Note: All definitions are acquired through Google’s online English Dictionary.

Nationalism: Nationalism is the feeling of belonging to a nation. Nationalism developed over centuries, from the earliest communities (lineages, tribes, etc.) through to the establishment of kingdoms and on to people rising up against these in order to create nations in which they had rights and could own property.[1]

African nationalism is an umbrella term which refers to a group of political ideologies, mainly within Sub-Saharan Africa, which are based on the idea of national self-determination and the creation of nation states.[2]

Enlightenment: The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenmen) was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the pursuit of happiness, sovereignty of reason, and the evidence of the senses as the primary sources of knowledge and advanced ideals such as libertyprogresstolerationfraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.[3]

Volskatpitalisme - It is the nationalist term for Afrikaner capital.[4]

Broederbond - This was a South African secret society exclusively reserved for Afrikaans speaking Protestant men who were over the age of 25.[5]

Reddingdaadbond - The Reddingdaadbond was an organisation formed by Afrikaner businessmen who strongly encouraged Afrikaner people to shop only in Afrikaner shops, invest in Afrikaner banks as well as use Afrikaner insurance companies.[6]

Great Trek - This was a movement of Dutch-speaking colonists in the interior of Southern Africa who were moving in search of land where they would establish their homeland which was independent of the British.[7]

Christian National Education (CNE) -The CNE was a segregated education system which created separate schools for South African population groups which were whites, Indians, Coloureds and Africans[8]

Bantu education - This was a South African segregation law which legislated the segregation of racially separate educational facilities which disadvantaged black children.[9]

Ottoman Empire - This was a Turkish empire that grew to be one of the most powerful empires in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries.[10]

The Zionists - People who believe in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.[11]

League of Nations - Was an inter-governmental organization for international cooperation. It was established on January 10, 1920, at the initiative of the victorious Allied powers at the end of World War I and was formally disbanded on April 19, 1946[12]

UN Partition Plan - This was a proposal by the UN which recommended that Palestine be divided into independent Jewish and Arab states.[13]

Haganah - This was a Zionist military organisation which represented the majority of Jews in Palestine form 1920 to 1948.[14]

Irgun - This was a Jewish armed group led by Menachem Begin.[15]

An-Nakba - This was a war which is also known as the Palestinian catastrophe which saw the destruction of Palestinian society homeland in 1948 which saw more than 700000 of Arabs getting killed or chased away from their homeland.[16]

Authoritarianism - This is the enforcement of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.[17]

Intifada - This is a rebellion. It was specifically the uprising of Palestinians against the Israelis who occupied their land.[18]

Hamas - Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization.[19]

PLO - The Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization founded in 1964 with the purpose of the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle.[20]

This content was originally produced for the SAHO classroom by
Ayabulela Ntwakumba & Thandile Xesi.


[3] Outram, Dorinda. The enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

[4] Wiseman, John. "Dan O'Meara, Volkskapitalisme: class, capital and ideology in the development of Afrikaner nationalism 1934–1948, African Studies Series 34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, 281 pp.,£ 22.50/$44.50, ISBN 0 521 24285 1." Africa 58, no. 4 (1988): 514-515.

[5] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Afrikaner-Broederbond." Encyclopedia Britannica, November 20, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Afrikaner-Broederbond.

[6] Tomaselli, Keyan G. "Arts, apartheid struggles, and cultural movements." Safundi 20, no. 3 (2019): 338-358.

[7] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Great Trek." Encyclopedia Britannica, March 9, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Trek.

[8] Van Eeden, Elize S., and L. M. Vermeulen. "Christian National Education (CNE) and People’s Education (PE): historical perspectives and some broad common grounds." (2005).

[9] Hexham, I. R. "Christian national education as an ideological commitment." In Collected Seminar Papers. Institute of Commonwealth Studies, vol. 20, pp. 111-120. Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1975.

[10] Yapp, M. Edward and Shaw, . Stanford Jay. "Ottoman Empire." Encyclopedia Britannica, February 2, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire.

[11] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Zionism." Encyclopedia Britannica, January 30, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism.

[13] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "United Nations Resolution 181." Encyclopedia Britannica, November 2, 2014. https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations-Resolution-181.

[15] Hoffman, Bruce. "The bombing of The King David Hotel, July 1946." Small Wars & Insurgencies 31, no. 3 (2020): 594-611.

[16] Nofal, Mamdouh, Fawaz Turki, Haidar Abdel Shafi, Inea Bushnaq, Yezid Sayigh, Shafiq al-Hout, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, and Musa Budeiri. “Reflections on Al-Nakba.” Journal of Palestine Studies 28, no. 1 (1998): 5–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/2538053.

[17] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Authoritarianism." Encyclopedia Britannica, November 2, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/authoritarianism.

[18] Peretz, Don. Intifada: the palestinian uprising. Routledge, 2019.

[19] Singh, Rashmi. "The discourse and practice of ‘heroic resistance’in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The case of Hamas." Politics, Religion & Ideology 13, no. 4 (2012): 529-545.

[20] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Palestine Liberation Organization." Encyclopedia Britannica, July 15, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Palestine-Liberation-Organization.

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