"WHEREAS PEOPLE of lesser nations frolic in the mud," came the voice, low but reverberating in the dim, smoky hall, "ours frolic in golden fields of their own planting. For it is, and has always been, the destiny of our people to rise above mere material circumstances and survive through nothing but the strength of their will and the powers of their heritage."
Polite applause greeted these words as the speaker, mustachioed and sweating, stepped away from the podium and nodded to the crowd. Rising heads at the base of the stage nodded towards each other and shuffled as the speaker stepped down, shaking hands with the others, as conversation in the club grew to a slight murmur. It was dark, lit only by the candles of the tables, as servers moved quickly to refill the glasses of the patrons with more poison.
Above the threshold of the club entrance, a small poster with a single simple symbol on it stood and bared itself to all entering:
Below it printed the words:
NASIONALE VÖLKISCHER BRÖDERBOND
The lapse in speaking prompted individuals to mill about only slightly, still engaged in hushed but fervent conversation, as another man mounted the podium: his bristly mustache and wiry hair indicating to all without a second moment's notice his important identity.
"Gentlemen I present you," said a short, fussy man in a frock coat, "Gerbrant van de Berge, long-time member of our society, leader of the Boer Republican Party, and the Foreign Minister of our government."
A short thumping of tables followed this announcement as de Berge nodded and smiled sardonically, proudly to those gathered. Once the noise subsided, and the dark room was again filled with silence, he spoke calmly.
"My friends, we have been meeting now for five years," he said in a clear though slightly strained voice. "Five years has this bar in Blömföntein been our place of brotherhood and five years have we re-adjourned here to discuss the most important issue facing the Boer nation today: that of the völkisch movement.
"As you know, not years ago I was the esteemed President of our Republik, a position I engaged in to the satisfaction of all my duties and without any reservations as to the pitiful miserations of our opponents. As you know, in that time I effected for the first time, using the Boer Republican Party as my hand, the institutionalization of an important preservation of our nationality and our security. In bygone days we were forced to scatter and made to kneel before the will of distant banker-lords, but thanks to the struggle of our
volk we persevered as only we could. Thereupon we, the brothers of this brotherhood, realized the inevitability of our struggle against such insidious foreign influences as the Britons; and thereupon through the Boer Republican Party we enacted our wisdom and our insight to crush the enemy that walks among us."
Some appreciative murmurs emerged from the room at this speaking, and de Berge held up a hand, asking for quiet. "You know, as I know, that it was the English we should have feared - if none else - as the only ones with all of the cunning and none of the character to seek to oppose us. For it was - and always has been - the English who have ventured always to despoil, deceive, and deject the peoples of all nations to subjugate to their fat and sinful ways.
"We, therefore, made a decision which our enemies, with their soft hearts, could not understand: the decision to immediately render a solution upon these people, and the decision to secure the safety and future of our people and our children. Whereas our enemies, some among them sympathists with Communards, others among them cowards who believe in the false prophet of the so-called Enlightenment, spoke afoul of our methods and intentions, we knew what we were doing was irreversible - and, more importantly, wholly necessary. We forced the hateful Briton out of his colonists' home and ensured therefore our realm would lack not for the living space of Boer people. It is possible generations hence the soft-hearted - bless their kind souls - will look back on us and call us murderers. But we know that their whole existence is guaranteed by our willingness to be cruel, and our willingness to see past the crocodile tears of the wretched enemies of our people.
"For it is not, as must be said, the prerogative of the strong to yield to the weak - the weak always give themselves unto the strong, as the principles of the strong demand it. When the tables have turned and the weak make demands of the strong, the weak have become the strong and the strong have become the weak. There is no true appeal to egalitarianism that exists in the real course of life: there is only culture and race. We knew, as the British insisted on imprisoning us in camps and forcing us out of our homes in all the century past, that they would never willingly come to us and offer an apology. We knew then, as we know now, that the only advocate we could count on was our own.
"Now, it is true that our nation is newly embroiled in war. No doubt you, as am I, are threatened, perhaps even anxious by this occurrence. What of our brothers of enterprise and our industry so determined and dedicated, who now have their necks laid down upon the altars of foreign devilry? Who shall speak for them, indeed? No alliance could save us from this engagement - no alliance did save us from this engagement. We stand alone on the edge of the world, thousands of kilometers from our ancestral home, but possessing now a land and identity which we have made our own by our blood, sweat, and tears. Now the hated Oriental, the hated Briton, and the hated Portuguese conspire against us. Yes, the international British conspiracy has even dominated our ancestral homelands of the Dutch and the Deutsch. We may hope their people may someday throw off the shackles of the hated Briton, but we can count on nothing except the currency of Action. There is only one guarantee in this world: death - and only one security: will.
"Our will shall thus create for our people and our nation a great new security, though they with their soft hearts may not want it. A tide is coming, great and terrible, which will reveal to every Boer with pride and dignity in himself and his race the great purpose of our nation and our all-important right to exist. No foreigner can overcome this feeling except by total domination, subjugation, and enslavement of our species. It is indeed up to us to choose our destiny and invest in the new movement of our people, who will create and secure the boundaries of our nation against all challengers. For it is not the privilege of Britons, Jews, Portuguese, and Orientals that have made the Boer nation great. It was our own sweat, our own toil, and our own blood.
"Now we live in the shadows. Now we do what we can to advocate for our people though they may not know better. Now we do what we must, because we can. But someday soon, whether this war ends in disgrace or dignity, our people will awaken from their sleep, and all foreigners and their gophers will be uprooted. Today the Nasionale Völkische Bröderbond meets in darkness and accepts this burden with grateful dignity. Twenty years hence, nations far and wide will look upon our purity with begrudging admiration. We will be, as we are destined to be, respected, loved, and feared by the community of nations as a fearsome nation with a state thus suited, and an ambition that cannot be resisted.
"No matter how this conflict ends, Boerika prevails."
The thumping of the tables came, and de Berge stood back from the podium into the darkness slightly, reaching into his jacket pocket for a handkerchief to dab at his forehead. Long had he awaited this day, and though the candles burned low, the fire within roared furiously.
