"Kan die vrou haar volk dien deur haar huis?": Afrikanerpolitiek en vroue in die Ossewa-Brandwag, 1942 tot 1954

The “Ossewa-Brandwag” (OB or Oxwagon Sentinel) was a mass-movement of Afrikaners following a non-party political strategy in order to gain power in a white dominated South Africa. The organisation, which gained its highest support during World War II, was openly anti-British, pro-German and followed a National-Socialist agenda together with strong undercurrents of Afrikaner Christian (Calvinist) Nationalism. Despite the movement’s explicit stance against party politics, it inevitably transgressed these boundaries and came to blows with the upcoming “Herenigde Nasionale Party” (HNP) leading to a bitter fight which deepened the rift in Afrikanerdom. Although previous histories of the OB focused mainly on the battle between the two protagonists of the saga, namely Commandant General (CG) JFJ van Rensburg of the OB and Dr DF Malan of the HNP, OB women also took part in the political discourse of the 1940s. This article examines how women of the Ossewa-Brandwag interpreted their own political position in the movement and how they regarded their place in the OB itself and in broader South African and Afrikaner politics. The exercise of female power in a patriarchal society is extremely constrained and therefore OB women had to manoeuvre themselves within the confines of the dominant gender ideology, articulated in the so-called “volksmoeder (mother of the nation) discourse”. The aim of this article is to show how women in the OB bought into the normative limitations and boundaries of conventional womanhood and even legitimized and defended their subservient position. An emphasis is also placed on how women interpreted the confines of the dominant gender ideology

From fund-raising to Freedom Day: the nature of women’s general activities in the Ossewa-Brandwag, 1939-1943.

The Ossewa-Brandwag (OB) was a mass-movement that originated as a result of the euphoria created by the 1938 Centenary Celebrations of the Great Trek in South Africa. With far-reaching and very ambitious aims the OB was in essence a multi-layered organisation that had an impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Afrikaners. It existed for more than ten years, from 1939 to 1954. Despite the evident Afrikaner nationalist and republican ideals for which the movement stood, the OB was also swept by the tide of the ideological “zeitgeist” between the two World Wars. It was outspokenly National-Socialist, anti-British and with the outbreak of the Second World War it openly sided with Germany and was involved in several attempts to sabotage South Africa’s participation in the war. Despite these more radical aspects, the OB also had a cultural and social side in which most of its members participated – including women. Until recently the role of women in the OB has not been dealt with in “any” detailed way. Women formed a dynamic, vibrant and outspoken group in the OB that not only participated in the cultural and social aspects of the movement, but also the more violent resistance towards the government’s pro-British sentiments. This article focuses on the nature of women’s more general activities in the OB during the movement’s early years from 1939 to 1943. These “general” activities include women’s agency in the cultural, social and financial spheres of the OB as well as their indispensable role as organisers. As mainly a descriptive historical study, this article aims to introduce readers to the women of the OB, whose role in the movement has been shamefully neglected in South African historiography

Untold history with a historiography: a review of scholarship on Afrikaner women in South African history

In ‘The Rise and Fall of Afrikaner Women’ (2003), Gilliomee argues that Afrikaner women’s history ‘is the biggest untold story of the Afrikaner people’, and in doing so ignores the research on Afrikaner women’s history. This ignoring of women’s history may be attributed either to orthodoxy in historical writing or the lack of a review on women’s history despite a relatively large body of work, focussing in particular on Afrikaner women. Although contributions to women’s history come out of a wide range of disciplines, including literary theory, political science, anthropology and history proper, it is my contention that there is a definable trend developing in South African historiography which particularly represents the history of Afrikaner women. This article explicitly shows that the history of Afrikaner women is not untold through a review of the contributions of scholars whose work form part of (what I call) the historiography of Afrikaner women. This article not only contextualises Afrikaner women’s history against the backdrop of tendencies in historical writing but also focuses on the major themes in the historiography of Afrikaner women, including identity, political agency, labour, welfare, class, reproduction and particularly the ongoing debate of the ‘volksmoeder’http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rshj20/currenthttp://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rshj20/currentDOI:10.1080/02582473.2013.77006

Volksmoeders in die kollig : histories–teoretiese verkenning van die rol van vroue in die Ossewa–Brandwag, 1938 tot 1954

