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| Title: | The art of becoming a minority: Afrikaner re-politicisation and Afrikaans political ethnicity |
| Authors: | Alsheh, Yehonatan Elliker, Florian |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Periodical: | African Studies (ISSN 1469-2872) |
| Volume: | 74 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 429-448 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | Afrikaners Afrikaans language ethnicity nationalism |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2015.1011368 |
| 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, the authors 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, the authors develop an understanding of political ethnicity and discuss its relation to race and nationalism. As current ethnopolitical efforts are entangled with the past, the authors analyse the conceptual legacy of the former hegemonic Afrikaner nationalism with regard to what they call its bicameral ontology and propose a different understanding of social entities, questioning the adequacy of sustaining split ontologies in what appears to be a more diverse social environment than ever. Empirical research, the authors suggest, should also consider the innovative, creative and exploratory aspects of what we think should be studied as one of the more intriguing and politically puzzling contemporary attempts at becoming a minority. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
