Afrikaans may die — what is significant is whether it will be killed or suffer a ‘natural’ death

One thing missed by this article, relating particularly to Stellenbosch University, is the fact that ab initio it was formed as a centre of Afrikaans excellence. The problem lies in the fact that students wish to become part of the excellence, but wish to destroy one of the pillars of that excellence. I went to University aged 28 and married + 3. I studied Agriculture, but spoke no Afrikaans. In RSA this limited my options. I graduated, a proud and competent student, from Natal University!

A good article that turned out rather differently to what I imagined when I started reading it. I agree with all 3 previous replies as well. Just 2 small observations: 1) Latin is not dead, it is still often used by the Roman Catholic church for their services in some countries. 2) It is very difficult to "intentionally kill off" a language, especially one as widely used (in SA) as Afrikaans. With the world a Global Village, it would be impossible to prevent/prohibit people from communicating, singing, writing poetry/literature in Afrikaans. Even though they were in a "wilderness", the descendants of Boer prisoners-of-war that ended up in South America after that war, still speak Afrikaans (although it has evolved slightly differently to the Afrikaans spoken here). I have always felt that the survival of a language is up to the people that love it and speak it, it doesn't need special protective laws to survive and thrive, just freedom to be spoken, sung, printed publicly. (I am a Slovak-born, Slovak-speaking, naturalized (since 1971) South African, who started school in SA.)

Read Judith today and re-write this piece.

We are for truncate that it is the lunatic fringe that incites ethnic violence. The bulk of SA society are peace loving tolerant people. The Malemas of this world and other opportunists need to be brought to book by South Africans who have the best interests of all who live here at heart.

We imagine ourselves as an 'exceptional nation? Pray tell what is wrong with that? Our nation's future was destroyed by the English during the Anglo-Boer War and may I add almost as many indiginous tribes were killed by the English scorched earth policy and concentration camps yet we survived and prospered and now English is the most important language in our country.

I agree with Mr Lagardien that neither the ill intent of the likes of Lesufi, nor the reactionary protectionism of Afriforum is ultimately beneficial to Afrikaans. However, I can't entirely agree that the continued existence of Afrikaans is endangered. That said, not all varieties of Afrikaans may necessarily survive. The scope of formalised Afrikaans -- Standaardafrikaans -- has decreased steadily since 1994, especially in government and at tertiary institutions. Global English has become the language of commerce, academia, entertainment and pop culture. Hence there is less and less reason, or desire, for learners and students to develop a proper command of Afrikaans. But the Afrikaans media and literature remain vigorous. Especially at the grassroots level, Afrikaans is in no danger of dying out. I stayed in Durbanville for a couple of years and have recently moved to Suurbraak in the Overberg. It is surprising -- and encouraging! -- how vibrant Afrikaans has remained once you move beyond Cape Town's City Bowl or the Southern Suburbs. It is important though to recognise that this Afrikaans is not necessarily formalised Afrikaans. And why should it be so? The oldest form of Afrikaans -- Kaaps -- whose heart beats on the Cape Flats, is strongly distinct from Standaardafrikaans. To such an extent that UWC has recognised the need to develop the Drietalige Woordeboek van Kaaps, the DWK, featuring Kaaps, Standaardafrikaans and English. Afrikaans is dead. Long live Afrikaans!

Thank you so much for this beautiful and poignant piece. I say poignant because I have just about completed Helen Opperman Lewis' book "Apartheid - Britain's Bastard Child". Every South African should read this book and perhaps most importantly of all Panyaza Lesufi. Afrikaans didn't create apartheid, people did, so many people did and those who speak English are not exempted, in fact they are culpable. Revenge politics is the very last thing that we need in this country; we need atonement, admission of guilt and restorative justice and healing.

In September 2008, I attended a Steve Biko Memorial Lecture by Professor Kwesi Prah of CASAS at the Booysens Hotel. The topic of his lecture was: Africanism, Humanism and Emancipation: The Legacy of Steve Bantu Biko. As a former activist and freedom fighter, who has known and followed Prof Kwesi Prah, it was to listen to his erudite lectures that are always presented with clarity. The central theme of his lecture was on self - deprecation and was underpinned by culture and language. The article by the author has very serious errors as he asserts that Afrikaans may disappear and listening to the lecture of Professor Kwesi Prah on Afrikaans as a 1976 generation of freedom fighter was very eye opening and the author who is also very reckless needs to get the copy of the lecture to get himself educated. To insult over 6 million South Africans that speak the language because of history is populism that has no place in objective journalism. Professor Prah traced the history of Afrikaans as a language when a Boer leader Steyn, when writing against Anglicization in 1913 said that the language of the conqueror, in the mouth of the conquered, is a language of slaves. In a matter of decades what was called a Kombuis Taal by the Cape Times in 1906, had developed to a language of science and technology along with Hebrew and the Indonesian language. A language with scientific, technical and commercial development will never disappear with a strong organisational support behind it.

I don't understand what Ismail is trying to say? Afrikaans and Afrikaaners as VICTIMS, demonised, erased, opposition to Afrikaans, impure, killed off, pulled between 2 positions, non African, politics of revenge, violent outcome, radical formations, once again obsession with EFF. Genocide, Nazi Germany and Stalin, he is really pushing this too far. I think he is playing to white fears. Panyaza Lesufi fought for REAL change in model C schools especially so called Afrikaans schools .Resistance to change esp. culture in the running of schools by untransformed SGB's, lets us be practical NOT emotional about the country we so long for. The passed must be the passed period. Panyaza was firm, uncompromising and pulled no punches. Stellenbosch is a SOUTH AFRICAN University and belongs to All citizens NOT an extention of ONE culture. Remember Percy Montgomery? His father complained bitterly about how his son was treated by Afrikaner players infact he called it Toxic Afrikaner culture within the team. Yet Rugby is invented by the English. Afrikaans in a global space is not going to take you anywhere.

Should the state be funding a national university (for all) that maintains an underlying mission to protect any one culture and language? That mission surely belongs to the millions of South Africans who use it every day and its specific cultural institutions. De facto we are a multilingual society using English as our lingua franca, alongside all our other languages. This gets work done, provides us with our strongest tool for social cohesion and links us to the rest of the world. If we could accept this, some major blockages in education and social development would fall away. It would allow us all, for the sake of both effective learning and social cohesion, to focus on developing the kind of multilingual teaching techniques we need. This would put us amongst those at the cutting edge of solving some world-wide language issues. Digital text now makes it possible for all to use their own languages in education via bilingual text materials (in common-language plus own-language) and huge strides have been made on the methodology front. We just need teachers and administrators at all levels to catch up. We don’t need to be asking dramatic questions about whether Afrikaans is being subject to deliberate decay or murder, or whether we are about to witness the collapse of nation building with ethno-linguistic fractionalisation taking over.