Nuusflitse 14

Beste Vriende

Dit is met diepe leedwese dat ek hierdie nuusflits aan u stuur.

Wyle George Weideman, bekende Afrikaanse skrywer en digter, is Donderdagoggend om 03:30 in die Louis Leipoldt-hospitaal in Bellville oorlede. George was een van Taaloord se lojale vriende wie se woorde soos: "Dankie dat jy my aan Taaloord bekend gestel het!", "’n Klinkklare ja vir Taaloord se opbouende, positiewe en kreatiewe benadering" en "’n Dawerende ja vir die dankie aan Johann Rupert" my aangemoedig het om met ywer voort te gaan.

Saam met almal op die lys wat hom persoonlik of op afstand geken het, groet ons hom by monde van sy goeie vriend, Braam de Vries. Ons innige simpatie met Celién, Melita en Siobhan.

Opregte groete

Helena Liebenberg

http://www.taaloord.co.za

Louis Leipoldt-hospitaal

jy stap uit by die dakluik

op die sterbesaaide balkon

met woorde in jou Tuiskom-tas

om rustig te verwerk in die Son

ek stap uit by die swaaideur

op die so bekende straat

met woorde in my huistoe-tas

tot diep aardse dank in staat

Helena Liebenberg

29 Augustus 2008

GEORGE WEIDEMAN

2 Julie 1947 – 28 Augustus 2008

Huldeblyk deur Abraham H. de Vries

Die Afrikaanse letterkunde verloor met die heengaan van George Weideman een van sy mees geliefde, een van sy kleurrykste en een van sy veelsydigste skrywers. Hy het sewe digbundels, twee romans, vier bundels kortverhale, sewe jeugboeke, verhoogdramas waarvan net een gepubliseer is en drie ongepubliseerde radiodramas geskryf. In byna al die genres het hy van die belangrikste pryse verower.

George was bowendien ’n alom gerespekteerde akademikus, ’n innemende, hulpvaardige kollega en ’n dosent sonder weerga.  Selfs na sy uittrede by die Technikon Skiereiland in 1997 om gesondheidsredes het hy as navorsingsvennoot belangrike publikasies gelewer aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat.

Sy “vulletjiedae” (sy woord) in ’n uitsonderlike familie en boonop in die Noordweste wat lewenslank sy geliefde, onvolprese hartland sou bly, verklaar nie die verskeidenheid en hoë gehalte van sy werk nie, maar dit vertel van die prikkels en invloede vir ’n lewenshouding wat in al sy werk voorkom. Hy is op 2 Julie 1947 op Cradock gebore as die laatlam in ’n onderwysgesin.

Van sy ma het George ’n warsheid van voorskrifte en sisteme geërf, ’n onwrikbare afsku in sosiale onreg en in die misbruik van mag. Hy was dan ook lid van die eerste Namibiese afvaardiging wat met Sam Njoma in Stockholm gaan praat het. Van hoe sy afkeure soms vir hom probleme veroorsaak het, is ek getuie. Maar sy ma was ook inspirerend op speelse wyse: sy het onder andere weggooi-lepels versamel! Sy ouers was albei ook musikante en natuurlike storievertellers.

Sy pa, Floris was ’n onderwyser, maar ook kulkunstenaar, houtwerker, maker van sy eie musiekinstrumente en met sterk wisselende welslae selfs ’n boer. Albei ouers was kreatief, die makers van dinge (en pret) uit niks. Dis sy pa wat “Saai die waatlemoen” en “Die Kat kom terug” opgeteken en so behoue laat bly het. Ouma Baai, sy ouma aan moederskant, het by vele ander doenighede fortuin vertel en teen een van haar huismure was ’n hele “ensiklopedie” van die blomme, voëls, diere en natuurtonele op toentertydse sigaretkaartjies. George het opgegroei in ’n Noordwesterse “sigeuner”-familie, pragtige gedigte is deurtrek daarvan en hy het dit ook in sy doen en late al sy jare behou.

Hy het dikwels vertel hoe sy pa van kleinsbeen af vir hom gewys het dat as ’n mens ’n klip optel, sien jy dit lyk onder heeltemal anders as bo op. En selfs in die bloedige hitte van die wêreld weerskante van die Oranjerivier is daar soms ’n onverwagte koel wind. Hierdie  “paralelle wêrelde” is die onderwerp van “Die wispelturige uur”, die openingsgedig van ’n Staning onder sterre:

Daar’s ’n uur anderkant die etmaal

en buite die ratwerk van die tyd;

wat rond is word ovaal,

wat hoekig is, verslyt.

Dis die raaiselagtige van hierdie “land van elders” wat aan die woord sy magiese krag gee. En dis sy toewyding aan die toorkrag van die woord wat George, toe hy al baie siek was, nog ’n radiovervolgverhaal en gedigte laat skryf het. Hy het ’n ruk gelede “oor ek dit wil gebruik in ’n gedig” een aand uit die hospitaal vir my gebel om te vra of dit ’n Dürer-illustrasie is op die buiteblad van Elsa se Dansmaat. (Nee, dis ’n Norman O’Flynn.) Sy laaste twee gedigte, twee kwatryne, moes sy vrou, Celién vir hom neerskryf, hy kon nie meer die pen vashou nie.

