LONDON-JOHANNESBURG: For the Afrikaans culture that once saw itself as South Africa’s only future, the choice of Stellenbosch to host the congress of the African National Congress can appear as a marker on the road to extinction. A thousand towns could have filled that role, but the ANC picked the Cape Dutch architecture and giant oaks of Stellenbosch. For some Afrikaners it is as if the nemesis had reached the citadel.

Founded on the banks of the Eerste river in 1679, it is the oldest settlement after Cape Town and the university is the repository of the Boer language and identity.

The buildings are so well preserved they seem frozen in time but the ANC’s 51st conference later this month will dispel any illusions that the clocks have stopped. Apartheid gave way to democracy in 1994 and the new South Africa is about change.

It has become clear that many Afrikaners — academics, artists, farmers, doctors — consider themselves to be under attack by the ANC government. In schools and offices, on farms and airwaves, they say they are fighting for cultural survival.

Among them are right-wing militants who have started bombing state infrastructure and black townships. Only one person has died but in a message on Saturday the Boeremag group claimed responsibility and said the campaign may turn bloodier over Christmas.

“We declare that these attacks mark the beginning of the end for the ANC government and we accept full responsibility for it. This is the end of the oppression of the Boerevolk and we give all honour to God.” The government had refused to meet the group’s demands, despite the effort to minimise deaths, so a new phase, “Operation Elohiem of Revenge”, would be launched over the “false worldly festive season”.

The statement added: “We hold the ANC responsible for casualties resulting from such attacks.” The Boeremag has complained of a crime wave against whites, but analysts said its driving force was the perceived erosion of Afrikaners” culture.

The plotters numbered fewer than 1,500 and had no chance of overthrowing the state, but they tended to be well educated and drew from a well of resentment shared by many Afrikaners, according to a report last week from the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.

One of the world’s most progressive constitutions enshrined the oppressor’s tongue as one of 11 official languages and, with English, the language of higher education.

“The sustained development of Afrikaans will be ensured through including it as a primary, but not sole, medium of instruction,” said Education Minister Kader Asmal.

Despite retaining most of their wealth, many white Afrikaans- speakers see things differently.

A tiny minority, perhaps two million out of 43 million, they see not generosity and forgiveness, but spite and discrimination. English is replacing Afrikaans in the courts, in Parliament, in schools and universities, on radio and television, on street signs. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.