Dr A.N.E. Changuion

Dr A.N.E. Changuion (1803-1881) was a Dutch born educator, writer, politician, orator, journalist, cultural activist and main leader of the Dutch movement in South Africa.

Biography

Born Antoine Nicolas Ernest Changuion on 15 December 1803 in The Hague, but grew up at Offenbach am Main, learning German, English, French, Greek and Latin. He taught English and French in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and also while he studied Theology at the University of Leiden from 1828, obtaining the degree Philosophy Theoreticae Master et Litirarum Doctor Humaniorum (honoris causa).

In 1831 he accepted a professorship in classical and modern languages, focusing on Dutch literature, at the South African Athenaeum (founded in 1829; later known as the South African College,today known as the University of Cape Town). He remained this position until 1842, when he resigned for various reasons and went back to Europe, finally settling in Lörrach, SwitzerlandSwitzerland, where he died on 14 October 1881.

He was an excellent teacher and lecturer and authored and published the first school books in South Africa, as well as a number of linguistic works, notably his most renowned work, De Nederduitsche Taal in Zuid-Afrika Hersteld (The Dutch Language in South Africa Restored - 1844, second edition 1848), in which he not only identified the peculiarities of the "Afrikaner language" or "Cape Dutch", as a branch of Dutch, but specifically also identifying some charactersitics of what he termed the "Kaapsch idiom" (or "Kaapsche idioom" in Dutch), which displayed language features unique to the Cape. (See Kaaps)

In Cape Town he married miss M.E. Faure, daughter of Dr. Abraham Faure and Susanna Smuts, on 25 September 1832 and the couple had six sons and three daughters.

His contribution to South African theatre and performance

Changuion played an important role in the promotion of Dutch culture in the Cape during the first half of the 19th Century, both as teacher and linguist and as orator. Unhappy with the increasing anglicisation of the Athenaeum, he later founded his own "institute" (* name?), a centre for basic and more advanced study with boarding facilities, which operated in both English and Dutch. He also worked for, and later edited the Nederduitsche Zuid-Afrikaansch Tydschrift.

From around 1850 onwards, he organised important Dutch-language cultural evenings to promote recitations and public speaking.

[JH/TH]