With the Act of Union of 1910, all British colonies in southern Africa were consolidated into South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire. At this stage in South Africa's history, the relationship between whites and blacks was not at all standardized. On farms, some black sharecroppers were treated well and appreciated by white landowners, while others were mistreated and exploited. In 1824, however, South Africa formed a government that sanctioned racism and segregation. These ideas were valued because of the crystallization of an Afrikaner identity during the turn of the century that was racist and exclusionary from its conception. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayC.P. Bezuidenhout's History of the Afrikaans People is an exemplary text to illustrate the formation of an Afrikaner identity in the late 19th century. Bezuidenhout opens by describing himself as an “Afrikaner, born of Afrikaans parents, patriots from time immemorial, […] brought here from Holland across the seas” (p. 78). This definition implies that Afrikaners are of Dutch origin and are fiercely patriotic. The corollary to this statement is that people who are not of Dutch descent probably don't love their country that much. This also implies that there have been many generations of Afrikaners and gives no clue that the term was coined in recent history. This serves to give Afrikaners a sense of a rich shared history which in reality is fabricated in many ways. The Great Trek, for example, was not so much a single great wave of Afrikaners fleeing oppression, but rather a steady flow of rural Dutch farmers driven by a variety of factors. The text is full of allusions to the book of Exodus. As Bezuidenhout portrays it, Afrikaners are “cedars if God” who have rightly spread throughout South Africa because they are a chosen people (p. 79). When the British attack on the Afrikaners at Slagtersnek is then recounted, the British are not only oppressing the Afrikaners, but are also transgressing the will of God. The same can be said of the Zulu king Dingaan who “perpetrated the last cruel murders [leaving…] men, women and children mutilated and crushed, scattered on the ground" (p. 81). Bezuidenhout manages to create a narrative that portrays Afrikaaners as bastions of God constantly antagonized by the combined forces of others, be they British, Hottentots or Zulu. Afrikaner identity, therefore, is defined by xenophobia and racial purity. Isabel Hofmeyr writes about the crystallization of Afrikaner identity, not through mythologizing like Bezuidenhout, but through the creation of a common language. In the early 19th century, Dutch Afrikaans varied substantially from region to region in southern Africa. Depending on the area, the Dutch patois was colored with English, French, Portuguese, Malay, Xhosa or Khoesan. The dialect varied not only by region, but also by social status. Many of the upper classes spoke English and High Dutch, while the Afrikaans of the lower classes acquired a “strong association with poverty and 'colour' (p. 161). To understand the formation of Afrikaans, one must understand the situation in the Boer Republics after the South African War. The traditional ties between wealthy landowners and poor farmers were in many ways broken. During the war, nearly a fifth of poor Boer farmers joined the British rather than fight in commandos with the men on whose land they worked. Increasing industrialization meant increased migration to the cities. With urbanization came an increasing mixing of Afrikaners and non-Afrikaners, which inspired. 164)..