Die historiese in die hede: Dinamika van die De la Reyfenomeen in Afrikanerkringe, 2006-2007

Abstract

In 2006 - 2007 an Afrikaans song about an intrepid Boer general, JH de la Rey, during the Anglo-Boer War sold an unprecedented 200,000 compact discs and attracted extraordinary media attention.This article attempts to explain why the song became so popular, what it meant for different Afrikaner groupings and why it was deemed to be controversial. The dynamics of the phenomenon are unpacked in terms of the rise of nostalgia in Afrikaner circles – a yearning for and a reclamation of a pre-apartheid sanitized past. This process, it is argued, does not necessarily reflect a revival of old-style political Afrikaner nationalism, but rather a disenchantment with developments since 1994 under an African National Congress government and a re-assertion of cultural identity in the face of what some perceive as deliberate marginalization of Afrikaner interests.