Volkstaat

For other uses, see Volkstaat (disambiguation).

"Vryheidsvlag" or "Freedom flag", the most common proposed flag for an Afrikaner homeland or Volkstaat. Also used to represent Afrikaners at the UNPO.
The flag of South Africa from 1928 to 1994. Occasionally proposed as a flag for an Afrikaner homeland or Volkstaat, but much more rarely than the Freedom flag.

A Volkstaat (Afrikaans pronunciation: [fɔlkstɑːt], "People's State"[1]), also called a Boerestaat, is a proposed White homeland[2] for Afrikaners within the borders of South Africa, most commonly proposed as a fully independent Boer/Afrikaner nation.[3] [4] The proposed state would exclude Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds but accept South Africans of English ancestry and other White South Africans, if they accept Afrikaner culture and customs.[5]

Following the Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s, Boer colonists established several Boer republics over the rest of the 19th century. The end of apartheid and the establishment of universal suffrage in South Africa in 1994 left some Afrikaners feeling disillusioned and marginalised by the political changes, which resulted in a proposal for an independent Volkstaat.

Several different methods have been proposed for the establishment of a Volkstaat. The geographic dispersal of minority Afrikaner communities throughout South Africa presents a significant obstacle to the establishment of a Volkstaat, because Afrikaners do not form a majority in any separate geographic area that could be sustainable independently. Supporters of the proposal have established several land cooperatives in Orania in the Northern Cape province and Kleinfontein in Gauteng as practical implementations of the idea. Initiatives in Balmoral and Morgenzon, both in Mpumalanga, failed to develop beyond their initial phase.

Map of Volkstaat as historically proposed and supported by the Freedom Front Plus
Map of proposed Volkstaat and neighbouring countries. Similar to the FF+ proposal, but stretches to Kimberley.
  1. ^ Sly, Liz (7 December 1993). "Rightist Whites Trying to Plan Separate S. Africa State". Sun-Sentinel.
  2. ^ Jackson, Rachel; Makgetla, Tumi (11 October 2013). "Redrawing the Map for Democracy". Foreign Policy. To bolster their bargaining positions, the homeland leaders teamed up with another group advocating segregation: conservative Afrikaners who demanded an ethnic Afrikaner homeland (volkstaat).
  3. ^ Majavu, Mandisi (12 June 2022). "Orania: A white homeland in post-apartheid South Africa". Sociology Compass. 16 (7). doi:10.1111/soc4.13004. ISSN 1751-9020.
  4. ^ Constitutional Committee (1996). "Volkstaat Council (Volkstaatraad) - Self Determination and the Working Draft of the New Constitution" (PDF). Department of Justice and Constitutional Development - Republic of South Africa.
  5. ^ Ramutsindela, Maano Freddy (1998). "Afrikaner Nationalism, Electioneering and the Politics of a Volkstaat". Politics. 18 (3): 179–188. doi:10.1111/1467-9256.00076. ISSN 1467-9256.