Afrikaner

Orania is a city of around 320 families who are building autonomy and self-reliance for Afrikaners according to Chapter 14 Section 235 of the Constitution of South Africa which states: "The right of the South African people as a whole to self-determination, as manifested in this Constitution, does not preclude, within the framework of this right, recognition of the notion of the right to self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage, within a territorial entity in the Republic or in any other way, determined by national legislation".

Orania Mayor Carel Boshoff says the extension of the right to vote to all South Africans is a good thing, but he adds that the past two decades have also been accompanied by a victimization and marginalization of Afrikaners. (Nicolas Brulliard/GlobalPost)

Map showing the cities with Afrikaaner residents. Oriana is the sovereign enclave:

Orania Movement
[www.orania.co.za/english]
The Orania Movement is an Afrikaans cultural movement with the aim to restore Afrikaner freedom in an independant, democratic Republic based on Christian values and a healthy balance between independence and cooperation with surrounding areas.

South Africa Project: Stop the Genocide of the Boer Farmer Families
[southafricaproject.info]
P.O. Box 282, Converse, Louisiana 71419




2002-11-24 "Fearful Boers flee to South Africa's last white enclave" by Jane Flanagan
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1414160/Fearful-Boers-flee-to-South-Africas-last-white-enclave.html] Orania-
Orania, an Afrikaner enclave on the edge of a desert, is being flooded with applications from whites disillusioned with South Africa's black government.
Founded in the early 1990s as white rule ended, the enclave, named after the local river, was an attempt by Afrikaner purists to preserve their culture around an independent Boer republic.
The founding fathers expected thousands to join them but only 600 moved to the dusty, windswept town on the edge of the Karoo desert.
Now, with a widespread fear that South Africa will follow Zimbabwe into political and racial turmoil, Orania is beginning to fill up.
"We are overwhelmed by calls from people inquiring about moving here," said John Strydom, a former GP who moved to Orania five years ago. "We have had 200 calls and e-mails in the last month alone."
Racial tensions have been growing elsewhere in South Africa. A previously unknown group called the Warriors of the Boer Nation have claimed responsibility for a string of explosions in Soweto two weeks ago. Twenty men - including farmers and university lecturers - are being held following the discovery of arms caches and a threat of a Christmas terror campaign.
In Orania, however, such groups are condemned as "hypocrites". Wynand Boshoff, a grandson of Hendrik Verwoerd, the former prime minister and architect of apartheid, said: "These people are professionals who don't mind taking money from blacks, having them as customers or employing them cheaply. But they can't tolerate the idea of them having any power."
While a perimeter fence around the town is strung with warning signs declaring the area "private property", its residents decry violence and choose their words carefully to emphasise the incompatibilities between the Afrikaner and African cultures.
Whereas the old nationalist rulers advocated racial separation yet relied on cheap black labour, the Oranians are prepared to get their hands dirty.
As she picked up a spade to turn the soil in her garden, Riekie de Jager, 62, admitted that she missed the services of the black staff she left behind to move to Orania two years ago. "People think we are here because we hate the blacks - we don't," she said. "We are very friendly with them when we meet. But I am happier here with people like myself.
"Things are going the way of Zimbabwe and we have come here for some security. Things are very bad now, but you wait - when Nelson Mandela dies there will be nothing but chaos. But at least in Orania we can feel safe."