Culture I: Afrikaners and The Boer War
Historically speaking, Boers were fiercely independent Afrikaner farmers who lived on the frontiers of the Dutch and British Cape Colonies in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. In Afrikaans, “Boer” simply means “farmer”.
A subgroup of Boers were called “trekboers”, which basically means “mobile farmer”. These Boer families did not actually own permanent farms but simply wandered from place to place looking for fresh pasture for their livestock. They lived a very isolated, nomadic lifestyle.
About a fifth of the total Boer population, including many trekboers, undertook what they called “the Great Trek” in the 1830s and 1840s deep into South Africa’s interior to escape British rule. They then founded their own countries, known as Boer republics. People who went on the Great Trek were collectively known as “voortrekkers”.
The Boer republics later fought two bitter wars with the British (the First and Second Boer Wars), which resulted in their being defeated and annexed by the British Empire.
Today, “Boer” is considered an outdated term; however, some people still call any Afrikaner or even any white person Boers. I’ve heard the term (or one of its Bantu equivalents, such as “MaBoere” or “Amaboere” or “MaBuru”) used by black South Africans, Zimbabweans, and even Nigerian immigrants to SA, as a reference to local white people in general. This is because the Boers were often the first whites encountered by various black tribes, so over time it stuck as just another synonym for them. A few people use it in reference specifically to white farmers, but this distinction - while certainly more correct - is less common.
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