Thesis (M.A. (History))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010. ; Frans Vredenrijk Engelenburg (1863-1938) played a major role in the development and expansion of Afrikaans and the Afrikaans academic culture - especially in the northern part of South Africa. As a Dutch intellectual, lawyer and journalist in the nineteenth century South African Republic (Transvaal), he in particular played an important role as advisor and opinion maker from the 1890s onward. One of his biggest achievements was the key role that he played in the establishment of De Zuid Afrikaanse Akademie voor Taal, Letteren en Kunst in 1909. This study is the first part of a more comprehensive biographical project on the life of Engelenburg and the role he fulfilled in the history of the Akademie and South Africa until the thirties of the twentieth century. Since the 1600s the Engelenburg family has played a prominent role in the community where they lived. Aside from the high positions they had held for centuries before, they had in the fourth and again in the sixth generation married into noble families. This contributed to their important position in the community. Due to circumstances Engelenburg was not raised in the Engelenburg milieu. A family break in 1836 was the cause that Engelenburg's father, as a baby, was spirited away from this family milieu. Engelenburg received an extraordinarily good schooling. The solid intellectual foundation already laid then, to a large extent determined the course of his life. He was at the Stedelijk Gymnasium Arnhem when he met Marie Koopmans-De Wet (1834-1906), an aunt by marriage who lived in Cape Town, when on a visit to Europe. She was his soul mate and acted as a mentor and advisor to Engelenburg. The friendship strengthened with the years. He already at school had the desire to visit South Africa one day. His parents' divorce when he was still a student at the University of Leyden, steered his life in a very different direction than what he had foreseen for himself. The divorce was to a ...