360 years after the first Dutch Settlers landed at this most southern tip of Africa, their descendents are redefining their relationship with the dark continent. They are Re-defining their young culture, taking back their young language from its oppressive history, breaking racial stereotypes and rediscovering traditional archetypes. This Constructed Documentary Photographic project , focuses on 48 Young Afrikaners. 24 Male, 24 female, tracing their lives as they change away from a Nationalist Government Simplistic Identity, into a Personal, Self Constructed Narrative Identity.
A Constructed Documentary Project on the Young Afrikaner.
This project Documents the Reclamation of the Afrikaner Identity by the Young Afrikaner Individual. A Massive shift from a State Owned, and Sanctioned, National Identity during Apartheid, to a Self-determined, Narrative, Plural and Personal Identity, steeped in Culture – Language, Music and Visual Arts – has occurred during the last decade. This group finds itself wedged between an inherited Caucasian/ European-, and a new African Nationalist worldview. Weaving these two worldviews into a coherent social-, polical- and cultural reality is an ongoing existential challenge.
This group has been politically marginalised in a post-apartheid, post-colonial Africa, yet identifies as “African†through the recognition of their role in its tumultuous and violent history, their physical relationship with the land, their embedded cultural memory and perhaps its removed distance from ancestral Europe (and now the Caucasian world view too), as the only white tribe on the dark continent.
However, the individuals are global citizens, influenced by global trends and fashions. They engage knowingly with the international issues of the day, participate in the global economy, travel and work abroad.
This project is also one of the first where the documentarian is from within the group itself, not only representing the group, but also defining his own personal vision of an Afrikaner through his choice of individuals.
In this massive shift, the Afrikaner has now taken, and owns, its identity, its image, and continues to challenge traditional perceptions about it, growing and exploring the meaning of freedom in a world of human equality.