Simthembile Xeketwana
CAPE TOWN -Since the dawn of our democracy, researchers and academics have been unceasingly and unapologetically increasing awareness about the neglect of African languages.
They, along with other key role-players, have made us realise that African languages can be scientific languages, and therefore need to be intellectualised, as Russell Kaschula and Dion Nkomo have argued in their chapter in The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics (2019).
African languages deserve to be used just like any other colonial languages in academia. On a day like today, International Mother Language Day, we need to ask ourselves, as academics, what are we doing to ensure that we promote our indigenous languages? Moreover, what are we doing to advance these languages as academic languages in all spheres of education and beyond?
These are key questions that we should keep in mind as we try to navigate and accelerate Unesco’s declaration of African languages as the languages of the decade 2022-2032. With this declaration, what is left is to show that indigenous languages are integral to the development of South Africa, Africa and the world.
Unesco states and encourages the mobilisation of the different stakeholders and resources to preserve, revitalise and promote indigenous languages for a decade and, may I add, for an even longer time. This is the time to further write, teach and theorise about indigenous languages and use them in different societal spheres.
We need to ensure that our languages thrive in this decade (and beyond) and are brought from the periphery to the centre of academic projects. From the 2022 International Mother Language Day theme (Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities) as well as the 2021 theme (Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society), one can deduce that these themes enable us to think broadly and implement language policies that will add value and meaning in the development of our society.
The backdrop outlined above, in particular Unesco’s declaration of African languages and the 2021 and 2022 themes, is a yardstick for different role-players to do the hard work and ensure that indigenous languages are implemented. Through the proper use of technology and the integration of indigenous languages into technology, we will be a step further ahead as the languages will be accessible to many people and the world.
There have been really good examples of integrating African languages and technology at higher education institutions such as Rhodes University. Currently, the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources, hosted by North West University, capacitates the development of the country’s 11 official languages and encourages research, education, social transformation, scientific development, etc. in our indigenous languages.
This is why I argue that the time to act and produce in African languages is now. If we let this opportunity slip through our fingers, we will be doing these languages and future generations a disservice. We should do everything in our power to develop and promote our indigenous languages as this is key to strengthening our democracy.
This was underscored during the recent Judicial Service Commission interviews for the position of chief justice when Judge Mandisa Maya, who was recommended to be the next chief justice of the Constitutional Court, made it very clear that there is a need to integrate African languages in writing judgments. She mentioned examples where she wrote judgments in isiXhosa.
Scholars such as Zakeera Docrat, Monwabisi Ralarala and Russel Kaschula have, over the past few years, argued and showed the importance of African languages in the justice system. I have often said that justice and language always disappear even before a particular case reaches the court.
As someone who works in the higher education sector, I think we are in a unique position to help promote the use of African languages in different spheres of our society. This would also be in line with the Higher Education Policy Framework of 2020, which strongly promulgates for the utilisation of African languages at our tertiary institutions.
Universities have indicated their willingness to include African languages in their teaching and learning, and in their internal and external communications. Even though this has been happening at a snail’s pace, there is still value in enabling different stakeholders to work collaboratively in developing African languages.
As we celebrate International Mother Language Day, we should also think critically about how we are going to use the possibilities offered to us. The possibilities are indeed limitless and there is no better time than now to start producing in African languages and let them thrive. These languages have been kept in the dark for a long time, at times with frivolous excuses such as that African languages are not developed enough to do science or be part of the academe.
This was just another way to prevent these languages from thriving as they should. It should not surprise us then that the Bible was translated in African languages before science and geography text books. To move forward from this, we need to invest in our indigenous languages and use their richness and diversity to create and write these and other relevant text books.
Dr Xeketwana is a lecturer in the Department of Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University.
Cape Times