Boer

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This article is about the Boer people (Boerevolk). For the animal, see Boer goat.

Boer is the Dutch (and Afrikaans) word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the Afrikaans-speaking pastoralists of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 1700s as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 1800s to settle in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and to a lesser extent Natal. Their primary motivation for leaving the Cape was to escape British rule as well as the constant border wars on the eastern frontier.

The Trekboere, as they were originally known, are descended mainly from Dutch Calvinist, Frisian Calvinist, French Huguenot, Flemish and German Protestant origins dating from the 1650s and into the 1700s. Smaller but significant numbers of Scandinavians, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Scots, English, Irish, Welsh, Indian, Malay and Khoisan people were absorbed as well.

Those Trekboers who trekked into and occupied the eastern Cape were semi-nomadic. A significant number in the eastern Cape frontier later became Grensboere or Border Farmers who were the direct ancestors of the Voortrekkers. The Voortrekkers were those Boers (mainly from the eastern Cape) who left the Cape en masse in a series of large scale migrations later called the Great Trek beginning in 1835 as a result of British colonialism and constant border wars. When used in a historical context, the term Boer may refer to an inhabitant of the Boer Republics as well as those who were cultural Boers.

The Boer Nation (Boerevolk) in Southern Africa is an indigenous nation ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} which has been internationally recognised as a nation in its own right for approximately two centuries. This is the small nation who defended their nations, the republics of the Transvaal (the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, or ZAR), and the Orange Free State (OFS) against British imperialism on two occasions during the 19th Century.

The nations were devastated in the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902), and were forced, through concentration camps in which 27 000 non-combatant women and children were killed, and through the destruction of tens of thousands of farmsteads, livestock, and crops, to surrender to the United Kingdom administration and to have their country administered by the cape colony government.

Over time the obvious differences between Cape Afrikaner and Boer would subside and the terms "Boer" and "Afrikaner" would eventually be erroneously used as synonyms.

Some of these modern Boers argue that they were forced to accept the apartheid establishment and that they were suppressed whenever they attempted self-determination as was the case during the Boer Revolt or Maritz Rebellion in 1914 as well as their marginalization due to their smaller numbers within the greater Afrikaner designation.

Contents 1 Characteristics 1.1 Nationalism 2 Boer Diaspora 3 Modern usage 4 See also 5 Notable Boers 6 References

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Nationalism

The Boer nation has been well-known for their strong nationalistic characteristics.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Boer Diaspora

After the second Anglo-Boer War, a Boer diaspora occurred. Starting in 1903 the largest group emigrated to the Patagonia region of Argentina. Another group emigrated to British-ruled Kenya, from where most returned to South Africa during the 1930s, while a third group under the leadership of General Ben Viljoen emigrated to Mexico and to New Mexico and Texas in the south-western USA.

[edit] Modern usage

In more recent times, mainly during the apartheid reform and post-1994 eras, a number of white Afrikaans-speaking people, mainly with "conservative" political views and of trekker descent, have preferred to be called "Boers", rather than "Afrikaners". They feel that there were many people of Voortrekker descent who were not co-opted or assimilated into what they see as the Cape-based Afrikaner identity which began emerging after the Second Anglo-Boer War and the subsequent establishment of the Union of South Africa.

They contend that the Boers of the South African (ZAR) and Orange Free State republics were recognized as a separate people or cultural group under international law by the Sand River Convention (which created the South African Republic in 1852) ^[5], the Bloemfontein Convention (which created the Orange Free State Republic in 1854), the Pretoria Convention (which re-established the independence of the South African Republic 1881), the London Convention (which granted the full independence to the South African Republic in 1884) and the Vereeniging Peace Treaty, which formally ended the Second Anglo-Boer War on 31 May 1902. Others contend, however, that these treaties dealt only with agreements between governmental entities and do not imply the recognition of a Boer cultural identity per se.

Nonetheless, the Boer cultural grouping which began among the trekking pastoralists of the eastern Cape frontier to the modern day descendants of the Voortrekkers is a distinct cultural group which was historically and culturally set apart from those White Afrikaans speakers who remained in the Western Cape region.

The supporters of these views feel that the Afrikaner designation (or label) was used from the 1930s onwards as a means of unifying (politically at least) the white Afrikaans speakers of the Western Cape with those of Trekboer and Voortrekker descent (whose ancestors began migrating eastward during the 1690s and throughout the 1700s and later northward during the Great Trek of the 1830s) in the north of South Africa, where the Boer Republics were established.

The supporters of the "Boer" designation view the Afrikaner designation as an artificial political label which usurped their history and culture turning "Boer" achievements into "Afrikaner" achievements. They feel that the Western-Cape based Afrikaners — whose ancestors did not trek eastwards or northwards — took advantage of the republican Boers' destitution following the Anglo-Boer War and later attempted to assimilate the Boers into a new politically based cultural label as "Afrikaners."

[edit] See also

• Afrikaner
• Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
• Boeremag
• Boer music
• Great Trek
• Natalia Republic
• Orange Free State
• South African Republic
• South African Farmer Murders
• Transvaal
• Volkstaat
• Voortrekker

[edit] Notable Boers

• Andries Hendrik Potgieter Voortrekker leader
• Andries Pretorius Voortrekker leader
• Christiaan Rudolf de Wet a Boer general during the Second Anglo-Boer War
• Danie Theron Second Anglo-Boer War Boer Soldier
• Dirkie Uys Great Trek Hero
• Gideon Jacobus Scheepers Second Anglo-Boer War Soldier
• Japie Greyling Second Anglo-Boer War Hero
• Koos de la Rey a Boer general during the Second Boer War and is widely regarded as being one of the greatest military leaders during that conflict.
• Louis Botha First prime minister of South Africa (1910 - 1919) and former Boer general
• Paul Kruger President of the Transvaal Republic
• Petrus Jacobus Joubert Boer general and cabinet member of the Transvaal Republic government
• Piet Retief Voortrekker leader
• Racheltjie de Beer Great Trek Heroine
• Sarel Cilliers Voortrekker leader
• Siener van Rensburg Prophet
• Marthinus Oosthuizen Great Trek Hero
• Manie Maritz Second Anglo-Boer War Boer Soldier
• Eugene Terre'Blanche Leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a movement for Boer and Afrikaner freedom

[edit] References

Boerevolk still independent entity: BVS

1. ^ Oliver Ransford. The Great Trek.
2. ^ Sidney & Shirley Robbins. The Devil's Annexe. A Continent in Agony.
3. ^ Swaziland Digital Archives.
4. ^ Siyabona Africa Travel (Pty) Ltd South Africa.
5. ^ The Sand River Convention.