Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging

The term "Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging" is Afrikaans, translating to "Afrikaner Resistance Movement." Afrikaans itself evolved from Dutch spoken by settlers in South Africa. The name signifies a nationalist and defensive stance for the Afrikaner people.

The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˌafriˈkɑːnər ˈviərstants.ˌbəˈviəχəŋ], meaning 'Afrikaner Resistance Movement'), commonly known by its abbreviation AWB [ˌɑː.viə.ˈbiə], is an Afrikaner nationalist, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi political party in South Africa. Founded in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and six other far-right Afrikaners, the AWB advocates for secessionist Afrikaner nationalism and the establishment of an independent Boer-Afrikaner republic, referred to as...

Blavatsky's inclusion of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging in her 1892 lexicon, even if anachronistic given the movement's later founding, points to a broader concern with the ways in which notions of identity, purity, and resistance can be distorted. The AWB, a starkly modern manifestation of ethno-nationalism, stands in stark contrast to the universalizing impulses often found in genuine esoteric traditions. While Hermeticism might speak of the interconnectedness of all things, and Sufism of the dissolution of the ego into the Divine, the AWB mobilizes a rigid, exclusionary identity politics.

The movement's iconography, often drawing on symbols that evoke a romanticized and militant past, can be seen as a perversion of archetypal imagery. Mircea Eliade, in his studies of the sacred and the profane, noted how societies often construct myths of origin and heroic ancestors to legitimize present actions. The AWB's embrace of a selective history and its projection of an idealized, untainted past serves to justify its claims to exclusive sovereignty and its animosity towards perceived outsiders. This is not the alchemical transformation of the self, but a literalist and aggressive territorialization of identity.

The very idea of "resistance" in the AWB's name, when stripped of its spiritual or philosophical underpinnings, becomes a tool for political entrenchment. It is a resistance not to illusion or ignorance, but to demographic change and social evolution. Unlike the inner resistance of the mystic, which is directed towards overcoming personal limitations and attachments, the AWB’s resistance is external, directed against other groups. It is a shadow play of primal fears, amplified by the anxieties of a changing world, and tragically devoid of the wisdom that seeks unity rather than division.

RELATED_TERMS: Ethno-nationalism, Fascism, Supremacy, Identity Politics, Archetypes, Myth, Symbolism