Dis nie toevallig nie dat die ontwikkeling in George se digbundels op sigself ’n storie vertel. Die Noordweste is waar alles speels en klankvol begin in Hondegaloppie en As die son kliplangs spring. Wranger van toon en bewuster van grense word Klein manifes van ’n reisiger, maar in Hoera hoera die ysman is juis die satiriese aanslag bevrydend. Isolasie, marginalisering en ’n sterk stroom-op sosiale bewussyn (“Herinneringe van ’n teruggekeerde soldaat”), maar ook die wonder van die liefde (“En nou het alles winter geword”) spreek in Uit hierdie grys verblyf. In “Homo Faber”, wat hy opdra aan sy “monnik-pa”, vind die skeppende mens sy plek. Maar dis veral in die onderskatte ’n Staning onder sterre wat fyn besinnings en waarnemings van die aardse “ dwaalligte en sterre” verstegnies so geslyp is dat hy die vroegste aardsheid onverwags en speels kon vernuwe in Verskombuis.

Vaarwel, ou troebadoer; vaarwel, ou strydros. Dankie vir al jou doepas teen die droeftes. Jy het die kantelende reis op ons ou skedonk genaamd aarde met eer afgelê. Jy laat Afrikaans baie ryker agter en ons staning vir die wyle wat dit duur ’n bewoonbaarder plek. Rus in vrede by jou Skepper.

Nuusflitse 11

Geagte Meneer die Voorsitter en ander lede van die Raad van Trustees van die Van Ewijck Stigting

Ten eerste, baie hartlik dankie vir die groot eer wat u ons aangedoen het deurdat u op hierdie besondere wyse erkenning verleen aan die TEPC-transkripsieprojek, wat voorafgegaan is deur die ewe belangrike TANAP-projek.

Ten tweede, baie hartlik dankie vir die uiters welkome, ruim bedrag wat verantwoordelik en verantwoordbaar gebruik word uitsluitlik vir die digitale beskikbaarmaking van verdere dokumente van besondere belang, soos u aanstons sal hoor.

Dankie vir u begrip dat ek ter wille van lede in die gehoor wat nie Afrikaans magtig is nie, nou oorgaan na Engels.

Dear colleagues and friends, a warm and most sincere welcome to all of you.

This is a very special evening for us who were practically involved in one way or another in the TANAP and TEPC transcription projects, be it as a principal, project manager, transcriber, editor, indexer, photographer or technical support.

We want to thank the Van Ewijck Foundation most sincerely for bestowing this special award on us. It is indeed a great honour, realising that our work did not go unnoticed. We are also very grateful for the prize money. It is used in a responsible way with the sole purpose of making more old documents available to the public. In this sense, the value of the digitised volumes will actually exceed its monetary value in the long run. The more than welcome amount of money serves as a first incentive to us to acquire more funding, that we may continue with the work we cherish and the mission we want to fulfil.

It is sometimes difficult to find the right words to express one’s innermost feelings. When I refer from a personal point of view to the two transcription projects, namely TANAP and TEPC, I know that it really touched me in a number of ways. I also know from experience that all of us who were so intimately involved in these projects share my feelings in this regard.

We were taught by the great Teacher of Time about people – those who came from the West, those who came from the East and those who were here already. We brought to life, so to speak, thousands of people from all over the early Cape community, who otherwise never would have been given an identity and a name.

Our work brought us into written contact with our forebears, the way they lived and died, their happiness and their sorrow, their hardships and their better days. Some were rich, more were poor. No matter what their circumstances, they all lived their lives right here, in this part of our vast and beautiful country. In this way we could pay tribute to our ancestors. We also realised that we are in fact the living memory of our past.

Nearly all the stories were written in the VOC language of that period, namely 17th and 18th century Dutch, which developed into Afrikaans – a language with very special qualities of being modern, but at the same time retaining archaic words and even ancient traits from our deep past.

If I may compare this experience in a different sense and on another level of thought, I may say that if I was not privileged enough to be Touched by an Angel, I was indeed Touched by our Transcriptions.

Both the TANAP and the TEPC projects were funded by the Dutch government, for which we were extremely grateful. During the TANAP project from 2001 to 2003, the VOC Resolutions of the Council of Policy of the Cape of Good Hope were digitised and put on the Internet in 2004. During the TEPC project from 2004 to January 2008, household inventories, auction lists, and lists of exiles and convicts were digitised. Whereas the Resolutions are often referred to as the flagship of the VOC, the other documents, including those of the TEPC project, may be regarded as the accompanying vessels of the royal fleet.

