Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Eerste Taalmonument - First Language Monument Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape

Date: 1893 Type: Monument Status: Extant   Click to view large map Coordinates: 30°59'37.87" S 26°19'52.87" E Alt: 1393m

13 Junie 1882 | Die eerste persoon wat in die ou Kaapse parlement 'n toespraak in Hollands gelewer het en wel op hierdie dag, was Jan Luttig, 'n seun van Prins Albert. Om die aanvaarding van Nederlands as amptelik taal in Junie 1882 in die Kolonie te vier, is op 26 en 27 Junie 1882 op Burgersdorp feesgevier, toe die gedagte geopper is om 'n taalmonument op te rig en geld te begin insamel. Op 17 en 18 Januarie 1893 is dié monument onthul. Die Engelse het dit afstootlik en verwerplik gevind, en tydens die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog is dit deur die Kakies verwyder en byna vernietig. Hierna het die Engelse beweer dat hulle die beeld fyngekap en in die see gegooi het. In werklikheid het hulle dit verniel, veral deur dit te onthoof, wat moes dui op die onthoofding van die taal van die Afrikaner. Eindelik is dit op die vullishoop van King William's Town gestort, waar dit in 1939 ontdek is. Intussen het die Britse owerheid in 1907 (as daad van versoening) 'n replika laat maak van die beeld en is dit in Burgersdorp heropgerig. Nadat die vernielde oorspronklike beeld ontdek is, is dit ook na Burgersdorp geneem en agter die replika opgerig. (Morné van Rooyen, June 2025) Translation: 13 June 1882 | The first person to deliver a speech in Dutch in the old Cape Parliament, on this very day, was Jan Luttig, born in the town Prince Albert, in the then Cape Colony. To celebrate the adoption of Dutch as an official language in the Colony in June 1882, festivities were held on 26 and 27 June 1882 in Burgersdorp, where the idea to erect a language monument originated, for which money was collected. On 17 and 18 January 1893, this monument was unveiled. During the Second Anglo-Boer War the occupying English found it offensive and repulsive, and so it was removed and almost destroyed by the British soldiers. Thereafter, the English claimed that they had broken up the statue and thrown it into the sea. In fact, they had disfigured it, especially by breaking off its head, which symbolised the beheading of the language of the Afrikaner. It was eventually discarded on the rubbish dump of King William's Town, where it was discovered in 1939. Meanwhile, in 1907 (as an act of reconciliation) the British authorities had a replica made of the image and it was re-erected in Burgersdorp. After the vandalised original statue was discovered, it was taken to Burgersdorp and re-erected behind the replica.