VER[r]AS

About VER[r]AS

The student committee of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch (originally ASK – Afrikaans Studiekring) is known as VER[r]AS – the Association for Afrikaans Students. VER[r]AS is managed by a student committee and usually consists of undergraduate students who take Afrikaans and Dutch as subjects. Throughout the year, the committee organizes various social events for students around specific themes related to Afrikaans, for example Afrikaans film evenings, poetry evenings and even quiz and game evenings.

One of the most important activities of the VER[r]AS committee is the compilation of the annual student anthology Penseel. Penseel is an anthology with a long history in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch. It was founded in 1969/70 by Fanie Olivier and Danie Botha under the auspices of the ASK. Since then, the anthology has been published almost every year. Some of the poets and writers whose work has been published in Penseel over the years are now well-known figures in the Afrikaans literary world – Zandra Bezuidenhout, Kerneels Breytenbach, Charles Fryer, Rachelle Greeff, Helena Gunter, Joan Hambidge, Daniel Hugo, André le Roux, Sonja Loots, Fanie Olivier, Alfred Schaffer, Etienne van Heerden and Marlene van Niekerk – to name a few.

Penseel is still a student anthology today. All students at Stellenbosch University can submit their original Afrikaans poems or short stories for possible publication in Penseel. The entries are judged by a panel of judges, and the best contributions are then published in the anthology.