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Afrikaner Broederbond

1918–1994 Afrikaner Calvinist male organisation in South Africa

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  • 6 chapters

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Origins

Described later as an "inner sanctum", "an immense informal network of influence", and by Jan Smuts as a "dangerous, cunning, political fascist organization", in 1920 Jong Zuid Afrika, now restyled as the Afrikaner Broederbond, was a group of 37 white men of Afrikaner ethnicity, Afrikaans language, and Calvinist 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 German settlers at the Cape in the 17th and 18th centuries, and including the dramatic events of the Great Trek in the 1830s and 1840s. 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, p.45

The precise intentions of the founders are not clear. Some considered that the group was intended to counter the dominance of the British Empire and the English language, whilst others considered that the purpose was to redeem the Afrikaners after their defeat in the Second Anglo-Boer War. Another view is that it sought to protect culture, build an economy and seize control of the government. The remarks of the organisation'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: The Afrikaner Broederbond was born out of the deep conviction that the Afrikaners had been planted in the country by the Hand of God, destined to survive as a separate people with its own calling.

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 population of British descent and place its future in the hands of the Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaners. 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.

The emergence of the Broederbond took place amidst the backdrop of a rise in Afrikaner nationalism as a result of the Second Boer War (1899–1902), which saw the British annex the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. During the conflict, the British deployed scorched earth tactics against the Boers, destroying Boer farms and interning captured Boer non-combatants in concentration camps, where roughly 27,000 Boers died. The war was brought to end by the Treaty of Vereeniging, which though generous in its terms was seen by the Boers as deeply humiliating. The anglicisation policies of British administrator Lord Milner was also a major source of resentment amongst the Afrikaners. These developments led to an increase in nationalistic sentiments amongst Afrikaners, leading to the formation of the Broederbond and the National Party.

The National Party had been established in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists. They 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 towards 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 British Army forces in the East African theater of the First World War and was amenable to backing the Allies a second time. This was the spark Afrikaner nationalism needed. Hertzog, who was in favour of neutrality, resigned from 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 46 years, until majority rule and Nelson Mandela's election in 1994.

In 1945, Smuts denounced the Broederbond as a fascist organization and ordered South African civil servants and state schoolteachers to either forfeit their Broederbond membership immediately or resign from their jobs.

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