Afrikaner and French Canadian nationalism : a comparative study
This dissertation seeks to expose comparatively the ideological, institutional and economic underpinnings which have contributed to evolving nationalisms within two dual societies, those being Canada and South Africa. It attempts to explain the parallel historical development of Afrikaner and French Canadian nationalisms as they contend with a hostile and dominant English element beholden to the Empire. Expansion and rebellion coincides with the advent of British colonialism as French Canadian and Afrikaner segments find their previously dominant positions reversed. Their rural, agrarianist, peripheral culture evolves in isolation from the increasingly metropolitan British core culture. Demographics are here determined in conjunction with the interplay of alien cultures including that of the indigenes. Ethnic pre-nationalist consciousness is assessed according to intergroup contact. Religion and its institutional accessories are then looked at as they contribute to an evolving consciousness. Fragmented cultures are firmly imbued with a religious character, and religioideological development adapts to new circumstances by preaching messianism, pre-destination as well as analogising the plight of their respective disciples with that of the ancient Israelites. The lines between temporal and heavenly matters are here smudged as Dutch Reformed and Catholic churches promote group enclosure mobilising members around core cultural and language issues so as to preserve clerical power.
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