Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2024-8
Retracing the racial semiotics of the other-lingual ( anderstalige ) in Dutch and Afrikaans: Exploring its emergence in South Africa and its (re-)emergence in Flanders
This article explores the racial semiotics of the Dutch concept of the other-lingual (de anderstalige). Multicultural discourse ostensibly encodes the otherness as merely linguistic; however, Flemish nationalist policy discourse deploys the other-lingual to discern autochthony from allochthony. Retracing the origins of this concept, we found that the concept did not originate in Dutch-speaking Europe, but we found earlier traces overseas in apartheid South Africa where the Afrikaans concept served the forced exclusion of coloured people. We conduct a semiotic analysis of the other-lingual to study how the concept racially encodes and decodes the Afrikaans language in South Africa and the Dutch language in Flanders. The dataset contains records in Dutch and Afrikaans, published in, or in regards to, the Netherlands, Suriname, Flanders (Belgium) and South Africa. Our semiotic analysis of the South African other-lingual engages with religious discourse published in 1950s South Africa. The semiotic analysis of Flemish other-lingual engages with its trajectory in Flemish Government Declarations from 1992 to 2022. The article concludes that the history of the other-lingual, revealing a racial identification between Flemings and Afrikaners, provides pivotal arguments for the contemporary understanding of race in the Dutch languages.
Adhikari-SacréHPRuttenK (2021) When students rally for anti-racism: Engaging with racial literacy in higher education. Philosophies6: 48.
2.
AgirdagO (2017) Het straffen van meertaligheid op school: De schaamte voorbij [Punishing multilingualism in school: Beyond the shame]. In: Agirdag O and Kambel ER (eds) Meertaligheid en onderwijs (Multilingualism and Education: Dutch Plus).
3.
AndersonB (2016) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Books.
4.
AouraghM (2019) ‘White privilege’ and shortcuts to anti-racism. Race & Class61: 3–26.
5.
ArasaratnamS (1967) The Dutch East India Company and its coromandel trade 1700–1740. Bijdr. Tot Taal- Land- En Volkenkd. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences in Southeast Asia123: 325–346.
6.
AtkinsonCL (2019) Semiotic Analysis and Public Policy: Connecting Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.
7.
BoehmerE (2011) Where we belong: South Africa as a Settler Colony and the Calibration of African and Afrikaner Indigeneity. In: BatemanFPilkingtonL (eds) Studies in Settler Colonialism: Politics, Identity and Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.257–271.
8.
BurkeK (1974) The Philosophy of Literary Form (3rd edn). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
9.
CainAAbreuJde NerioTMD, et al. (2018) Smash the Pillars: Decoloniality and the Imaginary of Color in the Dutch Kingdom. Washington, DC: Lexington Books.
10.
CeuppensB (2004) Congo made in Flanders?: koloniale Vlaamse visies op ‘blank’ en ‘zwart’ in Belgisch Congo. Ghent; Belgium: Academia Press.
11.
ChandlerD (2007) Semiotics: The Basics (2nd edn). London and New York: Routledge.
12.
ChristiaensKNieuwenhuysJRoemerC (2020) International Solidarity in the Low Countries During the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives and Themes. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. DOI: 10.1515/9783110639346.
13.
ConscienceH (2013) De Leeuw van Vlaanderen: De Slag der Gulden Sporen. Belgium: UltraLetters.
14.
Daes E-IA (2011) Principal Problems Regarding Indigenous Land Rights and Recent Endeavours to Resolve Them. Leiden: Brill.
15.
De BockW (1978) Suikerbossie: België en Zuidelikjk Afrika. Belgium: Manteau.
16.
DegadtJ (2012) De internationalisering van de Vlaamse Rand rond Brussel. ASP/VUBPRESS/UPA.
17.
DelvauxI (2014) Ces Belges qui ont soutenu l’apartheid: Organisations, réseaux et discours. PIE-Peter Lang SA.
18.
