“’n Boer maak ’n plan” goes international

In July, I had the privilege of visiting the USA as an AfriForum representative with Ernst Roets, my colleague from the Solidarity Movement, on a support-garnering tour. No nation can afford to be an island in our increasingly globalising world. Every cultural community needs – and benefits from – local and international friends and allies. One of the core objectives of AfriForum and the Afrikaner Foundation in visiting America was to strengthen and expand the Solidarity Movement and the Afrikaners’ international network of friends. Existing friendships were strengthened, and influential new friendships were forged.

Washington, DC

Our first lobbying event was the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon 4) in Washington, DC, the United States capital. Ernst Roets was invited as a guest speaker, and I as an AfriForum representative.

The NatCon conference is an annual gathering of a multitude of commentators, analysts, organisations and politicians who all have one thing in common: commitment to the preservation and conservation of what they love and what is precious to them. In our case, it is the language, faith and identity of our beloved Afrikaner culture. In his speech, Roets emphasised the Solidarity Movement’s pioneering do-it-yourself (“selfdoen”) successes that create hope for the future and the West’s rediscovery of the Afrikaners. We both participated in various discussion groups and attended meetings outside of conference hours. We exchanged thoughts with numerous influential opinion makers and organisations who are interested in what is happening in South Africa and especially in how minority groups, such as the Afrikaners, react to those events.

When the news spread that two Afrikaners were present at the conference, those interested gathered around these two Boers during every coffee break. It soon became clear that people abroad were becoming increasingly aware of the challenges confronting minorities like the Afrikaners in South Africa. They were particularly eager to hear what solutions Afrikaners had come up with in the face of immense challenges. Ten years ago, most people we encountered internationally knew little about South Africa’s crises and were even less interested in them. Five years ago, they began to take note of some of our crises and were willing to discuss them. Today, they are well aware of the magnitude of our crises and challenges, and they are intensely interested in our unique solutions.

New York

After our successful visit to Washington, DC, we visited New York for more big events to garner support, meetings and interviews. Our first networking event in New York was the launch of the latest issue of the IM-1776 magazine. Two of my opinion pieces have already appeared in this international publication. The editors encouraged Ernst Roets and me to send them more articles about South Africa and Afrikaners, and especially about our community-based successes. This gathering was a golden opportunity to rub shoulders with young, leading international conservative thinkers and writers as existing and potential friends of the Afrikaners and to gather further support for our projects.

The second major event in New York was the launch of the Afrikaner Foundation at a special function hosted by the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC). Roets was also a speaker there, as was Jack Posobiec, a world-famous American author and commentator, and Raheem Kassam, a British commentator and editor of the online news publication The National Pulse. Kassam’s publication has published many articles about South Africa, especially farm murders. That evening, we sat at the table with these two speakers. We showed Posobiec a graph of the number of old and new race laws that still appear in the statute books of post-1994 South Africa. He was so astounded that he shared it with his 2.6 million followers on X the next day.

Conclusion

During our visit to both Washington, DC and New York, the main theme that attracted the most interest and about which we were asked by far the most questions was not South Africa's multitude of crises but rather Afrikaners’ innovative, state-proof solutions and positive vision for the future. ‟’n Boer maak ’n plan” (a farmer makes a plan) has clearly grown from a local saying to an international hit. It is encouraging to know that our successes and what we build not only create hope and inspiration for our people in South Africa, but also for many people overseas who see how their countries are becoming more and more like South Africa.

This visit to America reminded us that Afrikaners’ calling in the 21st century may be to lead the way, to clear a path over the unknown mountains and valleys of our time, like the Voortrekkers of old. In this way, we can open up a bright new vision of the future that can inspire Afrikaners and other communities to face the challenges of our time with hope, determination and unwavering faith.

Ernst van Zyl is the Head of Public Relations at AfriForum and the director of the documentary film Selfbestuur. Ernst obtained a Master’s degree (cum laude) in Political Science at Stellenbosch University. He is a co-presenter of the Podlitiek podcast, hosts the Afrikaans podcast In alle Ernst and has a channel for political commentary and interviews on YouTube. Ernst usually publishes contributions on X (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube under his pseudonym Conscious Caracal.