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Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Fine Art, Durban Institute of Technology, 2012. / I believe that the election in 1994 of the first democratic government in South Africa has presented a challenge to all South Africans in different ways. I believe that one of the principal challenges that the 1994 elections presented to my conservative Calvinistic Afrikaner community was to address its personal, family, community, national and international identity/ies. Arising out of this perspective and perception, I have explored my and my family memory/ies to answer questions about my identity. My study is a journey of awareness: a self-study exploring my identity through critical self-reflection and the development of my art practice. My self-study is multi- disciplinary: it employs interchangeable methodologies allowing for various forms of knowledge generation. My journey of awareness is a “living theory” in which I have developed my “living standards of judgement” and addressed my “living contradictions” (Whitehead 1985; 1989; 2008a; b; c; d). My study illustrates the symbiotic research and creative process of developing an understanding of my identity as a white Afrikaans woman through practicing my art. My art practice assisted in the action/reflection process as well acting as a tool for social action and transformation. / M

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Die Oranjeklub was the first Afrikaans culture organisation in Cape Town. Active since 1915, it strove to shape Afrikaner identity and advance Afrikaner art and culture. The main aim of the club was to inspire national sentiment, especially among young Afrikaners, and to help cultivate a love in this constituency for their language and history. This national sentiment was nourished by meetings of social and cultural significance. In this respect, Die Oranjeklub played an integral role in early twentieth-century Cape Town to oppose a perceived English political and cultural supremacy, acting as a buffer against the so-called ‘ver-Engelsing’ or Anglicization that was seen to threaten the identity of especially urban Afrikaners. Programmes during meetings usually comprised of a speech, supplemented by music and recital items that were generally contributed by Afrikaans club members. Meetings that deviated from this norm were mainly evenings where plays were performed or festivaloccasions of national importance in which the club was actively involved. The club’s management comprised two levels: an honorary committee and an executive committee. Many historically important figures served on the honorary-committee. The list includes names like D.F. Malan, J.B.M. Hertzog, C.J. Langenhoven and J.C. Smuts, amongst others. The executive committee had equally noteworthy chairmen, like the writer I.D. du Plessis and the critic C.H. Weich. The names of many important musicians can be found on club programmes, including Arnold van Wyk, Blanche Gerstman and Stefans Grové. Important actors and role players in theatre also participated in club events, amongst others Anna Neethling-Pohl, N.P. van Wyk Louw and Sarah Goldblatt. Speakers included personalities like D. Craven, C. Barnard and P.W. Botha. In 1976, after many decades trying to advance culture among white Afrikaners in Cape Town, the club was disbanded. This thesis documents, for the first time, the history of Die Oranjeklub. It also considers the meaning of the club’s cultural activities, especially its efforts to advance music among its members.

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No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

M.Tech. (Fine Art) / In this research, I map emergent female Afrikaner identities in relation to Willem Boshoff‟s artwork Bread and Pebble Roadmap, which acts as the central focus to this study and informs my own body of practical work. In order to constitute a key to unlock questions regarding emergent female Afrikaner identities in a South African context from colonial to post-apartheid, the relationship between image and text in Bread and Pebble Roadmap is investigated. The investigation of this relationship is interwoven with a discourse of an early form of the literary tradition that has come to be known as Arabic-Afrikaans script, a term used to describe the "literary work which is written in Afrikaans with Arabic letters" (Van Selms 1951). This study adopts a qualitative methodological approach. The research incorporates textual analysis and visual analysis. The study presents a visual semiotic analysis of Bread and Pebble Roadmap, in order to map possible links between this artwork and a literature review of an early form of Arabic-Afrikaans script, as a contextual framework in which to situate the study. Arabic- Afrikaans, in turn, acts as a link which forges a relationship between two kinds of identities: an Islamic influence on South African culture, and an Islamic influence on my life experience as an Afrikaans-speaking woman who lived in Egypt for four years. These two identities, represented by artist Lalla Essaydi in relation to an Islamic identity and artist Lizelle Kruger in relation to an Afrikaner identity, are investigated through a comparative visual analysis. The study intends to show how Essaydi and Kruger form a link with Boshoff, where each of these three artists subverts, questions, and breaks down prevailing cultural and linguistic stereotypes, and in so doing operationalises the notion of an emergent identity. Identity construction, in the context of this study, is characterised by Stuart Hall‟s (in Rutherford 1990:222) concept of identity being in a continual state of flux, identity as “a production, which is never