Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge

The Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge ("Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organisations") is an overarching federation of various Afrikaans cultural organizations, and an influential role-player in cultural matters over the course of the 20th century in particular.

Founding and aims

Founded in Bloemfontein in 1929, the aims were to coordinate and activate all Afrikaans cultural organisations, and to maintain and promote the Afrikaans culture and language. Over the years the F.A.K. acted as guardian of and spokesman for the Afrikaans cultural establishment. By the 1990s it had grown to such a position of strength that it had approximately 3000 affiliated bodies, and 28 000 individual members.

FAK and theatre

Among its various projects over the years have been a variety of conferences on arts, language and theatre, a variety of language and music festivals and the production of a film on Afrikaans, called Doodkry is min ("Never say die"). In the 1930s it also sought to organise the chaotic Afrikaans professional theatre through two projects.

Toneelbond

In 1936 it sought to unite the various professional theatre companies in a national body called the Toneelbond. At a meeting of representatives the Rev. William Nicol was elected as chairman and a memorandum was produced calling for collaboration between companies, the creation of a sense of solidarity, the rating of plays and the need to free theatre from the overly harsh entertainment tax.

Toneelburo

In 1937 they created a Toneelburo to implement the plan by selecting plays and organising professional tours. This initiative failed to lead to a union however, because of a lack of cooperation by the companies themselves. (See also Toneelbond)

Folk music collection

A key contribution has been the compilation and publication of the FAK-sangbundel (originally called the F.A.K.-volksangbundel vir Suid-Afrika) in 1937. This collation, perhaps the largest and most comprehensive collection of Afrikaans lyrics and sheet music, has long served as a reference work and source, for many cultural organisations, choirs and performers. In theatrical terms this has had an equally important role, with the songs and music being utilised as a source and inspiration for numerous cabarets, plays and musical productions over the years.

A digital version of the music and songs has since also been launched on the FAK website at https://www.fak.org.za/sangbundel/

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