Racism, and particularly racism which appears to be based on religion, continues to be in the news. Recently there was a story about the murder of a white separatist in South Africa. South Africa, of course, was the home of apartheid, a form of racial segregation that makes American racial segregationists jealous. In this diary I’d like to look at the history of South African apartheid and its religious associations.
The first Europeans to colonize what is now South Africa were the Dutch. In 1652, Dutch traders established a stopover point on the spice route between Netherlands and the Far East.
When the British took over the colony in 1802, there were conflicts between the Dutch and the British. Part of this conflict was over the issue of slavery. Consequently, many of the Dutch colonists, now called Afrikaners, move north. In 1838, they waged a battle against a large force of Zulus at Blood River. The Afrikaners attributed their victory to the Covenant which they had made with God at the battle.
The battle of Blood River was critical in fostering a sense of ethnic nationalism and racial superiority among the Afrikaners. According to Wikipedia:
They claimed that the Battle demonstrated God's intervention, and hence their divine right to exist. The claim in the official guidebook of the Voortrekker Monument (unveiled during the centenary celebrations of the Great Trek on December 16, 1949) that Afrikaners were a nation of heroes exemplifies the conclusions drawn from such events.
Soon after the birth of the Union of South Africa in 1914, the National Party was created to undermine the vote of the Coloureds and to work for racial segregation.
According to Afrikaner theologians, God had separated the races at the tower of Babel and the races were not intended to mix. Following World War II, the Afrikaners obtained political power in South Africa and began to implement a policy of apartheid. This policy of racial separation, according to South Africa’s Council of Churches in 1947, was "not only born of circumstances but has its basis in Holy Scripture." Theologian J.H. Kritzinger wrote:
"Scripture teaches that God willed racial apartheid and we as Christians may not make light of it."
Racial segregation began in colonial times and reached new heights following World War II. Over 100 laws were enacted to enforce racial segregation. Sexual intercourse between the races was criminalized.
Apartheid was not just black/white: the legislation classified South Africans into four groups: white, black, coloured, and Indian.
Apartheid included petit apartheid which required separate entrances to public buildings based on race; meso apartheid which segregated residential areas; and grand apartheid which involved the creation of black homelands for the Africans. With the creation of the black homelands (sometimes pejoratively called Bantustans), all blacks were considered to be citizens of the black homelands and not South African. Under a policy of resettlement, about 3.5 million black people were forced to move to their designated group areas.
During the apartheid era, the Dutch Reformed Church came to be known as the official religion of the National Party. Church doctrine asserts that God is eternal, infinite, wise, and just, and the Creator of the universe. He has planned the life and the fate of each individual on earth; the "chosen" are saved, as long as they adhere to the church's teachings. The Bible--both the Old Testament and the New Testament--is the final authority on religious matters. Church leaders tended to be more committed to apartheid than were their followers.
In 1958, blacks were stripped of their citizenship. Education, medical care, and other services were segregated with blacks receiving inferior services.
Where television was finally introduced in South Africa in 1975, it was run along segregated lines. TV1 broadcast in Afrikaans and English (geared to a white audience), TV2 in Zulu and Xhosa and TV3 in Sotho, Tswana and Pedi (both geared to a black audience), and TV4 mostly showed programs for an urban-black audience.
In 1994, apartheid officially ended. However, there are still a number of whites in South Africa who feel that segregation of the races is correct. The Afrikaner Resistance Movement (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or AWB) was formed in 1973. During the 1980s, the group actively opposed the reform of the apartheid laws. In March 2008, the AWB announced it was re-activating for 'populist' reasons, citing the encouragement of the public. Reasons for the return include the electricity crisis, corruption across government departments and rampant crime.
The flag of the AWB is described by Wikipedia:
The AWB flag is composed of three black sevens (forming a triskelion) in a white circle upon a red background. According to AWB, the sevens, 'the number of JAHWEH', 'stand to oppose the number 666, the number of the anti-Christ'. Red is considered to represent Jesus’ blood, while black stands for bravery and courage. The inner white circle symbolizes the "eternal struggle", or according to other sources "eternal life". The flag bears a resemblence to the flag used by the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany.
South African white far-right leader Eugene Terre'blanche, who fought to prevent the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, was beaten and hacked to death at his farm in April 2010. The police reported that two black workers in custody for the killing of Terre'blanche appeared to have been angry about unpaid wages and the murder was not politically motivated. However, the Afrikaner Resistance Movement linked the attack to the recent singing of an apartheid-era song featuring the words "Kill the Boer" by the head of the ruling African National Congress party's youth league. The subsequent dust-up has prompted fears of growing racial polarization in South Africa.
Concerning Eugene Terre’blanche, Arthur Kemp writes:
He truly believed that his people, the Boers, had been sent by God to look after black people in Africa, to show them the light of Christian civilisation.
