Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 04-05-2017

A professor from the University Pretoria says according to a census report, six in ten of the almost seven million Afrikaans speakers in South Africa are estimated to be black with indications of a significant increase in the next decade.

The language of Afrikaans which evolved during the 19th century under colonialism in southern Africa remains a contested issue.

The controversy over the medium of instruction at traditionally Afrikaans universities such as Stellenbosch has brought this to the fore again.

This simplified, creolized language had its roots mainly in Dutch, mixed with seafarer variants of Malay, Portuguese, Indonesian and the indigenous Khoekhoe and San languages

Professor of Afrikaans literature, media and cultural studies Hein Willemse says the history of Afrikaans being propagated as the language of white people or fostered by nationalist Afrikaners is debatable.

“Afrikaans is often regarded as something to South Africa which its not. It’s very much an African language, a creole language.”

Willemse says the development and diversity of languages needs to be protected.

“Because that tells us something about who we are as South Africans for instance. That tells us something about our cultural environment, it tells us something about our sense of being unique in the world.”

Willemse says while Afrikaans as a language has been identified with racism and active repression it will be disassociated with power within the next generation.