We also decided to transcribe the Verbatim Copies of the VOC employees at the Cape between 1656 and 1789, which are vested in the Cape Archives (CAR VC39 vol. 2 to VC48). Presumably these copies were made in the late 19th century (approximately 1881) by a team of copyists in the Rijksarchief in The Hague and then sent over to Cape Town shortly afterwards. These are copies of the original Cape documents that are still vested in the Nationaal Archief, previously called the Rijksarchief, in The Hague. The motivation then for acquiring these copies was the fact that the original documents were vested in the Rijksarchief, with no evidence of their existence in Cape Town.

Now, more than a century later, while transcribing CAR’s ‘complete’ VC series regarding the VOC employees, we realised that not all the years were covered by the copyists in 1881. This implied that somewhere in the Nationaal Archief in The Hague there might still be some lists of VOC employees contained in the original Cape documents, the contents of which could be of great importance to our local institution. Apart from the VOC lists there were also missing years in VCs that covered the Free Burgher lists (VC49 to VC55).

It was therefore decided that TEPC contracted a photographer from a private enterprise to act as a representative of the project. It was his task to capture digital images of as many lacking years as possible within two weeks, in order to minimise the existing gap of information at the Cape Town Archives Repository. The Nationaal Archief welcomed this opportunity and the personnel gave their utmost support and assistance. As a result, the following volumes contained in the VOC Chamber of Zeeland were photographed:

As a team, we decided to complete the above VOC transcriptions after hours in January and February 2008 and be remunerated from the prize money for our work. These transcriptions and photographs will be part of our 2008 CD.

Apart from the photographed volumes of VOC employees already transcribed, there are still 17 photographed volumes containing lists of Free Burghers waiting to be digitised. We will do our best to acquire funding to complete the transcription and editing of at least these volumes from the Nationaal Archief.

We want to present the digitised versions of these 26 volumes together with the photographed originals to the Cape Archives Repository. In this way the already precious and invaluable VOC collection of documents of the Cape of Good Hope will be slightly enlarged.

It is hard and tedious work that requires special skills and much devotion. But we as a team loved what we did and could reap the benefits of an excellent team spirit. And above all, we were looked upon by the Great Spirit who guided us every day all the way.

We thank you.

Helena Liebenberg

Beste Taaloord-vriende

Ons deel graag ons groot vreugde met julle:

Op Vrydagaand, 23 November het ons TEPC-span ’n besoek aan die Kasteel de Goede Hoop in Kaapstad gebring.

Die rede hiervoor?

Ons het die Wes-Kaapse Kuns, Kultuur en Erfenis-toekenningseremonie 2007 bygewoon as een van die ontvangers van ’n pragtige toekenning vir ’n spesiale diens wat tot en met 2006 gelewer is en deur die Departement van Kultuursake en Sport gepas vereer is.

Die TEPC-transkriberingsprojek het die toekenning ontvang vir die beste instelling wat die Kaapse Argiefdiens bevorder deur middel van gepubliseerde artikels (benewens produkte en openbare optrede) asook besoeke wat belangstellendes aan die projek en gevolglik aan die Argiefbewaarplek gebring het.

Ons projek sluit aan die einde van Januarie af, waarna ons ons laaste en mees omvattende CD bekend gaan stel. Al die Taaloord-e-vriende sal hieroor ingelig word.

Met vriendelike groete

Helena Liebenberg

http://www.taaloord.co.za

WESTERN CAPE ARTS, CULTURE & HERITAGE AWARDS CEREMONY

WES-KAAPSE KUNS, KULTUUR EN ERFENIS-TOEKENNINGSEREMONIE

2007

CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE – KASTEEL DE GOEDE HOOP

CATEGORY: ARCHIVES

18.

Best Individual/Institution that

Promotes the Archive Service

through Published Articles or

Physical Visits

TEPC: TRANSCRIPTION OF ESTATE PAPERS OF

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE PROJECT

The TEPC transcription project has played a major

role in making documentation about the heritage

of the Cape available to researchers and the wider

general public. Fragile and valuable archival

documents from UNESCO Heritage VOC archives

have been transcribed from complex and often almost

illegible early modern Dutch into easily readable

format. These are now available in databases.

THE 2007 AWARD SCULPTURE

Red Hot Glass designer Liz Lacey designed the trophy and with the team of glass blowers the sculpture was formed, encompassing all the symbolism and individuality that needed to be captured.

Glass inherently is a symbol of light and life, and was chosen as the best medium to use to express all the aspects needed to convey in the trophy.

The bright red dot in the middle represents the individuality, a glowing form, complete and unthreatened. This forms the core. The orange spiral around the bright red dot represents the mysterious, energetic power of conversation and transformation. Orange represents life, the sun, power and happiness, whilst the clear glass denotes spirituality, change and grace. These colours are all chosen to symbolize a home for all the people in the Western Cape.

