The main theme of the thesis is language endangerment, which represents a subfield of
enquiry in sociolinguistics. The language under investigation is Afrikaans in its setting in
Rehoboth, Namibia. Afrikaans was maintained as mother tongue and has been the dominant
language as well as lingua franca in Rehoboth for some hundred years but could be losing these
positions to English because of function and status loss and changes in the demographic mix of
the area after Namibia‟s Independence in 1990. The Afrikaans-speaking Rehoboth Basters
were initially the primary research subjects but it soon transpired that the Afrikaans-speaking
Coloureds of the town need focused attention too because their language behaviour is as vital
to the future of Afrikaans in the area.
Two sub-themes (which exclude the Coloureds) form a connecting thread throughout
the thesis: The first one centres on ways in which the Rehoboth Basters have been
disadvantaged because of initial unfamiliarity with the language of successive new
administrators. The second sub-theme is the negative portrayal over time of the Basters in
literature and the media.
The investigation was done in three parts and each sought answers to the following
central questions: (a) How were Afrikaans and the Afrikaans-speaking Rehoboth Basters
positioned at Namibia‟s Independence in 1990? (Chapter 3: National positioning of the Basters
and Afrikaans.) (b) What put the Rehoboth Basters in the position in which they found
themselves in 1990? (Chapters 4-6: Genetic, sociopolitical and sociolinguistic history of the
Basters.) (c) How do and could the aforesaid affect Afrikaans and its mother tongue speakers
in Rehoboth? (Chapters 7-9: Fieldwork in Rehoboth and Windhoek among mother tongue as well
as L2 speakers of Afrikaans.) “Why?” was the overarching question of the study, which caused
the overall approach to be psychosocial, since reasons for and motives behind events and
behaviours were probed. Data on mindsets and actions of individuals were gathered in the
process from sociohistorical literature as well as archival material, interviewees, questionnaire
respondents and in stints of participant observation from 1996-2008. Speakers of all ages
were included in the study but the main target was Afrikaans learners aged 16-18 years, the
would-be parents of the next generation. This age group was surveyed in Rehoboth over a
period of 13 years. The data suggest that the intergenerational transmission of mother tongue
Afrikaans is under threat in this location, which means that a shift to English may follow.