Linguicism and nationalism: a post-colonial gaze on the promotion of Afrikaans as a national language in apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This paper explores the processes by which nationalist movements help to create both ethnic and linguistic identities. The article begins with the social history, religious legitimization and institutional promotion of the Dutch-based language of Afrikaans as a national and official language of apartheid South Africa. After examining the historiography of the Afrikaans language, the paper offers a critique using existing theories of linguistic nationalism and its relationship to the politics of ethnic identity as possible explanations for the rise of the Afrikaner nation in South Africa. Socio-cultural factors involved in the rise of nationalistic movements identified by social theorists such as Smith (1986), Hobsbawm (1994), Gellner (1994), Edwards (1988), and Anderson (1994), will be applied to the Afrikaans case study. To conclude, I will elaborate on the challenges, implications, and issues for further research with regards to post-apartheid language policy in South Africa, especially with the influence of African nationalism, the promotion of the English language, and acceptance of Afrikaans dialects in post-apartheid South Africa.