Broederbond, noun

/ˈbrʊdə(r)bɔnt/, /ˈbrudə(r)bɔnt/
Forms:
Also Broderbond, Broederbund.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, short for Afrikaner Broederbond, Afrikaner (see Afrikaner) + broeder brother + bond league, fellowship.
1. An exclusive (originally secret) organization promoting the economic and political interests of Afrikaners; AB; Bond noun2 sense 2 a. Also attributive. See also broeder sense 3.
Note:
The Broederbond was established in 1918, with membership open (by invitation only) to male Afrikaners of a particular political persuasion.
1944 J.C. Smuts in H. Gibbs Twilight in S. Afr. (1950) 202It is clear that the Broederbond is a dangerous, cunning, political, Fascist organization of which no public servant, if he is to retain his loyalty to the State and Administration, can be allowed to be a member.
1950 H. Gibbs Twilight in S. Afr. 201The history of the Afrikaner Broederbond (Band of Brothers) is one of the most fantastic of the 20th century.
1950 H. Gibbs Twilight in S. Afr. 201The mysterious organization called the Broederbond, whose members pursued their business in the darkness of intrigue and whose ambitions were served by a fanatical devotion.
1950 D. Reed Somewhere S. of Suez 66The Broderbond, a band of brothers..of which General Hertzog said in 1935: ‘We now have to do with a secret political society accessible to and existing only for Afrikaans-speaking members, the moving spirits of which are out to govern South Africa over the heads of the English-speaking people among us.’
1952 Rand Daily Mail 2 Dec. 11The choice before South Africa was clear — a Broederbond..or a united South Africa marching in step with the great Commonwealth of Nations.
1962 L.E. Neame Hist. of Apartheid 71The Broederbond, a secret society pledged to place Afrikaners in all important positions in the State.
1963 A. Delius Day Natal Took Off 47The stock bogey of opposition politics, the Afrikaner Broederbond..a kind of cultural and political Mafia among the Afrikaners.
1972 Weekend Post 27 May 2Judging from information which had leaked out, the Broederbond was not well-disposed towards the English-speaker and his cultural heritage.
1981 E. Prov. Herald 23 Apr. 1South Africa’s R3 000-million a year meat indsutry nestles in the beefy palm of the Broederbond — the country’s powerful and secret Afrikaner organisation.
1990 T. Mathews et al. in Newsweek 12 Feb. 10The secret Broederbond (Brotherhood) of elite white Afrikaners is pushing forcefully for reform, in the name of the survival of white society.
2. transferred sense. Any exclusive grouping, especially one operating secretively and having a lot of power within a particular field or organization.
1980 Daily Dispatch 6 May 6Mr Rupert Lorimer of Orange Grove..accused Mr B.H. W— of Carletonville of being a ‘member of the mealie mafia’..‘I say he belongs to the mealie Broederbond.’
1982 E. Prov. Herald 26 Aug. 5Opus Dei, which has been described as ‘a kind of Catholic Broederbond,’ claims to have..75 000 members in 80 countries.
1985 Fair Lady 6 Feb. 82Botha then accused B— of running a black broederbond — the mud that his black political enemies also continually sling in his face.
1990 D. Van Heerden in Sunday Times 10 June 8The Afrikaner Volkswag..is a sort of respectable umbrella organisation — the Broederbond of the right wing.
1990 Sunday Times 24 June 2The party (sc. the South African Communist Party) does not see itself as a ‘Broederbond’ within the ANC.
An exclusive (originally secret) organization promoting the economic and political interests of Afrikaners; AB; Bond noun2 sense 2 a. Also attributive.
Any exclusive grouping, especially one operating secretively and having a lot of power within a particular field or organization.
Derivatives:
Hence Broederbondism  noun, the attitudes and actions of the Broederbond.
1960 J.H. Coetzee in H. Spottiswoode S. Afr.: Rd Ahead 68The bogy of Afrikaner-nationalism, Afrikaner-calvinism and Afrikaner broederbondism, always kept alive by the press and hammered on by political machinations.
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Afrikaans
broeder, nounn.Broederbonder, nounn.
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