Boers

"Boer" redirects here. For the surname, see Boer (surname). For other uses, see Boer (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Boeroes, descendants of Dutch settlers in Suriname.

Boers
Boere
Boer family in 1886
Total population
c. 1.5 million[1]
Languages
Afrikaans
Religion
Protestant Christianity
Related ethnic groups

Boers (/bʊərz/ BOORZ; Afrikaans: Boere; [ˈbuːrə]) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier[2] in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled Dutch Cape Colony, but the United Kingdom incorporated it into the British Empire in 1806.[3] The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans.[4]

In addition, the term Boeren also applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to colonise in the Orange Free State, Transvaal (together known as the Boer Republics), and to a lesser extent Natal. They emigrated from the Cape to live beyond the reach of the British colonial administration, with their reasons for doing so primarily being the new Anglophone common law system being introduced into the Cape and the British abolition of slavery in 1833.[3][need quotation to verify][5]

The term Afrikaners or Afrikaans people[6][7][8] is generally used in modern-day South Africa for the white Afrikaans-speaking population of South Africa (the largest group of White South Africans) encompassing the descendants of both the Boers, and the Cape Dutch who did not embark on the Great Trek.

  1. ^ Stürmann, Jan (2005). New Coffins, Old Flags, Microorganisms and the Future of the Boer. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  2. ^ Du Toit, Brian M. (1998). The Boers in East Africa: Ethnicity and Identity. p. 1. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  3. ^ a b Trewhella Cameron; S. B. Spies (October 1991). A new illustrated history of South Africa. Southern Book Publishers. ISBN 9781868123612.
  4. ^ Bosman, D. B.; Van der Merwe, I. W.; Hiemstra, L. W. (1984). Tweetalige Woordeboek Afrikaans-Engels. Tafelberg-uitgewers. ISBN 0-624-00533-X.
  5. ^ Compare:Walker, Eric Anderson (1936). "14: The Formation of new states, 1835–1854". In Walker, Eric Anderson (ed.). The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Vol. 8: South Africa, Rhodesia and the protectorates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 320–321. Retrieved 15 September 2018. In the latter part of 1834, the frontier districts were full of talk of a mass trek. Exploring parties rode out to South-West Africa, to the north-eastern Transvaal, and along the coast belt to Natal. [...] These preparations are conclusive evidence against the traditional idea that the two primary causes of the Great Trek were the inadequate compensation paid for emancipated slaves and the upsetting of D'Urban's settlement of the eastern frontier after the Kaffir War of 1834–5 by the combined forces of Downing Street and Exeter Hall. It is true that many Trekkers, and those the most vocal, came from the eastern frontier lands, but others came from the northern districts where there was no Kaffir menace. The overthrow of the settlement was only a subsidiary cause though a powerful one.
  6. ^ Pollak, Sorcha. "'The Irish remind me of Afrikaans people. They're quite reserved'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference iolDontCallMeBoer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Afrikaans culture (ZA)". www.southafrica.net. Retrieved 21 June 2021.