Paper short abstract:

Are the residents of would-be whites-only 'Volkstate' the most intractable whites in post-apartheid South Africa? We address this question by reference to ethnographic research in Kleinfontein, outside Pretoria, which is billed as a growth point for 'Boere-Afrikaner' self-determination.

Paper long abstract:

One might expect white South Africans living in one or other of the settlements billed as starting points for future whites-only 'Volkstate' to be of one, uncompromising mind when it comes to issues of citizenship and belonging, race and space, and resistance to Africanisation. This is certainly the impression one gets from existing literature associated with these settlements, whether academic analysis or self-advertisement.

In this paper we examine the results of ethnographic research in Kleinfontein, a small settlement on the outskirts of Pretoria ostensibly devoted to achieving self determination for 'Boere-Afrikaners'. While there are certain parameters on which all residents agree, our findings lead us to emphasise the extent to which they differ among themselves on many questions to do with maintaining 'whiteness' in post-apartheid South Africa, as well as the degree to which individual residents' views are internally incoherent.

We try to explain these findings by reference to the history of Kleinfontein and the legal and economic challenges its residents face. Day-by-day contact with residents reveals that they do not simply live out the grand myths some of their number tell themselves and the world. They also have to figure out mundane matters such as how best to protect the money they have invested in the settlement. This opens possibilities for compromise on the part of a self-selected group who would otherwise appear hell bent on open confrontation with post-apartheid realities.