British concessions transformed the boers into the self-conscious Afrikaner nation

Evidence

In the almost decade-long drive to unifying the south of Africa into the Union of South Africa in 1910, British concessions effectively turned the collective boer into the self-conscious national group of Afrikaner with ruling aspirations. The language of Afrikaans was not only codified but granted more or less equal bureaucratic standing with English; an Afrikaans anthem was later composed (1918), newspapers circulated, a growing literature encouraged. The former boer republic, now the Transvaal, was granted local self-rule in 1906, and its sister republic, the Orange Free Colony, a year later. A peoplehood put firmly in place. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1482

Categorization

• CANDY: Tiny fact: Britain’s unification drive inadvertently forged the Afrikaner national identity that later produced apartheid.
• XREF: connects to: British concessions deliberately consolidated Afrikaner national identity with ruling aspirations — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1482; Threatened privilege drove Dutch colonists into a homogenizing white Afrikaner identity — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1382