The constitution opens with the words, “We, the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of the past.” One of the most profound of these is the suppression of African languages. Instead, English, privileged by the imperialism-driven power of primary colonialism, and Afrikaans, privileged by apartheid as a (secondary) colonialism of a special type, were institutionalised as the doorways to knowledge, science, commerce and industry.
The marginalisation of African languages had significant consequences for non-first-language speakers. They found themselves at a disadvantage in the realms of science, trade and industry, forced to navigate a world where their grammar and vocabulary relegated them to second-class status.
They were not losing their freedoms, but surrendering them to those whose language their imagination relied on to understand them. Language, as a tool of power, domination and liberation, plays a significant role in shaping power relations. The Afrikaners’ rejection of English as the sole language of power in South Africa had a profound impact. It elevated Afrikaans to a language of power, domination, and liberation from the primary colonisation by Britain.
Language is an integral aspect of identity. The need for identity, purpose and belonging is as old as humanity itself; most wars were and are still fought because of it. Capitulation to assimilation by the weak, including a sociocultural and narrative determination as most indigenous South African languages have been condemned to be, does not translate into acceptance of the dominant as a permanent condition.
Capitulation to assimilation by the weak, including a sociocultural and narrative determination as most indigenous South African languages have been condemned to be, does not translate into acceptance of the dominant as a permanent condition
As the balance of forces changes, so does the intensity of self-determination by the marginalised. However, it will be foolhardy for those with new power to use a potent combination of policies to create new contexts of language disadvantage.
Aside from the cultural self-determination politics of language conversation, there is a compelling case to be made for promoting indigenous languages as a medium of instruction. The inclusion and exclusion into science, commerce, industry and economics through language should be isolated for discourse based on nonracialism and nonsexism.
This is a matter of fundamental importance in a society as diverse as South Africa. In establishing a background of permanence to mitigate the risk of indigenous languages being marginalised, the constitution treats this matter as a human right.
The government, as the most active agent of the state, in concert with other agencies such as the private sector and other legal persons or corporate citizens, are read in “the respect, promote, protect, and fulfil the rights” obligations the constitutional order enshrines.
Within the limitation of rights context and a further obligation to circumscribe the potential of language rights becoming an unintended or intended tool and mechanism of undermining nonracialism, an asymmetrical obligation to ensure affirmative action programmes to include into the dominant language might be a mechanism to manage redress.
In South Africa, English, Afrikaans and arguably also Zulu are conqueror languages.
This underscores the urgent need for a national consensus to mitigate risks related to language rights. Suppose there is a residue of the past that lingers into the present. In that case, it is the reconciliation of the racism under apartheid and how it culminated into the 1976 social capital disaster it had on Afrikaans as an indigenous South African language.
Language empowers a society to create a universe, a system of values and truths, and then compel those speaking it to heed its rules.
As the case for chapters 3 and 4 in the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act to be revised is made, the test should be to what extent all the agencies in the state are working within their obligation to respect, promote, protect and fulfil all rights in the constitution. To some, this might be a test of their readiness to share the deepest of the cultural advantages of their indigenous languages on a nonracial, nonsexist, united and democratic basis. To some, it might test their readiness to see all South African languages with the same matrix of indigenousness.
It is essential to send a message to the next generation of South Africans and never assume that all important information is in English only. They must grow in a world that believes in the validity of all science in the language it is discovered with.
• Mathebula is a public policy analyst and the founder of The Thinc Foundation, a think-tank based in Tshwane. He is a TUT research and innovation associate.
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