Apartheid officialdom avoided ‘African’ because it etymologically meant Afrikaner

Evidence

However, Afrikaners are not the only Africans and it is therefore tricky to claim an African identity while maintaining racial, ideological, and cultural purity. Therefore, ‘African’ was not used as a racial category under apartheid: The problem was it translated back in the Boer language into the word Afrikaner, which was the very name the white Dutch descendants called themselves. Africans were referred to by white officialdom as black or Bantu. — Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, Whiteness, racism, and Afrikaner…, 31

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A devastating linguistic trap: apartheid’s racial taxonomy could not use the most obvious term for indigenous Africans because the etymology had been captured by whites — showing how nomenclature itself encodes the rhetorical battle over belonging.
• XREF: Connects to the reading purpose — this is the pivot where the meaning of ‘African’ flips post-apartheid and gets recaptured by the state for redress policy. — connects to: Afrikaner identity claims African belonging through soul, not skin colour — Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, Whiteness, racism, and Afrikaner…, 30

Broader Connections

• Afrikaner identity claims African belonging through soul, not skin colour #expands (0.75) — Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, Whiteness, racism, and Afrikaner…, 30