Arthur Kemp is a South African white supremacist. His fellow white countrymen, called Afrikaners (also known as Boers or The White Tribe), are descendants of South Africa’s earliest European immigrants, including mainly the Dutch, but also French, Germans, and Scottish. What is not so much acknowledged, is that up to 7% (and no less than 5%) of Afrikaner ancestry comes from non-whites. The earliest European settlers in the Dutch Cape Colony were mostly men. Since for the first century there were scarcely any European women available, Dutch colonists resorted to taking Khoikhoi and slave women (West Africans, Malays, and Indians) as concubines, and in many cases as wives. The result was that most colonial born Dutch had a European father and non-white mother. When the mixed-race or “Coloured” females became women, new arrivals to the colony took them as wives or concubines, resulting in the eventual “whitening” of the mixed-race offspring, until they became indistinguishable from white. It was not until up into the 18th century that the sex ratio amongst the settlers improved. By then, much coloured ancestry had entered the “white” Afrikaner genepool.
Arthur Kemp alleges that only 6% of Afrikaners have mixed ancestry. This is a deliberate misinterpretation of the genetic data. It’s 6% of Afrikaner GENES, that are of non-white origin, not 6% of Afrikaner people. The same genetic data Arthur Kemp misinterprets, states that the Afrikaner genepool is 40% Dutch, 40% German, 7% French, and 7% Scottish. Does this mean that the Afrikaner population is composed of 40% Dutch, 40% Germans, 7% Scots, and 7% French? It would sound silly that all these elements represented individual ethnic personages and not genes but according to Arthur Kemp, it is so. But the reality is 6% of over all Afrikaner genes are non-white.
Research by J.A. Heese, who studied the genealogical composition of the Afrikaners looking at the period 1657 – 1867, has concluded that the Afrikaner nation´s ancestry was Dutch 34.8%, German 33.7%, French 13.2%, Non White 6.9%, British 5.2%, Other European nations 2.7%, Unknown 3.5%. GFC de Bruyn used a different form of calculation and his results were: Dutch 34.1%, German 29.2%, French 24.7%, British 0.3%, Other European nations 2.4%, Non European 5.4%, Unknown 3.9% (refer to J.S. Bergh ed., Herdenkingsjaar 1988, RTJ Lombard “Die bydrae van die Franse Hugenote tot Suid-Afrika se bevolkingsamestelling”). That means, the average Afrikaner (including Arthur Kemp himself) gets 5-7% of their ancestry from non-whites.
Arthur Kemp states that in 1685 a law was passed banning miscegenation with non-whites. The law in question banned intermarriage with slaves, but as with the American South, illicit interracial sex was far from uncommon! The law banned marriages between white settlers and SLAVES. It did not ban marriages with Coloureds and other FREE Persons of Colour. J. A. Heese, in Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner 1657-1867, presented the results of research from parish registers and other sources on the ancestors of the Afrikaners. He found that between 1660 and 1705, 191 of the settlers from Germany married or lived with women who were not pure blood Europeans. Of the women, 114 were born in the Cape (most probably mixed), 29 were Bengalis and 43 were from other Asian regions. He estimated that in 1807, between 7.2 and 10.7 percent of the ancestors of the then living Afrikaner population were Africans and Asians. His figures were perhaps inevitably conservative. It may well be that a tenth of the present Afrikaner population has Indian ancestry.
In some cases dispensations were given allowing interracial marriages. One example is the case of a Khoikhoi or Hottentot woman named Eva-Kroata. A Dutch man named Pieter Van Meerhof, married her and had 5 children with her. All of them in turn married white men. Eva-Kroata is the progenitor of a number of Afrikaner first families. These include the Krugers, Van Riebeecks, Bruyns, Van Rensburgs, Zaimans, and Pelzers, to name a few. Paul Kruger, the great revered Boer hero, is a descendant of Eva through her daughter Petronella Meerhof. Andries Pretorius, the Great Voortrekker leader was himself a descendant of two East Indian slave women, Catharina van Bengale on his mother’s side, and Helena van Malabar on his father’s side. Thus, the entire Pretorius family can trace their ancestry back to these two slave women. These well known interracial marriages, are just a fraction of the non-white blood absorbed into the modern Afrikaner genepool. Ironically, Governor Simon Van Der Stel, who passed the 1685 law, was himself of Coloured stock. He was born in Mauritius to a half-Bengalese mother.
