Orania

For the palm genus, see Orania (plant).

Orania is a South African town located along the Orange River in the Northern Cape province in the arid Karoo region. Orania is unique among South African cities as it is possibly the only all-Afrikaner enclave in South Africa—it has a stringent policy of not allowing any non-Afrikaner residents or workers.

Beginnings

In December 1990, about 40 Afrikaner families, headed by Carel Boshoff, the son-in-law of former SA prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, bought the dilapidated town for a price of around US$200,000. This was a few months after the repeal of Apartheid laws and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. The town is privately owned by the Vluyteskraal Aandeleblok (whistling shareholders) company, and the town is managed by it. The chairman of this company, Prinsloo Potgieter, acts as de facto mayor.

Orania's purpose

The purpose of Orania, according to its founders, is to create a town where the preservation of Afrikanerdom's cultural heritage is strictly observed and Afrikaner selfwerksaamhied (self reliance) is an actual practice, not just an idea. All jobs, from management to manual labor, are filled by Afrikaners (elsewhere in South Africa it is still common to consider some manual labor jobs to be "black jobs", therefore supposedly not good for Afrikaners or British South Africans). "We do not want to be managed by people who are not Afrikaners", says Potgieter. "Our culture is being oppressed and our children are being brainwashed to speak English." No non-Afrikaners are allowed to take up residence or hold jobs within the town, by the logic that their presence would go against the principle of Afrikaner self reliance. In a country undergoing a dramatic increase in violent crime, the city boasts a very low crime rate - minor infractions are dealt with through the company, usually with small fines. Despite this, Orania has been for the most part shunned by mainstream Afrikaners as an anachronism, especially since the 1994 elections.

Past movements

The idea of a strictly Afrikaner settlement in modern South Africa is not new. In the 1980s, a group of right wing Afrikaners, led by HF Verwoerd's son formed a group called the Oranjewerkers. They also planned a community based on "Afrikaner Self-Determination", and attempted to create a neo-"boerstaat" (Afrikaner state) in the remote Orange Free State community of Morgenzon. It failed.

Orania today

Today, Orania is home to about 500 to 600 Afrikaner families. Many of the poorer arrivals to Orania take up residence in small tract houses located in downtown Kleingeluk (small happiness). Many of the more wealthy residents, including the city's founders, live in the nearby neighbourhood of Grootdorp (big town). This has caused some friction between the two groups, as many of the poorer whites were put off by the idea of coming to Orania to do "a black man's job" - meaning jobs that are customarily held by non-whites in South Africa, such as groundskeeping and street sweeping.

Orania also has its own school system which is rather unorthodox by South African standards. The classroom has a business-like set up, and the classrooms are almost totally computerised. The "teacher" acts more like a guide, and unlike most schools, there is no actual lecturing.

During April 2004, Orania has launched its own "monetary system", called the "Ora". The principle is based on the same idea as shopping vouchers, used commonly at large shopping centres throughout the country. The Orania local banking institution, the "Orania Spaar- en Kredietkoöperatief" or Orania Savings and Credit Co-operative is in charge of this initiative. Primarily the idea is to stimulate local economic growth by harnassing the resources available to the community in local savings while at the same time trade takes place with the use of the Ora.

With the unemployment of whites increasing by more than 100% during the first decade of democracy in South Africa, the founders of Orania still feel that they have the key to a future for Afrikaners, by Afrikaners, without the oppression of other peoples.

External links

• Orania web site in Afrikaans and English. (Official website of the Orania community)
• BBC Whites-only Money report.
• M-Net story about Orania's unique school.