complete; always in process and always constructed within, not outside representation”. I therefore map my Afrikaner identity, previously seen as fixed, unproblematic and in line with the national discourse under apartheid (Van Heerden 2006), but now seen as „becoming‟ and „transitioning‟, situated „betwixt and between‟ (Turner 1969). This notion informs my own practical work, which becomes visual metaphors of maps, in order to navigate a sense of self. My practical work therefore attempts to embody a temporary space of an emergent identity. I understand this in-between space (Bhabha 2004) as a liminal space, as a continuum of spaces in which my emergent female Afrikaner identity resides. An important conclusion that I make from my research is that Boshoff‟s conflation of image and text, which is consistent with Derrida‟s (1981) deconstructive strategy, unhinges the conditions of the stereotype, which conventionally privileges a dichotomy in which different polar relations reside. Drawing a connection between Bread and Pebble Roadmap and Arabic-Afrikaans, and applying the conditions found in Bread and Pebble Roadmap to Arabic-Afrikaans, I view Arabic- Afrikaans as able to unhinge its own seeming dichotomies: between Arabic and Afrikaans, and thus between Islam and Christianity. In this way, I am able to argue that Arabic-Afrikaans is able to reverse stereotyping and point a way forward towards the construction of emergent non-racial stereotyping.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis contains the results of an investigation into constructions of cultural identity in recent works of short fiction written in Afrikaans. The investigation was conducted within the framework of postcolonial literary theory, with specific reference to the work ofHomi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge. The conceptual apparatus concerning postcolonial reconstruction of cultural identities in reaction to the discourse of colonialism were applied to certain Afrikaans short stories to establish to what extent these texts could be considered a '<writing back" to the colonial discourse of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid. The research focused on texts that had been published after 1994, being the date of the first democratic elections in South Africa, but also investigated their relation to certain literary traditions that preceded this date. From the Afrikaans short stories that were read within a postcolonial framework, it could be concluded that Afrikaans literature after 1994 could still be read in terms of what Mishra and Hodge (1994) called a fused postcolonial, a typification that according to Viljoen (1996) was applicable to the Afrikaans literature of before 1994. The cultural identity that was constructed in these texts showed similarities with the two moments of cultural reconstruction that Hall (1992) mentioned, namely either a strategic essentialism of the colonized subject or a hybridized cultural identity as the result of an ongoing, dynamic process of negotiation in a Third Space as Bhabha (1994) pointed out. A discourse of resistance against new forms of cultural imperialism, arising from a broader disillusion with the perceived dystopia of post-colonial South Africa, could also be inferred from certain Afrikaans short stories that have appeared since 1994. As far as a renewed undermining of imperialising tendencies is concerned, these texts can therefore be considered a continuation of the dissidence that has been characteristic of Afrikaans literature for several decades. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif bevat die resultate van 'n ondersoek na konstruksies van kulturele identiteit in onlangse kortverhale in Afrikaans. Die ondersoek is gedoen binne die raamwerk van die postkoloniale literêre teorie, met spesifieke verwysing na die werk van Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Vijay Mishra en Bob Hodge. Konseptuele apparatuur rakende postkoloniale herkonstruksie van kulturele identiteit in reaksie op diskoerse van kolonialisme, is toegepas op bepaalde Afrikaanse kortverhale om vas te stel in watter mate hierdie tekste beskou kon word as 'n terugskrywing teen die koloniale diskoers van Afrikanernasionalisme en apartheid. Die navorsing het gefokus op tekste wat gepubliseer is na 1994, die datum van die eerste demokratiese verkiesings in Suid- Afrika, maar het ook hul verhouding ondersoek tot sekere literêre tradisies wat hierdie datum voorafgegaan het. Uit die Afrikaanse kortverhale wat gelees is binne 'n postkoloniale raamwerk, is daar tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die Afrikaanse letterkunde na 1994 steeds gelees kan word in terme van wat Mishra en Hodge (1994) 'n "saamgestelde postkolonialisme" genoem het, 'n tipering wat volgens Viljoen (1996) toepasbaar was op die Afrikaanse letterkunde van voor 1994. Die kulturele identiteit wat gekonstrueer is in hierdie tekste toon ooreenkomste met die twee momente van kulturele herkonstruksie waarna Hall (1992) verwys, naamlik enersyds 'n strategiese essensialisme van die gekoloniseerde subjek en andersyds 'n gehibridiseerde kulturele identiteit as die gevolg van 'n voortgaande, dinamiese proses van onderhandeling in wat Bhabha (1994) 'n Derde Ruimte genoem het. 'n Diskoers van weerstand teen wat ervaar word as nuwe vorme van kulturele imperialisme, voortspruitend uit 'n breër ontnugtering met wat beskou word as 'n distopiese post-koloniale Suid-Afrika, kon ook afgelei word uit sekere Afrikaanse kortverhale wat sedert 1994 verskyn het. Wat betref 'n hernieude ondermyning van imperialiserende tendense kan hierdie tekste daarom gesien word as 'n voortsetting van die tradisie van weerstand wat die Afrikaanse literatuur dekades lank reeds kenmerk.

