JONATHAN JANSEN: The deep and anxious groaning about the fate of the 'taal'
'Why are Afrikaans taalstryders taking universities to court and attacking university academics and leaders with a different view?'
One place in which to observe Thabo Mbeki's “two nations” thesis is in the language debates stalking the former white Afrikaans universities. These debates are discussing the future of Afrikaans as a language of instruction on university campuses. In one corner of South Africa there is deep and anxious groaning about the fate of the taal. If you stick your head into that beehive, you could be forgiven for thinking that the declining presence of Afrikaans as a language of instruction on the former white Afrikaans campuses represents nothing less than an existential threat to the volk itself. Of course this is nonsense, but you would not know that from attending a Taalfees, where deeply emotional attachments to Afrikaans are expressed in fatalistic language. “Even my chickens would crow me awake in Afrikaans every morning,” ventured one romantic at a recent Woordfees gathering.
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