James Edwards interviews Joost Strydom, CEO of the Orania Movement

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James Edwards: You came to Orania as a boy with your family. What did your parents see in that little settlement on the Orange River that made them pull up stakes and raise you there, and how did growing up inside the project shape the man leading it today?

Joost Strydom: At least thirty years, I would guess, is how far ahead of the rest of the West that South Africa is. Ironically, it is also about thirty years behind. Ever felt like the West is facing “South-Africanization”? When change starts, it’s not linear, and it doesn’t happen as expected. Most notably, it’s not all bad — but it’s definitely not all good.

The winds of change started blowing through Africa in the sixties, but by the late 1980s a prediction that the political dispensation would rapidly change and the “communist ANC” would rise to power was still considered heretical and unthinkable.

In that bizarre time, my parents had a trinity of qualities that made them early Oranians: the sense to see what was going on around them, the non-mainstream views to understand and embrace an idea like Orania, and the guts, conviction, and sense of adventure to act on their beliefs.

They did not run away from South Africa, as many who later emigrated to the Anglosphere believed.

They did not act to isolate themselves, as many now living in luxury security estates thought they had.

And they did not long for a distant past as many thought they did.

They saw something to move towards, not something to run away from.

Growing up in Orania was actually quite simple. We lived a pioneer life with (very) scarce material resources and the natural need for innovation that comes with that, paired with an almost unshakable, though lively debated, set of shared convictions.

Orania was very small back then. In 1991, only 40 families settled in Orania. In ’95, when we arrived, I don’t think Orania had more than 300 people.

Playing my part in Orania today, on the Orania Movement’s side, I often test our current strategy, convictions, relations, and international strategy against what those early Oranians would have done, because Orania in 2026 owes everything to those with the guts to act on their beliefs. And I owe the same to my parents.

Edwards: You carry a very old Afrikaner name. You’ve said one of your forebears arrived in 1676. When you walk the streets of Orania or stand at the Kruger monument, do you feel you are continuing a family line that started so many generations ago, or is this a new chapter that has little to do with the old republics?

Strydom: My mother once gifted me with a wooden version of our family crest, carved from a piece of wood that survived a shipwreck. I hung it in my office, and I also set the crest as my phone’s lock screen. What are we if not a continuation of our family lines: their sacrifices, hopes, plans, mistakes and corrections, and ultimately their faith?

I share the name of the first Strydom to set foot in the Cape, Johannes Josias Strydom. He came here in the 1680s, in the very early days of the Dutch presence in Africa. Ages ago, but with so many of the same challenges and opportunities as we face today.

My convictions and politics are very Burkean. I believe the true social contract is between our ancestors, who are no longer here, and our descendants, who will be here long after we are gone. What we do isn’t perfect; our ancestors weren’t perfect, and neither will our descendants be.

But our ancestors dedicated their lives, in the most challenging circumstances here in Africa, to their freedom and their faith, against all odds. They set up Republics whenever they could, and they built the most beautiful churches with what they had.

The monuments of their unbreakable spirit and unfaltering faith stand not only in beautiful cities and buildings, most of which are no longer demographically in Afrikaner hands, but also in what we as Afrikaners became culturally.

Our nationhood, our “Volkskap”, the essence of what we are, is a dim spark of the fire they once had as stewards of creation, with a calling to build, maintain and protect.

Many Americans cannot understand why Afrikaners won’t just pack up and emigrate or take refuge in the West- and many of my countrymen will, but looking at what our ancestors faced and overcame, I cannot help but think of “Horatius” by Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Edwards: After you left to study communication, anthropology, economics, politics and philosophy, you came back. Some young Afrikaners leave and never come back. What pulled you home, and how did you benefit from your time abroad?

Strydom: One of the deadliest things on earth is a misplaced sense of safety, that false sense of safety. Like running towards a tall tree to feel safe during a thunderstorm, and “feeling” like the tree protects you.

Isolation is brutally effective at destroying cultures. Complete isolation is not possible anyway, but the effort to isolate a culture will destroy it.

Instead, a culture that wants to survive and thrive must have the confidence to stand on its own feet in the presence of others, economically, culturally, and more.

It is very important for Orania’s young adults to go out into the world, travel, study, and engage in economic activity.

