The Afrikaner Broederbond 1927-1948: Class Vanguard of Afrikaner Nationalism¶
Dan O'Meara (1977). The Afrikaner Broederbond 1927-1948: Class Vanguard of Afrikaner Nationalism. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Apr. 1977). Taylor & Francis.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | archival narrative |
| Period studied | 1918–1948 |
| Regions | South Africa, Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Province |
| Themes | politics ideology elections, business and state, unions strikes, origins segregation, comparative theory, labour markets wages |
| Citation key | omeara1977 |
Argument¶
O'Meara argues that the Afrikaner Broederbond was not a conspiratorial 'secret government' but a class organisation. In 1927-48 it was a petty bourgeois, northern-based vanguard which responded to the pressures of capitalist development. Class analysis is needed to demystify Afrikaner nationalism, which ethnic and cultural explanations treat as monolithic and circular. Through ideological redefinition (kultuurpolitiek), the assault on white trade unionism and the economic movement (volkskapitalisme), the Bond forged a cross-class alliance of farmers, workers and an emerging Afrikaner capital behind the 1948 victory. That success then transformed the petty bourgeoisie into a bourgeoisie and eroded the Bond's vanguard role.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary Afrikaans and English literature, plus Bond documents quoted in the Botha Commission (1965) and Oelofse Report (1964). Wartime Military Intelligence reports in the Hofmeyr Papers, press (Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Die Transvaler), journals (Koers, Inspan, Volkshandel), and interviews with ex-members and Bond leaders (1972, 1975). Membership and business-turnover statistics are drawn from these sources.
Place in the debates¶
- Nature of the Broederbond: conspiracy vs innocent service organisation (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Rejects both the 'cancerous secret government' and the 'service organization' views as inadequate. It is a policy-making body of petty bourgeois militants, influential but not running the state.
- Ethnic/cultural vs class explanations of Afrikaner nationalism (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Argues that culture-based explanations take as given what needs explaining, and that Afrikaner nationalism must be read through class forces and class struggle.
- Ideological (Calvinist) vs material explanation of Afrikaner nationalism (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Criticises Hexham and Moodie for staying at the level of ideas and overstating Calvinist/Gereformeerde influence.
- Northern vs Cape class bases of Afrikaner nationalism (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). The north was petty bourgeois and allied with poorer farmers and workers, while the Cape petty bourgeoisie was allied with wealthy commercial agriculture and finance capital (Sanlam, Santam).
Findings¶
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The Bond is portrayed as a northern, urban petty bourgeois body, not a monolithic ethnic vanguard. (p. 4)
the Bond was a purely petty bourgeois organization, rooted in the Northern provinces of the Transvaal and Orange Free State
-
Membership was dominated by teachers, academics, clergymen and civil servants, with workers excluded by fees and vetting. (p. 11)
they accounted for over 50 per cent of its 2,528 members in 1944 (and still 35 per cent of 9,413 members in 1972)
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Businessmen entered the Bond in force from the 1940s. (p. 11)
Their proportional membership rose from virtually nil in the thirties to 15 per cent by 1972, with a disproportionate influence within the Bond.
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Afrikaners were almost entirely excluded from non-farm economic control by 1938-9, which motivated the economic movement. (p. 20)
By 1938-9 Afrikaner-controlled enterprises contributed just 8 per cent to total turnover in commerce, 3 per cent of industrial output, 1 per cent of mining, and 5 per cent of finance.
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The Bond's goal was to move Afrikaners into capitalist ownership by mobilising worker and farmer savings (volkskapitalisme), rather than to oppose capitalism as such. (p. 22)
to mobilise the volk to capture this foreign system and transform and adapt it to our national character.
-
The Bond-backed Nasionale Raad van Trustees targeted class consciousness among white workers and the Labour Party's hold on them. (p. 26)
to smash the ideology of class among Afrikaner workers, to mobilize these workers in terms of their class interests cast in cultural and racial ideologies
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Winning the Mine Workers' Union and the 1948 mining seats was decisive for the National Party victory. (p. 27)
In the 1948 election, the HNP/V won six mining constituencies for the first time, sufficient to put it in power with a majority of five.
