Beauty in Bastardy: Breytenbach on Afrikaans and the Afrikaners

Abstract

The writings of Breyten Breytenbach nuance, extend, and complicate the ongoing debate over Afrikaner cultural identity. Breytenbach's choice of the supra-ethnic, supra-'national' term 'Afriqua'--in place of 'Afrikaner,' for example--better reflects the truly 'mongrel' nature of Afrikaans and the Afrikaners, their process of 'becoming,' their self-positioning towards history and the future in the Rainbow Nation that is the new South Africa.