The French, when weighing the question of British entry to the EEC, worried that "three languages mean one." That is, while French-German bilingualism was a viable mix, once English was admitted, any gathering of three nationalities would quickly lapse into English because it was the one international language almost everyone knew. And so it has proved: today English is the EU's dominant language by far. But if just three languages mean one, then 11 do even more certainly. The ANC elite, many of whom spent decades in exile in London, invariably speak English. The space occupied by Afrikaans in the broadcast media has shrunk to a fraction of what it once was and manufacturers have quietly removed Afrikaans instructions from their products. You can use any language you like in parliament but 90 per cent of the proceedings are in English, and Hansard gives only an English translation of the other ten languages. English is reinforced at every turn, not only by the familiar forces of the anglosphere but also by the arrival of satellite television, English football, the internet and South Africa's re-entry to the Commonwealth. Even next-door Namibia and Mozambique, Commonwealth members both, are striving to become English-speakers. Since 1994, South Africa has rapidly and irreversibly moved towards becoming an English-speaking country.

Yet the oddity is that according to the 1996 census, English is only the country's fifth language: 22.9 per cent have isiZulu as their mother tongue, 17.9 per cent isiXhosa, 14.4 per cent Afrikaans, 9.2 per cent Sepedi and only 8.6 per cent English. And, theoretically, not only must the ten other languages enjoy "parity of esteem" with English, but the country is supposed to be moving towards "the use of all official languages," including their use as languages of science and research at university level. This doctrine is so ludicrously at odds with reality that it asks for trouble.

Thus far the main problem lies with Afrikaans, whose 20th-century achievements were undeniably remarkable. From being the lingua franca of downtrodden ex-slaves (the coloureds) and of the beaten, broken and divided Boer nation in 1902, the language progressed to a point where, well before 1994, a huge volume of literature had been translated into Afrikaans, which had also generated its own impressive corpus of poetry, novels, history and biography (see "Rainbow Afrikaans" by Rachel Holmes, Prospect May 2004). Afrikaans press, television and radio thrived, and there were five Afrikaans-language universities (Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Potchefstroom, Free State and Rand Afrikaans) and another bilingual one (Port Elizabeth). Afrikaner nationalism was easily the most successful form of African nationalism the continent had seen, and by the end of apartheid the vast bulk of Afrikaners were modern middle-class people, appalled at their racist past and keen to make peace with their fellow South Africans. They are critical to the success of the new South Africa, for although hundreds of thousands of them are to be found in diaspora in the English-speaking world, they are notably less likely to emigrate (or more likely to return) than their white English-speaking peers. For an English-speaker like myself, it is a real pleasure to find that the old animosities separating Afrikaners from anglophones have disappeared completely. And whereas 40 years ago you often met Afrikaners who couldn't speak English, today no such person exists.

Inevitably, many Afrikaners view the shrinkage of the Afrikaans cultural space with dismay. An ironic and little noticed fact is the way Afrikaners have sought new, urban homelands. Once formerly white high schools became racially integrated, they normally became English-speaking, so Afrikaners wanting their children educated in their mother tongue were forced to quit rural and small town communities and congregate in larger agglomerations still able to support viable Afrikaans schools. If you drive through Limpopo province (the old Northern Transvaal) you see how one small dorp after another has been abandoned by whites, now congregated in a few larger centres like Louis Trichardt, Potgietersrus, Pietersburg and Pretoria—and even these have been renamed, respectively, as Makhado, Mokopane, Polokwane and Tshwane. The result is far fewer Afrikaans high schools than before but more Afrikaans matriculants. To see towns commemorating such trekker heroes as Louis Trichardt and Andries Pretorius lose those names breaks many an Afrikaner heart.

Meanwhile, Rand Afrikaans University has become the University of Johannesburg and has become predominantly English-speaking, like all the other Afrikaans universities, with the sole exception of Stellenbosch, currently the subject of a major cultural struggle. Stellenbosch, the intellectual cradle of Afrikanerdom, is the jewel in the crown: one of the top research universities in the country, it is set in the beautiful and historic town of Stellenbosch amid the Cape winelands. Those concerned about the survival of Afrikaans, led by the great historian of the Afrikaners, Hermann Giliomee—a man victimised under apartheid for his liberal views—argue that it is crucial that at least one Afrikaans university remain. They have done their homework, anxiously researching how some small language groups—the Danes, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, the Flemish and the French Canadians—survive. The answer is clear. First, all Flemings (for example) must be fluent in a major international language—English, French or German, often all three—so that they are not handicapped through being Flemish-speakers. Second, they must not only be able to send their children to Flemish-language primary and secondary schools but there must be at least one Flemish university. This is critical because the propagation of a culture requires the renewal of an intelligentsia that writes its books and newspapers, translates works from other languages, teaches in its schools, produces its radio and television programmes and so on. And, if tertiary-level education was only available in, say, French or English, this would quickly become an argument for these languages to take over at secondary and primary level too. While it is likely that English and other international language texts will predominate at postgraduate level, it is important that seductive arguments for bilingual language instruction at undergraduate level be resisted, for experience shows that if such arrangements are allowed between a minority language and an international language, they become mere staging posts en route to the complete victory of the stronger international language.

