Taalmuseum: exhibitions

Travel back in time

The museum is situated in Gideon Malherbe's house, the ground floor of which has been partially restored. It’s not only the unusual wallpaper that will intrigue you; original furniture from the 19th century will take you back to the era of secret meetings and families of 16 children.

Printing: then and now

The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Association of True Afrikaners) was established in this house on 14 August 1875. The museum is home to the printing press on which Die Afrikaanse Patriot, the first Afrikaans newspaper, was printed.

• News: Taalmuseum opens new exhibition on early written Afrikaans
• View our photo album
• Download a pdf article about early written Afrikaans

The first documents

Did you know that Afrikaans in Arabic script was one of the earliest versions of written Afrikaans? Come and discover how Abu Bakr Effendi and others adapted the Arabic alphabet to write Afrikaans.

Audiovisual and interactive

On the first floor audiovisual exhibits and interactive activities give an overview of the roots, variants and other aspects of Afrikaans. Come and learn more about the origin of words such as “piesang” (banana) and hear how people – from Mitchell’s Plain to Namaqualand – speak Afrikaans.

From Rieldans to Rap: Tracing the Afrikaans language through its song

With this new addition to our permanment exhibition the Afrikaanse Taalmuseum wants to illustrate the gradual changes in Afrikaans by tracing the spoken word in Afrikaans music. Certain genres which have been instrumental in bringing about change and which represent certain important eras in history have been chosen to illustrate the growth and development of the language. Unfortunately lack of space has forced the exclusion of many genres and artists who have also made an important contribution to the Afrikaans song. Those that were chosen will offer a representative overview of the development of Afrikaans in song.

Download a pdf booklet about this exhibition.

Please visit our exhibitions at the Afrikaanse Taalmuseum in Pastorie Avenue. We are open from Monday to Friday from 08:30 until 16:30. Please pre-book for a guided tour.

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