To misquote Arnold Toynbee:
History is just one darned conspiracy theory after another1.
Q
A phenomenon that mainstream commentators currently denigrate as a conspiracy theory is the existence of Q.
I give the idea of Q the benefit of the doubt. If you think I’m a conspiracy theorist for doing that, I wear it as a badge of honor.
You see, I’m a veteran conspiracy theorist. If you want to embarrass me, you’re going to have to search for something else.
The theory that I cut my conspiracy teeth on
I grappled with my first significant conspiracy theory when I was a young adult, fifty years ago.
Pretty much the only people who were interested in it were South Africans. It centred on the question of whether or not the Broederbond existed.
People who believed that there was such a thing as the Broederbond were scoffed at just as believers in Q are mocked today.
Broederbond is the Afrikaans2 word for Brotherhood. Presently I’ll explain to you why there was a secret organization by that name.
But, before I explain how the Broederbond came to be, I’ll go back four centuries and draw some parallels between America’s and South Africa’s relationships with the British Crown.
Cape Colony
In the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company was plying a brisk maritime trade between the Netherlands and South-East Asia. But that was around 250 years before the Suez Canal was a twinkle in anyone’s eye. So, ships were obliged to undertake long voyages around the southern tip of Africa.
On such interminable voyages, when fresh fruit and vegetables ran out, sailors suffered from scurvy.
In 1652, the Dutch East India Company established an outpost where Cape Town is today. The goal was to grow fresh produce with which to resupply ships approximately halfway through their voyages.
The Netherlands enjoyed the use of that colony for close to 165 years. Unluckily for them, they were Napoleon’s allies and therefore among the losers at the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. To the victor went the spoils. A concession that was forced on the Netherlands was the surrender of the Cape Colony to the United Kingdom.
To give American readers a timeline context, King George III, from whom the American Colonies had won independence in 1783, was still on the throne during the Battle of Waterloo. At that point, King George III was five years from his death, which would take place in 18203.
Up sticks
When British administrators took over the running of the Cape Colony, they imposed English on the Dutch-speaking population. Schooling had to be in English, court cases had to be disputed in English, and so on. The Dutch-speaking population, known as Boers4, resented that.
So, the Boers climbed into ox-drawn wagons, and headed into the interior to get away from British rule.
In time, the Boer pioneers created two independent republics, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic.
If the Boer republics had trundled along, ranching and farming, I’m guessing Britain would have left them in peace.
Plot twist
The Orange Free State slipped on a banana peel when diamonds were discovered near Kimberley in 1869. Once the Orange Free State had as valuable a resource as diamonds, it attracted unwelcome attention from the United Kingdom.
However, no great harm came to the Orange Free State — at least nothing life-threatening. It was beneficial to the Orange Free Staters’ collective health that the diamond discovery was in the southwest corner of the country, close to the border with Britain’s Cape Colony.
Cecil Rhodes, the most powerful British representative in Southern Africa, hired slick surveyors to check the location of the diamond fields in relation to the two countries’ boundaries.
Wouldn’t you know it, the surveyors determined that the diamond fields didn’t fall in the Orange Free State after all. Rather, they fell inside the Cape Colony. Wasn’t that a remarkable coincidence?
The less literate Boers were no match for the smooth British surveyors.
But today’s map betrays what happened. Rather than the boundary going in a straight line, as it did before the discovery of diamonds, there is a jog in the map that situates the Kimberley diamond fields in the Cape Province instead of the Orange Free State.
But, as I said, the Boers’ naiveté that lost them the diamond fields was good for longevity.
Oh, dear
The Boer citizens of the South African Republic weren’t so lucky.
When gold was discovered near present-day Johannesburg in 1886, it was slap, bang in the middle of their country. The baffling boundary baloney wouldn’t have worked.
So, the Brits eventually instigated a military action over what they claimed were the South African Republic’s anti-democratic practices. But when did the British Crown ever care about democracy? It was just a ploy to get its grubby mitts on the gold.
In any event, that was what developed into the Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902).
How long till we get to the Broederbond?
Now we’re ready to explore the Broederbond, which I promised to tell you about.
To read about that – and the parallels between the Broederbond and Q – tune into Conspiracies I’ve known - Part II.
Toynbee actually said, “History is just one damned thing after another.” I’ve never seen a more masterful summation.
Afrikaans is a language that developed from the 17th century version of Dutch that settlers brought to the Cape Colony. As pioneers of Dutch descent spread throughout what today are South Africa and Namibia, the Afrikaans language spread with them.
Edited to add this correction: Though it’s true that King George III was alive during the Battle of Waterloo, it’s not true that he was actively ruling. Owing to King George III’s mental illness, his son, the Prince of Wales, later to be crowned King George IV, ruled as a Regent from 1811 - 1820. It was known as the Regency Period.
Boer is Dutch or Afrikaans for Farmer.