The campaign to preserve Afrikaans recently won an important victory when Giliomee and two of his supporters were elected to the university council at Stellenbosch. The unusually vigorous campaign saw both the university's rector and the chairman of the council oppose the Giliomee slate, which nevertheless won with 79 per cent of the vote. Still, it is far from certain that those who wish to preserve Afrikaans will win in the end. Partly this is because the government continues to exert pressure on Stellenbosch to "broaden access." For although the university is happy to take in Afrikaans-speaking black and coloured students, most blacks and many middle-class coloureds want to be taught in English, and so 72 per cent of Stellenbosch students are white. The only way to change this is for the university to offer more courses in English. With language rights guaranteed by the constitution, the university could hang tough on this if it wanted to, but—and this is the critical factor—a large proportion of Afrikaners, including the rector, Chris Brink, would far rather expand the role of English, despite the slippery slope that means for Afrikaans, than remain outside the new South African mainstream. For Afrikaners are Christian folk, and many are now carrying a great load of Calvinist guilt about having inflicted apartheid on the country, and are uncomfortable about doing anything which carries echoes of apartheid—such as maintaining a mainly white university. Such feelings are powerfully reinforced by a wish to stay on the right side of government. But their anxiety is more existential. For so long and so loudly did the apartheid government make Afrikaans the language of racism and oppression that many Afrikaners are now reluctant to assert their own identity or culture, in much the same way that after 1945 many Germans became uncomfortable with assertions of German identity. Indeed, many Afrikaans families now have children in London or Sydney, and even back home some send their children to English-language schools. When Giliomee and others insist that if the pass is not defended Afrikaans will retreat back from the public realm into merely a kitchen language, they often encounter Afrikaners whose response is a shrug of the shoulders and a Que sera, sera.

But if the future of Afrikaans is now in some doubt, then, a fortiori, all the other African languages must be under far greater threat. None of them, after all, has a fraction of the accumulated literature or institutional support of Afrikaans. When the apartheid government set up separate tribal homelands, the first act of each new homeland government was to adopt English-medium education. And although the apartheid government set up a series of tribal universities—Transkei, Zululand, Venda and so on—not one even considered using anything but English. And even though the then government would doubtless have made money available for it, none of these universities made any serious effort to promote or develop indigenous languages. The irony is that now that the homelands have been scrapped and there is an assertive African nationalist government that views tribalism as reactionary, it has committed itself to promote these indigenous languages in a way apartheid bureaucrats could only have dreamed of. This commitment is, moreover, made in the teeth of market forces. African language departments report dramatic declines in student numbers to the point where keeping them open is mainly a matter of political will. Similarly, although educationalists are unanimous that children do best when allowed to use their mother tongue to learn other subjects, black parents are almost equally unanimous in resisting this option. Although primary education is given in mother tongues, when Limpopo province recently introduced mother tongue education into state secondary schools, many black parents angrily accused school authorities of "academically damaging" their children. They, like their Afrikaans counterparts, have understood that proficiency in English is the key to the job market—and in a country with 40 per cent unemployment, this has an understandable urgency. The workaday reality is that the courts still use just English and Afrikaans (though black judges, who often don't know Afrikaans, are exerting pressure for an English-only system) and each province is required to teach at least two of the official languages in its schools, taking into consideration the dominant languages of the region. What this usually boils down to is that schools continue to offer English and Afrikaans as they always did but now add isiZulu in KwaZulu-Natal, isiXhosa in the Eastern and Western Cape, Sesotho in the Free State and so on. This induces a sense of equity, but at a price. There is a huge shortage of properly qualified African-language teachers. The curriculum has to find space for three languages, of which two will only ever be of any use in South Africa and, quite possibly, only in one province of it. And, since the curriculum is already top-heavy with languages, there is no room for other international languages or even for the other main languages of Africa—French, Swahili and Arabic.

The ministry of education has, nevertheless, asked all universities to submit plans explaining how they are going to promote and develop African languages. Most universities have submitted plans of such vagueness that the ministry has asked them to resubmit, but since doing anything serious would inevitably be expensive and higher education is cash-strapped, it is clear that little will happen. With one thunderous exception: the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the country's second biggest, where the black vice-chancellor, William Makgoba, is a committed Africanist.

Makgoba is a controversial figure who left Wits University in 1995 after a storm in which he stood accused of maladministration, bringing the university into disrepute and falsifying his CV. In his autobiography, where he describes himself as "a first-rate, world acclaimed African scientist," he also happily admits that he consulted witch doctors for special potions with which to scare his enemies. He writes of "my unquestioned brilliance as a scholar and (my) pioneering achievements, with few equals in my field." Certainly, his inauguration was that of a monarch, with massed bands, choirs, operas, recitals and presentations at four different centres, and he swiftly granted himself a salary considerably larger than President Mbeki's. The campus lampposts are now festooned with banners describing UKZN as "the premier university of Africanscholarship." Although a majority of the university's academics are still white males, Makgoba launched a broadside in which he compared white males to displaced senior apes and insisted that they must learn to speak, sing, eat, dance and dress like Africans if they were to find any hope of acceptance. His inaugural address had the promotion of isiZulu as a key theme and UKZN has announced that it is preparing to introduce compulsory isiZulu courses for all students and to make fluency in isiZulu a condition for all academic appointments.

