23.3655, All: Obituary: Dr Neville Alexander

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-3655. Mon Sep 03 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.3655, All: Obituary: Dr Neville Alexander

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Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:03:38
From: Matthias Brenzinger [matthias.brenzinger at uct.ac.za]
Subject: Obituary: Dr Neville Alexander

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Dear colleagues 

It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the death of Dr 
Neville Alexander, acclaimed academic, linguist and anti-apartheid 
struggle veteran. He died on the 27th of October following a short 
battle with cancer.

Born in Cradock in the Eastern Cape to David James Alexander, a 
carpenter, and Dimbiti Bisho Alexander, a schoolteacher, his maternal 
grandmother was an Ethiopian who was rescued from slavery by the 
British. His maternal grandfather was a Presbyterian Church pastor.
Dr Alexander was educated at Holy Rosary Convent, Cradock, and 
matriculated in 1952. After obtaining a BA in German and History from 
the University of Cape Town in 1955, a year later he completed his 
Honours in German, followed by a MA. Having been awarded an 
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship place at the University 
of Tübingen, he gained his PhD in 1961 for a dissertation on style 
change in the dramatic work of Gerhart Hauptmann.

By 1957 Alexander was already radicalised and a member of the Cape 
Peninsula Students' Union, an affiliate of The Non-European Unity 
Movement of South Africa. He joined the African Peoples Democratic 
Union of Southern Africa (APDUSA) which was established in 1960. In 
July 1963 he, along with most members of the NLF (National 
Liberation Front - an organization of he which he was a founder 
member), was arrested and later convicted of conspiracy to commit 
sabotage. For 10 years he was imprisoned on Robben Island 
alongside the likes of Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu for his anti-
apartheid activities.  Dr. Alexander was famous for his refusal to go 
against his principles of non-racialism and socialism, and his 
unwillingness to join any political elite.
  
On his release, Dr Alexander did pioneering work in the field of 
language policy and planning in South Africa from the early 1980s 
through organisations such as the National Language Project, Project 
for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, as well as the 
Language Task Group process.  In 1981, he was appointed Director of 
the South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED).
He was influential in respect of language policy development with 
various government departments, including Education, his most recent 
work focusing on the tension between multilingualism and the 
hegemony of English in the public sphere. 

Dr Alexander's intellectual output is marked by a series of influential 
books and articles. Among the most seminal are One Azania, One 
Nation, written under the pseudonym No Sizwe, which presents a view 
of the distribution of power and privilege in terms of class, caste, and 
colour. Sow the Wind, written in 1986, was influential in the analysis 
and politics around the uprising in the country.  A small influential book 
for language policy in South Africa appeared in 1989: Language Policy 
and National Unity in South Africa/Azania. An Ordinary Country, 
published in 2002, sought to reflect on the politics of South Africa's 
transition to democracy. At the time of his death, he was busy on a 
number of writing projects including a text on Language and Peace 
with Arnulf von Scheliha of University of Osnabrück. Although Dr. 
Alexander was not active within the Linguistics Society of Southern 
Africa, his influence on the thinking and writings of many of its 
members is immense.  His passion for an effective and empowering 
multilingualism inspired scholars from African languages and Afrikaans 
alike.  His role in bringing together scholars from all parts of Africa and 
Europe to collaborate on the intellectualisation of African languages 
was immense, and gave him legendary status amongst linguists and 
applied linguists in Africa.
 
His ceaseless energy is reflected in numerous contributions to 
organisations like WOCAL (The World Congress of African Linguistics, 
of which he was a standing committee member, and whose opening 
address he delivered in Köln 2009) and ACALAN (the Academy of 
African Languages, which he helped start). He shifted from co-
ordinating relatively top-down initiatives to a realisation of the need for 
bottom-up approaches, of which his and PRAESA's involvement with 
the Vulindlela ('Open the Way') Reading Clubs of Cape Town's 
disadvantaged communities.

He was the recipient of the Linguapax Prize for 2008. The prize is 
awarded annually (since 2000) in recognition of contributions to 
linguistic diversity and multilingual education. The citation notes he 
devoted more than 20 years of his professional life to defend and 
preserve multilingualism in the post-apartheid South Africa, becoming 
one of the major advocates of linguistic diversity.

Dr Alexander will be sorely missed by colleagues and friends.  Our 
condolences go to his family and friends.

Rajend Mesthrie, Ana Deumert & Matthias Brenzinger,  UCT 31 August 
2012.
 
(Adapted from a statement issued by the Office of the Vice Chancellor, 
University of Cape Town). 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable






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