The
Afrikaans language, is a language of Dutch origin and structure similar to the Flemish,
it's also influenced by Africans, Portuguese, German, French and Malay languages.
Afrikaans in 1925, was declared official tongue of South Africa beside English.
Afrikaans is not only speak by the White peoples of Dutch,
Huguenots and Germany descent (about 60% of the South African's Whites), but also by the
majority (about 90%) of the people of mixed descent (Coloureds). Today (2001 census)
Afrikaans is the 3rd language of South Africa, 5,983,426 are the Afrikaans first language
speaking peoples in South Africa, 146,000 are in Namibia, 20,000 are in Botswana. About
4,000,000 in South Africa use Afrikaans as second or third language.
According to the South African Census 2001, Afrikaans is
the majority language in Western Cape province (2,500,748 speakers) and Northern Cape
province (559,189 speakers) it's the second laguage in Eastern Cape province (600,057
speakers), in Free State province (323,082 speakers), in Gauteng province (1,269,176
speakers), in North West province (275,681 speakers); there is a large number of speakers
also in the other provinces: Kwa-zulu
Natal (140,833 speakers, 4th), Limpopo(122,531 speakers, 4th) and Mpumalanga(192,129 speakers, 5th).
Are Afrikaans dialects: Cape
Afrikaans (West Cape Afrikaans), Orange River Afrikaans and East Cape Afrikaans.
Afrikaans Creole language are: Oorlans and Flaai Taal.
The Afrikaaners (Boers) have a rich mix of cultures in their blood: one estimate has 40%
Dutch, 40% German, 7.5% British (mainly Scots), 7.5% French and 5% others. The word
"Afrikaner" was first used in 1707.
According to the Namibian census 2001, Afrikaans
language is the second language of Namibia (11% of the total population). It’s the
majority language in Karas region (40%) and in Hardap region (44%); it’s the second
language in Erongo region (22%) and in Khomas Region (24%); it’s the third language
in Omaheke Region (12%).
The Dutch
Reformed Church or Nederduitse Gereformeerde consists of three related churches which,
according to a census, represent more than 3,000,000 peoples.
The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk is the largest of the three churches, and has now more
than 1,200 congregations and 1,300,000 members.
The other churches are the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa which is the result
of the merging, in April 1994 of the:
-Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk, (traditionally the church of the coloured people)
-Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Afrika, (traditionally black)
-Reformed Church in Africa, (with predominantly Indian members).
The Nederduitsche Hervormde Kerk and the Gereformeerde Kerk are also regarded as part of
the Afrikaans churches.
Today the Dutch Reformed Church has also six English-language congregations. There is also
one congregation for Dutch-speaking people, and four for Portuguese-speaking. In total,
there are about 2,000 members in these congregations.
In the 2001
census, South Africa had 44,819,778 inhabitants of whom 35,416,166 were Bantu (Zulu,
Sotho, Xhosa,Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi, Ndebele.....), 4,293,640 were White (mostly Boers and
British), 3,994,505 were Coloureds (people of mixed descent mainly White and Ottentots
called also Bastaards) and 1,115,467 were Asiatics (mostly Indians, a few Chinese). A more
recent stime (2005) of South African population give a total of 46,888,200 inhabitants of
whom: African 37,205,700 (79,4%), White 4,379,800 (9,3%), Coloured 4,148,800 (8,8%) and
Asian 1,153,900 (2,5%).
Mid-year 2007 estimate: Total 47 850 700: African 38 079 900 (79,6%), White 4 352 100 (9,1%), Coloured 4 245 000 (8,9%) and
Asian 1 173 700 (2,5%).
