The Boers in East Africa: Ethnicity and Identity

At the end of the Anglo-Boer War in May 1902, the defeated Boers emigrated en masse out of South Africa. They had three diverse destinations: a large group went to Argentina, a smaller group to the American southwest (Mexico and the Texas-New Mexico border area), and a third group to East Africa. In both the large migrations, to Argentina and East Africa, the different denominations of the Dutch Reformed Church established congregations and sent dominees (ministers), who were regularly replaced by new dominees fresh from South Africa. The dominees became important agents in the preservation of Afrikaner ethnicity and instruments in return migrations, decades later, of Afrikaans speakers to South Africa.