'n Fenomenologiese interpretasie van Afrikaanse briefskrywers aan beeld se persepsies van die sosio-politieke veranderinge in Suid-Afrika (1990 en 2004)

Abstract

It has become clear that the continued existence of the Afrikaner in the 21st century will demand a recontextualisation of the identity and values attached to being an Afrikaans-speaking South African in a post-apartheid South Africa. Various institutions and intellectuals are already busy with this process. The study used the social phenomenology of Alfred Schutz to describe and analyse the first steps taken in the recontextualisation of Afrikaner identity from the perspective of letter writers to the Afrikaans daily newspaper, Beeld.

Phenomenology accepts that the world of everyday life is man's fundamental and pervasive reality. Schutz uses concepts like the social stock of knowledge, typifications and intersubjectivity to explain how people interpret their everyday reality so that it becomes meaningful to themselves and others in communication. The task of the phenomenologist would be to question the taken-for-grantedness of this life world and identify its underlying principles (or essences).

The study found that, while the letter writers did adjust their typification of the Self, no fundamental review of their typification of the Other (black South Africans) took place. Letter writers managed to free themselves of the baggage of apartheid after De Klerk gave up power in 1990 and declared white South Africa ready for negotiations for a new democratic South Africa. Together with giving up power, letter writers also freed themselves from the aspect of Christian-nationalism which was one of the fundamental building blocks of Afrikanerskap. The Afrikaner of 2004 seems to be a white minority, proud of their language and culture, and fighting for their right to speak and hear Afrikaans.

However, no major revision of the Other has taken place. The study will show that letter writers have adjusted their perception of blacks in so far as it became practically relevant to do so for survival in the new South Africa. Very few, if any, fundamental changes took place in terms of the perception of racial or cultural superiority.