Afrikaans and Concord

For years I have been trying to learn to speak Xhosa, a traditional African language unique to southern Africa. It is predominantly spoken in the Eastern Cape but has proliferated in the Western Cape after generations of migration to the urban Cape Town and surroundings. However, I have been resistant to learning Afrikaans.

I’ve not been resistant because it isn’t a beautiful language, because it is. Nor because I don’t know people who speak it, I do. And certainly not because it doesn’t have practical use in South Africa, because it does. But, upon reflection, I realize this is because of my association with it and the inexorable cultural connection between Afrikaans and the Apartheid ideology and regime. I’ve had to examine this resistance more thoroughly as I spend more time here with wonderful people whose language and cultural background is Afrikaans.

I’ve realized that while I have little problem disassociating new-found friends with the Apartheid movement. (Most openly chastise Apartheid’s monstrous wrongdoings and most were very young during it implement.) However, I continued to be lodged in this connection with their home language and the loathsome actions of Apartheid.

I’ve realized (at least) one shortcoming of my prejudice. I have been unconsciously accepting of the evolution of the culture and of those who identify as Afrikaans. Particularly, I am sure, because it would be ideologically impermissible for me to associate with individuals whose values are aligned with what I regard as irrefutably detestable. And not resolving that internal conflict would create considerable discord in relationships that I value.

However, I’ve been unable to, in practice, detach the language from Apartheid. There may be some logical reasons for this if understood in historical context (Soweto: June 16th 1976, for example). However, as I reflect on it I am not sure that this association has any practical use. Demonizing a language will neither change the atrocities of the past nor will it lead to a more non-racial, peaceful future.

South Africa, as I and many others have said before, is a land of profound paradoxes. Another lessen I’ve learned is that moving forward, in the sense of social and personal change, requires developing and subscribing new meanings to old concepts. I think it means letting go of antiquated inscriptions while persistently remembering the atrocities of the past. Paradoxical, perhaps, but probably necessary... for me anyway.