Esté Mari Kotzé Lecturer at the History Department at Stellenbosch University Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: June – September 2026 Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: »Church and Charity: The Dutch Reformed Church and changing conceptions of poverty in South Africa« Project outline: From its earliest inception, the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) has played a key socio-economic in South Africa as provider of poor relief to the so-called ›deserving‹ poor. In the 18th century, the Dutch East India Company kept strict control over many aspects of public life, including religious worship. This extended to church finances, impacting the Church’s poor relief efforts. Those deserving of charity in the eyes of both Church and Company were defined by religious denomination, economic class and, increasingly by race. By the early 20th century, race had become a defining factor. Against the backdrop of an emerging and solidifying Afrikaner Nationalism, the DRC became increasingly concerned with accelerating levels of white poverty. This galvanised the DRC in its scientific approach towards welfare and brought the church and the state into a closer welfare partnership in the 1920s. This project investigates how broader socio-political influenced the Church’s ever-shifting definitions of ›deserving‹ and ›undeserving‹ poor. (Esté Mari Kotzé) Research partner: Esté Kotzé is a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at the invitation of Xenia von Tippelskirch, Professor for the History of Religious Dynamics at Goethe University Frankfurt and Director of the Frankfurt Institut franco-allemand de sciences historiques et sociales (IFRA-SHS), and the interdisciplinary research group »Religion and De:Toxification (RelTox)«. Her stay is funded by the LOEWE center »Dynamics of Religion: Ambivalent Neighbourhoods between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Historical and Contemporary Constellations«.
Scholarly profile of Esté Mari KotzéEsté Kotzé earned her Ph.D. in history from Stellenbosch University in 2021 with a dissertation on »More Than Just Pretty Girls in Uniform: A Historical Study of Women’s Military Roles during World War II, 1939–1945«. She has worked as an archivist at the Dutch Reformed Church Archives, and from 2025 as a lecturer in Stellenbosch University’s Department of History. Her research focuses on the complex interrelationship between the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, the (Colonial and Afrikaner Nationalist) state(s), and changing conceptions of poverty and race. In this broader theme, she investigates two very different periods: the 18th century Cape under the VOC, and the 1920s-1930s alongside the rise of Afrikaner Nationalism.Website: Selected publications:
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