Lionising De la Rey: Afrikaner identity politics and performative nostalgia in post-apartheid South Africa

Bok van Blerk's hit song ‘De la Rey’ invokes the name of a general who led Boer forces against those of the British Empire during the Anglo-Boer or South African War (1899–1902). The ‘Lion of the West Transvaal’ was renowned for his use of guerrilla tactics against the conventional methods of the heavily encumbered British and colonial troops. The performance of the song seems to strike a strong emotional chord with white Afrikaner audiences at a juncture when they appear to be undergoing something of an identity crisis in the throes of the country's transition. Van Blerk's song resonates with those imagining an Afrikaner community as victims of British imperialism, as well as those concerned about the future of their culture and language under an African National Congress government. For many white Afrikaners, nostalgia is not so much a hankering for a bygone era but a projection of a sanitised vision of the past into the future. This paper suggests that performative nostalgia is a useful concept to explain the appeal of the song in the context of the workings of Afrikaner identity politics in post-apartheid South Africa.