Wikipedia
"Volkstaat" (an Afrikaans word meaning "people's state", literally "people-state") is a term used to describe proposals to establish self-determination for Afrikaners in South Africa, either on federal principles or as a fully independent Afrikaner homeland.
Following the Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s, Afrikaner or Boer pioneers expressed a drive for self-determination and independence through the establishment of several Boer republics over the rest of the 19th century. The end of apartheid and the establishment of universal suffrage in South Africa in 1994 left some Afrikaners feeling disillusioned and marginalised by the political changes, and resulted in a proposal for an autonomous Volkstaat.
Several different methods have been proposed for the establishment of a Volkstaat. Besides the use of force, the South African Constitution and international law present certain possibilities for establishment. The geographic dispersal of minority Afrikaner communities throughout South Africa presents a significant obstacle to the establishment of a Volkstaat, as Afrikaners do not form a majority in any separate geographic area that could be sustainable independently. Supporters of the proposal have established three land cooperatives, Orania in the Northern Cape, Kleinfontein in Gauteng, and Balmoral in Mpumalanga, as attempted practical implementations of the idea.
Volkstaat may mean:
- Volkstaat, a proposed Afrikaner state in South Africa
- Volksstaat Hessen (People's State of Hesse), official name of Hesse from 1918 until the end of World War II
- Freier Volksstaat Württemberg (Free People's State of Württemberg), German state of the Weimar republic
- Volkstaat Bayern, name given to Bavaria for short period of 1919
- Der Volksstaat, a newspaper of the Social Democratic Workers Party in Germany in the late 19th century