In 1968 a group of Afrikaans believers protested that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa had remained foreign to their experience. They maintained that American leaders had dominated the Church. They also asserted that their cultural, linguistic and literary needs had not been adequately catered to, and that the work of evangelization in the Afrikaans speaking areas had been sadly neglected. Some headway had been made by the Church in the years prior to 1968 with translations, firstly, into Dutch and later also into Afrikaans. Advancement had also been made by evangelists into the Afrikaans-speaking areas of the Transvaal and the Orange Free-State. The history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in this country, however, corroborates many of the grievances enumerated by the dissatisfied Afrikaans believers. The predominance of English in the administrative work of the Church and at its educational institutions had always been a thorny issue, resulting in continuous friction between the Church leaders and the Dutch and Afrikaans-speaking members. Problems had also arisen with regard to the use of Afrikaans at the publishing house of the Church. Positions of leadership in almost every department of the Church had been filled by non-South Africans. As a result, by the late 1960s, tensions in the Church had reached a boiling point. At the end of 1968, at a special business session of the Transvaal Conference, the objections of the Afrikaans believers met with very strong resistance. No opportunity was granted to them to air their frustrations and grievances and, as a result, a number of delegates left this meeting in protest before it had been officially closed. This unilateral action resulted in the establishment of an organization called Die Afrikaanse Konferensie van Sewendedag Adventiste. This new conference was, however, considered to be schismatic and was never acknowledged by the established Church. From the outset, the Afrikaanse Konferensie set out to cater to the needs of Afrikaans-speaking people in very forceful fashion. Many people felt that this new conference had a legitimate cause and its membership grew very rapidly. It initiated a welfare society, opened up several geriatric centres, its own printing press and a correspondence Bible school. It also held, throughout the ensuing years, numerous evangelistic campaigns. By the middle of 1973, however, the opposition and incessant pressure applied by the established Church and the severe problems that had emerged from within the ranks of the Afrikaanse Konferensie, swiftly contributed to its demise, with most of its members eventually rejoining the established Church. At the time of the disintegration of the Afrikaanse Konferensie, the leaders of the Church resolved to strengthen the evangelistic work directed at Afrikaans-speaking people. They also determined to have more literature produced in Afrikaans, and to strongly promote the use of Afrikaans at the publishing house and at the Church's educational institutions. These resolutions, however, proved ineffectual , and in the years that followed, the work of the Church showed no improvement in its approach to the Afrikaans speaking people. Twenty-five years have passed since the demise of the Afrikaanse Konferensie and the Church finds itself, because of both, external and internal factors, in a position that could be considered decidedly worse than at the time of the formation of the Afrikaanse Konferensie in 1968. As from 1995, after a protest march by students on the campus of Helderberg College, instruction in Afrikaans was no longer provided at a tertiary level. The production of Afrikaans books and the translation of reading material into Afrikaans is almost non-existent. As a result, voices of dissent are once again being heard that the Afrikaans work is being neglected. This predicament in the Church can neither be ignored nor circumvented and the only way for the Church is to deal with the crisis in the utmost sincerity without allowing itself to succumb to it. The source of the problem appears to lie primarily in Seventh-day Adventist ecclesiology where a gulf exists between its interpretation of unity, and its understanding of mission in a multicultural context. Authentic church unity cannot consist only of an outer dimension whereby unity and mission are cosmetically combined. It involves a deeper internal dimension, where the striving for unity becomes a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, while the mission of the church simultaneously embodies the obligations to cater to the cultural and linguistic needs of all of Christ's people. It is this essential synthesis that has yet to take place in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, where both these facets are to be fostered as complementary aspects of its total vocation. It is this fusion of unity and mission which will open the way for the Church to complete its mission, unhindered either by the polarizing and divisive effect of religious and cultural diversity, or by any misguided attempts to impose uniformity. In their quest for positive resolutions for the challenges facing the Church, its leaders must ask what it means to be "church" in the social context in which it finds itself, what precisely is its mission in the pluralistic, multicultural situation in which it is located and how essential is the Church to God's mission in this country? Judging from the nature of the dilemma that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa still faces today, it appears that these are questions that have not been satisfactorily answered. After assessing both the past and present modes of the Church's operation it becomes essential for the Church leaders to do some critical rethinking about certain facets of its existing ecclesiology and its missionary strategies. It is just as important to systematically abandon the organizational structures that no longer fit the purpose and mission of the Church and to realign them with new paradigms that will effectively cater to the spiritual, cultural and linguistic needs of all the peoples of this country. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1999.

