The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

for "Society of True Afrikaners") was formed on 14 August 1875 in the town of

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

by a group of

speakers from the current

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

region. From 15 January 1876 the society published a journal in Afrikaans called ''

Die Afrikaanse Patriot ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' was the first Afrikaans-language newspaper. The first issue was published in Paarl on 15 January 1876. Initially a monthly magazine, it became a weekly two years later. Even though the first edition had just 50 subscrib ...

'' ("The Afrikaans Patriot") as well as a number of books, including grammars, dictionaries, religious material and histories. ''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' was succeeded in 1905 by today's Paarl newspaper. Arnoldus Pannevis, a teacher, is generally considered to be the spiritual father of the society. He had observed that most of the South Africans from

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

descent could not speak the "pure" form of their original mother tongue anymore. In the course of its (then) 200-year-old history, the language of the immigrants from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

had been thoroughly changed by the influence of other

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an immigrants, indigenous tribes such as the

Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...

, and especially the Cape Malays. In 1874 Pannevis expressed these views in the journal ''

de Zuid-Afrikaan ''De Zuid-Afrikaan'' was a nineteenth-century Dutch language newspaper based in Cape Town that circulated throughout the Cape Colony, published between 1830 and 1930. The paper was founded by the advocate Christoffel Johan Brand on 9 April 1830 ...

'' under the title "''Is die Afferkaans wesenlijk een taal?''" The eight founding members were Gideon Malherbe, the Dutch immigrant CP Hoogenhout, DF du Toit^AF (nicknamed ''Dokter'', i.e. "Doctor"), a journalist coincidentally named Daniel Francois du Toit^AF (nicknamed ''Oom Lokomotief'', i.e. "Uncle Locomotive"), his brother Rev SJ du Toit, August Ahrbeck, Petrus Malherbe and SG du Toit. Everybody except Hoogenhout and Ahrbeck were related. Many of them were of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

descent. On 14 August 1975 the ''Afrikaans Language Museum'' was opened in the former house of Gideon Malherbe in Paarl, the building in which the Society was founded. The

Afrikaans Language Monument The Afrikaans Language Monument ( af, Afrikaanse Taalmonument) is located on a hill overlooking Paarl, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it commemorates the semicentenary of Afrikaans being declared an ...

was also opened in Paarl in 1975, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society.

References

External links

Afrikaans Museum and Monument
* 1875 establishments in the British Empire Afrikaans Afrikaner organizations Afrikaans words and phrases History of South Africa Organizations established in 1875 {{SouthAfrica-org-stub