Australia and the World Past and Present

No, Afrikaans was not introduced to Namibia when South Africa took over administration of the territory after WWI.

The spread of Afrikaans preceded this time.

Birth of a new language in the Cape Colony

The Dutch arrived in the cape region in 1652 and within a hundred years, people began to see a difference between standard Dutch and a newly forming language.

The Dutch had a global trading network and brought people to the cape from other parts of the world – often as slaves. In this was many people from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Madagascar and Mughal India were brought to the region and their languages would also influence the trajectory of Afrikaans.

Many Dutch men married or had children with women from other parts of the Dutch empire. Some were slaves and some had recently been made free. One can imagine a household where the father spoke standard Dutch but the mother spoke imperfect Dutch or her own language to her children. Replicate this in household after household and within the community you will start to see the beginnings of a new dialect or language.

Afrikaans does not only have a white history. Afrikaans has even been influenced by the languages of the the Khoekhoe and the San.

Although Dutch was indispensable in the formation of Afrikaans, it can be argued that because the new language developed on African soil, Afrikaans is an African language.

Although examples of text have been found as far back as 1795 and the early 1800s, the first Afrikaans grammar book was published in 1876 and a dictionary in 1902. It took until 1933 for the bible to be translated into Afrikaans.

You know something is going on when a group dedicated to the promotion of a new language springs up.

The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners ‘Society for Real Afrikaners’ was set up in 1875 and published some books into Afrikaans.

In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised as a distinct language by the South African government.

The Constitution of 1961 elevated it to an official language.

It might be argued that following the rise of the National Party in South Africa, the Afrikaans language became more associated with white speakers even though black speakers of the language had always been there.

Today Afrikaans is a language that is spoken by people of all classes. It is spoken in the city as well as the countryside and it is believed that there are more black speakers in South Africa than white speakers.

Afrikaans moves north

In the early 1800s some Khoi and Nama clans crossed the Orange River looking to settle in a new region.

They were known as Oorlamse ‘clever ones’ as they wore European clothes, used weapons and travelled in wagons.

They tended to be Christian. Their language has at times been called ‘proto Afrikaans’. By this stage their language had had at least 150 years of development, but it was still perhaps 75 or 100 years before rise of the Afrikaans language movement.

There were a few different groups well known in Namibian history.

Jonker Afrikaaner moved into what is now Namibia in 1823 with around 300 followers.

Another well-known figure is David Witbooi (grandfather of Hendrik).

In 1868 mixed-race Basters left the Cape Colony, traveled to Rehoboth and decided that it would be a good place to stay.

Another famous migration is the the 1874 Dorsland Trek which was made up white Boer farmers from the Transvaal region.

Fast forward a hundred years and in 1974 the South African government declared that Afrikaans was to be the language of instruction in schools. This became a significant contributor to the Soweto Uprising two years later.

In many quarters, Afrikaans came to be seen as the ‘language of oppression’.

Up until Namibia’s independence in 1990, Afrikaans, German and English were all official languages.

However, the main nationalist organisation in the country, SWAPO, shared the view that Afrikaans was the oppressor’s language and the new government sought to lower its status within Namibia.

Thus after independence there was this strange situation where the only official language, English, had almost no significant history inside of Namibia.

The benefit of English is that it is the preeminent international language and can help Namibia to connect with the rest of the world. English is also widely used in Southern Africa. Choosing English avoids having to choose a ‘victor’ local language.

The most commonly spoken languages in the country are the Oshiwambo dialects and 49% of the population speaks one of these. But they are generally not spoken in other countries and therefore can’t fulfill the role of an international language.

11% speak a Khoekhoegowab language and Afrikaans is the mother tongue for 10% of the population.

The proportion of people using English as their first language is miniscule – only 3.4%.

English largely functions as a linga franca in the north while Afrikaans fulfills that role in the south.

If we consider statistics from the 2001 and 2011 censuses, Oshiwambo and Khoekhoegowab are maintaining a similar number of speakers across time. This bodes well for the survival of these languages.

The number of people speaking Afrikaans as their mother tongue went down slightly.

English made a large gain but is starting from a very low base. It rose from 1.9% to 3.4%.

German continued it’s decline from 1.1% to 0.9%.

San is also declining. The number of people for whom it is their first language is even fewer than German.

It appears that English will continue to make gains in Namibia into the future. With people consuming more and more social media (and most content creators using English as their language of choice) we can expect its influence to grow.

Namibia is certainly is an interesting case. It is a country that has turned its back on the languages that have been most instrumental in the administration, governance and trade of the territory. English presents a new tabula rasa where a new history can be written for the nation. English is Namibia has a lot less baggage than Afrikaans or German. It may not have a strong history but it is doesn’t have negative cultural overtones.