History and Identity

Abstract

In this chapter I discuss Afrikaans nationalism and, concurrently, some characteristics of white identity found in South Africa. As I suggested in the Introduction, the Satanism scare manifested among both English and Afrikaans white South Africans, as well as among more marginal white groupings like my own Johannesburg Jewish community. Not all white South Africans were Afrikaner nationalists. However, by the 1980s the National Party’s long tenure in power had significantly influenced political discourse, social practice and lived experience for most white people. NP rule fostered an inward-looking mentality, played on white fears of black dominance and utilised a Cold War/colonial narrative of benevolent paternalism that suggested that black people were uncivilised and in need of white protectionism to stop them being led astray by communist agitators who were plotting the nation’s downfall (van de Westhuizen 2007). In order to understand how fear of Satanism became so normalised, it is necessary to examine how Afrikaner nationalism developed and constructed more general white South African ideas about whiteness, blackness and racial purity.