Wilhelm Verwoerd

Last updated

Wilhelm Verwoerd
Born (1964-02-21) 21 February 1964 (age 60)
Political party African National Congress
Spouses
(m. 1987;div. 2005)
  • Sharon Layton
Children2
Relatives
Education Stellenbosch University
University of Oxford
University of Johannesburg
Scientific career
FieldsReconciliation and Social Justice facilitator and researcher
Institutions Stellenbosch University

Wilhelm Johannes Verwoerd (born 21 February 1964) [1] is a South African facilitator and researcher based at Stellenbosch University and a social activist. The grandson of Hendrik Verwoerd, known as the architect of the apartheid regime, Verwoerd has disavowed the views with which his family is widely associated and joined the ANC. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Pretoria to Wilhelm and Elise (née Smit) Verwoerd on 21 February 1964, Wilhelm is a member a prominent Afrikaner family. His grandfather was South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. Although raised in a family and environment that frowned on racial integration, he changed his stance on apartheid after studying in the Netherlands and at Oxford University.

He holds an MA in Philosophy from Stellenbosch University in 1989, [2] an Oxford MA automatically awarded after reading for a BA in PPE from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Applied Ethics from the University of Johannesburg. [1]

Academic career and later life

Verwoerd's research focuses largely on reconciliation, forgiveness and apology, on which he has written several articles. He was a researcher in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He worked as a programme co-ordinator and a co-facilitator in Ireland, within the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation's Survivors and former Combatants Programme between 2002 and 2011. He is a former co-director of Beyond Walls Ltd. From 2019 he is a senior researcher and facilitator within Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation, Stellenbosch University.

In 1992, Verwoerd formally joined the ANC, which drew a lot of criticism and threats from militant Afrikaners - given his family roots. [3] This brought strife with his own family. [4]

Personal life

Verwoerd married Melanie Fourie in 1987, with whom he had two children, Wilmé (born 1990) and Wian (born 1992). [5] They divorced in 2005. Wilhelm later married his second wife Sharon, who is Australian. [6]

Select publications

Books

Edited books

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)</span> Restorative justice tribunal in post-apartheid South Africa

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hendrik Verwoerd</span> Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 to 1966

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a South African politician, scholar, and newspaper editor who was Prime Minister of South Africa and is commonly regarded as the architect of apartheid and nicknamed the "father of apartheid". Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies, as Minister of Native Affairs (1950–1958) and then as prime minister (1958–1966). Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership. He was the Union of South Africa's last prime minister, from 1958 to 1961, when he proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, remaining its prime minister until his assassination in 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Party (South Africa)</span> 1914–1997 political party known for implementing apartheid

The National Party, also known as the Nationalist Party, was a political party in South Africa from 1914 to 1997, which was responsible for the implementation and much of the deconstruction of apartheid rule. The party was an Afrikaner ethnic nationalist party, which initially promoted the interests of Afrikaners but later became a stalwart promoter and enactor of white supremacy, for which it is best known. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It merged with its rival, the SAP, during the Great Depression, and a splinter faction became the official opposition during World War II and returned to power. With the National Party governing South Africa from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994, the country for the bulk of this time was only a de jure or partial democracy, as from 1958 onwards non-white people were barred from voting. In 1990, it began to style itself as simply a South African civic nationalist party, and after the fall of apartheid in 1994, attempted to become a moderate conservative one. The party's reputation was damaged irreparably by perpetrating apartheid, and it rebranded itself as the New National Party in 1997 before eventually dissolving in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnus Malan</span>

General Magnus André de Merindol Malan was a South African military figure and politician during the last years of apartheid in South Africa. He served respectively as Minister of Defence in the cabinet of President P. W. Botha, Chief of the South African Defence Force (SADF), and Chief of the South African Army. Rising quickly through the lower ranks, he was appointed to strategic command positions. His tenure as chief of the defence force saw it increase in size, efficiency and capabilities.

The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, D. H. C. du Plessis and the Rev. Jozua Naudé in 1918 as Jong Zuid Afrika until 1920, when it was renamed the Broederbond. Its influence within South African political and social life came to a climax with the 1948-1994 rule of the white supremacist National Party and its policy of apartheid, which was largely developed and implemented by Broederbond members. Between 1948 and 1994, many prominent figures of Afrikaner political, cultural, and religious life, including every leader of the South African government, were members of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beyers Naudé</span> South African cleric, theologian and anti-apartheid activist (1915 - 2004)

Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé was a South African Afrikaner Calvinist Dominee, theologian and the leading Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist. He was known simply as Beyers Naudé, or more colloquially, Oom Bey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anton Rupert</span> South African businessman (1916–2006)

Anthony Edward Rupert OMSG was a South African businessman and conservationist.