There is also a further factor, colonial South Africa had no “one drop rule” as Arthur Kemp wants the reader to believe. A person that looked white was seen and treated as white, and was considered White by law. In fact even Apartheid did not have a one drop concept. When people were being separated into four “races”, people were divided based on their appearance, skin color, and hair texture, not their ancestry. Government officials measured peoples facial features and skull shapes and applied paper bag and pencil tests, to determine race. If a person passed the skull measurement tests, had skin lighter than a paper bag, and a comb went through their hair with ease, they were classified as “White.”
Even if a white family was found to have non-white ancestry, despite social dissapproval, that family was still white by law. An example of which, was the case of Sandra Laing. Both her biological parents were white. But she was born with brown skin and frizzly hair, although the rest of her features were European. DNA tests proved that Abraham Laing (the white father) was the biological father of Sandra Laing. The Laing’s ran into trouble when they tried to register her for school, and the government threatened to have the child reclassified as Coloured and separated from the parents. Although Sandra Laing was to be reclassified, her parents were still unquestionably white by law. And because of Sandra Laing, in 1967 a new law was passed, which stated that a child of two white parents was White. In her case, that shows a few Afrikaners had significant levels of non-white ancestry. Although as studies show, the average Afrikaner is 5-7% non-white, which is negligible. Sandra Laing’s parents were amongst the few that had as much as 20% non-white genes, even though they and her brothers look completely white. Today Sandra Laing’s brothers do not speak to her, and refuse to embrace their undeniable African heritage.
As well as the above, under Apartheid there were people changing their racial classification based on their appearance. Some light-skinned Coloureds were successfully reclassified as white under Apartheid. In fact in 1984 according to the South African government, nearly eight hundred South Africans officially crossed the racial lines. Of these, 518 light-skinned Coloureds were reclassified as white. In fact hundreds of Coloureds between 1950 and 1991, reclassified themselves as white every year. This was of course in the best interest of the National Party, which was eager to register more “white” Afrikaans-speaking voters to the voters list. This could explain the high levels of non-white ancestry in Sandra Laing’s parents. These are all facts about Apartheid South Africa which Arthur Kemp neglects to mention in his “March of the Titans“.
Also, the Afrikaans language spoken by Afrikaners, was actually originally spoken by slaves. Just like in the United States of America, where Black English or Ebonics developed from the broken English Southern dialect spoken by Black Americans, Afrikaans developed in the same way. The Afrikaans language, although Dutch based, absorbed many Khoikhoi, Malay, and Indian words. As white colonial children were raised by non-white slave mammies and had mixed-race children for playmates, one can see how the white settlers abandoned their Dutch language for Afrikaans instead. The very fact Cape Coloureds still speak Afrikaans, even though their ancestors did not participate in the Great Trek, shows that the language did not originate amongst the Voortrekkers, as Afrikaner white supremists claim. Cape Afrikaans (spoken by Coloureds) and Orange River Afrikaans (spoken by white Afrikaners), although baring dialectic differences, are similar enough to be regarded as the same language and mutually intelligible. Thus, Afrikaners ironically, speak a language with non-white origins.
