Afrikaners (including the Boer subgroup ) are a Germanic ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from Dutch (including Flemish), French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.
Their ancestors were Dutch Calvinists, with smaller numbers of Frisians, English, Germans and French Huguenots, and with minor numbers of other European groups (such as Dutch Jews, Scandinavians, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Scots, Irish, Polish).
Most Afrikaner families have between 5% and 7% non-white ancestry, such as Khoi African, Indonesian and Indian, as the early Dutch settlement at the Cape allowed inter-racial marriage. During the Apartheid era, race classification was based on appearance and there were many borderline cases.
South Africans of British descent are considered a separate ethnic group from Afrikaners, and their first language is English.
The term Afrikaner as used in the 20th and 21st century context refers to all white Afrikaans-speaking people, i.e. those of the larger Cape Dutch origin and of the smaller Boer origin, who are descended from European settlers who first arrived in the Cape of Good Hope during the period of administration (1652 – 1795) by the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC).
Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (31 January 1941 – 3 April 2010) was a former member of South Africa's Herstigte Nasionale Party who founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) during the apartheid era. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he became known for threatening civil war to maintain white rule in South Africa. After the country's transition to post-apartheid democracy, he revised his stances and urged his followers to push for independence in an independent Afrikaner homeland, which he frequently referred to as a "Boerevolkstaat". Terre'Blanche led the organisation until his death in 2010. He was given several labels during his lifetime, including "white supremacist", "nationalist," and "racist".
Terre'Blanche spent three years in prison for assaulting a black petrol station worker and for the attempted murder of a black security guard in 1996. On 3 April 2010, he was hacked and beaten to death on his farm by two labourers, allegedly over a wage dispute. Terre'Blanche's supporters have said that the murder is part of a larger pattern of anti-white "farm murders" in South Africa.
Steve Hofmeyr (born 29 August 1964) is a South African singer, songwriter and actor.
In 2011 he made public that he supports the Expedition for Afrikaner Self-determination (in Afrikaans Onafhanklike Afrikaner Selfbeskikkingsekspedisie, or OASE). He is an avid pro-Afrikaner but mentioned that he retains a moderate political stance in an OASE public relations video.
In January 2007 there were reports that one branch of the News Cafe restaurant chain would not play Hofmeyr's song Pampoen (Pumpkin). The managing director of the company that owns the franchise denies that this is company policy and points out that many Afrikaans acts, such as Karen Zoid and Arno Carstens have performed at News Cafe.
On 12 May 2011, Steve Hofmeyr released the lyrics to his new song called "Ons sal dit oorleef", which means "We will survive this". The song is controversial, because Hofmeyr has threatened to include the word "kaffir" (the common Arabic word meaning "infidel" used by the British and the Boers in the 19th and early 20th century to refer to blacks in the context of his song, but today a very derogatory name for the black population of South Africa) in the lyrics of the song should a judge rule in favour of Julius Malema. When the presiding judge, Leon Halgryn ruled that "... the publication and chanting of the words 'dubula ibhunu', prima facie satisfies the crime of incitement to murder," Hofmeyr removed the offensive word in his song also, citing that the word would offend his black friends and colleagues. Malema is currently on trial for the singing the song "Shoot The Boer", a song argued to be inciting violence upon ethnic Boers, white South Africans, particularly farmers. Some people see the murder of Eugène Terre'Blanche as an example of violence provoked by this song.