Afrikaner Broederbond

: "This page refers to the Afrikaner Broederbond. For its later incarnation see Afrikanerbond. For the political party formed in 1881 by Rev S.J. du Toit, see Afrikaner Bond. For the unrelated company, see Brøderbund."

Between 1918cite web|url=http://africanhistory.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-broederbond.htm
title=Jong Suid Afrika - founded in June 1918] and 1994 the Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) (meaning "Afrikaner Brotherhood") or Broederbond was a secret, exclusively male and white Protestant organization in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of Afrikaner interests. Founded by HJ Klopper, HW van der Merwe, DHC du Plessis and Rev. Jozua Naudécite web|url=http://www.mvgcontact.org/MVG%20in%20English%20Beyers%20Naude.htm
title=Mormonen voor vrede en gerechtigheid - Robert Poort - April 2006] in 1918, the organization was known as "Jong Zuid Afrika" (Young South Africa) until 1920, when it formally became the Afrikaner Broederbond.Citation | last =Wilkins | first =Ivor | last2 =Strydom | first2 =Hans | title =The Super-Afrikaners. Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond | place=Braamfontein, Johannesburg | publisher =Jonathan Ball | year =1980 | edition =Paperback ]

Origins

Described later as an “inner sanctum”, [Citation | title = The Security Man | journal =Time | date = Friday, Sep. 23, 1966 | year =1966 | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842811,00.html] “an immense informal network of influence”, [cite book | last = O'Meara | first =D | title =Volkskapitalisme: Class, capital and ideology in the development of Afrikaner Nationalism 1934-1948 | publisher =Cambridge University Press | date =1983 | location =Cambridge, England | pages =64] and by Jan Smuts as a “dangerous, cunning, political fascist organization', [Citation | last =Jemison | first =EL | title = The Nazi influence in the formation of apartheid in South Africa | journal = The Concord Review | volume =15 | issue =1 | pages =75-103 | year =2004 | url = http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/EPrize_Apartheid.pdf] in 1920 "Jong Zuid Afrika" now restyled as the Afrikaner Broederbond, was a modest grouping of 37 white men of Afrikaner ethnicity, Afrikaans language, and the Calvinist Dutch Reformed faith, who shared cultural, semi-religious, and deeply-political objectives based on traditions and experiences dating back to the arrival of Dutch white settlers, French Huguenots, and Germans at the Cape in the 17th and 18th centuries and including the dramatic events of the Great Trek in the 1830's and 40's. Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom recount how, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, a leading "broeder" (brother or member) said:

for understandable reasons it was difficult to explain [our] aims… [I] n the beginning people were allowed in…who thought it was just another cultural society (Wilkins & Strydom, 1980, 45)

The precise intentions of the founders are not clear. Was the group intended to counter the dominance of the British and the English language, [Citation| title =Broederbond's Big Brother Act | journal =Time | date = Monday, Nov. 21 | year =1977 | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915731-1,00.html] or to redeem the Afrikaners after their defeat in the Second Anglo-Boer War? [Citation | last =Walton | first =C | title = Bond of broeders: Anton Hartman and music in an apartheid state | journal =Musical Times | volume =Summer | year =2004 | url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3870/is_200407/ai_n9420131] Perhaps it sought to protect a culture, build an economy and seize control of a government [http://africanhistory.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-broederbond.htm] . The remarks of the organization’s chairman in 1944 offer a slightly different, and possibly more accurate interpretation in the context of the post-Boer War and post- World War I era, when Afrikaners were suffering through a maelstrom of social and political changes: [Citation | last =Schönteich | first =M | last2 =Boshoff | first2 = H | title ='Volk' Faith and Fatherland. The Security Threat Posed by the White Right | journal =Institute of Security Studies. Monograph. | volume =No 81 | date =March 2003 | year =2003 | url = http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No81/Chap3.html]

The Afrikaner Broederbond was born out of the deep conviction that the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God, destined to survive as a separate volk with its own calling.

