“Afrikaans is a beautiful and emotional language. It is very unfair that it is being suppressed in South Africa.”
These are the words of Valentina Kim (22), one of six Russian students who study Afrikaans as first and second additional language at the Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Institute for Asian and African Languages.
The student group visited the offices of the civil rights organisation AfriForum and the trade union Solidarity as part of a cultural tour that was arranged by the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK) to teach them more about Afrikaans and Afrikaans-speaking people.
According to Johan Jansen van Vuuren, Project and Communications Officer at the FAK, the students attracted the attention of the organisation after Prof. Deon Geldenhuys from the University had visited Moscow. The organisation then invited the students to visit South Africa to learn more about Afrikaans and Afrikaans-speaking people.
“For me, Afrikaa