From fund-raising to Freedom Day: the nature of women’s general activities in the Ossewa-Brandwag, 1939-1943.
Abstract
The Ossewa-Brandwag (OB) was a mass-movement that originated as a
result of the euphoria created by the 1938 Centenary Celebrations of the
Great Trek in South Africa. With far-reaching and very ambitious aims the
OB was in essence a multi-layered organisation that had an impact on the
lives of hundreds of thousands of Afrikaners. It existed for more than ten years,
from 1939 to 1954. Despite the evident Afrikaner nationalist and republican
ideals for which the movement stood, the OB was also swept by the tide of
the ideological “zeitgeist” between the two World Wars. It was outspokenly
National-Socialist, anti-British and with the outbreak of the Second World
War it openly sided with Germany and was involved in several attempts to
sabotage South Africa’s participation in the war. Despite these more radical
aspects, the OB also had a cultural and social side in which most of its
members participated – including women. Until recently the role of women
in the OB has not been dealt with in “any” detailed way. Women formed a
dynamic, vibrant and outspoken group in the OB that not only participated
in the cultural and social aspects of the movement, but also the more violent
resistance towards the government’s pro-British sentiments. This article
focuses on the nature of women’s more general activities in the OB during the
movement’s early years from 1939 to 1943. These “general” activities include
women’s agency in the cultural, social and financial spheres of the OB as well as
their indispensable role as organisers. As mainly a descriptive historical study,
this article aims to introduce readers to the women of the OB, whose role in
the movement has been shamefully neglected in South African historiography.
Collections
- Faculty of Humanities [2033]
- New Contree: 2013 No 66 [11]
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