Browsing by Author "Giliomee, Hermann B."

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    Voelvlug van 'n Afrikanergeskiedenis van 350 jaar
    (Historical Association of South Africa, 2001) Giliomee, Hermann B.
    Bird's-eye view of an Afrikaner history over 350 years The formation of an Afrikaner people can be best understood as the outcome of certain forces: a relative balance between the sexes in the white population after 1725; the role of the church and the relatively strong position of white women. the unfolding of South African history can be understood in terms of C.W. de Kiewiet's dictum of South Africa as a country of low grade land, low grade gold and low grade people. the first refers to the fact that only a small part of South Africa is arable. It led to migrants farmers dispersing over a large area and becoming dependent on black and brown labour. Low grade gold sucked large numbers of workers to the Witwatersrand and reinforced the trend towards heavy use of migrant black labourers. By low grade people De Kiewiet meant the lack of qualifications of a large part of the labour force, including Afrikaner workers. This was the background against which the policies of segregation and apartheid were introduced.
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    Die waagstuk van Afrikaans
    (Historical Association of South Africa, 2001) Giliomee, Hermann B.
    The Afrikaans wager 'The Afrikaans Wager' takes as its point of departure an essay by N.P. van Wyk Louw, the pre-eminent Afrikaans man of letters. His essay 'Die ewige trek' (The eternal trek) published during the Great Trek centenary (1938) argues that there was a 'balance in the arguments' at turning points in the development of the Afrikaner 81. N.P. VAN WYK LOUW, Versamelde prosa, vol.1, p. 97. Historia 46(2), November 2001, pp. 477-502. 501.Giliomee people. He discusses three such moments: the Great Trek, the Anglo-Boer War and the decision in 1925 to choose Afrikaans rather than Dutch as a second public language. Louw's emphasis on the irrationality of the choices that were made links up with Thomas Carlyle's perspective that the historian has to depict and gauge chaos. This essay discusses Louw's treatment of the three historical moments and adds two: the introduction of apartheid in the later 1940s and early 1950s and the decision in the late 1980s and early 1990s to surrender of power. The perspective of a balance in the options helps the historian to focus not only on the road travelled but also the one not travelled.