Overview

In Polemieke, former journalist and academic Gabriël Botma revisits the polemics that ensued in Afrikaans on topics that include politics, language, religion and art. Readers will either revel in or be infuriated by the disputes that raged around issues such as the Groot Trek and the Day of the Vow; cleric Allan Hendrickse outraging P.W. Botha by swimming at King's Beach in Port Elizabeth; the notion of 'civilised' apartheid; and miscegenation and immorality as exposed in Dr Heese's controversial book Die herkoms van die Afrikaner, 1675-1857. Not to mention the quarrels that started whenever minority rights, Afrikaans as apartheid and university language, the NG Kerk and gay worshippers, literary prizes, Piekniek by Dingaan and Voëlvry, Dan Roodt at the US Woordfees and farm murders were discussed. Sometimes the war of words led to deeper insight among those involved and their readers, but some of the divisions still run deep. Polemieke is a unique, entertaining look at both wellknown and almost forgotten events that helped shape the country and Afrikaner culture.

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9781776092314

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Gabriël J. Botma lectures in journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, where he obtained his PhD in 2011. He worked for the daily newspaper Die Burger in Cape Town for 15 years, where he wrote the arts and entertainment columns. In 2014 his book, Brothers in Armchairs: Cultural Struggles at Die Burger, was published.

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