The Art of Becoming a Minority: Afrikaner Re-politicisation and Afrikaans Political Ethnicity

Abstract

The accord to formally end apartheid did not bring an end to efforts advocating the preservation and promotion of Afrikaans as a language, a culture and a family of identities and communities. One strand of recent studies treats these efforts analytically as nationalist projects, implying that any preoccupation with power to protect cultural and linguistic practices constitutes a revival of Afrikaner nationalism. In this conceptual article, we propose to distinguish between political ethnicity and nationalism, arguing that the notion of political ethnicity is better suited to analyse contemporary ethnopolitical demands than nationalism. Whether there is a (hidden) long-term intent of creating a self-determined Afrikaner nation should not be presupposed but be an empirical question in each case studied. Departing from a discussion of Mariana Kriel's perspective on Afrikaner nationalism, we develop an understanding of political ethnicity and discuss its relation to race and...