These plans have met with strong resistance. Jean-Philippe Wade, professor of culture, communications and media studies, points to the lack of isiZulu textbooks and journals, and even of many academic concepts in isiZulu. If Makgoba's plans go ahead, he says, they will turn a university of 60,000 students—anglophone since its inception—into "an academic wasteland and a global joke." Even the proponents of such a change find it so difficult to conceive that they have drawn up a 20-year plan for its implementation. And they admit that a mountainous (and expensive) task of translation into isiZulu lies ahead if the plan is to become real. Most academics at the university seem determined to ignore it and hope that it will go away.

Yet the idea deserves some sympathy. Already more than half the university's students are isiZulu-speakers—though many of them insist on speaking English, which is seen as more fashionable and modern. Moreover, isiZulu is the best developed of all the African languages, as well as the most widespread. There are three Zulu newspapers but none in any other African tongue, and Zulu-language radio and television have large audiences. And isiZulu is an Nguni language, so can be understood without too much difficulty by other members of the Nguni group—Swazis, Ndebeles and Xhosas. If you go to Soweto, you find that the language actually used on the street is Tsotsitaal, a strange mixture of isiZulu and Afrikaans, and in other townships you find other such amalgams, though always with an isiZulu base.

In Kenya and Tanzania, post-independence governments favoured Swahili-based education, with the result that this single lingua franca is now entrenched, not just in east Africa but far beyond. Clearly, this was a route the South African government could have taken. Had it done so, it would have had to choose isiZulu as its vehicle, tried to encourage its broadening into a sort of pan-Nguni language and given large-scale support to it. But even to mention such an idea is to see its political impossibility. For non-Zulus, this would be seen as nothing less than a continuation of Shaka's forcible incorporation of vanquished tribes into the Zulu nation. (Defeated warriors would be killed or enslaved and their women and children forcibly integrated as slaves or concubines, so that within a generation they all spoke only isiZulu.) Xhosas, who predominate in the ANC leadership, would strongly resist, as would the branches of the wider Sotho group (including Sepedi, Sesotho and Setswana-speakers). It would, in a word, reawaken the spectre of tribalism, of which the ANC is terrified. It is clear why the constitution-makers took refuge in the safer solution of 11 official languages.

That constitutional provision seems certain to guarantee the death of most of the languages it claims to protect. Yet everyone is pretending otherwise. At Stellenbosch, those who wish to expand the role of English pretend it will not happen at the expense of Afrikaans, though it certainly will. Tell isiZulu or Sotho-speakers that their languages are under threat and may one day disappear, and they simply do not believe you. Last year I attended the premiere in Durban of the touching film Yesterday, set in the foothills of the Drakensberg where Aids ravages black communities as badly as plague once ravaged London. The producer Anant Singh told a rapturous audience how he had decided to "dump English" and shoot the film in isiZulu with English subtitles. One Zulu luminary after another, including the provincial premier, followed him to the podium to emphasise this triumph of the isiZulu language and the vital importance of promoting Zulu. They were all applauded to the echo—yet every one spoke in English.

Few wish to acknowledge what is going on. Point out that Nigeria has adopted English as its official language, that China is launching whole new universities with English-language instruction, that proficiency in English has been made obligatory at the University of Maputo in next-door Mozambique, and that South Africa cannot escape these trends, and you will be met with a smile and much confident claptrap about our 11 official languages, all of which are supposed to have a rosy future. It would be almost unbearably painful to many South Africans to realise that this is just not so, that a language which is the mother tongue of just 8.6 per cent of the population is taking over completely and will gradually exterminate most or even all the other ten languages. And one really is talking of extermination. The ancestors of South Africa's 1m Indians arrived here 120 years ago speaking only Indian languages. Today the last university department of Indian languages has been closed down and very few Indians can speak a word of Hindi or Gujarati. They are uniformly English-speaking.

The notion that African languages in South Africa are on course to emulate the fate of the Indian languages has not yet struck home. When it does, such an outcome will seem like a final triumph of colonialism over African nationalism.

This article was originally placed on Prospect-magazine

Eleven official languages of South Africa

For more relevant information visit:  http://www.languages.web.za/

INTERNASIONALE DAG VAN
DIE MOEDERTAAL
– 21 FEBRUARIE

Van die 6000 tale in die wêreld word 95% deur slegs 4% van die wêreldbevolking gepraat.

Omdat daar maandeliks na raming twee van die tale uitsterf, het UNESCO 21 Februarie tot Internasionale Dag van die Moedertaal verklaar.

Inleidend

In Afrikaans sing ons:

O moedertaal, o soetste taal!

Jou het ek lief bo alles.

Van al die tale wat ek hoor,

niks wat my siel ooit so bekoor.

O moedertaal, o soetste taal!

