Afrikaner Artists Push Back Against White Cross Project’s Farm Murder Vigil in Washington, DC

• A group of Afrikaner artists opened an exhibition in Washington, DC, challenging the idea that all Afrikaners share one narrative on persecution and identity
• The show was organised as a direct counterpoint to the White Cross Project, which plans to display 3,000 crosses on the US National Mall over farm attacks
• Organisers also launched a campaign to plant 3,000 soccer balls on Gauteng's West Rand, raising R300,000 and partnering with a township community in Tarlton

A group of Afrikaner artists has taken their message to Washington, DC, opening an exhibition that presents a different picture of who Afrikaners are, just as another South African group prepares to line the National Mall with white crosses.

The exhibition, titled We Are the Good Guys, is being hosted at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in the US capital. It was put together as a deliberate counter-narrative to the White Cross Project, an initiative by South African activists that plans to install 3,000 white crosses on the National Mall to draw attention to farm attacks and what its organisers describe as a wider crisis facing minority communities back home.

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Artist and organiser Schalk van Heerden said the exhibition was born out of a conviction that Afrikaner identity is far more complex than the White Cross Project suggests.

"With this art show, we're saying that to be an Afrikaner is not just one thing. The art shows that there is not only one narrative for the Afrikaner, but we also have a wide variety of views," he said.

Soccer Balls Instead of Crosses

Alongside the exhibition, Van Heerden and curator Johan Louw Stegmann launched the Plant Hope 3 000 campaign, a fundraising drive to collect 3,000 soccer balls for communities vulnerable to crime. The campaign has raised R300,000 so far, with 1,500 balls already collected. On Saturday, the balls will be placed on a field on Gauteng's West Rand in a community event involving Afrikaners and township residents from Tarlton for a day of football and a braai.

The initiative is being run in partnership with Doc Mabila's Foundation for a Safe South Africa. Van Heerden said the imagery of soccer balls representing hope was a conscious response to the crosses representing loss. The campaign also pushed the organisers to think about young people growing up without role models and those at risk of gang recruitment.

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"We wanted to have a voice in Washington, to say that the conversation has to be bigger than just about crime," Van Heerden said.

He also questioned the refugee framing adopted by some in the Afrikaner community.

"For many of us, it seems strange that we are now refugees, although we're among the most privileged in our country. Not all Afrikaners are subscribing to this idea of white persecution," he said.

Art that challenges whose grief counts

The Washington exhibition features artists from different generations, most of whom identify as Afrikaners, and their work spans themes of violence, historical memory and identity. Stegmann said he holds space for both the pain of farm attack survivors and the everyday violence endured by South Africans across all racial groups.

"As an Afrikaner, I understand the pain felt by survivors of farm attacks, and I also understand the everyday violence and inequality that all South Africans face, most of whom are not white. I do not believe that self-determination or other separatist ideas are real solutions," Stegmann said.

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He added that the exhibition aims to challenge which forms of suffering are seen and recognised.

"Through this exhibition, South African artists show how art can break down hierarchies of grief and help make visible all the connected lives in our shared society," he said.

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi reacts to Ernst Roets' apartheid comparison

In a previous article, Briefly News reported that Mbuyiseni Ndlozi fired back at Afrikaner activist Ernst Roets after he posted a comparison between apartheid rule and ANC governance.

The former EFF politician accused the ANC of confirming racist notions about Africans through decades of incompetence and greed.

Source: Briefly News