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Afrikaner enterprise expanded rapidly in the 1940s, but much of it was small and under-capitalised. (p. 30)
The number of Afrikaner-owned manufacturing establishments rose from 1,293 to 3,385 between 1939 and 1949, with a turnover increase from £6 m to £43.6 m.
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The second Ekonomiese Volkskongres (1950) marked a shift in Afrikaner capital from the petty bourgeois ethic toward acceptance of monopoly, opening a class division within nationalism. (p. 31)
a movement away from the petty bourgeois competitive ethic towards an acceptance of monopoly and its underlying class relations.
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The Bond formulated policy for other organisations to implement, rather than acting itself, and the Party was not its mere front. (p. 32)
it cannot really be said that the Bond 'did' anything at all. It did not act organizationally but rather decided what should be done
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Secret Organisations (R.P. 20/1965) (Botha Commission) | commission or official report | 1965 report, covering Bond history | Supplies the Bond's own description of its purpose, early formation and policy-formation process, and the Helpmekaar job-vacancy document. |
| Oelofse Report: Die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk en die Afrikaner Broederbond (General Synod, 23 April 1964) | commission or official report | 1964 report; Bond documents 1918 onward | Source for the Bond's constitution, organizational structure, selection procedures and the dating of its early expansion. |
| Military Intelligence reports and charts on the Afrikaner Broederbond (1943-44), Hofmeyr Papers, University of the Witwatersrand Archives A.1., file Ce | state archives | c.1943-1944 | Supplies membership breakdowns (1944), Bond early history, the influence chart, Waaksaamheid committees and the Bond's control of education and finance. |
| Other Hofmeyr Papers items: 'Who Governs South Africa: the People vs the Broederbond'; Bond Omsendbrief 4/43/44; letter from Royal Order of Scotland secretary (17 Aug 1948) | state archives | 1940s | Cited for early Bond membership (2,000 in 1924), job-placement practice and the Bond's attempted approach to a Scottish order. |
| Statements by the Bond secretary I. M. Lombard and chairmen in Die Transvaler (14, 20, 30 Dec 1944; 3 Jan 1945) | newspapers periodicals | 1944-1945 | Source for the 1944 membership occupational breakdown, the Bond constitution and the Bond's acknowledged paternity of the FAK. |
| Sunday Times (Johannesburg) series on the Bond, incl. 28 January 1973 membership breakdown and Waaksaamheid committee lists | newspapers periodicals | 1963-1973 | Provides the 1972 membership breakdown (9,413 members), lists of vigilance committees, and evidence on job favouritism and purges. |
| Rand Daily Mail, The Star and Rapport newspaper articles (1935-1972) | newspapers periodicals | 1935-1972 | Used for Hertzog's 1935 Smithfield speech, the Bond's formation, recollections of early members and the 1945 resignations after Smuts's ban. |
| Bond-linked periodicals: Koers, Inspan, Volkshandel, Die Oosterlig, Die Burger, Die Transvaler, Wapenskou | newspapers periodicals | 1933-1950 | Primary texts for the ideological analysis of Bond nationalism, volkskapitalisme, Afrikaner economic mobilisation and the 1950 Handelsinstituut survey. |
| Handelsinstituut survey of Afrikaner enterprise share of turnover, 1938-9 (Volkshandel, 11, September 1950) | company records or reports | 1938-39 and 1939-49 | Supplies the figures on Afrikaner control of commerce, industry, mining and finance, and on growth in Afrikaner-owned establishments 1939-49. |
| House of Assembly Debates, 1935 (Dr Bremner) and 1940-1 (Malan on Ossewa Brandwag membership) | parliamentary debates | 1935; 1940-41 | Cited for Gesuiwerde critique of capitalism and for Malan's claim of Ossewa Brandwag membership. |
| Interviews with Bond members and officials (including P. J. Meyer, B. M. Schoeman, founder member L. E. B. van Niekerk, and an anonymous former divisional chairman), 1972-1975 | interviews oral history | 1972-1975 | Used for the Bond's self-assessment, member experience of its operation, the influx of businessmen and the Bond's role in the 1948 victory. |
| Reddingsdaadbond membership data (Inspan, 5, January 1946) | newspapers periodicals | 1946 | Gives the RDB membership of 64,771 in 381 branches in 1946. |
