Charlize Theron: Why only a ‘little Afrikaans’ to your kids?

Not so long ago, South African-born actress Charlize Theron was everyone’s darling. Onse girltjie van Benoni a Hollywood superstar, nogal. Winning an Oscar and all. South Africans are such suckers for when “one of us” makes it big in the world!

We got all psyched up about Arnold Vosloo. Jis, Boetie Gaan Border Toe made it to the pyramids with his role in The Mummy. Just plain bad luck that playing the odd villain or cop in decidedly B-Grade movies followed. But hey, he still has a pozzie in Los Angeles…

And what’s there not to love about our Born a Crime Daywalker Trevor Noah? The man called the shots on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show for seven years. Respect, brother.

Elon Musk doesn’t really count. The Tesla, SpaceX and now Twitter billionaire comes from his own planet. He just made a quick pitstop in Pretoria to take on a human form.

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Fall from grace: Charlize Theron bad-mouths Afrikaans

But let’s get back to Charlize who has gone and ruined the whole mother load of national pride we have lovingly bestowed upon her over the years.

 In a recent interview on the SmartLess podcast, the star told hosts Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett that Afrikaans is “not a very helpful language” and is only spoken by “about 44 people”.

As if this was not enough to get folks back home riled up around the braai, she also stated that Afrikaans is a “dying language”.

“There’s about 44 people still speaking it. It’s definitely a dying language; it’s not a very helpful language,” Theron told Bateman.

That did NOT go down well with even international broadcasters covering the widespread outcry that followed.

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Charlize on speaking Afrikaans to her daughters

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In 2012, the Oscar winner adopted her daughter Jackson, who is now 10. Three years later, the Mad Max: Fury Road actress continued on her motherhood journey by adopting her younger daughter August, seven, in 2015, according to People Magazine.

We already know that Theron finds Afrikaans very helpful indeed when she and her mother, Gerda, wants to gossip in public. The girls may be growing up in West Hollywood, California, but apparently they’re no strangers to their famous mother’s South African roots.

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In an interview on The Graham Norton Show in 2019, Theron already then took a concealed dig at Afrikaans…and it slipped through the cracks at the time.

“I have taught them a little Afrikaans, but it’s a language filled with very conflicted history,” Theron told talk show host Graham Norton, according to The Standard.

“I’m raising two beautiful proud black African girls and I want them to find themselves and not necessarily push my ancestry on them, but I’ve taught them two very sweet Afrikaans songs about politeness.”

Well, Charlize…we can only say that your attitude towards Afrikaans — then and now — is not very polite!