To further tear down Arthur Kemp’s theory of Southern Europeans being Mulattoes while Afrikaners are pure Nordics, one only needs to look at genetic studies on Southern Europeans. The Portuguese, who have the highest amounts of non-Caucasoid ancestry amongst Europeans at 1.65% Sub-Saharan, have four times less non-white blood than Afrikaners. If the Portuguese are Mulattoes, then what does that make Afrikaners? Maybe the collapse of Apartheid was due to the 6% non-white blood in Afrikaners? Why is it the race conscious Afrikaners have more non-white blood than than Southern Europeans who can’t help but sleep with every non-white they see? Before Arthur Kemp worries about non-white blood in Southern Europeans, he should worry about his own coloured ancestry first. Fact is Apartheid was about ensuring white minority rule in South Africa, not about racial purity. The very fact the Apartheid government granted white status to those with known non-white ancestry, shows they weren’t concerned with absolute purity of blood. Hendrik and Betsy Verwoerd. Betsy Verwoerd was rumoured to have non-White ancestry, as is not uncommon amongst “white” Afrikaners.
18 Comments
I expect not many people have heard of Kemp and his opinions. The racial composition of Afrikaners have been known for more than 10 years, and the facts are generally accepted – at least that is my impression.
Kemp and his opinion is definitely not mainstream. I reckon the facts and scientific proof has been known for longer, yet the superiority-inferiority complex is still advocated in one way or the other.
At present, it is being pushed down our throats in the guise of black economic empowerment, which is based on apartheid retribution. A kind of superiority complex based on guilt, misplaced entitlement and victim mentality that is reactionary. True liberation involves an astute learning to ensure that past evil never rear it’s head ever again. True forgiveness involves an astute understanding to forgive unconditional.
After WWII, the Jews arose like a phoenix with a mantra of ‘Never again’. Never again to experience the oppression, violence and decimation they suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s. The point here is that we should arise like a phoenix and ensure that aparthied, or any discriminatory policy should never see the light in the society we choose to live. Never again for any one.
The key to oppression or liberation is deeply embedded in education. Limited education and oppression is bedmates like no other setting the cornerstone for wide scale manipulation. Honest education leads to a society that is truely free.
If the facts were generally, truely accepted the landscape of our society would have a different outlook. We would have a society that would find difficult to concieve a white race, a black, let alone a coloured race. We would just be people, after all we are of one race.
It is our duty to educate, be educated and share education. Common knowledge is not always that common – at least that is my impression.
Of course, alleman is correct, but the popular conceptions of mainstream Afrikaners today, is still that of racial purity. They simply cannot accept the fact that they are in fact, Coloured.
Need I say more.
Well, the Afrikaans language, was developed the same way every language was developed, through environment, through contact with people, with culture and with history.
As for the Afrikaners, well we all have that sex instinct no matter who we have, so of course they used natives for the purpose.
This seems to be very conventional indeed. Many historians and anthropologists and biologists agree with the statements here. Afrikaners’ gene pool did evolve from miscegenation.
Kemp and his ilk are at the lunatic fringe of our society. While it was argued that the “Cape coloured” population resulted from the activities of sailors at the Tavern of the Seas, this can never explain away the thousands of coloured people in places like Beaufort West, Calvinia and so on. Frankly, do we really care who our forbears were?
The (wit) Afrikaner and the (bruin) Afrikaner actually have a lot more in common today – they are both in the same boat being marginalised by the (so called ethnic) African and debates like this advance their cause much more than would be the case if we all just got over our common heritage.
By the way, the real proponents of segregation based on colour were not the Dutch or their descendants but the Brits – but their governing classes were all public schoolboys with a penchant for pederasty – no wonder they left very few descendants of “mixed” blood!
No doubt they are at the fringe of society today, but a few decades their thinking held a heavy sway in society. It would be of great misfortune if that kind of thinking is under estimated, as when the pyre of fear, insecurity and ignorance rear its head in society, man becomes completely irrational and herd mentality takes preference.
Laying the blame for segregation at the door of the Brits is as useful as to say ‘Do we really care who our forefathers were?’ Try to understand the development cycles of mankind reveal a different tale. Man has always been fascinated about their ancestors, heritage and philosophical this is phrased as ‘Were do we come from’. The notion of segregation is older than the Brits. The prevalence and existence of slavery attest to this.
