Global Right, Global White: South Africa in the Political Imaginary of the Radical Right

This project focuses on the unique position of South Africa and the Afrikaner minority within the narratives and imaginaries of contemporary transnational radical right-wing movements. It investigates how a number of South African political movements and groups have successfully mobilized political networks, strategies and social media platforms to gain visibility on the international stage. It further analyses how representations of the Afrikaners at the southern-most tip of Africa are mobilized by radical right-wing groups in Europe and the United States in attempts to produce politically powerful images of a white minority surrounded by civilizational ‘others’, and systematically connected to right-wing fears about ‘the great replacement’. The project is theoretically innovative in that it reveals how the radical right exists simultaneous as a global phenomenon and as a grounded political project. It also seeks to contribute creative and practical solutions for how to counter the spread of radical-right wing ideas and practices.