Afrikaans has black roots
COMPLEX: TIED TO COUNTRY’S IDENTITY
Contrary to narratives, the language’s history is entrenched in the history of black South Africans.
The celebration last month of Youth Month is centred around a historic event sparked in part by the revolt against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in South African schools. But little gets emphasised on the cultural significance of the language, its role in South Africa’s history and the complexities of its role in racial, cultural and social identity for a large portion of the population, which uses it as a first language.
These were the ponderings of sociology scholar Warren McGregor as, in his argument that, contrary to popular and often divisive narratives, the history of Afrikaans is deeply entrenched in the history of black South Africans.
Its roots can be traced back to Indonesian slaves who, together with their Dutch masters in the 1700s, sought to create a means of communication.
Even more severely understated, he says, are the complex class politics between people who today refer to themselves as Afrikaner.
From its significance in the cultural and political identity of Dutch descendant farmers to its development in the communities of those descended from Cape-Malay slaves and indigenous tribes, Afrikaans is a tapestry of South Africa’s very formation as a multiracial nation.
Though tainted with a history that represents the overcoming of oppression for all groups who speak it as a first language, for South Africa’s black majority it became the language of oppression – more so than that of English, despite the colonial histories of both languages.
This apparent paradox, says Jesmane Boggenpoel, author of the book My Blood Divides and Unites, exists because the
English language was considered an international language which had more practical functions, while at the time of the 16 June Soweto uprising, the imposition of Afrikaans as primary medium of instruction was seen as an attempt to further colonise and oppress black people.
McGregor notes that, around the time of the uprising in 1976, groups across colour and tribal lines organised, discussed and planned for revolt against numerous points of oppression, a movement which eventually culminated in the revolt against Afrikaans in schools.
That coloured people often attended Afrikaans-only schools and spoke the language as a mother tongue did not preclude them from seeing the injustice of enforcing the language upon those for whom it was not native. Youth in coloured communities fought alongside blacks.
In her book, Boggenpoel relays how she came to understand that her slave ancestors were the originators of much of what is today referred to as Afrikaner culture and the language itself.
“Indeed, some historians argue that slaves drove the development of the language as they attempted to communicate with slave owners, most of whom spoke Dutch.
“The slaves also had a major influence on South African cuisine, introducing new cooking methods, recipes such as curry, bobotie and koeksisters,” she points out.
To demonstrate this point, she points out that the Indonesian word for banana was pisang from which the Afrikaans word for banana, piesang was derived.
Of equal cultural significance to the development of Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture were the enslaved Khoekhoe and San people, who were indigenous to South Africa. According to the Slave Lodge, these two groups were preferred as slaves by stock farmers or pastoralists, for example trekboers.
In the ongoing project of reconciliation, it was important, McGregor, concluded, that the story of Afrikaans not be painted as only shameful and racist, but used as a tool to discuss, heal and celebrate the country’s history.
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