Myths and Nationhood by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-136-67724-3
Publisher: Routledge

THE MYTH OF DIVINE ELECTION AND AFRIKANER ETHNOGENESIS

Bruce Cauthen

Throughout history, the concept of chosenness has been a potent catalyst for social mobilization and national coherence. Chosenness consists in the idea of a particular people who have been especially anointed by the Deity to discharge a mission and whose destiny is divinely and cosmologically determined; they may also collectively possess a divine warrant to subdue ‘heathens’ and propagate the faith in a heathen land. When the cause of a people is conceived to be the very will of God, the collectivity is infused with a powerful sense of purpose that transcends more mundane considerations of social organization. Theirs is a calling to which all members of the community must respond. Failure to realize the collective vocation may incur the wrath of the Deity, lead to the dismemberment of the people and — for its individual members — the prospect of eternal damnation. The very land on which the group dwells is thought to be hallowed ground as it is believed to be deeded exclusively to them as a consecrated parcel from the Almighty Himself. This mystically sublime stewardship acquires an increasingly emotive dimension when the soil has been soaked with the blood of ethnic kinsmen.1

The classic example of a chosen people is, of course, the ancient Israelites whose epic narrative of election, exodus, exile in the wilderness, and ultimate redemption has been related to successive generations through the Old Testament. As the nomadic wandering of the Jews of antiquity was in preparation for their eventual occupation of the Promised Land, the physical habitation of this sacred homeland by the Israelites was essential for the realization of their election and the establishment of their corporate identity.2

Many peoples have identified themselves as instruments of providential design or have interpreted their national history or destiny as the will of God.3 Of course, such sublime self-conceptions tend to create collective attitudes of moral superiority, although, as Anthony Smith cautions, there is a distinction to be drawn between chosenness and ethnocentrism:

A myth of ethnic election should not be equated with plain ethnocentrism. Ethnic communities have quite commonly regarded themselves as the moral centre of the universe and as far as possible affected to ignore or despise those around them. A myth of ethnic election is more demanding. To be chosen is to be placed under moral obligations. One is chosen on condition that one observes certain moral, ritual, and legal codes, and only for as long as one continues to do so. The privilege of election is accorded only to those who are sanctified, whose life-style is an expression of sacred values. The benefits of election are reserved for those who fulfil the required observances.4

Although the concept of chosenness may seem somewhat anachronistic in the presumably modern, rational and secular world of today, the resurgence of religious fundamentalism and, particularly, religious nationalism5 clearly indicates that the myth of divine election is a phenomenon whose contemporary socio-political relevance can hardly be discounted. Until quite recently, however, the

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