Symbol Type

National flag; White supremacist symbol

Also Known As

?

Traditional Use/Origins

It was the official flag of the White dominated South Africa.

Group/ Organization

National Party, Nationalist Party and others Afrikaner right-wing parties.

Meaning or Representation

The three small flags in the white strip represent the principal White peoples that have colonized South Africa: Dutch, British and Germans. The flag represents the special status of the Christian and Jewish Whites over the Black majority and various minorities - compare with Israeli flag, KKK symbol and Nazi flag.

Background/ History

Dutch settlers started colonization in 1652 and initiate a series of wars against the Blacks nations of the land. England was awarded the territory in 1814 by the Congress of Viena after various wars against the Dutch farmers, the Boers. Disturbed by British rule, which accorded legal rights to free Blacks and Coloureds (crossbreeds) and abolish slavery, about 12.000 Boers left the Cape in what is know as Great Trek. In 1850s they established two Boers republics. There were tensions between non-Afrikaner whites and Afrikaners (Boers, descendants of Dutch or French Huguenots) and the two Boer republics declared war on Britain. The Boer Wars (1899-1902) was won by the British who established (1910) the Union of South Africa and under the First Minister J. B. M. Hertzog (1924-1939) South Africa gained independence (1931). After it the non-whites were suppressed. The governments of the National Party, which ruled from 1948 to 1993, sustained the apartheid system. F. W. De Klerk removed the ban over African National Congress (ANC) and released Nelson Mandela. The entire apartheid rules were repelled in 1991. In 1994 there were elections open to all races.