DF Malan and the Rise of Afrikaner Nationalism. Lindie Koorts
to lead a congregation.
Nevertheless, at this stage, he decided to prepare for the doctoral admission exams in case he decided to pursue a doctorate after all. In the meantime, he wanted to make full use of the opportunity to learn as many new things as possible that could be of value to South Africa. He decided that he did not care much for sightseeing – unless it provided him with an opportunity to learn something. He was initially struck by the extensive charity work undertaken in the Netherlands – South Africa, for one, would certainly need similar charitable institutions after the war, as there would surely be much poverty and deprivation in its wake. Malan resolved to make a special study of these institutions during one of his longer holidays.[46] What he would have found was a society that was changing its approach to poverty alleviation.
The last quarter of the nineteenth century, and also the first decade of the twentieth, was a time of extensive socio-economic change in the Netherlands. The country’s economy began to industrialise, moving away from trade capitalism to a broader, modern capitalism. The growth of cities and the proliferation of factories served to make the poor more visible than ever before. This resulted in new perceptions regarding poverty. Instead of treating it as something to be left to the charities, poverty became a broader social issue that needed to be addressed through government policies and legislation. Education was regarded as a key solution to the problem, as the Netherlands was a country where a modernising democracy was giving the working class an ever-growing political voice. At the same time, the growing power of the middle class meant that society was dominated by bourgeois values, and education was seen as an important means of transmitting these values to the masses.[47] This bears striking similarities to both Malan’s, and the general Afrikaner nationalist, approach to the poor white problem in South Africa, which was to occupy an important place on the South African social and political agenda for the first half of the twentieth century.
As part of his ‘project’ Malan visited the largest orphanage in the Netherlands, as well as a socialist colony, which he thought was quite novel. ‘The latter is an attempt to improve society by abolishing all private property. Everyone in the colony works for the common purse, from which each then receives what he needs,’ he explained in a letter to Nettie.[48]
This experiment in socialism did not inspire Malan – although it left him well informed. In later years, he would publish a lecture on socialism which demonstrated that he had a firm grasp of Karl Marx’s theories.[49] The Dutch railway strike of 1903 filled him with revulsion, not solidarity with the plight of the working classes:
The railway employees suddenly got it in their minds to stop working. The hotbed was in Amsterdam. For a few days, not a single train could reach Amsterdam. The government concentrated troops from other areas in Amsterdam in order to be prepared for all eventualities, but the railway employees flatly refused to serve any train containing a soldier. By cutting off all access, the price of articles escalated – it was as if the city was under siege. It could not go on any longer and – the workers got their way. As if they have the power in their hands! Thus, slowly the workers are becoming the ruling class in all European countries. Over the past few years, the socialists in Germany have increased threefold. If the Kaiser is not careful, he will get it on the head! That in itself would not be bad, only, I would not like to see it happen before he helps England to its downfall. There is indeed every chance of that happening. That it will be the clash of the first twenty years is unmistakeable.[50]
These words reveal so many aspects of the Afrikaner nationalist politician that was to come. He had a bourgeois mistrust of the mobilisation of the working class, supported Britain’s enemies – not because they merited support but because they would help to punish Britain – and, moreover, he had a keen insight into the intricacies of power politics and their inevitable outcome.
Malan gradually became accustomed to his new world. After about seven months in the Netherlands, he could report to Nettie that he was becoming used to the Dutch and their habits, and no longer felt ‘like a fish on dry land’.[51] Yet, as is typical of any foreigner, Malan’s observations were always in relation to his own country, and in his eyes, the Netherlands did not compare favourably, as he wrote to Nettie:
I’ve often wondered how it is possible that such a level country intersected by hundreds of canals, with a gray mist usually hanging over the landscape, ever could have inspired such great poets as the Netherlands have produced. And that too in a country where woman, who so often is the object or inspirer of poetry, does not command that position of power and influence in society she has with us. By the way, you know that it is a fact that nowhere in the world does woman occupy such a high position in the public estimation as among the Africanders. This not only on the ground of my own observation, but on the authority of our great South African historian Theal. So I would advise you not as yet to set on foot or join in a movement for the emancipation of woman.[52]
In contrast to his disdain for the Dutch, Malan’s reverence for his own nation continued to grow, as he romanticised and extolled their virtues: ‘My experience thus far is that, in spite of their civilisation here, of which they are so proud, our poor old oppressed little nation is in most respects far, far superior to any with whom I have yet come into contact.’[53]
In the midst of the Dutch winter, Malan found himself longing for another landscape, far away in the south:
I can hardly, when I look out of my window on the roofs and trees and streets all covered with a thick layer of snow, picture to myself the oakshaded [sic] ‘stoep’ of Allesverloren, the green vineyards and orchards laden with the delicious fruit of summer, and the people gasping for breath on account of the heat. To see the trees covered with snow is really one of the finest sights I’ve seen in Europe. This certainly makes up a good deal at any rate for the plain scenery of Holland. Holland certainly is beautiful in summer with its green meadows and shady forests and avenues but in winter it is dull and gloomy. A South African, born and bred in a rugged country cannot but love the wild and romantic Alps, he is almost sure to get poetical, but the tameness of the Dutch scenery soon wearies. I feel that being already naturally rigid, I’m here growing more prosaic every day, living as I do in a prosaic country among a prosaic people.[54]
Malan might have grown accustomed to his surroundings, but he could not identify with the Dutch. Coming from a more undifferentiated society, he believed that it was impossible for their social order – with a monarchy, and a more rigid class structure – to produce prominent personalities. He could not become used to some of their social habits, such as drawing up a list of the gifts that they would like to receive on their birthday. He found the society’s elaborate rules of formal etiquette constricting,[55] and in his letters to Nettie, poked subtle fun at these conventions.[56]
Malan’s friendship with Nettie grew during his years in Utrecht. In her, he discovered a faithful correspondent. Their friendship was cemented when she and her sister Coosie travelled to Europe during the summer of 1902. Coosie was suffering from a throat ailment and needed to seek treatment in Germany.[57] The three of them spent part of the summer in Bavaria, where they stayed at the picturesque resort of Reichenhall.[58]
Much friendly banter seems to have passed between Malan and Nettie. She teased him about his lack of romantic prospects, while he enjoyed extolling the virtues of girls for whom she had shown disdain, and joked about her becoming his housekeeper one day.[59]
One cannot help wondering whether there might have been a serious undertone in Nettie’s teasing. She displayed a particular interest in subjects that interested Malan, and asked him to recommend books to her – and even sent him some money to buy these recommendations for her.[60] Malan responded enthusiastically, teasing her about possible admirers and praising her intellectual endeavours:
And what is this about your two suitors, Netta? I am becoming very afraid that I might have to miss your good services in my house. And that I wouldn’t want, especially since I, now that I have heard that you are studying Calvin, with much profit to myself, can discuss all kinds of things in my own work with you. It has always given me great pleasure to see your interest in all sorts of scholarly subjects, and I must say that talking to you about these things has set me thinking about more than one point.[61]
Yet, at the same time, he dashed any hopes that she might