Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

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.

Submitted as requirement of the degree of Master of Arts History, Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, January 2012 / Griqua Philippolis (1824-1862) and Afrikaner Orania (1990-present) are explored in this thesis, according to a legal-history framework that allows for a comparative appraisal of their foundations. As I argue, property – specifically, property in land – helps us to understand sovereignty and the question of rights in the South Africa. As this thesis explores, both settlements were formerly home to prior inhabitants (the San in Philippolis; Coloured squatters in Orania), and these inhabitants had to be transferred away. Both communities emerged out of contested and dynamic political contexts – situations that would determine how they saw themselves and others. Land regulations were devised within these respective contexts, in direct response to specific external pressures and the demands of the market. Internally, both polities were tightly governed. Externally, to various institutions and individuals, both argued for their ‘rights’ – mainly rights to land and to special treatment – all the time. Indeed, in a way, this study is an historical exploration of the effective deployment of ‘rights talk’, and to that end, my argument carries across two centuries right up to the present day using Orania and Philippolis to do this. This thesis, then, is a study about land rights, and the different regimes that create and erase them, that acknowledge and ignore them; it is a local history of settler colonialism past and present, using two case studies to explore the continuities of South Africa’s ever-pertinent land question. / XL2018