The end of the Anglo-Boer War in May 1902 left the Boers (Afrikaners) defeated and bitter in a ravaged land. Poverty and disillusionment spurred many to leave the post-war British-administered South Africa. This book studies one group of emigres who trekked northward to German East Africa and British East Africa. The author relies heavily on primary sources written in both Dutch and Afrikaans to describe the experiences of the Boers in East Africa.

The literature dealing with the Afrikaners documents a people known for their independent insistence upon their language and culture, for their territorial sovereignty established in southern Africa, and for their characteristic religiosity and reliance on Old Testament-based Calvinism. Large numbers of Boers would not or could not adjust to living under an administration with whom they had been at war, and those who tried did not receive much support. As one eyewitness wrote, Not much was needed to stimulate the desire to trek. And so the Afrikaner Diaspora began.

This collection of essays reflects the increasing importance for social scientists of ethnic criteria for classifying modern population groups. The essays discuss emergent nationalism, ethnic divisiveness, social distance, voluntary association, and the role of women in Africa south of the Sahara.

The fifteen essays written for this volume reflect the increasing importance for social scientists of ethnic, rather than physical or tribal, criteria for classifying modern population groups. The authors-from South Africa, the United States, South West Africa (Namibia), Nigeria, and Scotland-cover most of Africa south of the Sahara. They consider the range from large national population groupings to small-scale societies attempting to maintain their social boundaries, and discuss such topics as emergent nationalism, ethnic divisiveness, social distance, voluntary association, and the role of women. The first section is concerned with particular communities, peoples, and ethnic groups, and treats traditional tribal groupings as well as communities delineated on phenotypic grounds. In the second section, the focus turns to modern situations of interaction; the two major themes discussed here are situational ethnicity and situational realignment. The third section deals with color, one of the physical criteria of ethnic identification; here the authors discuss the political and legal implications of a system based on color. The last essay reports on current changes in attitude and organization within the countries of white-ruled southern Africa.