Jou het ek lief bo alles.¹

en in die Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal ² lees ons oor

moedertaal

1 Taal wat eerste aangeleer word, gewoonlik hoofsaaklik deur die toedoen van die moeder, of taal wat die meeste in die huis gebruik word, waarmee iemand die beste kan identifiseer of wat iemand die beste ken:

* Hoewel hulle (Afrikaanssprekendes rondom 1870) Nederlands nie meer korrek en met gemak kon praat (of skryf) nie, bly hulle dit nog steeds bestempel en aanvaar as hul moedertaal (G.S. Nienaber: Afr. Taalverenigings, s.j., 5).

* Hoe tweetalig of drietalig of tientalig 'n mens ook al mag wees, hy het altyd maar een taal wat werklik sy eie is, sy moedertaal (D.F. Malan in S.W. Pienaar: Volk, 1964, 248).

2 Taal waaruit ander tale ontstaan het:

Dit is 'n begryplike strewe van taalhistorici om in die Afrikaanse woordeskat te onderskei tussen wat uit die moedertaal afkomstig is (die sogenaamde "erfgoed") en wat hier tot ontwikkeling gekom het (die sogenaamde "eiegoed") (J. du P. Scholtz: Wording, 1980, 102).

Internasionale Dag van die Moedertaal

In november 1999 heeft de Unesco de Internationale dag van de moedertaal uitgeroepen. Sindsdien word die dag elk jaar op 21 februari gevierd. Het voornaamste doel van de Moedertaaldag is aandacht voor kleine en bijzondere talen. Ongeveer de helft van de talen die er op de wereld gesproken worden, wordt met uitsterven bedreigd. Bijzondere talen zijn bijvoorbeeld fluit- en gebarentalen en het brailleschrift is een opmerkelijke taaluiting voor blinden en slechtzienden.

Het Nederlands is geen bedreigde of bijzondere taal. Het wordt in Nederland, Vlaanderen en Suriname door meer dan 22 miljoen mensen gesproken. Verder is er het Afrikaans van afgeleid. Dat word ook door zo’n 17 miljoen mensen gesproken, met name in Zuid-Afrika en in Namibië. Pas sedert 1925 geldt het Afrikaans als een zelfstandige taal – voordien gold het als een soort Nederlands. Nederlandstaligen en Afrikaanstaligen verstaan elkaar overings nog steeds vrijwel moeiteloos.

Voor het Algemeen Dagblad is de Internationale dag van de moedertaal aanleiding om stil te staan bij de verwerving van ons aller moedertaal, het Nederlands. De ontwikkelingspsycholoog Ewald Vervaet, schrijver van het boek Groeienderwijs; psychologie van 0 tot 3, stelde speciaal voor Diagnose vijf doordenkers samen over de verwerving van het Nederlands in de eerste drie levensjaren. Ze heten 'taaltoetsjes' omdat we er u niet alleen mee aan het nadenken willen zetten over het Nederlands als uw moedertaal, maar er ook mee willen toetsen hoe ver u kennis strekt over de wijze waarop u zich als kind uw moedertaal eigen heeft gemaakt. De vijf taaltoetsjes laten slechts vijf van de vele taalstapjes zien WWW.AD.NL Diagnose en Stichtinghistos.

De meeste stapjes in de taalontwikkeling gelden op een of andere manier voor alle talen. Het vijfde taaltoetsje gaat echter over een onderwerp dat in elk geval niet in het Engels, Frans, Italiaans en Spaans speelt en wel in het Nederlands. We staan daar met gepaste eerbied bij stil met een extra doordenker die eerder over taalkunde gaat dan over taalverwerving.

Kortslot

Elke dag is ’n dag ter ere van my Moedertaal  –  Helena Liebenberg

1 Ons Blêrkas

2 Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal

KAAPSTAD. – “Dit was ’n ligte ‘mistykie’.”

Dít was gister die woorde van die sakemagnaat en uitvoerende voorsitter van die internasionale Richemont-groep, mnr. Johann Rupert, oor ’n Britse tydskrif se houding oor Afrikaans.

Die Britse leefstyltydskrif Wallpaper het Afrikaans in ’n artikel as ’n “lelike” taal afgemaak. Rupert het gesê dit is ’n beginselsaak. Richemont het reeds sy advertensies uit die tydskrif se Kersuitgawe onttrek.

Dié groep sluit onder meer in handelsmerke soos Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget en Dunhill. Richemont bestee jaarliks etlike miljoene Britse pond aan advertensies in Britse tydskrifte.

“Die hele gedoente is nie ’n vete nie. Dit is ’n beginselsaak. Ek het die afgelope tyd etlike klagtes per e-pos van Afrikaanse lesers van dié tydskrif ontvang. My kollega mnr. Piet Beyers het op ’n Richemont-briefhoof kapsie gemaak teen die artikel waarin Afrikaans as ’n ‘lelike’ taal afgemaak word. Die tydskrif se bestuur het dié beswaar geïgnoreer.

“Ek vermoed die mense het nie mooi besef watter handelsmerke almal binne die Richemont-groep val nie. Ons het ook nog geen verskoning van die tydskrif ontvang nie en het daarom besluit om ons advertensies te onttrek,” het Rupert gesê.

