You like the short news notices on this blog, but you long for more extended articles? Then praise yourselves lucky: the eighteenth edition of the yearbook The Low Countries. Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands has arrived.
In this yearbook, for nearly two decades now, the Flemish-Netherlands Association ‘Ons Erfdeel vzw’ has been presenting the culture and society of the Dutch language-area to the world.
South Africa Revisited
This edition brings together a number of articles under the title ‘South Africa Revisited’ (table of contents here; free article here). In 2010 it is exactly 100 years since the creation of the Union of South Africa, which later became an independent state within the British Commonwealth. A hundred years on, in 2010, South Africa is hosting the Football World Cup. For many people the World Cup symbolises the spirit of reconciliation that should characterise the new South Africa. And it must also demonstrate that the country is a fully-fledged nation.
South Africa and The Low Countries
In this yearbook we are talking about South Africa and the Low Countries: how do they view each other nowadays? Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, a South African writer, rides her bike through the flat Flemish countryside and notes down what she sees and what happens to her. A Flemish (Tom Lanoye) and a Dutch writer (Adriaan van Dis) who know and love South Africa give their candid opinion. You can read Van Dis’ article by following this link. Enjoy your reading!
We think about Common Cultural Heritage that is not always ‘shared’. South African strip-cartoonists are inspired by the clear lines of Tintin. The painter Marlene Dumas has long belonged to the world, but South Africa is still very much alive within her.
Language and poetry
And then there is Afrikaans, one of South Africa’s eleven official languages. This sister-tongue to Dutch is trying to maintain itself in the Babel that is the Cape. Not for a long time has it been a language exclusive to white Africans – and in fact it never was.
The poet Elizabeth Eybers, who moved to the Netherlands in 1961, has written superlatively well about the nostalgia of the emigrant who never arrives anywhere. The verses she wrote in Afrikaans on life as a refugee she has herself later recreated in English.
And also...
But there is more to the yearbook than South Africa alone. In this issue, you will also find the usual mix of writers, visual artists, theatre people, musicians, intellectuals and architects from the Low Countries. This delta country has known Islam for centuries, Belgium continues to tinker with itself and in 2010 Congo, the one genuine colony the country it ever had, will mark half a century of independence. South Africa and Congo: the continent where mankind was born still resonates in the Low Countries.
How to order
You can order a copy of the yearbook by sending an e-mail to adm@onserfdeel.be. The Low Countries. Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands costs 37 euros for readers in Belgium. If you live in the Netherlands, you pay 39 euros. Readers in other European countries pay the same price. Having a copy sent to the USA, costs 50 dollars. For the United Kingdom the price is 35 pounds. All prices are inclusive of shipping costs.
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