Yeah, and Afrikaners (note, it's spelt with one "a") call English South Africans "Rooinekke" (which means "red necks", since their pale British skins burnt very easily in the harsh sun, and not in the American brother-marrying-sister kind of way), in the movie.
This term dates from the Anglo-Boer Wars (1886 and 1899), where the only part of a British soldier exposed to the sun would be his neck.
And the whole history of the Afrikaner and Afrikaner Nationalism is PRECISELY based on this "clash" between them and the English (which comes accross as a big part of the movie)...here are some reasons:
The Afrikaners were quite bitter after the English invaded "their" country (which they of course "invaded" about 200 years earlier), so they all decided to move north (known as the "Great Trek" starting in 1838) to get away from British domination (which was stipulated as a certain degree lattitude), and found two small independant republics north of this line.
They were left alone to govern themselves for a while (about 40 years). Later, when they discovered gold and diamonds in their republics, the British wanted to get a piece of the pie, and waged two massive wars on them (the Anglo Boer Wars), stuffed the women and children into concentration camps (where most of them died of hunger and disease) and almost caused the genocide of the whole Afrikaner nation (which was quite small at that stage). During these wars, their allies were Imperial Russia and Germany (due to their historical animosity towards Britain).
So in the early years of the 20th century, there was more than just a "little bit of a clash" between Afrikaners and English, I would describe it more like an intense and searing hatred (of the British).
It also didn't help that they thought they were like the Israelites in the desert, and thought God had promised them the land. This idea came from a vow the Boers made at the "Battle of Blood River", where they asked God to help them when the Zulus attacked them (apparently there were thousands of Zulus, and very few Boers), but of course, God had nothing to do with it: the Boers had guns and canons, and the Zulus only spears!
Nowadays it's more like a friendly rivalry (even though school boys still beat each other up sometimes for being English or Afrikaans, but just because they can. I am a girl, so this is just what my male friends have told me, I haven't seen it and haven't been beaten up ever).
But then again, Durban (and the whole of KZN) is jokingly referred to as "the last British outpost", and almost no Afrikaners live there, it's a verrrrrry English town. This of course used to be an Afrikaner republic too, called the Republiek Natalia, which the English took from them too.
It's a pity though, that the oppressed became the oppressor (of the other races) during the later half of the 20th century, but I think they were still believing that they were the victims and needed to protect their nation from completely disappearing.
Your friend in Durban is wrong or you weren't listening because all Afrikaners don't all live "inland and stuff". They live everywhere today, including Hollywood, dahling.
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przgzr
18 years ago
The way you relate Afrikaners to Israelites is quite interesting, and it can be developed. They always thought of themselves as they were different, preserving values all the others rejected and forgot. Keeping close to each other, regardless of the place and time, they've kept their own identity, but managed to be avoided or even despized by all the others. Immigrants from other countries always had better relations to English people. Yes, there was the language barrier, but being extremely traditional and conservative they couldn't accept usually rather liberale people coming from other European countries. So, it was always "us vs all the others" relation.
Afrikaners were considered better educated than the rest, more of them belonged to "high class" than any other nation group, and their influence was unproportional. So it was a success and a pride when other nations members could send their children to Afrikaners' schools, it was a privilege but it still didn't make Afrikaners more popular in their eyes. What, again, reminds us on Jewish situation - they have money, influence, power, belong to high society, but can never be widely accepted when living in other countries, while at home they have no friends and are in silent or open war with almost all the neighbours.
Maybe the English, rigid and often cruel in 19th century, after decline of their colonial empire had a purgatory phase, climax of which has passed decades ago, but Afrikaners, feeling isolated and so close to God, still didn't clear with their history.
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chrismcreynolds
17 years ago
"Red neck" has the same meaning for anyone who says it. The American inspiration is precisely the same as everywhere else in that farmers and other suburbanites would be in the Sun with work clothes (as opposed to being indoors or outside with beachwear and lotion) causing distinctive "working class" tan lines and the associated snobbery.
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