Thesis (MA (History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.The Ossewa–Brandwag (OB) was a unique Afrikaner organisation, swept along by the current ideologies of the late thirties and forties of the twentieth century. Although the history of this organisation was thoroughly recorded there is hardly any material available on the role of women in the OB. The aim of this dissertation is to break the silence surrounding OB women by a historical–theoretical exploration of the agency of Afrikaner women.In this exploration use is made of gender as a category of historical analysis to point out how contemporaries’ understanding of sexual differences was influenced by the ideal of the volksmoeder (mother of the nation). The focus is on how,by means of social organisation,women asserted themselves as political agents in the OB, seen in the context of contemporaries’ understanding of sexual differences. The theoretical method of Joan Wallach Scott is used not only to describe the agency of women but also to explain and interpret it. The above–mentioned exploration is done by looking at how Afrikaner women from the very beginning of the movement were involved in every facet of the Ossewa–Brandwag’s activities–– from fund raising to cultural activities to social work to violent resistance to the Smuts government.In all these activities gender was used as a norm for the division of labour and social organising. Against the backdrop of social constructionism it is demonstrated how women by these activities took part in the volksmoeder discourse often by reconstructing their own subjective identity within the limits of the conceptual language of the discourse. In the OB mainly two symbolical aspects of the volksmoeder emerged, namely the spirit of freedom and motherhood. The former was used particularly by OB women themselves to give content to their identity.In their resistance to South Africa’s participation in World War II the traditional boundaries of the gender order were transcended and new meaning was given to the image of the volksmoeder by the women themselves. On the other hand women’s agency was underplayed in the official policy of the OB by the biological determinism underlying contemporaries’ understanding of sexual differences. “The cradle of the Afrikaner woman” was seen as a norm confining women to the family. Thus the “highest calling” of women was described in the OB as “motherhood”. The volksmoeder, however, is a dynamic and often contradictory construction of identity. Seen against the background of Michel Foucault’s understanding of “power” women used their position as mothers to extend their political agency even further. In this way women of the OB not only gave new meaning to the image of the volksmoeder, they even made use of the narrower version of the volksmoeder to lay a claim to a central position for themselves in the movement. This was done by women in their practical activities themselves giving content and meaning to the constructed image of “true femininity”. The performative nature of gender turned all activities in the OB into gender activities. Historically spoken Afrikaner women played a central part in the OB from 1938 to 1954. Theoretically spoken this part depended on contemporaries’ understanding of sexual differences and the way women used their agency was profoundly influenced by gender.Master

"Carrying the torch forward" : the role of the youth wing of the Ossewa-Brandwag, 1939-1952

Die Ossewa-Brandwag (OB) was die grootste van 'n aantal nasionalisties-politiese bewegings wat onder Afrikaners in Suid-Afrika tydens die Tweede Wêreldoorlogtydperk bestaan het, en wat na nasionaal-sosialisme geneig het. Hierdie artikel handel oor die rol van die OB se jeugvleuel, wat aanvanklik as die Jeugfront, en later as die Boerejeug bekendgestaan het. Die oorsprong, stigting, doelstellings, organisasie en aktiwiteite daarvan word in meer besonderhede bespreek. Alles was gerig op volksdiens in belang van die Afrikanervolk. Van die middel van die 1940’s af, het die Nasionale Party (toe bekend as die Herenigde Nasionale Party) die politieke steun van al meer Afrikanernasionaliste verkry, ten koste van die OB. In 1948 het dié party die parlementêre verkiesing gewen en die nuwe regering geword. Aangesien die OB sy bestaansrede verloor het, is dit (insluitend die jeugvleuel) in 1952 ontbind. Gedurende die kort bestaan van die Boerejeug, het dit, ten spyte van goeie leierskap en deeglike organisasie, nooit daarin geslaag om sy ideale op groot skaal te verwesenlik nie, aangesien veranderende omstandighede dit nie toegelaat het om die populêre volksbeweging te word wat dit gestig is om te wees nie. Daardie eer het die Nasionale Party en sy geaffilieerde organisasies te beurt geval. Die nalatenskap van die OB en sy jeugvleuel, veral die republikeinse ideaal, het egter bly voortbestaan in die ideale van die Nasionale Party en het versmelt in die breë stroom van seëvierende Afrikanernasionalisme.The Ossewa-Brandwag (OB) was the largest of a number of nationalist political movements which existed in the Afrikaner society in South Africa during the period of the Second World War, and which were inclined towards national socialism. This article deals with the role of its youth wing, first called the Jeugfront (Youth Front) and later the Boerejeug (Boer Youth) of the OB. The origin, establishment, objectives, organisation and activities of this youth wing are discussed in some detail. Everything was geared towards volksdiens (service to the people) in the interest of the Afrikaner people. From the mid-1940s, the National Party (then called the Herenigde Nasionale Party) gained the political support of more and more Afrikaner nationalists, at the expense of the OB, and won the parliamentary elections to become the new government in 1948. Having lost its raison d’être, the OB, including its youth wing, was disbanded in 1952. During its brief existence, the Boerejeug, never managed to realise its ideals on a grand scale, despite its good leadership and thorough organisation, because changing circumstances did not allow it to become the popular volksbeweging (people’s movement) it set out to be. That honour went to the National Party and its affiliated organisations. However, the legacy of the OB and its youth movement, especially its republican ideal, was perpetuated in the National Party and was merged into the broad stream of triumphant Afrikaner nationalism.Articl

Reform or Re-colonization? The Overhaul of African Television

The African television broadcasting sector is undergoing a rapid and long awaited process of liberalisation. This article examines key aspects of that process with geographic focus on sub‐Saharan Africa. Specifically addressed are what has recently changed, and more crucially, not changed, in the politically charged arena of television newscasting. Throughout the continent broadcasters, whether privately or publicly financed, are finding a wide variety of creative solutions to technological and economic challenges as they rush to cultivate an audience among the urban middle class. But the rapid shift from public to frequently foreign private ownership of television may be symptomatic of a broader re‐colonisation of Africa by US and European multinationals that has been euphemistically heralded as Africa's Renaissance