Accented futures. Language activism and the ending of apartheid By Carli Coetzee

Abstract

From text: As part of an ongoing research project, I tried recently to critique a scholarly article on Afrikaans language activism published in 2013 by one of Afrikaans’s leading activists, Wannie Carstens. I use the term language activism here as it is used in sociolinguistics – to refer to organised action aimed at language promotion, including the planning, institutionalisation and maintenance of a language, and the defence of language rights. Titled “The story of Afrikaans: Perspectives on the past, present and future”,1 Carstens’s article propagates reconciliation among Afrikaans speakers, arguing that it can be achieved inter alia by telling the “objective”, complete and inclusive story of Afrikaans – the story of its “white and brown and black speakers”.