Where Hope Lives Among the Ruins: A South African Journey
I just finished a group trip here in South Africa with some Swedes. It’s been a week that really prompted reflection on all the contrasts that exist here.
South Africa truly is a land of contrasts. You see total misery one moment, then hope, strength, and beauty the next. History collides with the present here. Cultural clashes hit you from every angle, both as a Swede and as a European.
I’m writing this from what might be the most beautiful place you can imagine - a private game reserve with rain clouds slowly drifting over the hills. Just finished tea with John Edmond, Rhodesia’s greatest musician, whose wife went digging through their library to find copies of his books for us, that he of course signed. Not many Swedes have those on their shelves, I can tell you that. It was a very interesting meeting where we got to talk about both his music and about good old Rhodesia. He went through how he was the first on scene at Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane crash back in the day. He was squad leader in the Rhodesian Regiment and was ordered to the crash site.
It’s been an intense week. Something needs to be experienced to be truly understood and South Africa is truly such a place.
Orania and the Conservative Spirit
Orania was of course extraordinary. As always. It’s not just an enclave of Afrikaners, it’s an enclave where people and values flow together. This is something I rarely experience back in Sweden, where even in seemingly homogeneous settings, the prevailing liberal consensus makes you feel out of place. But in Orania, you’re with your people AND you breathe in sync with them. Same vision, same direction, same values. After three days there, you really get it.
Have you ever felt truly at home among your own people?
This is one of the main reasons I keep coming back to South Africa. It’s simply more conservative and right down here. Even their liberals are in many ways more sensible than, say, the Sweden Democrats back home (our right wing party). At least they’re realists to some degree, acknowledging differences between peoples in a way that SD with their civic nationalism never would, insisting that anyone can become Swedish.
However the big dividing line between Orania and other Afrikaners in South Africa is that they do their own work. That might sound strange to us Swedes or any other westerner for that matter, we really don’t look down on manual labor. It’s honest work. But many white South Africans wouldn’t touch jobs that black people typically do here. Yet in Orania, they do it all themselves.
You notice it immediately at gas stations. Outside Orania, stations the size of a normal Swedish gas station have five times the staff, taking care of everything for you. Every other household has domestic help, at least coming in once or twice a week. That’s why you see these fantastic gardens everywhere - people have that extra money to pay someone to do it for pennies. But in Orania, you can’t do that. They do it all themselves.
What strikes you is the incredible strength that comes from their passion for a collective vision. Their symbol captures it perfectly: De Kleine Reus, the Little Giant, rolling up his sleeves, ready to work. They’re still part of the South African system and they pay taxes like everyone else, but they get nothing back for it. They are paying double—first to the state and then to themselves. They’re willing to do the extra work to ensure they have reliable energy, good roads, and security. It’s their own people. They’re building their own university and schools.
It reminds me of how Orania was built, by a few dozen families who dared to take that step, who saw the vision and followed it. And look what it became. I explore this development more thoroughly in my book “Orania: Building a Nation” for those interested in the deeper story. If you haven’t already listened to my conversation with Frans de Klerk, who works in the Orania Movement’s communications department, you can find that here.
Echoes of History
We also visited Magersfontein, just around the corner from Orania, the battlefield where the Scandinavian Corps fought 126 years ago. To go there today and see monuments on foreign soil raised for Scandinavians, these aren’t small monuments, they’re the dominant feature of the site. The Boer general famously said, “Next to God, we have the Scandinavians to thank for our victory.”
Next to God, we have the Scandinavians to thank for the victory
Today marks exactly 126 years since Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish volunteers lay in the morning mist at Magersfontein, ready to face the British assault. They had dug themselves into rocky ground, tired, cold, but determined.
Just over a hundred men, 119 or so, made that contribution. When I poured some whiskey for them on that hill, it felt like they were grateful we were there, that we saw them and recognized their deed.
