LL-L "Afrikaans" 2004.04.16 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 16.APR.2004 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Afrikaans" 2004.04.15 (02) [E]

Dear All:
    I am utterly lost at this point as to who sent what, & when, but it is
fascinating, more from what can be learned of the correspondents than the
institution of apartheid.
    Now let me get to the point. The 'Black - White' paradigm is a construct
of monochrome Europe. I might refer the DEDICATED student to "COLOUR The
Unsolved Problem of the West" by BJ Marais, "The Dark Eye in Africa" by L vd
Post, "The Puritan in Africa" by De Klerk, & "GREATER SOUTH AFRICA Plans for
a Better World." The speeches of General JC Smuts (Chapter III page 11, "The
White Man's Task"), right the way back to "The Lusiads" by Camoëns.
    This Black-White construct does not carry weight in Africa, which is
also the Mother of Races, by nature & adoption (Southern Africa is a host to
seven). Outsiders who see only the Black versus White may be carefully
misinformed, or merely so ignorant they CAN only read our history in terms
of their own bigotries. But that doesn't make it true.
    This same Southern Africa is heir to a post-colonial hotch-potch
established by (largely British) conquest, in contempt of the consent of the
native populations, & then contemptibly abandoned, under Administrations
nowhere concerned with ethnic nationhood, & (take note) language group.
    This is where the matter becomes pertinent to us, in L-Lowlands.
Contrary to popular myth, Apartheid is a very British invention, & product
of a Liberal mindset, all too lively to the threat of extinction of
conquered, marginalised & culturally unsophisticated Peoples (the settlement
of Australia & Tasmania in their then recent - very recent - history was a
motivating example).
    Southern Africa is ONE country where the ruling power made dedicated
efforts to preserve the cultural heritage of all the commensual ethnic &
linguistic communities. This policy was upheld, developed & unchanged, from
1850 to 1994. All changes of constitution, Sovereign Power, & governing
party upheld (as they were obliged to) the Selbourne appendix to the South
Africa Act of 1910, in terms of which the newly established state could
neither incorporate native institutions of government, nor annex native
territories. The findings of several successive Crown Commissions built on
that foundation.
    It was largely successful. That South Africa today can boast 11
different official languages is in no small measure to be accredited to
these British, who couldn't do it in other colonies, with more deeply rooted
practices of competition & absorption. If we white Afrikaners, today, are a
minority in our native land, unlike the case in the USA, Australia, New
Zealand, or the racially defined elite in a racial melting pot like
Columbia, Brazil, & India, to name but a few, it is not to our shame, but
our (modest) pride, that we saw what was good in the past & built on it,
even if it was British from the outset.
    To some who are still thinking 'politics' I will say this & pass on; if
apartheid were the only bat in our belfry, then it was a paradise. Enough
Blacks - Free Africans from Free Africa - certainly saw it that way. The
Authorities were unable to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. In a
humiliating parliamentary debate in the mid-seventies, I think, the
Nationalist Government reluctantly concurred that there where about a
million & a half illegal immigrants in the country, & the number was growing
(at that time the native population was only 36 million).
    The meat of our experience is that only the exercise of despotism will
protect linguistic minorities that are not supported by economic power or
political privilege. Even the 'protected' will revolt, in the person of
individuals in the minorities who will derive more personal advantage from
absorbing cultural assets of more competitive neighbours.
    Yrs sincerely:
M Dreyer

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