Afrikaners in the New South Africa: Identity Politics in a Globalised Economy (review)

The principal aim of this book is "to demonstrate that transformations within the globalized political economy have served to constrict or empower different Afrikaner constituencies by analyzing their response to these wider structural changes on a national and subnational or local level" (4). Throughout the study Davies attempts to differentiate between Afrikaners, Afrikaans, Afrikaanses, Afrikaans speaking, Afrikanerdom, and other permutations of this identity and ascription. The author presents three definitions of Afrikaner identity. In the second chapter she discusses historic events to illustrate the older nationalistic approach, and a more contemporary interpretation of Afrikaner identity follows in chapter 5. An important factor that is not highlighted sufficiently, however, involves the interplay of history (events) and situation (context). To compare "Afrikaner" identity of two or three generations ago with the current identification involves more than economic and class analysis, a point that the author misses in much of her discussion. According to this reviewer, the origin and identification of "Afrikaner" must be seen as undergirded by the frontier experience, by the emergence of early Afrikaner consciousness vis-à-vis the British, by the growth of Afrikaner political power after Union (1910), and by the role of the Dutch Reformed Churches. Also important was the Afrikaner Broederbond (from 1918) with its strong pro-German sentiments. The author never identifies this as a secret society with tremendous influence in business, academics, and the church. (See Brian M. du Toit, Beperkte Lidmaatskap [Restricted Membership], John Malherbe, 1965) for the first exposé of this secret fraternity.) Davies also refers to, but does not clarify the identity of, the Ossewa Brandwag (101), which was modeled on the Nazi stormtroopers. In addition, early in the study she refers to O'Meara's Marxist perspective as "not without flaws," yet she quotes him throughout the book.

In the beginning of the third chapter Davies seems to discover a single word that expresses her meaning and thereafter dominates the discussion: every couple of sentences throughout this chapter we come upon hegemon, hegemony, hegemonic, or hegemonical. Surely access to a thesaurus would have allowed her some variety of word selection! She does bring the ANC into the discussion, though it may not have been necessary to spend so much space on their "hegemonic project"(70). Davies is able to illustrate the interplay among black and white (especially Afrikaner) businesses, capital flows, and leaders in corporations listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The security that derives from this strength, along with "Afrikaans capital" (98), tie directly into contemporary processes of globalization.

The author makes a number of assumptions that are drawn from her academic background in international relations but are not necessarily fully known to readers outside her field. She refers to a Gramscian framework (6) and Gramsci's legacy (11) but never provides details about his 1971 model. She also refers to a number of fairly obscure individuals and phenomena without identifying or explaining them: Karen Zoid (120), the "Koos de la Rey phenomenon" (which is later misspelled), the "Silberstein incident," and others. Referring to the reaction of modern Afrikaners to majority rule, the author provides a footnote to my own study of the Boers in East Africa (141, n.25); however, that publication is part of a trilogy dealing with the Boer diaspora to the U.S., Argentina, and East Africa following the Anglo Boer War a century earlier.

There are 664 footnotes to expand and clarify the 137 pages of text. The reader is never sure when Davies is exploring and expounding her views or those of a previous author. And there is superfluous material throughout. For example, I would ask whether all of chapter 3 was necessary. A couple of centuries ago Emperor Joseph II commented to Mozart about one of his compositions that "there are simply too many notes." About this book I would say: there are simply too...