addition to pledging to solve what was known as ‘the poor white problem’.
Every prime minister and state president in South Africa from 1948 to the end of Apartheid in 1994 was a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond.
External links
- Afrikanerbond web site (http://www.afrikanerbond.org.za/)