Learning a new language

Herman Wasserman
University of Sheffield, England, H.J.Wasserman@sheffield.ac.uk

Under apartheid, the mainstream Afrikaans media served as vehicles for the ideology of apartheid. Since democratization, they have attempted to rid themselves of this ideological baggage, and instead embraced a free-market ideology in which race has ostensibly disappeared. This repositioning has seemingly benefited the Afrikaans media sector, with an increase of the number and type of media, operating under the proclaimed banner of non-racialism. The discourse within which this repositioning has taken place, is that of a celebratory consumerism coupled with acknowledgement of majority rule. Yet this apparent move away from ideology towards a market logic where consumers are addressed as individuals rather than racial or ethnic groups, obscured its role within post-apartheid identity politics. Afrikaans media constructed the Afrikaans language as a commodity that can be used to its speakers' economic advantage if they recognize the pragmatic necessity of acknowledging the political transformation in the country. At the same time, the economic status of Afrikaans speakers could provide a bargaining chip in the negotiation of minority language rights. Crucially, Afrikaans media are therefore playing an important role in creating a link between consumption and cultural identity — to their own strategic commercial advantage. •