''His Big White Self'' is a 2006 documentary film made by

Nick Broomfield Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he cal ...

. It is a sequel to his earlier documentary ''

The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife ''The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife'' is a 1991 British feature-length documentary film set during the final days of the apartheid in South Africa, particularly centring on Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder and leader of the far-right A ...

'' (1991). It was first shown as part of

More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content When ...

's Nick Broomfield week which began on 27 February 2006. The documentary follows Broomfield as he returns to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

12 years after the final end of the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

regime. His previous film focused largely on JP Meyer, a driver for

Eugène Terre'Blanche Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (, 31 January 1941Terre'Blanche's year of birth is alternately given as 1941 or 1944. The majority of sources indicates 1941; sources that claim 1944 as his year of birth includ''The Star''Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (), meaning "Afrikaner Resistance Movement", commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary organisation in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and ...

), and JP's wife, Anita.

Content

In ''His Big White Self,'' Broomfield explores conditions after his return to

Ventersdorp Ventersdorp is a town of 4,200 in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. It was the seat of the defunct Ventersdorp Local Municipality until 2016. Ventersdorp is centrally located, making it easier to access m ...

in the former

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

(now

North West Province North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana. History North West was incorporated after the end of Apartheid in 1994, an ...

). He meets with JP, a former driver of

Eugene Terre'Blanche Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

, head of the

Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (), meaning "Afrikaner Resistance Movement", commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary organisation in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and ...

(Afrikaner Resistance Movement), and his wife Anita to see how their lives have changed since the fall of

in 1994. (He had covered the lives of the couple in his earlier documentary). JP and Anita had divorced since 1991. JP works as an ambulance driver, splitting his time between this and his new wife. Anita moved to the town of

Ottosdal Ottosdal is a small town situated at an altitude of 1,479 meters (4,855 feet) on the branch railway line from Makwassie in the central North West Province of South Africa. Ottosdal is a farming community engaged in the growing of grains such as m ...

and devotes much of her time to their grandchildren, teaching them

Afrikaaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cas ...

ways and traditions. JP expresses feelings of betrayal, as he believed that the

would instigate a '

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

revolution' in its quest for a white homeland after

Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

and the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

came to power. The AWB failed to achieve this goal. JP justifies apartheid and its principles of separation by race as the 'best way' for

to exist harmoniously. Anita, by contrast, has shifted from being a radical champion of white rule to concluding that a minority has no right to govern a majority.

Eugene Terre'Blanche

Broomfield also gains access to Eugene Terre'Blanche himself, meeting him in disguise to prevent the leader from recognising him. During Broomfield's previous meeting with Terre'Blanche, the leader considered himself to have been portrayed as foolish, leading to death threats being sent to Broomfield. The film also documents some particularly noteworthy events which all occurred in the run up to the ending of Apartheid and the South African general election, 1994. This includes the events of 9 August 1991, when President F. W. de Klerk visited

(the leader's birthplace and a major power base for the AWB at the time), and the battle which subsequently ensued when the AWB allegedly cut the town's power supply and began firing on police. The Storming of Kempton Park World Trade Centre is also shown. In June 1993, the AWB and other far right groups stormed the Kempton Park World Trade Centre near

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. At the time, the venue was being used for negotiations between the ANC and the National Party to end Apartheid. The AWB again made national headlines when in March 1994 they invaded the tribal homeland of

Bophuthatswana Bophuthatswana (, meaning "gathering of the Tswana people"), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana ( tn, Riphaboliki ya Bophuthatswana; af, Republiek van Bophuthatswana), was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland"; an area set aside for mem ...

, uninvited and seemingly acting as if on a hunting parade, killing many civilians. The film captures the occasion when three AWB commandos were summarily executed by a Bophuthatswanan soldier as they were attempting to leave the tribal homeland. At the time, Bophuthatswana was still a so-called independent homeland for blacks set up by the Apartheid regime and its leader,

Lucas Mangope Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope (27 December 1923 – 18 January 2018) was the leader of the Bantustan (homeland) of Bophuthatswana. The territory he ruled over was distributed between the Orange Free State – what is now Free State – and North W ...

, was refusing to reintegrate the homeland with the new South Africa, prompting a coup. The film's final scene shows Anita, still working as a nurse, treating a small black child who has sustained some minor leg wounds, which seemingly alludes to the new South Africa where black and white are no longer separate; previously, hospitals were segregated by race, as were many other public amenities.

Release

The film was released in the UK as a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

boxset together with ''

'' on 3 April 2006.

External links

*
Nick Broomfield homepage

{{Nick Broomfield Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging Documentary films about apartheid Documentary films about racism Films shot in South Africa 2006 television films 2006 films British documentary films Films directed by Nick Broomfield 2006 documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films English-language documentary films