I'm an Afrikaner, of the Boer variety. Meaning my forefathers were the Afrikaners that took on the Great Trek in oxwagons from the cape, died at Dingaanstat, made a Vow to God on 16 December at Bloodriver, fought the British Empire etc, and I am immensely proud of that.

For those that don't know, there are 2 types of Afrikaners. The normal ones in the cape, then the Boer Afrikaner. The non Boer Afrikaners did not leave the cape, the frontier farmers(where the word Boer comes from), got into their oxwagons and trekked into Africa. That's me.

Boer is from the Dutch word for farmer (Boeren), because the ones that decided they will not fall under the British Crown, moved into Africa. The strive for independence of the Boer Afrikaner is built into our genes from day 1,and it still runs strong today.

This historical fact also explains why your Boer Afrikaner is conservative in nature(we will keep our culture, we are leaving), and ur Cape Afrikaner u get in Cape Town, the non Boer, far more liberal variety.
Cape Afrikaners are Californians
Boer Afrikaners are Texans

Now further to this, u will find ur monuments in Cape Town are of Dutch settlers, but the moment you move out of the Western Cape, ur monuments are not Dutch anymore, but Afrikaans. Afrikaans started as a mixed language for the frontier farmers to speak to the Khoisan and Xhosa.

Cape Town is very European,with a taste of Malaysia. Dutch ppl will feel very at home. The culture becomes distinctively African, once u leave the Cape, as ur Boer Afrikaner met the Xhosa, Zulu etc, and survival became a daily chore. That's how braai, potjie and droëwors started.

Then of course u get ur Karoo Afrikaners, the ones that left the cape, but moved into the empty Karoo. That is a whole different culture, and accent, I myself struggle to understand. Till today, they live off the land,in the desert. Those are ur Namakwalanders etc

The irony about apartheid, is that it classified these 3 distinct people under 1 name, Afrikaner. That is wrong. These are 3 distinct cultures. Think abt it as German vs Dutch vs Flemish. U get ur Boer, ur Afrikaner and ur "Namakwalander". I may speak Afrikaans,but I'm a Boer

This thread will explain why I'm changing my bio to proud Boer. It's a race, I'm not a farmer. Culturally I'm not an Afrikaner, I'm a Boer.

Linguistically I'm an Afrikaner, in the same way the Flemish are Dutch. That's the best way to explain it,but ur Cape coloureds are also Afrikaners, they come from more Malayan with about 40% Dutch but they are not Boers (Google Bo-Kaap)

Now some history. The Napoleonic wars, led to England annexing many Dutch colonies, Cape included. This is the reason the frontier farmers moved. They refused to be British subjects. They then started 2 Boer republics....

The Zuid-Afrikaanche Republiek (where the ZAR for rand comes from), and the Oranje Vrijstaat. These were annexed by Britain in 2 wars. The first Anglo-Boer war, which they lost, and then the second, they won, which led to the Union of South Africa.

Apartheid then happened when the Boers took control of South Africa. The reason for this was to give each race their own country. Seperate but equal. (bantustans). This then became perverted under Hertzog, which turned it into a racial superiority thing.

Now bantustans is literally the stands of the bantus. Bantus are ur blacks, who came from Zaire. Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Kwa-Zulu. South Africa developed these for the bantu, building Universities etc that still exist today. (UniZulu being best known)

This approach would've worked, if Hertzog didn't bastardise it, but, the communist block saw this as a perfect opportunity to sow division, as communism creeped into Africa, up to Mozambique and Angola. They then funded the ANC, which subsequently got banned.

Not for race reasons, but for communism. That is what the border war was about, to keep communism out. The communists turned it into a race thing. Which is why Margaret Thatcher and Reagan did not impose sanctions. They knew the truth

The @MYANC eventually got unbanned in 1990, because communism was defeated. By this time apartheid was so effed in ideology and communist propaganda, that a negotiated settlement was required to avoid a civil war. This led to CODESA. Congress for a Democratic South Africa

Let's look at the Anglo-Boer war. The Boers were very adept in fighting in the veld. And outside of the world wars, the most soldiers were recruited than any other English war in history.

When the British saw they gonna lose it, they started a policy of scorched earth. Burning Boer farms, and putting women and children in concentration camps. 20% of ur Boer population died there. (Google Lizzy van Zyl)

The concentration camps in South Africa gave Hitler the idea of Jewish concentration camps. The Boers surrendered at Vereeniging to save their women and children in concentration camps (Google Emily Hobhouse), and the union of 4 countries became Union of South Africa.

Now no South African history thread will be complete without mentioning the Indians. De Gama found Durban on Christmas day, and called it Natal (the birth of Jesus). This became the Boer Republic Natalia, eventually English colony Natal

The English brought in Indian slaves to work on the sugar plantations. Durban till today had the highest Indian population outside of India. This led to Hullets, one of ur biggest sugar manufacturers in the world

The most common surname in Durban is Naidoo, an Indian surname. The Indians stayed, and are now also a very distinctive culture seperate from India.

Now the Indian slaves were only allowed bread in the day. To fool the British master, they sneaked meat into a hollowed out loaf of bread. This lead to the bunny chow, the national dish of durban.

Natal, and KwaZulu, the bantustans i mention further up, merged into 1 province now. Called KwaZulu-Natal. Commonly abbreviated as KZN. The capital is Pietermaritzburg, named after Pieter Mauritz, a Voortrekker leader.

This is a very broad overview of South African history.
If South Africa had a fb page, the relationship status will indeed be: Its complicated. But based on the above, South Africa should be 9 countries in my opinion