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<h1 class="">Enkosi, ke a leboha, ndi a livhuwa</h1>
<span id="spnDate" class="">2015-09-21 09:00</span>
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<p class="">Mondli Makhanya</p>
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<p>If Basic Education
Minister Angie Motshekga had an appreciation for Scottish waters, this
lowly newspaperman would be dashing out to buy her a three-decade-old
bottle of the good stuff. </p><p>On Friday, Motshekga entered the book
of heroes following her announcement that, from next year, every child
entering Grade 1 would be compelled to learn a language other than
English and Afrikaans. This may sound like a no-brainer, considering
that South Africa adopted an 11-official-language policy more than 20
years ago and the majority of the population speaks languages other than
English as their mother tongue. </p><p>Motshekga has been passionate
about both mother tongue instruction and the teaching of African
languages from the time she was in charge of education in Gauteng. Since
moving to the national sphere, where she is able to shape policy, she
has been increasingly vocal about it and has accelerated the development
of the instruments to make it happen. </p><p>Emphasising the value of
multilingualism, Motshekga argued that “the whole question of
psychological alienation of Africans culturally and linguistically does
not disappear with freedom”.</p><p>“You
know, in our country, if you speak English well, probably you are a
clever African; worse still, if you speak it with an ‘accent’, you are
the best,” she said. </p><p>In June, she spoke about her commitment to strengthen all the official languages. </p><p>“Through
the promotion of African languages, we can address some aspects of
social cohesion. As a country, we will better communicate and understand
each other if we understand those cultural and language idiosyncrasies
that at times isolate us in our own land,” she said.</p><p>The
destruction of African languages is one of the biggest crimes of the
post-1994 order. It is a tragic irony that, after all the years of
struggle for dignity and equality, the advent of democracy heralded the
demise of indigenous languages. Once we were done with the
Constitution-making process, the lofty ideals of language equality were
quickly forgotten. We stampeded towards having English as the dominant
and increasingly sole medium of communication. </p><p>It is painful to
admit that African languages enjoyed better protection and promotion
under apartheid than they do in the era of freedom. For their own evil
and diabolical reasons, the apartheid rulers forced blacks to have
“tribal identities”. This meant separate residential areas and schooling
for people of different ethnic groups. The Group Areas Act also
confined blacks to townships, and apartheid economics kept blacks in the
underclass. </p><p>Under these conditions, languages thrived. With
little official support, they developed organically. There was a wealth
of literature as authors fed a hungry market – from primary school to
tertiary level, as well as to leisure reading. Radio plays spawned great
stories and township theatre boomed.</p><p>Then came freedom and, with
it, upward mobility. With upward mobility came aspiration. The upwardly
mobile and aspirational found African languages rather backward and
uncool, and turned their backs on them. Thus began the sad decline of
indigenous languages. </p><p>It seems the political establishment had
not in its wildest dreams envisaged such an eventuality. Like deer
caught in the headlights, they stood bewildered as the take-up of
African languages in schools and universities dwindled. They looked on
as the anglicising of South Africa gnawed at one of the key repositories
of indigenous knowledge. Publishers lost interest in a market they saw
as having no future. Anchors and deejays on the SABC’s African-language
radio stations proved they were cool by mixing it up. Only Afrikaans
speakers felt the need to fight this anglicisation. Their politicians,
businesspeople and academics fought a stoic and justified battle for
their language – albeit, at times, the battle has been used for ulterior
purposes. Not so the speakers of the other nine indigenous languages. </p><p>In
the absence of political backing from the top, the Pan SA Languages
Board – whose stated mandate is to protect and promote all languages –
was powerless. Successive heads and employees of the institution, all of
them individuals committed to the cause, could do nothing, as they were
regarded as just a necessary irritant by those in power. </p><p>Now we
find ourselves in a profound crisis that is going to require hard work
and tons of money to resolve. Just like the turnaround of neglected CBDs
has taken billions that need not have been spent had the decline been
forestalled, so the reversal of the destruction of African languages is
going to cost a fortune. </p><p>Language is not just a nice-to-have. In
its words, idioms, proverbs and richness, it houses vast knowledge – not
just historical and cultural knowledge, but deep scientific knowledge
too. To allow a language to die is to kill centuries, and sometimes
millenniums, of knowledge. It is sabotage. </p><p>At least Motshekga has now launched this battle in earnest. If only she had an appreciation for the rivers of Speyside</p><p><a href="http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Enkosi-ke-a-leboha-ndi-a-livhuwa-20150918">http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Enkosi-ke-a-leboha-ndi-a-livhuwa-20150918</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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