Video: Learning to be racist in South Africa: “Afrikaner Blood” -The shocking video by Elles van Gelder and Ilvy Njiokiktjien

Learning to be racist in South Africa: “Afrikaner Blood” -The shocking video by Elles van Gelder and Ilvy Njiokiktjien

“Afrikaner Blood”

“Afrikaner Blood,” by journalist and videographer Elles Van Gelder and photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien (from the Netherlands), received first prize in the second World Press Photo Multimedia Contest. World Press Photo Multimedia Contest announced its winners on March 15, 2012.

“Afrikaner Blood” documents the activities of the Commando Corps (Kommandokorps in in Afrikaans), a military school that trains young Afrikaners of Dutch and German descent. Commando Corps was established by former white members of the old South African Defence Force (the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994, that came from the South African Army that began in 1910) and former white members of the Commando Corps (a voluntary part-time army force in urban and rural areas) and some white members of the South African National Defence Force (the armed forces of South Africa).

Through Njiokiktjien’s photographs, and interviews with the racist organization’s trainees and their leader, a former major in South Africa’s Apartheid army who is now a self-proclaimed colonel, the video provides a chilling look at how these boys are transformed from soft-spoken young men who reject racism and consider themselves a part of Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation,” into budding radicals that salute the former South African Apartheid flag.

“Afrikaner Blood” was also awarded first place in the Multimedia Reporting category of POYi. Van Gelder and Njiokiktjien will receive a €5,000 ($ 6,566 US) prize during World Press Photos’ ceremony on April 21, 2012.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/2012-multimedia-contest

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South Africa’s national flag from 1928-1994 was based on the so-called Van Riebeeck flag or Prinsevlag (“Prince’s Flag” in Afrikaans) that was originally the Dutch flag, consisting of orange, white, and blue horizontal stripes. The three smaller flags in the center white stripe were the British Union Flag, the flag of the  Boer’s (mainly Dutch and German) Orange Free State and the flag of the Dutch ruled Transvaal Republic.

Former South African President F.W. de Klerk proclaimed the current flag of South Africa on April 20, 1994. The flag of the Republic of South Africa was adopted on April 27, 1994, at the beginning of the 1994 general election, to replace the apartheid flag.

The colors black, green and yellow came from the flag of the African National Congress. The colors red, white and blue were used in the flag of the former Transvaal province of South Africa (and the Transvaal Republic), the modern flag of the Netherlands and the flag of the United Kingdom. The colors white and blue were also found in the old flag of South Africa.