Abstract
A perceptual account of Afrikaans in Namibia: Between lingua franca and socially exclusive
language.
Afrikaans was first introduced in Namibia’s current territory by migrant Oorlam and Baster
groups who imposed it in its Cape Dutch form as a prestige language and inter-ethnic medium
of communication. The status of Afrikaans in Namibia was consolidated during the South
African regime which systematically promoted it while preventing indigenous languages from
spreading out of their intra-ethnic contexts of use. A linguistic consequence of independence,
which Namibia gained in 1990, was that English suddenly became the country’s only official
language, as well as the dominant language in education. Despite the hegemonic status that
English acquired in Namibia, Afrikaans is today still popularly represented as the main lingua
franca in Namibia, or at least as an important one. However, the position of Afrikaans in
urban areas could nowadays be under threat from the sustained influx of migrants from
Namibia’s northern districts, including those that constitute the traditional homeland of the
Ovambo, the country’s numerically dominant group, where English is better known than
Afrikaans. An indication of the pressure that Afrikaans might be subject to in Windhoek,
Namibia’s capital city, is the demographic preponderance that the Ovambo group has locally
acquired within the last three decades. Based on a qualitative survey conducted among an
ethnoracially representative sample of young Namibians, this article provides a description
of the status and use of Afrikaans in contemporary Windhoek, as well as a reflection on its
potential for locally maintaining itself as a lingua franca. It generally shows that Afrikaans
has to compete with English in that function, while indigenous languages are still largely
restricted to intra-ethnic contexts of use. Afrikaans is clearly perceived as the lingua franca
with more “covert prestige” in that it is associated with informality and a sense of local
identity. By contrast, English is generally associated with overt prestige and formal functions,
and it is characteristically used as a lingua franca within groups that do not understand
Afrikaans, such as among particular Ovambo migrants...