''Die Afrikaanse Patriot'' was the first

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

-language newspaper. The first issue was published in

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

on 15 January 1876. Initially a monthly magazine, it became a weekly two years later. Even though the first edition had just 50 subscribers, it swiftly drew sharp condemnation for promoting Afrikaans as a

literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...

, as it was then considered nothing more than a "kitchen" variety of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. By the third year, subscription rose to 3,000 thanks to the support from readers in the

Transvaal Republic The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it ...

. The newspaper would however lose much of its readership in 1892, when it endorsed

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

in its conflict against the president of Transvaal,

Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic (or ...

. ''Die Patriot'' ultimately went out of business in 1904.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afrikaanse Patriot 1876 establishments in the Cape Colony 1904 disestablishments in the Cape Colony Afrikaans-language newspapers Magazines established in 1876 Publications disestablished in 1904 Defunct newspapers published in South Africa