In my previous article titled, ‘A more African South Africa I’ I argued for the importance of educating people in their home languages as a means to a more effective educational system. I attributed the ineffectiveness of our educational system, at least on the part of blacks, to the problem that many black people face, of being educated in a language foreign to them. Those in support of a common language which in South Africa, is English, have criticized my views and have rendered them divisive and unrealistic.
To me, the idea of only having European languages as academic mediums of instruction to Africans in Africa serves as a disallowance of Africanism. It beats against Africa’s aspiration of self-determination. It suggests that African solutions to Africa’s problems lie not in Africans and ethnic Africans’ languages but in Europeans and European languages.
This calamity is not unique to Africa only but is a norm to pretty much the entire developing world. But to bring the matter closer to home where social cohesion is an aspiration; I find prioritising an imported language over ethnic languages in an effort to arrive at the solution of a common language, to be an over compensation that is both unnecessary and unwise.
It is without a doubt that the problems of disunity that South Africa faces may be solved by using English as a common language but it would take centuries to bridge the gaping pits of disparity, which exist, and would most certainly do so at the expense of ethnic cultures.
In most cases in South Africa, English speakers have a sense of mistrust towards black non-English speakers, for various reasons. However, this sense of mistrust does not only come from the whites. For example, a Xhosa speaker too, even though their reasons may be different and warranted in the case of a white non-Xhosa speaker, will almost always have a similar sense of mistrust. This of course is not ideal but it is fairly normal for a society with a past like ours.
In opting to take the blanket approach which is the English language, we are endangering ethnic South African languages and cultures. The connection between language and culture cannot be denied. For real meaningful cohesion to take place, we ought to learn others’ cultures. And if one wants to understand another’s culture, one has to speak the other’s language. In doing so, one gets to understand and appreciate both the other as well as his culture and will almost always enjoy a good reception from the other’s cultural group.
If South Africa is to transform into a non-racist egalitarian society where everyone is respected, we ought to take more measures in trying to get to know and understand each other. The blacks have long realised this and have been accommodating and welcoming to the whites since the first Dutch ships landed at the Cape. Even in post-Apartheid South Africa, blacks have continued to accommodate whites and have thrown their spears and ‘pangas’ into the ocean and have forgiven.
The whites now need to come to the party. Firstly, they need to treat the issue of Apartheid with the sensitivity it deserves and allow blacks to decide when to move on from the trauma that the blacks have endured and of which some continue to endure. Secondly, like the blacks are learning and mastering white languages, white people, at the very least, need to learn the ethnic languages and cultures of the provinces that they live in.
In fact, it is disrespect as well as arrogance on the part of the migrants as well as their subsequent descendants, to settle into a society and expect that society to speak the language of the migrants. Perhaps this and not the centuries of exploitation and repression is the cause of our nation’s disunity. Perhaps white South Africa’s general unwillingness to integrate Africanism into their culture is the reason South Africa has not yet progressed into the rainbow nation it aspires to be.
In a country that has nine official ethnic languages, it is unwise to continue with a system that sees the majority being educated in the languages of the migrants. We must realise that language does not go alone and that it and culture cannot be detached from one another. Prioritising a couple of languages over others inadvertently puts us in a position where a couple of cultures are prioritised over others. More importantly, conducting education and economic activity in certain languages, further impoverishes the people whose languages are not being represented. This is arguably the reason that poverty is black and wealth is white. Perhaps if we would think further along these lines, we would see that many of the inequalities that exist in our society can too be related to the issue of medium of instruction.
As Africans it is up to us to preserve the things that make us African, particularly our languages and cultures. As custodians of this beautiful African country, we have a responsibility to concert our efforts and look to incorporate all the different languages and cultures into society. A blanket approach of a common language will certainly not solve our county’s problems. We ought to be more imaginative in the way in which we educate the youth and it almost certainly has to start immediately. If not, we run the risk of becoming more of a European camp in Africa, and less of an African state.
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