SPU, with particular efforts by its Schools of Education and Humanities, hosted a symposium entitled “Afrikaans: Kom saam/Come along” in October.

The Northern Cape province represents the largest number of speakers of Afrikaans in South Africa.

According to the 2011 Census, approximately 53% of the Northern Cape population speak Afrikaans as their home language.

Furthermore, Afrikaans is the third most-spoken home language in the country (2011 Census).

The province also covers the largest geographic area in South Africa (2011 Census), which occasionally renders social and corporate interaction, problematic.

Some of the issues which the Schools identified for discussion included:

•          Is it appropriate to investigate Afrikaans in the Northern Cape more closely?

•          What does the Northern Cape Afrikaans speaker and his/her language look like?

•          What does creativity in Afrikaans look like?

•          What is the state of Afrikaans education in the Northern Cape?

•          How could Afrikaans be employed as a vehicle for creating unity among the residents of the Northern Cape?

The purpose of this symposium was to deliberate on the potential of Afrikaans to unify the people of the Northern Cape.

Various informative speakers highlighted aspects of this potential, while panel discussions were held to debate the topic from the perspective of secondary education. SPU’s possible support of this goal in the province, in the university’s capacity as a higher education institution, was also discussed.

The day was a success and many potential research threads were identified, as well as potential ways in which to change to collaborate with the various stakeholders of Afrikaans in the Northern Cape in order to employ Afrikaans as a vehicle for unification in the province.