Contemporary Afrikaner cultural identity and the Suidlanders: a discursive analysis of the Suidelanders Inligting DVD 2.

Abstract

This dissertation is a discursive analysis of the Suidlanders DVD2. It explores white Afrikaner identity through discourses such as those offered in the Kill the Boer debate, and an all-encompassing fear discourse that flourishes through crime, a South African terrorism as experienced through farm attacks, and a perceived 'white genocide' conspiracy. The dissertation examines through critical discourse analysis how ways of talking about ANC rule and the 'problems' experienced in the new dispensation are used to validate an Afrikaner identity that, were it not for a prevailing fear discourse, would otherwise remain on the fringes of identity in the country. The dissertation concludes that a traditional, apartheid era Afrikaner identity persists when opposing discourses across the cultural divide are pitted against each other, that 'white' cannot conceive of itself without 'black' and vice versa, and that Afrikaner identity as portrayed through an extremist group like the Suidlanders, is an identity caught in discursive limbo where everyday experience of fear paralyses all other means of rationalising a sense of self beyond that of a potential victim.