“English –my Mother’s tongue.” (lol)

Christopher Szabo wrote that, a report in the Economist under the headline “Tongues under threat” argues that Black people in South Africa prefer English to their own languages and this could threaten these languages. Last year, the higher education minister Blade Nzimande, warned that: "There is a very real threat facing our African languages. He added: “We do [need] to change attitudes otherwise we face a very real danger that down the line African languages would disappear". Furthermore, the report in the Mail and Guardian said fewer people were taking higher education courses in indigenous African languages. (Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/302784#ixzz1kGTyVEJS)

All of this talk over the weekend about Government amending certain educational policy affecting the teaching of African languages in schools highlighted a very real issue that exists with regards to the disappearance of our indigenous languages. Are our languages going to disappear with our parent’s generation? This issue has plagued me for a while now, and I think I am realising more and more that this is becoming a very real crisis.

Now, I was part of the generation that was allowed into the ‘Model C’ schools at the tender age of 7, so I was in grade two when the Bantu education system was discontinued. This means that English has been my medium of instruction for most of my life. As such I consider it to be my ‘first’ language, so to speak. So much so that I actually dream in English (most people actually don’t give this much thought, in fact whenever I ask any of my friends what language their dreams are in, they laugh and accuse me of thinking too much.) This is not to say I am what you would call a ‘coconut’ because I speak my native mother tongue of Sepedi fluently. I have to say though; this is only because I took the decision when I was much younger to not let it get lost on me. So I had to make the extra effort to learn it, I never really did it at school. (I will not count the two years when I did in Primary school and Mrs Botha insisted on teaching us that the sun is on, like a light bulb, as opposed to shines or rises and sets. Nxa!) 

Speaking to my parents now, I can hear the regret that they have over the fact that while my siblings and I were growing up, they put more effort into ensuring that our English improved, so they even spoke to us in English at home. This was because at every parents meeting that they attended with our Primary school teachers it was drummed into their heads that in order for us to be able to cope with the curriculum, and be able to keep up with the other children at school; we needed to be more proficient in the English language.  So we grew up calling my parents by ‘whiter’ terms of endearment as opposed to the typically African ‘Mama le Papa’.

This issue of the disappearance of our African languages is especially apparent at funerals and weddings. You will notice that whenever young people are called on to speak, they do so in English. Usually they will start off by greeting everyone in their mother tongue, out of respect and then they will proceed to speak English for the rest of the time. Funerals are the worst, every single time that I have been asked to read the wreaths (some of which are written in one or more of the African languages) I have had a mild panic attack at the thought of having to stutter and um…my way through the messages that people so lovingly penned to the deceased

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However, I have to point out that my generation is still better off. We mostly struggle to read and write our indigenous languages, but we can definitely speak the languages. Sadly the same can’t be said for the younger generation, also known as the ‘SMS generation’. (You know who you are; all of you peeps who use LOL, LMAO, BRB in everyday speech.) I was watching TV on Saturday morning, and happened to flick to a programme with two guys presenting, and you could hear that they were both struggling to express themselves in the African languages. Some sentences went something like: “Heita da guys ….English, English, English…so manje we are going to…more English…ngoba we are…English…English…” It was as funny as it was sad for me to watch.

I have concluded thus, that looking back isn’t going to solve our problems, so the question is what are we going to do to remedy this? Well, Government must do their part and then in my own small way I am going to make sure that my daughter will know how to speak, read and write (my mom will have to teach her the later) both Sesotho and Sepedi, the Joburg lingo she can learn on her own.  It is only but a drop in the Ocean, but it will be one more drop than there is now. Save our African languages- spread the word!!