The Ossewabrandwag as a mass movement, 1939–1941

Abstract

In the first years of its existence the Ossewabrandwag (OB) was an Afrikaner nationalist mass movement comprising nearly all social strata of the Afrikaner population. Its heterogeneous mass basis was made possible only by the lack of a clear‐cut political programme or a definite ideology. Instead, the OB drew mainly on Afrikaans popular culture which drew its stimulus from the Symbolic Ox wagon Trek of 1938. The OB, emphasising its republican and nationalist outlook without committing itself to any definite goals, contained in its ranks very divergent interest groups. By emphasising volkseenheid (national unity) and by rejecting South Africa's participation in World War II as Great Britain's ally, it was able to integrate a multitude of different nationalist organisations for the very reason that it lacked a clear ideological profile. Only when its new leadership started to define its ideology and developed its own policy from the middle of 1941 onwards did the OB's membership decline. Abandoning its earlier populism, to a large extent it then developed into a fascist organisation.