Eiselen and the clash of languages

Abstract

The events of 1976 drew attention in no uncertain way to the contention surrounding the language issue, in this case the enforced use of Afrikaans as a partial medium of instruction. It was by no means a new struggle. The controversial language policies recommended by the Eiselen Report which was the foundation of Bantu Education, had even older antecedents. Language policies are a kind of code which, when deciphered can speak of underlying class struggles. For the purposes of this paper I concentrate on the person of Werner Eiselen and the language policies he enforced as Chief Inspector of Native Education in the Transvaal in the course of the 1930s.