Frederik van Zyl Slabbert GCOB was a South African political analyst, businessman and politician. He is best known for having been the leader of the official opposition – the Progressive Federal Party (PFP) – in the House of Assembly from 1979 to 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1960 South African republic referendum</span>

A referendum on becoming a republic was held in South Africa on 5 October 1960. The Afrikaner-dominated right-wing National Party, which had come to power in 1948, was avowedly republican and regarded the position of Queen Elizabeth II as the South African monarch as a relic of British imperialism. The National Party government subsequently organised the referendum on whether the then Union of South Africa should become a republic. The vote, which was restricted to whites—the first such national election in the union—was narrowly approved by 52.29% of the voters. The Republic of South Africa was constituted on 31 May 1961.

<i>Baasskap</i> Afrikaans term for white minority rule in South Africa

Baasskap, literally "boss-ship" or "boss-hood", is a political philosophy prevalent during South African apartheid that advocates the social, political and economic domination of South Africa by its minority white population generally and by Afrikaners in particular. The term is sometimes translated to the English-language term "white supremacy" and functioned either as a description or an endorsement of white minority rule in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eben Dönges</span>

Theophilus Ebenhaezer Dönges was a South African politician who was elected the state president of South Africa, but died before he could take office, aged 69.

Solomon Johannes "Sampie" Terreblanche was a South African academic economist and writer, author of numerous economics books and was most famous for his History of Inequality in South Africa, 1652–2002. He was Professor emeritus of Economics at Stellenbosch University, where he built a reputation as a lecturer in History of economic thought, Economic history, the Economy of South Africa, and economic systems.

Pieter G. J. Koornhof, was a South African politician. As an apartheid-era National Party cabinet minister, he held various portfolios in the cabinets of B.J. Vorster and P.W. Botha, and was later appointed ambassador to the United States. After the end of apartheid, he joined the African National Congress in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanie Verwoerd</span> South African politician and diplomat

Melanie Verwoerd is a South African and Irish political analyst and diplomat. She was previously a politician, ambassador, and the director of UNICEF Ireland.

Louis Marius Schoon was a white anti-apartheid activist of Afrikaner descent. Marius died from lung cancer, after a long call from Nelson Mandela, thanking him for his sacrifice against the struggle.

Johannes Jacobus (Johan) Degenaar OIS was a South African philosopher, and Emertitus Professor at the Stellenbosch University, who is considered "one of the most respected and influential philosophers in South Africa."

Trudy Rose Govier is a Canadian philosopher known for her work in informal logic and argumentation. She is the author of the influential text A Practical Study of Argument. She has also been a frequent commentator in Canadian media on issues related to violence and conflict resolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Allan Fagan</span> South African Chief Justice, writer and politician

Henry Allan Fagan, QC was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1957 to 1959 and previously a Member of Parliament and the Minister of Native Affairs in J. B. M. Hertzog's government. Fagan had been an early supporter of the Afrikaans language movement and a noted Afrikaans playwright and novelist. Though he was a significant figure in the rise of Afrikaner nationalism and a long-term member of the Broederbond, he later became an important opponent of Hendrik Verwoerd's National Party and is best known for the report of the Fagan Commission, whose relatively liberal approach to racial integration amounted to the Smuts government's last, doomed stand against the policy of apartheid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betsie Verwoerd</span> Wife of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

Elizabeth "Betsie" Verwoerd was the spouse of the Prime Minister of South Africa from 2 September 1958 until the assassination of her husband Hendrik Verwoerd on 6 September 1966.

Wynand Johannes Boshoff is a South African academic and politician from the Northern Cape serving as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa for the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) since 2019. He has been serving as the Provincial Leader of the FF+ since 2015. He previously served as a municipal councillor of the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality from 2016 to 2019. Boshoff is the grandson of the assassinated apartheid-era Prime Minister of South Africa, Hendrik Verwoerd, who served from 1958 until 1966, and the son of Afrikaner enclave Orania founder, Carel Boshoff.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Beyond Walls: Wilhelm Verwoerd". Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  2. "MA thesis". 1989. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  3. "Verwoerd's grandson joins ANC". 16 March 2011. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  4. "Young Verwoerd is wrestling with sins of the grandfather". 3 April 1993. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  5. "Deep Reconciliation: Wilhelm Verwoerd and his calling to 'transform apartheid'". Noseweek. No. 242. December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  6. Flanagan, Jane (10 October 2019). "Apartheid architect's grandson fights own battle for reconciliation". The Times. Retrieved 5 June 2023.