Afrikaner Calvinism - Afrikaner Broederbond

Afrikaner Broederbond

The Boer Wars had left many of the Afrikaners utterly destitute. The ruined farmers were seen in the hundreds, following the war, lining the highways selling produce by the basket. After the four South African colonies united politically into the Union of South Africa and relinquished control to democratic elections, a small, anonymous group of young intellectuals called the Afrikaner Broederbond, formed in the years following the Second Anglo-Boer War to discuss strategies for addressing the overwhelming social problem of poor whites and other Afrikaner interests. By the account of Irving Hexham, according to Klaus Venter and Hendrick Stoker who were themselves disgruntled members of the secret organization, in 1927 the Broederbond moved to Potchefstroom University, asking that the school would take over leadership of the then-struggling group. That year, the Broederbond formally adopted the Calvinist philosophy based on the work of Abraham Kuyper. The Broederbond believed, with deep-rooted conviction, that what their past had provided them through the interpretation of faith was a model of anti-imperialism, self-discipline and responsibility, which in the end would preserve justice for all — blacks, coloured, and whites — against Communist deceit. These strategies that arose from the Broederbond were directly responsible for the establishment of apartheid, in 1948.

However some who had been members of the organization before 1927 preferred the philosophy of Fichte, and other versions of European Nationalism. A Fascist, social Darwinist agenda in sympathy with Hitler arose among some whites in South Africa during the Second World War, which became an unwelcome ally in support of these policies. The Calvinist party within the Broederbond tried to distance itself from this movement, with very limited success because of the secrecy of the organization, their later confessed complete misunderstanding of the real ambitions of non-Afrikaners and blindness to the agony of 'Coloureds' and 'Blacks' under apartheid, and the extreme unpopularity of the apartheid policies in the eyes of non-Afrikaners. The anti-Calvinist nationalists, led by H.F. Verwoerd, overcame the Calvinists in 1950 and used the Broederbond to advance his own political ambitions. International pressures mounted, increasingly isolating the Afrikaners and identifying their policies with the worst kind of godless oppression; but this was a long time in producing a crisis of conscience — or at least, it did not for some time produce sufficient energy to dismantle the complex social system that had been founded upon apartheid.

After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, under enormous international pressure, the Broederbond began a slow and quiet re-examination of their policy proposals. And yet no significant changes took place to reform the apartheid system until the Soweto riots in 1976. Some time after this, the Broederbond declared apartheid an irreformable failure and began work to dismantle it. The conviction had finally become established, although not universally that, if the Afrikaner people, language and religion were to survive, they must take the initiative to emerge from the laager, and invite South Africa in. The Broederbond (dropping the policy of secrecy and with the new name Afrikanerbond) began proposing initiatives for land reform and the reversal of apartheid.

Although Afrikaner and Boer Calvinism was united during much of the 20th century, recently it has become increasingly clear that these are two separate forms of Calvinism.