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Boer is the Afrikaans (and Dutch) word for farmer. It is sometimes used to refer to Afrikaners in general (see Afrikaner versus Boer). When used in historical settings, it can refer to an inhabitant of the Boer republics.
The word Boer is pronounced differently by English and Afrikaans speakers. In Afrikaans it is pronounced more like boor and less like bore. The pronunciation used by Afrikaans speakers refers to farmers (of any ethnicity), or by some Afrikaners to describe themselves; while the pronunciation used by English speakers is sometimes used to refer to all Afrikaners, and is viewed as derogatory by many, particularly when referring to contemporary Afrikaner people.
The word Boer has come into the English language mainly through the Boer wars. This has given the Boers an image of natives in English, and the Boers also saw themselves more as Africans than as Dutch, but the matter of who is native in Southern Africa is more complicated. At first, there were the Khoisan (the Bushmen and Hottentots). Then, more or less at the same time (around the 17th century), Bantus (out of whom the Zulus would later arise) and Dutch farmers started expanding into Southern Africa, which forced them to move into more arid areas like the Kalahari. The Dutch traders needed supplies for their ships sailing between the Netherlands and 'the East' (mainly present day Indonesia). Southern Africa was about halfway and the scarce human habitation posed little opposition, so farmers were put there to farm the land to supply the ships, but they would become less Dutch and more independently African. When the British came, the land was already largely carved up and the rather unique situation arose that not two, but three rather different groups started fighting over the land. with the exclusion of the original inhabitants.
See Also: Afrikaner.
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