In other words, the traditional, deeply-pious Calvinism of the Afrikaners, a pastoral people with a difficult history in South Africa since the mid-17th century, supplied an element of Christian predestination that led to a determination to wrest the country from the English-speaking British and place its future in the hands of the Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaners, whatever that might mean for the large black and mixed-race population. To the old thirst for sovereignty that had prompted the Great Trek into the interior from 1838 on, would be added a new thirst for total independence and Nationalism. These two threads merged to form a Christian National civil religion that would dominate South African life from 1948 to 1994.

This was the historical context in which the Broederbond emerged. The scorched earth policy of the British during the second Boer War devastated Boer (that is, rural Afrikaner farmer) lands. In British concentration camps, 27 000 Boer women and children had died. The Boer surrender at Vereeniging, though pragmatic, was deeply humiliating. Lord Milner's inflammatory policy of Anglicization simply rubbed salt into Afrikaner wounds, and a backlash was inevitable. The National Party and ultimately the Broederbond were the long-term and powerful results. [cite paper | author =Bunting, B. | title =The Rise of the South African Reich | publisher =African National Congress | date =1969 | url =http://www.anc.org.za/books/reich.html | format =html | accessdate =2007-06-12]

The National Party had been established in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists. It first came to power in 1924. Ten years later, its leader J.B.M. Hertzog and Jan Smuts of the South African Party merged their parties to form the United Party. This angered a contingent of hardline nationalists under D.F. Malan, who broke away to form the ’’Purified National Party’’. By the time World War II broke out, resentment of the British had not subsided. Malan’s party opposed South Africa’s entry into the war on the side of the British; some of its members wanted to support Nazi Germany. Jan Smuts had commanded the British Army in East Africa and was understandably amenable to backing the Allies a second time. This was the spark Afrikaner nationalism needed. Herzog, who was in favour of neutrality, quit the United Party when a narrow majority in his cabinet backed Smuts. He started the Afrikaner Party which would amalgamate later with D.F. Malan's ’’Purified National Party’’ to become the force that would take over South African politics for the next 5 decades.

Leaders

The chairmen of the Broederbond were:(p48)

The Broederbond and Apartheid

Every prime minister and state president in South Africa from 1948 to the end of Apartheid in 1994 was a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

Once the HNP was in power...English-speaking bureaucrats, soldiers, and state employees were sidelined by reliable Afrikaners, with key posts going to Broederbond members (with their ideological commitment to separatism). The electoral system itself was manipulated to reduce the impact of immigrant English speakers and eliminate that of Coloureds.

The Afrikaner Broederbond continued to act in secret, infiltrating and gaining control of the few organisations, such as the South African Agricultural Union (SAAU), which had political power and were opposed to a further escalation of Apartheid policies.

Companies with Broederbond credentials

* ABSA, formerly Volkskas which was formed by the Broederbond in 1934 and whose chairman was also the Broederbond chairman at the time.
* [http://www.ads.co.za/ ADS] , formerly Altech Defence Systems
* [http://www.remgro.com/english/companyhistory.asp Remgro] , formerly Rembrandt Ltd., former holding company of Volkskas.

Former members

* DF Malan
* HF Verwoerd
* JG Strijdom
* BJ Vorster
* Dr JS Gericke, Vice Chancellor Stellenbosch University
* Pik Botha
* HB Thom, historian and former Rector of Stellenbosch University.
* Tienie Groenewald, retired Defence Force general.
* Barend Johannes van der Walt, former ambassador of Canada.
* PW Botha
* Anton Rupert
* Marthinus van Schalkwyk, former member of the youth wing of the Broederbond.
* Tom de Beer, recruited 30 years ago, now chairman of new Afrikanerbond.et al

Further reading

* [http://www.oulitnet.co.za/seminaar/carinad.asp On the Afrikaner youth today and the Broederbond crutch] - Afrikaans
* [http://www.businessinafrica.net/opinion/columns/jottings_from_jhb/807071.htm On the Native Club and the Broederbond]
* [http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:-puxRtmjBxcJ:oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~cd198395/esp/anthro.doc+broederbond+merwe&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=uk Membership numbers 6800 to 12000 with 450 branches]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1996/09/30/wsaf30.html Tom de Beer on formation of new Afrikanerbond.] Dr JS Gericke/Kosie Gericke Vice Chancellor Stellenbosch University

References