Rethinking Babylon:The Language Dilemma and the Search for Social Justice in Africa (original) (raw)
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Rethinking Multilingualism in South Africa
'Rethinking Multilingualism in South Africa', in Out of History, eds. Leslie Witz, Annachiara Forte, and Paolo Israel
This draft pre-publication chapter meanders through language issues of various kinds, and comes basically to no conclusion as far as suggestions for multilingual policies may be concerned. Instead, my aim has been rather to revisit certain narrative - and even epistemological - sites through the issue of South African languages, more specifically Afrikaans, English, and isiXhosa, the main languages of the Western Cape. The work of Mqhayi, Langenhoven, and N.P. Van Wyk Louw are briefly examined. I have also attempted to 'read' those languages and their social domains jointly rather than serially. Namely, I do not believe those languages have historically been constructed in isolation. Also, I must stress that they are to me first and foremost very complex historical constructs, not merely objects lying around for a linguist to take up and describe.
African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning Journal, 2024
The elevation of African languages into official status with English and Afrikaans in South Africa was meant to redress linguistic imbalances of the past. The past linguistic imbalances negatively affected mother tongue speakers of African languages. This article highlights the gravity of this imbalance from a general linguistic perspective, demonstrating how the hegemony of English continues to downplay the efforts of developing African languages for African children's epistemic access and educational success. Among the challenges in developing African languages into the same status as English are the globalisation imperatives that are set to counter the project of decolonisation. Although there has been linguistic resistance, it has not contributed to the elevation and development of African languages. The theoretical underpinnings of the arguments in this paper are located in the critical approach. The critique is mounted not only on the hegemonic presence of the English language but on the failure of resistance to depose that hegemony and to elevate the position of African languages as viable languages of intellectual pursuit. This article therefore proposes linguistic revolution as a solution to the plight of African languages.
Re-Englishing Africa From Linguistic Decolonization through Ethnotextuality to Globalectics
Revue Mosaïques , 2020
Après un détour par les politiques linguistiques de deux états-nations africains comme le Nigéria et l'Afrique du Sud, j'examine la manière dont ces politiques ont trouvé écho dans les stratégies déployées dans le roman d'expression anglaise émanant de ces deux pays-de la méthode de l'après-indépendance (ou post-Apartheid) qui consiste à « écrire avec un accent » en passant par l'ethnotextualité, signe avantcoureur de linguicide des langues autochtones, jusqu'au retour de l'anglais dans l'arène sociale et littéraire et la pratique de la traduction au sein d'une utopie globalectique.
'The Burden of Diversity': The Sociolinguistic Problems of English in South Africa
At the emergence of democracy in South Africa the government corrected linguistic imbalances by officialising eleven languages. Prior to that only English and Afrikaans were the recognised official languages. The Black population had rejected the imposition of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. However, such rejection did not mean the adoption of indigenous languages as media of instruction; instead English was supposedly adopted as a unifying language among linguistically diverse Africans. Such implicit adoption of the English language has created a stalemate situation in the development of African languages to the level of English and Afrikaans. Although there is a widespread desire to promote indigenous languages to the level of being media of instruction, the desire is peripheral and does not carry the urgency that characterised the deposition of Afrikaans in the 1976 uprisings. On the other hand this paper argues that the hegemony of English language as a colonial instrument carries ambivalence in the minds of Black South Africans. Through ethnographic thick description of two learners, this hegemony is illustrated by the 'kind' of English provided to most Black South African learners who do not have financial resources to access the English offered in former Model C schools. The paper concludes that Black South Africans do not only need urgency in the promotion and development of indigenous languages, but further need to problematize, in addition to the implicit adoption of English language, the quality of the language they have opted. The paper therefore suggests that this is possible through a decolonised mindset.
English plays a pivotal role as a language of discourse in Africa. Recently, the relentless pressure to embrace the much-heralded African Renaissance has prompted many African countries to promote indigenous languages and elevate their status to that of official languages, alongside English which enjoys first place due to its development and popularity across Africa. Through the theoretical lenses of hegemonic theory and Afrikology, this article explores the use of English as a dominant language in Africa. It is posited in this article that language is the embodiment of culture and that over reliance on foreign languages often leads to unintentional consequences, which include serving as a hegemonic device to promote foreign cultures at the expense of African culture. The article is informed, in part, by the author's personal experience while living in a native English speaking country (United Kingdom); his experience while teaching English in a non-English speaking country (Japan) and his experience in his native multilingual country (South Africa). The article concludes that while the merits of using English as a main language of discourse in Africa are clear, the need to challenge such a situation is even more compelling, and proposes that at least one African language should equally be endorsed.