And more young people from the white minority are moving to the small town, drawn by a new college and a sense of home carved out of the country's melting pot of cultures.The Friday night crowd at Stokkies bar appeared mostly aged under 30, all Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the early European colonisers.Bathed in blue light and lulled by country music, sons and daughters of Orania mingled in the tobacco smoke with students in engineering or plumbing.
A training college has brought new, youthful energy to the small, arid town © MARCO LONGARI / AFP
The owner of Stokkies, where a table is set aside for arm-wrestling bouts to "settle disputes", has the profile of many of Orania's young people: someone who left only to return.After moving to the town with his parents at the age of eight, Thomas de Villiers left as an adult for the cosmopolitan metropolis of Cape Town.But the high cost of living drove him back, the 31-year-old told AFP.'Not so wonderful out there'Charlotte van Niekerk, 22, also chose to return to the arid town, which was founded in the Northern Cape province in 1991 and now counts just over 3,000 residents.
Would-be residents of Orania are selected on the basis of ethnicity, religion, a strong work ethic and a clean criminal record © CAMILLA RICHETTI / AFP