The Orania model is not to isolate ourselves out of fear for the rest of Africa or the world, but to preserve and build out our own culture.

Of course, some young Oranians will want to go elsewhere in the world; if not, that would be very strange!

If many didn’t choose to come back, it would be clear we were wasting our time.

As a teenager, looking forward to my studies, I was quite excited to move to the city and engage with keen minds and challenging ideas. To my great disappointment, university offered very little of the engaging, thought-provoking and lively debate I had hoped for — and, to my great surprise, the level of groupthink was quite concerning. I missed Orania’s debates and challenging conversations — and, even more, the sense of purpose.

When I got an opportunity to move back for a job that I would enjoy, I took it.

This did not change my conviction that isolation can be fatal and that the idea that you can regulate yourself into safety rests on a false premise.

Go out, see, engage. I very much promote the idea of adventure.

Internal conviction must regulate our young people, not external regulations; those are trees in the thunderstorm.

Edwards: The Orania Movement is not the town council. You describe it as the ideological engine and the face to the outside world. In plain language for an American reader, what does the Movement actually do day to day, who funds it, and how do you keep the vision from drifting into just another pressure group?

Strydom: The Orania Movement was founded in 1988, three years before the purchase of the land that is now Orania. The movement was then known as AVSTIG (The Afrikaner Freedom Foundation); thus, Orania was first an idea and, through direct action, became a reality.

In a word, our responsibility is to mobilize Afrikaners. Our daily tasks include policy work, explaining and communicating the Orania idea, acting as Orania’s spokespersons, hosting diplomatic and political visitors, and more.

Orania is still young, in the context of nations and their histories, and we have to work very hard on liaison and diplomacy to further the cause of Afrikaner survival.

Our members, both inside and outside Orania, fund the Orania Movement. We also have some local and international donors who are heaven-sent when we must litigate, defend, take on infrastructure projects, and more. A very genuine thank you to all those who support us.

Tongue in cheek, we refer to ourselves as the Orania Department of Foreign Affairs.

Edwards: Orania is a cultural project for Afrikaans-speakers who share a work ethic and a Christian moral order. What other criteria does a family actually have to meet to settle there?

Strydom: The key detail about Orania’s existence that so many people miss is that we are trying to build a solution for Afrikaners as a people, a “volk”. Afrikaners are being pushed out of opportunities, economic and educational alike, with more than 142 race laws active in South Africa, while violent crime is also rampant.

Our effort is not to establish a nice estate, or security enclave but to create a heimat that Afrikaners can call home.

We welcome Afrikaners with a good command of our language and an understanding of our culture, who have no criminal or drug-related issues.

That’s where the idea of a “checklist” or “criteria” stops. As mentioned earlier, checklists can create a sense of cultural safety without providing it. Much like love, there are certainly disqualifiers that would end a relationship with your potential wife before it even begins (as noted above, criminals and drug dealers are not welcome), but it would be very strange to marry someone based on a checklist alone.

A potential Oranian would have to share our vision for what we’d like to build here, and the community would also have to feel comfortable with them. Values and moral standing cannot really be “tested” through a public process, and we don’t intend to introduce one. Rather, people must connect and trust one another.

Edwards: You’ve taken delegations to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and twice to the United States. What are you asking for when you sit down with politicians and think-tank people, and what have you learned about how the American right actually sees Afrikaners?

Strydom: The best interactions and feedback our Orania delegations have ever had came from simply sharing our story: where we came from, the challenges we face, and how we intend to solve them.

We know that no one is coming to save us, and the sooner Afrikaners realize this, roll up their sleeves and start building their own future, the better off we’ll be. This really resonates with our international friends in Europe and the US alike.

Our delegations have spoken with Dutch and Flemish politicians. We have supporter groups in South Tyrol, and “Orania ambassadors” in Germany. We have connected with members of parliament friendly to our cause, held public events in Bulgaria, and told our story in Hungary. The increased attention from the United States and our meetings with figures in the Trump administration mobilized strong support from everyday Americans, for which we are very thankful.

In the end, what we need, to give our people a chance of success, and what we ask for, is political recognition, investment in commercial projects in Orania, support from government officials around the world, donations to our city-building fund and educational initiatives for Afrikaner children, and help spreading our message.

