Albert Grundlingh & Siegfried Huigen (Eds.) – Reshaping Remembrance. Critical Essays on Afrikaans Places of Memory – Rozenberg Publishers 2011 – Savusa Series 3 – ISBN 978 90 3610 230 8 – Editing: Sabine Plantevin.

In any society in the throes of transition, there is a particularly acute need to reflect upon aspects of the past that used to represent firm beacons enlighting the way ahead. This inevitably involves a broader re-appraisal of the processes which contributed to the formation of a specific historical memory in the first place.

Reshaping Remembrance includes a number of critical essays on dimensions of collective Afrikaans historical memory in South Africa. In the light of radical changes in the country, scholars from various disciplines reflect on the dynamics of historical consciousness symbolically present in various areas: the ‘volksmoeder’ image, historical events and monuments, language and music, rugby and architecture.
This work hopes to resound with a well-established intellectual tradition in Europe dealing with ‘places of memory’ or ‘lieux de mémoire’.

Contents

1. Siegfried Huigen & Albert Grundlingh – Koos Kombuis and Collective Memory
2. Elsabé Brink – The ‘Volksmoeder’ – A Figurine as Figurehead
3. Gerrit Olivier – The Location
4. Hein Willemse – A Coloured Expert’s Coloured
5. Kees van der Waal – Bantu: From Abantu to Ubuntu
6. Ena Jansen – Thandi, Katrina, Meisie, Maria, ou-Johanna, Christina, ou-Lina,Jane and Cecilia
7. Albert Grundlingh – Rugby
8. Marlene van Niekerk – The Eating Afrikaner: Notes for a Concise Typology
9. Lizette Grobler – The Windpump
10. Hans Fransen – Glorious Gables
11. Lou-Marié Kruger – Memories of Heroines: Bitter Cups and Sourdough
12. Lize van Robbroeck – The Voortrekker in Search of New Horizons
13. Christine Antonissen – English
14. Siegfried Huigen – Language Monuments
15. Rufus Gouws – The Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal
16. Luc Renders – And the Greatest is … N.P.van Wyk Louw
17. Albert Grundlingh – Why have a Ghost as a Leader? The ‘De la Rey’ Phenomenon and the Re-Invention of Memories, 2006-2007
18. Stephanus Muller – Boeremusiek
19. Stephanus Muller – Die Stem
20. Annie Klopper – ‘In ferocious anger I bit the hand that controls’: The Rise of Afrikaans Punk Rock Music

Contributors

Christine Anthonissen is an associate professor and chairperson of the Department of General Linguistics at the University of Stellenbosch. Her research falls largely within the specializations of discourse analysis and sociolinguistics, with specific attention to social phenomena associated with bi- and multilingualism.

Elsabé Brink is a historian specializing in the history of Johannesburg and the role of Afrikaans women in the formation of the South African society. She has published a number of books, articles and booklets on aspects of the city’s history. She is also active in the field of heritage conservation and was long involved in heritage conservation in Gauteng. She was a member of the city council of Johannesburg in the 1990’s.

Hans Fransen was born in Amsterdam and established himself in South Africa in 1955. Here he devoted his career to the local arts, cultural and architectural history: as a writer, as a museum curator and as a lecturer. He has a doctorate from the University of Kwazulu Natal and is also a ‘Knight in the order of Orange-Nassau’.

Rufus Gouws is affiliated with the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch. His primary chosen research field is theoretical lexicography – a field where he isa nationally and internationally widely published. Besides his work in theoretical lexicography, he is also involved in various dictionary projects, including being editor of the HAT.

Lizette Grobler is a lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch and is currently involved in the Extended Degree Program in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her Masters degree focused on the Afrikaans-Portuguese travel stories by Elsa Joubert. She is co-author of Historiese keur van die Afrikaanse poësie: Pulvermacher tot Breytenbach (2000).

Albert Grund Lingh is chairman of the Department of History at the University of Stellenbosch. His publications include monographs on Boer collaborators during the Anglo-Boer war, and black South Africans and the First World War. He is also co-author of a book about rugby and South African society, and has published a wide range of articles on social and cultural history.

Siegfried Huigen is an associate professor of Dutch and Afrikaans literature at the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch. His research deals with early modern European representations of Africa and Asia, including De Weg naar Monomotapa (1996), Verkenningen van Zuid-Afrika (2007), Knowledge and Colonialism (2009) and The Dutch Trading Companies as Knowledge Networks (2010).

Ena Jansen is a lecturer at the ‘Vrije Universiteit’ in Amsterdam, where she has also been living since 2001. She published the book Afstand en verbintenis. Elizabeth Eybers in Amsterdam (1996) and is currently working on a book about the representation of domestic servants in South African urban novels.

Annie Klopper is a music journalist, a photographer and an editor. She is affiliated with the University of Stellenbosch’s Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, where she has completed her MA thesis. Her research deals with the rise of Afrikaans rock and the lyrics of Fokofpolisiekar. She was co-researcher for the MK documentary Johnny en die Maaiers, and co-compiler of the 2007 re-edition of Eugène Marais’s Die siel van die mier (Protea).

Lou-Marie Kruger is an associate professor at the Department Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch. Her research focuses on the mental health of women. She also practices part time as a clinical psychologist.

Stephanus Muller is a senior lecturer in Musicology at the University of Stellenbosch. In 2005 he founded the Centre for Musical Documentation (DOMUS) which has developed into one of the most important archives of art music in Africa.

Gerrit Olivier has been a professor of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Witwatersrand since 1989. He was dean of the Faculty of Arts for ten years and is currently head of the Wits School of Arts. His publications include N.P. van Wyk Louw: Literatuur, filosofie, politiek (1992) en Aantekeninge by Koos Prinsloo (2008).

Luc Renders is affiliated with the Department of Languages at the University of Hasselt, Belgium. He has a great interest in the Afrikaans literature and regularly publishes on contemporary Afrikaans literature. He organizes a seminar on Afrikaans at the University of Hasselt annually.

Kees van der Waal is a social anthropologist at the University of Stellenbosch. His research focuses on the cultural and social life of rural communities. He is currently working on manifestations of Afrikaans identity politics in music and language, the impact of cross-border parks on the Makuleke in Limpopo and the complexity of interaction processes during local developmental interventions in the Dwars-rivier Valley, Stellenbosch.

Marlene van Niekerk is the author of three acclaimed and translated novels, Triomf (Tafelberg, 1994), Agaat (Tafelberg 2004) and Memorandum (2006, in collaboration with Adriaan van Zyl). In addition, a volume of short stories, Die vrou wat haar verkykers vergeet het and two poetry books, Sprokkelster and Groenstaar were published. She is affiliated with the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch as a lecturer in creative writing skills.

Lize van Robbroeck is a senior lecturer at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Stellenbosch, where she teaches Visual Studies. Her field of research is discourse analysis, with focus on a deconstruction of artistic historical writing in South Africa. She is currently involved in a project to rewrite the history of South African arts.

Hein Willemse is head of the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria. His latest book is called Aan die ander kant: Swart Afrikaanse Skrywers in die Afrikaanse letterkunde (2007).