Black Afrikaans writers : continuities and discontinuities into the early 21st century – a commentary

Abstract

This is a brief commentary on Ampie Coetzee’s paper “Swart Afrikaanse Skrywers: ’n diskursiewe praktyk van die verlede” (Black Afrikaans writers: a discursive practice of the past), in which he attempts to come to grips with the discourse of Black Afrikaans writing. This phenomenon came about in the mid-1980s when members of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Western Cape convened the first of four decennial symposia. These events are regarded as oppositional to the dominant Afrikaans literary tradition. Coetzee traces the origins of the constituting enunciations asking what the discourse looks like and the domain of these writers. The present commentary in response addresses in successive sections literacy as a key factor in the development of a literary tradition, the beginnings of the Black Afrikaans writers literary movement and nomenclature and its undergirding politics. Some of the significant Black Afrikaans writers are named and the commentary concludes with brief observations on the reclamation of Afrikaans, the growth in women’s writing and secondary academic research.

This is a brief commentary on Ampie Coetzee’s paper “Swart Afrikaanse Skrywers: ’n diskursiewe praktyk van die verlede” (Black Afrikaans writers: a discursive practice of the past), in which he attempts to come to grips with the discourse of Black Afrikaans writing. This phenomenon came about in the mid-1980s when members of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Western Cape convened the first of four decennial symposia. These events are regarded as oppositional to the dominant Afrikaans literary tradition. Coetzee traces the origins of the constituting enunciations asking what the discourse looks like and the domain of these writers. The present commentary in response addresses in successive sections literacy as a key factor in the development of a literary tradition, the beginnings of the Black Afrikaans writers literary movement and nomenclature and its undergirding politics. Some of the significant Black Afrikaans writers are named and the commentary concludes with brief observations on the reclamation of Afrikaans, the growth in women’s writing and secondary academic research.