Wat is 'n held?: Herkonseptualisering van die Boerekrygerbeeld na 1961

Abstract

The traditional heroic image of the Boer warrior who fought in the South African War, which was utilised in the earlier phases o fAfrikaner nationalism to promote Afrikaner unity around conservative religious and political values, has been adopted to suit a new value system in the Afrikaner culture in the post-1961 period. The establishment of the Republic ofSouth Africa and the prosperity of the 1960s marked the zenith o fAfrikaner power, but was followed in the 1970s and 1980s by the decline of Afrikaner power under immense pressure. In the 1990s the Afrikaners relinquished their political domination in South Africa. Against this background of rapidly changing fortunes the validity of the traditional heroes, symbol3 and rituals of Afrikanerdom was questioned by some Afrikaner intellectuals. The traditional image o f the Boer warrior also came under scrutiny. A number of texts in the Afrikaans historiography and literature are analysed in this article to indicate how the Boer warrior image was reconceptualised. Divisions in Afrikanerdom has caused this image to become diversified.