Charlize
Theron, the Oscar-winning Hollywood actor, was in the news recently for her
comment that Afrikaans is a dying language and only around 44 people across the
world speak it. Theron, appearing on the ‘Smartless’ podcast, said the language
she had grown up speaking was fading out. Her comment led to controversy on
social media.

“This
statement was made by Charlize Theron to appease Hollywood. I do not concur
with her. As with other languages, the Afrikaans language must be preserved,” a
Twitter user said.

Tim Theron,
a South African actor with no relation to Charlize Theron, commented under a
link of the podcast: “We’re extremely proud of Charlize Theron and everything
she has achieved…but we’re also very proud of our diversity and our amazing and
beautiful official languages, of which Afrikaans is one.”

Afrikaans
was first introduced in the African continent by Dutch colonial settlers. It
was imposed on non-whites by the apartheid regime. It is one of the 11 official
languages of South Africa.

Who is Charlize
Theron?

Charlize
Theron is a South African actor. Born on August 7, 1985, she is now one of the
world’s highest-paid actors. Theron was born in Benoni in the Transvaal
Province in South Africa. She is from an Afrikaner family and her ancestry
includes Dutch, French and German.  

An only child,
Theron grew up in South African capital Johannesburg. Her father was reportedly
an alcoholic. On June 21, 1991, Theron’s father threatened a teenaged Theron
and her mother while drunk and allegedly physically attacked her mother and
fired a gun at both of them. Her mother, in turn, took out her own handgun and
shot him dead.

The
shooting was legally adjudged self-defence and her mother faced no charges.

Charlize
Theron spent her teenage years modelling throughout Europe. She and her mother
later moved to the United States where she attended the Joffrey Ballet School
in New York. She trained at the school for years until a knee injury ended her
career as a dancer.

Theron’s film
career began with Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, a horror film where
she had no dialogues. Her first speaking part came with 2 Days in the Valley
(1996).

Charlize
Theron’s breakthrough film came with The Devil’s Advocate where she started
alongside Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. Her role in Monster (2003), a film
portraying serial killer Aileen Wuomos, was called “one of the greatest performances
in the history of cinema,” by film critic Roger Ebert.