Under 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 time in South Africa's history, relations between whites and blacks were by no means standardized. On farms, some black sharecroppers were treated well and valued by white landowners, while others were mistreated and exploited. However, in 1824, South Africa formed a government that enshrined racism and segregation. These ideas were promoted due to the crystallization of an Afrikaner identity at the turn of the century, racist and exclusive from its conception. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayC.P. Bezuidenhout's History of the Afrikaans People is an exemplary text to illustrate the formation of an Afrikaner identity at the end of the 19th century. Bezuidenhout begins by describing himself as an “Afrikaner, born of Afrikaans parents, patriots since time immemorial, […] brought here from Holland by sea” (p. 78). This definition implies that Afrikaners are of Dutch origin and are fiercely patriotic. The corollary of this statement is that people who are not of Dutch descent probably don't love their country as much. This also implies that there have been many generations of Afrikaners and gives no insight into whether the term was coined in recent history. This gives Afrikaners a sense of a rich shared history that is actually fabricated in many ways. The Great Trek, for example, was not so much a great flood of Afrikaners fleeing oppression, but rather a steady stream of rural Dutch farmers driven by a number of factors. The text is full of allusions to the book of Exodus. As Bezuidenhout describes it, the Afrikaners are “Cedars of God” who have rightly spread throughout South Africa because they are a chosen people (page 79). When the British attack on the Afrikaners at Slagtersnek is then recounted, the British not only oppressed the Afrikaners, but also transgressed the will of God. The same can be said of the Zulu king Dingaan who “carried out the last cruel murders [leaving…] men, women and children mutilated and crushed, scattered on the ground” (p. 81). Bezuidenhout succeeds in creating a narrative that depicts the Afrikaaners as bastions of God constantly thwarted by the combined forces of others, whether the British, the Hottentots, or the Zulus. Afrikaner identity is therefore 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. By the early 19th century, Dutch Afrikaans varied considerably between regions in southern Africa. Depending on the region, 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 members of the upper class spoke English and High Dutch, while the Afrikaans lower classes acquired a "strong association with poverty and 'color'" (p. 161). To understand the formation of Afrikaans, one must understand the situation in the Boer republics after the South African War. The traditional links between rich landowners and poor farmers have been broken in many ways. During the war, almost a fifth of poor Boer farmers joined the British instead of fighting in a 164)..