2025/02/21 by Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Riaan Oppelt · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Gender Studies in Language #Multilingual Education and Policy #Second Language Learning and Teaching
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/01419870.2025.2461245
openalex publication_date 2025/02/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
In South Africa, Afrikaaps is a language that dates to the seventeenth century, from encounters between indigenous Khoekhoe people, Dutch colonisers and enslaved people from South-East Asia, under Dutch rule. Long considered a dialect of Afrikaans, Afrikaaps, its name placing it in the Western Cape region of South Africa, is being re-evaluated for its roots in creolised varieties.Superdiversity and cultural creolisation have a long history in South Africa and de facto diversity in the Cape has for centuries been far more comprehensive than what is typically assumed. This article argues that the concept of superdiversity can shed light on the historical and contemporary dynamics of society and culture in the Cape. We raise fundamental questions about the relationship between individual and community, as well as explore whether a creolised twin of an already creolised language can contribute to reconciling diversity with a shared identity.