Dan Roodt
Encyclopedia
Daniel Francois Roodt is a South African activist, literary critic and writer
.
, South Africa
. He completed his schooling in Johannesburg, after which he enrolled for a Bachelors degree at the University of Witwatersrand. Roodt lectured at the University of Durban-Westville
for a while, and in 1985 left South Africa for France
to avoid conscription
in the South African Defence Force. His literary works had been banned by the South African government.
While studying in France, Roodt's political ideas changed; where he was once anti-establishment and opposed the Afrikaner
government in South Africa, he became a staunch opposer of communism
.
, columns to American Renaissance
, a white nationalist magazine, various scientific or academic journals in South Africa, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as a host of articles in South African newspapers such as The Mail & Guardian, The Sunday Times, Business Day, Beeld, Die Burger and Rapport. He also regularly appears on television and radio talkshows in South Africa.
In May 2011 Roodt stood for the Freedom Front Plus during the municipal elections as a candidate in Johannesburg, but was not elected.
. Roodt explained that he had set up the site so that anyone who disliked Du Preez and his views, could openly express their dislike on the website.. When contacted by Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport
for comment, Du Preez merely replied that 'it only confirms what I suspected: That Dan has a homo-erotic
fixation with me'. In May 2011, the domain name in question was seized by the regulator of South African web domain names, and given to Du Preez. A judge had ruled that Roodt had misused Du Preez's name as part of a slanderous campaign against the latter. The website has since been offline.
In March 2010 Roodt advised Afrikaners to support the football team of the Netherlands
instead of the South African team
in the FIFA World Cup
, hosted by South Africa in June and July 2010.
In May 2010 Roodt travelled to Europe where he met with Neo-Nazi and far-right political associations to discuss the ideal of the Afrikaner Volkstaat
. In Sweden
he met with members of the Swedish Resistant Movement (Swedish
: Svenska Motståndsrörelsen), an openly militant
Neo-Nazi organization that honours controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler
. Roodt reportedly held talks with Filip Dewinter
, one of the leading members of the Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang
.
On the July 5th episode of The Daily Show with John Stewart Roodt was interviewed by John Oliver in a piece entitled "The Amazing Racists." During the interview (which Oliver refers to as a "tasting tour of some of the finest examples of vintage bigotry") Roodt discusses his views on the dangers of interracial breeding, the supposedly inherent differences between races, and the need for a separate exclusively white nation.
to date, Kommas uit 'n boomzol (Uitgewery Pannevis, 1980), structurally parodies Komas uit 'n bamboesstok (Human & Rousseau, 1979), a volume of poetry by famous Afrikaans poet D.J. Opperman. Afrikaans literary critic John Kannemeyer
asserts that there is 'no one poem of any intrinsic value' in Kommas uit 'n boomzol, and similarly views Roodt's subsequent prose work Twee sinne (Taurus, 1985).
Roodt's first publication after Twee sinne is a long critical essay
on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) entitled Om die Waarheidskommissie te vergeet ('Forgetting the Truth Commission', 2001). This would be PRAAG's first publication of one of Roodt's works. In 2004, PRAAG published the novel Moltrein, which is about a promising musician who leaves South Africa during the 1980s to avoid military service in the South African Defence Force. Kannemeyer notes that the use of the Afrikaans language in this novel is testament to the author's ineptness with using the language, and that with this novel Roodt makes no new contribution to the Afrikaans literature.
In 2005 Roodt released The Scourge of the ANC (PRAAG), a heavy critique against the ANC, but also against the former South African government under leadership of FW de Klerk. The following year, Aweregs (PRAAG, 2006), another collection of political essays, was released. Regarding Aweregs, Venter notes that if the ultimate aim of the book is
and Country Estate in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Early life and education
Roodt was born in the mining town of Springs, east of JohannesburgJohannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He completed his schooling in Johannesburg, after which he enrolled for a Bachelors degree at the University of Witwatersrand. Roodt lectured at the University of Durban-Westville
University of Durban-Westville
The University of Durban-Westville was formerly a university situated in Westville, Durban opened 1972. It now forms part of the campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Known as UDW, it was initially established for Indians as during apartheid there were few universities that admitted non-White...
for a while, and in 1985 left South Africa for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to avoid conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
in the South African Defence Force. His literary works had been banned by the South African government.
While studying in France, Roodt's political ideas changed; where he was once anti-establishment and opposed the Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
government in South Africa, he became a staunch opposer of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
.
Career
After returning to South Africa in 1992, Roodt worked for Citibank until 1999, and in 2000 he co-founded PRAAG (Pro-Afrikaanse Aksiegroep, or Pro-Afrikaans Action Group), which describes itself as an extra-parliamentary movement devoted to the rights of Afrikaners. PRAAG also has a publishing division, which has published some of Roodt's most recent writing. Roodt has contributed articles to Focus, the journal of the liberal Helen Suzman FoundationHelen Suzman Foundation
The Helen Suzman Foundation is an independent, non-partisan think-tank in South Africa dedicated to promoting liberal democratic values and human rights in post-apartheid South Africa through its research and publications...
, columns to American Renaissance
American Renaissance (magazine)
-Cancellation of 2010, 2011 conferences:In February 2010, following protests to hotel management of several hotels, which Jared Taylor claimed included some death threats, American Renaissance's biennial conference was canceled...
, a white nationalist magazine, various scientific or academic journals in South Africa, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as a host of articles in South African newspapers such as The Mail & Guardian, The Sunday Times, Business Day, Beeld, Die Burger and Rapport. He also regularly appears on television and radio talkshows in South Africa.
In May 2011 Roodt stood for the Freedom Front Plus during the municipal elections as a candidate in Johannesburg, but was not elected.
