“Jaoaoaoao” . This is Afrikaans for Yes and it sounds very nice and friendly. Last week, when I visited the partner week in Stellenbosch, South-Africa, this “jaoaoaoao” was amongst the most used words. Therefore it is still in my mind. It was my second visit to Stellenbosch. My first visit was in 2007 and I was wondering whether anything has changed in this rapidly re-developing and very complicated country. Well, my hosts at Stellenbosch University were still as friendly, relaxed and easy going as before. They could have been Aussies. Second, as in 2007, 2010 (twenty-ten) is the buzz word in South Africa because of the big soccer tournament in June/July. In particular in Cape Town and surrounding cities like Stellenbosch, people are preparing for the big event. Third, unfortunately the large economic and social differences between blacks and whites, between the have-nots and the haves have not become smaller. Of course, one cannot expect too much in this respect over a period of 3 years, but improvements seem to proceed very, very slowly. This was confirmed by my hosts. On the other hand however, I very much admire the endeavors of Stellenbosch University to engage in community work, i.e. work with less privileged people and work in the Townships. We had an excellent lecture from a professor who co-ordinates this community engagement project.
The major change that I noticed however, was the change in the language. Whereas 3 years ago, the common language on campus was Afrikaans, I noticed that more and more English is used as the language of communication. For Stellenbosch, being THE white Afrikaans university of South Africa, this is more than an innocent change. It shows that Stellenbosch is becoming a more African bi-lingual university and therefore a more interesting partner for us as well. Changing the name from Universiteit Stellenbosch to Universiteit Stellenbosch University has been a real big step.