A discussion in the members area has certainly given me pause for thought.
For members, the starting point is probably here, and a number of responses that followed from that. Nothing too earth shattering for a while, until a link was posted to this piece - Boer, Afrikaner Or White - Which Are You?
Certainly the headline question itself isn't earth shattering in itself - it's only when you have read the first few paragraphs, and absorbed the paradigm behind it, that the real issues this piece raises start to emerge.
So having no claim to be a Boer or an Afrikaner myself, quite clearly the writer would classify me as "only white", and thereby having no right to live on the African continent!This family history is being repeated by every Boer family in South Africa right now - people are again losing their ethnic identity and confused about what to call themselves - Boers, Afrikaners or whites, which are you?
They are losing their ethnic identity - and it's not the first time this tragedy is occurring.
So who are these people - first called the Grensboere, then the Voortrekkers, then Boers, then Afrikaners - and who again being degraded to "whites" - people in other words, who have no right to live on the African continent.
Which certainly is very different to my personal view of myself in the matter.
It's coming face to face with these sharp fractures in paradigms that tend to get me doing some of my deepest thinking. And I've been scurrying down all sorts of rabbit holes for quite a few hours now.
Trying to set out some of those rabbit holes here would certainly make for a long, tedious post. Just the first rabbit hole of "if the writer is right, where do I actually belong then?" could end up with a post of thousands of words on its own. So let's cut to the chase on the question posed at the end of one particular rabbit hole that I think is quite important for the future of South Africa, and perhaps other parts of the world too.
One of the main themes of the piece is the issue of cultural identity, and the author believes that cultural identity defines our right (among other things) as to where we live and "belong" geographically.
True?
Or is the author confusing cultural identity with one's own national identity?
And if you associate yourself with your national identity (in my case, South African), is that enough (to make you a valid South African)?
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