Dutch Dialogues with Afrikaners: The Netherlands and the Cultural Boycott Against the Apartheid Regime in the 1980s

This chapter examines the Dutch debate about the cultural boycott of South Africa in the 1980s. The aim is to uncover the Dutch mentalities towards the apartheid regime and it is argued that these are connected to the ‘cultural archive’ of colonialism. The first part explores the historical roots of the debate about the cultural boycott in the Netherlands, which was greatly influenced by ongoing ideas of kinship between the Dutch and the Afrikaners. The second part zooms in on the public outcry about the 1983 visit to South Africa by the writer W.F. Hermans, who was accused of breaking the principles of the cultural boycott and of supporting the apartheid regime. This case study invites us to critically assess the nature of the anti-apartheid movement in the Netherlands, which might be seen, first and foremost, as a ‘dialogue with the Afrikaners’.