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Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, faces charges of racism as it requires South African customers to prove their citizenship by taking a written test in Afrikaans, a Dutch derivative developed by European colonists.
Officials at the Dublin-based airline say they are using the test to avoid transporting passengers to the UK with fake passports. However, some South Africans have criticized the policy as racist, saying the nation officially recognizes 11 languages and that many in the country do not speak Afrikaans. The UK High Commission for South Africa tweeted on Friday that the test was “not a requirement of the UK government”.
The testing policy has sparked outrage among passengers after reports were circulated online. The South African language authorities also rejected the questionnaire.
As a South African who speaks Afrikaans as my second language, WTF? We have 11 official languages. Afrikaans is not the NATIONAL language. Not all of us talk about it. @Ryanair this is racist and ridiculous. https://t.co/IWPjZkab2l
– Leslie-Ann Brand (@LesleyAnnBrandt) June 8, 2022
As a South African, I would probably also confuse some of these issues, and I can even speak Afrikaans. It is so scandalous and racist. Straight from Pritti Patel’s book
– DeltaCharlieTravels (@ AvGeek4All) June 6, 2022
@Ryanair South Africa has 11 official languages, forcing South Africans to answer Afrikaans questions to prove their citizenship is not only disgusting but also racist‼ ️We are no longer apartheid, educate yourself.
– neliswa (@ neliswa_neli83s) June 6, 2022
Ryanair says the Afrikaans test helps the company protect itself from transporting people who use fake passports. The airline does not operate flights to South Africa. The policy applies to South African citizens traveling within Europe.
“The South African government has already warned passengers (and airlines) of the risk of unions selling fake passports to SA, which has significantly increased the incidence of fraudulent South African passports used to enter the UK,” the budget airline said in a statement. on Wednesday. . “To minimize the risk of using forged passports, Ryanair requires passengers with a South African passport to complete a simple Afrikaans questionnaire.”
If passengers are unable to complete it, they will not be allowed to travel and will be reimbursed, the statement said.
Ryanair said airlines that allow passengers to fly fraudulent visas are subject to a fine of approximately $ 2,500 per violator. “Therefore, Ryanair must ensure that all passengers (especially South Africans) travel with a valid SA passport / visa, as required by UK immigration,” the statement said.
Andris W. Cutzi, a professor of linguistics and director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Michigan, said Afrikaans had strong ties to South African colonial history and the apartheid regime that institutionalized white supremacy.
Coetzee said the majority of South Africans do not speak Afrikaans, “so there is absolutely no point in using this as a measure of whether you are South African or not.” In the 2011 census data shared by Statistics of South Africa, 13.5% of the population said that Afrikaans was their first language, lagging behind IsiZulu (22.7%) and IsiXhosa (16%) in the data. year.
In 1925, the South African government made Afrikaans an official language, Coetzee said, and it became a language of politics to a large extent, a status that was strengthened after apartheid became the “official political system of the country” in 1948. was compulsory in schools, he said, the majority of students who are learning the language now are those who speak it at home, or those of European descent who speak English at home.
“If you’re a black South African who came of age and went to school after 1994, you probably don’t know Afrikaans because you don’t have to know Afrikaans,” Kutzi said. He called Ryanair’s policy “colonial, discriminatory and simply unjustified”.
Coetzee noted that there are two socio-ethnic varieties of Afrikaans and that about half of the Afrikaans-speaking population is not white.
“It would be inaccurate to say that only white people speak the language,” he said. “But what would be correct is to say that 80 percent of the population does not speak Afrikaans and that 80 percent are basically all non-white. “
Anne-Maria Mahulu, an associate professor of cultural anthropology and African- and African-American studies at Duke University, said: “I think there is a language policy here and that this language policy is insensitive to what is at its core, which is racial policy.”
Mahulu added that the fact that Zulu is more widely spoken in the country also underscores the effects of the test. “There is a latent conjecture about what South Africa’s authenticity is,” she said.
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