Henry Flint, [email protected]My name is Henry Flint and my home language is Afrikaans. I live in Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa is a multi-language society, in fact we have 11 official languages two of which are Afrikaans and English. In any multi-langyage society the children speaks their mothers language. My grandfather married a Miss Bosman who spoke Afrikaans and my father and his two brothers grew up speaking Afrikaans and regarded themselves as Afrikaners. My farher married a Miss Botha and this further strenghened this. As I was the oldest son I was named after my Flint grandfather while my younger brother was named with the Afrikaans names of our Botha grandfather. My father as the third son was named after his father and had the same names as me.
I was born in Standerton but grew up on a farm in the Groblersdal district. We moved there when I was about five years old. I can't remember anything about Standerton. My father was a farmer and after his death my brother took over the farm.
My wife, Sarie, was born and grew up in Potgietersrus. Her maiden name is Benadé and in her ancestors are surnames like Lourens, and Smit. Her father died when she was small and her mother raised her and her two younger sisters under difficult circumstances. She also has a older sister who is about 17 years older than her. She came to work in Pretoria and when her younger sister and my mother worked together, I met her. We were married in 1974.
We have three sons. The oldest has my fathers names but we call him by his third name, Lane. He was born in 1977. The next one, Karel, was born in 1979 and was named after his Benadé grandfather. The third one, Johan, is named after his uncle, my brother, because he has only daughters. Anton is Sarie's son out of a previous marriage. He lives on his own in Pretoria and is a civil servant.
Last updated on 3 March 1998 Henry Flint, [email protected]