Paarl and the Taal Monument

A Monument To A Language The Afrikaanse Taalmonument Of 1975, Three Concrete Columns And A Soaring Spire On Paarl Mountain, Erected To Afrikaans By A Government That Was Using That Language As An Instrument Of Policy, Which Makes It One Of The More Contested Monuments In The Country Above The Granite Domes Of Paarl Rock And Five Kilometres From Victor Verster, The Prison Nelson Mandela Walked Out Of On 11 February 1990 · Paarl, Western Cape

Very few countries build a monument to a language, and fewer still build one as good as this. The Afrikaanse Taalmonument went up on Paarl Mountain in 1975: three linked columns, a curve of smaller ones and a spire that rises as the structure moves, with water running through it, and the whole thing meant to be read as the growth of Afrikaans out of Dutch, Malay, Khoi and African languages. It is genuinely fine architecture. It is also a monument erected to a language by a government that was using that language as an instrument of policy, a year before schoolchildren in Soweto were shot for refusing to be taught in it - and this row states that rather than resolving it for you. Below the monument are the granite domes of Paarl Rock, and five kilometres away is Victor Verster, where Mandela walked out on 11 February 1990 - so one hillside holds both the language of the state and the end of it.

On Paarl Mountain above the town, 60 km north-east of Cape Town in the Berg river valley, Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa

THE TAAL MONUMENT keeps daylight hours every day with a modest entry fee, a small interpretive centre, a coffee shop and parking at the top - and the views over the Berg river valley and the Winelands from the terrace are half of what you have paid for. The surrounding PAARL MOUNTAIN NATURE RESERVE has its own gate, walking and cycling trails and the granite domes of Paarl Rock, which can be climbed. VICTOR VERSTER - now Drakenstein Correctional Centre - IS A WORKING PRISON AND IS NOT OPEN TO VISITORS; what you can see is the Mandela statue at the gate, from the public road. Paarl town has everything. It is 60 km from Cape Town on the N1. MALARIA-FREE.

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