Boers
Boers (/bʊərz/ BOORZ; Afrikaans: Boere ([ˈbuːrə]) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier[2] in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled Dutch Cape Colony, but the United Kingdom incorporated it into the British Empire in 1806.[3] The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans.[4]
"Boer" redirects here. For the surname, see Boer (surname). For other uses, see Boer (disambiguation).
In addition, the term Boeren also applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to colonise in the Orange Free State, Transvaal (together known as the Boer Republics), and to a lesser extent Natal. They emigrated from the Cape to live beyond the reach of the British colonial administration, with their reasons for doing so primarily being the new Anglophone common law system being introduced into the Cape and the British abolition of slavery in 1833.[3][5]
The term Afrikaners or Afrikaans people[6][7][8] is generally used in modern-day South Africa for the white Afrikaans-speaking population of South Africa (the largest group of White South Africans) encompassing the descendants of both the Boers, and the Cape Dutch who did not embark on the Great Trek.
Voortrekker leaders
Great trek
Participants in the Second Anglo-Boer War
Politicians
Spies
In modern fiction[edit]
The history of the Cape Colony and the Boers in South Africa is covered at length in the 1980 novel The Covenant by American author James A. Michener.
