Opinion

LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.

Once more, with feeling: The practice of literary translation

Leon de Kock 2009-11-24 This is an edited version of a guest-of-honour speech delivered at the South African Translators’ Institute awards event, University of Johannesburg, October 2009.

Afrikaans as a language of reconciliation, restitution and nation-building

Neville Alexander 2009-10-06 Paper presented at the Roots-conference held at the University of the Western Cape, 22-23 September 2009 Prof Neville Alexander, Director of the National Language Project, PRAESA Introductory remarks It is by no means axiomatic that a ...

Some of the challenges for Africa and countries of the South

Carl Niehaus Seminare en essays 2007-05-30

Friday 25th May was Africa Day. On this day every year we celebrate the birth of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 25th May 1963. This article is an edited version of a lecture that I delivered at the Institute for Social Sciences in ...

A Balancing Act

Nèlleke de Jager 2007-05-15 Years ago, I was working as an underling to Charles Fryer, for years a formidable fiction publisher in the Afrikaans book industry. The last book he edited was the original Afrikaans edition of Islands by Dan Sleigh, which was later translated ...

On Freedom Day we celebrate ... and also remember the place of suffering we come from ...

Carl Niehaus Seminare en essays 2007-05-03

My friend Franz Marx told me the following story out of a bygone time in the history of our country. A time when, for a short while, the Republic of Lydenburg existed. This Republic was no more than a small town founded by the trekker leader Louis ...

“Go hang!” or gang ho?

Carl Niehaus Seminare en essays 2007-04-26

I am not one of those who think that bashing President Robert Mugabe is the way to show how "progressive" you are. Fortunately I am just old enough to remember the excitement and pride so many of us felt when the freedom fighter Robert ...

Why is crime in SA so violent?

Thembelani Ngenelwa 2007-04-25 Crime is a global problem and is common to all societies, but South Africa stands out for all the wrong reasons. It is the violent nature of crime that makes the South African situation worse. There is a serious lack of regard for human life. The ...

Rehearsed postures of conviction

Sam Raditlhalo 2007-04-06 I Now and again I come across an article that I read and reread, if only to understand why I am uneasy as I read it. Michael Titlestad's "The pitfalls of literary debut" (Sunday Times, 25 March 2007) reminds me of Fred ...

The rainbow blues of “De la Rey”

Loammi Wolf 2007-03-30 The storm that has broken loose about Bok van Blerk’s rock song “De la Rey” might be an indication that the smoke is starting to come out of the South African volcano again, signifying that the transformation of society after the ...

“De la Rey”: a distracting side show …

Carl Niehaus Seminare en essays 2007-03-21

It took me quiet a while to take the upheaval around the "De la Rey, De la Rey" song in the Afrikaner community, and eventually in broader South African society, seriously. In fact, long after many of my Afrikaner contemporaries were ...

From Voëlvry to De La Rey: Popular music, Afrikaner Nationalism and lost irony

Andries 'Roof' Bezuidenhout Universiteitseminaar | University Seminar 2007-02-28

"The scene is Stilbaai, a predominantly white and Afrikaans holiday town, in the year 2006. A crowd has congregated for a rock show. Zinkplaat, a band from Stellenbosch, plays before the main act, Bok van Blerk."

''De la Rey - no cause for alarm'' says Sandra Swart

Albert Grundlingh, Sandra Swart 2007-02-20 City Press asked Dr Sandra Swart and Prof Albert Grundling the following question: "Should therebe a cause for alarm by these kind of developments, ie could this kind of music prove to be the catalyst for the revitalisation of ...

Koos Bekker: Best SA Entrepreneur for 2006

Koos Bekker 2006-11-21 Koos Bekker, chief executive of Naspers, delivered this speech on acceptance of the South African Ernst & Young and Rand Merchant Bank Best Entrepreneur for 2006 award on November 15 at Summer Place in Johannesburg. Ladies and gentlemen, ...

Revisiting identities/positionalities in a changing South African socio- and geopolitical climate

Wandile Goozen Kasibe 2006-11-01 This paper was delivered atthe Race and Identity Seminar held at the University of Cape Town, African Studies Gallery 02 September 2006 Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. Before we start off with our programme I ...

Editing Leipoldt, an interesting and versatile person

Paul Murray 2006-07-21 C Louis Leipoldt (1880–1947) is the well-known Afrikaans writer canonised in Afrikaans literature as a major poet (Viljoen 1996:1). His first piece that was published he wrote when he was eleven. He ...
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