I came across an interesting post and video today that suggests Afrikaner nationalism is not lost on the youth. The song “de la Rey” is in reference to one of the generals who lead the Boers in the Anglo Boer War. Why the attention is on him and not others, I do not know. The song’s chorus summons the general to lead his people, a people that will rise again.

The video sticks to a scene of men up against a sandbag wall, apparently waiting miserably for leadership as is represented by de la Rey riding on a black horse. To be stuck behind a wall, a fence for the wife and child in the video, has a curious connotation to it. Since the dominant strategy for the Boers was guerilla tactics, the image doesn’t seem historically accurate, leading me to believe that it represents something of the present situation.

The Ministry of Arts & Culture’s statement in response to the song, titled “on Bok Van Blerks’s Supposed Afrikaans “Struggle Song,” De La Rey and Its Coded Message to Fermenting Revolutionary Sentiments“, thinks the song is great as a “historical curiosity” but warns anyone thinking there is any contemporary relevance to the song. Anyone with the wrong interpretation of it are endanger of treason. The statement concludes by wishing the song writer good luck “and who knows, if it’s really good, it might even become an international hit.”

If it is really good. That’s pretty funny.

Madiba said that human rights would be the guiding light of South Africa’s foreign policy. So what the hell, Mr. Mbeki, is your government doing giving a cheesy thumbs-up to Myanmar, Iran, Libya, Haiti and Zimbabwe?

As the leader of South Africa’s official opposition, Tony Leon, puts it – there is human rights discourse, but no actual action to support that discourse:

It is consistent with a larger pattern, in which South Africa through its deeds if not words eschews human rights issues and shores up undemocratic regimes worldwide.

Our foreign policy, if we separate actual resolutions from occasional professions in favour of democracy and human rights, appears to be a fitful but sustained apologia for some of the world’s most odious authoritarian regimes.

Expats and Afrikaners love this stuff in a lovingly loathful way – it convinces them, in one way of expressing it, that the rulers of the New South Africa are just as gross and morally corrupt (if not more) than the governments of the Old South Africa. It will be interesting to see how the new generations born of the apartheid supporters and benefactors will inherit the legacy of Nelson Mandela as they increasingly fight the ANC on issues such as human rights violations at home and globally.

I just recently received an article published by a small South African newspaper. It reports that the official policy for all new judicial appointments to the Supreme Court specifies a skin colour requirement.

“The world was shocked at the loss of life in the 34 days of the war, with 1110 killed. In those 34 days 1750 people were murdered in SA at a rate of 51 a day. Those who express concern and outrage at these violent crimes are accused of being whingers and are invited to leave the country.”