Edwards: The town has grown at roughly ten percent a year, you’ve got a college aiming for hundreds of students, a multi-million-rand commercial building going up, and residents now score eight out of ten on “I’ll stay here for life.” What is the realistic ceiling? Can Orania become a genuine national home for the Afrikaner people, or will it remain a well-run town of a few thousand?

Strydom: Against all odds, we are building. We cannot afford too much realism, because realism can be a very bleak affair in Africa.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin could have contemplated the realism of independence for a very long time, and that might have prevented them from acting. I believe we must focus all our energy on building a future for Afrikaners and devote our thinking to refining our methods and strategy.

Yes, creating a national home for Afrikaners is a massive undertaking. Economically, politically, socially, and beyond, a great task lies ahead of us. Oranians have decided this strategy is one of the few that could actually protect and preserve our culture and national identity, so the best thing to do is begin this undertaking step by step.

If we could populate an area with a radius of a mere 40 km (about 25 miles), we would have an area much larger than Singapore!

Investment, infrastructure development, alternative energy projects and exports can help us do something miraculous here.

I pray that I, along with all the other Oranians, am committing my life to much more than a “well-run town”, and that together we can set something much larger in motion.

Edwards: South Africa’s government still claims jurisdiction. Farm murders, expropriation talk, and demographic change continue outside your gates. How do you think about security, legal status, and the possibility that Pretoria one day decides the experiment has gone far enough?

Strydom: There is only one thing better than freedom, and that is the striving and work to achieve it.

Yes, the systematic onslaught is constant, and sometimes concerning. Our people die on farms and in cities, while Afrikaners face constant legal battles over expropriation, education, business, and more. Orania itself must constantly defend our status against opportunistic politicians and more.

Security-wise, the most important thing is a good strategy from the start. We chose a carefully researched location and set of founding ideals from the start. We try our utmost to establish and maintain good relations, and we do our own work. All of these are critically important for Orania’s survival. International support also goes a long way.

Just as building Orania is a step-by-step process, so is state-proofing ourselves. Failing to plan ahead can be fatal, but dwelling too much on potential future threats can also demoralize you and pull you into planning for scenarios that never materialize. Africa is, and will always be, unpredictable.

Edwards: You have publicly turned down the idea of mass Afrikaner asylum in America. You say four hundred years on this continent means this is home. What is the moral and practical case for staying and building rather than leaving?

Strydom: We must carefully understand the problem Afrikaners are facing. Individually, we face economic instability, risk to our lives, and a hostile government.

On a collective, or “volk,” level, the real risk is that we are not consolidated, concentrated, and have very little political agency.

Orania, as a national home for Afrikaners, can address both sets of challenges by offering protection from persecution and individual risks and providing a place where Afrikaners can consolidate, enjoy political and economic security, and thrive. Our self-determination is thus threatened on the one hand by the ANC government in South Africa and on the other by the mass emigration of Afrikaners who become Australians, Brits, Canadians and Americans within one generation.

Since 1990, about 1 million South Africans have emigrated, leaving South Africa for greener pastures abroad. A significant blow to Afrikaner demographics in our homeland.

The Trump administration has shed light on the Afrikaner people’s plight, and the refugee program to the United States can offer a solution for individuals previously unable to leave South Africa for economic reasons. However, it cannot solve our national crisis. In fact, the more Afrikaners leave for America, the worse off those of us who choose to remain are.

After the executive order we had a three-word response, we said thank you very much but Orania’s ask is “help us here”.

We are thankful for the recognition and support, and hope that either the administration or individual Americans who support our cause can also help Afrikaners here. Help us through recognition, support, and investment.

We will continue building something worthy of that.

Edwards: So many people in America are fascinated by Orania and what you are doing. Where can they go to learn more straight from the source?

Strydom: I am deeply thankful for all the support! We share as much as possible about Orania on our social media so people can get a direct look at Orania’s day-to-day activities.

We also regularly publish in-depth videos on our YouTube channel here.

Finally, our website is orania.co.za, where you can sign up for our email newsletter.

Photo of children in Orania. Used with permission from Joost Strydom.