Ossewabrandwag
Encyclopedia
The Ossewabrandwag (Ox-wagon Sentinel) was an anti-British
and pro-German
organization in South Africa
during World War II
, which opposed South African participation in the war. It was formed in Bloemfontein
on 4 February 1939 by Pro-Nazi Afrikaner
s.
of the northeastern Cape frontier migrated to the interior, and established the Orange Free State
and South African Republic
, which were independent of Britain. In the Second Boer War
(1899-1902), Britain conquered the Boer Republics
. The Netherlands
and Germany
supported the Boer cause.
After the war, there was a general reconciliation between Afrikaners
and Britain, culminating in the formation of the Union of South Africa
in 1910, under the leadership of former Boer fighters such as Louis Botha
and Jan Smuts
(who was of Cape Dutch
origin fighting on the side of the Boers). South African troops, including thousands of Afrikaners, served in the British forces during World War I
.
Nonetheless, many Boers remembered the extremely brutal tactics used by Britain in the Boer War and remained resentful of British rule, even loose association with Britain as a Dominion.
, which broke away from the National Party
when the latter merged with Smuts' South African Party in 1934. Another important element was the Afrikaner Broederbond
, a quasi-secret society founded in 1918, and dedicated to the proposition that "the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God..."
1938 was the centennial anniversary of the Great Trek
(the migration of Boers to the interior). The Ossewabrandwag was established in commemoration of the Trek. Most of the migrants traveled in ox-drawn wagons, hence the group's name. The group's leader was Johannes Van Rensburg
, a lawyer who had served as Secretary of Justice under Smuts (as Minister), and was an admirer of Nazi Germany
.
, according to v. d. Berghe. .
Alexandre Kum'a Ndumbe III however shows, that OB was "based on the Führer
-principle, fighting against the Empire
, the capitalists, the communists, the Jews, the party and the system of parliamentarism ... on the base of national-socialism", according to a German secret source dated Jan. 18, 1944
Members of the OB refused to enlist in the South African forces, and sometimes harassed servicemen in uniform. This erupted into open rioting in Johannesburg
on 1 February 1941; 140 soldiers were seriously hurt.
More dangerous than this was the formation of the Stormjaers (Assault troops), a paramilitary wing of the OB similar to the Nazi Sturmabteilung
. The nature of the Stormjaers was evidenced by the oath sworn by new recruits: "If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me. If I advance, follow me" .
The Stormjaers engaged in sabotage
against the Union government. They dynamited electrical power lines and railroads, and cut telegraph
and telephone
lines. These types of acts were going too far for most Afrikaners, and Malan ordered the National Party to break with the OB in 1942.
The Union government cracked down on the OB and the Stormjaers, placing thousands of them in internment camps for the duration of the war. Among the internees was future prime minister B. J. Vorster.
At the end of the war, the OB was absorbed into the National Party and ceased to exist as a separate body.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and pro-German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
organization in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, which opposed South African participation in the war. It was formed in Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
on 4 February 1939 by Pro-Nazi Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
s.
Background
During the 19th century, most of the BoersBoer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
of the northeastern Cape frontier migrated to the interior, and established the Orange Free State
Orange Free State
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...
and South African Republic
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
, which were independent of Britain. In the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
(1899-1902), Britain conquered the Boer Republics
Boer Republics
The Boer Republics were independent self-governed republics created by the northeastern frontier branch of the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the north eastern Cape Province and their descendants in mainly the northern and eastern parts of what is now the country of...
. The Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
supported the Boer cause.
After the war, there was a general reconciliation between Afrikaners
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
and Britain, culminating in the formation of the Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
in 1910, under the leadership of former Boer fighters such as Louis Botha
Louis Botha
Louis Botha was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa—the forerunner of the modern South African state...
and Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
(who was of Cape Dutch
Cape Dutch
Cape Dutch are people of the Western Cape of South Africa who descended primarily from Dutch and Flemish as well as smaller numbers of French, German and other European immigrants along with a percentage of their Asian and African slaves, who, from the 17th century into the 19th century, remained...
origin fighting on the side of the Boers). South African troops, including thousands of Afrikaners, served in the British forces during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Nonetheless, many Boers remembered the extremely brutal tactics used by Britain in the Boer War and remained resentful of British rule, even loose association with Britain as a Dominion.
1930s
The chief vehicle of Afrikaner nationalism at this time was the "Purified National Party" of D. F. MalanDaniel François Malan
Daniel François Malan , more commonly known as D.F. Malan, was the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. He is seen as a champion of Afrikaner nationalism. His National Party government came to power on the program of apartheid and began its comprehensive implementation.- Biography...
, which broke away from the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
when the latter merged with Smuts' South African Party in 1934. Another important element was the Afrikaner Broederbond
Afrikaner Broederbond
The Afrikaner Broederbond or Broederbond was a secret, exclusively male and Afrikaner Calvinist organization in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of Afrikaner interests. It was founded by HJ Klopper, HW van der Merwe, DHC du Plessis and Rev...
, a quasi-secret society founded in 1918, and dedicated to the proposition that "the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God..."
1938 was the centennial anniversary of the Great Trek
Great Trek
The Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers . The migrants were descended from settlers from western mainland Europe, most notably from the Netherlands, northwest Germany and French Huguenots...
(the migration of Boers to the interior). The Ossewabrandwag was established in commemoration of the Trek. Most of the migrants traveled in ox-drawn wagons, hence the group's name. The group's leader was Johannes Van Rensburg
Johannes Van Rensburg
Johannes Frederik Janse Van Rensburg was a South African lawyer, and leader of the Ossewabrandwag....
, a lawyer who had served as Secretary of Justice under Smuts (as Minister), and was an admirer of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
During World War II
The Boer militants of the Ossebrandwag (OB) were hostile to Britain and sympathetic to Nazi Germany, whose racial ideology parallelled their own. Thus the OB opposed South African participation in the war, even after the Union declared war in support of Britain in September 1939. While there were parallels, neither Van Rensburg nor the OB were genuine fascistsFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, according to v. d. Berghe. .
Alexandre Kum'a Ndumbe III however shows, that OB was "based on the Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
-principle, fighting against the Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, the capitalists, the communists, the Jews, the party and the system of parliamentarism ... on the base of national-socialism", according to a German secret source dated Jan. 18, 1944
Members of the OB refused to enlist in the South African forces, and sometimes harassed servicemen in uniform. This erupted into open rioting in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
on 1 February 1941; 140 soldiers were seriously hurt.
More dangerous than this was the formation of the Stormjaers (Assault troops), a paramilitary wing of the OB similar to the Nazi Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
. The nature of the Stormjaers was evidenced by the oath sworn by new recruits: "If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me. If I advance, follow me" .
The Stormjaers engaged in sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
against the Union government. They dynamited electrical power lines and railroads, and cut telegraph
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
and telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
lines. These types of acts were going too far for most Afrikaners, and Malan ordered the National Party to break with the OB in 1942.
The Union government cracked down on the OB and the Stormjaers, placing thousands of them in internment camps for the duration of the war. Among the internees was future prime minister B. J. Vorster.
At the end of the war, the OB was absorbed into the National Party and ceased to exist as a separate body.
Further reading
- Bunting, Brian. The Rise Of The South African Reich. Penguin, 1967. Chapter 6.
- Marx, Christoph. Oxwagon Sentinel: Radical Afrikaner Nationalism and the History of the "Ossewabrandwag". LIT Verlag Münster, 2009.