Thesis (MA (History))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Throughout the history of South Africa, the Afrikaners have been described as a "strange society". Calvinism was a key to their lifestyle and ideology and they saw themselves as God's special instruments. Their political philosophy of separate development was to a certain extent, revolutionary and was known as "apartheid". This was an attempt to remake a society according to a socio-political ideal which was rooted in the concept of safety in power. This thesis investigates the Afrikaners with regard to their primal ancestors, the origin of their identity, their identity during the reign of the NP government and their identity in the post apartheid South Africa. Discrepancies concerning Afrikaner identity during this time are also investigated. In this thesis special emphasis is placed on the right-wing actions of the Afrikaners, their political development from the time of separation from the NP which arose from the conviction that the leaders of this party were deviating from the moral and political prescriptions of their predecessors, their ideals and visions of freedom. The right-wing tends to qualify the term “nationalism” with the term “Christian” and they therefore believe that their nationhood is widely ordained. Culture, for the right-wing means an inclusive concept which covers every aspect of their lives. Language, i.e. Afrikaans, is seen as the verbal and written expression of their national culture. This study is directed towards the right wing of Afrikaners' quest for a "volkstaat" (state nation) and specifically the foundation of Orania in the Northern Cape and investigates whether it is a viable option for Afrikaners in general to live. The right-wingers believe that the only feasible constitutional option for peace in South Africa lies in partition The origin of the volkstaat idea , the early thoughts and the development of this concept are also investigated as well as the different models and role players. The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the success of Orania as a possible growing point of a "volkstaat" for Afrikaners. The early stages in the development of this small town e.g. the purchase, their efforts in achieving autonomy, their constitutional rights, their efforts in developing their community as well as their image to the outside world are investigated. During a visit to Orania in 2005 questionnaires were handed out to residents in order to compose a social profile and to investigate domicile statistics as well as views on Afrikaner identity. Ultimately this thesis indicates that although Orania functions successfully in most instances the possibility of it serving as a growing point of a “volkstaat” needs a much larger effort and larger support from other Afrikaners.

This thesis reports on a project which investigated how young native, Afrikaans-speaking Rhodes University students responded to the musical outfit Die Antwoord and to their music video “I Fink U Freeky”. The study attempted to establish how a selected group of Afrikaans-speaking students consisting of Whites, Coloureds and Blacks interpret the work of Die Antwoord as well as their own Afrikaans identity. The purpose of the study was to interrogate the relationship between artistic media, citizenship and belonging to a particular group. The thesis reports on the ways in which interviewees in the group discussions responded to notions of identity, whiteness, class, race, hybridity and creolization registered in the music video which was used to prompt the discussions. Finally the thesis reports on findings regarding the relationship between citizenship and the artistic media. The enormous change in the socio-political position of Afrikaans-speakers in the post -1994 dispensation provides the social context of the study. The project utilised qualitative research and a reception study of the music was undertaken by means of focus group discussions in order to arrive at thick descriptions in an attempt to understand the contextual behaviour of the participants. It was postulated that Die Antwoord provides a discursive site within which audiences could generate their own innovative meanings regarding being Afrikaans. While there was no clear indication that the identities of the participants was constructed by the media, the video prompted discussions regarding identity and provided evidence that media texts are capable of stimulating an interrogation of identities. It emerged that all participants, while abandoning some aspects of Afrikaans culture, strongly embraced and highly valued the language. Participants did not regard race as an important aspect of citizenship. Vociferous discussions regarding class demonstrated how media texts can influence citizenship. Discussions about hybridization and creolization demonstrated how the media can challenge received conceptions regarding citizenship. Responses provided evidence that the media could stimulate new forms of citizenship and contribute to the inclusion of previously excluded subjects. The research findings clearly demonstrate links between artistic media, citizenship and belonging to a group of Afrikaanses rather than Afrikaners. Post- 1994 young Afrikaans-speakers in this study provided clear evidence that they are exploring new and alternative ways of being Afrikaans.