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The Invisible Margins of Afrikaans Literature

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The Invisible Margins of Afrikaans Literature REIN WILLEMSE The Invisible Margins of Afrikaans Literature When one discusses Afrikaans language and literature in the context of South African literature, much time is usually spent on wading through impressions informed by political attitudes. The well-known slogan " Afrikaans is the language of the oppressor" most succinctly characterises the position of many black people towards Afrikaans. Afrikaans became the symbol most clearly associated with Afrikaner rule. The police force and the extensive apartheid bureaucracy, were generally staffed by Afrikaners. Through their actions - at times de­ monstrably discriminatory - Afrikaans became the manifest sign of oppressIon. But Afrikaans was not just the language of an uncouth bureau­ cracy, although through various means the language was used deli­ berately to promote Afrikaner Nationalism by the National Party, Afrikaner parastatal organisations and cultural bodies. For example, the Afrikaner Broederbond (Brotherhood), a powerful and secret This short overview was presented at a round-table discussion at the 7th Conference on South African Literature, Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll, Germany, 25-27 September 1992. For a fuller treatment of the matters raised here, cf.: Hein Willemse: "The Black Afrikaans Writer: A Continuing Dichotomy." Triquarterly 69 (1987), pp.236-246; Christell StanderlHein Willemse: "Winding through Nationalism, Patriarchy, Priviledge and Concern: A Selected Overview of Afrikaans Women Writers." Research in Africa Literatures. 23.3 (1992), pp. 5-24; Hein Willemse: "Securing the Myth: The Represen­ tation of the Origins of Afrikaans in School Language Textbooks." Knowledge & Power in South Africa: Critical Perspectives across the DiSCiplines, ed. Jonathan Jansen. (Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1991), pp. 249-63; and Hein Willemse: "Die Skrille Sonbesies: Emergent Black Afrikaans Poets in Search of Authority." Rendering Things Visible: Essays on South African Literary Culture, ed. Martin Trump. (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1990), pp. 367-401. Afrikaans: Recollection, Redefinition, Restitution. Papers held ai the 7th Conforrmce on South African literature, BadBoII, September 25-27, 1992, ells. RdJertKriger & Ethel Kriger. [Matatn 15-16]. (AnNerdam, Atlanta: Edi­ tions Rocqli, 1996). 92 HEIN WILLEMSE cultural organisation, played a significant role in policy formulation, on most matters, in consecutive governments. With regard to the de­ velopment of Afrikaans among black people this body made no bo­ nes about the position of Afrikaans vis-a-vis English. Afrikaans was to be constituted as the dominant language of South Africa, even if it required coercion. Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom in an important expose of the Broederbond refer to secret documents bearing out the nationalists' intention of controlling, also in terms of language, the social envi­ ronment and prospects of most South Africans. Their fanatical determination to inculcate Afrikaans did not stop with Afrikaners and mother-tongue education. Their drive to Afrikanerise English-speakers and immigrants ... spread to other groups. Through the years they repeatedly discussed at secret meetings with Cabinet Ministers how they could get blacks to accept Afrikaans as a second language, instead of English. I With specific reference to blacks the organisation's secret docu­ ments reveal an aggressive zeal for the expansion of Afrikaans: It must be stressed again that we must speak Afrikaans to Bantu servants, mes­ sengers, waiters, teachers, officials and everybody we contact. We can switch to English with the battling Greek or shop assistant, but not with the Bantu at the petrol pump or hotel. It is not necessary for him to maintain English ... Let the Bantu understand in all circumstances that Afrikaans is the language of most whi­ tes also the most important whites. 2 Given that these expansionist strategies had to be executed in a po­ larized multi-lingual society, it is no surprise that black Soweto stu­ dents in 1976 identified Afrikaans with authoritarian rule and an op­ pressive education system. The irony, Wilkins and Strydom point out, is that the Afrikaner establishment visited the same frustration and resentment on blacks as the English colonists did on their Afri­ kaner ancestors, seventy years earlier. 3 The position presented in the previous paragraphs would howe­ ver be incomplete without the perspective that the majority of Afri- I Ivor WilkinslHans Strydom: The Super-Afrikaners: Insilk the Afrikaner Broelkrbond. (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1980), pp. 214-215. 2 ibid, p. 230. 3 ibid, p. 214. .
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