I said it once, but alas, once will never be enough. We are all of mixed blood. We have been mixed since the dawn of time. Race economics, the lure of power and influence of economics is often misleading. And in this instance race can and should be substituted with any word, phrase or concept that elevate, degrade or dehumanize. The longer we perpetuate separatist thinking, the longer it will take for us to attain mental liberation.
One of the purposes of this forum is to point out the idiocy of pure race thinking and the impact it has on beliefs and values. ‘Race’ economics will continue to previal in a society that perpetuates victim mentality and entitlement.
I’m an expatriate South African now living in Australia. One of the reasons for leaving was the bickering of superiority of race held by the majority of so called ‘Whites’.
I’ve had in my ancestry Blanks, Boer, European, Whites, Wit and Afrikaners who now have a new race title of South African as other South Africans do. Funny that, because when living there that’s all I ever wanted to be recognized and known as.
I’m an Australian now as all Australians are known as. But because my ancestors on my father’s side were Portuguese, Russian/Jew, Spanish and Italian, and on my mother’s side were Afrikaners, Irish, Dutch and English, which was also classed as a ‘mixed race’,I was labeled in South Africa as a ‘Coloured’.
what about klaas afrikaner died 1760 and jonker afrikaner and their afrikaner clan/tribe the first to call themselves afrikaners. they were of mixed race and spoke afrikaans. the majority of afrikaners do have some non-white blood in them.
The first group to call themselves afrikaners was a group of people led by jonker afrikaner. They were a group of people who went to the northern cape in about 177o. They were of mixed race – dutch,khoikhoi and malay. To say that a people are of pure race to put it as kindly as possible is Nonsence Praat as they say.
After reading Harold Lorenzo’s comments about his ancestry, I find it ludicrous that as a “coloured” he makes no mention of his non-white ancestry! Had he not had any non-white ancestry he would never have been classified coloured. His position just cements the inferior complex of “coloured”people who do not want to acknowledge their true identity!
The so called Afrikaner during Apartheid and the so called Bruin mense were blood brothers,and that is an historical fact that nobody can deny
What about the intermarriage of the Khoi and San with other “black tribes” like the Zulus and it is aknowledged that many of the Xhosa people married with either Khoi or San, and I am sure muchh more undocumented inter marriages took place, that essentially make the majority in South Africa “coloured”
the black people who had an aryan baby in britain was a hoax. yes there are black ancestory in the afrikaner genome but today it is not worthwhile to mention. pleas educate yourself on the human genome project and results which are being surpressed but you can get info on a certain wiki – page
if i look in the mirror i can see my neanthertal heritage , (red hair and blue eyes), from million years back but none of my african history 300 years back, hey look you guys it’s malema logick
You need to find another source that reports that Sandra Laing’s DNA was ever tested.
Jerome Herman if you had lived in my era when the apartheid Group Areas was enforced, there were people like my grandparents, who were ‘European/White’ as from Europe with no interbreeding of any African Nationals, who had long standing establised businesness, family and friends in areas where they lived.
My grandparents had a long standing established small-holding farm in Crawford, and were told in no uncertain terms by the then National Afrikaner Party to either move out of that then declared Crawford ‘Coloured Area’ into a ‘White Area’, or they would be declared ‘Coloured’.
My grandparents having no intention of relinquishing their property, livelihood and friends in that area at the wims of the Afrikaner National Party to begin all over again just to be registered ‘White’, found it ludicrous becuse all of our family then had white birth certificates. They refused point blank and accepted the label of ‘Coloured’.
Now here is a kicker that occurred further down the track to get this all into perspective to show how stupid this colour problem was and still is in South Africa. This is well documented that because the Afrikaner National Party felt that they required more ‘White’ people to increase their population , they began canvassing those ‘Whites’ then classified as ‘Coloureds’ to be reclassified as ‘Whites’.
Our families were part of that insidious plan but our answer was an adament NO!
This should clear up the misconception!
Bugged what source do you recommend to verify DNA testing was done?