Charlize Theron criticized for saying that her mother tongue is on the way out

South African actress Charlize Theron has come under heavy criticism after saying her mother tongue, Afrikaans, is “an endangered language”.

A guest on the SmartLess podcast, the 47-year-old comedian, who only learned fluent English when she moved to the US at age 19, claimed that only “44 people still speak Afrikaans.”

“It’s definitely a dying language, it’s not a very practical language,” he told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.

A statement that quickly sparked strong criticism from Internet users, especially in South Africa. While some have called Charlize Theron misinformed about the political content of this language, others have been more offended by the term “dead language” used by the actress.

“It’s not a ‘disappearing language’, and it’s not just spoken by 44 people. It’s spoken by millions, new songs and poems are being written every day, movies are being made,” replied Tim Theron, a South African actor and director unrelated to Charlize. . , under an excerpt from the podcast on Instagram.

A language steeped in history

Highly politicized in South Africa, Afrikaans is a language introduced by Dutch settlers during a series of racist policies, called apartheid, used to oppress the country’s black population.

As detailed by the BBC, its imposition in schools was the main reason for the 1976 uprising in Soweto against the apartheid regime, in which at least 170 people died, mostly schoolchildren.

If during apartheid only English, Dutch and Afrikaans were official languages, Afrikaans is now one of the 11 recognized languages ​​in South Africa. Includes words from Asian Malay, Malagasy, Kohl, San, Xhosa, French, and Portuguese.

Following Charlize Theron’s statements, the Pan South African Language Board, an organization created to promote multilingualism in South Africa, reacted by explaining that, according to statistics, Afrikaans was the third most widely spoken language in the country.

“Ms Theron’s comments perpetuate the persistent misconception that Afrikaans is only spoken by white ‘Boere’ South Africans, which couldn’t be further from the truth as 60% of Afrikaans speakers are blacks,” the organization said in a news release. statement broadcast on CNN.