DemanetJAgirdagOVan HoutteM (2012) Constrict in the school context: The impact of ethnic school diversity on the quantity and quality of friendships. Sociological Quarterly53: 654–675.
19.
De SaussureFCharlesBAlbertS, et al. (1916) Cours de linguistique générale. Chicago, IL: Open Court.
20.
DreyerW (2016) Heretic or rebel? The heresy trial of Albert Geyser. HTS Theological Studies72: 1–10.
21.
DupreezAB (1959) Eiesootige Ontwikkeling Tot Volksdiens: Die Hoop Van Suid-Afrika. H.A.U.M.
22.
DyersC (2008) Language shift or maintenance? Factors determining the use of Afrikaans among some township youth in South Africa. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics38: 49–72.
FadilN (2017) Tegen Radicalisering: Pleidooi voor een postkoloniaal Europa. Brussel: VUB Press.
25.
FadilN (2019) The anthropology of Islam in Europe: A double epistemological impasse. Annual Review of Anthropology48: 117–132.
26.
FadilNRagazziFde KoningM (2019) Radicalization in Belgium and the Netherlands: Critical Perspectives on Violence and Security. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
27.
FischerFGottweisH (2012) The Argumentative Turn Revisited: Public Policy as Communicative Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
28.
FurlongPJ (2015) Family ties? Afrikaner nationalism, pan-Netherlandic nationalism and neo-Calvinist ‘Christian nationalism’. New Contree 74: 24.
29.
GeertsG (1985) Taalvariatie en taalnormen in Vlaanderen. Verslagen en mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal-en Letterkunde1: 85–112.
30.
GeertsGCretenJJaspaertK (eds) (1986) Werk-in-uitvoering: Momentopnamen van de sociolinguistiek in Belgie en Nederland (1st edn). Leuven: Acco, Sociolinguistendagen.
31.
GeldofD (2020) De transitie naar superdiversiteit en majorityminority- cities: Over de nood aan interculturalisering van politie en justitie. Panopticon40: 368.
32.
GeschierePCeuppensB (2005) Autochthony: Local or global? New modes in the struggle over citizenship and belonging in Africa and Europe. Annual Review of Anthropology34: 385–407.
GeyserAS (1960b) Vertraagde aksie: ’n ekumeniese getuienis uit die Afrikaansprekende kerk (ed. GeyserAS). NG Kerkboekhandel.
35.
GijselsH (1982) Baron André Vlerick, apartheidsprofessor gelauwerd door Zuid-Afrika. Belgium: Manteau.
36.
GilinEHeerenJWachterLD (2021) Een taalvaardigheidstest voor anderstaligen voorgelegd aan leerlingen in het Nederlandstalig middelbaar onderwijs: Een onverwacht effect?International Neerlandistiek59: 99–113.
37.
GiliomeeH (2004) The rise and possible demise of Afrikaans as public language. The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity10: 25–58.
38.
GoddeerisI (2015) Colonial streets and statues: Postcolonial Belgium in the public space. Postcolonial Studies: Culture, Politics, Economy18: 397–409.
39.
GreimasAJRastierF (1968) The interaction of semiotic constraints. Yale French Studies: Literature, Thought, Culture41: 86–105.
40.
HallS (1973) Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Birmingham: Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham.
41.
HallS (1980) “Encoding—Decoding.” In:Crime and Media. Routledge, pp.44–55.
42.
HallS (2001) Foucault: Power, knowledge and discourse. In: WetherellMTaylorSYatesSJ (eds) Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
43.
HallS (2017) The Fateful Triangle: Race, Ethnicity, Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44.
HallSEvansJNixonS (eds) (2013) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Second edition). SAGE Publications Ltd.
45.
HébertL (2019) An Introduction to Applied Semiotics: Tools for Text and Image Analysis. Routledge.
46.
JonckheereW (1997) Apartheid in het Vlaams Proza. Spiegel der Letteren39: 304–317.
47.
