Issues of the Afrikaner 'Enlightenment'

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Periodical article

Title:	Issues of the Afrikaner 'Enlightenment'
Author:	Nolutshungu, Sam C.
Year:	1971
Periodical:	African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:	70
Issue:	278
Period:	January
Pages:	23-36
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	National Party nationalism History and Exploration Politics and Government Economics and Trade Development and Technology
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/720154
Abstract:	The split within the ruling National Party between the 'verkramptes' and 'verligtes', which resulted in the formation of the Herstigte Nasionale Party, coincided with the (re-) emergence to political importance of specific issues as the issue of white unity and the 'outward-looking' foreign policy of Prime Minister B.J. Vorster. First the author analyses the nature of the consensus established among the nationalists during their years of opposition, which enabled them to fight and win the 1948 general election. After that he examines some of the objective changes in the social and economic structure of S.A. around which much of the controversy has ranged. In conclusion he points out that both the 'verligting' and its opposite remain committed to maintaining white supremacy, and that indeed the 'enlightenment' cannot be otherwise construed than as a means to preserve apartheid in a changing internal and external environment.