PROBLEMS OF EXPLANATION IN THE STUDY OF AFRIKANER NATIONALISM - A CASE-STUDY OF THE WEST RAND

This paper seeks, on the one hand, to point out the important contribu tion of scholars who have demonstrated the sociably constructed nature of Afrikaner nationalism, and on the other, to redress the national f ocus of the existing literature on the topic by means of a local case study of Krugersdorp, a mining and industrial town to the west of Joha nnesburg. lt is argued that the work of Dan O'Meara and a number of ot her authors, who have shown that Afrikaner ethnic identification is a construction which both conceals and is pulled apart by divisions of c lass, interest and gender, provides an essential basis for understandi ng Afrikaner nationalism The article critiques and rejects the positio ns of Johann Van Rooyen, who advances the idea of an 'ethnic dynamic' driven by a search for Afrikaner ethnic security and status. In the Kr ugersdorp case study the article shows that, far from being propelled by such a unitary dynamic, Afrikaner ethnic mobilisation during the pe riod of the decline of apartheid was unstable and fragmented, and liab le to be displaced by considerations of pragmatic self-interest on the part of its constituents. In the mid-1980s local politics focussed on the right wing's demands for the removal of a black residential area, Munsieville, located next to a white suburb. This demand was opposed by the ruling National Party. Although the Afrikaner right mobilised p owerfully on the issue, this faded away rapidly when security in the a rea was stepped up. The right mobilised again at the end of the 1980s to try to maintain segregation of social facilities in the town. But, despite their control of local government the rightists were forced to back down, for practical economic and political reasons, and to accep t desegregation. From 1988 to 1991 the neo;fascist AWE built support o n a paramilitary basis in the area. Again, however, they failed to sus tain momentum. Ultimately, the bulk of the Afrikaner electorate in Kru gersdorp did not place an 'ethnic dynamic' above their practical inter ests, and adapted to the process of political change.