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12 February 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Prof Angelique van Niekerk and CP Naude
Charl-Pierre Naudé with Prof Angelique van Niekerk after launch and discussion of his book.

Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey is the debut novel by Charl-Pierre Naudé, research fellow in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Naudé has published four volumes of poetry and is a poet by profession. Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey is his first leap from poetry to prose. He is also a former winner of the Ingrid Jonker Prize for poetry.

The book, published by Tafelberg, was launched on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on Thursday 30 January 2019 where Naudé was in conversation with Dr Francois Smit, also from the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French, during which the two of them attempted to analyse the world of the main characters; however, Naudé did not want to give away too much. ”I think people should read the book,” he said.

Spiritual and physical worlds

 

“The novel is a first-person narrative told by one of the characters. I wanted to play a certain bluff to determine exactly who the author of this book was,” said Naudé. The book is not totally explicable. “I wanted the reader to feel that it is not absolutely true.”

''The book seeks to combine the spiritual and physical worlds,” said Naudé. Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey is essentially a love story in which the two worlds merge, but nonetheless never mix.

 

Creative writing course revived

 

“The book is Charl-Pierre’s creative output which forms part of his creative writing course,” said Head of Department, Prof Angelique van Niekerk. This is the first book published after the revival of the creative writing course at the UFS in 2015 – and what a book to kick off with!

“It is of great importance for our department to have been part of this book,” Dr Smith said.

Read here the article published in Huisgenoot.

News Archive

Research project gives insight into the world of the deaf
2005-11-30

Mr Akach in conversation (using sign language) with his assistant Ms Emily Matabane. Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

The Sign Language Division of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language has signed a bilateral research project with the universities of Ghent and Brussels to write a book on sign language. 

“We want to compare the Belgium and South African sign languages with each other.  The book will be about the deaf telling us about themselves and how they live.  It will also focus on the use of story telling techniques and the grammar used by deaf people.  We want to see if the hand forms and the grammatical markers and other linguistic features that deaf people from these two countries use are the same or not,” said Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research.  

According to Mr Akach, the sign language community in South Africa, with about 600 000 deaf people who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as first language, is quite big.  “Over and above the deaf people in South Africa, there are also the non-deaf who use SASL, like the children of deaf parents etc.  This book can therefore be used to teach people about the deaf culture,” he added.

Another of Mr Akach’s achievements is his election as Vice-President of the newly established World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI).  The association was established earlier this month during a conference in Worcester.

Mr Akach has been actively involved with sign language interpretation since 1986 and has been interpreting at the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) since 1987.  “My appointment as Vice-President of the WASLI is an emotional one.  I have been involved with deaf people for so long and have been trying to create awareness and obtain recognition for sign language, especially in Africa,” said Mr Akach.  WASLI is affiliated to the WFD.

According to Mr Akach there was no formal structure in the world to support sign language and sign language interpreters.   “Now we have the backup of WASLI and we can convince governments in other African countries and across the world to support deaf people by supporting WASLI and therefore narrow the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing.  My main aim as Vice-President is to endeavour for the recognition of sign language and spoken language interpreters as a profession by governments,” he said. 

According to Mr Akach the formal training of interpreters is of vital importance.  “Anybody who has a deaf person in his/her family and can communicate in sign language can claim that they are an interpreter.  This is not true.  It is tantamount to think that all mother tongue or first language speakers are interpreters.  Likewise students who learn sign language up to whatever level and are fluent in signing, should still join an interpreter’s programme,” he said.

“Sign language interpreting is a profession and should be presented as an academic course alongside other spoken languages.  The UFS has been taking the lead with sign language and spoken language interpretation and was the first university on the African continent to introduce sign language as an academic course,” he said.

“Although sign language has always been an unknown language to young people it has become quite popular in recent years.  This year we had a total of 160 students at the Sign Language Section of the UFS and the numbers seem to increase steadily every year,” he said.

Mr Akach’s assistant, Ms Emily Matabane, is deaf and they communicate in sign language.  Ms Matabane also handles the tutorials with students to give them hands-on experience on how to use sign language.  


Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
30 November 2005

 

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