The Orange Order in South Africa

From a conversation on an email list with regards to the Orange Order in South Africa.

As I wrote before the LOL has had a presence in South Africa. Once when I was doing some research and UI was reading old issues of the Canadian Orange paper (The Orange Sentinel and Protestant Advocate) I came across a reference to an LOL in the SA mining town of Boksburg.

In South Africa the LOL has had a certain problem with the local cultural scene. Orangeism throughout the Commonwealth promotes the values of Britishness and Protestantism. In South Africa Britishness has a more Anglican Catholic flavour given that the Anglican Church of the Province is very high. (When I saw the interior of some Anglican chapels in SA I noticed crucifixs.) Also the most devoutly Protestant people, the Dutch and French Huguenot-descended Calvinistic Afrikaners (or Boers), have been very bitter with Britain since the Anglo-Boer War. (That conflict is not exactly one of the Empire's "finest hours.") Nonetheless the LOL did attract those few Protestant English-speakers and those Afrikaners who were more concilatory.