‘Angels and Demons’? the Dutch Reformed Church and Anticommunism in Twentieth Century South Africa

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dc.contributor.advisorKoorts, Lindie
dc.contributor.advisorDu Toit, Jackie
dc.contributor.advisorFevre, Chris
dc.contributor.authorFourie, Ruhan
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-26T13:05:56Z
dc.date.available2022-04-26T13:05:56Z
dc.date.issued2021-11
dc.description.abstractAfrikaner memories of apartheid are filled with images of an omnipotent communist threat, or the so-called Rooi Gevaar (Red Peril). This thesis explains why and how the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa (DRC), the organisation with the widest reach and deepest influence in the everyday lives of Afrikaners, played a significant role in perpetuating an anticommunist imagination amongst twentieth century Afrikaners. It fills a lacuna in the historiography of South African anticommunism, which has up until now been confined to a state-centric approach. Drawing on international theoretical frameworks, this thesis expands the dynamics of South African anticommunism beyond a Cold War-paradigm and embraces the flexibility of the phenomenon. The DRC acts as a lens into the intricacies of South African and, more specifically, Afrikaner anticommunism. It offers an original account of South African anticommunism by integrating a wide range of archival sources from the DRC’s extensive records, those of the Afrikaner-Broederbond (AB), and personal collections of key roleplayers, including Nico Diederichs, Koot Vorster, and Piet Meyer, into a single chronological narrative. This thesis argues that the DRC formed the backbone of Afrikaner anticommunism throughout the twentieth century. It illustrates that the church was not always the main driver, nor was its influence consistent. However, as a vessel of moral anticommunist propaganda, the DRC fulfilled a critical role in legitimising overt opposition to and suppression of ‘communism’ in all its perceived manifestations, including black dissent, whilst also creating an Afrikaner imagination – even at times a moral panic – in which the volk remained convinced of the ever-present communist threat, and of its own role as a bulwark against communism. Anticommunism, argues this thesis, functioned as a vehicle for nationalist unity (and uniformity), a paradigm for Afrikaner identity, and a legitimiser of the volk’s perceptions of its imagined moral high ground.en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11660/11587
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of the Free Stateen_ZA
dc.rights.holderUniversity of the Free Stateen_ZA
dc.subjectThesis (Ph.D. (Centre for Africa Studies))--University of the Free State, 2021en_ZA
dc.subjectAnticommunismen_ZA
dc.subjectDutch Reformed Church (DRC)en_ZA
dc.subjectAfrikaner nationalismen_ZA
dc.subjectApartheiden_ZA
dc.subjectRed perilen_ZA
dc.subjectNico Diederichsen_ZA
dc.subjectDan de Beeren_ZA
dc.subjectKoot Vorsteren_ZA
dc.subjectAndries Treurnichten_ZA
dc.subjectPiet Meyeren_ZA
dc.subjectJohan Heynsen_ZA
dc.subjectAlbert Hertzogen_ZA
dc.subjectDirk Kotzeen_ZA
dc.subjectPhilip Nelen_ZA
dc.subjectRichard Wurmbranden_ZA
dc.subjectCarl McIntireen_ZA
dc.subjectAntikomen_ZA
dc.subjectNational Council against Communism (NCC)en_ZA
dc.subjectSending onder Kommuniste (SOK)en_ZA
dc.subjectAfrikaner-Broederbonden_ZA
dc.subjectInstitute for the Study of Marxism at the University of Stellenbosch (ISMUS)en_ZA
dc.title‘Angels and Demons’? the Dutch Reformed Church and Anticommunism in Twentieth Century South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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