[lg policy] South Africa: 'It's not the end of Afrikaans'

Wed Jun 29 15:20:59 UTC 2016

'It's not the end of Afrikaans' 2016-06-29 08:52
Related Links

   - UP, Stellenbosch: 'Dark day for Afrikaans speakers', says FF Plus
   <http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/up-stellenbosch-dark-day-for-afrikaans-speakers-says-ff-plus-20160624>
   - Dropping of Afrikaans at UFS violates Constitution - AfriForum
   <http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/dropping-of-afrikaans-at-ufs-violates-constitution-afriforum-20160620>

Melanie Verwoerd

Last week the Universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch decided to change
their language policies. Both will be switching to English as the main
medium of instruction, with Stellenbosch retaining Afrikaans if requested
by enough students.

Predictably, there is great unhappiness amongst some (and I want to
emphasise some) Afrikaners about this move. In Rapport this week, one of
the six Council members who walked out in protest gave a lengthy interview
to Hanlie Retief. John Theron declared that he has now become an activist
for Afrikaans - a “language terrorist”. I'm not sure what that means and I
find it rather troubling, especially coming from a lawyer who is trained to
measure his language. There are many other things I found deeply unsettling
about that interview, but what really got my blood boiling was his
reference to “my people” - referring to Afrikaners.

*I love Afrikaans*

For the record, let me make it clear: I am Afrikaans and I love Afrikaans.
It is the language of my heart and of my dreams. I grew up in a typical
Afrikaner household during apartheid, where my beloved grandmother could
find nothing good to say about English, or those who spoke it. “The only
good thing the English ever did was bring hot water bottles and tea to
South Africa,” was her favourite saying - and she meant it. My father
deducted pocket money if we used an Anglicism, and the works of Louis
Leipoldt would be our bedtime stories. Despite living in Ireland for 14
years, I raised my children in Afrikaans, and we speak only Afrikaans at
home.

But let me be equally clear: I don't want to be included as part of “my
people” when Afrikaners say that. For me, "my people" embrace all the
amazing people of all races and cultures I have come across over many
years, some of whom became my closest friends. Despite language, race and
cultural differences, I have a lot more in common with them than I have
with the majority of Afrikaners.

I am also a graduate of the University of Stellenbosch. I did my bachelors,
honours and masters degrees there. I was on campus from the mid-80s to
early-90s, during which time Stellenbosch was unashamedly the cradle of
Afrikaner nationalism, providing the intellectual and theological
underpinning for apartheid.

After a short break abroad I returned to the university in the early 90s.
Little had changed, apart from a small, very vocal group of left-wing
students who fought passionately against the university authorities on many
issues.

*An unwelcoming and unhappy place*

In the pre-1994 era of white panic, the university moved swiftly to
orchestrate the passing of The University of Stellenbosch (Private Act)
1992 through the last white Parliament. Section 18 of that Act entrenched
Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. Many marches and other protest
actions were held. It seemed clear as daylight that this was more than an
attempt to keep Afrikaans safe: it was also an attempt to entrench
whiteness by keeping black students out. The authorities argued lamely that
it was not a race issue and that Coloured and Indian parents would like to
see their children studying in Afrikaans – a point still argued today. The
obvious rebuttal was that in practice the majority of students in this
country would still be excluded.

Stellenbosch is thankfully not the place it used to be – at least not in
its statutes and governance. But 21 years later, as we saw from the
*Luister* documentary, Stellenbosch is still an unwelcoming and unhappy
place for many students who are not Afrikaans.

The point is that language isn’t just a way of communicating. With it come
cultural practices, history, and even sometimes political ideology. As one
of the Rhodes-must-fall students told me: “My first week at Stellenbosch,
the social in the residence was a ‘sokkie’ (a dance popular with
Afrikaners). The next week it was a ‘sokkie’ and the third week and so it
went on. I don’t mind ‘sokkie’ but could they not have mixed it up a bit?
As African students we were never able to integrate into social life”.

The message of the (mainly) black students at Stellenbosch and the other
historically white campuses around South Africa is that they feel alienated
with no sense of belonging. They do not feel heard or even seen and are
tired of being “accommodated” rather than being legitimately and integrally
part of the student body.

Then there is also the overt racism that exists. The shocking fact is that
many of the white “born frees” of this country are as racist as those who
were on campus in the pre-1994 years.

*Equal the playing field*

Of course racism is not unique to university campuses. It is endemic in our
society. But it appears to be a far too big a problem at the historically
white universities and together with the sense of alienation felt by so
many black students it is creating a very explosive and dangerous
environment. It is equally true that the language policy change per se will
not deal with the racism. But it will take away the sense of “we were here
first” and “we are kindly accommodating you non-Afrikaans speaking people”.

It will equal the playing field a bit more and it will bring down some of
the barriers of otherness. At a recent workshop on redefining Afrikaner
culture at Wits, I asked one of the Rhodes must fall students from UP,
whether it would not be better to have multi-lingual policy – so bring in
more of the African languages. “No, that will only create more barriers,
between Sotho’s, Xhosa, Zulu’s etc. We are not against Afrikaans. We want
inclusivity and equality. And the only way we can see that happen, is to
have English for all of us,” she said.

In the Rapport interview, Johan Theron argues that “many Afrikaner young
people are so ashamed about the history, so punch drunk because of all the
accusations and insults and comments that they don’t want to get a degree
in a country where they are not ensured of work. They therefore go for the
easy way out. And that is English”.

>From my perspective there is a lot that we should be ashamed of in our
history and frankly from what I can see on social media the Afrikaner young
people are often the ones doing the punching and insulting.

*Faith in my language*

However, there are many young Afrikaners, who have a strong sense of where
they come from, with a healthy recognition of the sins of their fathers and
thus their responsibility to make things right in the future. They accept
that it includes changes to hurtful policies such the universities’
language policies. They are modern, global citizens who love South Africa
and believe that they have a future here. And they still love Afrikaans and
want to raise their children in their mother tongue.

Those young people are part of who I call “my people”, because ultimately
they understand that our country requires far more complex thinking and a
resistance to pulling lager and simple pro- and anti- positions.

I do not believe that the 22 June was the beginning of the end of Afrikaans
as some prominent Afrikaners will have us believe. I have far more faith in
my language. I saw with my children, who were educated in English, that if
the language is spoken at home, the language will continue to thrive.

**Melanie Verwoerd is a former ANC MP and South African Ambassador to
Ireland.*

*http://www.news24.com/Columnists/MelanieVerwoerd/its-not-the-end-of-afrikaans-20160629
<http://www.news24.com/Columnists/MelanieVerwoerd/its-not-the-end-of-afrikaans-20160629>*

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