From about the 1930s until late into the twentieth century, professional historical
writing in Afrikaner circles was closely linked to the universities, and the universities
in turn played a significant role in promoting the wider nationalist enterprise. History
was regarded as a crucial discipline: the past was needed to legitimate the present. In
an influential text written in 1941 on Afrikaans universities, the importance of the
past was emphasised in near-religious terms: the “calling” and “destination” of the
Afrikaner people were predetermined by their past and the “volk” therefore had a
duty to honour and obey the sanctity of that past.