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The Boers’ new trek Print E-mail
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In the mid-19th century, the Boers fled north from the British. Today, they’re heading for Georgia. “Trek of the Boers,” engraving, around 1850.
In the mid-19th century, the Boers fled north from the British. Today, they’re heading for Georgia. “Trek of the Boers,” engraving, around 1850.
White farmers from South Africa want to leave their country and settle in Georgia – By Andrea Jeska
South Africa’s white farmers could soon become Caucasian. Boer winegrowers and farmers are considering leaving their home country for Georgia to start a new life. The South African media is already talking of a possible exodus of the descendents of Dutch settlers – and not many seem sorry to see them go. South Africa has its place in the world market so no one need to be alarmed over the news of the departure of white farmers, a government statement said.
Georgia on the other hand is bending over backwards to woo the Boers, who have lots of technological know how, farming experience and capital, to their country. The government in Tblisi recently invited a 15-strong South African delegation to visit the country. The group produced a10-page analysis, which though containing some critical aspects, was on the whole positive.
Despite Georgia’s rather ineffective agriculture the soil is fertile, the culture wonderful, the security situation better than expected and the infrastructure improving, the report said. “I believe that investing in Georgia will be much more profitable than in South Africa,“ said farmer Hendrik Mills after visiting the country. Georgians’ sense of national pride for their country was particularly commended by the delegation – as was the waning Russian influence. “Georgia has risen from the ruins of socialism,” ran a headline of the South African agricultural magazine Landbou-Magasin.
The Transvaal Agriculture Union South Africa (TAU SA), an interest group of South African farmers with a mindset that could be described as nationalist to racist, initiated the planned emigration to Georgia. In 2010, TAU SA demanded the arrest of Julius Malema, president of the African National Congress Youth League, and castigated the land reforms in South Africa as a Zimbabwe-style dispossession. The group predicts that the return of white farmland to black settlers will result in anarchic conditions like those in Zimbabwe and the ruin of South African farming.
There are about 20,000 white farmers in South Africa. Many are afraid of losing their means of livelihood since the South African government adopted a policy of compulsory land purchase to return land to the black population. For the whites, a high crime rate and rapidly increasing labor costs make for a bleak future anyway. Bennie Van Zyl, general manager of TAU SA and mastermind of the Georgia project, sees the country in the Caucasus region as a kind of promised land. “The prospects for farmers are outstanding. And it is only nine flight hours away.”
The climate and soil conditions in Georgia are ideal for wine growing – during the years of communist rule the country had been an important fruit-growing region. But since the end of the Soviet Union Georgian agriculture has mainly been subsistence farming, and the sweet Georgian wine, which is still produced the same way it has been for centuries, never made it onto the European market.
The South African farmers are seen as an urgently needed team of experts who could help to kick-start Georgian agriculture. Papuna Davitaya, Georgia’s State Minister for the Diaspora, explained his country’s interest in the project: “Historically Georgia has always been an agricultural country. But during the Soviet era we lost this tradition and would now like to win it back.”
When the British daily The Independent published an article on the South African farmers’ migration scheme, a few Georgians immediately came forward offering to sell their land to the South Africans. But their government had already presented an unbeatable offer: they intend to allocate 80,000 hectares to the South Africans for approximately €35 per hectare. That is only a fraction of the land price in South Africa. Already the opposition in Georgia fears that the best land will be presented on a platter to the foreigners while the native population is banished to the barren areas.
In August 2010, Georgia and the TAU SA founded an organization called “Nico the boer” with the aim of finding investors. The Georgian government also set up a website for potential buyers from Africa, offering geographical and cultural information on Georgia. The site emphasizes the stable security situation and the efficiency of the police force, as well as successes in combating corruption.
Along with a promise not to levy any tax on agricultural primary products, this sounds very much like music to the South Africans’ ears. According to farmer Piet Kemp, at 63 among the oldest of the would-be migrants, an initial 20 farmers would move to Georgia, but more than 1,000 could follow. “If I am going, I will be a Georgian. I don’t want to make a new South Africa.”
But the resettlement of the white Africans is unlikely to be quite as unproblematic as the Georgian government wants them to believe. Georgia is not known for treating its minorities with much tolerance and ethnic conflicts are an everyday phenomenon.
In addition, corruption is by no means as low as the government describes. Outside the big cities hardly anyone speaks English – and Georgian is a very difficult language. But the members of TAU SA are still singing “Georgia on my mind.” “We see a positive future in Georgia,” said Zyl.
http://www.german-times.com/index.php?opti...40511&Itemid=25 
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