KanobanaS (2021) A black perspective on the language of race in Dutch. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology31: 271–274.
48.
KanobanaSR (2022) How the Flemings became White: Race, language, and colonialism in the making of Flanders. Dutch Crossing46: 259–273.
49.
LaarmansG (1984) Zwarte Leon, het witte huis en de bruine kaffers. Belgium: Manteau.
50.
LemanJSergeijsselsKGeirnaerdtW (1987) Lessen Nederlands voor anderstalige volwassen in Vlaanderen en Brussel (1st edn). The Hague: NederlandseTaalunie.
51.
LentinA (2008) Europe and the silence about race. European Journal of Social Theory11: 487–503.
52.
LodgeT (2019) Apartheid, guns and money: A tale of profit. Small Wars & Insurgencies30: 716–718.
53.
LucassenJ (2004) A multinational and its labor force: The Dutch East India Company, 1595–1795. International Labor and Working-Class History66: 12–39.
54.
MeeuwisM (2015) From the Cape to the Congo and back: Afrikaners and Flemings in the struggle for Dutch in Africa (1874–1960). Studies in the Languages of Africa46: 325–343.
55.
MeeuwisM (2016) Taalstrijd in Afrika: Het taalwetsartikel in het koloniaal charter van 1908 en de strijd van de Vlamingen en Afrikaners voor het Nederlands in Afrika tot 1960. WT. Tijdschrift over de geschiedenis van de Vlaamse beweging75: 27–61.
56.
Mistra (2018) Whiteness Afrikaans Afrikaners: Addressing Post-apartheid Legacies, Privileges and Burdens. Johannesburg: Mapungubwe Institute.
57.
PelicanM (2009) Complexities of indigeneity and autochthony: An African example. American Ethnologist36: 52–65.
58.
RensburgCV (1999) Afrikaans and apartheid. International Journal of the Sociology of Language136: 77–96.
59.
RossolatosG (2011) Applications, implications and limitations of the semiotic square for analyzing advertising discourse and discerning alternative brand futures. International Journal of Semiotics6. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2000507.
60.
SakhiyyaZMartin-AnatiasN (2023) Reviving the language at risk: A social semiotic analysis of the linguistic landscape of three cities in Indonesia. International Journal of Multilingualism20(2): 290–307.
61.
SierensS (2006) Onderwijs onderweg in de immigratiesamenleving. London: Academia Press.
62.
SmitsJ (1982) De Politieke Opiniepeilingen in België in 1981. Res Publica24: 353–370.
63.
StolerAL (2010) Along the Archival Grain. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
64.
TerblancheO (2009) Flanders and South Africa: Diplomatic, political and cultural relations, 1945–1990. Historia54: 77–97.
65.
T’SjoenY (2007) Achter de trommels: het Afrikaner nationalisme als bouwsteen voor het ideologische discours van de Vlaamse Beweging (ca. 1875–1921). WERKWINKEL: Journal of Low Countries and South African Studies2: 51–76.
66.
T’SjoenY (2012) Herman de Coninck on Afrikaans and Afrikaner society, culture and politics. Tydskrif vir letterkunde49: 5–24.
67.
TyssensJBakkerNRietveld-Van WingerdenM (2006) School en cultuur. Eenheid en verscheidenheid in de geschiedenis van het Belgische en Nederlandse onderwijs. Van Gorcum: ASSE.
68.
Van ParijsP (2012) Taalkundige Territorialiteit En de Taalkudige Toekomst van België. De Internationalisering van de Vlaamse Rand Rond Brussel 182–210.
69.
WekkerG (2017) Witte onschuld: paradoxen van kolonialisme en ras. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
70.
WillaertD (2009) 5: Verhuisbewegingen vanuit en naar de Vlaamse Rand rond Brussel. Interface Demography Working Paper5: 23.
71.
WillemynsR (1984) A common legal framework for language unity in the Dutch language area: The Treaty of Linguistic Union (Taalunieverdrag).
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
