Boer

Boer (IPA: /bur/) is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer which is used to call the Afrikaner descendants of the Dutch colonists in the Dutch Cape Colony, as well as those who left the British Cape Colony during the Great Trek of the early and mid-1800s to live in the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. They did this to escape British rule, and wars between the British imperial government and the Zulu, Xhosa, Khoi or San people on the eastern frontier.

In 1657, “vrybriewe” was granted to 9 burghers (citizens), the first farmers or Boers (Boere) at the Cape. Although they were not known as Afrikaners, they did not regard themselves as living in the Netherlands. As immigrants from France and Germany arrived at the Cape, more international marriages took place. Soon their Dutch language and culture were lost and transformed. They regarded themselves as a new nation, the Afrikaner people. Paul Heyns, born in 1696 christened his son Michiel Afrikanus (the Afrikaner).

One Hendrik Bieslow in 1707 proclaimed in public “Ik ben een Afrikaander”. The Boers later created the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, which were defeated in the 1880-1881 and 1899–1902 Anglo-Boer wars (Anglo-Boere-oorloë). After that, many Boers emigrated to other countries, but many still live in modern South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).