Letter from Pretoria:A young white man, bloodied from battle, takes shelter in a ditch. With fear etched on his face, he grips a rifle as he awaits an attack from an unseen enemy.
A drum beat sounds and then the chorus rises up: "De la Rey, De la Rey, will you come and lead the Boers? De la Rey, De la Rey, general, general, we will fall in around you as one, general De la Rey." The stirring lyrics, and music video images, belong to the most talked-about song in South Africa at present - a lament for a former Afrikaner war hero who died almost a century ago.
Not only has the militaristic tune rocketed to the top of the pop charts, it has become - almost overnight - an unofficial anthem for a generation of disaffected white youths.
Young Afrikaners - descendants of the original Dutch settlers in South Africa - have taken to singing the song lustily at social gatherings, in bars, at sports stadiums and even during political protests.
The preferred pose is to stand to attention, with a clenched fist above one's heart - a stance of defiance against a myriad of perceived injustices, past and present.
"There is a political undertone to the song but it's not a negative one," says Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg, an Afrikaner student activist from Pretoria. "The song is a cry for us to take responsibility for our own future. We must stick together and not let others define us." The 24-year-old recently went to see the song being performed by its composer, Bok van Blerk, at Orania, the all-white settlement in Northern Cape that wants to break away from the so-called rainbow nation.
"It was amazing. There was a record crowd. Young people want to know about their history and their leaders - because they aren't taught it any more in schools - and the De la Rey song is something they can latch onto." Not everyone is so enthusiastic about the phenomenon. Arts minister Pallo Jordan said the tune was "in danger of being hijacked by a minority of right-wingers" who saw it as a call to arms. Others view the song's popularity as proof of a worrying conservatism within the Afrikaner fold.
One thing is for certain: the De la Rey craze has coincided with a new wave of political activism among Afrikaner youths. Children of the former ruling class are asserting themselves like never before, protesting against affirmative action measures and perceived attacks on their language and heritage.
Quentin Campbell (20) is one of this new breed. A student of theology in a local reformist church, he has no memory of the apartheid era, and instead describes himself as a victim of racial discrimination. Recently, he led a group of students to Union Buildings - the seat of government - where they painted their faces black and sought to be declared "African" for employment purposes.
In another stunt, he gave out pamphlets at OR Tambo International Airport warning visitors of the "harsh realities of South Africa", including crime, discrimination and HIV. Tourists were handed a package of garlic and beetroot "to be taken in the case of getting Aids" - in what was a jibe at South Africa's health minister, who advocates traditional remedies for the treatment of the disease.
Campbell's chief complaint is the way in which young Afrikaners are made to "suffer" for sins of the past. Racial quotas at universities mean black students are given preferential treatment, qualifying for courses on lower grades. English has replaced Afrikaans as the dominant language in both education and business - a development some whites see as an attack on their culture. Likewise, a government-sponsored campaign to replace traditional place names with African ones.
Fuelled by collective paranoia, some young Afrikaners are turning to right-wing - not to say extremist - organisations such as the "Suidlanders" (South landers). The group was responsible for circulating a recent hoax e-mail alleging that Nelson Mandela was about to die and that this would lead to a mass slaughter of whites.
Other disgruntled young Afrikaners find a means of expression through largely racist websites - the most popular of which is a discussion site called "Why South Africa Sucks".
Ernsd Roeds (21), a Pretoria law student and activist within the trade union Solidarity, said he understood why certain youths had turned against the state but he believed they were a minority within the Afrikaner community.
"Young people are not necessarily looking to go back to the old ways. What they are doing is rebelling against the new system," he said.
However, Jansen van Rensburg noted: "This sort of activism is very new, and it's intensifying. Five years ago, young Afrikaners were staying away from politics." Why the change? Van Blerk, the author of De la Rey, hinted at an answer in a recent interview: "Young Afrikaners are tired of having the apartheid guilt-trip shoved down their throats."
