English and the African Renaissance

From Afrikaner to African: whiteness and the politics of translation in Antjie Krog'sA Change of Tongue1

“…10 Yet even though Krog's usage of the terms 'African' and 'African-ness' draw their momentum in contemporary South African public speak from the Mbeki project, the terms seem ultimately to be called upon by her less as an expression of her commitment to the dream of an 'African Renaissance', than more directly for a reframing of white Afrikaans identity. One of the problems with such a reframing is that Krog's reading of the terms 'African' and 'African-ness' echoes the same kinds of homogenising impulses registered in many of the 'African Renaissance' related discussions of the term (see Lodge 2002;Distiller 2005). If read as a cultural marker, this 'African-ness' relies on a view of culture as an object rather than as a fluid, context-sensitive practice.…”