Around 60 Afrikaans community leaders from around South Africa will converge on Grahamstown this weekend for the biannual national conference of the Rapportryers – and Strauss de Jager reckons it's going to be a jorl.
Around 60 Afrikaans community leaders from around South Africa will converge on Grahamstown this weekend for the biannual national conference of the Rapportryers – and Strauss de Jager reckons it's going to be a jorl.
The Rapportryers is a national organisation that seeks to celebrate Afrikaans as a language, and acknowledge positive aspects of Afrikaner cultures and traditions.
Its branches in centres all over South Africa serve as service organisations, as social support bases for Afrikaans-speaking communities, as well as for co-ordinating cultural and community outreach initiatives.
"In Grahamstown it is the only service organisation that conducts its business in Afrikaans," says De Jager, who is minister of the NG Kerk in Grahamstown.
The title of this weekend's conference, which takes place at PJ Olivier, is 'Afrikanerbelange in Suid-Afrika – volledige uitlewing onder die grondwet van SA'.
"You know, for nearly 200 years, Afrikaans has had to fight for its place in the sun," he said on the eve of this weekend's event. "Ever since Lord Charles Somerset."
Somerset, British Governor at the Cape from 1814 to 1826, was determined that English be the official language of the Cape Colony. To this end, in 1820 he embarked on a drive to recruit ministers for the Dutch Reformed Church… from Scotland.
"Of course that backfired, and many of the Scottish ministers aligned themselves with the Afrikaners," De Jager said.
In July 1822, Somerset declared English the official language and by 1865, English was the official medium of instruction in schools.
"The politicians got it all wrong, all the way through," De Jager said.
"The same later on, when Treurnicht forced Afrikaans as a medium of instruction."
In 1976, under deputy minister of Bantu Education Dr Andries Treurnicht, Afrikaans as a medium of instruction was imposed at some schools in Soweto.
"That was madness," De Jager said. "It did so much damage to the image of Afrikaans as a language, and betrayed completely the true values of the language and its culture."
It didn't help that in their efforts to formalise and legitimise Afrikaans, successive politicians and bureaucrats had made it "over-serious" and out of touch with the ordinary people who actually spoke it.
"It's a language to be enjoyed," De Jager said. "It should be used to celebrate artists, writers, singers and other creatives, but especially the common people who use it.
"If I could choose a theme song for this conference, it should be 'Afrikaners is plesierig'.
Projects undertaken by the Rapportryers in Grahamstown include Afrikaans prizes and bursaries for government schools; organising Afrikaans cultural events; subsidising needy pupils for educational school tours; bursaries for promising matric pupils, as well as Rhodes students; an annual fun-run fund-raising event and the annual Christmas Market.
* Additional sources: The Scots in South Africa by John Mackenzie and Nigel Dalzel; Afrikaans Literature: Recollection, Redefinition, Restitution (edited Robert Kriger); www.parliament.gov.za
