Daniel Francois Roodt (born 26 May 1957) is a South African author, publisher, and commentator.
Early life and education
Roodt was born in the mining town of Springs, east of
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
, South Africa. He completed his schooling in Johannesburg, after which he enrolled for a
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
at the
University of Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...
.
Roodt has six degrees, including a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in Afrikaans, obtained with a thesis on the works of in 1994.
Career
Roodt lectured at the
University of Durban-Westville
The University of Durban-Westville (UDW) was a university situated in Westville, a town situated near Durban, South Africa, which opened in 1972. It is now one of the campuses of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was initially established for ...
for a while, and in 1985 left South Africa for France to avoid
conscription
Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...
in the South African Defence Force.
Times LIVE said that in the 1980s, Roodt was an anti-establishment anarchist, but that now "he is branded a right-wing reactionary" for his "vehement anti-ANC essays". Two of his literary works had been banned by the South African government in 1980, a time of strict censorship.
After returning to South Africa in 1992, Roodt worked for Citibank until 1999, and in 2000 he co-founded PRAAG (Pro-Afrikaanse Aksiegroep, or Pro-Afrikaans Action Group),
which describes itself as an extra-parliamentary movement devoted to the rights of
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
s. PRAAG also has a publishing division, which has published some of his recent works. Roodt has contributed articles to Focus, the journal of the liberal
Helen Suzman Foundation, columns to ''
American Renaissance
The American Renaissance was a period of American architecture and the arts from 1876 to 1917, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance hu ...
'', a
white nationalist
White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a Race (human categorization), raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara ...
magazine, various scientific or academic journals in South Africa as well as a host of articles in South African newspapers. He has also appeared on television and radio talk shows in South Africa.
In May 2011 Roodt stood for the
Freedom Front Plus
The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus or FF+; , ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in South Africa that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Corné Mulder. Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African Third Cabin ...
during the municipal elections as a candidate in Johannesburg, but was not elected.
Roodt is the deputy leader and spokesperson of South African right-wing political party
Front Nasionaal formed in late 2013 which promotes
separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...
and Afrikaner
self-determination
Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage.
Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...
. The Sunday newspaper Rapport reported on 8 February 2015 that Roodt had been "voted out of the party" without him being aware of it. He was quoted in the article as saying that "he would henceforth be devoting his energy to his publishing company, Praag... I am disillusioned with Afrikaner politics. I am finished with Afrikaner politics."
Activism
Roodt has strong views on the preservation of Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture, which has led to some controversy in the South African
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
.
He maintains a blog and the PRAAG website, commenting on issues in South Africa. Roodt also regularly writes letters regarding political matters to various South African newspapers and the literary
e-zine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the computer ...
LitNet.
[Venter, A. 2007. Book Review: ''Aweregs: politieke essays''. ''Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe'', 47(3):pp. 501-502.]
Writing
Roodt's first novel, ''Sonneskyn en Chevrolet'' (Taurus, 1980), is an anti-establishment commentary on South African society (and specifically Afrikaner society) of that time.
[Kannemeyer, J.C. 2005. ''Die Afrikaanse literatuur, 1652-2004''. Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau. p.608.] His only published volume of
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
to date, ''Kommas uit 'n boomzol'' (Uitgewery Pannevis, 1980), structurally parodies ''Komas uit 'n bamboesstok'' (Human & Rousseau, 1979), a volume of poetry by the Afrikaans poet
D.J. Opperman.
Afrikaans
literary critic
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...
John Kannemeyer asserts that there is 'no one poem of any intrinsic value' in ''Kommas uit 'n boomzol'', and similarly views Roodt's subsequent prose work ''Twee sinne'' (Taurus, 1985).
Roodt's first publication after ''Twee sinne'' is a critical
essay
An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
on the South African
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...
(TRC) entitled ''Om die Waarheidskommissie te vergeet'' ('Forgetting the Truth Commission', 2001). This would be PRAAG's first publication of one of Roodt's works. In 2004, PRAAG published the novel ''Moltrein'', which is about a promising musician who leaves South Africa during the 1980s to avoid military service in the South African Defence Force.
In 2005 Roodt released ''The Scourge of the ANC'' (PRAAG), a critique of the ANC, and also of the former South African government under leadership of
FW de Klerk.
The following year, ''Aweregs'' (PRAAG, 2006), another collection of political essays, was released. Regarding ''Aweregs'', Venter notes that if the ultimate aim of the book is
to demonstrate the author's pessimism regarding Africa, the African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
(ANC), "the new" South Africa, and supporters of the idea that Afrikaans can only survive by developing multilingualism
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
in South Africa, then Roodt's vision succeeds. But it is a limited and distressing vision.
In 2015, Roodt published an essay ''Raiders of the Lost Empire: South Africa's English Identity'' (PRAAG) in which he "explores the country's 'new' English identity which is founded on the old colonial identity of the nineteenth century when the redcoats invaded the Cape of Good Hope."
[Raiders of the lost Empire: South Africa’s 'English' identity – by Dan Roodt http://praag.org/?wpsc-product=raiders-of-the-lost-empire-south-africas-english-identity-by-dan-roodt]
Personal life
Roodt currently lives with his wife, Karin (née Bredenkamp), and their three children in Johannesburg, South Africa.
References
External links
Homepage of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roodt, Dan
1957 births
Living people
People from Springs, Gauteng
South African people of Dutch descent
Afrikaans-language writers
Afrikaner nationalists
South African male novelists