STEINKE: Orania, where Afrikaners have built their own reserve

Orania is a small, privately-owned town in the Northern Cape, in South Africa. It is notorious for being a ‘whites-only town’, but in reality, is an enclave — a town for Afrikaners, built by and for Afrikaners. In 2023, the controversial settlement was thrown into the spotlight when Ade Adepitan, a Nigerian British Paralympian, broadcast a documentary detailing his week-long visit to Orania — which ended showing Adepitan being thrown out of the local church, allegedly for his skin-colour. This is not the first incident of its kind — in 2017, two black journalists were also forcefully removed from the church premises, ostensibly as a result of their race..However, Joost Strydom, the chief executive officer of Orania’s government office, claims that Adepitan deliberately provoked Orania’s residents, including attempting to film inside the church, which he was explicitly told he was not allowed to do."Ade tried to play it off like he was the first black person in Orania," Strydom said. "They (Ade’s team of journalists) had the documentary planned out before they visited… they expected a super-racist, extremist story, which they didn’t get." Strydom then asserted that Ade’s team ‘fabricated’ a story by being belligerent towards Oranians and asking offensive questions.Orania’s church has a policy that forbids journalists from filming or recording during services, as it disrupts proceedings and makes attendees uncomfortable. Religion is sacred to the Afrikaner culture.Ade later claimed that Orania is part of a trend of a growing far-right movement and asserted the town aims to eventually become an independent, racially exclusive state. He based his claim on the fact that many of Orania’s residents own weapons and that the town is being funded by unnamed overseas donors..Firearms are used in Orania for hunting, for sport and for self-defence, and are all legally owned. Orania has also indeed received a few, small private donations, mostly from supporters in Austria and in Belgium. The roots of Orania lie in the South African Bureau of Racial Affairs, which advocated for Afrikaner separatism in the early years of the Apartheid system. In 1991, two Afrikaner academics, Prof. Carel Boshoff and Dr. Chris Jooste bought an abandoned farm in the rural Karoo in the Northern Cape, and the town was born. The area is semi-desert, with extreme weather conditions. The original residents of Orania endured the arid climate and slowly built up infrastructure, with an idea of building a home for Afrikaners. With the approach of democracy in South Africa, which would occur in 1994, the future of Afrikanerdom seemed uncertain. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki sanctioned the town’s independence and encouraged the founders to build according to their vision of a tightly-knit community that could protect Afrikaner values. He met in 2018 with the current leader of Orania, Carel Boshoff, to discuss the status of the community. This was met with criticism from the South African press, who argue that the town promotes segregationism. Today, Orania has a population of 3,000 people. The founders of Orania hoped that it would be much larger, which perhaps indicates that many Afrikaners see the project as impractical or radically alternative.Yet, the population is growing, as more Afrikaners seek security in the area. The total land owned by the town has grown from 800 hectares to just over 10,000, which consists of a large number of farms and conservation areas.Orania is almost entirely independent from South Africa. However, it pays taxes to the South African government. Meanwhile, it has a zero unemployment rate, flourishing farms, its own power supply and its own banks and currency. It has no political parties, and all political candidates are independent. The residents are all of an Afrikaner heritage, and no individuals of any other background, regardless of race, are allowed to live within the community. In line with Oriana's principle of absolute self-sufficiency, all labour is done by Afrikaners. Strydom says this also prevents the exploitation of black employees, who make up the majority of the manual labour force in South Africa. .Strydom states that "Afrikaners, if they want any legitimate claim to freedom, must understand that there is no other way that is ethical than to be doing your own work."Renowned for its excellent service delivery, Orania has partnerships with several African communities in South Africa, including the Baralong and Amabhele tribes. While Orania as a town does not share resources — it believes firmly in complete autonomy — it shares ideas and advice with the above-mentioned communities, who are also seeking self-rule.The desire for Afrikaner independence is not a new one.The Great Trek of 1838, when thousands of Afrikaners sought freedom from British colonial rule, is echoed in the attempts of Orania’s citizens to avoid reliance on a centralist government. Their belief in monoculturalism and in self-determination remains their guiding principle.Could there be a model here for what Canada's indigenous peoples could make of their own reserves?Kate Steinke is a graduate of Stellenbosch University. She comments from South Africa on political themes that are all too familiar in Canada

STEINKE: Orania, where Afrikaners have built their own reserve

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