- This page refers to the Afrikaner Broederbond. For its later incarnation see Afrikanerbond
The Afrikanerbond , established in 1994, is a new incarnation of the Afrikaner Broederbond, formerly a South African secret society. Although it retains its old headquarters in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, unlike its predecessor, membership is open to anyone over the age of 18 years who identifies...
. For the political party formed in 1881 by Rev S.J. du Toit, see Afrikaner BondThe Afrikaner Bond was a political party in the Cape Colony. It was formed by the union of the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners under the leadership of Rev S.J...
. For the unrelated company, see BrøderbundBrøderbund Software was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael, California, and...
.
Between 1918 and 1994 the
Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) (meaning
Afrikaner Brotherhood) or
Broederbond was a secret, exclusively male and white Protestant organization in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
dedicated to the advancement of
AfrikanerAfrikaners are White Afrikaans speakers who have been established in Southern Africa since the 17th century. They are mainly of northwestern European descent , but their native tongue is Afrikaans, a purported close relative of Dutch...
interests. Founded by HJ Klopper, HW van der Merwe, DHC du Plessis and Rev. Jozua Naudé
in 1918, the organization was known as
Jong Zuid Afrika (Young South Africa) until 1920, when it formally became the Afrikaner Broederbond.
Origins
Described later as an "inner sanctum", "an immense informal network of influence", and by
Jan SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from...
as a "dangerous, cunning, political fascist organization', in 1920
Jong Zuid Afrika now restyled as the Afrikaner Broederbond, was a modest grouping of 37 white men of Afrikaner ethnicity,
AfrikaansAfrikaans is an Indo-European language derived from Dutch and thus classified as Low Franconian West Germanic. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, the United...
language, and the
CalvinistCalvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
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 TrekThe Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers...
in the 1830s 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, or to redeem the Afrikaners after their defeat in the Second Anglo-Boer War? 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 WarTwo Boer Wars were fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic , founded by settlers known as Voortrekkers who made the Great Trek from the Cape Colony....
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 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
CalvinismCalvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
of the Afrikaners, a
pastoralPastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and food. "Pastoral" also describes literature, art and music which depicts the life of shepherds, often in a highly...
people with a difficult history in South Africa since the mid-17th century, supplied an element of Christian
predestinationPredestination is a religious concept, which involves the relationship between God and his creation. The religious character of predestination distinguishes it from other ideas about determinism and free will...
that led to a determination to wrest the country from the English-speaking British and place its future in the hands of the
AfrikaansAfrikaans is an Indo-European language derived from Dutch and thus classified as Low Franconian West Germanic. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, the United...
-speaking Afrikaners, whatever that might mean for the large black and mixed-race population. To the old thirst for
sovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
that had prompted the
Great TrekThe Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers...
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 religionThe intended meaning of the term civil religion often varies according to whether one is a sociologist of religion or a professional political commentator...
that would dominate South African life from 1948 to 1994.
This was the historical context in which the Broederbond emerged. The
scorched earthA scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policy of the British during the second Boer War devastated
BoerBoer is the Dutch word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking pastoralists of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
(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.
The
National PartyThe National Party was the governing party of South Africa from June 4, 1948 until May 9, 1994, and was disbanded in 2005. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture...
had been established in 1914 by
Afrikaner nationalistsAfrikaner nationalism is a political ideology that was born in the late 19th century around the idea that Afrikaners in South Africa were a "chosen people" and was also strongly influenced by anti-British sentiments that grew strong among the Afrikaners especially because of the Boer wars...
. It first came to power in 1924. Ten years later, its leader J.B.M. Hertzog and
Jan SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from...
of the
South African PartyThe South African Party was a political party that existed in the Union of South Africa from 1911 to 1934.The outline and foundation for the party was realized after the election of a 'South African party' in the 1910 South African general election under the leadership of Louis Botha...
merged their parties to form the
United PartyUnited Party is a term used various political parties:* United Party * United States United Party* United Party of National Development, Zambia* United Party * United Party * 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 GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
.
Jan SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from...
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 PartyThe Afrikaner Party was a South African political party from 1941 to 1951.-Origins:The roots of the party can be traced back September 1939, when South Africa declared war on Germany at the start of World War II. General J.B.M...
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
| Name |
Title |
From |
To |
| Klopper, HJ |
|
1918 |
1924 |
| Nicol, W |
Rev. |
1924 |
1925 |
| Greybe, JH |
|
1925 |
1928 |
| Potgieter, JW |
|
1928 |
1930 |
| du Plessis, LJ |
Prof. |
1930 |
1932 |
| van Rooy, JC |
Prof. |
1932 |
1938 |
| Diederichs, N |
Dr. |
1938 |
1942 |
| van Rooy, JC |
Prof. |
1942 |
1952 |
| Thom, HB |
Prof. |
1952 |
1960 |
| Meyer, PJ |
Dr. |
1960 |
1972 |
| Treurnicht, AP Andries Petrus Treurnicht was the founder and the leader of the Conservative Party in South Africa....
|
Dr. |
1972 |
1974 |
| Viljoen, G Gerrit Van Niekerk Viljoen was a South African government minister and member of the National Party....
|
Prof. |
1974 |
1980 |
| Boshoff, CWH Professor Carel Willem Hendrik Boshoff is an African religious figure and cultural activist....
|
Prof. |
1980 |
1983 |
| de Lange, JP |
Prof. |
1983 |
1993 |
| de Beer, TL |
|
1993 |
- |
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 Herenigde Nasionale PartyThe Herenigde Nasionale Party was the product of the reunion of Daniel François Malan's Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party and J.B.M. Hertzog's breakaway Afrikaner nationalist faction of the United Party in 1940....
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
The Absa Group Limited , listed on the JSE Limited, is one of South Africa's largest financial services groups, offering a complete range of banking, bancassurance and wealth management products and services. Absa's business is conducted primarily in South Africa...
, formerly Volkskas which was formed by the Broederbond in 1934 and whose chairman was also the Broederbond chairman at the time.
- ADS, formerly Altech Defence Systems
- 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
Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha is a former South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era...
- HB Thom, historian and former Rector of Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University is a university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape....
.
- Tienie Groenewald, retired Defence Force general.
- Barend Johannes van der Walt, former ambassador of Canada.
- PW Botha
- Anton Rupert
Dr. Anthony Edward Rupert was an Afrikaner South African billionaire entrepreneur, businessman and conservationist. He was born and raised in the small town of Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape. He studied in Pretoria and ultimately moved to Stellenbosch, where he established the Rembrandt Group ...
- Marthinus van Schalkwyk
Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk is the Minister of Tourism in the Cabinet of South Africa. Formerly both Premier of the Western Cape and Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Africa, he was the leader of the New National Party from its inception on 8 September 1997 until...
, former member of the youth wing of the Broederbond.
- Tom de Beer, recruited 30 years ago, now chairman of new Afrikanerbond
The Afrikanerbond , established in 1994, is a new incarnation of the Afrikaner Broederbond, formerly a South African secret society. Although it retains its old headquarters in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, unlike its predecessor, membership is open to anyone over the age of 18 years who identifies...
.
et al.
Further reading
Dr JS Gericke/Kosie Gericke Vice Chancellor Stellenbosch University