Overview & layout

The Afrikaans Language Museum

The original purpose of the Afrikaans Language Museum was to honour some of the people who played such a key role in promoting Afrikaans as an official language of writing and reading. An important group of people in this regard was the Fellowship of True Afrikaners (Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners, GRA), founded on 14 August 1875 in the home of Gideon Malherbe, today the Language Museum. Their living conditions and the spirit of the times are presented as faithfully as possible so that visitors can imagine the road they had to walk in and the obstacles they had to overcome.

Furthermore, the Museum reflects the language’s development, its varieties and contemporary expressions. Thus, it conveys that it is a living, growing language which is in a continual state of development and adapting to the contemporary world. Did you know Afrikaans in Arabic script was one of the earliest forms of written Afrikaans? Here you can discover how Abu Bakr Effendi and others adapted the Arabic alphabet to write in Afrikaans.

The house was built circa 1860 in the Georgian style by Gideon Malherbe, a wealthy Paarl businessman and wine farmer. The ground floor has been restored to a large extent and furnished as it was in 1875, while the top floor represents the development of Afrikaans and its various forms. The rooms below include the entrance hall, dining room, living room and the Malherbes’ bedroom. The GRA’s printing press is in the children’s room, where it originally stood.

As far as possible, the house has been furnished with the original pieces, ornaments and tools. Elsewhere, reproductions are used, for example the wallpaper, the chairs around the dining table and the sofa in the same room. Many period objects were donated by family members and members of the public.

GROUND FLOOR

Entrance hall with iguana
The wallpaper seen here and elsewhere in the house is a reproduction of the paper that was originally used. It was unusual to decorate a whole house with the same paper, but the Malherbes could afford it. The design of the paper with the large, heavy motifs is typical of the period.

In 1892 Malherbe undertook a hunting expedition with SJ du Toit to the Zimbabwe ruins. During this time, he shot an iguana similar to the stuffed one hanging over the dining room door in the hallway. It hung there until his death, after which his son, Gideon J, got it. The original was burned by Gideon J and his daughter Martha as it attracted too many insects. The iguana currently hanging here is a similar example donated by the then Cape Provincial Department of Nature Conservation.

Living room and the reverend
Most furniture and objects displayed in this room were originally used in the home. Many of them were donated or lent by the children and grandchildren of Gideon Malherbe. When the museum was set up in 1975, three of Malherbe’s sons were still alive. They could explain to the restorers exactly how the rooms were furnished when their father lived.

The portrait against the wall is of reverend GWA van der Lingen, the father of Malherbe’s first wife, Nancy. It was also he who founded the private Dutch-language school De Gimnasium in Paarl in 1858 to accommodate Afrikaans-speaking children in Paarl.

Press room with Oom Lokomotief’s chair
This room was originally the children’s room and intended for small children. The first printing press of the GRA was an Albion hand press, constructed by Frederick Ullmer of London in 1869 (Patent 2607). In 1876 the Fellowship bought it from the Smuts & Hofmeyr firm, which published De Zuid-Afrikaan, in Cape Town. It stood here for a while with all its accessories: the test press, screw press and bookbinding device. Gideon Malherbe’s eldest son, Petrus Jacobus, was the printer. He started this work when he was only 18 years old and had to teach himself and his helpers how to utilise the press and accessories.

The portrait here is of Petrus Jacobus and his wife, Christina Petronella Elizabeth de Ville. The first editor of Die Afrikaanse Patriot (from 1876 to 1878) was DF du Toit. He also wrote under the pseudonym Oom Lokomotief (Uncle Locomotive). The chair at the press is the actual one he sat on while doing his job, and was referred to as “Oom Lokomotief’s chair”.

Gideon Malherbe’s bedroom
Some pieces in this room were originally used elsewhere in the house, but the bed and smaller wardrobe stood here in Malherbe’s time. The former is made of rosewood and was initially a four-poster bed, but the bedposts were later sawn off by the family. The large wardrobe belonged to Bertie and Gertie le Roux of Paarl, and the cradle was the property of the Von Wiellighs from Hendrina.

Both Malherbe’s wives passed away in this bed. Nancy, born Van der Lingen, died on 27 January 1866 and Dorothea, born Jaspers, on 28 September 1897. Malherbe passed away in this room on 10 September 1921 in the very same bed.

Dining room, founding room
The Fellowship of True Afrikaners (Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners, GRA) was founded on 14 August 1875 in this room. Many pieces of furniture in the room are the originals, while the chairs and sofa are reproductions of the originals.

Against the walls are six watercolour paintings depicting the parable of the lost son. They were painted in about 1810 by Gideon Malherbe’s mother, Leonora Elizabeth du Toit. Strikingly is that the Biblical story is portrayed in the style idiom of the early 1800s (the clothing and architecture of that time) and not the style idioms of Biblical times. The paintings with the double scenes were also made by her. Her Dutch tutor gave her prints and etchings of landscapes and village scenes that she had to redraw before painting in her own figures to tell a story. Apparently, he taught several young girls in the district to paint and sketch in this fashion.

At the doorstep is a pair of Malherbe’s clogs he used when visiting his vineyards, which then stretched to the Berg River. A portrait of the famous Voortrekker Sarel Cilliers hung on the eastern wall, but the current one is a reproduction. The clock against the wall and the reading table at the window are the original furniture. Malherbe often sat at the table and read in the natural light that falls through the window.

TOP FLOOR

The trilingual, interactive exhibitions here start with ‘Meet Afrikaans’ (Ontmoet Affrikaans) which indicates where in the world one can find Afrikaans – there are references to nicknames and funny place names. This is followed by ‘The Roots of Afrikaans’ (Die Wortels van Afrikaans) which depicts the influence of the three continents in the creation of Afrikaans – learn more about the origin of words such as ‘piesang’, ‘dagga’ and ‘ietermagog’.

There is also an exhibition that describes different varieties of Afrikaans – listen to people from Mitchells Plain to Namaqualand and how they speak Afrikaans. The ‘Vernacular Language’ (Volkstaal) exhibition of Afrikaans children’s games involves videos of children singing or reciting rhymes, with riddles and an opportunity for children to test their knowledge of idioms on a computer.

This is followed up with ‘Word Art’ (Woordkuns) with a display of Afrikaans dictionaries as well as a large Afrikaans scrabble on which visitors can play. The last room – ‘From Rieldans to Rap’ (‘Van Rieldans tot Rymklets’) – focuses on Afrikaans music with, among others, rappers, opera, Malay choirs, folk dancers (volkspelers), klopse (minstrels) and riel dancers.