Apartheid, Afrikaans en ballingskap in die biografie van Vernon February

Abstract

This article takes as its subject Vernon February (1938-2002), one of the first black South African, and more specifically black Afrikaans literary scholars. Self-exiled in the early 1960s to the Netherlands he concentrated in his postgraduate studies and publications on African, African Diasporan and South African literatures with a specialism in Afrikaans and Creole literatures. The paper explores the influence of apartheid, Afrikaans and exile, the three salient and closely associated features on the subject. These matters are examined in three broad sections. Initially, the paper provides an overview of February's life with the aim of discerning the pertinent influences of his early life, the influences in his youth and his exilic experiences. Thereafter it traces February's anti-racist orientation to the anti-apartheid the T.L.S.A.'s (Teachers' League of South Africa) far-reaching impact on generations of Capetonian pupils and students. The last section of the article, considers February's attitude towards Afrikaans in the post-1976 exile political environment.