Episode 290 - Africanders, Afrikaners and the Sprigg/Hofmeyr/Rhodes Voter Disenfranchisement of 1887-1892
About this episode
The episode discusses the historical context of the Africander League and the identity struggles of black and colored South Africans in the late 19th century.
In 1883 Joseph Moss, regarded as the wealthiest black man in Kimberley, stood before the newly formed Africander League in the diamond mining city. Africander spelled A F R I C A N D E R. It which was not what you’d imagine, the Africander League was made up of black and coloured men before whom Moss pronounced “We are Africans — we are not like Englishmen, who return to their own land. You are not here for a certain period to make money alone and then return to England to make yourselves great men…” Moss looked around the room at the faces of black and brown “…You are born here, your interest is here…” Because South Africa was not their place of birth, most Englishmen in Kimberley did not view it as their homeland. Within a generation, however, their descendants born on South African soil would be confronted with a historic question of identity: were they British, or were they South African? As Moss spoke he would have been aware of a similar sentiment amongst Dutch speaking South Africans, a rising Afrikaner nationalism. There were only two main differences between the Africanders and the Afrikaners One was a matter of spelling - the black League was spelled Africander and the…
People in this episode
Host: Desmond Latham
Topics covered
- Africander League
- Afrikaner nationalism
- identity
- disenfranchisement
- South African history
Keywords
- Africander
- Afrikaner
- disenfranchisement
- identity
- Kimberley
- Joseph Moss
- South Africa
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Africander League
Places: Kimberley, South Africa, England, Dutch, Afrikaans
More episodes of History of South Africa podcast
- Episode 291 - The Miracle of South Africa’s Railways: Navvies, Gangers and Granny Mavis
- Episode 289 - Black Velvet Opskop, De Beers’ Trojan Horse, an Historic Trick and a Multi-Racial Miner Protest
- Episode 288 - Squabbling Europeans Dissect Africa and the Sultan of Zanzibar gets Shafted
- Episode 287 - "Not Worth Hell Room" — JB Robinson, Widow Oosthuizen, and the Witwatersrand Gold Grab
- Episode 286 - German Mercenary von Brandis formally Proclaims Johannesburg
- Episode 285 - The Three Georges Gold Saga and a Bottle of Mampoer Vignette
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