Voortrekkers (youth organization)
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- Voortrekkers can also refer to the historical mass migration of the Afrikaner people: see Voortrekkers.
The Voortrekkers is an Afrikaans language youth organisation founded in South Africa in 1931. The Voortrekkers developed their identity based on what they called their ABC: Afrikanerskap, Burgerskap, Christenskap (Afrikanership, Citizenship, Christianity).
The founding of the Voortrekkers coincided with the growth of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa, then a British colony. In some ways it was an Afrikaans language alternative to the largely English-speaking Boy Scout movement with its British heritage. However, the Voortrekker programme was substantially more nationalist and religious than the Scout programme.
Organisationally, the Voortrekkers are divided into a number of gebiede (areas) which correspond to the old pre-1994 South African provinces plus Namibia, which in turn are subdivided into oorde (districts) and then kommandos (commandos). Each kommando consists of a number of spanne (teams).
