How did the French huguenots of Cape Town come to identify as Afrikaner?

by LukeTheFisher

There's very little cultural heritage of the huguenots left intact here, apart from surnames. Although even surnames like Labuschagne are pronounced as if they're Dutch and holders of the surname are more often than not Afrikaans-speaking and identify as Afrikaners. How did this come to be? Was it a forceful assimilation or a gradual one?

PaneerselvamChickens

As they were refugees they were pretty eager to assimilate into the Dutch culture, hence from the 2nd generation onwards families refused to speak in French even with their own children and spoke (broken) Dutch instead. Mind you, many of the Huguenots in South Africa had already been living in the Netherlands or Germany/Prussia for quite a few years before migrating to Africa.