Carel Boshoff

{{Short description|South African academic, writer and politician, former proponent of Apartheid, founder of Orania}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Carel Boshoff

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Professor Carel Boshoff.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Carel Boshoff (2009)

| order =

| office = Chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond

| term_start = 1980

| term_end = 1983

| deputy =

| predecessor = Viljoen, G.

| successor = de Lange, J.P.

| order2 =

| office2 = President of the Orania Movement

| term_start2 = 1990

| term_end2 = 2007

| predecessor2 =Office established

| successor2 = Carel Boshoff IV

| birth_name = Carel Willem Hendrik Boshoff

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|11|9|df=y}}

| birth_place = Nylstroom, Transvaal, South Africa

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|3|16|1927|11|9|df=y}}

|death_place= Orania, Northern Cape, South Africa

| nationality = South African

| party = Freedom Front Plus (1994-2011)

|otherparty={{plainlist|

National (Before 1983)
Conservative (1983–1994)

}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Anna Verwoerd|1954|2007|reason=died}}

| relations =

| children = 7, including Carel Boshoff IV

| mother =

| father =

| residence =

| education =

| alma_mater = University of Pretoria

| known_for = Calvinism, Afrikaner Nationalism, Volkstaat, Founder of Orania

| occupation = Lecturer

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Carel Willem Hendrik Boshoff (9 November 1927 – 16 March 2011){{cite web |url=http://adam.boshoff.myweb.absamail.co.za/Boshoff'sDoornf.htm |title=Boshoff |accessdate=2011-03-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018232924/http://adam.boshoff.myweb.absamail.co.za/Boshoff%27sDoornf.htm |archivedate=2011-10-18 }} was a South African professor of theology and Afrikaner white nationalist.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/africa/20boshoff.html|title = Carel Boshoff, Founder of White Redoubt in South Africa, Dies at 83|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 19 March 2011|last1 = Weber|first1 = Bruce}}

Biography

Boshoff was born in Nylstroom{{Cite news|title=Carel Boshoff|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8388984/Carel-Boshoff.html|publisher= Telegraph|accessdate= 26 August 2014|date= 2011-03-17}} in the Transvaal Province as the second child of Willem Sterrenberg Boshoff and Anna Maria "Annie" Boshoff.[http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=954e Carel Boshoff profile]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Boshoff's mother, Anna, was the second wife of his father; together they had seven children in addition to the six from his father's first marriage. Boshoff spent much of his youth at his father's ranch in the Waterberg District in the northern Transvaal, attended the University of Pretoria and attained his doctorate in theology in 1951{{cite book|last= Grobler|first= F.|title= The Afrikaner homeland: a fading dream|year= 2004|publisher= South African Historical Organization}} after doing missionary work throughout the old Transvaal Province. He spoke the Sepedi (Northern Sotho) language fluently and served as Secretary of Missions for the Dutch Reformed Church.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}

Boshoff's wife (also named Anna), whom he married in 1954, was the daughter of Hendrik Verwoerd who served as prime minister of South Africa (1958-1966) and became known as the architect of apartheid.[http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=313579&area=/obituaries/ "Anna Boshoff was a 'community person par excellence'"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813101416/http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=313579&area=%2Fobituaries%2F |date=August 13, 2012 }} They had seven children; she died in 2007.{{cite news|title=Anna Boshoff was 'community person par excellence'|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2007-07-10-anna-boshoff-was-community-person-par-excellence|accessdate=2 February 2018|work=Mail & Guardian|date=10 July 2007|language=en}} Boshoff led the Voortrekker movement from 1981 to 1989.[http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=954 Profile in African Who's Who] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107031925/http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=954 |date=November 7, 2007 }} Further, he served as chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond from 1980 to 1983. He had to leave the Broederbond in 1983, when members of the newly formed Conservative Party were not welcome any more.{{cite journal|last1=Du Toit|first1=Brian M.|title=The Far Right in Current South African Politics|journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies|date=December 1991|volume=29|issue=4|page=643|doi=10.1017/S0022278X00005693|s2cid=154640869 }} He chaired the Freedom Front in Northern Cape from 1994.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}

Boshoff established the Afrikaner Volkswag in May 1984 with the ostensible purpose of defending Afrikaner culture, although in practice it was mainly involved in opposing the liberalising of some racial laws under P.W. Botha. Boshoff had attempted to affiliate his group to the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge soon after its foundation but the application was rejected due to the political nature of the Volkswag.Carole Cooper, Jennifer Shindler, Colleen McCaul, Frances Potter, Melanie Cullum, Monty Narsoo, Pierre Brouard, Race Relations Survey 1985, Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1986, p. 11 The following year he was involved in the setting up of the Vereniging Bybel en Volk, an opposition group within the Reformed Churches in South Africa established after the church leadership endorsed a motion of condemnation of apartheid passed by the Reformed Ecumenical Synod.Cooper et al, Race Relations Survey 1985, p. 570

In 1988 he founded AVSTIG or Afrikaner Vryheidstigting, although he is mainly known as the founder in 1990 of Orania, an Afrikaner settlement intended as the beginning of a Volkstaat. Boshoff admitted his disappointment that Orania had only 810 residents rather than the 60,000 he had anticipated.[http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=255349&area=/insight/insight__national "Orania, white and blue"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812213622/http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=255349&area=%2Finsight%2Finsight__national |date=August 12, 2012 }} In 2004 Orania issued its own currency, the Ora. The area is noted for its Koeksister monument.{{cite news|title=Kaalvoet women's group honours the koeksister|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kaalvoet-womens-group-honours-the-koeksister-113198|accessdate=2 February 2018|work=IOL News|language=en}} Boshoff was the president of the Orania movement ('Orania beweging') until 2007.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} After he became disabled due to illness, his son, Carel Boshoff IV, took over all the above positions.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}

Death

Boshoff died aged 83 from cancer at his home on 16 March 2011.{{Cite web |url=http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=61857 |title=Notice of the death of Carel Boshoff |access-date=2011-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312024557/http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=61857 |archive-date=2012-03-12 |url-status=dead }}

Chairmanships

class="wikitable"
Position ! Organisation ! Appointed ! Concluded
Chair \| Orania Representative Council \| 2000 \| 2006
Chair \| Orania Bestuurdienste (Pty) Ltd \| 1990
Executive Chair \| Afrikaner Vryheidstigting / Orania Movement \| 1988
Chair \| Afrikaanse Gereformeerde Bond \| 1987
Chair \| Die Afrikaner Volkswag (Cultural Organisation) \| 1984 \| 1999
Chair \| Die Afrikaner Broederbond \| 1979 \| 1983
Founder & Chair \| Institute for Missiological Research, UP \| 1979 \| 1988
Chair \| South African Bureau for Racial Affairs \| 1972 \| 1999
Member \| Council Rand College of Education \| 1963 \| 1979
Chair \| NG Kerkboekhandel \| \| 1988

class="wikitable"

Position

! Organisation

! Appointed

! Concluded

Chair

| Orania Representative Council

| 2000

| 2006

Chair

| Orania Bestuurdienste (Pty) Ltd

| 1990