Orania
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- For the palm genus, see Orania (plant).
Orania is a South African town that is located along the Orange River in the arid Karoo region of its Northern Cape province. It is the first existing realisation of the Volkstaat concept (indeed, Orania is at the easternmost point of an earlier proposed Volkstaat area in the Northern Cape province) and is unique among South African towns in being the only all-Afrikaner enclave in South Africa.
Black and colored groups in South Africa claim that Orania is part of an attempt to revive apartheid, because the Orania principle advocates maintaining an inherently separatist society solely for Boer/Afrikaners, similar to the Apartheid principles of separatism which had also kept Blacks and coloreds away from white neighborhoods where jobs and opportunities were more abundant. Some fear that as time passes, the Orania community will grow into a greater Volkstaat as proposed by the Volkstaat movement and attempt to secede from South Africa. [1][2]
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[edit] History
In December 1990, about 40 Afrikaner families, headed by Carel Boshoff, the son-in-law of former South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, bought the dilapidated town for around US$200 000. This was a few months after the repeal of apartheid laws and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. The town is privately owned by the Vluytjeskraal Aandeleblok ("literally: whistle corral share block") company, and the town is managed by it. The name "Vluytjeskraal" derives from the name of the farm on which the town was founded, and the "Aandeleblok" refers to a certain type of company, allowing people to buy shares in the company and obtaining the right to stay on and work a piece of ground within the property of the company. The shareholders thus own the company, which in turn owns the property. The chairman of this company, Dr Manie Opperman, acts as de facto mayor. The town was bought from the Department of Water Affairs, which built the town for the workers building a canal network utilising the water in the Orange river, when the project was completed.
Then President of South Africa Nelson Mandela visited the town in 1995 to have tea with Betsie Verwoerd, widow of the former prime minister.
[edit] Orania's purpose
The purpose of Orania, according to its founders, is to create a town where the preservation of Afrikanerdom's cultural heritage is strictly observed and Afrikaner selfwerksaamheid ("self reliance") is an actual practice, not just an idea. All jobs, from management to manual labour, are filled by Afrikaners only; non-Afrikaner workers are not permitted (elsewhere in South Africa it is still common to consider some manual labour jobs to be "black jobs" that are to be avoided by white South Africans). "We do not want to be governed by people who are not Afrikaners", said Potgieter, the previous chairman. "Our culture is being oppressed and our children are being brainwashed to speak English."
Others point out that since the end of apartheid, the relative political power of the Afrikaners as a political group has diminished to a proportional amount in line with their population size[citation needed]. Some Afrikaners have thus perceived the advent of multi-racial democracy in South Africa as a marginalisation of the Afrikaner community.
[edit] Past movements
The idea of a strictly Afrikaner settlement in modern South Africa is not new. In the 1980s, a group of right wing Afrikaners, led by HF Verwoerd's son formed a group called the Oranjewerkers[citation needed]. They also planned a community based on "Afrikaner self-determination", and attempted to create a neo-"boerstaat" (Afrikaner state) in the remote Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) community of Morgenzon[citation needed]. Its failure was possibly due to the fact that South Africa had an Afrikaner government at the time and so few perceived any benefit from this community.
[edit] Orania today
Today, Orania is home to about 500 to 600 Afrikaner families[citation needed]. Many of the poorer arrivals to Orania take up residence in small tract houses located in downtown Kleingeluk[citation needed] ("small luck/happiness"). Many of the more wealthy residents, including the city's founders, live in the nearby neighbourhood of Grootdorp ("big town")[citation needed]. The media has reported that there has been some friction between the two groups[citation needed] particularly since the poorer group has to perform the lower paying manual labour jobs viewed as "black jobs", this has proven to be only a minor dispute as stated by Frans de Klerk, CEO of the Orania Movement, who also resides in Kleingeluk[citation needed].
[edit] School system
Orania's school system is unorthodox by South African standards with teachers acting as guides rather than lecturers[citation needed]. There are two schools, "Die Volkskool Orania" (school for the people) and the "CVO Skool Orania". CVO stands for "Christelike Volks-Onderwys" and means that the school is based on Christian and Boer values, and "Onderwys" means "Education". Both schools underwrite these values, although there are differences in their teaching methods.
The "Volkskool" is based on the "Kenweb"-system, which utilizes computers in the classroom for repetitive learning, and puts the child in the centre of the learning process. Children plan their own schedules, in accordance with "goal sheets" which ensure that they cover the entire curriculum. They are then responsible for reaching the goals, on which they are tested every week. There are 2 written examinations per year, and numerous tests in between. The school is also different in that they allow each pupil 15 leave days per year. In addition there are normal school holidays, which are a bit shorter than those of other schools[citation needed].
The "CVO"-school is run more on conventional lines. Although the official curriculum is followed, it is enriched with Afrikaner history and special emphasis on the Christian religion[citation needed].
[edit] Economy and Agriculture
Farming is an important part of Orania's economy, the most recent project being a massive pecan nut plantation[citation needed].
During April 2004, Orania launched its own monetary system, called the ora, based on the idea of discount shopping vouchers. The Orania local banking institution, the Orania Spaar- en Kredietkoöperatief ("Orania Savings and Credit Co-operative") is in charge of this initiative. The benefits of its own "monetary system" are that money is locked in to Orania to a certain extent, and it builds people's pride in their own culture[citation needed]. Orania recently launched its own chequebook.
[edit] Radio Station
In 2005, after complaints by citizens, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa shut down Orania's unlicensed Radio Club 100 radio station, expressing a view of it to be racist.[1] The station's equipment was seized. No criminal charges were laid against the operators of the Radio station, who claim that the radio station broadcasted harmless news about birthdays and social events. Management of the radio station claimed that they repeatedly applied for a radio licence in order to be a community broadcaster like other radio stations in the country.
[edit] Land claim by allegedly displaced coloured inhabitants
In November 2005, around 60 coloured families lodged a land claim with the government, for around 483 hectares of land within the town. These families claimed to have lived in the town from 1965, when it was first constructed, up until 1991, when it was sold by the government. The claimants hold that they were forced to leave in 1991, when the town was converted into Orania, and that this constitutes a forced removal in terms of race. The community of Orania is opposing the claim.[2]
Orania residents on 2006-12-05 said the settlement of a land claim is a boost for their quest for self-sufficiency and independence. "We're very satisfied that the claim lodged by about 80 people was settled on Monday and that the state is paying them R2,9 million," town spokesperson Eleanor Lombard told the media by telephone.
"The settlement of the land claim will help us further in achieving economic self-sufficiency," said Lombard. "It's a win-win situation for us. But the ultimate long-term goal is independence." The coloured families lodged a compensation claim against the department of water affairs, which moved them out of Orania after the company bought the town.
[edit] References
- ^ Reuters (2005) Orania radio station kicked off the air, The Star, retrieved 25 June 2006
- ^ Groenewald, Y. (2005), Coloureds Claim the Volkstaat, Mail and Guardian (South Africa), retrieved 25 June 2006
[edit] See also
- Ethnic groups
- Ethnic autonomous regions
- Homeland
- Volkstaat
- Bantustan
- Separatism
- Intentional community
[edit] External links
- Orania web site in Afrikaans and English. (Official website of the Orania community)
- BBC Whites-only Money report.
- M-Net story about Orania's unique school.
