Dr Schalk van der Merwe, extraordinary senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University (SU), has been a regular guest lecturer for several years at the SU Language Centre’s Afrikaans language and culture course for Dutch-speaking students, where he shares and discusses key events from South African history with students in a narrative style. “When it comes to the history and origins of Afrikaans, it is essential to reflect the language’s diversity, and also how it has served as a vehicle for social change,” says Dr Van der Merwe. As part of the course’s 10-year celebrations, we asked him a few questions.
Languages carry the traditions, histories and identities of the people who speak them. When a language disappears, a unique way of thinking, storytelling and understanding the world is lost forever. Friday 21 February marks the 25th anniversary of International Mother Language Day (IMLD), a worldwide annual commemoration to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and advance multilingualism. Do you know what happened on 21 February 1952 when Bengali students in, at the time, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) rallied for the recognition of Bengali as an official language?
This year, SU joins the EUTOPIA Alliance Languages Week from 3 to 7 March 2025 to celebrate languages, culture and diversity across the world.
