Amerikaanse webwerf resenseer Roodt-boek

Die invloedryke konserwatiewe Amerikaanse webblad American Renaissance het so pas dr. Dan Roodt se eboek-essay, Raiders of the lost Empire, geresenseer onder die titel, Snuffing out South African identity. Die resensent is dr. F. Roger Devlin, ‘n bekende filosoof, akademikus en skrywer in die VSA wat homself Afrikaans vanaf ‘n CD in sy motor geleer het.

Sy gevolgtrekking aan die einde is:

The Afrikaner people are clearly under attack from all sides: from blacks who resent them, from English-speakers who envy and despise them, and from the larger white world that will never forgive them for taking the measures they found necessary to build a European society in Africa. Their stark numerical disadvantage–they are perhaps 5 percent of South Africa’s population–means the stakes are higher and the crisis sharper for them than for other European peoples. But they are a heroic people, and if they rally to spokesmen like Dan Roodt, they will surely have a future.

Hoewel Raiders of the lost Empire heelwat kritiek teen veral linkse Engelssprekendes en verloopte Afrikaners uitspreek, meen Devlin dat Roodt nie anti-Engels is nie:

Dr. Roodt is not hostile to the English language; he has an extensive knowledge of English literature which would put many native speakers to shame. What he opposes is English as a “killer language”–a term recently coined for “a language so dominant that it tends to wipe out all others.” Language is an important ingredient of identity for black and white South Africans alike, and Dr. Roodt believes that “killer English” is partly to blame for the: “lack of identity [which] drives the need for drugs, for drink, prostitution, gambling and the vast spectrum of vices consuming South Africa, at once the most decadent and the most criminal of countries in the world. The corollary of deracinated English is that there is a constant process of identity-seeking and whether one finds one’s identity in drugs, golf, adopting a ‘posh’ British accent, or radical politics, is a matter of choice or chance.”

Maar lees gerus self die resensie op American Renaissance en koop die eboek hier op praag ($3 of R30) of op Amazon Kindle ($4.99): Raiders of the lost Empire: South Africa’s ‘English’ identity.