Afrikaner

So, if you're from Africa...why are you white?

Afrikaners are a white minority ethnic group in South Africa. Afrikaners are descended primarily from Dutch settlers. French Huguenots and other Protestants appear in the mix as well; whether the Jewish minority of Afrikaans language is part of the Afrikaner group depends on whom you ask. These people colonized the Cape of Good Hope in the 1600s-1700s; likewise, their language, Afrikaans, is a descendent of the Dutch language, with which it is mostly mutually intelligible.

Afrikaners have historically dominated South Africa's politics, economy, and society. Afrikaner nationalist politicians were responsible for South Africa's policy of apartheid (literally, apart-hood), a legally codified system of racial segregation which became the defining feature of South Africa's modern history. Since the country's first multiracial elections in 1994, the vast majority of Afrikaners have integrated into South Africa's multiracial society, but their status as the historical "oppressors" has made their legacy a touchy subject. A portion of the Afrikaner population is politically aligned with the ruling and highly corrupt African National Congress, but most vote with the Democratic Alliance, a very moderate center-right party also popular among South Africa's other non-black ethnic groups and some blacks, and the only party other than the ANC to hold a majority in any provincial legislature. A tiny (but very vocal) minority of Afrikaners continue to espouse white nationalism, supremacism, or separatism. The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging ("Afrikaner Resistance Movement") is a far-right militia that was led by embodying this concept. These are the people who give all Afrikaners a bad name.