White Poverty and The Children’s Home
The emergence of white squatter camps has become an entirely new phenomenon in South Africa. This isn’t like the self-chosen poverty you might see in Sweden - people opting out of the system for whatever reason. Here you have people who worked their entire lives and in their twilight years end up in a squatter camp. Mixed ages, spanning generations, from small children to pensioners. They’re dependent on people’s good will. We brought food parcels that were gratefully received, and many of them have applied for asylum to the USA. But it’s tough. They struggle financially even to afford getting their documents. It costs around 700 Rand, about 50 US dollars, just to get a passport.
One family told us they went bankrupt with their business because they refused to follow BEE guidelines, which among other things require you to take on a black partner. When they didn’t comply, they lost many customers and couldn’t make ends meet anymore. It becomes a self-playing piano - companies that bring in black partners do business with other companies that have done the same. Like in many socialist countries, the free market is deeply intertwined with various state subsidies and state companies, and they’re very strict - you can’t participate in public tenders if you don’t meet BEE requirements.
This is also one of the reasons beyond the farm murders and hatred towards white farmers that Trump has opened up a refugee program, and why Musk doesn’t have Starlink in South Africa - it would be forced to follow BEE as well. Far too few people are talking about and problematizing today’s race laws in South Africa. Many people down here see Trump as a godsend.
Even worse than the squatter camps is the emergence of orphanages for Afrikaner children. Parents who want to spare their children a life of poverty on the streets or in a squatter camp give up their children. A fate that’s hard to grasp.
The joy in all this is at least what Mike Cronje has built up: a children’s home with a fine esprit de corps, in a location that’s magically beautiful. A place where zebras graze by the playground and African antelope almost eat from your hand. It’s incredibly tragic what brought those kids there, but what an environment. The leadership creates such a spirit of community that you almost feel happy for the children rather than sorry for them.
Mike woke up one day, felt the calling, and hasn’t wavered an inch since. Another great example of Afrikaner spirit. They have this saying in Afrikaans: “n Boer maak n plan” - a Boer makes a plan. They solve problems themselves. They’re the original MacGyvers.
They manage and survive by the grace of the community. They get food past its sell-by date from the local grocery store, they sort through it - what works for the children they cook, and what’s not suitable for the kids goes to the farm animals. Besides the savanna animals with antelopes and zebras, they also have farm animals - pigs, sheep, and chickens that the children help take care of. From farm to table, so to speak. So quite often there’s meat from their own farm, where they learn to slaughter and butcher.
Mike works hard to pass on this hands-on approach to the children - to solve problems and take care of themselves, take responsibility and prepare for a hostile job market. He does this precisely by teaching them to work with their hands, preparing them for a life as small business owners or self-employed, the part of civic life where there’s the most freedom in a hostile system.
He’s doing something very right. And it was wonderful to hand over all the food, fruit and treats we brought for the children. If you’d like to help out as well, here are donation options for both the squatter camp we visited and the orphanage. Christmas is coming - let them feel it.
You can donate directly to the orphanage on their website:
And for the informal settlement, you can buy food vouchers here, and send them to the managers phone number: +27 72 738 8101
Looking Forward
I can’t recommend strongly enough that you join the next trip. If you can’t make the next one, watch for the one after that. If you want to experience something real, this is it. I’m definitely going to do more tours. I want to spend more time in Orania. After meeting all these fantastic people this week, I’m convinced there are more conversations to be had.
The word that keeps coming back is contrasts. Despite everything you read in the headlines about South Africa - the crisis, the misery - this country radiates hope. That’s something you don’t expect, but it’s unmistakably there.
Now my group has headed back to the Swedish darkness and cold, which sounds super fun. The guys said they will need some time to process all this. And for me, I’m going to fly from Johannesburg back to the Cape where my family awaits me. Right now I’m running on passion and enthusiasm. I’ll probably crash on the long journey home, but I’m looking forward to that too.
Sitting here writing, I can’t put into words how beautiful it is. I won’t even post a picture - you have to see it for yourself.
And if you would like to help me out, then you can become a paying subscriber and I see you on the next update and then it will be from the South African coast.
Best!
Jonas Nilsson