Activism
Roodt has strong views on the preservation of Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture. He maintains a blog and the PRAAG website, commenting constantly on actual issues in South Africa. Roodt also regularly writes letters regarding political matters to various South African (mostly Afrikaans) newspapers and the literary e-zine LitNet.Controversy
Roodt caused a controversy after creating an internet site for the purpose of insulting South African journalist, writer and activist Max du PreezMax du Preez
Max du Preez is a South African author, columnist and documentary filmmaker and was the founding editor of Vrye Weekblad.-Vrye Weekblad:Du Preez founded Vrye Weekblad, an Afrikaans-language weekly newspaper, in November 1988...
. Roodt explained that he had set up the site so that anyone who disliked Du Preez and his views, could openly express their dislike on the website.. When contacted by Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport
Rapport
Rapport is a term used to describe, in common terms, the relationship of two or more people who are in sync or on the same wavelength because they feel similar and/or relate well to each other....
for comment, Du Preez merely replied that 'it only confirms what I suspected: That Dan has a homo-erotic
Homoeroticism
Homoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
fixation with me'. In May 2011, the domain name in question was seized by the regulator of South African web domain names, and given to Du Preez. A judge had ruled that Roodt had misused Du Preez's name as part of a slanderous campaign against the latter. The website has since been offline.
In March 2010 Roodt advised Afrikaners to support the football team of the Netherlands
Netherlands national football team
The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands...
instead of the South African team
South Africa national football team
The South Africa national football team represents South Africa in association football and is controlled by the South African Football Association, the governing body for football in South Africa. South Africa's home ground is Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium due to a naming rights deal, in...
in the FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, hosted by South Africa in June and July 2010.
In May 2010 Roodt travelled to Europe where he met with Neo-Nazi and far-right political associations to discuss the ideal of the Afrikaner Volkstaat
Volkstaat
Volkstaat is a proposal for the establishment of self determination for the Boer and Afrikaners minority in South Africa according to federal principles, alluding to full independence in the form of a homeland for Boer and Afrikaners....
. In Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
he met with members of the Swedish Resistant Movement (Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
: Svenska Motståndsrörelsen), an openly militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
Neo-Nazi organization that honours controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Roodt reportedly held talks with Filip Dewinter
Filip Dewinter
Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter is a Flemish politician in Belgium. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party...
, one of the leading members of the Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang is a Belgian far-right political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels that advocates the independence of Flanders and strict limits on immigration, whereby immigrants would be obliged to adopt Flemish culture and language...
.
On the July 5th episode of The Daily Show with John Stewart Roodt was interviewed by John Oliver in a piece entitled "The Amazing Racists." During the interview (which Oliver refers to as a "tasting tour of some of the finest examples of vintage bigotry") Roodt discusses his views on the dangers of interracial breeding, the supposedly inherent differences between races, and the need for a separate exclusively white nation.
Writing
Roodt's first novel, Sonneskyn en Chevrolet (Taurus, 1980), is an anti-establishment commentary on South African society (and specifically Afrikaner society) of that time. His only published volume of poetryPoetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
to date, Kommas uit 'n boomzol (Uitgewery Pannevis, 1980), structurally parodies Komas uit 'n bamboesstok (Human & Rousseau, 1979), a volume of poetry by famous Afrikaans poet D.J. Opperman. Afrikaans literary critic John Kannemeyer
John Christoffel Kannemeyer
J. C. Kannemeyer is an authority on Afrikaans literature and well-known biographer of Afrikaans writers, and has published numerous books on the history of Afrikaans literature.-External links:*...
asserts that there is 'no one poem of any intrinsic value' in Kommas uit 'n boomzol, and similarly views Roodt's subsequent prose work Twee sinne (Taurus, 1985).
Roodt's first publication after Twee sinne is a long critical essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) entitled Om die Waarheidskommissie te vergeet ('Forgetting the Truth Commission', 2001). This would be PRAAG's first publication of one of Roodt's works. In 2004, PRAAG published the novel Moltrein, which is about a promising musician who leaves South Africa during the 1980s to avoid military service in the South African Defence Force. Kannemeyer notes that the use of the Afrikaans language in this novel is testament to the author's ineptness with using the language, and that with this novel Roodt makes no new contribution to the Afrikaans literature.
In 2005 Roodt released The Scourge of the ANC (PRAAG), a heavy critique against the ANC, but also against the former South African government under leadership of FW de Klerk. The following year, Aweregs (PRAAG, 2006), another collection of political essays, was released. Regarding Aweregs, Venter notes that if the ultimate aim of the book is
to demonstrate the author's pessimism regarding Africa, the African National CongressAfrican National CongressThe African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
(ANC), "the new" South Africa, and supporters of the idea that Afrikaans can only survive by developing multilingualismMultilingualismMultilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
in South Africa, then Roodt's vision succeeds. But it is a limited and distressing vision. Aweregs is in that case merely a sly, polemical work for the sake of being mean and controversial.
Personal life
Roodt currently lives with his wife, Karin (née Bredenkamp), and their three children in Dainfern GolfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
and Country Estate in Johannesburg, South Africa.
See also
+ AfrikaansAfrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
- Afrikaans literatureAfrikaans literatureAfrikaans literature is literature written in Afrikaans – especially since the standardization of the Afrikaans language from 14 August 1875 to the beginning of the twentieth century. Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch and is spoken by the majority of people in the Western Cape of South Africa...
- AfrikanerAfrikanerAfrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
- Afrikaner nationalismAfrikaner nationalismAfrikaner nationalism is a political ideology that was born in the late 19th century around the idea that Afrikaners in South Africa were a "chosen people"; it was also strongly influenced by anti-British sentiments that grew strong among the Afrikaners, especially because of the Boer Wars...
- Apartheid
- BoerBoerBoer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...