MÉTODOS ESTADÍSTICOS

Writing in his 1961 book, The Awakening of Afrikaner Nationalism 1868-188198_,

F. A. Van Jaarsveld identified three factors99 in particular that played a significant role in the development of the Afrikaner nation (volk). The first was the trade policy of the Dutch East India Company. The second was the spiritual heritage of the Dutch colonists through Calvinist doctrines. The third was geography--specifically the detachment, separation, and development of a frontier life. Later in the book, Van Jaarsveld identified history as a fourth factor in the forging of an Afrikaner nation. He pointed out that there was a reciprocal relationship between the development of the Afrikaans language and the development of a distinct Afrikaner history. During the 1870s, the project of solidifying the language beyond mere “kitchen Dutch”, was made in earnest with the formation of the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Society of True

98 _{Albertus, Van Jaarsveld Floris. The Awakening of Afrikaner Nationalism: 1868-1881. Cape Town:}

Human & Rousseau, 1961. Print.

50 Afrikaners) in 1875, and in the following year with the publication of the Die Patriot (The Patriot). The Society’s purpose was “to stand up for our Language, our Nation and our Land”.100 That same year Arnoldus Pannevis wrote the “national anthem”, and the words reflected how early mobilising Afrikaners were beginning to think of themselves as a national unit.

’n Ieder nasie het sijn land, Ons woon op Afikaanse strand, Vero ns is daar geen beter grond Op al die wye wereldrond.

Trots is ons om die naam te dra Van kinders van Suid-Afrika.

Every nation has its country, We live on Afrikaans soil, For us there is no better land In all the wide world.

Proud we are to bear the name Of children of South Africa.101

The formation of a distinct Afrikaner identity, separate from their Dutch ancestors geographically and now linguistically, in turn led to a discovery of their own history. At first, this historical awakening took place separately amongst the Afrikaners, with the Free State Afrikaners, the Cape Afrikaners, and the Transvaal Afrikaners all discovering their history independently of each other. Van Jaarsveld suggested that before this historical awakening they had lived as a people without history, existing only in the present. By discovering a history that was Afrikaner, the subsequent step to

discovering an Afrikaner nation was actually quite short. Van Jaarsveld illustrated the relationship between language, history and national consciousness in the following excerpt from The Awakening of Afrikaner Nationalism:

100 _{Quoted in, Van Jaarsveld, 112} 101 _{Ibid, 114}

51 The national consciousness, which, on the one hand, led to the discovery

of their own language, led, on the other, to the discovery of their own

history—to the language because it had to do with their nationality in the

present and in the future, and to their history because it had to answer questions on their origin, background and destiny. Their history was to form the background for the language or nationality, because the self- assertive group did not live in the present only; their consciousness of their existence stretched over the past as well. In order to arouse the people’s national consciousness it was necessary to make them

historically conscious. The cultivation of historical consciousness would perforce also bring about national self-consciousness. The one pre- supposed the other.102

History, therefore, became a binding force in the development of Afrikaner nationalism, as was evident in the importance and mythologizing of events like the Great Trek, and the Battle of Blood River.103 _{Or, a version of history became an anchor to which the idea}

of a single nation could be firmly attached. Indeed, the very writing of history became an exercise in nationalism, asserted Van Jaarsveld: “the writing of history itself, which was inspired by nationalism, was to be a defensive art: the nation should be defended against attacks, and the faults of the other side exposed. History had to defend104 _and

justify the national existence.”105 _{In this way, history became very much an exercise in}

instructing the present and thus a political affair. Van Jaarsveld wrote that, “the struggle of the past was the struggle of the present, and the struggle of the present the same as

102 _{Van Jaarsveld, 114}

103 _{See Leonard Thompson’s seminal work The Political Mythology of Apartheid. New Haven: Yale UP,}

1985. Print.

104 _{In the same way that the Afrikaners and the National Party regime promoted history as a defensive}

exercise in defending the nation, so too did the resistance movements promote history as a means of attacking the regime. Norman Etherington notes that “history [in South Africa] in the 1970s and 1980s became the master tool of intellectual resistance to apartheid.” Quoted in Bundy, Colin. "New Nation New History? Constructing the Past in Post-Apartheid South Africa." History Making and Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainsttutet, 2007. 79-81. Print.

52 that of the past.”106 In the next section we will see that history has continued to play a central role to the current politics of South Africa, as we look specifically at the role history plays under the governance of the African National Congress.