Afrikaans in the heart of Berlin

Beeld at Bahnhof Zoo (c) Anli Serfontein 2011

I had to do a double take as I walked in the crowdy Bahnhof Zoo in the heart of Berlin last Friday: There was the front page of the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld prominently displayed among the bustle of one of the busiest train stations in Europe. Up there with the journalism elite of the Washington Post!

Thousands of tourists, locals and visitors passing by were greeted in my mother tongue Afrikaans!

 
 

After attending the Festival for Afrikaans in Amsterdam in June, it looks like Afrikaans has truly arrived on the world stage in the most positive way possible. Its is no longer the Pariah language of the apartheid oppressors!

Beeld at Bahnhof Zoo in Berlin on July 29, 2011(c) Anli Serfontein 2011