Inauguration strife at Afrikaans Language Monument

Involvement of brown people and other population groups was source of great division

- STEWARD VAN WYK

AT THE Afrikaans Language Monument’s inauguration on October 10, 1975, political strife and undercurrents prevailed in brown politics.

In his autobiography, Dr. Richard (Dick) van der Ross describes the early 1970s as a time marked by division, split loyalties, and prejudice.

Their political actions in response to government-led celebrations were shaped accordingly: radicals strongly opposed and boycotted them, while moderates supported limited participation, provided it did not validate the harsh apartheid structure.

It is not an exaggeration to say that, for radicals, the Language Monument was a nonevent and therefore didn't even feature in debates.

Jannie Rossouw and Annemarie van Zyl point out the intense struggles and differences among white Afrikaans speakers in the run-up to the monument’s erection and inauguration.

The involvement of brown people and other population groups was one of the aspects over which great division existed. Reverend S.J. Loots, minister of the Toringkerk in Paarl, strongly expressed his opposition, particularly to the symbolism of the three domes that represented the contribution of black people to the development of Afrikaans.

In a petition to, among others, the then state president and prime minister, he criticised the “linguistically indefensible hut depictions” for which there was no evidence that “native languages” had made any meaningful contribution to the development of Afrikaans.

On the other hand, there was a strong sentiment that the inauguration should not be an exclusively white Afrikaner celebration. In response to circular 2/75 from Mr. PJ. Cillie to the language monument committee, Prof. WJ. du P. Erlank (Eitemal) wrote: “We have lost ground in the relationship between white Afrikaners and their brown linguistic and cultural counterparts. We must progressively reclaim that ground step by step.”