Real Orania.
“Orania is nie vir sissies nie” Orania is not for cowards.
A lot has been said about this small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa on the border of the Free State.
It is a town for Afrikaners where only Afrikaners live. This much about the town is known and it is what it is most often criticized for. The town walks a tight rope between its official policy of only allowing Afrikaners to live in the town and this officially under the auspices of protecting and espousing the Afrikaner culture – a tight rope also, because the discriminating factor centers not on race, but on culture. It is often said that a person of a different race can live in the town if he considers himself an Afrikaner and associates and lives the Afrikaner culture and way of life. Discrimination based on race is generally frowned upon, but discrimination based on “”freedom of association” is considered OK, both in the town and the broader South Africa. So far this state of affairs have been accepted by the larger South African state either through tacit/implicit acceptance gained for whatever reason and by good interaction between the authorities of Orania and the local, provincial and national government.
The Orania spokespersons are also very careful about what they say - for instance in press releases and on radio/TV about the policies of Orania, what happens in town and the way it treats its own inhabitants.
The town has since its inception had aspirations for independence in the Northern Cape’s Southern to Western corridor, but it seems it has settled for a more de facto federal autonomy, rebranding itself as a “stad in wording” a developing city.
Having pre-ambled what the town is about at least on the surface it is important to note some of the aspects prospective people who are going to live in the town might encounter.
Orania is a very safe town and many Orania denizens move to the town to escape from the potential to suffer from crime in the broader South Africa or have suffered it and now want to remove them entirely from it. Using this aspect – free of crime – as a fulcrum many things counter balances this aspect:
- Orania is expensive – for whatever reason – it is very expensive. A common saying is, “how do you make a million in Orania?” answer: “you come in town with two million”. Whether it is the rural setting, the small amount of shops, the expense of those shops getting produce on their shelves. The expense of building houses, and the expense of services, or starting a business, be warned: it is very expensive to live in Orania.
Orania, a very small island that is still absolutely safe and that still caters to the Afrikaner culture, through its cultural activities, but also by default because it is a culturally homogenous town…only Afrikaners live there…
- Creates some internecine conflicts and click forming, now quite infamous and ingrained, with a strong ruling class. So, future interested Orania inhabitants have to take into account that they will pigeonholed and categorized as a peasant worker, or somewhat middle class, and perhaps - if you qualify- inducted into the ruling class. Leaving these classes are all but impossible, but many do leave, but only due to leaving the town. The desire to leave the set class does not become less over time, but the belief that it can be changed becomes less and less over the years, but it is still possible, since people leave Orania because of its particular burdens even after many years of living in the town.
Living in Orania carries a certain burden with it. It can be likened to the burden of emigrating to a new country, but it also comes with a burden because of the special nature or “intent” of the town to become independent or autonomous:
- Therefore all prospective inhabitants of Orania be aware of the particular non-descript burden that living in Orania holds. It is also often said, “Orania does not change for you, but you have to adapt and change to live in Orania”. Many, many people could not adapt either for a few months or a few years and have consequently left the town.
I think Orania has a right to exist. Not only as an Afrikaner exclusive town, but also a right to exist as a town that espouses the Afrikaner culture, exclusively. Whether it will succeed on this journey, is an open question.
All Afrikaners desiring to make the town their home; take the above into account.
Written by:
Omar Daniel Fourie, 1 May 2018.
