Let's agree on Zulu as our first language; at least it's African
Simphiwe Dana, whose mother tongue is Xhosa, wants one unifying indigenous language
Oct 31, 2010 12:00 AM | By Simphiwe Dana
Oops! The year is almost over, and I am reminded of the pain I felt at the beginning of this year when I was looking for schools for my children.
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If our languages die, we only have ourselves to blame
Jacob Zuma
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I am based in Cape Town, but I found it impossible to get them into a good school not far from home that offered an indigenous language as part of the curriculum.
Now, I'm not talking about a third language as is the norm in these previously model C schools. I was looking for a school that offered Xhosa as a first language. A third language is not functional as it provides only a very basic form of communication - what an employer would need in order to pass on instructions to an illiterate servant, while never truly understanding the servant's language.
It definitely does not provide a path to building a culture, or shall I say rebuilding a culture? We say we have 11 official languages but in reality we have two - English and Afrikaans, English being the main language of instruction. Why would a country battling the effects of centuries of oppression allow this? Wouldn't language be the focal point in our struggle for the cultural emancipation of our mangled identity?
You might say to me: go to the townships if you want an indigenous language. To which I would answer: this is Africa! I shouldn't be battling to find a way to learn my own language, or pass that language to my children, in my own back yard. All the races should be learning an indigenous language in schools. In fact, we should have one African language being taught in all schools.
I believe that language serves many purposes, but most importantly it serves to inform you of the essence of your being. I believe that the different African languages and tribes have a common goal: that of informing us of our Africanness, our identity. Despite the existing tribal divisions, there is a unifying African culture that transcends these divisions. Which is why I have no truck with these tribal divisions as they are ephemeral.
We need to focus on the ties that bind us, not the ones that divide us. I think we tend to romanticise our identity - and reduce it to cheap tribal mythology - to a point of rendering it nonfunctional.
When we do this, the only people who gain are the anthropologists, who then get great material for their books, because theirs is to grapple with an idyllic past, instead of helping us get on with today's programme.
We need to look at the past only as a reference point; we are not the people of that past. We are today's people.
Because we have failed to reflect and learn from the past - we only romanticise it - we find ourselves caught in limbo; plodding in a vortex of confusion as to who we are, or who we want to be. As it is, we are a colonial construct and therein lies the problem. We are pathetic versions of our colonial masters. No wonder we are so apologetic about the continued suppression of our identity, of our culture, our languages. How can we expect to evolve our culture when we are caught in this state of mind? If our languages die, we only have ourselves to blame.
As the different tribes, we can love/hate Shaka for the Mfecane wars, but we do need a unifying language. We are too divided, and it is absurd that we would be united by English and Afrikaans. So how about we concede that Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa and urgently install it as an official language in schools? Which would later develop into the official language of instruction. Zulu is a bit like Swahili; it is easy on the tongue. That is the other reason it is so widely spoken. And this is coming from me, a Xhosa-speaking person. That wouldn't take away from our tribes as we would still have our birth languages in our different tribal regions. The linguists can determine which becomes the first language and which becomes the second. Obviously, English and Afrikaans would be options for a third language.
Language is the bringer of culture. What we have forgotten of ourselves is hidden in our African languages. Language might be the revolution Africa needs. I say this because the biggest success apartheid had was making us unsure of ourselves. If I go home and am among people who speak my language, an African language, I feel more sure of myself. If our former colonisers want to reconcile, they must rally behind this cause, this understanding, that this is Africa, and in Africa African culture rules.
But of course, inasmuch as we should blame our colonial past, there is no evidence that the current ruling establishment takes African languages seriously. What is the black business community doing to protect our languages and, therefore, our culture? Are they interested at all?
What is the current government doing to protect and strengthen our languages? What are you and I doing to keep the government's eye on the ball? Yes, our languages are not being used in business, but what stops them?
Afrikaans is so powerful and carries about it a sense of arrogance in that it claims to be an African language. It might have been polished and formalised in Africa, but there's nothing in the language itself that points to African origins, and everything that points to its Dutch origins. Afrikaans was consciously developed by the apartheid regime into a language of science, law and commerce in about two decades. And it is so powerful it can still afford to throw its weight around. And that very much takes me back to the Soweto uprising of 1976 when Afrikaans was a trigger for years of discontent.
We need to take pride in ourselves by protecting and nurturing our languages. Let us learn from other big cultures how to be majestic - China, Japan, Germany, France the Arab states and so on .
- Dana is a musician and cultural activist
