The history of the Afrikadeutschen of Kroondal that began with the formation of the Hermannsburg Mission Society in 1849 and that grew to encompass a century of German nationalism over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, provides an important dimension to the greater story of German immigration and settlement in South Africa. It is a narrative in which the position of the community’s growing association with their adopted landscape or Heimat serves to create the inevitable counterpoint to their ideological identity as Germans and thereby too, its reconciliation in the name Afrikadeutsche (African-Germans). Situated in the North-West province of South Africa, the community of Kroondal displays a unique collection of archival and literary source material that along with the this dissertation’s use of the specifically German descriptors Heimat and Deutschtum (Germanness) then serve as the basis for its investigation into its African-German identity. / Dissertation (MHCS)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

This study explores the role of design as a force that may stabilise cultural identity in a cultural climate of globalisation through the use of visual rhetoric and narrative. It focuses specifically on the heritage and face of a German culture in South Africa. Objects that are found amongst the South African German community are analysed in an attempt to uncover the rhetoric and narrative of the culture’s heritage in a country far removed from their Heimat. The study deals with terms such as Sehnsucht and belonging, of maintaining a sense of cultural difference while being integrated and socially accepted. It uses visual rhetoric as a means to discover elements that may be used by design in order to adequately represent the Germanness of the South African German community in a way that it can be maintained in today’s way of life. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

In 1885 Adele Steinwender arrived in South Africa from Germany. Her vocation was that of a teacher, but unlike the majority of white women who moved to the colonies to teach, Steinwender taught the children of the missionaries, as opposed to the local children. During her five years in Bethanie, a Berlin Mission Station in the Orange Free State, she kept a diary recording her observations of day-to-day life. Steinwender’s diary reveals certain aspects that were often neglected in the diary of the male missionaries, namely the domestic side of life. Her commentaries provide one with a unique perspective on missionary activities, not only because she is writing as a woman, but because although she is in the employ of the Berlin Mission Society, she herself, was not a missionary. Thus her reflections are that of an “outsider”. She was an outsider in more senses than one, considering she was an unmarried woman, who was financially independent, and this set her apart from the other woman who lived within this community at the time. Another aspect that made her unique was that she was the most recent arrival from Germany. Although the white residents of Bethanie did attempt to uphold their germanness during their time spent abroad, they had somewhat adapted to a more “colonial lifestyle”. Throughout her diary, Steinwender cites examples of such cultural adaptations amongst the people living there. That having been said, however, the missionaries and their families still held a feeling of superiority over the local population and there was a deeper sense of German nationalism that was prevalent at all times. This study examines the diary alongside nationalism and gender and provides one with an image of what a community was perceived like through the eyes of Steinwender. She proved to be the exception more than the rule, yet there is a perpetual undertone of her wanting to fit within the confines of what was considered to be normal. / Dissertation (MHCS)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted