Jonny Steinberg writes in his column about steps minorities take to find a smoother path to the wider world (“Whites, Beware the Machines and Black Anger Ahead”, May 17). For him the Afrikaners are a case in point. In censuses of the 1970s close to 60% of whites reported to be Afrikaans, but this figure has, according to Steinberg, now dropped to little more than 40% of the white population. His explanation is that a generation of people chose to become English speaking, thereby acquiring both the linguistic skills and “cultural cachet” to operate across the developed world. My experience is that most Afrikaners have acquired both these qualities without feeling the need to become English. There is a big problem with Steinberg’s demographic data. There is no evidence that a generation of white Afrikaans speakers has chosen to become English. According to the 2011 census 62% of whites were Afrikaans speaking, which is the same proportion as in the 1970s. The Afrikaner proportion of t...
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