Volgens hom sal die groep dieselfde optree as ’n ander kultuur- of taalgroep waarby Richemont belang het, aangeval word. “Die tydskrif kan ook nie stappe teen Richemont neem nie. Dit is ons goeie reg om te besluit met wie ons sake doen. As Wallpaper verskoning vra, kan ons toekomstige advertensies in die tydskrif oorweeg,” het Rupert gesê.

Verskeie Afrikaanse taal- en kultuurorganisasies, akademici en skrywers het Rupert se optrede en besluit ondersteun.

Dr. Frits Kok, besturende direkteur van die Afrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurvereniging (ATKV) het gesê dié organisasie wil Rupert gelukwens met sy standpunt. “Dié besluit is nie net ’n emosionele besluit waarin iemand standpunt inneem oor wat sy eie is nie. Dit maak ook bedryfsin, aangesien Afrikaans ’n kragtige bemarkingstaal is,” het hy gesê.

Mnr. Fanie Bekker van die Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI) in die Wes-Kaap het gesê Rupert se besluit is sy goeie reg en die AHI ondersteun hom ten volle. “Die AHI hoop meer Afrikaanse sakelui en -leiers sal nou standpunt inneem om Afrikaans te beskerm.”

Volgens dr. Karel Stander, nasionale hoofbestuurslid van die Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK) en voorsitter van die Wes-Kaapse gebiedskultuurraad, steun die FAK Rupert 100%. “Die FAK het reeds ’n sterk bewoorde brief aan Wallpaper gestuur waarin die organisasie sy misnoeë uitspreek,” het hy gesê.

Die skrywer George Weideman het gesê hy is baie opgewonde oor Rupert se besluit en optrede. Hy het ook reeds talle e-posse waarin mense hul positiewe gevoel oor Rupert se optrede uitspreek, ontvang. “Ek hoop dié besluit is ’n waarskuwing vir ander mense en instansies wat Afrikaans te na kom,” het hy gesê.

Prof. Hennie van Coller, hoof van die departement Afrikaans, Nederlands, Frans en Duits aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat (UV) het gesê Wallpaper se bestuur is “oerdom”.

Me. Paula Cain, direkteur van advertensies in Wallpaper se Londense kantoor, het gister nie op Die Burger se navrae gereageer nie.

Rupert snubs mag over Afrikaans slur

Donwald Pressly

Mon, 05 Dec 2005

Business, iAfrica.com

The Freedom Front Plus, a parliamentary party, which aims to represent Afrikaans-speakers, has publicly backed South African billionaire businessman Johann Rupert who withdrew millions of rand worth of advertisements from a British magazine.

The magazine, Wallpaper, recently described Afrikaans as “one of the ugliest languages in the world” * and Rupert withdrew Richemont advertisements from the magazine – which focuses on décor matters.

Rupert, who is chairperson of the luxury products group Richemont, was reported in the Afrikaans weekly newspaper, Rapport, on Sunday saying he “could not believe his eyes” when he saw in the September edition of Wallpaper this reference to Afrikaans being ugly under a photograph of the taalmonument (Afrikaans language monument) at Paarl.

Rupert, who is also chairperson of Remgro, said he had “had enough” of his language being belittled and he would not sit still and look on while his language and culture were drawn through the mud.

FF+ leader Pieter Mulder – a veteran member of Parliament – said his party “wholeheartedly supports the actions of Mr Rupert” in withdrawing the advertisements which include the Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill ranges.

Self-respect

Mulder said: “Mr Rupert is right when he says that any Englishman or Irishman who is worth his salt would have done the same thing. Any person with self-respect should protect his language in this way and that goes for all languages in South Africa.

“Many Afrikaans-speakers today accept that their language has to be treated badly.

Mr Rupert, through his actions, sets an example to many South African companies who are at present finding all kinds of excuses as to why they want Afrikaans clients’ money but do not respect their language.

“The FF+ calls on Afrikaans-speakers to stand on their constitutional rights and to maintain their language without offending any other language.

“The way in which Afrikaans is maintained will greatly determine whether the language will command respect from other language and cultural groups. Afrikaans should not be a prickly pair in the South African language orchard with long thorns, which nobody wants to touch.

“On the other hand, Mr Rupert has proved that the time has passed for Afrikaans-speakers to have to apologise for everything, including their language.

Buying power

“The realities of South Africa, such as the buying power of Afrikaans and the fact that Afrikaans is the third strongest language following Zulu and Xhosa, should protect Afrikaans as an official language.

“Yet the opposite occurs. Research shows that Afrikaans is the only language which position has deteriorated since 1994, while English and the other African languages' position have improved.”

Noting the power of Afrikaans in the business environment, Mulder said: “The fact that more than nine million transactions a month take place at Absa ** ATMs in Afrikaans confirms the buying-power reality. Hopefully, more banks will take note of Absa’s success to empower all languages at their ATMs.”

*This contemptuous remark was made by Bronwyn Davies,
a so-called “fashion stylist from Tamboerskloof, a suburb of Cape Town.

** Absa/ABSA: a large South African banking group