| Official histories and biographies of Afrikaner nationalist institutions (Naude on Dr A. Hertzog and NRT; du Plessis 'n Volk Staan Op; Bezuidenhout on Louw; le Roux on W. A. Hofmeyr; van Rooyen Die Nasionale Party) | secondary literature compilation | 1931-1969 publications | Relied on for details of the NRT, funding disputes with Santam, Sanlam's role in the Ekonomiese Volkskongres and Cape/Transvaal party origins. |
| S. Pauw, Die Beroepsarbeid van die Afrikaner in die Stad (1946) and L. J. Potgieter M.Comm. thesis (Potchefstroom 1954) | secondary literature compilation | 1946; 1954 | Cited for the limited occupational avenues open to Afrikaans-speakers and for falling retail profit rates affecting Afrikaner trading firms. |
| Author's own papers on Christian-National trade unionism (1976) and the 1946 African Mine Workers' strike (1975) | secondary literature compilation | 1934-1948 | Referred to for the evidence on the NRT, Mine Workers' Union takeover and wartime African union militancy. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Interpretive historical case study of one organisation, read through a Poulantzian class-analytic framework. It relies on documentary and textual analysis of Bond-related publications and official or secondary accounts, with some membership and enterprise counts. Class character is inferred from membership composition and ideological content, supported by Cape-versus-northern comparison.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The Bond was a petty bourgeois, urban, northern-dominated organisation whose membership excluded workers and was dominated by teachers, academics, clergy and civil servants. (p. 165) | Military Intelligence 1944 membership breakdown, Lombard's Die Transvaler articles, the Oelofse Report on fees and selection, and the 1973 Sunday Times figures. | Partial data |
| Hertzog's 1926 Balfour acceptance and the 1934 Fusion split shifted northern nationalist leadership to the Bond and extra-parliamentary sources. (p. 170) | Counts of Nationalist MPs after Fusion, Koers editorials, Hofmeyr Papers intelligence reports; the 1927 link to Hertzog is the author's inference, as he concedes. | Partial data |
| Afrikaners were almost entirely excluded from non-farm economic control in the late 1930s, which drove the Bond's economic movement. (p. 174) | Handelsinstituut survey figures reported in Volkshandel (1950). | Partial data |
| The Bond acted as a policy-making body that worked through front organisations (FAK, NRT, RDB, Handelsinstituut) rather than implementing directly. (p. 169) | Botha Commission description of policy formation, Military Intelligence characterisation of the FAK, Bond statements acknowledging paternity, and FAK affiliation figures. | Partial data |
| Bond-linked organisations (NRT, Reddingsdaadbond, Mine Workers' Union campaign) captured Afrikaner worker support and contributed to the 1948 electoral victory. (p. 181) | Official NRT history (Naude), interviews with Meyer, the author's separate trade union paper, and 1948 election outcome in mining seats. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The Afrikaner economic movement of the 1940s succeeded numerically in founding Afrikaner enterprises, but Cape capital (Sanlam) dominated it and the movement later produced a bourgeoisie divided from the petty bourgeoisie. (p. 184) | Counts of Afrikaner-owned establishments 1939-49 (Handelsinstituut survey), Bezuidenhout's biography of Louw, du Plessis, and Volkshandel and Inspan coverage of the 1950 Kongres. | Partial data |
| The Bond's members obtained material benefits such as jobs and career advantage, beyond influence. (p. 168) | Bond Helpmekaar document reproduced by the Botha Commission, Military Intelligence reports, Sunday Times, and Moodie's quotation of a former chairman. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that, given the Bond's secrecy, the study is 'necessarily sketchy and schematic'. He admits that some claims, such as the link between Hertzog's 1926 declaration and the 1927 decision, 'could only be proved with access to Bond archives'. He also notes that the 1972 breakdown rests on 'allegedly official documents' and that the occupational categories are arbitrary.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument lacks direct access to Bond minutes, membership lists and Bondsraad records, so the class character of membership and the causal chain from Bond policy to outcomes rest on leaked or hostile secondary documents. A systematic membership dataset linked to occupations and regions, and analysis of voting and union returns, would better test the claim about the Bond's vanguard role and the 1948 contribution. Bond archives were not accessible then, though some Bond and Afrikaner Handelsinstituut papers and census occupational data could now allow testing.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.