It is very sad that in a country whose majority
are black people, the language of the white
minority still takes centre stage,on social
and mainstream media, in social gatherings,
at home and in the work place. Black people
promote and encourage good English
speaking skills at the expense of languages
that echo their identity, languages that carry
their culture, languages that should remind
them of who and what they
are.The
persistence of the dominance of European
languages over African indigenous
languages is as a result of black people
associating their indigenous languages with
mediocrity.
According to the South African Bill of Rights,
South Africa has eleven official languages
and nine of them are indigenous languages.
The bill further states: “Recognising the
historically diminished use of the indigenous
languages of our people, the state must take
practical and positive measures to elevate
the status and advance the use of these
languages.”
Although the bill speaks of the state taking
practical and positive measures to elevate
the usage of indigenous languages, it is up
to us, as black South Africans to take the
initiative and put in effort to promote our own
languages across all spheres. Diminishing
English is impossible as it is the official
language of communication in government,
education, economic and political
infrastructures, but promoting it at the
expense of our indigenous languages
shows how much we do not value where we
come from and the core of who we are as a
black South African community.The
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significance of knowing our indigenous
languages, heritage and culture, and
teaching them to our children must first be
recognised by us, people in the
communities before those in power can do
so- so that they can be encouraged to put
more effort in putting resources in place to
promote and elevate them.
Looking down on our indigenous languages
means looking down on our very own
identity and that is looking down on our
history and our culture. It means depriving
our children and their children an
opportunity to know where they come from
and what they stand for. It means destroying
a very important bridge that connects the
present generation with the past and the
future one. It means silencing our very own
language, which will result in the death of
our rich, delightful and powerful cultures.
Mayall indigenous languages speaking
South Africans recognise the need to
preserve and promote, as well as celebrate
their mother tongues not only on a specific
day like The International Mother Tongue
Day, but on a daily basis.
In the words of YurranydjilDhurrkay,
Galiwin'ku, “Our language is like a pearl
inside a shell. The shell is like the people
that carry the language. If our language is
taken away, then that would be like a pearl
that is gone. We would be like an empty
oyster shell.”
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Librarian and Studying Masters in Information studies
Mar- Apr 2016
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