The Scots Afrikaners

Identity Politics and Intertwined Religious Cultures in Southern and Central Africa by Retief Müller

Abstract

There seems to be a persistent interest in history of the Scottish influence and legacy in southern Africa’s ecclesiastic scene by both academics and the public. It became particularly evident in 2022 when, in the spirit of the bicentennial commemoration of the arrival of the most notable Scottish import, Andrew Murray, the Stellenbosch Theological Journal devoted a special edition to the legacy of the pivotal Murray-clan. It reflected both the richness of existing literature on Scottish influences and legacies in southern Africa, as well as ongoing debates and perceptive thereon. Retief Müller’s The Scots Afrikaners (2021) proves to be a central text in this historiography. The book covers the Scottish influence, and effects thereof, on the Afrikaner people and the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). It covers the period from Lord Charles Somerset’s attempt to anglicise the church in the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century when the Scottish influence waned under the more dominant volkskerk tradition of emergent Afrikaner nationalism. The development of the Scots Afrikaners – a term Müller uses to describe the hybrid identity of Scottish clergy still tethered to the empire, but who identified with the Afrikaner community – and their dominance of ecclesiastical matters in this period is covered extensively.