CAPE TO CAIRO - 3

Imagine my consternation when on my first morning in Orania, Renus Steyn, the owner of the "Herberg" guesthouse, materialised from the kitchen in an apron to serve me a large breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Hang on a minute, I thought – what happened to the maid ?

"blacks...not actively...encouraged"
Well, this is Orania - and there ain’t no maids. If you want to join the exclusive club of white Afrikaans-speaking people bang in the middle of the Karoo desert, you are well advised to brush up your Afrikaans, and make sure you can boil an egg without calling out for your black kitchen help. That‘s the entry requirement, although some people claim there is another one: the –white – colour of your skin. Although blacks are allowed to buy at the local winkel or grocery shop, they are not,... well, uhhhhm ...actively encouraged to participate in community life. "In theory they are allowed to come and live with us", says 76-year-old Carel Boshoff, the founder of Orania. In practice, however, things tend to be not quite as cordial. When a coloured mayor of a neighbouring town visited Orania recently, he was chased around the block by a farmer driving a tractor.

Only 600 people have so far signed up to the idea of a whites-only, Afrikaans-speaking homeland. Still, the dorp or small town has generated quite a bit of publicity – undeservedly so, says Orania’s easy-going PR man, John Strydom (right). When I contacted him about a visit, he requested "fair reporting". Ok, I suppose he’s grown a bit tired of journalists bringing a black friend to Orania to cause a stink and get good copy out of it. "Afrikaners on the trek again", read the newspaper headlines, alluding to the Great Trek of 1838 when the early Afrikaners or Voortrekkers fled the British-controlled Cape for the interior. Renus Steyn doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about "We only want to live in peace." he says.

Image problem
But that is what many find so disagreeable. Afrikaner or Boers, as the descendants of the first European settlers on the Cape are called, consider themselves to be a dying race that should be protected in reservations. Of course, the new political elite that suffered under the Afrikaans-speaking apartheid system sees things rather differently.

The Oranians have so failed to convince their neighbours and the black government that they are aware they are now living in the new South Africa. Instead of the colourful flag on the "rainbow nation", it is the banner of the old Boer republic of Transvaal that flutters over the local post office.

"They are racists"
Franz de Klerk knows that Orania and the Afrikaner have an image problem. Having studied public finance, he dreams that one day Orania will have its own currency. Coupons would replace the rand and ensure that all the money in circulation would stay in the village. Franz speaks of development projects with black communities. But they don't have much time for their white neighbours. "They are racists" was one comment I heard. The Oranians have erected a monument to the notorious Hendrik Verwoerd, father of apartheid and former prime minister of South Africa. Local black communities find this objectionable. On Sunday morning I accompany John Strydom and his family to a church service. "Wachet auf" -- "wake up" the parishioners sing with great gusto.. This hymn dates back to the year 1599. I want to cry out Wachet auf to the assembled congregation. "Learn to live with the new South Africa with all its flaws and blemishes", I want to tell them, "instead of mentally trekking off into exile".

Orania, 9th November 2003.